Mexico Pachuca - Week 50 - October 27, 2014

(Excerpts from his email)

i got some cool stories. so this Tuesday we started the morning super weird. we had a couple of appointments but no one was home. so first we go and visit a family but they weren’t home but i saw their neighbor washing clothes. i saw here when we walked in the gate of the house and i don’t know why but i just thought i should talk to her. so when we found out they weren’t home we went and asked her if she knew them and blah blah blah. after we talked to her for a little we find out she walks past the church almost every day. her kid goes to school close and an aunty has a shop over there too. she said sometimes she wondered what we did and once there was an activity and she wanted to go but felt uncomfortable. it was cool to talk to her and hopefully she can progress. then after cause all the appointments fell through we went with another family an hour earlier than we planned. turns out the mom is going to live in Tulancingo, like 2 hours from here, to work and we got there right before she wanted to leave. it was perfect timing and i really felt like we were guided by the spirit that morning. we had a cool talk with her and it was weird. when i was talking with her i felt something that i don’t normally feel with other people. like how we were talking about special spirits and what not i don’t know she has something special. we were talking about that and she said once in the temple a temple worker came up to her and said she had a special spirit and had many things that the lord needed her to do. it was super cool.

     

M: Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways.  We have all our plans and think we are good and ready to go and then, nothing goes right, except everything goes the way He intends it to go!  That's when you know He is guiding your work and that He is preparing people to hear your message.  From the one woman, who already is showing an interest, you may have two or more investigators.  That's pretty cool, aren't you glad you listened to the spirit and that other things fell through?!?! 

How is Edu?

EP: he’s awesome. haha he stopped drinking coffee and he’s just awesome. were talking with his parents but his dad is kinda like whatever but his mom also seems ready. we need to talk to them more but she is really cool. haha Edu said we have to go to his house and teach him how to direct music so he can direct in the primary program in December. he and desire the girl we just baptized might be the music leaders

M: How are things with your companion?

EP: We’re good. He’s a little different but no problems haha. We’re gonna have another activity this Friday and i want to make malasadas. gotta go so i will talk to you in a week love you guys

Love,
Elder Park

Mexico Pachuca - Week 49 - October 20,2015

Mexico Pachuca Letter #49 – October  20, 2014

(Excerpts from his email)

well i got my new companion, elder piña from ciudad Juarez Chihuahua. He’s awesome. he is straight from the mtc so i am his “daddy” haha. It’s a lot of responsibility but he’s a great missionary definitely came out way more prepared than me so i don’t really have to train him much. we are doing good and having some success right now.  I really like working with him and he’s just a great guy.

um story for the week. so we are supposed to talk on the buses and talk to people but i usually didn’t do it cause i always got super nervous and what not but now that i gotta give be the example to a new elder and everything i was like ok i really gotta do it now.  so we get on the bus and i tell him ok elder the person that sits next to us were gonna contact them. so of course no one wants to sit next to the weird missionaries in shirt and tie so no one sits there until there are no more seats left but finally someone sits there. we are going on the bus and we are going to start talking but then 3 dudes get on and start playing music and singing and I’m just like no way this sucks there’s no way i am gonna hear them or they are gonna hear me. but anyways my companion starts talking to me about the music and what kind it is and all that stuff and i have no idea so he asks the lady sitting next to us. she answers and then we start talking, where are you form blah blah blah and then i use that to start talking about the gospel and what we do as missionaries. Everything goes good and then i ask if we can visit them and they say yes and start explaining where they live. turns out they live upstairs from the family that had the birthday parties a couple weeks ago. i have seen the lady a couple of times walk in and go upstairs to her house but never thought anything of it just said hi and what not. i was like wow that’s crazy. missionaries have been visiting this family for months probably years and they never went upstairs. well we went during the week and talked to the mom of the family and she is awesome. She’s super nice and was like ya if after all this time you guys are coming and talked to us on the bus i think its for something. We were just like ya i think god has put us here to talk to you and share this message right now in your life. it was a super cool experience and we are going to visit them today at 6 to have a real first lesson

   

D: Your lady on the bus story reminded me that there are no such things as coincidences.  Heavenly Father put you and her on that bus because she is ready.  We watched Meet the Mormons on Saturday and the last lady "the Missionary Mom" said the same thing as part of her conversion story.

M: That's a great story son and falls right in line with what Sis. Yim was saying about the Lord preparing people to hear the gospel.  And though the family was there all the time, now was the right time to share the gospel with them. Best of luck to you as you teach them.

So where exactly is your companion from, I don't think I have ever heard of that place. Is it in Mexico? How is he better prepared? Are you responsible to teach him English?

EP: he’s from Juarez, Chihuahua. ya its in Mexico in the north like bordering the states. He just knows a lot about missionary work about the lessons and everything. he worked a lot with the elders in his ward so he just knows a lot of the stuff that we have to do. yes i am helping him with his English. but he understands well he just needs a little help with the pronunciation. 

M: So how are your other investigators, Edu, the sisters, grandma and grandson?

Edu and the Elders

EP: Edu is good we talked to his mom and she’s awesome so were hoping. grandson came to church this week. he’s got a baptismal date for November 1 but is still a little unsure. the sisters same old same old haha. we got a couple named Rosendo y Minerva. they’ve come to church two weeks in a row and like it so they are doing good too. defiantly got work just gatta make sure they work out good haha.

Tell everyone to send me stuff for my wall haha

Elder Park's wall in front of his desk

 M: What kind of stuff? just pictures. we can have the kids draw if you like?

EP: ya or like quotes or whatever things from home. family pictures. anything to make my wall cooler haha. i also got my flag hanging in the window. but i will talk to you guys in a week love you guys.

Love,
Elder Park
 

Pictures from the Bonfire FHE

 

Mexico Pachuca - Week 48 - October 13, 2014

(Excerpts from his email)

I’m doing good. my comp has changes so tomorrow i will have a new companion but i am staying in Xico. I saw the movie preview (Meet the Mormons) on lds.org and i want to see it too, probably cause its a church movie and we can only watch those in the mission but it looks interesting. A bunch of people keep asking if i am going to come back one day cause changes are coming up and i always say yes and that you want to come too. They are all like oh cool bring your mom and blah blah blah. One family said they will make you all the normal Mexican food from here. I told them you guys gotta learn Spanish too. Tell Ty he has a year to learn Spanish and i will bring him to Mexico haha.

M: Yes, we would love to go, I am not sure when, but we will talk about it. Uncle Shon really wants to go, so we will see. Learning Spanish, I am not sure about that, we would need to get the Rosetta Stone series and see what happens! How come you are on early again and are you coming back later or is this it for today?

EP: yes i also would love to come back it was funny yesterday, we talked to Edu’s parents about his baptism and they were kind of like its a little soon i don’t want him to get baptized and then get bored and not want to go cause its not a game and all that which i totally understand. so i told him if his parents don’t let him get baptized before i leave he has to go to church for a whole year and then i will come back and baptize him haha.
ya you just finished your classes so now you can start studying Spanish haha.
we are gonna go play soccer with some members for my comps last day here. 

M: I agree with Edu's parents, are they interested in learning the gospel? I don't know about going back in a year, but we will see. So excited about a new companion, or not so much?

EP: they said they have a religion but are always willing to listen so i am defiantly planning on talking to them and hopefully getting the whole family in the chapel. yes and no haha. excited but nervous as always. its good and bad haha we will see what happens.

M: I think you will find the greatest success if you can teach the entire family. I think recently for me, it has become more and more evident that family is what is most important and that the Lord gave us families to help each other through life. When they make that commitment together, that's when miracles happen! So explain the yes and no about the changes.

EP: defiantly were gonna go play basketball with Edu and his dad today so that should help us open doors too. yeah we’ve been talking about families a lot too here and family is definitely the most important. when you got a good happy family everything else just goes so much better. 
i mean changes i think are good for me now. i have been a little less patient and i think i might need changes but i still love my companion. not easy but he’s a great guy and there’s always the who knows who’s gonna be your new companion thing so we will see what happens haha

M: Wow, playing basketball again, that must be something you look forward to doing.
Yes, changes are always a bag of mixed emotions. Just remember, learn from each, take the good and move forward.
Are you happy to be staying in Xico? Sounds like there is still some work for you to do there, but it also sounds like the members have again connected with you in some way.

EP: um kinda haha basketball is so different here its not as fun haha.
yes definitely happy to be here in Xico. Definitely work to do and a lot of things i hope to do better. yes idk its weird here and in Tepa i have just had a great relationship with most of the members. This week we had our family home evening, we just made a bon fire shared a gave a short message about the family and then we played charades and ate hot dogs and marshmallows. it was super cool. like 30 people came and we just really had a good time. it was a little difficult to get the fire started but we got it going and it stayed going for the whole activity it was cool.
i will talk to you in a week with a new companion i will tell you how it all goes haha love you guys.

Love,
Elder Park

Mexico Pachuca - Week 47 - October 6, 2014

(Excerpts from his email)

Conference was great. The talks were all super cool and i also think i will learn them better when i can read them. I got the box and the card, thank everyone for me. Um this week was pretty mellow. Focusing a lot on conference and inviting people but pretty much no one showed up. its a Little frustrating sometimes because we invite so many people, and like usually, the people tell us no or maybe or stuff like that but the people here are like ya I’ll be there and they don’t show up. It’s like why do you tell me yes and then don’t go but we have one super bright spot haha. It’s a boy named Edu. He is awesome. His cousins are members well 2 of them and he loves coming to church with us. We go and pick him up every Friday and he stays at his cousin’s house all weekend to go to church with us. He asked his aunty to make him dress pants and a White shirt to go to church and i let him borrow one of my ties this week. He is reading his book of Mormon and he’s only 10 years old. We will see what happens but he’s awesome and we need it cause right now we don’t have much other investigators that are progressing so well.

M: Your thoughts remind me of that picture that was in the Kitashima house, the picture of the Savior and the quote "I never said it would be easy only worth it." Sometimes, often times, it's not easy, like Elder Scot said, we need to have challenges in our lives to help us grow and learn. This is your growing time, maybe time to step out of your comfort zone, which has grown quite a bit, and try new things, be more vocal maybe, I don't know. But, Edu does sound like your "worth it" part and I am sure that there are others, maybe not moving as quickly as you would like, but that's okay, we all need to do things at our own pace and in our own time, or more so the Lord's time. Your job is to keep pushing forward and sharing your testimony with them.

What happened to the grandma and the boy? What about the two sisters who had birthdays?

EP: grandma and the boy are ok. The mom of the boy just had a baby so they’ve been pretty busy with all that. It’s understandable just a Little more difficult haha. The two sisters that had birthday are the cousins of Edu. I am hoping Edu can help them also be a little more excited about everything but we will see.

M: Well son, all I can say is that you are there for a reason and the Lord will guide and direct you if you let Him. Dad was saying and I agree with him, you have grown so much in the way that you handle things. In the beginning of your mission, we could sense a greater sense of frustration and maybe even a sense of wanting to give up, now, you handle these set backs and frustrations with more determination and an attitude of we just gotta work harder.

EP: ya i hope i have grown and changed in the last year haha. I am doing good. I feel like i am learning and growing a lot. What you said about trials and stuff like that made me think a lot about my patriarchal blessing. My mission wont be easy, there will be trials, but the trials will help me to grow and will be for my good. Just like one of the conference talks i don’t remember really well which one but there were two. One was a lot of times we have goals and then we do everything against reaching those goals. We have goals to go on a mission, to get married, to do all these things but the little decisions we make take us farther away from our goals. And the other one was like i had my patriarchal blessing and i was doing a lot of good things. I had a job family serving in the church but a friend asked me a question that changed my life. He asked me if i continued living my life like this would i receive all the blessing from my patriarchal blessing. Idk a lot of good talks from conference just wish more people came this weekend from the ward to listen haha.

M: So you are good son?

EP: yes i am good. I love the people. There are great people here. Obviously maybe not the best success right now but there’s a lot of things i can and need to do better too. I am doing good and will be working hard. It’s crazy we think we are not doing so well in the mission in general but were doing ok. As a zone we only had 8 baptisms last month but we had the second most in the mission. And we out here in Xico had one. It’s hard to not compare yourselves with others but its natural i have been trying not too. Like i heard a lot of, “ this is a hard area, there aren’t many baptisms, blah blah blah” and it’s like oh hey i got one I’m good but no, there’s a lot more work to be done.

M: I agree, just because they say it's a hard area and you already have one baptism, there is still work for you there and you are right to say I will go and do work till the Lord says it's time to move. We are proud of you son! I am overjoyed that you are happy and good. It brings me greater comfort; the Lord is good to us. He asks only a little of us and so we must go and do as best we can.

EP: haha ya thanks, I gotta go, the hour and a half is up so i will talk to you guys in a week. Love you guys

Love,
Elder Park