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