Elder Collin Park

January 13, 2014

This week seemed to fly!!!!

The beginning of the week wasn’t too eventful, nothing too special.  Just normal teaching every day all day long.   We did have a zone meeting though.   It was good I guess, it was just relaying the message President Kirkham instructed us on during our Mission Council.

Friday is when things started to pick up and get fun.  Friday we were supposed to go on splits with the AP's but they had something unexpected come up and had to reschedule.  But for us, we still went on splits.  I went with Brother Wah who served in Kenya and has been home for about 6 years.  Crazy thing is, he had a baby born just a week earlier.  The baby boy is good and healthy!!   No name yet, I think they are waiting for when they bless the baby at church.  Elder Myaka went with a man who is preparing to go on a mission.  The day was really good.  We even got to see a man that we planned on seeing but since he is always working, we were doubting if it was going to happen.  Soloman Toe is really cool, he's heard a lot of things about the church, but wanted to learn for himself.   Those people are fun to teach!

Saturday we had a meeting with the District Presidency.   This meeting is just so the District Presidency can see how us missionaries view the branches and what things we think they can improve on.  The two branches in my Zone are great.  They just got new leadership and are firing on all cylinders.   We really didn’t have much to talk about in our Zone.   One goal that the District has set for 2014 is to have more families come to church.  They will ask the branches to give us family referrals.  Families are what grows the branches and makes them strong!   They also want all the young men eligible for mission to serve a mission, which means more people will come with us when we teach.   Here, if you don’t go with the missionaries often, you don’t get papers to fill out.  Different culture, but totally cool!!  They have a lot more but those are the big ones that really involve us missionaries.

Getting home from that was a nightmare, but before that we walked around town and did some things, (family, you'll enjoy!!!)   Getting taxi (or the liberian way 'getting car') is always a fight, and I mean almost a legit fight. So what we do so we don’t have to fight, we give someone about 15LD and they get a car for us!  Hahah   We still stood there for about 45 minutes to an hour....  and we didn’t actually get a car, we got a motorbike that has been modified to have 4 people sit in the back,  kinda like something you'd see taking people around in the city, like the ones where the guy rides the bike with a seat in the back.   There was room for 4 but this is LIB, we got 6 in there!!!   It was the worst ride I've ever been on... oh well I got back safely.

This week was an historical week for the Monrovia Liberia Mission, and I think it’s an historical mark for any mission in the world.   We had more Member Presents lessons than Other lessons.  That means we had more members come teach with us in a single week than ever before.  (Other lessons are when there is no one there, just missionaries and the investigator).  The Total MPL was 395, the OL was 311.  That was just for one week!  Miracles are happening here in LIB.

I hope that everyone had a great week.
I love you all!

Elder Park
The White African
T.I.A.

I asked him why he was writing so much earlier, I used to get his emails around 8 am my time, but now they are coming in around 4 am, so I don’t get to send and receive any back and forth emails with him.  After he read the letter I sent to him he sent another one with answers to some of my questions.  My comp (who is South African, doesn’t have anyone to email)  likes to play football when I want to email,  so I give in and
have to email earlier.

I asked about the youth program in his branch.  The youth in my branch is small, only about 15 total.  They have one class that they all are a part off.  They sometimes use the new curriculum, but one thing people struggle with here is preparing lessons.   So often times the lessons aren’t the best.  Sometimes they do a lesson on an article from the Liahona though.  But still, not prepared.   The YW do the theme and whatever else they are supposed to, but none of them have it memorized.   Many members, all ages, are really good at being a Sunday Mormon.

No package yet, but I got one from Jennifer about 2 or 3 weeks ago, tell her thanks for me.  I got a letter from you on Friday,  thanks!!!   I also got one from the RS pres from Seattle Hill, tell her thank you.   Letters are never opened.   I think I've said that before.

Finding out they (Katie and Adam) moved was cool.  I hope that Adam will find the job he wants.   love you!