Week 44: Email Home

Dear Mom and Dad,

This week has been pretty good. Lots of setup for next week though. Not a whole lot of lessons taught but thats ok it was great for everything else. We have been going through what was in the area book and working through old investigators mostly. Also a lot of knocking doors. Oh well I guess there's no way around that huh? We are getting the apartment in order only need a few more things so that's exciting! The ward here has been absolutely fantastic though. They are the kind of ward that would give us the shirts off their backs if we needed it. It's something that the last ward was lacking in severely.... But anyway sounds like you guys had an interesting week to say the least! Dad sounds like you had fun on your bike ride! Just remember they call those things donor-cycles for a reason don't go too crazy... Haha but anyway the month of June flew by for us too! When you're with a good companion it makes time fly. I'm rolling up on m 11 month mark... It's crazy to think I've been out this long... Man before you know it I'll be at my year mark! Crazy that it's been that long! It definitely doesn't feel like that for me... It feels like just yesterday you were dropping me off at the MTC. Mission time is all wibbly and wobbly! (Doctor Who reference you probably don't get that one). I will be looking for your package! I hope Mason got all sown up alright! I'm a little sad to hear Garret didn't go to high adventure. Those are times I look back on with a lot of enjoyment. Tell him I say he aught to go on the next one whatever it is. He will not regret it. I'm glad to hear things are going well for Jake and that he's getting taken care of. Man I'm not gonna lie I miss going to the dunes. Oh well another year I guess. We need to plan a big dunes trip for when I get home. Oh well topics for another day! I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Braken Park

Week 43 Email Home: Crawfordsville Transfer Area with Elder Sneddon! Yay!

Dear Mom and Dad,

So the transfer news! I am now in the Crawfordsville ward. Crawfordsville is a little town about 1 hour northeast of Indy. So far being here is givin me massive flashbacks of Martinsville. My companion is.... Elder Sneddon! So basically President Cleveland Picked us up out of Plainfield and dropped us here in Crawfordsville! So my new address is 128 1/2 West Main Street Crawfordsville IN 47933. So far the ward has been awesome. The elders before us had to move into a new apartment because the neighboring house was a meth house and started a fire and contaminated their house. So the ward has been supplying us with furniture to get the new place livable. It's been pretty great. It's huge too! We made a video walkthrough of it I'll get it from Elder Sneddon and put it up on drive. So as for the work We have one 9 year old girl in the ward who is just about ready to be baptised. Her dad is less active so we are trying to get him activated so he can baptise her! So far that's really all the people we've met, but I'll let you know as we meet more people. Sorry this one's a little short the computers here are timed so I only have an hour. (Which is super lame). I love you guys! Have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Braken Park

Elder Sneddon - "Live Long and Prosperous!"

Braken made Taco Pizza all by himself!  Good Job!

Week 42 Email To Family

Dear Family & Friends,

So the call came last night and Me and Elder Sneddon are both leaving Plainfield. This is known as a double transfer for those of you who don't know and it's super lame.... We will have to prepare a lot of area info to make sure the next two will have somewhere to start. Oh well what can you do? So I will have a new address next week! Thanks to all of you for your love and support!

Love, Elder Braken Park

Week 41 Email Home - Great Work Week!

Dear Mom and Dad,

So to start off this week has been pretty great. We were able to teach a lot more lessons this week mostly to less actives. Mike is moving along very well. His great nephew Shane is actually now wanting to meet with us so this week we are going to start teaching him. He is super sweet but he just got nailed for an OWI so we might be working around the fun of the law.... Oh well that's what we do I guess hahaha. That's awesome you get to go back to girl's camp! I hope you enjoy it! We are also working with a less active named John. He is the nicest guy you'd ever meet he just is really..... old. He doesn't come because he kind of lazy so we've been trying to supply him with some motivation to come. Hopefully we can get him around! Also this week was Stake Conference and President Cleveland spoke and he seriously threw down on members for not using us (Full Time Missionaries) enough. It was kind of intense but really needed. The ward here is good but the thing we are running into is that all the referrals go to the sisters in the ward. I've really developed a.... disdain for sister missionaries. Our mission really treats them like princesses and the wards aren't much different. I rant about it all the time to Elder Sneddon so I'm sure he is sick of it lol. But as far as me and him go it's a great companionship. We both put in a request for 2 transfers together to President Cleveland. Hopefully he will do it! Transfer calls are next Sunday too so we will see and I'll let you know what happens! I hope everything is going well at home! I put up a picture of our house on drive so you can see where we live :) also I put a picture of the complete mess your birthday package and those confetti poppers made of our house! Haha it was fun though. A sister in the ward asked for some home recipes and so I gave her taco pizza and she is gonna make it for us! I'm super excited for that! Well anyway I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Braken Park

Week 40 Email Home: AWESOME WEEK!

Dear Mom and Dad,

This week has been really great! We were able to meet with Mike and he committed to us that he is going to quit smoking! This is a huge step for him and he is starting down the right path. We got hit with a pretty good heat wave this week. Lots of sun about 85 and HUMID! Me and Elder Sneddon are both pretty sunburned! The problem is he is a little.... Thinning.... so his head gets hit pretty hard hahaha. We have done a lot of walking around, talking to people, and knocking on doors this week. We don't have many investigators and so we are trying to find people. We did find someone new this week though! His name is Matt and he is struggling with his relationship with God he said. Well that's our specialty! So we taught him once and are going to meet with him again this week on Wednesday! Also we talked to a lady named Renee who is one of the honest seekers of truth. She doesn't really like the way most religions are so we are going to introduce her to the true one! She was really interested in learning more so we are going to stop back by this week! On a different note Thanks so much for all the birthday stuff! I realised I never really thanked you last week! That electric razor has ruined me for a standard razor! I really appreciated the brownies too! (Even though they are gonna give me the Beatus :) Sounds like things are going well at home I like the sound of blackmail hahaha :) We have frisbee golf now?? I have always wanted to play that never had the chance to though. I'll have to find an investigator who'll take us! either that or wait another year ;) I hope that you guys have a great week! I love you all!

Love, Elder Braken Park

P.S. thanks for all the music! :)

The Birthday Bash Party Mess!!
You can see we sent his packages in a MAC Tools Box!  The only ones we have lying around!

Happy Birthday to ME!!