Rowdy U of U kids and a Green-eyed Redhead

HELLO!

 

Well, Utah is getting hot and my skin is not as beautiful as it was in Louisiana because it is so dry here. It is okay though because I love Temple Square. I am loving it more than I ever have before.

Time has flown by. It is weird that I was serving here last summer. This is the best time of my life. I don't ever want to leave!!!! 

 

Mom, go ahead and apply for a few different colleges in Utah for me but DO NOT apply at University of Utah.  The guys from that college watch us walk home so they know where we live.  Anyway, the other night when everyone was asleep, I was still awake. Our window was open because it's hot in our apartment and I heard someone scream, "Sister Missionaries!!! WAKE UP!!!!" At night time the U of U kids hang outside of our apartment and scream really loud and pound on things. It is quite rude actually.

 

Quick break by the reflection pool then we are back to work!

This has been a pretty good week. Things have gone by pretty fast. We have been taking a lot of tours and Sister Bryuzgina is passing off in English tours tomorrow. She will do great! She is a wonderful missionary. She has a good sense of humor and the guests love it! She also has a very good memory and caught on so quickly with all of the Temple Square facts. Yesterday she actually got a Ukrainian woman to refer. That is hard to do. I have always wanted to train but I am happy I am training at this time in my mission. It is exactly what I need.  We have met so many wonderful people on our tours. It makes me really sad when some of them don't refer because we just love them!

 

The other night during planning, Sister Bryuzgina and I set a goal to teach a lady with red hair and green eyes (it's typical to do things like that at the Square because we run into so many different people).  So the next day we had the 3 o'clock flagpole tour and there came a cute family from Oregon. The mother had red hair and green eyes! They were adorable and they were looking to move to Utah because she likes the clean environment. They were not members and knew nothing about the church besides the fact that we keep the Sabbath Day Holy. They loved that we do that. So we took them around and basically taught the whole Restoration and they had so many wonderful questions. As we spoke to them about Joseph Smith the spirit was so strong. I have never ever on my mission felt the spirit like I felt it during that tour. The spirit testified of the things we both said and Sister Bryuzgina's English was so amazing. We just grew to love everyone in that tour so much. When we asked if they wanted to learn more we could tell the wife wanted to and she was about to say something but looked over at the husband and he just looked straight ahead and said nothing. I was sad but I have a good feeling that they will find the church again one day. I had a restoration pamphlet in my Book of Mormon so we just gave that to them with a Mormon.org card. Hopefully they meet missionaries one day. They live in the same mission and same area Kylie serves in. It would have been so perfect if they had wanted to learn more!

So here is my spiritual thought. I am so tired. I can literally feel the bags beneath my eyes get darker and heavier.  Sometimes I think I might fall over and die.  I forgot how hard Temple Square was.  Sometimes I want to cry and the only thing that gives me strength throughout the week is partaking of the sacrament.  To me, the sacrament is more than repentance for sins and renewing baptismal covenants. It is a reminder that through Christ we can accomplish anything.  When we partake of the sacrament, we are being cleansed; and he will be with us throughout the week to help us get through anything that comes our way. One of my favorite scriptures is in D&C 45:3-5..

3 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—

 

4 Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;

 5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.

I try to substitute my name in there when I am having a bad day. Jesus Christ is pleading our case before Heavenly Father. He wants us to succeed. We have to believe in Him and have faith in Him and He will be our advocate.  When we take the sacrament we are taking His name upon us and through Him we can get through anything! I read those verses every time I am beat down, exhausted, overwhelmed... and I know that I can do it. This is His work and He wants all of us to succeed. 

Well, lots of love!!!!

Sister Park

 

 

Back at Temple Square!




With my new companion Sister Bryuzgina from Russia

Preveit! That is Hello in Russian! I am back in SLC and I love it! It is so nice to be back here. I am training a new Sister from Russia. Her name is Sister Bryuzgina and she is from Sochi. I love her because she is a body builder and she runs with me every morning. She also supports my healthy eating and does not tempt me to eat unhealthy.  She is so funny!  

 

I try not to think about Louisiana because it hurts my heart that I had to leave those amazing people and my best friend, Sister Maxwell.

 

Our new mission president, President Poulsen, is AMAZING! I am pretty sure he has conversations with the Holy Ghost. He is so nice and seems like he knows all of us very well.
 

It was nice to have a break when I was outbound. I will say this.. outbound was hard but Temple Square is SO HARD! It forces you to get out of your comfort zone and it is physically and mentally draining! I love it so much though! It is definitely for me because I love to be moving around all the time.

 

Sister Bryuzgina is the only Russian speaking sister on the square so we do all the Russian tours.  There are a lot of Russian tours so we run around like crazy and I lost 3 pounds because of it.  It kind of reminds me of how busy I was last summer with Mandarin tours. Today just as we started grocery shopping, we got a call from the West Gate and they asked if we could take a Russian tour. We sped back to the square and took a lovely couple around. I was so proud of Sister Bryuzgina for being so willing to leave P-Day to take the tour. She is a wonderful missionary and Temple Square is so lucky to have her as the only Russian speaker. She is very diligent and is always ready for whatever comes up! The couple was agnostic but they really wanted a Book of Mormon and they really enjoyed the tour.

The other night we took a lovely couple from St. Petersburg, Florida on a tour. Their names were Annie and Clement. They stopped here on their way back home and they absolutely loved it and wanted to know more. Sister Bryuzgina and I were walking around the South Visitors Center near the temple model and I had a strong impression to talk to Annie. They adored Sister Bryuzgina and especially loved how funny she was! We asked them if they would like a tour and they were so excited that we asked! They said yes right away! So we took them around and got to know them. We talked about the temple and they actually thought that it was so wonderful. We ended at the Christus and the spirit was so strong. We bore our testimonies and asked them if they were interested in learning more.  They said yes! They wanted a Book of Mormon and local missionaries to come and visit them. We are going to call them this week and begin teaching them.

There is a Russian lady who has been coming to the Square everyday since Thursday. Her name is Hope. We first met her at the Christus and she did not want to talk to us but Sister Bryuzgina can get anyone to talk to her so we were able to. Ever since then we have talked to her everyday and last Saturday we set up an appointment to teach her today.  We taught her the Restoration and she understands it and says it makes sense to her but she still is strong in her beliefs. She has been reading the Book of Mormon since Thursday though and is loving it! We committed her to praying about it and she said yes. She doesn't want us to call her and she doesn't want local missionaries yet either. She is anti-social and said if the church is true then she will find it in Canada where she lives. She flies back home tomorrow so sadly we won't meet with her again but we planted a seed; and I know she will find the church in Canada.

Last night we took two Ukrainian women around. They currently live in NYC and are both members of the church. One of them was a recent covert and one of them was a returned missionary. We were at the Christus and the returned missionary talked to me while the recent convert talked to Sister Bryuzgina.  The RM told me a lot of things that I needed to hear. She said it's hard to train a Russian sister and gave me a lot of advice that I really took to heart. I love Sister B so much but it is hard to teach someone who struggles with English to take tours.  We do have so much fun and she is so easy to love! I think I was definitely supposed to be training right now!

 

Friday was a good day because one of my recent converts, Joel that I met on a tour back in September, came to Temple Square and I got to talk to him for a minute! While I was gone he received his priesthood, baptized his friend, got his patriarchal blessing, and does baptisms for the dead. He is amazing.  It just makes me so happy!
 

I can't write anymore.  Most of our p-day was spent working so now we will try to get some errands done. 

 

Until next week!

 

Sister Park

 

A little souvenir from Louisiana

 

"No true endings... only everlasting beginnings."

Yesterday and Saturday I said some final goodbyes to a few of my favorite people.

This first picture is my beautiful neighbor, Yolanda.  
She doesn't want me to leave so I took her this rose yesterday. :(

 

Then there was my very last Sunday with my sweet primary class.

 

 

Our investigator, Sharika.  She had just cut and curled my hair

for me right before this picture was taken.

 

 

This next picture is of Barbara Lee.  She lets us do our laundry at her

house and she makes us breakfast every Monday morning.

 

 

I don't know why I took the picture of this snake but we see a lot of these. 

This was outside the nursing home we visited one day.

 

 

Well, good morning and happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful ladies in my life!

Christie, I bet you were so excited about your first mother's day! It was so good to see the fam on Skype yesterday! Everyone looks great. Kendall, you are so pretty! Mothers Day was wonderful! I was able to give my last talk in the New Iberia Branch. I spoke on how a Mother's influence can affect generations.  I also said that the way in which mothers handle trials can help their kids handle their own trials in the future.  I talked about how strong Grandma Wellman was while Grandpa was serving in the Viet Nam war and how her example helped you (mom) be strong when you went through your own trials. Then I talked about the 2000 stripling warriors and how because of the teachings and counsels of their mothers they were able to win the battle against the Laminates. (Alma 56:47-48) It made me miss my family so much! 

So we got some awesome news! We have two investigators who are getting baptized.  First there is Shilay.  She is Miss Pat's friend who came to the Gladys Knight concert with us and had immediate interest in the church.  Well, she has decided to be baptized on June 1st.  I'm so sad that I am missing it but so happy for Shilay.  Another one of our investigators, Rebecca, has also decided to get baptized.  She doesn't  have a date finalized yet but she will know soon! 

 

I am excited to get back to the mountains. Anytime I see a picture of Utah my heart gets all warm because its my mission and I LOVE IT! I am going to miss Louisiana so much though. Opelousas and New Iberia are such big parts of me now and I will always love them. I can't wait to take the fam back so we can see all the wonderful sights and eat some Cajun food. AHHHH! I am going to cry when I leave on Wednesday. Tomorrow we are going to Baton Rouge and I'll stay the night in the mission home. Then on Wednesday we fly back to Salt Lake City.  Back to my starting point just in time for busy season!  I really hope I have another Asian companion.  I just want to be busy with Mandarin tours all the time!  They are the best!

 

I have been really sad about leaving Louisiana because I hate endings and I hate goodbyes. It always seems like when life is just wonderful something comes and ends it really fast! We have been seeing lots of miracles and Sister Maxfield and I are such good friends and now... I have to go! But I have tried to stay focused on what President Uchtdorf said in his last General Conference talk. 

 

"In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem unacceptable to us?  Why is this?  Because we are made of the stuff of eternity.... there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

 

That talk was exactly what I needed.  Endings are not such a bad thing when we consider that Heavenly Father has something better in store for us.  Me leaving Louisiana will be hard but it is the start of something wonderful that's about to happen.  I have always looked at different parts of my life as chapters.  I am about to start another chapter and this one will last until December!

 

Next time I email will be from Temple Square!

 

Talk to you next week!

Sister Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gladys Knight Concert!

Hey Y'all! How is everyone? This morning I could not even focus because I was way too excited to find out where Kendall was serving  her mission! SOUTH DAKOTA RAPID CITY MISSION! That sounds so cool!  There is a beautiful Native America girl from South Dakota named Sister Pipe who is serving at Temple Square.  She goes home in September so maybe you will get to meet her! 

I have an investigator who lives in that mission. She is in Louisiana temporarily but she is getting ready to go back to North Dakota. Her name is Tammy. She has been here taking care of her grandkids for awhile. Anyway, I have all of her information so I can continue teaching her from Temple Square.  For some reason, She LOVES me so she will LOVE you. She thinks every sister missionary is named Sister Park so it won't be hard for her to remember your name.  I cried when I read your call because I love this woman and I have been praying that Heavenly Father would
find the perfect person in North Dakota to work with her.

I am so proud of you, Baby Diddo! You are going to love it! You will need to wear like 20 scarves and wrap up in an electric blanket every night!  I am excited to see the fam in August then when they bring you to the MTC! You will get to see me in the busy season. 

On Tuesday we went to the Gladys Knight devotional/testimony/concert! It was incredible. We went with Miss Pat, Shilay, and Derion! We had a blast! Gladys and her husband had incredible and bold testimonies. Gladys even talked about her grandson who is serving his mission in Little Rock, Arkansas with Rulon.  She is so happy that Heavenly Father kept all of the missionaries safe from the tornado. I was like "AMEN." My cousin is over there! Everyone was saying AMEN after everything she and her husband said. It was either "Amen" or "Praise Jesus." It was a treat!

Me, Miss Pat, Shilay, and Derion before the concert

We actually got a new investigator out of that whole experience. Shilay is Miss Pat's friend who offered to drive all of us to Baton Rouge so we could see the show.  Shilay loved it! Now we have an appointment to
teach her the lessons tonight because she was so interested. We also get to teach  Jamal tonight. One of the Louisiana Baton Rouge mission goals is to work in the African-American community and boy are we achieving that goal!  They are some of the most spiritual people I have ever met.

I am just stressed because so many amazing things are happening and now I have to leave. I know I have work to do in Utah though. I love it there a lot and I am excited to get back to healthy eating. Stanley gave me a Cajun cookbook.  I am so excited about it.  I can't wait to make everyone Gumbo. It is my fave. And red beans and rice. Oh and Pralines. But they pronounce them as Praw-line. I love it!   

Summertime is coming and I have just a week and a half here in Louisiana. I am so sad to leave because this is basically my home! I have been here for awhile and I just love it! I bore my testimony in church yesterday and I had to hold back the tears. I love New Iberia.  I am so grateful for this wonderful experience.  I will miss all of these people so much.










Last night we went over to the Davis family's house and watched the CES Devotional given by Elder Ballard. I loved it! There was a small part where he talked about being still. When I think about being still I think of accepting the Lord's will. That is a hard thing to do sometimes whether we realize it or not. This is something I have learned a lot on my mission. Things are not going to work out the way we think they should. Sometimes good things have to fall apart so that better things can come together. I have been sad about leaving New Iberia because I love the people so much but I know that Heavenly Father has other plans for me and things I need to accomplish over in Utah.  

Sometimes I get discouraged with the people we teach because I just know that the gospel will make them so happy and yet they don't always keep commitments; but that's when I just need to be still. Yesterday was a very wonderful Sunday because I have had a lot of questions and the answer I received several times throughout the day was "Be still and know that I am God"- Psalms 46:10.
 

I love everyone so much! I am excited to see y'all in August! I can't believe I wont be able to hang out with my little sis til 2016. That's such a long time.  Three Christmases away from each other. Sadness but happiness all at the same time! Have a wonderful week.

Sister Park