August 11 2014

 its a spanish ward! its the only one in the mission and im sooooo excited to be here, there are just sooo man hispanics all over the place its sooo great. and we dont live 20 miles away from the church like in my past 2 areas. we only live like 2 miles away its great! Well the city isnt too big, well at least my area of it doesn't seem too big, but i dont cover downtown. to me its kinda like taylorsville population density. ya i can see that element to it, it definitely seems more homey in the city. oo ya you have to love that baptist flair to it haha well love you!Elder Park

August 4th 2014

getting wet

WELL THIS WEEK WAS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For most of my mission i have been out in the boonies with little spanish groups and stuff like that but just barely I got transferred to Raleigh and it is great! big city!!! its the only spanish ward we have in the mission and they members here are on fire, there are 4 sets of missionaries in this ward and we are all doing work!! well im follow up training so my new companion is Elder Harris he is from Idaho and when all the missionaries say where they are from and we all say utah, they say well thats where you all are from and he is like no im not! and people just say ahh its like the same thing. we were talking about it this morning and we established that idaho is just like utah just a ton more boring hahaha. He has no sense of direction hahaha the other day we were biking and we biked 5 miles in the wrong direction and i was like what in the world im going to kill you hahah. not to mention it was raining the whole time so we got super soaked. Its been raining all week here and now we share a car with some other elders and so last week we were on bikes the whole time so that was super fun! we were just getting so soaked and i just started whistling and just having so much fun! it has been a tough week because no one was answering the door and one lady called the cops on us but i just am having so much fun that i dont even care hahaha. I LOVE HARD WEEKS!  yesterday we were in a lesson and this man had so many questions and i was answering them all with scriptures and then when we got out i was like o man i do know spanish... and i know the scriptures a lot better than i think! it was a great experience. There are so many great people here and im so excited to work here, we are hoping to have 2 baptisms by the end of the month! we will see though because we have no idea who yet but we will just keep chugging along! i did get the card and the box so thank you so much well im cutting this one short so i can send pics!!! love y'all!

Elder Park

July 28th 2014

Yesterday there was a part-member family that had two of their kids blessed, their little baby girl and a toddler boy. We have been teaching the father and he has been coming to church pretty often so its going great with him.  Well the mom asked if we would be in on the blessings. That was a really neat experience that's the first time that I have been on a baby blessing, and a child blessing. Julian, the toddler is always so crazy and running around but during the blessing he was silent and didn't move at all it was crazy. Then right after he was back to himself haha. They had a party after at their house and we talked with quite a few people there, even handed out a Book of Mormon. it was really great! well i hope y'all have a really great week!

Elder Park

July 21 2014

well i wont know anything more than i told y'all about the transfer news until im in the transfer meeting next tuesday. The heat and the humidy are crazy!!!! this past week we decided that we were going to ride bikes only for a few days too so it was extra hot haha. it was nice though because my legs are looking pretty good hahaha

All the banana Peels after all the green smoothies

. aaah man that sounds like some pretty good meals.speaking of which this past week my companion and I decided that we were going to eat green smoothies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. it was a long week but we survived! We were so glad when we got member dinners because we said that when we are there we cant control what they feed us so those are free game so we would go soooo hard. yesterday we ate sooooo much we both felt like we were going to puke! I really love lasagna hahaha. we made it through the week though! well just going on the spot gets easier and easier, as long as you have a testimony of the gospel thats all you need. well have fun at scout camp!!! Well last night i woke up at 4 o clock and there was this light on that hadn't worked in the past 2 months and i was like what the heck!!! i checked the house to make sure no one was in it but i guess the light just decided to work all the sudden in scared me a little bit though for a bit haha i got this memory foam pad from some other elders to put on my bed like the one i had back home and it is sooooo nice! im definitely taking it with me when i go to my new area haha i dont care how much room it takes up. well i love y'all tons and hope you have a wonderful week! 

Elder Park and some members who just moved from Utah

This is called a torta soo good!

Nics last day at Pittsboro

Nic and his old companion have matching ties

July 14th 2014

ya this year just flew by. there are the times when i look back and think, there is no way that im halfway done 

Half way!

with my mission, then there are others where im like man i have been gone for a long time. thats okay about the letters. i wanted to ask you though if you got both the boxes i sent home. Well today we got a call from the Mission President and I'm finally getting transferred in 2 weeks! It's been 6 months since i have been here and im super excited but i will definitely miss this branch! the people are so great here! Im also a little sad because Elder Ashcroft and I have been getting along really well and we are only going to be companions for 6 weeks. When I get transferred I will be follow up training. So basically Im going to be with a greenie. We are thinking that im going to be going somewhere around Wilmington, so right by the beach, but we dont know for sure its all just speculation at this point. So if there are any letters that anyone is going to be sending in the after this week then send them through the mission home address in raleigh so that i get them at my new place. i'll still be in Pittsboro until the 28th.  sounds like you have quite a busy schedule.  aaaaaa man tilamuk cheese.... sooooo good hahaha.  well take some pics up there and send them to me!  i love you so much and hope you have a great week!

on that 4th ha ha MERICA!!!

June 30th 2014

 My new companion is great! we are having so much fun together! its been going really great! Im so glad to get a companion that I get along with again!!!!  Well missionary work is going great out here for me! We found 5 new investigators this past week! The district is really focusing on finding investigators because 2 areas opened and another area pretty much started fresh so we had 3 areas in the district without much work at the beginning but we are all finding and it is going great! Elder Ashcroft and I hardly have time to have dinners with members anymore because we are teaching so much. Most members live like 30 minutes away so to get there and back is like an hour of traveling and we just don't have the time for that which is awesome! we are just teaching, teaching, teaching! We have been finding a ton of spanish investigators now so pretty much like 80% of the work is in spanish, which is great. I have felt like my spanish was just not growing for the longest time but now we are doing a ton of spanish! In fact since my last companion left i have been helping translate for church. I just let him do it all because he was hispanic so he was just good at translating into spanish so he did all that but now ive been helping and at first i felt really scared but now im just like ah whatever ill do it. it is just going really great! so im doing really good! I hope y'all have an amazing weekend! tell everyone i say Hi and that I love them!!! Elder Park 

June 23 2014

things went great with transfers! I'm still here in Silar City and I'm with elder named elder Ashcroft. He was trained by my mission brother so funny thing is that even though im his mission uncle, he is District Leader and Senior Companion. He has been out six weeks longer than me, so its nice to not hear about home all the time and all this trunky stuff. its just work, work, work! he is from Logan. So so far I have had 5 baptisms. I have yet to baptize and find a family but i am trying my best to do that! I really want to be able to do that so that maybe one day I can go to the temple with them in the future and see them get sealed that would be the best! We are working with a lot of people right now and there are quite a few people with a lot of potential. Hopefully there will be a lot of success soon!  hahhahaa ooo i hear alll about the world cup. I already know sooo much about whats going on with every team and just about ever game that involves the us, germany, mexico, spain, italy, honduras, and a lot of others. its crazy how obsessed people are with it! im going for germany! I mean go US ya but after them its all germany! So this week was a little crazy, the other day I found a tick on my calf. that was a little scary. i got him out though so all is good. I have been having some stomach aches for the past few days but i think its just because im not drinking enough water in this heat so i will be sure to drink up a ton!!!! i love y'all and hope you have a wonderful week!  

Elder Park 

June 16th 2014

Ya that fathers video is amazing! the first time i watched it I almost teared up!. so is the garden already ready to start making salsa? i dont know how that would do in postage but if possible y'all should send me some hahaha. Well I still dont know who my companion is going to be, im going to be finding out tomorrow. Im pretty sure its going to be an elder named elder salinas but idk for sure. I know im staying here for another transfer.  well i hope that y'all had a great fathers day! a lot of people asked if we got to call home yesterday as well and we were like no we dont get to and they were just like man dads get jipt! I had a pretty good week, im excited to not have to hear about at every appointment we have about home. with elder sosa everyone would always ask and man it was just annoying and hard, but i wont have to hear about it anymore so im glad. well i love y'all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Park 

June 9 2014

awe man everyone is talking about boating! we were at a members house last night for dinner and he was sitting there talking about boating and snowmobiles and i was like ahhh come on your killiing me! it was just a big talk about home fest because elder sosa is going to be leaving next week so it was crazy, when i get my new companion I definitely wont miss that! hahaha i was sitting there and thinking about how thats the last thing we did as a family and awe man after that I was done for hahaha. Well i dont usually get on facebook from saturdays to mondays so i might be able to see the pics tomorrow.  Well this week was a really great week for us! we were super busy and it felt like we needed clones so we could get some help! We also got a lot of things set up for this week so it will be a good last week for him before he goes home. We found a lot of people that we are going to start teaching, as well as we are working with a lot of less active members and its just really great! With all the work we have done here in Silar City, they are going to need a branch here soon! it was a really good sunday yesterday! we had 4 investigators come to church and we also had a bunch of less active members come too, one lady that I have never seen at church came too! it was just really good, then after church we had one of the best correlations with the branch that I have ever had so we are hopefully going to be getting a lot of help too! Im so glad that the Pittsboro sisters are going to be coming back next week because we just don't have the time to do everything! thanks for always reminding me to obey the rules hahah even though sometimes i think a few are dumb hahah love y'all so much and I hope you are doing great! Have a great week!

Elder Park

June 2 2014

wow you are already going to be done with school! thats crazy, a lot of my friends are telling me how all the graduating seniors are getting all their mission calls and its crazy! how did you make the hummus? hahahah  ya getting the packages are the best! there is always something really great in there! o hahaha he (his companion) is doing good, every dinner people always ask how long we have left and we just laugh everytime, then he says 2 weeks and there like o my hahah. ima keep him working hard till the very end. well i hope you do great at the tri! well just keep running and running. something that helps me when i run in the morning is i hum some hymns. It keeps me at peace while im exercising. idk if other music would work better but i cant listen to that right now hahaha. 

 I think I might be training when elder sosa goes home because he is the only spanish missionary going home and there is only 1 spanish missionary coming, but idk we will see. elder sosa also tells me im going to be District Leader but i dont think so. when i find out i will let y'all know! the loosing weight is going great! my belt that i got when i left im on the very last thing and ive still got room! so ive been doing really good. a member showed me how to shorten it though so i can keep wearing it haha. I have no idea how much i have lost because we dont have a scale but i think im around 20 lbs. Well this week was a great week. It feels like we were just all over the place because of how busy we were, it was great! One of the investigators that we found last week, we visited a few times this week and her progression thus far is amazing. She loved church yesterday and we had a great lesson with her. she told us "Well i have been doing as y'all have said and been praying to know if i should be baptized and I feel like im ready to be baptized, I really want to be baptized in your church."  That was after just one time at church! So prayers work miracles! Its been a good week and a start to an amazing month! Well i love y'all and hope you are doing great!

Elder Park

May 27 2014

well that sounds like you will get a lot of crazy diet tips, thats what brother oakley gives me almost every time we are going to eat something. lots of the times I just say okay brother oakley because he is just sooo crazy its hilarious. so you are going to do the Seattle to Portland and the LoToJa this year?. Things are going really good for me recently, we are planning to have a really great month of june! the area is just taking off! we are starting to teach so much and its going great! We are also hoping to have a few baptisms that month. My companion Elder Sosa goes home on the 18th of June so we are hoping to have at least one of them before he leaves. and ya he is pretty trunky hahaha. well it doesnt really feel like spring anymore out here, it feels like summer. Always hot! It just cooled down quite a bit though because it is raining but not too much and now its more humid so it kinda cancels out haha. Holy guacamole! thats a lot of plants! that reminds me of the other day we went to go see a less active and he had the biggest garden i have ever seen! it was probably only a little bit wider than our garden but it was like from the far side of daniels fence to the other far side of bobs fence it was huge!   ya the curb thing . love y'all tons and hope you are doing great!

Elder Park

May 18th 2014

hahah yes they made me the cake that they promised and it was really good they even put some candles on it and i got to blow them out i have videos of it but for some reason i cant send videos. haha ya the birthday package came before the letter you sent on the same day! i was like what in the world haha. the pictures were great! thank you so much! i opened it up that night hahahaha ya its crazy to think that it has been a whole year since then! no baptisms yet but we have a few people that we are going to be pushing for the beginning weeks of June! o man doritoes are the best!!!! i havent had any in a while though, but i am loosing weight so i am happy. there was this pair of pants that i found in the closet when i first got here to silar city and man those things were small but i put them on the other day and they fit really good!!! so im doing really good! i am still going to keep going though! its been going good! well i have to go but i love y'all tons and hope you are doing great!  thats a 

love Elder Park

May 12 2014

ya it was great to see y'all!  tell them and everyone else i say hi!  love you a ton and hope you have a great week!  I got a disk from a member today that has a whole bunch of steve young cards that he owns on it, his collection was huge! he even gave me a steve young card as well as a Peyton Manning card, and it is the only card in the world that looks exactly like that one, it was pretty great!

hahahah ya we go to the Oakleys' like 2 or 3 times a week, we at least have dinner once a week with them and we have quite a few lessons with them in their house with investigators. We are teaching like 5 people in their neighborhood so they are being great fellowshippers and finders! sorry this is super short this week. The members house that we went to to see his sports memorabilia took a lot longer than we thought but it was great! his collection is worth like 600,000 dollars! it was crazy! love you tons and hope y'all have a great week! 

Elder Park  take care!

May 5th 2014

 everything is going great! well i dont think that i will have too hard of a time because its preparation day so half of my day im not with people who will give me food hahaha. Well I have been doing really good recently. Last Saturday Elder Anderson came and visited our mission! It was so amazing to be right in front of an Apostle! Everyone even got to shake his hand, which was really great. He talked a lot about the Savior and his love for us, and about how there is so many scriptures in the BOM that talk about that. He had us go through different scriptures all over the BOM and we talked about them. Something that I loved that he said was "if you don't know what to talk about, just start talking about the Savior. It's our job to testify of Christ, not convince them of the truthfulness of the BOM." I really liked that, then later he started talking about how we need to have true love for our investigators if we are to really help them to progress, and that really stuck to me too. That night we put all that into play and we had an amazing lesson with an investigator that hasn't really been putting in his part to progress and learn. It was the best lesson we had all week! I think he really started to feel how much we loved him and that had an impact on him. 

i love y'all tons say hi to everyone for me! 

Elder Park