O My G'Ness We Got 2 More Emails Today (2)

La Cazo de Mosqito
Mosquito Hunting, its a sport here. You get 1 point for every kill and extras for style You lose all your points for a broken window, there's been a couple of those. At the end of every day you better have roughly 300 points. If not you, have failed your companions, because that means that there are still 250 or more out there to eat them. Espeacially my Hawaiian companion, they love the hawiian punch in his blood. But the other day the hunt was on. Some one had left a window open and there were like 300 mosquitos in the classroom. We all scored a ton of points! But there was one left after about 20 minutes. This one was crafty, we couldn't get it! Elders were diving over desks and attempting back flips smacking walls and all aroung going ape. The Hermanas were watching in terror, the maitenance guys were placing wagers and the security was wondering what to do. The commotion was one for the books! Then... It... All ... Stopped. No one had killed it yet, no one was bitten, NO ONE knew where it was. The cazo was on... the exact opposite was happening now. No one was moving, no one was breathing, we were listening for something quieter and more sinister than even a pin dropping. We were listening for the eire sound of the buzzing of the wings of a creature thats only purpose is to suck the life juices out of other creatures and infect the innocent with diseases as foul as the breath of my companion. We were trying to hear the sound of the mosquitos wings and that was when I heard it. Right next to my ear... I should take a moment that to say I had taken the liberty of killing many a mosquito at the expense of my companions arms and shoulders and it was common knowledge you must sacrifice ones self for the greater good, that is why it was too late... I had no choice but to let it happen, the micro demon was in my ear and it must be killed, I knew it was comming and ...BAM!! I got boxed in the ear by a 6'6'' brick of a kids frying pan hand and that is why I only understand half of the spanish I hear. 

Love you tons!
Always in my prayers,
ELDER PARK

O My G'Ness We Got 2 More Emails Today! (1)

Breakfast

At breakfast there is normally 2 dishes. one thats some inidentifiable mixture of eggs, cheese, fruits and meat (normally hot dogs). The other is somthing similar to pancakes or waffles just crunchy... I normally get the meximash, but thats not the exciting part. The next thing in the line is the sweet bread lottery. They have these big bins that they fill with different pastery like breads, they only make about 10 of each. These bins are about 4 feet long 2 feet wide and 8 inches deep. Some of the bread is delicious, some tastes like normal bread they have mashed out and coated in sugar and some is like eating chalk. but the exciting thing is they are NEVER the same. The one that was good yesterday is terrible today its like they change the shapes or something! The other variable is that you never know when it will be a new bucket you get to choose from or pick through bucket with only rock biscuts in it. This creates a very competitive breakfast line. You either want to be first or you want to wait it out and when the buckets almost empty, jump in line and hope they swap it before you get there. But then when you try that you gotta facter in the HERMANA factor... this is a new math category that somethimes can ruin your day and other times make it. See you have to take the # of people in front of you and double it but subtract 3 because Hermanas get to go to the front of the line when ever they want and they normally gang up and all go together just when you get to the front. If there is an athletic or ´pretty´ boy ahead of you, they will wait for him to go through and then go right behind him so they can see where he sits. So you try to negotiate getting right in front of him. Then you have to watch for the guys that take 2 breads everyone glares at that guy because there is an unwritten rule you take 1, then if you want another you go back through again. So thats the stress that starts the day.

I hope this answered some of your food questions.
Love you tons!

Week Two At The MTC (CCM).....

Lucky again, I happened to log on my laptop this morning to see about what time Elder Park had sent his emails last week, so I would be sure to be watching for them. Low and behold, while I was looking at them, a new one popped in! I love when we have that little voice telling us to do something and we listen to it!

We are still waiting for pictures, hopefully soon.
OK, so now he has explained why his punctuation and English skills have been lacking, I will forgive him on this one!

Hello,

This week started out pretty hard, but every thing is starting to shape up. My comp has gotten comfortable here, he kinda treats it like scout camp. Now, I'm not saying I don't like joking around, just not all the time. I really need to learn the language!!! BUT, I am beginning to figure out how he works and what my responsibilities are. I've realized for all the faults I find in him he also finds some in me.

The only problem is still the Spanish, but think I am improving. I now have a senior trainer that's making a ton of difference and is REALLY helping. He says its because he wants me to convert his girlfriends family in Spanish. I can almost always have a conversation when they start it, because it helps me figure out what words they want me to use. Its hard to just figure out what to say, but I'm working on it. I'm sorry my grammar and spelling is terrible, but these keyboards are in Spanish too! It's so weird and I'm starting to think in the Spanish grammar, all back words and stuff! (I have been correcting most of his errors-Jan)

My progressing investigator Manuel, has really been our PM instructor, he has helped a ton with figuring out the patterns of the language. I really like his methods, I'm not saying I don't love Hermana ***, but she is a native speaker and its harder to learn from her even though that's how we should be learning.

Any way, by the time I'm out I should be pretty good at soccer and volley ball!

I am living in a casa. There are 5 rooms in a casa and 1 bathroom in each, 4 people to a room which is better than the dorms where there is 6 to a room and 1 bath to a floor of 6 rooms. The food is cafeteria Mexican for lunch which is the BIGGEST meal and normally fake American for dinner. I'm going to write you a whole thing on breakfast its a little crazy.

My testimony has grown so much, I have the firmest belief in prayer and that the LORD answers them.I know that the message we have needs to be spread to everyone and it means the most to me right now. I'm doing alright now, I've got everything sorted out! I'm gonna try sending you some pictures later. 

LOVE you tons.

Always in my prayers

Elder PARK

Week One At The MTC (CCM)...

YAY! We finally got an email from Elder Park today. Both Ryan and I were lucky enough to be sitting at our computers when it came so we were able to have a little conversation back and forth before he had to go. How grateful I am to have that moment with him! Yes, I certainly do miss him, but there is absolutely NO place that I would rather him be right now. I have taken the emails that he sent to the two of us and kinda merged'em together in to one.

Apparently, Elder Park didn't learn any grammer, puncutation or basic english when he was in school! So, I ended up doing some basic corrections to help it make sense. Hope we can get some pics soon!

This week has been so awesome, the spirit is incredible!!! 

I was made Distrito Leadér and now have some uber responsibilities on top of learning the spanish! but I LOVE the district, they are some great guys!!! It is way fun. 

I´ve asked around and everyone says it takes 2 weeks to get here with normal mail. We are only allowed to take pictures on Pday (wednesday), so I don't have very many and I don´t have enough time to send them to you today. I might send the card back next week, turns out I didn't clear it! It's just amazing here! I love it so much.

There were like I think 27 missionaries that arrived in my group plus about 30 more after us. The trip was super easy and there were no problems at all. This week has been hard but I am enjoying it SO much! My companion is from Hawaii and when I say that I mean he is HAWAIIAN! He is very laid back, but he's been picking up the spanish way quicker than I am. It's weird I actually have to try hard! haha! 

We've had some incredible devotionals and the spirit is incredible. I wish I could write more but I'm almost out of time, love you a ton and miss ya a bit too.

always in my prayers,

ELDER PARK

In my last email, I asked the following questions:

When is P-Day? Wednesday
What are the rules about the internet/emailing? 1 hour a week, it's hard to upload pictures I'm gonna mail the SD cards.
Who is your comp? Elder *** I´m the Senior Companion and Distrito Leader
Where is he from? Hawaii.
How are the sleeping conditions? How many missionaries do you share a room with? We are in a casa and not a dorm. There are four of us, myself, my companion and Elders *** from Orem and *** from Spokane
Have you ran in to other Missionaries going to Ft. Lauderdale? Elder *** and Elder *** both in my district.
Have you seen anyone you know? Alec Mikkelson from baseball, and Trent Loveridge.
What has been the most difficult so far? Spanish and the Investigator Lessons are difficult.
What is your schedule for each day? Whoa... like jammed packed I'll take a pic soon.

Tell me about the MTC - Well this isn´t the one next to the temple, that's the old one, but it is beautiful and there's not 10 to a room, even in the dorms!

Missionary Pic's



And the Lord said....





I told ya this was awesome!

So, how tired are you?

Try not to notice the

Upside Down Scriptures!





What was that?!?!?





First Email

We got an email from Elder Park last night. Thank goodness he made it, I can breathe again. BUT!! He had better have been in a real big hurry or he is gonna be in real big trouble if this is the kind of email we will be getting. Short, sweet and to the point, but Mama Park is not gonna have it. He had better learn to write a decent letter or I may fly down there and flick him in the ear!

 

hey I made it!

this is so cool we got a lady to take a passalong card! see you in two

always in my prayers

elder park

Mailing Address At The MTC

Elder Tyler Ryan Park

Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

Mexico Missionary Training Center

Ave 510 #90

Colonia San Juan de Aragon

07950 Mexico City, Distrito Federal

Mexico