Week 9: September 16, 2013

Well thanks for the pic of the temple it looks great! And wow the room looks amazing!!! But I am kind of disappointed that there are no more trucks and tractors on the wall. hahhahaha. Oh my golly I wish I could see a mountain right now. It is impossible to tell directions without mountains.

This is from another email. It’s being difficult today so bear with me. Thanks cuz I’m dying to buy a GPS, there is no sense of coordination with these streets!!! They change into different ones and end and then start up again somewhere else its insane! Thanks! Don’t take the mountains for granted! They are so beautiful! I look at emails at a literary center down the street a ways. It’s not too far. We actually aren’t allowed to get on members computers I’m pretty sure. we do get on Facebook at the library however, well just my companion because he is district leader and has been trying it out, I’m pretty sure I’ll be allowed to get on later this week but idk for sure.

So yesterday one of our investigators had his baptismal interview and is going to get baptized this Saturday and then his son hopefully the Sunday after that. He is a great man and we are super excited! I can’t wait for my first baptism this Saturday! Elder Corbin is doing the baptism but I don’t care because all that matters is that he is being baptized. Seeing someone change their life is amazing, the people are truly inspiring.

a few days ago we were teaching and Elder Corbin opened his scriptures and started looking for something, I had no idea what but I just started looking through mine as well, I just thought of the scripture that says "wickedness never was happiness" and I honestly had no idea where it was and for some reason I just started looking in Alma 41 I have no idea why I just felt like I should look in that chapter. And then I got to verse 10 and read "No vayas a suponer, porque se ha hablado concerniente a la restauracíon, que serás restaurado del pecado a la felicidad. He aquí, te digo que la maldad nunca fue felcidad."  and I was just so happy because I had found it, my companion was looking in the index and I ask him what are you looking for and he said the one that says wickedness never was happiness and I just said I have it right here. It was so amazing to see how the spirit guided me to that scripture. I didn’t know where it was but the spirit did and it guided me there. As missionaries we are promised so many blessings and I got to be a witness of one of them! Well love y'all and miss ya. Elder Park 

 Week 8: September 9th 2013

Last Picture from Mexico

If we get a hurricane I know the lord will protect us, he wouldn’t let anything happen to us I’m pretty sure. If we got one we could do a ton of service too!  Well I never knew how expensive stamps were until I went to go buy some the other day, I sent y'all a letter and hope yall like it! Thank you for all that because we are pretty limited on time so writing is going to be much easier. hahaha im excited to see what the next tie will look like! did you not see a picture of my district leader in the ugly tie in Mexico? I’ll get one of me and my district leader who is also my companion in it. no you don’t need to send one I found one in the apartment from a dead missionary ( which is just a missionary that finished his mission and went home but we call them dead missionaries hahaha). My companion said they will leave packages at our door so they won’t be out by the road. we have a car and because my companion is the district leader and we are Spanish speaking we have quite a few miles but we try to ride bikes whenever we can to save miles because even with all those miles we need to go pretty far to church and to investigators houses. Everyone is too far to walk to so we ride or drive. Thanks for calling the bank and for paying my tithing. Thank you for getting all that stuff for me! It means a lot! ya it was really weird when I opened it and there was only one shoe, I was a little confused. I got the left one if that matters haha.

Elder Corbin, Nic's companion and district leader

Nic outside the Raleigh Temple

well it’s been a while since I have been able to type out everything that has happened and it’s so hard to remember all the things but I have a few of them written down, the feelings aren’t as fresh but that’s okay. To start off my new companions name is Elder Corbin. He is from Cali and he is absolutely insane hahaha he is also the district leader of my district. He always makes funny faces in pictures so y'all will probably see some of his craziness. When I first got here I knew no one (obviously) but even if the people didn’t know me they let us in for dinner. Pretty much everywhere we go they will offer us food. They are so incredibly nice here and giving. Even though they may not have much, most of them live in trailer parks but they are still so giving. They like to have fun with me because I know little Spanish. One hermana calls me bebecito. Which means little baby. It’s really fun to talk with them though; they are so nice and love to joke. The first week I was here there was this birthday party we went to in fort Bragg. That place is HUGE! It amazes me how big that place is. Look it up on Google maps or something and you'll see what I’m talking about. A few days later there was this cultural night that our branch had. It was so great! There were a lot of different people there from a lot of different countries. And the food was sooo good!! I had the best burrito I have ever eaten in my life and it was just this plain burrito. There was so much food too. What’s really surprising is that I’m not getting fat from all this food. I think I’m actually losing weight. It’s probably because Elder Corbin makes me go running with him every morning before our workouts. And the food is not deep fried and stuff like that. It’s pretty much rice and chicken for the most part. It is so beautiful here! There are so many trees it’s so insane!! Everything is green and it’s just so great, it do however miss those amazing Utah mountains. I want to see a mountain so bad and it’s only been 2 weeks haha. The first week was a definite long one. I had probably 10 million problems with my bike. But I didn’t let that get me down. I kept positive and slowly those things have gotten better. I can see that if I have a positive attitude that everything is so much different. The work here is going absolutely great!! The first week I was here there was a confirmation of a person who got baptized the week before. Later in the day there was a wedding, so that these people could get baptized. There are a few people who are going to get baptized in the next few weeks and we have a few investigators that I feel like will get baptized if we continue teaching them. The lord truly is hastening his work! It is so amazing out here teaching people. I can feel the spirit so strong as I talk to people and teach them. And it brings me so much happiness when I see that they are accepting our messages and are making changes in their lives. This past week I got to go to the temple in Raleigh. I LOVE temples! They are so beautiful, all in their own ways. It was nice that they spoke English there too, because in Mexico they don't. So it was nice to be able to understand people again. The Spanish is coming along really good still. I’m learning so much more now that I have a fluent companion. Well I love and miss all y'all!