New Companion, New Assignment!



Hi Family! How is everyone is doing? I miss ALL of you so so so so much! I have really been missing the twins more than usual because my new companion has little siblings too so we always talk about them.

On Wednesday we had transfers! I have a new companion named Sister Stephen and she is from Nebraska! I live with three Americans now! My new assignment is FLEET.  We are the mission vehicle coordinators. It's one of the busiest callings in the mission so today we get to have an all day p-day.  This new assignment is so hard but I am learning so much about cars already.

First let me say that most of the time we drive mini vans so I just want to apologize to everyone I have made fun of for having a mini van- especially Christie and Cammie Udall. I love you.

So basically our whole lives are devoted to these vehicles. We also have to wash and fill up President's car every week. We work beneath the church office building a lot so we get to see the apostles more often on this assignment. We have regular meetings in the church office building with the Church's head vehicle coordinator, Brother Ott. He is in charge of all of the cars in every mission in the entire world. He is so cool and funny and he loves to feed us! We are in charge of passing off all of the sisters so that they can drive.  If any battery dies or anything like that happens then we have to stop what we are doing and go rescue them. We have our own office too so that is kind of cool.

I'm not really sure why Heavenly Father gave me this calling. I drive too fast and then when I'm nervous I drive like 20 under and now I have to teach sisters to drive the speed limit!  I have ran into a few poles and fences in the past and now I have to suspend driving privileges if any of the missionaries do that. I can't even tell you how nervous I am right now!

Right now, Sister Stephen is training me.  I will have this assignment until January 8th so next transfer I will be in charge of fleet and training someone.   I have to drive in the snow!! Heavenly Father is really stretching me right now. I mean seriously. It'll be ok though. I am so nervous but I just have to have faith. It'll be ok.

I am no longer in a trio with Sister Lee and Sister Vargas and I miss them soooo much too. We had some good experiences together and I laughed so much with them. Our last night together was awesome... It was Sister Lee's birthday and she turned 24! She will kill me if she ever finds out I wrote her age, haha.

So we decided that we needed to celebrate by going out to eat.  For some strange reason we chose McDonald's... not my choice.. I was gagging; but it was all meant to be!

We waited in line for about 10 to 15 minutes because I couldn't decide what I wanted to eat because I didn't want any of it. I'm a pain in the butt, I know. So after a while, three business men behind us said, "Sisters! Make a decision, do you want us to pick for you?" They were joking around and laughing about it but they looked really high class and important. Then they cut in front of us in the line and they said, "What do you want, we're paying."  And of course we did the whole "Oh, don't pay for us, we feel bad" thing because we're girls and girls do that (Rulon would never do that).  Since I couldn't decide, they chose for us and bought all three of us Happy Meals. So we started talking to them for a few minutes and found out that one of them has lived in Utah for a long time but he is not a member of the church.  Once we got our Happy Meals we decided to go and invite ourselves to sit down with him. Poor Sister Vargas...she had to be companions with two rowdy Americans who just do things like that.

We sat down with the men and told them a little about ourselves and then got to know them a little too. They work for the government and one of them was a big boss of something (I forgot what it was). They reminded me so much of dad and his friends. They were all sarcastic and just hilarious.

Eating our Happy Meals!

Sister Lee ended up bringing the discussion to religion so we talked to Chris (the non-member) for a little bit about it. He has been to church a few times and he feels like he will join one day but he says it's not his time yet. So I said, "Well, have you read the Book of Mormon?" and he said he has read parts of it. And then I asked him about his relationship with Heavenly Father and if he has ever prayed to know the truth. And then Sister Vargas pulled out Moroni 10:3-5 and had him read it. We were so excited she did that because we all had the feeling to do that! He responded, "I have prayed and I'm not sure that God has given me an answer yet."  He was tough because he just wasn't open to it and really there wasn't much that we could about that. But Aunt Jamie once told me that when all else fails, bear your testimony. So that's exactly what I did. He ended up giving us his card with his number and email on it so we are soooooo calling him. The other two business men have been trying to convert him for years!  So they gave us their cards as well! I'm not a good story teller so I left out a lot of detail but they were AWESOME!  After we finished our Happy Meals they bought us Mexican dessert and put a straw on top of it and pretended it was a candle and made Sister Lee blow it.  They sang "Happy Birthday" to her really loud. It was embarrassing! Nothing major happened from that experience yet but it was great because the spirit was there!

Sometimes I wonder.. some people, especially here in Utah, have been around the truth for so long and I know that they have felt the spirit at times in their lives so why doesn't Heavenly Father just make them recognize it!  He could but he doesn't because we have our agency and whether or not we are open to feeling his spirit is all up to us.  We all have our own individual experiences with unique timing.  We can't always comprehend how Heavenly Father works and why he makes things work out the way they do- (Mosiah 4:9 one of the best scriptures). It was such a good experience though!

Last night, Sister Stephen and I were planning our week and we were talking about a less active member that she has been working with for a couple weeks. We were discussing ways that we could help him and then all of a sudden in the middle of our discussion he texted us and said "Hi Sisters!" It was so cool. We asked him what is the best time we could give him a call and he said right then! So we did! We just visited with him and then we felt impressed to remind him of his testimony and of the experiences that he had on his own mission. He thought about them for a few minutes and then started crying. He remembered some of the experiences when the spirit just took over and he truly helped people. He said "I can't believe I let myself get here. I had such good experiences and I brought such great people into the gospel and now I am here." We reminded him that its not too late! Heavenly Father's hand is in his life right now reminding him of these things and bringing the spirit into his life. He decided that he needed to change. We were able to commit him to church this Sunday and it works perfect because he has a friend who has a missionary farewell on Sunday! The spirit was so strong during our conversation. All three of us were crying on the phone.

That experience was exactly what I needed. Earlier I was having a hard day and sort of felt like I was abandoned in a way.  But my conversation with him reminded me that Heavenly Father is always there. He really is. I have been praying a lot and last night I realized how aware Heavenly Father is of me- of all of us!  Think about that!  He is right there! When I think about it, it's ridiculous that I was feeling otherwise because nothing could be further from the truth! His love never ever changes even when we think we don't deserve it.

I have been stressed about this new calling. I said a prayer last week and asked Him if He could help me be better for this next transfer.  And then when I was called to Fleet I was like "Oh my gosh! Now even more of my weaknesses are going to show and this transfer is going to be a disaster!"  But then I remembered that I was called to serve in this mission and I was chosen for this calling for a reason. (By the way, Fleet might seem easy but I already want to pull out my hair and crawl in a cave.)   But this new calling may just make me stronger. We have to meet with President and the AP's a lot to discuss any issues with the cars and I HATE getting people in trouble so I am seriously so nervous for what's ahead. But I can do it because Heavenly Father is right there- always! One thing I have to be better about is trusting. If I just have faith and trust then it will all be ok and I think that is one of the reasons I have this calling.

Love, Sister Park