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!!

Week 39 Email: Eating WAY to Much!!

Dear Mom and Dad,

This week went much better than last week! Yes I did get your package thank you so much for that! I made the brownies and I actually shared them with our district so I wouldn't get the Beatus. (lol) But in other news I haven't heard any word on Kalen's baptism so I will interrogate Elder Lawrence about it. I was finally able to meet our investigator who's name is Mike. Dad you would get along very well with Mike. He is a lot like you in the fact that he is super funny and constantly cracking jokes about everything. His big problem is smoking and drinking though. He has cut back a lot and realizes it's wrong, but he really doesn't have a whole lot of drive to quit. So that's where we come in! So he is the only real Investigator we are working with. We are going to be doing a lot of less-active hunting this week and see if we can find more success that way. But anyway! It sounds like it's the same old thing with you guys. Haha I know that things are tough with teenagers but be patient. You got me through it, so you can get Garret through it! So I shared a picture of a giant burger with you. That thing is called the 10 stacker. It's at a place called Charlies down in Greencastle where our district leader is. It is a burger with 10 patties and like 2300 calories, and if you eat it in under 30 minutes you get a picture and a shirt. I made it in 23 minutes! But I'm pretty sure that gave me the Beatus so I hope it was worth it! Oh well the things we do as missionaries for fun! Anyway I hope you guys have a great week and I can't wait to hear from you!

Love, Elder Braken Park

Braken eating the "10 Stacker Burger" at Charlies in Greencastle, Indiana.
That's my boy!

The "10 Stacker"

Week 38: Tough Week in the Field :(

Dear Mom and Dad,

I wish I had better news for you, and was in a better mood to do so. This week has seriously sucked. So to start off no I didn't get your package. Hopefully it'll be here today. Then this week we went 0/12 for our appointments, and one of our investigators called us and told us she didn't want to see us any more. I still haven't met any of our investigators and it's been 2 weeks. We lost our car because they needed it somewhere else in the mission. And to top it all off, I found a nice pair of sunglasses at a thrift shop in Martinsville back when I was there, and have had them all through my mission. Well we went to get in the car this morning, and somebody stole them last night. Not too big of a deal but just enough that I am thoroughly angry. Just one last nail in the coffin for this week. I thought I had worked through the depression I had at the beginning of my mission, but this week it has come back with a vengeance. I have really been struggling. But regardless.... I know I can make this week better. It's just going to take time. Hopefully this isn't a permanent thing and I can figure out some way to work through my recurring depression. I'm going to talk to president and maybe figure out if there's someone I can talk to about it. But anyway I'm glad things went well around the house. I'm sorry I didn't have anything really good to talk about. Thanks for putting up with me and helping me out with this. I sincerely appreciate it. Hopefully we can chat some but if you're busy that's fine. Have an awesome week guys.

Love, Elder Braken Park

(After receiving this e-mail we talked back and forth with Braken on e-mail and he was doing a lot better when we were done).

Week 37: Pictures of the Neat People Braken was able to teach while serving in the Eagle Creek Ward in Indianapolis.

Braken and his bud, Aro.
Aro was baptized during Braken's time in the Eagle Creek Ward in Indianapolis.  He was Braken's second convert.

L - R:  Jason, Braken, Brandon, and David
These are the kids that Braken was working with right before his transfer from Indianapolis to Plainfield. Braken was serving in the Eagle Creek Ward at the time.

Tommy and Braken
Tommy was one of Braken's investigators while he served in the Eagle Creek Ward in Indianapolis.

Week 37 E-mail Home - New Area, Plainfield, Indiana

Dear Mom and Dad,

So to answer the remainder of your questions I am in a house now. I really enjoyed our skype time though. I'm pretty trunky right now I can see why they only have us do it every 6 months. Oh well I am excited to see your package coming! Love you guys!

Love, Elder Braken Park

E-mail to the Family:

So, I'm in a new area called Plainfield.  Here's my address!   202 West North Street, Plainfield, IN 46168. Thanks to all of you for your support!   My new companion's name is Elder Sneddon.   Like me, he is a nerd, so this is gonna be a great companionship!

(Elder Sneddon is from Twin Falls, Idaho and has been out in Indiana one transfer longer than Braken).

PS.

I was able to e-mail back and forth this morning with Braken and he said that Skpying yesterday with us was awesome, but that he knows why they only let missionaries do that twice a year because they get feeling "trunky".  I asked him what that meant and he told me it's when a missionary gets thinking about going home or being home to much - like homesickness when they first are out in the field.  He is fine - just misses us.  He told me that he just needs a little time and to get back to the work and he'll be great.  

--Shelly--