Mexico Pachuca - Week 60 - January 5, 2015

(Excerpts from his email)

I got changes so i am leaving (Xico) tomorrow and it has been like the hardest two days of my life. I seriously love it here. I love the people and it has been super hard to say goodbye. Haha i think it’s harder to leave here than it was for me to leave home. I am happy but super sad at the same time. It sucks a lot haha. 

M: The Lord said it wouldn't be easy, only worth it!

Well, I don't know how to take the fact that this may be harder, but I think I am beginning to understand.  You have found eternal friends in the people in Xico and you have brought an eternal perspective to their lives. You want to see that continue and you want to make sure that they stay on the right path, but that is not your job, you did your job in Xico.  That is part of the life of a missionary I guess. And maybe you were getting to comfortable so it is time to move on and go find others who are waiting for you.

EP: and like leaving home i always knew i would be coming back soon. That the mission was gonna be great and i would always be coming home. Here it’s a lot more iffy. Ya i know but aw man i almost cried a couple times today and yesterday haha

M: So what is it from your perspective that makes this so hard?

EP: haha idk just leaving everyone i have come to love. Like we went to visit a sister last night. And after she sent us this message. haha I’m gonna give you some Spanish homework.

hola se le va a extrañar mucho elder park que le vaya muy bien  que dios lo bendiga y espero que no nos olvide. echele muchas ganas y aproveche la oputunidad de estudiar ya que muchos no la tenemos. esa es una oportunidad que le esta dando dios. le deseo lo mejor del mundo que dios lo bendiga y a su familia. es una gran persona gracias por enseñarme lo que dios quiere para nosotros. le mando un abrazo. solo hasta hoy he conocido a tres personas que hablen de nuestro padre sin barreras sin miedo y con mucho amor. dentro de esas son ustedes 2 y usted me daba valor para ir a la iglesia y no sentirme rara pero nos deja :(

M: (Translation from a website Spanish Dictionary) Hi will you surprise much elder park that do very well may God bless you and I hope you remember us. take many want and explore the oputunidad of study since many don't have it. This is an opportunity that you are giving God. I wish you the best of the world that God bless you and your family. It is a great person thanks for teaching me what God wants for us. I send you a hug. only today I've met three people who speak of our father without barriers without fear and with much love. 2 you are inside those and you gave me value to go to church and not feel rare but leaves us :(

IS this the right translation, or the jest of it.

A gift: “you speak of the Father without barriers, without fear and with much love”, incredible!

EP: haha google translate doesn’t work so good. Ya its pretty much it. Ya it was crazy. Just a bunch of great stuff but hard at the same time. I am kinda like wondering what’s gonna happen now but i feel good (about transfers and missionary work). Like now i can really get to work. I know what to do and how to do it i just gotta do it. 

M: You have finally found your missionary mojo!  You have put aside your fears and doubts, trusted in the Lord and have found your place as a missionary.  Maybe that was why Xico was the place for you, to find Elder Park! and the people there who accepted you for what you are helped you to find that.  But like you said, now it is time to move forward and go do work! Like you know you can.  Don't get lazy or complacent, work hard no matter what and you will never look back on your mission and say I wish I had.

Can I have one more story from Xico for the blog, something great that happened or will happen?

EP: ya that’s what i was thinking. Xico has been so hard but i have learned so much and feel like i have grown so much. I will send you a copy of what i am writing to president:

Hola Presidente,

I am gonna write this one in English because there are just so many things i want to say. First of all thank you for everything you have done for me, taught me, and blessed me with so far in my mission. You always seem to write letters for exactly what is happening in my mission at just the right time. Thank you for this time you have given to me here in Xico. It has been a bitter sweet day for me. I feel like maybe it is the right time for me to go right now but at the same time xico has become a part of my heart. I feel like i am leaving a part of my soul here and I think it is harder for me to leave Xico than it was for me to leave home. When I first got here a lot of people talked about the other missionaries that were here and they come to Xico to learn a lesson and don’t leave until that lesson has been learned. I was thinking a lot about that and what is my lesson to learn. They would comment about the things that others needed to learn and I would reflect if I needed to learn the same or a similar lesson. I think I have finally learned my lesson here and I hope that i have truly learned it well. I feel like here I needed to overcome the pretextos and excuses. A lot of times I would tell myself don’t worry about everything so much you’re in xico. It’s a hard area and no one baptizes here or no one gets 40 lessons. If you get those things awesome but if not its normal. I lowered my own standards because of what others would tell me. Recently I have seen that the excuses will always be there. Maybe in some places more than in others but if we look for them they will always be there. It is up to us to go to work nothing more nothing less. I have seen that when we just get to work and work hard everyday. Don’t worry so much about numbers or about what people are saying is when results will come. We are super excited for this month in January not only in Xico but in the district. Unfortunately I won’t be here to see it but I feel like I have done my part. I have worked and left everything I have here in Xico and that’s why it’s so hard for me to leave, but I know the Lord has a plan for me. I was joking around with my companion and i told him I was gonna fast so that I wouldn’t have changes, but when i said my prayer to fast i just asked that what the Lord wanted for me would happen. That all our investigators would be blessed with the things they need whether it’s with me or someone else but that they will all receive the love and support they need.

M: its amazing son, you are growing up in front of my eyes and it is truly a blessing.  A beautiful lesson, excuses and doubts, always, always there, but like you said we have to push them aside and just do what the Lord asks.  I was reading 1 Nephi this morning, we are doing a challenge with aunty Summer BoM 365, everyday there is a reading and then a question of the day.  One of the questions was about having the faith and courage to do what the Lord asks.  I thought about Laman and Lemuel and the excuses and murmurings all the time, everywhere they went, there was an excuse: it’s to hard, to dangerous, crazy man, on and on.  We can choose to be Laman and Lemuel, or we can choose to be Nephi and Lehi.  When we truly and completely trust in the Lord, we know as Nephi proclaimed that He gives us nothing that we cannot handle.  HE loves us, knows us and wants us to be happy and succeed.  Good lesson, I am glad you learned it!

EP: ya i hope everything works out with everyone here. Here are some pictures from Xico.  The families there are maria del carmen and her two sons. and hermano Pedro and his family. ana is the one on my left who sent us the messages. but i gotta go i will talk to you guys in a week and let you know where i am and all that good stuff. love you guys.

  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Love,
Elder Park