August 26, 2013

What a week.. Where to start...

On Tuesday I had to give an instruction for the district.  Since
we have one set of missionaries opening a new area I talked about how
to find people, more specifically, to find those that are prepared for
us.  Finding those people starts with us.  We as missionaries need to
be prepared mentally, spiritually and physically.  If we can do this,
we can find those people that are ready for the gospel.  We can have
the members gain trust in is so they can help us find those prepared
people.  The district I’m in has 6 missionaries including me.  We are all
working in the same branch too.  It’s going to be a lot of fun, but a lot
of work too.

As a district leader I have to have a district meeting every Tuesday,
i have to organize the baptisms, send in weekly numbers, make sure
there are no problems within the district, and if there are any, solve them.  I
have to make sure the apartment has everything it needs.  Basically I
am the mother of the apartment, I take care of everything...  Mothers, I
love you all.

On Wednesday I went to a “train the trainers” training.  It was to help
me be prepared to train my new companion who I received on Friday.
Elder Baldwin is from Idaho Falls, Idaho.  He is fresh out of high
school.  He loves to work hard so these two transfers are going to go
by super fast!!  He is going to be an amazing missionary.  He is willing
to try and do anything.  The first day he was here we had a lady give
us some fu-fu, you don’t chew this meal, you swallow it.   He dug
right it.  He has eaten a chicken foot also.  Elder Baldwin will
eat/try anything that is thrown his way.  I know that we will get along just fine.

Sunday was an adventure. I don’t really want to share what happened,
but just pray for the people here in LIB, and specifically here in
Thinker Village.  (He shared what happened, in a separate email, with a member who had a medical emergency, not info for the blog, but I wanted to share enough to let you know Collin is ok because when I read this line I started to worry). 
I know that my Savior lives.  I know that our Heavenly Father lives
and answers my prayers and He will answer yours.  Pray with faith,
nothing wavering.

I love you all

Elder Park

Here is a picture of the missionaries in the Liberia Monrovia Mission.  The picture was taken on July 2nd and was posted on the Liberia Mission Blog:

Collin is on the back row, 4th from the left, looks like he has a white tie on.  His new mission president and his wife on the front row, Sister Kirkham is in teal and President Kirkham has a red tiw on and is sitting next to his wife.

August 19, 2013

This week was.....  wow.

Lets start at the beginning.  I went on exchange with Elder Kouao.  Those two days went by super fast.  Nothing too crazy happened there.  I met a couple cool people and spent a lot of money.  Elder Kouao likes to eat.

Thursday evening I was planning with my normal companion and we get a phone call from our Zone Leaders.  I will tell you what they said later.  Saturday we had baptisms, we had to travel to a nearby building because our generator wasn’t working so we couldn’t pump water for the font.   We made it there in good time and everything went really smoothly.  We were able to have 2 people baptized, Mercy Tarkpor and her younger sister Marthaline.  Teaching them was fun because they always had small children with them. 

Our Sunday was good.  Since it was the 3rd Sunday, we all gave small talks, basically we just bore our testimonies.  It was a really good service.  Some of our branch leaders got a little emotional too.  It’s really rare to see male Africans get emotional, they feel it’s a sign of weakness, I don’t understand it.

After we went to the branch president’s house we had a delicious meal of LIB style spaghetti, potato salad, and really good chicken.  President Harris takes care of us. 

Okay- here’s the transfer news:  Elder Tolar and Elder Bell are staying the same. Two more missionaries are moving into the branch and opening a new area.  I am staying in Tinker Village and I am receiving a missionary from the MTC as a companion.  I have no idea who he is, or where he's from.  AND I am now the new district leader for Tinker Village.  This transfer is going to test me beyond belief!!! 

This week will be interesting for me.  I have to be in a threesome, split an area, go to a leadership training meeting, prepare a district meeting, and receive a new companion.  Well, here we go!!

I love you all and pray for you all

Elder Park

The White African

T.I.A.

And in a second email:

I GOT 3 PACKAGES!!!!!!

What a glorious day that was.  I got the one with the side bag (shoulder bag) and pants and 2 more packages with garments, they are sooooooooo white!!!!!  Elder Marondera loves the shirt and says thank you (Collin requested a new dry-fit shirt for playing and working out on pdays, I sent one for his companion who was from Zimbabwe).   Thanks for the socks also. 

So, it has taken quite awhile for packages to get to Collin - one of the packages he got I sent in March!   This picture and description was on the Liberia Mission Blog:

 

 

 

On Wednesday as I walked into the office I was greeted by 2 Royal Liberian Mail employee's asking me why I had not been to pick up our packages. I told them that Brother Sayon went 2-3 times a week. They then gave me a bag of 22 packages for missionaries! They informed me that they could not store them and that we needed to pick them up more often. When Brother Sayon got to the office he said that he had gotten a call saying that there were packages for the missionaries. On Thursday he went to the post office to see what had happened. He was given another 22 packages!!! These were packages from June, July and August. Some of them had been eaten into by rats and mice and others were fine. There was one package that was so badly eaten we had to open (what was left of the box) and transfer the contents into another box. The only thing that had been eaten (besides the box) was a whole package of Twizzlers - we have discriminating rats at the post office!

 

Here is another picture from the blog.  New washing machines for the Elders!

 

 

August 12, 2013

These weeks are going by way too fast.

This was a pretty good week.  Although we didn’t set history like we did last week, it was still really good. 

I went on exchange with Elder Tolar on Friday.  He is a good missionary, he's been out just over 5 months but knows so much!  It was actually a lot of fun teaching with him.  We had a lot of lessons and a lot of them were powerful lessons too. 

Speaking of powerful lessons, we met one man called Richard.  We met him on Tuesday and taught him about the Restoration of the gospel and about Joseph Smith.  We returned on Saturday and only talked about the Book of Mormon.  Towards the end we both felt inspired to extend a baptismal day, so we did.  He excepted right away.  Most people do, but with Richard it felt different.  Some people just say yes because they know they have to be baptized but don’t understand that it has be by the priesthood power.  I honestly feel like he understood that.  He also came to church on Sunday.  Richard is a great, smart, educated man and I know that this gospel is going to bless him.  All throughout the week we were having lessons that were just powerful. 

The other day my companion and I had a disagreement on something and it started the day off the wrong way.  We taught a couple people and I am so thankful for the Spirit.  We were not teaching together but we eventually became friends again and taught a lot better today.  The spirit works miracles on people we teach and for us as missionaries.

Our branch leaders really help us missionaries.  We had dinner at the branch president’s house last night and we all walked away with at least 2 study manuals about the bible.  He just willingly gave them away.  He probably lost about $150 worth of books.  President Harris is one of the best people I know here in LIB.

 

This week was way too fast for me to remember anything else that happened, but it was a good week!!

 

I love you all and pray for you all.

Elder Park

The White African

T.I.A.

In an extra email the same morning:

My companion is sick today.  I gave him a blessing this morning.  Something with his stomach, so most likely not typhoid, it kept him up all night too.  He's feeling a lot better now but still hasn’t eaten anything.

 

 

August 5, 2013

These weeks are going by way to fast... 

This week was a history setting week for me and my companion and our area.  To start, we had a TON of lessons this week.  We were literally teaching lessons all day long, every day, not a whole lot of bounces either.  This week we had more lessons than I have ever taught in my area.   We have never really had a lot of members come with us to teach, but Friday and Saturday Joseph Kumeh said he'll come with us.  It was a good experience for him.  His family has been in the church for over 20 years, so he knows the principals we teach, but he just needs to learn how to teach.  It was one thing that I struggled with for a long time when I first got here. but I worked and I got better.  It’s the same with Joseph.  We are getting him a Preach My Gospel book so he will be able to learn more. 

Young men who haven’t gone on a mission and are reading this: GO AROUND WITH THE MISSIONARIES!!!!!!

Since the new mission was created not much has changed.   We found out that the branch that I am serving in,  they are trying to make this one of the first wards.  We have been assigned one of the mission counselors to meet with the branch every week and do training.  This will be a good thing for everyone.  I feel like we can do it,  just that we need some help and motivation to do it. 

Yesterday (Sunday) we had a man walk into the church and sit down.  None of recognized him, so I went and talked with him.  He's actually our neighbor and had heard a lot of things about our church.  From what he said, he doesn’t like to believe things people say unless he sees it, so he decided to come and see.  When Sacrament meeting was almost over he leans over to me and says that everything that he has seen and heard thus far, was all good and that he was really impressed.  We took his information and will be sitting with him this week.  People like that don’t always happen to come our way but when they do it’s always fun! 

 

In my apartment we have several things that we do every week.  On P-day (preparation day), we wash and clean like usual.  Washing by hand sucks!  Go hug your washing machine. Drying takes all day and into the night.  Go hug your dryer.  Once the clothes are washed and the apartment is clean,  we eat.  Every  Monday and only Monday we boil eggs and eat boiled egg sandwiches.  It may not seem like a whole lot but it’s always fun for us.  The little things mean so much. 

LIB is too sweet.  I love it here.  Tinker Village is an amazing branch.  Home away from home.

I love all my friends and family at home and around the world.

Elder Park

The White African

T.I.A.

 

From an extra email the same morning:

I still haven’t gotten a package since late April.  Letters are never opened.

Transfers come probably on the 18^th, lots of people will move.  Some areas will be white washed (meaning that the missionaries who know the area will be moved, so the new ones won’t know anyone or about anyone).  That’s next to impossible to deal with here because there are no addresses and not everyone has phones.  It'll be very interesting.

As far as changing, I have changed physically and in all the other typical ways a missionary changes.  I am back to where I was physically at the beginning of senior year.  I have been working out every morning, even today I have done about 160 pushups along with sits ups of every kind.  Tell Derek I’m coming for him!!!!

July 29, 2013

This was an awesome week.

It was Liberia's Independence Day on Friday.  That was a wonderful day for missionaries, not because of how many lessons we taught, we taught very few people that day, but because of the amount of food we ate.  I had 4 different people invite us over for food.  i have never eaten so much rice in my entire life!!!  I also never felt like throwing us so bad either.  The food was amazing!!!!  Just WAY too much of it!!

We had a baptismal service on Saturday.  Saturday was a long day for all of us.  We woke up before 6 to start pumping water for the font that we have at our building, but the generator had no fuel.   So we went to the well and hauled it for about an hour and a half.  Hauling water really sucks when you have to fight away mosquitoes and you're half asleep.  (for some reason I was just sleep deprived this week.  Hopefully I will be able to catch up later today).  We eventually got enough water to baptize people.  We then had a normal Saturday.

I got a hair cut this week.  Since my clippers died a couple months ago I have to find a Liberian to cut my hair.  They are far and few between.  Not many can cut white man hair, but the way they cut hair here is by using a comb and razor.  It’s actually really interesting.  Every missionary has to have one bad hair cut on their mission.  I am bound to have several.  This one I have now is actually really good, not exactly what I wanted but it works. 

On Mondays after emailing, me and Elder Tolar go and play basketball.  Playing with Liberians gets rid of stress and frustration but they get way too physical.  For me, I like to be physical when playing, but so do Liberians.  It sometimes gets a little out of hand, but it’s always fun.  I wish I was better at shooting and dribbling and, well just better at basketball in general. 

Today we are celebrating my companion's one year mark by taking him to town and going to a BBQ restaurant.  It should be a lot of fun. 

This was a crazy one, but I still love being a missionary. 

I love you all and miss you all. 

Elder Park

The White African

T.I.A. 

 

I got lucky again and was online when he was.  Here are some notes from the short emails we sent back and forth:

Hauling water sucks, but sometimes we have to do it.  We had one baptism,  William Smith.

Independence Day (from America):  Liberia was colonized by freed slaves so they brought back American names.  They call people with American names the Congos.   Liberia has only had non Congo presidents in it’s history, since 1870 something.  Independence Day was very calm.  Just a lot of music and dancing and drinking.  We were inside when it really started to change to that.  No violence here.  No fireworks due to the war.   I asked him if people there like America, he said:  Some love America more than I do, and some want to send us home because they don’t. 

He said the tall Liberians play basketball and the short ones play soccer, but everyone can play soccer.  What they call baseball is just kickball, and only the women play it. 

I asked him what he was reading right now:  I’m trying to finish the Book of Mormon again by the end of this transfer.  I have about 20/21 days left.

A friend of Collin’s asked if Collin had been sick, and I told his friend that Collin probably wouldn’t tell me if he had been sick.  So I asked him about it.  He said he hadn’t been sick, and that I was probably right, he wouldn’t tell me.

July 22, 2013

This week was an interesting one, never had a completely normal day. 

Tuesday I had to give instruction at our district meeting, good thing I remembered about it.... Monday night... but missionary work makes me good at winging it, then we had to go to interviews for the other elders in my district that evening.  Wednesday we had interviews for ourselves and had to wait for the Zone Leaders to come for that.   Thursday, haha, funny story.  Since it’s the rainy season and someone wanted our boots more than us, we have gotten really good at long jumping.  Sometimes there is a bridge that we walk across like a tight rope.  Thus far I hadn’t fallen, but Thursday wasn’t my day... the 'bridge' moved while I was walking across and I went about thigh deep into NASTY!!!! water.  I spoiled a Book of Mormon that I was carrying.  We went back to the apartment for me to change and grab another Book of Mormon.  Other than that it was a normal day.  Friday my companion had leadership training so I got to sleep outside.  For some reason I was sleep deprived all week.  Oh well.  Saturday we woke up early, cleaned out the baptismal font and started filling it.  Albert Bondeo was baptized.  This man was hard to see but very interested in the gospel.  Sunday, Bondeo and Salven were confirmed.  It’s always good when people show up to church early.

Sunday was missionary Sunday.  I gave a talk on obedience to the Lord’s commandments.  Obedience to ALL of them ALL the time.  Hopefully it was good.  I was then asked to teach Adult Sunday School.  i taught on D+C 101-105, having about 2 minutes to prepare, and never reading those sections before, I can say without a doubt, the lesson sucked.  i couldn’t wing that one...

My week was an interesting one to say the least.  This one will be the same.  Friday is LIB's Independence Day.  No small celebration will be happening. 

To answer some questions:  people make money by buying things and then selling them for about 5 dollars more, by making things by hand.  Many people walk about selling things that they have in a bucket on their head or with a wheel barrow.  The way we buy our food is we all put in $20 USD and go buy a big bag of rice, canned goods, onions, pepe and oil.   We get most of it at the market, which crazier than anything that I have seen before.  i would take a picture but then people would definitely know that I have money.  I hate walking around with a lot of money.  There are shops that we can get lapas, fabric worn as skirts. Mom, don’t worry, I'll be bringing a lot home.  Nothing has an address or a name, you just walk around till you find what you're looking for.  That goes for the whole country of Liberia. 

School here is hard for most people.  Often times people don’t graduate high school till about 21 or so, mostly because they can’t afford the school fees.  I don’t know how much that is.  The schools are small, only about 100 students, but they are all over the place.  It’s so different.

They have a lot of American hip hop/rap music, but the actual West African music is mostly what they call 'Azonto'.  It’s actually really cool, and when they hear it and aren’t doing much they will dance azonto.  Really cool!!!!

I swear the kids here are born with a 'football' ball (soccer) with them.  They mostly play that, but some of the older guys play basketball but don’t know how to truly play because no one has taught them the rules.  It’s interesting to play against them.

Hopefully that answers a few questions.  I love you all!

Elder Park

The White African

T.I.A.

I was online when his email came.  I was able to ask him a couple things, here are some of the answers.

Someone came and stole 4 pairs of our boots.  Another missionary apartment got broken into twice in a 3 day span while they were sleeping.  No one was hurt, no one found out until morning.  When I asked him more about this he said:  Remind me never to tell you about things like that again.  Hmmmm, that was not really an answer.

I asked him if he needed a western union sent.  He said:  I went to a western union with another Elder, holy cow it’s crazy.  People are trying to get your money.  Just send $20 with letters.  Letters are never opened but packages usually are.