"What are you thinking?"

Sister Maxfield and Me!  Just out for a little lunch in a Southern Café!

Hey! So what did you all think of General Conference?  I loved the sessions on Saturday because it was like a smack down on keeping the commandments. Wow!  Did you feel the love from Elder Holland?  That man is amazing and powerful! The commandments are so good.  I am always amazed that people see them as restrictive.  The freedom we feel when we live the commandments is the best feeling in the world.

We had Mission Leadership Conference (MLC) on Wednesday and it was awesome. President Wall is SO spiritual. I always learn so much from him.  Now we get to take what we learned and instruct the other missionaries at Zone training.  Sister Maxfield and I called dibs on teaching the referral process since I am a Temple Square sister and that is kind of my specialty.  Here is some advice for future missionaries.... Pass along cards are the key!  Everyone wants a free bible or Jesus DVD. They call in and the Temple Square sisters send their info to you so you can deliver the item and visit them. Use the pass along cards. The Finding Faith in Christ one is the most popular of them all!

On April 29th guess who is coming to Baton Rouge? GLADYS KNIGHT! She is going to be putting on a show in our stake center and she will also be sharing her testimony and conversion story. All the missionaries in our mission get free tickets for ourselves and as many investigators as we want to bring. Our investigator Miss Pat is SO excited. When we told her last night she called all of her friends and family right then and there and said, "My two Mormon sisters got me free tickets to Gladys Knight! Gladys Knight is a Mormon!" She is making great progress and is taking us out to breakfast on Friday! We just adore that woman!

Okay this is also VERY good news. We have some investigators who have really embraced the gospel but they have been trying to quit smoking.  They are doing so good!  We got them signed up for the LDS Stop Smoking workshop which they will be finished with on Friday.  For those of you who don't know, the LDS Stop Smoking program was started by a return missionary who served in Ireland and encountered many investigators who wanted to join the church but needed to quit smoking.  It's not an official church program but all of the English-speaking missions use it for investigators.  People in the class have to follow 15 steps in 7 days.  I'm sure there is a lot of relapse but the program is pretty successful.

That's a picture of me playing guitar with Brother Fenene. He is a Samoan guy in our branch.  He taught me some Samoan songs and I taught him some Taylor Swift songs. We had an awesome time! He rocked out with his bass guitar. We made up an awesome version of the song "Fearless".

Remember Elder Zwick, the seventy who spoke on Saturday?  Well, he and I go way back.  Just kidding, but we used to work together in the Church Office Building when I was doing the fleet assignment at Temple Square.  He works in the missionary department.  Mom, I told you about him.  He is the guy who talked to us for about 30 minutes and then gave me and Sister Stephen his card and said to call him if we ever have questions or need anything.  I never imagined I would be watching him give a conference talk less than 6 months later.  His talk just so happened to be one of my favorites.

Elder Zwick quoted Ephesians 4:29- "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers."  He reminds us that we need to keep our anger and tempers in check and treat others with love and kindness even when we disagree.  He also shared Proverbs 15:1, “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger."  We are so much more effective when we speak lovingly.  We can still be firm, but do it with love.  Elder Zwick said that when we encounter these situations we should ask in our minds "What are you thinking?"  And really try to understand the other person and what they have experienced in their lives that led them to where they are. 

Thank you so much Grams and Mac, Christie, and Grandma and Grandpa Wellman!  I love you all!

I have been feeling great lately! Good studies and good exercise can go along away! We run a mile everyday in a beautiful neighborhood and everyday I pick out my future home. I love it here. I am depressed about having to leave Louisiana in a month.  But I'm also kind of excited to get back to Utah and see what else Heavenly Father has in store for me!

As Jersy would say, "Love is Everywhere." Goodbye!

Love,

Sister Park