Bemidji, Minnesota!

This week has been so amazing! My first area is Bemidji, Minnesota and it is just like heaven here! The whole town surrounds a lake and it is just covered in pine trees all over! It's like a forest except for no mountains. It's flat but foresty! So weird but I love it!  Minnesota is easily the prettiest state in the U.S.! I am so in love with Bemidji and the people here.

This is a road we drive every day

The lake

We got lost and ended up on this dirt road!

The accents here are so fun! I always heard people talk about the accents but they are so under exaggerated! Everyone says "you know" after any pause or transition point in the sentence or even when it makes no sense! I counted seven times in two sentences yesterday that this guy said "you know" and I started counting half way through him talking. It is so awesome! I am starting to pick up on it. I catch myself saying "you know" ALL THE TIME now because I hear it so much! Can you believe it? I have only been here a week!

 

Sister Springer from American Fork, Utah is my trainer and she is so great. We get along so well! She is so funny and bold and when an appointment doesn't answer their door she just goes to the back door and knocks on it. Sister Springer is an amazing missionary and trainer. She lets me take the lead in lessons all the time and even though I am scared of tracting, she has me do the talking sometimes. It is one of the scariest things I have ever done and I love it!

Me and Sister Springer

I love the members here. They are so happy to have sister missionaries because there haven't been any sisters here in a while.  There is a lot of less active work to do here so we have been making phone calls and stopping by houses. Most of them don't answer their phones so we just drop in.

 

We went to one less active family's house and they are so sweet. They want to come to church but they suffer from social anxiety and have a hard time leaving the house to go to church. Sister Springer and I set up an appointment to meet with them tonight and put together a Family Home Evening for them so we are pretty excited about that.

 

We have an investigator, "K", who is in a part member family and she had two baptism dates set but had to keep rescheduling. She quit smoking for a couple of weeks and then relapsed so we are trying to help her with that. We asked her if she would like to get a priesthood blessing from the elders to help her quit smoking and she said she would love that, but then she got the flu so hopefully she will get better soon so we can make sure she gets one.

 

We met with another investigator, "S",last night and she is so great! Her boyfriend is a member and he introduced her to the church. She knows it's true and she is so ready to get baptized. She gave us her coffee pot and told us to get rid of it so we did. The spirit was so strong while we were teaching her and she is just so faithful and knows without a doubt that the church is true. She is going to pray for when she feels like she needs to get baptized because she wanted her boyfriend to do it but he has to work on becoming worthy.



The past week has been so great and I can't wait to see what is going to happen here in Bemidji! Great things are yet to come here. I have already learned so much! It's just so amazing! I love you all! Have a great week and don't miss me too much because I am having way too much fun in Minnesota!

 

Love,

 

Sister Kendall Park 

PS- they only give the really snowy areas the four wheel drive jeeps.... We got a four wheel drive jeep. The winters here are supposed to be brutal. They said this winter was going to be one of the worst they have ever had! Worst than last winter and last winter it got down to -50 degrees WITHOUT wind chill. Wish me luck!!