Mexico Pachuca - Week 63 - January 26, 2015

(Excerpts from his email)

hey mom a suite at the Aulani that’s ridiculous. sounds good. track sounds fun i would like to see that, but in a little. i feel kinda the same as you mom. getting used to all the new: new area, new companion, new assignment, new everything but things are starting to get going and i feel really good about where i am in the mission as of right now. tomorrow we got interviews with president and I’m pretty excited for that. 

M: Yes, sometimes new is good, most times it depends on how you look at it.  Sometimes, often times, new is hard, not bad, just hard, but the rewards are usually pretty good.

So why are you excited about interviews with President tomorrow?

EP: i don’t know talking to president is usually pretty cool. he says something cool every time haha. and i just feel good about where i am in the mission. i feel like i know what to do and how to do it well and i finally can do things how i should haha. 

M: Its like going into a performance review knowing that you are at the top of your game and the outcome should be really good.  I get it. so what's going on with you in your area, how are the investigators coming along?

EP: ya feeling pretty good. we got 3 investigators right now pretty good. gonna have an awesome valentines day this year haha. we got 3 with baptismal dates for February 14. Abigail just has to get married and she probably will this week. Gibran is the brother of a member and he’s awesome. and Blanca Estela came to church for the first time this Sunday.  

M: I'm excited for your investigators.  Did you all raise the money you needed? Is that for Abigail?  How old are these people, young like the ones in Xico. Can you tell me more about each one?

EP: we haven’t raised the money yet but we will see what happens. ya its for Abigail. Abigail is like 22ish i think i don’t know. her future husband is a member who was inactive but they are awesome. they are gonna have a kid and want to raise him or her in the church. Gibran is also like 25. his brother Alan is a member and he just started asking about the church cause Alan was talking to him about it. Alan completely changed his life so Gibran wants to have the same kind of changes. Blanca is like 50ish. she has a lot of family problems and one night we were walking down the street and she was sitting on the curb alone. i said hi and kept walking but then i was like no i gotta talk to her. so we went back and talked to her. she was waiting for her family cause she didn’t have keys and was just lonely. we ended up talking for almost an hour and she came to church yesterday. She’s super cool and excited about the gospel. we also got the Mendoza family. the parents, 2 daughters and a son. they are super cool but don’t want to get baptized. we had a super awesome lesson with them Saturday night. Sunday they couldn’t come to church but the mom just told me, elder we can’t go today but i got my answer and were gonna keep going in the church. give me this week and next week we will be there and later we will talk about baptism. i don’t know what happened what answer she got but it was awesome. and the son was like ya i work some Sundays but I’m gonna go talk to the lady i help and tell her i cant work Sundays cause i gotta go to church. so they received a crazy answer. we talk to them tomorrow. i am excited to see what happened

M: That is amazing son.  Each one has a different story and yet all the same in that they are searching for something.  Loneliness, direction, family, all can be addressed through the gospel.  Interesting that this set of investigators are all pretty much older: young adults or older where as in Xico, they were youth.  Maybe you had to learn how to be a missionary with the young ones so that you would be prepared for the older ones and their families, more adult situations and stuff.  I too am curious about the family and the answer that came.  Is this the family that has been taking lessons from the missionaries for a while now?

Do you have a story for me?

EP: ya the same family. ya i got a story. so last week i was watching videos on lds.org to be obedient haha. and i found one just by accident that was elder Anderson talking. the talk is called you know enough. i saw the video and immediately thought about the Mendoza family. last Sunday we had a kind of brutal lesson. my companion planched (grilled) them pretty hard and i just felt really bad. i saw the video and immediately thought of them. we had a lesson with them Wednesday so i fasted Tuesday to Wednesday for them and they weren’t there. we went Wednesday Thursday and Friday and every time they weren’t there. i was like no they don’t wana see us they feel bad or something and i was jut like no no no. we got there Saturday night with a member and see the mom walking away from her house and I’m just like no this can’t be happening. we talk to her and she’s like no i will be back in like 10 minutes but you can go wait there my family is there. i was like ok that’s cool. we go and she takes like an hour. I’m like no way its super late were gonna have like half an hour and its gonna suck haha. but she finally gets there and we start. we read the talk and start talking and the spirit is just like super strong. the mom and the oldest daughter start crying, the dad who usually doesn’t want anything to do with us opens up and it was awesome. but they have big economic problems and they were like we can’t go to church cause we gotta work and we can’t right now cause we don’t even have anything to eat. i don’t know what happened but i just told them if you go to church, if you get baptized, and if you do what we tell you you will always have what you need for your family. the Lord will always provide for you and you will find the answers to every single one of your problems in the church. then the brother that came with us is a counselor in the bishopric and he was like, “if you pray as a family right now when we leave you will receive an answer. i don’t know what’s gonna happen but you are gonna know what to do.” and Sunday morning they told us they received their answer. it was super cool and the spirit was just super strong. 

ok love you, gotta go, talk to you in a week. have a great week.

Love,
Elder Park