"Yea, I know that I am nothing"

Hello Family!!!

Is everyone so excited for Thanksgiving! I am! We will be going to a member's home in Bountiful. It is so nice of them to host Sister Ma and I.

This next picture is with Stanley Dickens from New Iberia, LA.  He came to Salt Lake City for the holidays and took me out to lunch!  Sister Weidmann from Switzerland also served her outbound in New Iberia and she came with us.  We also got to take him on a tour. What a special day!


So at the very beginning of the transfer I was on exchanges with Sister Hsu for a short period of time one night. We were at the EF Desk and I met a young man who said he just moved from NYC. He said he had friends who were members of the church so he was interested to see what it was all about. We were talking about the faith and values and I began to teach the Restoration. I had an extremely strong feeling to share the First Vision. As I recited the First Vision, he started to laugh a little bit. I was a little taken back. He said it was sort of bizarre. I just bore my testimony and invited him to learn more. He gave me his email and accepted a Book of Mormon. After we left, I was so hurt! I felt like maybe I could have done better. No one had ever laughed as I recited the First Vision before so I didn't understand. I was a little bit dramatic that night and I went in the bathroom and I cried because I felt like I didn't do a good job. After our shift was over I dragged Sister Hsu throughout the whole entire square to see if we could find him so I could help him to see how important this was! I am the type of person that won't rest until I feel like I've done everything I could do. If I don't do as much as I can then I have a hard time forgiving myself. I am strange, I know. Anyways, we did not find him so I sent him an email. Well, a few days later I finally received a reply from him and it said:

"Hi Sister Park! I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to respond to you. I’ll explain why my response was so delayed a little later on in this email. First of all, I wanted to thank you. The things you told me in Temple Square really inspired me. I have read the Book of Mormon, prayed about it, and know without any doubt that it is true. Second of all, I need to apologize to you. Not everything that I told you in Temple Square was completely true. I told you that I’m from New York. Well, to be honest, I’ve lived in Utah my whole life and have never stepped foot in New York. I’ve also been a member of the church since I was baptized when I was eight years old. However, I was not completely sure of the truthfulness of the church. I went to Temple Square that night to try to find out better if the church was true. So, I decided to use some of the acting skills I learned in high school (clearly I didn’t do very well because I was wearing a CTR ring when we were speaking) to see how missionaries teach and what they say. So, I walked around Temple Square for about an hour just waiting for the first missionary to talk to me. Eventually, I came across you. I wanted to see how missionaries teach and how I felt as I was taught. While you were telling me about Joseph Smith, I felt something I haven't felt in years; the Holy Ghost. I read the Book of Mormon you gave me in less than 3 weeks. I now know that it and the church as a whole are absolutely true. I do hope you’ll forgive me for telling you a little white lie. I just wanted to see how missionaries work toward non-members. So, the reason that I have taken so long to respond is… That I've been very busy working on my Mission Papers. I decided that I want all people to know of the happiness of the church. I want to thank you for talking to me that night in Temple Square, as I don't know if I would have the faith and knowledge that I now have if we hadn’t spoken that night. Thank you so much for helping me. You’ve done more for my life than you can even imagine. You’ve helped me become completely converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I will be eternally grateful to you for that. You are a truly amazing missionary, and you should know that you have helped to convert someone who is now preparing to go and help others be converted. Thank you so much. Again, I’m sorry for the little lie that I told you. But, hey, it helped me see how things are done and it helped out a lot. All my gratitude, Jacob Yorgason.

It wasn't me that helped this young man at all.  I am so happy to be a servant of the Lord and he chooses to use me to reach one of his children, what a privilege!

Alma 26:12: "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."

The point of this story is that I am so thankful for the spirit. Temple Square can be a little bit difficult because us sisters have such a short amount of time to really listen to the spirit and say what the guests really need to hear. It doesn't matter if they are members or not. When I received that email I felt such a big peaceful feeling. I realized that we sisters don't really know the good that we do. I just hope the sisters know what an impact they are making. I think Temple Square is the best mission in the world. I am biased.  

I can't believe my mission is almost over.  Here is a picture of all the sisters who are departing next transfer.


Departing Sisters!

Oh! Very exciting news! One of our investigators, Ken, was baptized on Sunday at stake conference. It wasn't even planned! It just happened because he was ready! He lives in the Arkansas Little Rock Mission!  Elder Tate baptized him.  We are so happy for him and he is so happy as well. I just love how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ can affect us if we let it. The church is true. No doubt!

Sister Park

His Love is Infinite

Hello Everyone!
 

This week has been awesome but I don't remember what happened really because it was so busy.  It is getting so cold here, sometimes I think I will die but we are getting ready for Christmas. We had our Christmas training on Thursday and we went over how to handle "lost children" and all that other good stuff. They turn on the lights every once in awhile to test them out and it is just going to be so gorgeous.

Sister Ma and I are doing wonderful! Tonight we are going to have a "Hot Pot" party. It is an Asian tradition. You boil really hot water and put seasoning in it and then you put food in it and it cooks really fast and then.. you eat it. So we will do that with our other Asian friends.

We are still teaching the lovely people in Africa! We taught Phemy from Nigeria today and he is the sweetest. The people over there are so humble and they have so much faith. They teach me more than we could ever teach them.  I love my people. I don't know if I can go home because I will miss my Africans too much.  It just stresses me out.  I got a Liberia flag name tag since I am teaching the Liberians right now.

Oh! One more exciting thing: The other night I met an RM that used to go and visit Grandpa Park every week when he served in Ephrata! It was so cool because he loved Grandpa so much. He said he saw all of his antiques and guns and his collections. It made me so happy. He said Grandpa has the sweetest heart. I love you Grandpa!

Last night we attended the play "The Savior of the World" and it was so good! I loved it because it reminded me of all that the Savior has done for us. I think I take it for granted sometimes.  But I just love the Savior so much! If it wasn't for Him, I would never be here at Temple Square. He truly does live and he loves all of us so much that He died for us. Since I have come on my mission the Sacrament has meant much more to me then ever before. If we include Jesus Christ in our daily lives we will find that sense of peace and direction that we all want. It is simple but we tend to make it difficult.  Our part is really not that had though!  He performed the hardest task for all of us by suffering for our sins and pain because his love is infinite!

Ok gotta run!

Sister Park

There are No Coincidences

Hello Everyone! It is getting so cold here!  I hope y'all are staying nice and warm! Things are going really good for the North 1 Zone! We have been so blessed. The sisters in the zone are amazing and they are such hard workers. We are more than halfway to reaching our baptismal goal this transfer. We have seen so many miracles lately. I love Sister Ma and I am learning a lot from her. There is always something to learn and work on even if you are in your last transfer.  I am very thankful for her.

I just gained a strong testimony of not giving up hope on investigators even when we have dropped them for one reason or another.  So a year ago I was in my third transfer and a lady called in looking for her Bishop's number. I just assumed she was a less active member so I kept her number and tried to contact her a few times after that but I was never able to get a hold of her. Well the other night I was prompted to look through some of my dropped contacts and decided to start calling a few of them. I called about ten people and no one answered. Then I got to Stephenie's name and I was about to delete her from the list.  I thought about it for a minute and received a prompting that I should call her. So I just dialed her and expected the line not to go through but it did and she answered. So I started talking to her and told her who I was and she told me that it was so weird that I called her because she has been feeling like she needs to go back to church lately. She got divorced last year and has been depressed. She keeps her Grandpa's scriptures right next to her bed and has been looking through them. We talked about her going to church on Sunday and then I brought up General Conference so she went on lds.org to look it up. For some reason it told her she couldn't log in without a record number. She said, "I don't think I have a membership record number." So I replied and told her that every baptized member of the church has one and she can ask the Bishopric or the ward clerk on Sunday. The she said, "Well, I have never been baptized. I was always waiting for my Grandpa to baptize me but he never made it to Rhode Island." She has been going to the church for years but fell less active when she got older. Her mom was baptized but stopped going when she was young. I asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she started crying and said yes! We had a good conversation and she was just crying because she said that it was not coincidence that I called her.  And I know that to be true because there are no coincidences!  Now she is planning to be baptized and is meeting with the missionaries. She already knows the church is true and is going to invite her boyfriend to learn about it from us. He is very open. I guess the point of the story is I learned that it is so important to never forget about the people we "drop". Heavenly Father will prepare them for the Gospel and they will accept it in their own time and in their own way. I am so thankful for the Holy Ghost and I know that we could never do this work without the spirit. I know this Gospel is true and it is the happiest way to live. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have it.  Remember that in order to really know whether it is true we must seek it out ourselves. Our own testimony is much stronger than relying on others.  It doesn't matter how good the missionary is or how good the Sunday School teacher is.  We must know of the truthfulness of this gospel on our own and through confirmation of the spirit. 

Moroni 10:5 "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

Love you lots!

Sister Park

Six New Investigators!

Language Announcing after Music and The Spoken Word

 

I have had one of the greatest weeks of my whole mission. It was so good that I almost walked into President's office on Monday and asked to extend. I thought and prayed about it and my answer was "no" because I have a boy waiting for me at home...Jagger, my eight year old brother.

 

It was so great though and I just love missionary work so much. I don't even know where to begin. Let's first start with some of the wonderful people that I am teaching in Africa! I called President Harmon (branch pres in Liberia) and he asked me to teach four more people over there.  They have been coming to church for a couple of Sundays now. They are awesome and so humble. One of the ladies I teach is named Pressure Kuweh and she told me today that she loves the Book of Mormon and carries it with her everywhere.  She said she is so grateful to have the word of God. It's a miracle to her!  I have also started to teach a man named Phemy and he lives in Nigeria. He heard about the Book of Mormon on TV and wants to know more. He already wants to be baptized and is going to email us some of his friends and family to start teaching. He is the sweetest!

 

Then on Sunday, Sister Ma and I were able to receive six new investigators on the square and also through inbound calls. It is funny how you start to see all of the miracles at the very end of the mission but it motivates us even more. We were walking around on the square the other day and Sister Ma thought she saw some Chinese people so we walked over to talk to them. They ended up not being Asian but we were still going to talk to them until a young man walked by us and we both felt that we needed to talk to him. We said hello to him at the same time! His name was _____ and he was here for a medical residency interview at U of U. He is not a member but growing up his neighbors were missionaries over in Minnesota! We asked him how he feels about Salt Lake City and about the church. One of his friends served a mission. We extended an invitation to him to learn more and he said, "Yeah, actually I do want to learn more." Then Sister Ma jumped in and invited him to be baptized! He smiled and said, "If I find out this is true, then yes." We have been texting him and his interview at U of U went great so he will move here in a few weeks. We have an appointment and we are going to teach him the Restoration. He is golden!

So today was P-Day and it was filled with even more miracles! We went to Asian Market and we met a couple from Taiwan that just moved here. They are not members but they are related to a member present that Sister Ma uses a lot to teach lessons! She invited them to learn more and they said yes. We will call them this week. After that we went to Costco. Sister Ma saw a Chinese couple eating so she went over to contact them while I bought us hot dogs. We were within sight and sound, don't worry. While I was waiting in line I started talking to this Native American man. Since we are surrounded by Indian reservations in AZ I always think that they are my people for some reason. He was really nice. He is originally from Arizona about an hour away from my home. He moved to SLC to be close to family. When his brother and sister moved here they both joined the church. They both have invited him to be baptized but he just wasn't sure if it was for him. So I invited him to come and eat with us and he did. We had a great conversation. He knows a lot about the church. We invited him to learn more and he agreed. We will call him on Saturday night. He is also planning on attending church with us on Sunday morning. He was laughing at us because he said we are really persistent but he is willing to give it a shot. Hopefully he comes to church with us and then we will get him going to his ward over where he lives.

 

P-day with Sister Ma!

It has been such a good week! I am so excited to see what else Heavenly Father has in store for the rest of the transfer. I am sooo happy. I don't see any point in coming home to be honest. I love you all so very much and hope things are going okay... Remember, God loves you and has a plan for you!
 
Sister Park