Blog Description

This is a blog for the family and friends of Collin Park. He will be serving a two year mission in the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he left on January 24, 2013. While Collin is on his mission his Mom will be posting pictures and letters as she gets them, the content will be straight from Collin (unless otherwise noted) - spelling and punctuation will be corrected of course! Commentary and clarification may be added by his Mom as needed.
UPDATE: Collin's mission was split in half! The Sierra Leone Mission included the country of Liberia when Collin first left. As of July 1, 2013, the mission was split along the border and the new mission created: the Liberia, Monrovia Mission. Collin will never see the country of Sierra Leone. He has been in Monrovia Liberia since he left the MTC in Ghana.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Because of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Liberia and Sierra Leone Missions were evacuated on August 4, 2014 and missionaries were reassigned to different missions. Collin was reassigned to the Salt Lake City Central Mission.

Monday, April 22, 2013


April 22, 2013
ow da bodie?

(FYI:  Every 6 weeks the missionaries get rearranged within the mission, this is known as a transfer.  Sometimes they may stay in the same location for more than one transfer, but they usually only transfer to a new location on transfer day – might take a day or two to get everyone moved depending on transportation…   This also means that you might get a new missionary companion as a result of the transfer if you or your companion is transferred to a new location.  Missionaries always work in pairs, but often there is more than one set of missionaries in an apartment.) So transfer news was supposed to come last night but it didn’t. So I have no idea what’s going to happen. I heard that they are splitting my branch (a branch is a group of church members that live within a certain geographical location, when a branch gets big enough it may get split) so that means more missionaries, but as far as me, I have no idea if I am leaving or what.  We'll probably find out tonight but I do know that we are moving apartments. We are moving our stuff Friday and Saturday but we won’t sleep there until Monday night.

President Roggia is coming this weekend and I think I will be having an interview with him on Saturday, time to cut my hair!!!!   hahaha I was planning on doing that anyways.  This will be the second time I will meet with him since I got here.  He spends most of his time in Sierra Leone.

I am done with my 12 week training program!  Now I’m just the junior companion. That’s totally okay with me!

On Tuesday I went on exchange with my district leader Elder Finau (Tonga).  He is such a good missionary and I learn so much from him.  We had a good day and taught many lessons, but when we were closing for the day he said there is still a little more I need to work on.  I kind of already knew what the things were but it’s a good reminder for me. I’m still trying to be better. I’m always asking myself "what could I be doing that is better than this?" or "is this productive?" I’m always trying to use my time wisely.  I’m very blessed with the amount of time I have at the end of the day since our curfew is 7pm, I have 3 1/2 hours of down time to use.  I’m always trying to use it wisely.

Wednesday we went and saw a 13 year old girl that we baptized a couple weeks ago, Jamama. She was very sick (the weather is changing and a lot of people are starting to get sick. rainy season officially starts in May and goes till about September.  Right now it just rains about once a week).   We gave her a priesthood blessing.  I was able to pronounce the blessing.  For some reason I didn’t just say get better, I commanded her to get better, the Holy Ghost totally took over.  We continued to visit her every day.  On Friday she was mostly better.  On Saturday she went to a youth program at the church, she was totally better, completely healthy.  The priesthood power is real, being able to have that sacred power is a gift that I have taken for granted.  It wasn’t until I came on my mission that I really learned what it can do by experiencing it first hand.  The priesthood power is real and powerful. I am so grateful to have the privilege of having this power.

We had a district meeting about planning lessons.  We as missionaries sometimes go through the motions.  We were instructed to have a written lesson plan for each lesson, so we take 10 minutes and have a lesson that truly applies to that person.  We started doing this faithfully, even though planning takes a lot longer now, I can see it paying off.  We go into lessons knowing exactly what lesson we are teaching, what scriptures we will use, and what kind of questions we will ask and what the person might ask us. Elder Finau is amazing, he is always trying to help us become better missionaries and in return, better people.

Yesterday was 3rd Sunday (in Collin’s branch that means the missionaries do a lot of the talking and teaching).  I was able to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting.  I gave a talk on faith and how we can grow it.  In Alma 32:28 it tells us how.   For example, we plant a seed in dirt, nourish it and it will grow.   With faith, plant it your heart, nourish it by praying, going to church, studying the scriptures and it will grow.  In verse 43, it says we have to be patient with our faith, it won’t all come at once, it grows over time.  A tall tree doesn’t just become a tall tree, it started as a seed and was nourished, and then it grew.  This is how faith grows.  You can also look in St Luke chapter 8 (the parable of the sower), the Book of Mormon teaches the same things as the Bible, it just uses different people and different words.  The Book of Mormon is true.

I love you all and miss you all
Thanks for the support!
The church is true and I love you!

Elder Park
The White African
T.I.A!
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