A Corner Brook Christmas

Hello again, everyone!

I hope you all had wonderful Christmas days!

This week in Newfoundland is a big drinking week. The night before Christmas Eve is called "Tips-Eve" and that's when it begins. Needless to say, the missionaries spent a lot of time inside haha.

Sister Crump and I really did have a wonderful Christmas though. We were absolutely spoiled by the Corner Brook Branch members. We opened gifts and had Christmas morning breakfast at Sarah's house, and we had so much fun. We made a book for Sarah with pictures we drew of all of the wonderful memories we've made together this last transfer. Giving it to her was one of the best parts of my day.

Skyping my family was wonderful! Oh, I've missed them so much! Thank you to everyone who has taken such good care of them while I have been away. It honestly means so much to me that they are being so well looked after! Heavenly Father is blessing them for sending me out here!

The rest of our Christmas consisted mostly of eating too much Jig's dinner. It was a hard week to do missionary work because no one wanted to talk to us until after the holidays, but it was an awesome week to be a missionary. 

I am so grateful for the Savior and that we were able to celebrate His coming and all that He came to do. The value of a soul is so great that God would send His absolute best, even His Son, to save and uplift it, to bring it safely home again to Him someday. I know that as we continue to love, remember and follow Jesus Christ, we can feel the Christmas Spirit all year long! And, the fullness of the gospel is here on the earth to help us do just that! It's a wonderful time to be alive! 

Love, 

Sister Park

P.S. Here's a link to the Canada Halifax Mission Christmas Book 2015.

CHRISTMAS!

Hello, everyone!

First things first, CHRISTMAS. I am so excited! 

This year is especially different (obviously, I'm on a rock hanging out on the Atlantic Ocean). Being a missionary at Christmastime is kinda weird haha. But awesome, of course.

This week we drove to the other side of the island to St. John's for a Christmas conference that I was able to speak at. The Spirit definitely helped me out with that haha.

We did a lot of traveling, but we carpooled with the Elders, so it ended up being pretty fun.

Something popular in Newfoundland is a story about something called Mummers. Basically they're carolers who dress up weird and break into your house and sing the Mummer song. Apparently it's illegal now haha. I got an ornament with Mummers painted on it though and a gift bag that I got from a member here has them on it. This island is so weird haha. And by weird I mean the best.

Not much exciting happened this week because of traveling but Christmas is coming soon!

I love Christmas so much because I am reminded of the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am reminded of why it was so important that He was born. He was born to save us from our sins, our sadness, our weaknesses, our struggles, our distance from God. He was born to comfort us, to redeem us, and to bring us home. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that He was born so that we can become healed and whole through His Atonement. I invite you to think of why you personally need Jesus Christ and why you're grateful for Him and then write those things down.

The gospel is awesome! All of you are awesome! I've been thinking a lot about spiritual gifts and how Heavenly Father gives us each some and then allows us to work to gain others. With all of the gifts we ask for and give around Christmas, I think it's really valuable to identify a spiritual gift we would like and to pray and ask the Father for it. I know that as we sincerely pray and pay attention to our thoughts and feelings that Heavenly Father will answer us through the Holy Ghost. I know He will tell you how to develop those gifts you want and as you show Him your desire to improve, He will bless you even more! God is so good!

I hope everyone is doing well!

Have a merry and safe Christmas!

Love,

Sister Park

P.S. at Christmas conference, President Pratt gave each of us a flash drive with Christmas music we're allowed to listen to until Christmas and guess who's Christmas album is on there? Michael Buble's! If you hung out with Kaden and Easton at all last December, you'll know how much they love that album and it always makes me laugh when I listen to it.

Merry Christmas!

Caroling in Corner Brook

Hello everyone!

This week was crazy but lots of fun!

Alina was baptized on December 10, which was awesome! It was so cool to see how happy she was afterward!

Funny story: On Friday night we were knocking on a house and a man opened the door. He is Roman Catholic and wasn't really interested in hearing about our message, but he was a chatter (everyone in Newfoundland is haha). He told us about how he leads moose hunts for really rich Americans haha. There was a gun leaning up again the wall and he was like "oh sorry, don't mind the gun, I went hunting today..." (there were rabbits hanging off the banister on his front porch haha). He was there with his mom, but his wife wasn't home. Anyways, we ended up walking out of there with an entire moose steak, moose sausages, half a loaf of homemade bread, and a jar of homemade jam. It was awesome. 

Yesterday, we went and sang Christmas songs at the senior care center here and it was a lot of fun. Then we had supper at Sarah's (it was moose roast) and then we went caroling with a bunch of people from the branch. Dennis brought his accordion and it was so much fun! We rode with Sarah and Auldrey, so of course it was a party.

This week I have realized how much I really love the Plan of Salvation. What a blessing it is that God created a whole plan, centered on the Atonement of His Son, all for our eternal progression! And what a blessing it is that through the Restoration, we know about it! The Book of Mormon is awesome. Being a missionary is awesome.

This week we will be traveling 8 hours to St. John's for a Christmas Conference that I'll be speaking at (ugh). Just kidding, it will be fun. I love Christmas.

That's really it for this week. Today we're going to get frozen yogurt at Menchie's with Sarah and Auldrey before Auldrey goes home for Christmas, so I'm looking forward to that.

I hope you're all doing well! Have a good week!

Sister Park

P.S. here's a Newfie joke:

Where do you find the trees in Newfoundland?

Between the twos and fours!

One Month!

Hi everyone!

Can you believe I've been a missionary for a whole month now?

It's been a crazy week here in the Canada Halifax Mission, and especially in Corner Brook, Newfoundland! President Pratt gave us a challenge this week called Le Tour de Faith. It was a tough week to be a missionary here, especially a new one, but Heavenly Father helped us out. His grace carried us through. We even won a few of the challenges for the whole mission!

One of the challenges was to come up with creative finding ideas. We tried a few things but nothing was working out. Towards the end of the day, we were pretty upset that nothing worked out. We were going in for supper and a dog came running up to our apartment. We checked his tag and called the number. No answer. The dog's name was Toby and he was the cutest. And so what did we do? We went knocking door to door with Toby. Creative finding at its finest.

It's getting pretty cold here. We spend a lot of time knocking since our branch is so small. The doors freeze and so it hurts to knock on them, and so we carry golf balls in our pockets and knock with those! 

Canada is a great place in general. Something funny is that you fill your gas tank and pay afterwards, instead of the other way around. It always messes me up! The chocolate here is also way better. They don't use high fructose corn syrup, just real sugar. It's the best.

We had Jig's dinner last night. It's a classic Newfie dish. It was so so so good.

There's this amazing pizza place called Louis Gees here and the owner, Bashir, always tells Sister Summers (she works there) to "feed the girls!" The pizzas are huge and so so good. They also have the best shawarma.

Also. Audri and Drew got married in the Salt Lake Temple this week! Congratulations, friends! I love you!

Something cool I've noticed on my mission is the Holy Ghost testifying of truth. We talk with some interesting people and I've recognized the Holy Ghost shielding and protecting my faith and testimony and whispering to my heart "that's not true". I'm so grateful that the Holy Ghost is a gift I am able to enjoy as long as I live worthy of it.

I hope everyone is getting in to the Christmas Spirit! Sister Crump and I decorated our friend Sarah's Christmas tree yesterday. We listened to David Archuleta's Christmas music and it was awesome. Newfoundland is half an hour ahead of Halifax, which is three hours ahead of Utah, so by the time the First Presidency Christmas Devotional came on last night, we were getting ready for bed. Everyone has said really good things about it, so I'm very excited to watch it tonight! If you haven't already, check out christmas.mormon.org. There's two amazing Christmas videos on there, I get goosebumps every time I watch either of them. (Sister Crump and I like to rewatch them during boring Skype calls haha).

I made it to Newfoundland

Nov 30, 2015

Hello everyone!

Newfoundland is the coolest! Literally. It's -10 degrees.

I hope everyone had a nice American Thanksgiving! I spent mine road tripping with Elder Sortomme and Elder Siepert to Grand Falls for a zone conference in Gander the next morning. Our Thanksgiving included a few pounds of gummy worms, peach rings, and pies from McDonald's. It was SO MUCH FUN!

So funny story. President Pratt and Sister Pratt finally flew out to Newfoundland and the Edwards had them and the Corner Brook missionaries over for supper on Saturday. At zone conference, President announced that we would be fasting on Sunday as a mission.

So we get to dinner on Saturday night and Sister Crump and I see cinnamon rolls... SCORE. So we all sit down to eat and guess what it is. Chili. Both of us were just like "ohhh no no no. It's okay, there will be cinnamon rolls after." So after we swallow the chili, Sister Edwards brings out pie (which was amazing). In Newfoundland it's common to have two desserts after dinner, so we were like "okay okay pie then cinnamon rolls" but the cinnamon rolls never came... So everyone is getting up to leave and sweet Sister Edwards says "come to the linger longer after church tomorrow, there will be cinnamon rolls!" and Sister Crump and I just looked at each other and both of our brains screamed "WE'RE FASTING TOMORROW". Haha we ended up getting our cinnamon rolls eventually anyways, it was just funny how it worked out.

Later that night we went to a community choir Christmas concert at one of the Anglican churches here. So fun.

On Sunday we went to the senior center and sang Christmas songs again, but this time we brought Dennis. Dennis is a recent convert, he was a Pentecostal before. We call him the PenteMormon, but he wants to switch it to MormonCostal because now he's feeling "more Mormon than ever" haha. He plays the piano AMAZINGLY and just by ear. He went to music school when he was younger but decided that reading music is no fun and he is just so amazingly talented. 

We have a recent convert here named Sarah, she is the best. I was telling her a few days ago how much I miss cooking hot dogs around the fire with my friends. She invited us over for supper on Sunday. It was snowing that day. So we pull up to her house and we see her standing in her garage/shed with the barbecue cooking hot dogs. I love her so much.

The people in Corner Brook are amazing in general, I've never been called "mi love" so many times in my life. Even if they're rejecting your message, they will still call you Love. Or Duckie haha.

The branch here is so small and spread out that people Skype in to church. President came on Sunday and I was asked to bear my testimony and it's just kind of funny to be talking to a camera as well as the people there. The gospel is the same though and I love it!

I hope everyone has a great and safe week.

And a special birthday shout out to my friend KONOR CLEMENTS.

His birthday is on Saturday! I hope it's awesome, Konor!

Thank you everyone for your love and prayers!

Merry Christmas!

All my love,

Sister Park

Leaving the MTC

Nov 16, 2015

Hello everyone!

I am flying to Canada TOMORROW! Can you believe it?! I am so excited! 

It has been snowing in Provo today. Most of my district is from places like Georgia, Arizona, and California, so it has been pretty entertaining watching them freak out.

The MTC is such a great place, being a missionary in general is the best! 

Sorry there are no pictures this week, I left my camera in my room :(

Fun fact for my dance friends, the wife of one of the counselors in my branch presidency danced with New York City Ballet when she was younger, so the two of us have become pretty close. 

I did run into Elder Davis, Sister Fivas and Sister Handley this week! I have a picture with Sister Fivas that will be coming next week, but all of them are doing well. 

I had a fun time teaching the Law of Chastity to a 60 year old man the other day. Gotta love mission life. But really, I wish everyone could do this. Not exactly the Law of Chastity part, but just feeling how I feel. God is so good. 

I hope all of you are doing well! The next time you hear from me, we will be in different countries! Ahhh!

All my love,

Sister Park

Hello from the MTC

Nov 9, 2015

Hello. It's me.

Is that still a joke in the real world?

Hi everyone! The MTC is so great, I wish that everyone could have an MTC experience. The Spirit is constantly here. The food is good too haha.

Also, Utah State friends, most of my district is called to the Logan Utah Mission! So if you see Sister Martin, Elder Peart, Elder Mergens, Elder Kuck, or Elder Fortuna, tell them you know me. They're all great.

The temple is the best, if you haven't been in a while, GO. And then feel free to write me and tell me about it.

Sister Martin and I are the Sister Training Leaders for our zone so that's pretty cool, I guess. We're teaching two investigators right now, exciting stuff.

Missionary work is so much different and so much better than I thought it would be. Just love all around.

Oh, I saw Sister Smart and Sister Hammond, if you know them! Hopefully I run into Sister Fivas and Sister Handley when they get here on Wednesday!

Love you all!

Sister Park 

(I'll try to send some pictures soon, but I've got to go get my laundry before it gets stolen ha)