Week 26: January 12th 2014

Everyone has been getting sick? thats funny because i have been sick this past week. I have a sore throat and a cough, but that aint gonna stop me! its just really annoying because i can't sleep so good and i have to have a bottle of water by my bed so that i can drink in the night. ya i need to start doing better at exercising. this week has been hard because i have been sick but I have been doing really good at eating a lot better so thats one step! hahah thats awesome that you know my team mom!!! tell zach i say hi too!

Thats great that Peyton is doing good. I was at a taco bell the other day and on the tv i overheard them say that the colts were going to play the patriots ( i wasn't watching! just overheard!! hahah) when is the super bowl going to be? well i am on a mission so the broncos are going to win hahaha. ya its crazy to think that when i come home the bigelows will be gone... :( but they are going to do amazing in Brazil! does President Bigelow even speak portuguese? wow there is going to be so many missionaries from our ward!!! well good luck with the assessment i hope it goes well. it sounds like you are killing yourself for it hahaha. sometimes i wish i could work out for longer though. the work is going great! yesterday was an amazing day. As we walked into the chapel yesterday I saw one of my converts who I haven't seen in a long time. She pretty much dropped off the planet after she was baptized. We tried time and time again to get ahold of her and nothing. we have prayed many times that we would be able to get ahold of her and there was no results for a long time. I was getting pretty discouraged, but then yesterday the lord answered our prayers. She came to church and we were able to talk to her! next week we are having stake conference at a different building and she asked us where that one was so that she could go next week too! we are going to try to start finding a lot more people to teach because 1 by 1 they have been falling away. the weather is good. just some rain storms. im staying warm it like never goes below 40 here hahahah. well as of late we haven't been biking much but we are going to start more now that we have a few places that are pretty close that we can do a lot of work at. well i love you all tons and hope you are all doing great! have an amazing week!

Elder Park

Week 25: January 6th 2014

Nic!

ya im back in the old apartment and i'm still with elder mora. ya he moved to utah from mexico when he was like 13 so he knows english too. well we try to speak spanish as much as possible but with him its really hard because he knows its easier in english so a lot of the time he talks in english and then i talk to him in spanish and tell him to talk to me in spanish hahahah. we have started recently to speak a lot more in spanish. and that has helped a ton. now when the english elders are over and we want to say things to each other we do it in spanish so they don't know what we are talking about hahahaha. i think it is helping my spanish in some ways because i'm learning a lot of things that only natives would really know but they only hard thing is that he cant really help me with structure because he doesnt really know the rules. he just knows the language. its kinda like all of us in english though, for a lot of things we dont know why they are why they are we just know thats how its supposed to be. but im learning soooo much about english too! man there are so many little tricks to english that i never reallized before! trying to teach someone english and learning another language you really learn a lot! ya i went to bed on time! i follow the rules!!!
this week has been really good. a lot of the week though we have been helping the new spanish sisters out. because they are kinda lost. The trainer used to be an english sister but then she got changed but she doesn't know spanish yet. the new sister is from guatemala so she doesn't know much english but she is learning pretty fast. anytime we are with them we translate what each is saying to each other because they don't understand so idk what they do when we arent there haha. its just hard because we haven't ever had spanish sisters so all the new sisters are natives and the trainers don't know spanish so its hard for them to train them. it will all get better with time though. usually i eat tacos with beans and rice and chicken with some habeñero sauce. thats what i eat 75 % of the time hahahah well good luck! hahah well keep going britt! hahah no i wont be that big hahah im going to start loosing wieght soon! (300lbs Brandon wants him to be that big when he gets back so they can wrestle) i made some snow in the blender so i got to see some hahah. its always warm here! love you sorry its a little rushed at the end i g2g love you!

Elder Park and President and Sister Bernhisel

haha ya i saw the pic britt put on facebook! (the pic of him) hahahah i love my fish!  well the work is going great. right now we are seeing so much work with the active members so thats going great! we have been teaching some temple prep classes to a family and they are great!! they love us soo much. we have gone to their house for dinner and class for the past 4 days hahaha. one of our investigators was a jehovah witness.... man those poeple are tough!!!!! he has a wife that is a member though so he has a ton of support. he just needs to stop smoking. we dont have many people that we are teaching right now because we havent really done much work in Raeford for the past 6 weeks, but it will start picking up soon! have a great week too! good luck loosing the weight! love you!!!!

Elder Park

Week 24: December 23rd 2013

hahah how many of you took videos on your phones?  hahah well when we get to Raeford tomorrow we are going to start biking more. in Fayetteville its just hard because everyone is far away but in Raeford it will be easy. i didnt see that so i will have to look at it. hahha ya i know that it will be a lot harder to take it all off. im going to be with some other elders in Raeford and one of the other english ones loves working out so he will keep us working out hard. well good luck loosing the weight! well i didnt get a call so im going to Raeford. ooooooo man thats what im talking about!!!!! YEA BOYYY!  wow that is awesome! Peyton is getting blessings because im serving a mission hahahhahahahahahahaha. how is work going? you like it a billion times better than before? i hope you are doing great! love you!!!! have a happy new years!

Elder Park

Week 23: December 23rd 2013

thats okay i got it like the day after i told you that i wasnt getting them. I went to the post office and got it all figured out so i didnt miss out too much on them! i have gotten all the packages from you and thank you soooooo much! you didnt have to get me so much mom hahaha. when i got the box i opened it up and took all the presents out, it took everything i had not to open one hahaha especially the one that says " you said you wanted snow" ooo man that will be the first one i open on Christmas ahhahaha. but o man the stories are great! thank you for all them. every morning when i open each one up as im eating i read the story! good thing too because then my companion is in the shower and doesnt see me getting all teary eyed hahah. well yesterday at church we talked to one member and he said that we can come over and skype. he doenst know what time exactly because he is going to be talking to his sons on missions from 12 to 1. so we are thinking that somewhere between 2 and 6 of whatever time zone i am in. but i will probably call you right before to make sure that it is ready for me to call! sorry that it is a long time frame to wait for but ya! cant wait to talk to y'all! love you!

Elder Park

Week 22: December 15th 2013

his week i have been really good! the beginning of the week was a little slow because one day we had to go to the car shop and get our car checked out because it smelt weird sometimes. when we went there it took them a total of 3 and a half hours to find the problem and fix it. apparently when jiffy lube changed the oil they didn't tighten something up as much as they should have and the car was leaking oil on the exhaust so the burning smell was the oil on the exhaust. but ya the beginning of the week was slow and then by the end of the week the days were just so jam packed it was crazy. well im excited to be able to talk to y'all at least. we had a member say that we could come over but then he said that he doesn't know when they are moving to texas ( he is in the military so when he gets his orders he goes) so we will have to find another place that we can go to, we are going to ask the english missionaries if they can find someone for us if he falls through. but if all else fails then i will just call yours or moms phone. but i will do my best to find somewhere hahah. and happy late anniversary!!!! i hope it was great! i remember sitting at the apartment and going ooo man its my parents anniversary and i didn't email them happy anniversary last week! hahah sounds like it was good. oh my goodness there are so many people who are getting sick lately! sacrament was a little barren yesterday because everyone was sick, but i didn't mind because yesterday was the first week that i gave a talk completely in spanish. it was super scary but i prepared really well so it wasn't too bad haha. my companion said it was really good, but just as always i don't like talking in church hahaha plus a foreign language makes it that much more hard. wow thats great! they are doing work! hahaha a little... ahaha. 

The sweet car nic saw :)

well i havent gotten the package yet so idk. i also haven't been getting any letters from you recently, idk if thats just because you have been putting them in the boxes but probably. i looked through my mail and saw that you do have the right address because i have recieved one letter so i think they are at the main office. elder mora and i are going to ask them today. beause he said that sometimes if the packages dont fit in this little mailbox thing then they leave them at the main office. are you all doing the 12 days of christmas in the ward? well thank you so much for all that you are doing for me!! you are the best mommie! i love you both and the whole family sooooooooooooo much and am super excited to talk to y'all. hey dad check out what i saw yesterday... lets just say it was a good day hahah. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Week 21: December 9th 2013

hahaha i wish that i could have some snow, i think when i get home the first day it snows i will be on your back to go riding hahahhaa. but ya ive seen pictures of people and sweet molases i just want to see some snow! hahaha i thought about that the other day (wrestling) and i was like man i want to wrestle someone hahaha then i thought of that kid from layton that beat my twice and then i beat him in state, that was my favorite match! i was so happy!. thank you so much (for the package) im excited to get some christmas music!! after the christmas devotional last night all i want to do is listen to some christmas music haha. well thank you so much for doing that for me y'all are awesome!  man im suuuper jealous y'all have snow, i really want some. im going to go outside on christmas with a hammer and some ice and i will make snow because i refuse to have christmas without snow hahah. i love y'all so much too!!!!! i hope you are all doing great! tell everyone that i love them!
love, Elder Park

Week 20: December 1, 2013

 well thanksgiving was awesome! In the morning the enlgish ward had a turkey bowl, we invited some of our investigators but he didnt come but we were already there so we thought hey why not. before we went there they said bring a blue or red shirt. Classic colors huh. so of course i came in full out Utah gear!!! and I did amazing I got a few picks and scored a couple touchdowns, it was so funny becuase no one knew who i was (because i go to the spanish branch) except that i was one of the elders. When ever I was on offence they would have 3 people on me and say "cover utah" hahha and when i was on defense i just dropped back to safety and no one ever caught a ball around me hahah. then we started playing like an ulitmate frisby but with a football and that was fun too! of course their were all these cherry pickers and i would just bat down all the passes to them one guy was like "i hate you" hahah because i bated down everything. throughout the game i kept hearing "who is this guy????" it was really funny. so ya i reminded all the byu fans out here who dominates in utah hahahahahaha. then after that i proceded to have 3 thanksgiving dinners!!! it was insaine i ate so much food i thoght i was going to die!!! ya im so excited to talk to y'all!!!!!!! its going to be great! christmas cant come too fast hahaha well i hope you have a great week! love you!Elder Park

Week 19: November 24, 2013

 sundays are our busiest days. well usually we do pretty good about getting meal appointments, hispanics just feed the missionaries like none other, we had so much food in the fridge and had all these dinners that we invited the english elders over for lunch one day and sent them home with about half our fridge because there is no way that we could down it all. well i mean i could, but then i would get super fat hahaha.

this past saturday we had our branch thanksgiving party. it was amazing!!! the members brought so much people and food it was great! i didnt know like half the room because of all the people that came, so hopefully we will be able to ask the members about their friends and start teaching them. we have been getting a lot of great member referrals recently and they have been big families so hopefully that is all going to end up well. there are some super elect people everywhere, we just have to look for them! i love y'all and hope you have a great thanksgiving. 

ps im doing really good and keeping the turkey going! ill send you a pic when its all done

Elder Park 

 Week 18: November 18 2013

well i had an awesome experience this week. we were teaching a part member family and the husband is not a member. he had been going to a jehovahs witness church for a while so he had some confused beliefs. We were teaching him the plan of salvation and things were going great. while we were talking about the purpose of this life we tied in the 5 points of the Doctrine of Christ. while we were talking about that he just said. "how does someone get baptised in your church" so i immediately invited him to be baptised on the 14 of December. funny thing about that is that a year ago some elders discontinued teaching him because of his lack of interest. then he had a stroke and while he was down he said that the only people who came to visit him and his wife were members from the church and that really softened his heart!! it was an awesome lesson!

Elder Park

Week 17: November 13 2013

sorry that my letter is a little late this week. the library was closed on monday and yesterday we had a general authority come and speak to us. it was awesome! well transfer new

s is in and im staying here in Raeford A. Elder Corbin is going to Raleigh to be a Zone Leader and Elder Mora from Raeford B ( in my district) is going to follow up train me and Raeford B is going to be made Sisters. this is the first time they are going to have spanish sisters in the mission.

Creepy Spider!

the baptism went great! even though not many people came, i think she prefered it that way because she is kinda shy.

  im doing great out here! its not too cold. from october conference to april we have to wear a sweater, suitcoat or jacket everyday ( we call it suit season) so i don't get too cold. plus if you remember me from when i rode the bus in jr high and sophomore year i didn't care how cold it was, i was going to wear shorts! so now in a shirt and tie and jacket im pretty warm. but probably will go get some gloves at walmart just in case it gets too cold. do the missionaries you see have a car or bikes?

sorry its a little short this week we don't have as much time as usual because its wednesday but i love y'all and hope your doing great!

Week 16: November 3 2013

North Carolina Raleigh Mission

This is what nic did for Halloween 

Gansta Missionary

there are a ton of missionaries here who are spanish in the ncrm.(North Carolina Raleigh Mission) its crazy! idk how many for sure but i know like 15 started their mission the same day as me who are spanish! ya we cover the same boundaries as the english elders but our areas are just a lot bigger. we cover like what 6 sets of english missionaries cover and before i got here it was double that. our area is huge!

your breaking my heart dad. 3 out of 10 birds was a turkey winner......... yep my heart is broken hahah. ooo ya im glad she got to go out and have some fun while i'm gone (I think he is talking about his gun, bessie) hahah. well thats great that y'all were shooting good! what???? 

well we have a baptism on Saturday and we are super excited! im out of time to email so sorry but i have to send some pics so this email is short this week i love yall!

Elder Park

Week 15: October 28 2013

well everything is going great down here! ya idk if the biking season will ever be over for me hahahaha. we do have a car and a lot of miles but our area is MASSIVE! it covers like 5 english elders areas. from one end of our area to the other is 80 miles. hahahha ya i think you might need to go to that. i can just imagine. " hi my name is dennis and i'm addicted to exercising"... " hi dennis" hahahaha 
hey thats the date when our next investigator is going to be baptized! so its going to be a great day for us both!   well im going to make it today so it is going to be awesome, i buy a bag of Doritos like every other week so i have a few bags hahaha well im sure going to miss those scones this and next year but hey ill get them after that right? i love y'all and hope you are all doing great!

 

so there is this family that has been active in the church for a few years but just haven't gone to the temple yet to get all those great blessings there. so me and my companion thought we should visit them, we had no idea what we were going to say, but then when we were talking my companion just started talking about family history work, and they absolutely loved it! they said that no other missionaries had told them about this before and they were so excited, i hope it will help them get to the temple. We built up a lot of trust with them when we did that, and the next time we came over they said hey we have a friend that wants to learn about the gospel, and we are just like great!!! they even caught ahold of the missionary spirit! we have a lesson in their home today actually so it has been great with them! 

Week 14: October 21th 2013

wow day off on a Monday? that's weird! oooo man as soon as i heard breakfast i was like they probably made egg mcmuffins and hash browns and yep i was right! wow that window well looks nasty!!!! sounds like y'all have been busy for the past little while! well i hope its not too chilly, its gotten colder around her lately, everyone told me that when its cold here its cold but i didn't believe them too much cuz if its not snowing its not cold to me but this morning when we were running it was 40 degrees and my hands were so bone chillingly cold it was crazy! ima have to buy me some gloves. haha right when i read christlike, i was like "chapter 6 Christlike attributes" hahahah. but ooo ya those points in the chapter are amazing! i love studying that chapter! i know that as y'all study it you will learn so much and will get closer to christ!

hey look im a solder now!
haha a man gave me some army stuff. i
 even have a flat jacket!

hahaha when i saw you added me (on facebook) i was like i knew she would fall to the temptation! and i saw you don't have a profile pic on there or stuff like that so i was like, yep all she did was make it and add me hahahaha. well we get on the computers at the church on Sundays when we are doing our online proselyting. my 100 day box was amazing i loved it sooo much! it was perfect. the Book of Mormon was great too! i read through the whole thing that day while my companion did 6 baptismal interviews for some elders in our district!! haha ya i took a pic of the jaw breaker on day one of eating it and it will take a looooong time! wow im going to get fat from all the treats! good thing we have some English elders that live next to us so i can share with them too!!! well its my little brothers birthday!!! of course im going to send him a card! what kind of brother would i be if i didn't get a present for my little brother for his birthday! ooooo sounds like fun! 

well the other day i realized why im soooo glad im in the south. They are true Christians!!!!! the other day me and my companion went to a restaurant of a member friends that we were going to go meet. after we sat down and ordered this lady came over and asked if she could sit down. we said of course she could. she asked us if we were the ones who were always riding around on bikes and we laughed and said ya thats us. she went on saying how much hope it gave everyone knowing that there were people like us going out and sharing the gospel. she was a member of a different church and had different beliefs but we both have the same savior and she knew that. it didn't matter that we weren't members of her church, just that we were going around teaching people of Christ's love. it was amazing it made me so happy that she would stop eating dinner and come talk to us because she recognized our dedication. at the end she said i just want to let you know that im going to be paying for y'alls meal tonight. I dont know who that lady was, and likewise for her and us, but she showed me that it didn't matter what someone believes. we can still serve them and be true Christians! i love y'all and hope you are doing good!

Week 13: October 14th 2013

my fist fiesta! hahah

well at least y'all are going to get snow for winter! haha. Elder Corbin told me that when winter comes all the leaves fall off the tree but that it only snows once or twice a year so I wont be able to see all that beautiful snow on the trees. thats one of my most favorite things, i love winter! and i wont get any snow for Christmas!!!! i told elder corbin if there is no snow im going to go get some ice and crush it on the porch so that i can see some snow for Christmas hahahaha. ya i saw on Facebook!  i was soooo happy!!! are they ranked at all? hey im a witness that after all the tacos and such a pizza every once and again for a Spanish missionary is just fine! so i guess he is going to be an eagle scout then huh? hahah ya its hard to talk about eternal families with people because then i think of mine but at the same time happy because i know that i will be able to live with mine forever! ...... good one.....lol huh?..... hahahah  well thanks for all the letters y'all send me, they are great. and thank you in advance for the package, im excited because every one has been soooo good so far!

well this week has been another great week in the life of the lords servant. there hasn't been any huge things that happen but ive come to realize that just as how the holy ghost confirms truths to us with small things such as feelings or thoughts, the lord has a hand in each of our days if we but look for it. Everyday I write in my journal i can always think of something good that has happened that day. If i look i always find a tender mercy of the lord in my days. The lord loves each of us so much and he wants to bless us as much as he can so that we are happy, the only thing holding him back is ourselves. As we live our lives how we should the lord will bless us. in the beginning of 4th Nephi the people are so blessed and have so many miracles around them, you know why? its because they are so faithful and do everything that the lord wants of them, so he blesses them. I have seen that not only in my life but in the others that I have been teaching and talking to everyday. When we with one of our investigators, its almost like we dont have to ask if they have been keeping there commitments, such as reading the scriptures or praying daily. We can see it in their countenances they just seem happier. As they do all these things and change their lives they are just so much more happy and are able to see the love of god in their own lives. This past week one of the many great families in the great Raeford Spanish branch moved. It was pretty sad and hard to see them go, which scares me for the rest of my mission when i leave certain areas because i will have to say goodbye to so many great and inspiring people. I know that they will all do great without me in their lives however, and the lord needs them to go and bless other people too so ill just have to live with it i guess haha. well thats all for today. I love all of y'all and miss ya so much! read and pray everyday to keep satan away!

Love Elder Park 

Week 12: October 7th 2013

The field is white all ready to harvest :)

conference was amazing!! its true i soaked up a million times more than i ever have! it was sooo great! ya its definitely changed how im going to listen to conference. did you watch the segments in between? there was one about the mexico mtc and i saw my district and i didnt get a close enough look but im pretty sure i was in it. they also showed a meeting that i was in and i tried looking for myself but it went to quick maybe one day ill get to see if i was on there or not! so hopefully y'all recorded it so i can watch it to see. did y'all have egg mcmuffins and hash browns on sunday? that morning i was sitting in the apartment eating cereal and just wishing i could get one of those that i eat every time. i missed those yesterday morning and the arctic circle shakes hahaha.I get why you do that now, i would love to just sit and listen to the conference talks while in the car but we aren't in the car for much time so it would be so scattered and i would get lost. but ya the talks were great and im excited to get the ensign to study the talks more fully!

well i hope you are doing better mom! keep working on the scripture study and keep up the praying! I have seen the blessings of being exactly obedient. thats something that my mission president has stressed with all the missionaries and we are all really good at it. elder corbin said that elder Holland said when he came here last year that we were the most obedient mission. Elder Corbin and I have been doing really good at keeping all the rules and we are blessed because we do so. we are doing really well and finding the lords elect people and teaching amazing lessons. we hopefully will have a few more baptisms coming up soon. well i love y'all so much and miss you tons! I hope y'all have an amazing week and see the tender mercies the lord gives each of us ever day of our lives because he loves us so much.

Elder Park

Week 11: September 30th 2013

Nic's First baptism as a missionary: Jonathan

well the names are Leonardo (dad) Irma (mom) Jonathan (son) and the girls names i don't know. we don't really see them much and you know how good i am with names! that was Elder Tingey he is one of the 4 other elders in the Spanish branch. ya so here is this story well  I had the privilege of baptizing and confirming this boy. When we asked if he would be baptized he said yes and because his father was baptized by my companion the week before, I think somewhat he felt obligated to choose me to baptize him but at the same time he didn't show like that was how it was. he was super excited and so was I!!! it was a bit different in Spanish and I almost forgot it, so i took a second and just prayed in the water and it just came to me and it went great! then after everything and eating this cake that i made he came up and said "so my dad was wondering who would be doing the thing tomorrow?" and we said  "whoever you want" He instantly he said me! and i was just terrified, a baptism was easy because its the same every time but a confirmation? so i tried to tell him that i wasn't too good at Spanish but he just persisted. Until the confirmation the next day i was just praying and praying that the lord would help me and that i would be able to say it all in Spanish. I was so nervous, but i went up there and it went great! I was amazed that i could do the whole thing in Spanish and it wasn't like really quick and done, it was great! I was so glad that he gave me the opportunity to try my faith, because when i did i was surprised at what i could do, and what the lord could help me do when i didn't think i could. Im looking forward to conference tambien!!!!

Ether 12:27 stay strong!!!

Love Elder Park 

Week 10: September 23, 2013

Yeah I’m pretty excited with all that happened. At the baptism a member wasn't able to come so I had to give a talk. And of course completely in Spanish. I was nervous at first but I got a couple little sentences I could say that I didn't know how to say on a little post it note, and I had a few scriptures. When I was up there everything seemed to just make sense and I felt like he was getting it. Later Elder Corbin said “that was the best Spanish I have ever heard you say" that made me so happy! I am getting so much better at pronouncing and reading. I’m even starting to understand the scriptures. They used to make no sense because in them they use a tense that no one ever says unless they are from Spain. So I never hear that used. But everything is starting to make so much more sense than it used to. It’s still really hard to speak but it’s getting easier every day. With a lot of common things and gospel things, I don’t have to translate what they said into English; I just know and understand them in Spanish so that’s really great. So the son of the man that got baptized is going to be baptized this next Saturday and he even asked me if I would do the baptism, IM SO EXCITED!!!!!  I know that as you continually strive to read and pray that the lord will bless you and the family will get so much closer!

Well Thanks for the package!! I'm excited to get it. I love the letters that y'all send. Its nice hearing about your day to day stuff that happens. Ues skittles or M&Ms!!! I'm so excited for conference too!!! Make sure that this time as a family y'all watch as many sessions together as you can. I know that as you do you will be blessed and it will just be great! I love y'all so much and tell everyone I say hi!!! Read 3 nephi 15:9 too it's a good one! 

Elder Park

Nic's First investigator to get baptized

 Elder Corbin, Leonardo and nic