January 20, 2015

He didn’t write a letter today, he confirmed some of the details for tomorrow, he wants to go to the temple and to Café Rio!  We can do that!

He did write:

i woke up this morning and it was just weird...

I get picked up at 2 to go to the office, and then I don't know what happens.

I'm getting off!!   See you tomorrow!

He did include a couple of pictures of Kameron on her baptism day from a couple weeks ago.

January 13, 2015

Well this week wasn’t so good.   Not a whole to write about.

We are working with a Less Active Family, the Lavae's.   They are so fun, we always have really good conversations with them.  The son, the only son in the family, is awesome, he was in my last area and always joins in.   Since Elder Farnsworth got to this area, he's been here for 3 transfers now, they haven’t been to church, but on Sunday, they came to church!  The amount of excitement Elder Farnwsorth and I had was through the roof.   We were so happy!

In SLC the smog is terrible.   There are some nights I think I’m going to die.  Most days I couldn’t even see the mountains it’s that bad.   So to avoid having lung cancer, we are walking!   I missed walking ever since I got here.  I’m so happy to be doing it again.

Yesterday sucked....  it was a good ol' Washington type day.  It was just raining, and yes we were still walking.   We talked to a couple people but they weren’t too fond of talking to the missionaries..  it was interesting.

Well not much to say about this week.

Elder Park
The White African.... in Utah  

January 6. 2014

New years as a missionary is not very exciting.  I forgot how it was from last year.  Last year I actually woke up and heard people celebrating it, but that’s only because I was awake, because I was sweating to death in my bunk bed with a net over me in Gardnersville.  Here in SLC, nothing.  I was dead to the world and never woke up that night.  I went to bed at 10:30, and didn’t really move till 6:30 the next morning.

This week we had a baptism for Kameron Hamm!!!  It was great.  A lot of her extended family came from southern Utah and Nevada, a lot of them were not members of the church, and it was awesome, it put a little bit of pressure on me since I was in charge of time filling while my companion was changing.   This is sometimes very interesting, you never know who is going to be there.  So this time I just talked about the reason behind us missionaries always inviting people to be baptized, even with people being baptized prior in a different church.  So I focused on how Christ walked to the Jordan River to John the Baptist.  I talked about how John the Baptist had the Priesthood and if we are not baptized by the Priesthood, Heaven Father won’t and can’t recognize it.  When we are baptized by the Priesthood, it is recorded in heaven.  As any other missionary would do, I tied that back to how the Priesthood was lost and then Restored a long time later by the Prophet Joseph Smith.  I felt like I did a decent job and I was hoping I answered some questions for some of the non members that were there.

Elder Farnsworth baptized Kameron, but she asked me to confirm her on Sunday.  I definitely love being able to do that.  I was thinking about it after the confirmation, I helped her gain one of the best gifts on earth which allowed her to be on the strait and narrow path toward heaven.  I played a huge part in her life.  It sunk in that I have done that for a lot of people and it was shocking, being as missionary is the best and it’s coming close to the end...

I hope that everyone is having a great 2015 and is sticking to their goals!!

Elder Park
The White African.... in Utah

December 30, 2014

Well Christmas was good.  We ate a lot of food!   AND I was able to talk to my family!

Being this close to the end of my mission I really don’t know what else to talk about but I'll find something.

So it finally started to snow.  We did have a white Christmas and it is still very snowy, and it’s also very icy... I've only fallen a couple times...

Kameron is still looking good for her baptism on Saturday.  So we're all excited for that.  We are still struggling at the whole finding new investigators thing, it’s a little frustrating...

Christmas was good, but I ate too much...  we also got to sleep in!!  So happy, I needed that so much, it was great. I hope that everyone was able to take a second and think about the true meaning of Christmas sometime during the day.  I know I  did and I am thankful for being able to celebrate the birth of my Savior.

On Saturday I went on exchange with Elder Lyon who is the District Leader.  He is so funny.  He has a mini ping pong table so we played that for the whole night it was a lot of fun.

My week was a little boring, but the work goes on!!    

Elder Park
The White African.... in Utah

They built a fire in a fire pit with the sticks, he said it was fun

December 24, 2014

So it will be a short letter today, sorry! 

We went to Temple Square on Thursday with Kameron and Blake.  It was really good, we focused on how families can be together forever and did the little section there that was amazing.  It was really good, both of them want to be with their families forever and want to go in the Temple. AWESOME!!!  we also stayed long enough to see the lights!  It was really fun to see them.  It was my first time being there with the lights on and I loved it!!   They also both came to church on Sunday.

Elder Farnsworth and I taught their Sunday School class. It was great it was all about out missionary work and their normal teacher asked to so we said of course.  It was really good. By far one of the best Sunday School lessons I've taught.  

Tuesday we had a mission Conference. It was fun.  We had a not so talented talent show.  There was some good laughs there. 

This morning we had Elder L Whitney Clayton of the Seventy came to speak to us. It was really good.  He is an awesome guy and a great teacher.  I learned a lot about the Star that appeared at the birth of the Savior.  I wish I was as smart as him.  It was great.

Have a wonderful Christmas!!!!

Elder Park

The White African.... in Utah

He was spotted at Walmart!

Collin is below the "M" and "I" in "Mission" on the back row.

December 16. 2014

Well not much happened this week besides the fact that I moved to an new apartment to finish my mission in.  Elder Farnsworth has been here for about 2 transfers so this is his 3rd transfer here and 3rd in the mission field.  He's from St Louis.  He's pretty great.

Last night we re-did our room!  We had just normal beds but we wanted bunk beds to have more room, so we found one!  It was great we had so much fun putting it up, and now we have more room to do stuff in the room.  Our apartment was a one room plus a bathroom, so we needed some extra room.  We haven’t really told any of the mission leaders, so I we don’t know how that’s gonna go down, but we do have the old bed frames just in case!  It’s fun!

Last Tuesday I went and saw the Hezeltines!!  I was so happy that they were home!  It was fun to talk to them and catch up a little bit.   Yes we did do the LIB handshake!!  I love it and miss it too.  I teach it to almost all my new companions.

My new area is very small!!  I really don’t see the need for a bike.  It’s so small.  I cover the Whitewood Ward, Stonewood Ward and the Bennion Heights Ward in the Bennion West Stake. There are no apartments here either... so life is a little tough.

I hope all of you have seen the new Video that the church has put out! "He's the Gift"!!!

Have a great week!!!

Elder Park
The White African.... In Utah

I see the photographer in the bathroom mirror   :)

A little like home?!

December 9, 2014

The week was good!

We had a small miracle happen on Friday!  It was fantastic!  So, Chris Goeckeritz is a very busy man and very hard to get in touch with, he also lives really far away.  So, we knew that he got off work roughly around 4pm, so we planned to get there at 4:30.  Our plans before that fell through, so we went there early at 4.  He wasn’t there, as we thought, so we sat on a bench because we didn’t want to miss him coming home.  I had a reeses in my pocket, (thank you office couple!)  I didn’t even have time to eat it and he came around the corner!  Holy smokes!  We caught him at home for the only 5 minutes he was going to be there.  It was amazing because he was going to be baptized the next day.

Saturday was a good day for us. Chris Lord and Chris Goeckeritz were baptized on Saturday.  They are both in the Cottonwood ward so we had a double baptismal service for them.  It was fantastic, the Spirit was amazing. Chris Goeckeirtz gave us a scary thought.  We called him at 6:15, the service was starting at 6:30, he said he was on his way.  So, at 6:25 he still wasn’t there.  So we started to worry.  We kept calling him, but no answer.  At about 6:45 our Ward Mission Leader said 'let us pray.'  About 10 minutes passed after that and we were on the verge of going to his house to see what was going on, but at 7 he finally got there. He had worked late and had a hard time getting there.   I was so happy he finally made it.  He was so sorry that he was late, but he is glad that he made it.  The confirmations for both of them were done very smoothly. Chris Goeckeritz affirmed to us he was on his way to the church at 8:30 on Sunday morning.

So, we got our transfer news last night, unfortunately I’m moving... I’m not very happy about it.  I’m moving to the Bennion West Stake.  I really don’t know anything about the area but I’m going to be with Elder Farnsworth.  I don’t much about him so I can’t say anymore!

We got some fish ties for a Recent Convert in our area. It was pretty funny!

I hope everyone has seen the 'He is the Gift' video!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-00-1460-he-is-the-gift?lang=eng

Elder Park
The White African... in Utah

Baptism day with Chris G

Baptism day with Chris L

Elder Elliott's last day on mission.  

He was one of the three that came to serve in SLC from Liberia.

With Elder Franca from Brazil

With Elder Brogan

With Elder Paau

With Sister Blaisure

With Sister Taupau

Basketball on Pday, December 9, 2014

December 2, 2014

 Wow it’s already December...

 Well we thought we were going to have a little better week than we did, but it was still fantastic!!! We had to say good bye to Dakota on Monday, she went back to Elko, NV and she has met with the missionaries so that makes me happy! Last week we didn’t get much of a Pday because we had to talk to an investigator that lives about 30 minutes away on a bike. Best part was, it was mostly uphill..... but, we had success! He was there!

 On Saturday it was pay day! We have been working with Antonio for about 2 months and Saturday he was baptized. I was so happy. I never really have been this excited for someone to get baptized. That probably sounds a little bad, but it’s true. I guess it’s because I worked for so long with him and answered so many questions. I loved working with him. He was really excited too. He got in contact with the missionaries by calling the number on the back of a pass along card and talked to a sister at Temple Square. The sister he talked to kept in contact with him ever since then and was able to come down for his baptism. It was really cool! Also, the sisters that took us on our Temple Square tour came! So that was really cool!!! It was just a fantastic day.

 Also, on that Saturday Chris Goeckritz and Chris Lord were interviewed and passed. It was a great day to be a missionary. So, this coming Saturday we have two baptisms. It’s gonna be another great day!

 At Antonio's baptism a set of sisters that are in our district brought a family that they are working with and we shared a message about our relationship with our Father in Heaven while he was getting changed and it really helped them from what the sisters told us. I am so thankful for how the Spirit works. They told us they wanted us to say something about our relationship with heavenly Father, which was completely different than what we were going to say, so we were totally winging it! On Sunday Antonio was confirmed. The Spirit was super strong.

 Also, a set of sisters asked if we had a sacrament meeting that started at 2:50, which we did. They said great we're coming! I was a little confused, but they brought two new investigators with them for us!! Fiston and John are from the Congo! They are so cool! We taught them that night and Elder Dahkle said I started to talk a little funny, my LIB english is coming back!!!

 Thanksgiving was great! We went to the Gibbs home, Rebecca Gibb is the lady in charge of the mingles for one of our wards. So, she volunteered to have us over for Thanksgiving. Man, it was fantastic! We had a little deep fried turkey, WOW delicious!! home made stuffing, soft serve ice cream that I ate way too much of. It was a good turkey day!

 I hope everyone had a great week and took a moment on thanksgiving to find out what you were thankful for, and said a quick prayer saying 'thank you'.

 Elder Park
The White African... in Utah

 the photo from last Thursdays "Beat The President" Fun Run.

November 25, 2014

What a week,

This week was very busy for us.  We sat with Antonio on Monday and the sole purpose was to get him to see the need of a Prophet.  We were able to do that, we didn’t go into modern prophets on Monday because that’s what we wanted to accomplish on Wednesday.  We were able to help him also believe in Modern Prophets.  In his words, "it makes sense, It’s gotta be true!"  It was awesome!  He passed his interview on Friday afternoon.  That’s the happiest I've ever seen someone after they passed their interview.

Chris Lord is doing great too.  His baptism is on the 6th of Dec.  This man is the most sincere man I have ever met.  He has been having some challenges this past week but has been battling them.  I remember when I was little and playing baseball, Dad always made us do the ABC's, D is what Chris has, “Desire.”  He truly wants to change his life and he is thinking about sending missionaries to his family who are out of state.  He is just awesome.

Chris Goeckeritz is the hardest working 26 year old man.  It’s super hard to see him, but we find time! and he is going to baptized with Chris Lord on the 6th.

We picked up a new investigator on Thursday!  His name is also Chris... so many Chris'.   He's got a lot on his plate also and is working through things, and we are doing our best to help him.  I’m super excited to work with him.   We had a lesson yesterday and it was fantastic.  This man is truly prepared for this Gospel.  It’s weird though, he has lived in UT his whole life and is now just taking the lessons for real.  He has talked with missionaries many times but never let them come to his home.

The week was pretty busy, but a lot of fun.  The coming weeks are going to be fun also!.

Elder Park
The White African... in Utah  

Extra emails:  So I got a package from grandma yesterday, made me laugh! (I think she just put his address on a box of rice krispies and mailed it.  She always gave him rice krispies after his ball games). It’s so funny, my companion laughed too.

We are staying pretty busy and that’s every missionary’s dream: to stay busy
The work is paying off. We had our last transfer with no baptism and this transfer they are coming. (A transfer is a 6 week period, sometimes with a transfer happening at the end when one of the missionaries is relocated)   I love this work!!

I love you!
I have to go!

Elder Park

November 18, 2014

What a week!

The beginning of the week was a little boring, but Wednesday was good, but very cold!!   It was my 21st birthday!!   I’m legal!  hahah  A member took us to lunch at a little French restaurant which was actually really good.  Then it was full of lessons the rest of the day.  We saw Dakota (more on her in a second!), Ariane, and then Antonio.

A miracle happened on Wednesday!!   We grabbed a member as we were going to Ariane, and then all of a sudden, a lady yells Elders!!   So we went and talked to her.  She was a member visiting another member who didn’t speak any english but needed a blessing, so we helped her with that.   What was really cool and amazing was just before they called us over, they had prayed for help from our Father in Heaven and then they saw us.  It was amazing to see how the hand of the Lord works in our lives.

That night a member (who works at a bakery) brought me a cake!!  It was so cool!!  It had Boston Red Sox stuff on it and Packer and Seahawks as well!  It was so good and we are still struggling to finish it!!

On Friday we spent the day at the Temple (Jordan River)!!  A couple weeks ago, the mission said that when have someone get baptized within two weeks we can go to the Temple with them.  So we took Jani!!  It was so much fun to watch her do that.. even though we aren’t allowed to do any of the ordinances, we were able to watch and be there for her.  It was really cool to see someone do that for the first time!

Dakota Maes was baptized and confirmed this weekend. She is staying with her grandma for a couple months and was OYMed by the Zone Leaders and then passed off to us (“OYM” is a program called “Open Your Mouth” which encourages you to talk to people and share a message  http://mormonmission.blogspot.com/.../oym-open-your-mouth...)   Dakota’s mother grew up in the church but was never baptized. Dakota and her mother have been reading the Book of Mormon over the phone for the past several weeks. She is originally from Elko Nevada. Her mother drove all Saturday morning and made it for the baptism on Saturday.  It was awesome to meet her. Dakota is going to return to Elko in a few weeks and will help in getting her mother back into the church again.

 We have a couple people that we are working with towards baptism!   So, we are super excited for the coming weeks!  It’s really fun to be a missionary right now.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Park

Happy 21st Birthday!

The Seahawk logo must be on the other side?!

His favorite Sprecher rootbeer.   Mom dropped some off for him in August, did he save it?  or did he find more?  

nice thought - he came from Liberia to Salt Lake, not from Libya, but it made Collin laugh

and last, but not least:

Dakota was baptized

November 11, 2014

That was a good week.  So much to talk about.

We took Antonio (preparing for the 22nd) to Temple Square along with Dakota (preparing for the 15th!!!!). It was a great time.  We focused on Prophets and then finished at the Christus.  It was great, the Spirit was strong.  We have been working with Antonio for a while and he has said he'll get baptized but he wouldn’t set a date. We invited him several times while we were there for the Nov 22nd  After I said one of the more “bolder” things, he finally accepted.  What I said to him was that he already knew the church was true, and that he just needed to take a step of faith and not to hold back. Then he accepted!  I was so happy that night.

On Saturday we had a pass over lesson with the Sandy YSA sisters in the south mission. We got Chris who was already on date for the 22nd this month.  This guy is so smart. He is already in 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon.  The best part is that he remembers the stories.  He even quoted a couple D and C sections too, it was awesome, I’m excited to work with him.

On Sunday we had dinner with Bishop Summerhayes who has been working with an Investigator that we've meet, but he didn’t want to meet with missionaries yet. So, Bishop was helping him along and still trying to have him become comfortable enough to meet with us. This past Sunday he finally accepted the invitation to have us come.  We had a fantastic lesson with him on Sunday. The Spirit was strong.  Elder Dahlke did a fantastic job on teaching about the Book of Mormon and as I was listening, the strongest prompting of "just invite him."  I’ve been working hard to heed to the promptings, and I’m so glad I did.  He is now preparing for Dec 6th.

This week was just so amazing.  It was fantastic. I have again renewed my testimony that Heaven Father does indeed hear and answer our prayers.

We are working really hard even with Elder Dahlke's broken arm.  He is still able to ride a bike, but we just don’t go as fast as we normally do.  It makes things interesting though. There some really good laughs sometimes.

It’s really fun to be a missionary right now.   We are staying really busy, which is awesome!!

Busy missionary= happy missionary.

Sweet is the work!
Elder Park
The White African... in Utah

PS. Happy Birthday Derek!!

November 4, 2014

What a week!!  Friday and Saturday were the best though!

So I got Elder Dahlke on Wednesday.  he's from Tennessee, he lives close to Nashville.  He has been out for about 3 months and he is already accepted into BYU when he gets back and after that he’s going to go into the Air Force to be some type of  physicist.   So the guy is smart!

Wednesday was also a very interesting day because we didn’t ride our bikes.  On Monday last week, Elder Dahlke got in to a bike accident and riding a bike was making his arm hurt a lot so we walked.  I haven’t walked that much since LIB.   We got a text from President that asked if we were walking, we said yes and then we had to call him... let’s just say we rode a bike the next day.

Friday we went to the Doctor’s, finally.  Elder Dahlke is now in a cast half way to his shoulder...  so biking is still a little interesting with him.  He fractured the radial head in his arm.  It’s really funny.  He can’t button his top button so I have to do that for him.   And he can’t tie is tie, so I do that also!   Hahaha, he just looks away in shame.

But that night was AWESOME!!!  We got to go to the Jordan River Temple!!   It was just what I needed.  I love going there and it’s been a long time since going.   The amount of peace I felt there was amazing.   It was also really nice to get away from  the world for a little while.

Saturday!  Saturday was awesome!  Jani N. was baptized!!!  Before the service she was very scared.   Her parents and grandparents were coming and they weren’t completely thrilled with this decision of hers.  So she was just very scared and nervous about all of it.  I understand why though.   The baptism went really smoothly and the Spirit was so strong.   It literally felt like you could cut it with a knife.    While she was changing Elder Dahlke and I did a little message.   We showed a video called "Lifting Burdens."  It talks about how we can draw strength from the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  I know that the Atonement can change lives.   (here is a link to that video:   https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-10-38-lifting-burdens?lang=eng)

Sunday was a crazy busy day.   We were running from meeting to meeting.   It was really fun though.  Once church was all done we had a good dinner and then had another 2 lessons that night.  Being a missionary is so much fun.   You are constantly busy.   So much fun!!!

This work is so rewarding.   We see how the Gospel of Christ can change people.  We are teaching a girl from Elko Nevada and she going to be baptized hopefully next weekend!!

I hope all of you are having a great thanksgiving month!!   I challenge you all to think of some of the blessings that you receive daily,  and then to thank our Father in Heaven for them.

Elder Park
The White African.... in Utah

 Who would have thought Collin would see it snow on his mission?

 This is Jani on her baptism day with Collin and Elder Dahlke

October 28, 2014
This was probably the best week I have had since getting here to the States.

We were so busy all week.  We were running around so much.  It was a lot of fun.  We had 13 lessons on the week.  Jani is progressing so nicely, she had her interview on Saturday and is being baptized on saturday!! I’m so excited for her!  This Friday, Halloween, we are going to the temple, so it’s going to be an awesome two days.
A lot happened this week so hopefully i will be able to remember all of it.  OH!!!  I met a guy from Ghana!!  I’m teaching him, I’m so excited.  He is so cool.   He's been here in Utah for about two years and got here because of winning DV (lottery that the US does to bring people here to states and get green cards).  He's super open to listening to us, but he's just super busy.

We made a better effort at setting return appointments. Elder hale and I had a great week.  We were always coming back to the appointment, so exhausted, so fun.   We would fall asleep so fast it was wonderful.

So we got a call last night.  Elder Hale is leaving me.  He is going to the Taylorsville South Stake.  I am staying in the YSA and I am getting Elder Dahlke who is from Tennessee.  So I don’t know how its gonna play out. I don’t know him too well, so I'll update you next week.

This week was awesome, but it was just full of teaching, so it’s hard to write about.  Sorry it’s so short.

I love you all.

Elder Park
the White African... in Utah

I asked for a picture of him with the quilt, this is what I got. 

This was breakfast on their P Day

October 21, 2014

This week was a struggle...

It was the week of continuously being cancelled on... it was really frustrating, so this letter is probably going to be short.   We did have a couple great lesson with Jani who is going to be baptized on Nov 1.  She is so cool, we met her in September and as of Saturday she was reading in Alma 5.  How awesome is that???  She's been to church about 4 times now.  I'm super excited for her.

We are teaching Brendon still and last night we had a lesson that was AWESOME!  We watched the Restoration video with him, and then talked about how it has helped us in our life.  We had Trevor there who is an RM who served in Mexico, having him there made all the difference.  We came to find out what Brendon’s concern was, what was bothering him and making him hesitant in making covenants with our Father in Heaven.  Now we know where to go, it was just a great lesson.  He is starting to pray about the Book of Mormon which is awesome!! and he committed to pray to know if Joseph Smith is a true Prophet.  I’m excited to continue working with him.

Last week I went on exchange with Elder Soelberg.  He's from Oregon and was going to school at BYU-H. How cool is that? He's still in his first transfer but doesn’t really seem like it, he's very mature and very smart.  He's going to be an amazing Elder.

On Wednesday we had Elder Clarke from the Seventy come.  He's like 3rd in command when it comes to missionary work.  Pres. Monson, Elder Nelson, then him, hahah.  He's super funny.  It was fun to watch him give President Moffat a hard time.  He talked about a lot of things.  Towards the end he said something that stood out to me that is very scary to think about,  he said in the next 5 years, a 1/4 of you missionaries will become Less Active.  That is just so sad for me to think about.  How can someone who is teaching people this gospel and seeing the change it brings to people’s lives fall away?  It doesn’t make sense to me.  I can’t begin to explain how much I have grown on my mission.   The things that I have learned, gained, the people I've met, I’m not willing to throw that all away.  I know that this church is true, I love it.  the Book of Mormon is the word of God, it is true!!

Elder Park
The White African... in Utah

He took a picture of his bed with the quilt I made him

October 13, 2014

This week was pretty good.   We are slowly teaching more and more.

We have a couple people we are working with.  Jani is awesome!!!  She is preparing for the 25th of Oct to be baptized.  There is still a couple things that we have to work with her on, but I’m sure she'll be  good to go.  She is already in reading in Mosiah and we have only been teaching her about 3 weeks now. so that’s AWESOME!!
!
Antonio, we met through the Sisters, he is sweet too.  There are just a couple things that are holding him back, but he's awesome.  He's been to church a couple times already, so now it’s just time to work and teach him a little bit and he's good to go!

The whole week was pretty good, we had at least one lesson everyday so that made me happy, but the high light lesson was on Saturday.  We got to take Jani with us to Temple Square!!!  I've been there so many times before, but this time was just different.   It was really cool to walk around and have the sisters there do the teaching, and the tour was awesome.   It was so cool being there. The Spirit was super strong there also.

On Sunday Elder Hale and I gave talks in the Parkway Ward.  We also showed up a couple minutes late too.   We had a meeting at the Cottonwood building which is about 10 miles away, and it started at 8:15 and church in the Parkway Ward started at 9, so we were racing to get back.   It was a fun.  I think I was all over the place with the talk and saying 'um' a lot, but everyone said we did good, and I didn’t see too many people sleeping so that’s good right?

I hope you all had a great week

Elder Park
The White African... in Utah

Salt Lake Temple

Elder Park and Elder Hale

Granny's house

Elder Park, Elder LaMont and Elder???

Collin and LaMont previoulsy served in Liberia, Elder ??? was previously serving in Sierra Leone, so these are all West African Missionaries.  (I wish Elder Elliott had been in this picture, he was the fourth West African mission reassigned to Salt Lake, he was serving in Liberia too)

October 7, 2014

What a weekend did we have??  That was awesome!

This was the first General Conference I watched on my mission, but the funny part of it is, that it was also the last one I will watch as a missionary.   It was really nice actually hearing the leaders of the church speak.  Ever since returning to the states and realizing that I was able to see it, I’ve been so excited and it was totally worth it.

For those who might be reading this and don’t know what General Conference is, here is a link:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/?cid=HP14GC&lang=eng

We have General Conference twice a year, there are 4 regular sessions, 1 session specifically for the women of the church, and 1 session specifically for the men.   Our church leaders give talks on a wide variety of topics that provide inspiration and direction for members of the church, music is provided by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other choirs.  The Conference takes place in Salt Lake City but it is broadcast to many of our church buildings, is available on cable tv and over the internet.  We look forward to it every time.  These Conference sessions replace our regular church meetings that weekend.   The link above links you to all of the talks so that you can watch, listen or print them.

The best part of it is on Wednesday when we were having interviews with President Moffat, I told him that I have haven’t seen a General Conference since 2012, he paused, then handed me two Priesthood session tickets!!!!!  I literally couldn’t think of anything else.  I was so happy!!!  It was a great day.

All the talks were FANTASTIC!!  I really liked the Saturday morning session there were a lot of great talks. but all of them really awesome!!

This week was pretty good too, we are starting to have some good lessons.  We had one with Jani and we had it at the Bishop’s house.  After that he took us to lunch haha.  It was a great lesson about the Book of Mormon.  She even commited to being baptized which made our day!  Now it’s time to start working!!   after the lesson, the Bishop, who a return mission president, said that the way we explained the Book of Mormon was one of the best, if not the best he's seen from a missionary.   I was actually really surprised he said that because I thought we were all over the place, but that made me feel good.

We had a little scary moment Saturday morning with Granny (The missionaries live in the apartment in the basement of Granny’s house).   She had fallen and couldn’t get up, so she got her cane and started banging on the floor hoping that we were still there.   We heard it so we ran up the stairs and granny was so happy.   We decided after that that we would watch the afternoon conference session with her.   I love granny but just pray that she doesn’t hurt herself.

We are making some progress with some of our investigators.  The Spirit is really starting to work hard over here.   Yesterday we, as a zone, would stop at every hour and pray specifically to help someone that the missionaries were working with throughout the zone.  It was great because now, as a zone, we have 8 more people that are now preparing for baptism.  The Lord works in mysterious ways!

I hope that everyone enjoyed conference, I know I did!!

Elder Park
The White African... in Utah

September 30, 2014

So how did it reach October already???

This week was pretty busy and I feel like we were working pretty hard but the numbers didn’t show.  Good thing it’s not all about the numbers.  We had some really good lessons with people though.

We are working with a guy that has been less active for about 7 years and he is just so excited about coming back to church, I really like working with him. He's also really excited to go to conference and feel the Spirit of the living Prophet.

We met with a recent convert, Brittany, who brought a non member friend to the lesson!!   I was so excited.  We had a great lesson with Jani about the Restoration.  There is still a couple things that she is a little hesitant towards, but that is not going to be a big issue.  I’m so excited to work with her and watch her grow in the gospel.

We have a couple other people we are working with and it’s been pretty fun.  We are slowly starting to teach more and more which is awesome.

OH i forgot.....  it POURED all day Saturday... we got soaked and so cold.  It was so weird, Thursday it was about 90 degrees, and now it is super cold...  I’m not too excited for this winter, but I know there is no way to avoid it.. not excited,   Give me dry season in LIB I beg!!!

When i got to the SLCCM (Salt Lake City Central Mission) I got a hand-me-down bike and something happened to the back wheel.  Yesterday a member had an extra wheel that he just gave to me!!  So happy that I didn’t have to spend money on the bike.  The members here are awesome.

Well sorry this is such a short letter, we are pretty busy today and not much happened.

Elder Park
The White African...in Utah

A lady who was at the Mission Office sent me this picture of Collin and Elder Hale

A friend dropped pizza off at their apartment

September 23, 3014

Well this week was pretty crazy.

Tuesday i moved to my new apartment.  I live in the basement of a very old widow.  She is turning 94 in December…  she makes us say goodnight to her every day, and she makes us call her Granny.   She is so funny, she is still totally there, remembering everything that happens.  I was laughing the other day, she was watching a show on FDR and she told us that the year she got married was the year FDR passed away.  She remembers everything!!!  Also, she is a champ!  She still manages a garden, every day at about 9, we hear her walking around and she is weeding the garden.   She is so cool!!

Tuesday was pretty much just a cleaning day for us…  The Elder that I replaced went home, so he left a lot of stuff...  I mean a lot!!!  Most of it was food, and it was killing me to be throwing food away.  After living in LIB, I have a new sense of 'if I’m not gonna eat it, I don’t buy it.'  The previous Elder didn’t have that...  he was a great missionary, but just left a lot of wasted food.

It’s taking me a little while to figure out the area, only because it is so big!!   I cover 3 wards in the YSA stake.  so my area is pretty much the city of Murray and then some.   So I was lost most of the week.  Thank goodness Elder Hale knows quite a bit of the area.   Being on bikes does save some time, yesterday we went from 900 east and 4800 south to State and 6100 south in about 8 minutes going through a construction site...  i'd say we made pretty good time!

On Sunday church was canceled,  but that was because of the Ogden Temple Re-dedication.  (They broadcasted the meeting to the Stake Center buildings in the Salt Lake area)   It was so cool be around to do that.  There were three different sessions of it, and I went to the one at 1pm.  I missed out on hearing President Monson speak, but I got to hear Holland and Eyring, it was so cool!!!!!!!  i love listening to them speak.  Holland said something that really stood out to me.  It was about when he was in the area presidency in England, his son went through the temple for the first time, but he wasn’t able to go,  his wife got to go.   He said I really didn’t do much to prepare him, i just taught a couple FHE's and that was about it.  That’s usually how the fathers are with preparing sons for temple covenants and missions.  Mothers are the ones that prepare them.  That stood out to me so much.   Thank you mom for everything, and dad, thank you too buddy :)

On my mission i have met many people from around the world.  On Monday I was on exchange with an Elder from Brasil.  This guy is so funny.   I learned a lot from him.   It was somewhat of a long day but  that’s just because we were in my area and I really didn’t know anyone, and where anything was, so that was a little tough.   It was a good day though

My week was good.  It went by really fast too.

Elder Park

The White African... in Utah

I asked him more about his apartment and his new companion who is from Ephrata, Washington.  He said: 

"I really do like my new apartment, the carpet is a little weird, it also makes it a lot warmer, so that’s nice.  My comp has been out about 7 weeks so he's green.  I’m still working with him on things.  My comp is really funny and has a little bit of short man syndrome, so it’s great!  hahaha

I got a couple of texts from Utah phone numbers with pictures, taken by people who were feeding them, I think.   Big Thank you to those who feed my son!

This came on Sunday, September 15th

His companion was still Elder Franco

This came on Sunday, September 21st

This is his new companion, Elder Hale

September 15, 2014

Well this week was a busy one.

Wednesday we, as a mission, went to Ensign Peak.  It was really cool, the view is great too.  President Moffat also shared with us how the Saints did things when they first got to the valley and how Ensign Peak came about, it was actually really cool.  On the way there, I also saw the first Temple on my mission, besides the Ghana Accra Temple that I went to while still in the MTC.  I was so happy to finally see one!!

After going to Ensign Peak, we went to "This is the Place" State Park.  I remembered going to it a long time ago, but it was still really fun.   We had the whole park pretty much to ourselves.  The couple that is running the park is my mission president's wife's sister, hopefully that made sense.  The park brought in extra people to come and open some shops and things so that we could have a good time.  We also had some Native Americans come an do some dances for us.  It was really fun and really cool, but the entire time I was there, I was just thinking to myself, I never thought I would be doing this on my mission.  Of course I never thought I was going to be in Utah so I guess it comes with it.  It was a really fun day to kind of get a break from normal missionary work.

I had a couple lessons spread out during the week. so that was fun, not a whole of them though, so it was a little boring.  We had someone bounce us 3 different times so that was frustrating, but it was okay, we talked to her mother for about 30 minutes each time.  She's great!!

Saturday was the adult session of stake conference.  First stake conference of my mission!! Hahaha   It was great.  We watched Elder Ballards talk from Oct 2013 and then the stake presidency just started up a conversation about it.  It was really cool, great conversation too.  I encourage all to read that talk and reflect on it.  (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/put-your-trust-in-the-lord?lang=eng)   I think one of the best comments that was made was "it starts with us being prepared before the conversation happens.  We need to know enough about the church doctrine and beliefs to start a conversation with friends and teach them just a little to get them interested.  Then we can invite them to listen to the missionaries."  It was awesome!!!

The sunday session was also good.  Great talks about how to be a missionary with social media, and many other things.  We were supposed to get transfer news Sunday night, but for some reason they said wait... so we had a Zone Work out this morning, like we usually do throughout the week, but this is where we got the transfer news.

So ..... Elder Franco is going to the Taylorsville South Stake and will finish his mission there.  for me...

I will be going to the Murray YSA ward serving with Elder Hale who is from Ephrata Washington! i already know him and joke around with him all the time.  He is still in his training so I will finish it up.  I’m really bummed to leave my area, completely based on the members, the members in the 3rd, 8th, and 25th wards are amazing. I’m really excited to leave my apartment.  I won’t be so cold anymore!!!  hahaha

I hope everyone had a good week.  This week I am looking forward to see the Ogden Temple Re-Dedication on Sunday. it will be my first time doing this!!

Elder Park

The White African... In Utah

 Ensign Peak

(The side of Collin's head is almost visible, he was wearing sun glasses and he is standing  just at the base of the tower, on the right side, behind a blond girl, there is a sliver of his face showing

This is the Place State Park

Collin is standing in the middle of the balcony at the top of the stairs.

September 9. 2014

Well another week down.   This wasn’t a great week, but there were a few good things happen.

We had a couple lessons on Wednesday.  Esther is a woman who we met a long time ago and gave her a Book of Mormon, but never could catch her at home so it was really tough.   Tuesday and Wednesday we had lessons with her and they were great.   Tuesday we talked all about the book of Mormon with her and then gave her a Restoration pamphlet to read, we also gave her some places in the Book of Mormon to read.   Wednesday we show up, she had read all of it and there were no questions, she totally understood everything.   We didn’t really know what else to teach, so we basically just reviewed it with her to make sure she truly understood it, and she did.   It was great.
Thursday we had a lot of appointments cancel on us, so it made for a long day...  but we did see Sir Williams and read with him.   We also met with Aiden who is a recent convert of a couple months.   He’s a super smart 9 year old.   We had a great lesson with him on being obedient to the commandments, praying every day, and studying his scriptures.   He then asked us about Cain and Abel in Genesis... how smart is this kid???   That family is really fun too.

On Friday we had the Elders Quorum President help us out a little with a lesson with Sir Williams.   We wanted him to be able to feel and recognize the Spirit more, so we took him to the Vine Street Building to have the lesson.   It was a great lesson, the Spirit was really, really strong.   That night we had a lesson with Gina and when we got there she was angry with something or someone, but we decided to go on with the lesson and by the end of the lesson she was fine and happy.   It’s amazing what the Spirit can do during lessons.   We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a whole, it was good.

Saturday we went to a baptism with Sir.   Baptisms are very different here than back in LIB.   Here it was just for one person, in LIB, it could be for 5 or more people, but it was great.  the Spirit was there and im pretty sure Sir felt it.   The rest of the day was kind of boring, but our 'dinner appointment' or FM was with a native Mexican and we had homemade flour tortilla's that are AMAZING!!!!    We need to go and ask her to cook some more for us, hahaha.

Fast Sunday was really good, the testimonies that were born were great, not a whole lot of stories or “thankamonies.”  (On the first Sunday of every month we have “Fast Sunday.”   That means that you fast for 2 meals and then make an offering/donation that goes toward helping those who may need assistance.   In our Sunday meeting on that Sunday we also have the chance to bear testimony of our beliefs.  Sometimes people get a little sidetracked and give a “thankamony” thanking those who may have helped them lately.)   Every  Sunday I go to 2 wards for sacrament and all the testimonies were great.   In the 3rd ward, after the sacrament, we had a special musical number performed by the ... ward!!  Hahaha, the primary children sang two songs then the RS and EQ sang "As sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman" it was way good.  Some how, some one came up with blending two primary songs and that combined song together and it turned out great.  It was definitely the highlight of the week.

Monday was tough, but it was okay, good days will come.

I hope that everyone had a great week. GO HAWKS and COUGS!!!!  (Seattle Seahawks and BYU Cougars - just to be clear!)

Elder Park
The White African... in Utah

Extra:   I asked him if they got that storm that did so much damage with flooding that had hit Arizona.  He said “CRAZY STORM!!!  LIB is worse though.  It was fun to watch a little bit though.”

I also updated him on some ebola news coming out of Liberia, he said, ”makes me cry.”