We Made It This Far

¨High school (or the mission) wasn`t meant to last forever.¨

Flash back to the St. George marathon 2014. I have been running for more than 4 hours. My Walter Mitty soundtrack is getting old. I have no idea where the finish line is. I hear someone yell, ¨keep going! It`s at the end of this road!¨ I break off from my pace group and start to sprint. I feel dizzy like death living off sacrament cup sized gatorade and bananas, and through squinted eyes see Thomas and Caley! Yay! But where are the balloons, people, ice cream? Did they pack it up and go home? I yelled, ¨Where is the finish line!¨ And they told me that it was around the corner. I wanted to cry but couldn't for the shortage of water in my body. I had nothing left to give, but kept running. Because I knew that there were wonderful things awaiting me at the end of the road. I remember the satisfaction I felt as I crossed the finish line and heard my name announced, got my medal, someone handed me ice cream, and I collapsed under a tree in the racers only area and cried. I could not believe that I had run 26.2 miles and I also couldn`t believe that I still had a body because I was pretty sure I had died and left my body back at the volcano on mile 9. It was the most beautiful experience and so is the mission. I am completely and utterly amazed that this is my last email as Hermana Park in a strange Bolivian internet. These (almost) 18 months have been extremely hard yet wonderful as I have come to the knowledge of my Savior Jesus Christ and that He has always been beside me guiding me. Everything was worth it because I have seen the conversion of my best friends here in Bolivia.

One of my best friends, Hortencia, came to church yesterday and we`re taking her to a relief society party tomorrow to make panetones (half bread, half cake). And I am so excited because she`s going to get baptized. I wont be there to see it, but all that matters is that I was there to help her along her way. And many other beautiful people here are progressing along their way toward true happiness in Christ that I will tell you all about next week...

Also, I have no idea how I learned to speak and understand the beautiful Spanish language.

My life won`t be the same without peanut soup, chasing people down to secure them their salvation, walking miles, and being too close for comfort in buses, but I have absolutely loved representing Jesus Christ in this time.

For the last time,

Hermana Park

Bienvenida dìa santo!

The Relief Society Pres. from Guaracal, the neighboring ward, who made me a card because I had companion exchanges with Hna Alvarez and she accompanied us.

Group activity!

 the "Z" family made us fried chicken and we taught them about the Plan of Salvation.

17 months

Do you know who wrote the 10 commandments and how they were written?

The "Z" family told us they couldn`t come to church because they decided to sell food Sunday morning.Que va a hacer. So we passed by last night and Jorge told us that they lost money and decided that it`s a really bad idea to work on Sundays. His reasoning was because everyone goes to the countryside and no one is in town, but overlooked the reasoning that it`s a commandment from God. This week I came to realize that God wrote the 10 commandments with his finger. The longest commandment is to keep the Sabbath Day holy. He took the time to write 4 verses specifically on this commandment. If He took that time, it`s a pretty important commandment.

Yesterday during Sacrament meeting the Elders called me over and said, ¨Hermana Park. Did you know you are giving a talk?¨ ¨No.¨ ¨Well you`re giving a talk.¨ I had the short time of the youth speaker to ponder on what to say and it came back to my mind what we learned in January in the worldwide missionary transmission: if you don`t know what to say, talk about the Savior. I was able to bear my proud testimony on the Savior and His infinite love as He took everything voluntarily upon Himself, so we don`t have to suffer as much. We can receive His help. As we do our part, try our hardest, humble ourselves, and accept His loving invitation to go to Him, He helps us.

We do our part by keeping the commandments. :)

And more miracles and blessings and things I seriously never have time to write.

I love you all! Keep the Sabbath Day holy and send God a sign of your love by your actions this Sunday!!

Hermana Park

Random things:

This week has been really special! In our zone meeting they surprised us by calling up the other 2 sisters, Hna Monar and Hna Aspiazu who are both leaving with my group, and me to bear our testimonies. Then the wicked zone leaders made us all sing God Be With You Til We Meet Again!

We got the news that we can now eat fish - if it`s fresh!, lettuce - if it`s really clean!, and strawberries - if they were frozen! NEXT WEEK I WILL BE WRITING ON WEDNESDAY BECAUSE WE`RE GOING TO THE ZOO! :)

Ana Maria and the 4th missionary

Ana Maria is the cutest! Oswaldo baptized her! He`s leaving to Panama for his mission next week!

 After the baptism, the ward had a huge Bolivian party and they all wanted to take pics of us with the food and flags and interesting objects to mash up yuka! 

And the activity with the Elders was a hit and we all got matching shirts!​

This week was wondeful! Ana Maria got baptized and everyone just loves her. Through the curtains in the font we all heard, ¨ahh! the water is so cold! Can we reschedule this for during the day?¨ She has had her own beauty salon for more than 30 years, so I`m putting my trust in her and letting her TRIM my hair in an hour! But she was prepared to be baptized. She is currently in 2nd Nephi 2 and reads the Book of Mormon whenever she has free time. Yesterday when the ward gave her a the sign of fellowship and welcome to the ward in Sacrament Meeting she waved and yelled "thanks!" We love her so much.

One of our investigators, Isabel, gave us cute white shirts and told us we are her best friends. She wants to be baptized, but something happens every Sunday and she can't come to church. With the R. Family yesterday, who are the BEST but have the really complicated situation of the wife being married to another man. We went with Belen (19) and her cousin Joselyn (20) who came to church for the 2nd time yesterday because she went inactive right after she got baptized when she was 10. They helped the family more than we culd have imagined when Belen started talking about how she didnt know where she`d be without having had the gospel her whole life and Joselyn said that she messed up by distancing herself from the church. It was a powerful lesson and the family, Nelson, Francis, Nagely, and Lucero all committed to come to church and the Meet the Mormons activity we`re having Friday!

If you have the chance to get a hold of the talk "The 4th Missionary," read it. I read it again this week and noticed that these almost 15 months (eek) I have been holding just a tiny part of me back and not giving my ALL to the Lord. His will is higher than my will and His plan will be infinitely better than mine. I feel a peace that I have never felt before. I want to challenge everyone to give just a bit more to Him this week. Go the extra mile because Heavenly Father has entrusted each one of us opportunities to do so. He can count on me and I wont let Him down again.

Hermana Park

The world needs sister missionaries and you too!

 Here are all the sisters I live with! You`ll notice my former companion Hermana Petroff, Hermana Cabrera and Hermana Aquino who were in my zone in Tarija, and Hermana Canales who was in my zone in Trompillo (who some of you sweet folks sent letters to!) 

It`s actually surprising to see a tree or bush that is not cut in the shape of an animal.

This was from our sister activity last Monday where we got makeup demonstrated on us from some members in Guaracal as they taught us how to do our own makeup. I said ¨Oh, but I mean, just a little mascara maybe. I like my freckles. Something natural please.¨ Just to please the ladies. But they made me a little heavier on the eyes than I'm used to, my call is always for less makeup and enjoying the skin your in! 

After hearing a whole spiel yesterday in church about how the sisters in Los Olivos should focus on marriage and not have the goal to go on a mission, it came to my mind that the world needs more sister missionaries. We`re not going to downplay the Elders because they are wonderful tools in God's hands! But sisters know how to love. They cry with you. They comfort you. They understand your challenges. They pray for you. They pray with you. If Heavenly Father didn`t want sister missionaries, He wouldn`t have lowered the age. And He wouldn`t have told me I needed to be here.

Ana Maria is going to get baptized next week! (Said Hermana Park with all the faith she has.) So we`re finishing up her training to be completely converted. Artemio came to church yesterday and everyone was SO WELCOMING. They were fighting for who would be the one to go with him to class. He knows the Book of Mormon is true, but is still working to be able to get over his fear of failing God after knowing Him. And we met Hortencia yesterday and the member we were with said that we were here to share a message with her and because she so strongly felt that we needed to. Hortencia cried and told us she had gone to one of our churches and only entered in the doorway when she realized she confused it with another church and said she should`ve entered and we bore testimony that this is her second chance and she accepted to be baptized on September 4th.

The Secretary to Presidente called with what we thought we heard - that Hermana Undurraga had transfers. We almost cried and she yelled, ¨¿QUÈ?¨ But it was tramites, or immigrations! We were the only sister missionaries there at the immigration office, and we took advantage of the 4 hours to talk to 8 people ranging from people from Bolivia to Brazil to Chile to Missouri! Share our testimonies. Give them something to read, be it the Articles of Faith or a pamphlet to increase their faith. And note down their information because no one was from our area. That is something SO EASY that can be done in a plane, in the street, in Green Belt, I dont know where it will be, but God does :) And if you PRAY and then go for it, He will guide you. Because it`s a bit hard for God to use us as His hands if we don`t leave our room. Here`s my challenge, that if all you have to take is your smile and some kind words, GO and be what God wants you and has planned for you to be.

Hermana Park

PRAY

HERMANA HOLDEN, my trainer, came to visit!! 

district

Our group hna activity for all the May birthdays

bad elevator pic after

Foto de la Conferencia con Élder Montoya

We had a Mother´s Day ward activity and it was beautiful! We had 2 of our families of investigators come! We are working with the Familia Dávalos and Familia Suárez so that Betty, Eduardo, Leo, and Diana .... and Maria Lenny, Laura, and Pablo can get baptized in June! I'll write more next week, pray for these people!! 

salteñas from the zone for my birthday!