Dear Family and Friends,
I made it Argentina and all is well. We got into Buenos Aires on the morning of the 6th (a Tuesday) and I didn´t make it to my area until very late on the evening of the 7th. All of the incoming sisters spent our first night in the home of Sister and President Heyman in Resistencia. They are very nice and their home is very welcoming. We had some training there in the mission offices in Resistencia and then they paired us up with our trainers and shipped us off to our areas.
I am being trained by Hermana Da Silva from Uruguay and we are serving in Goya. Hna. Da Silva is great. She is very patient and kind and is always complimenting me on my Spanish. Goya is a smaller city about a 4-hour bus ride away from Resistencia. There are, I think, 6 missionaries here. My companion and I and 2 companionships of elders. There is one branch which can either be very small or quite large depending on the weather (I´m serious, it shrinks considerably if it is too hot or too cold out) and, apparently, whether or not there are elections going on (there are elections this coming weekend--Hna Da Silva said last time no one came to church except for the missionaries).
So far I love being a missionary. It is very hard work, I come home every night exhausted and with aching feet. We walk all day long and small things like having 10 extra minutes to get ready on Sundays feel like a luxury. But the work is also incredibly satisfying and there is always plenty if not too much to do. I end every day feeling fulfilled. I love meeting with the people here, sitting with them in their houses, sharing important matters of the soul together, talking with them about God and love and hope. It is really very beautiful. There have been several moments--during a lesson with one of our investigators, or as groups of local children call out "hermanas! hermanas!" and run to us when they see us coming from afar off, that I have been struck with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and privilege that I have this chance to be here and to do what I am doing.
Our area here in Goya has a piece of the city but also a lot of the outskirts and countryside. Most of the streets are made of dirt and many of the houses are crude constructions made of wood or cement--this is especially true as you walk further out into the countryside. We meet with people from a variety of economic backgrounds but many of our investigators and members here live in very humble circumstances. We have several investigators who cannot read. It is rare to find a house with more than 3 rooms and with anything nicer than a cement floor. I have noticed that the majority of people have very poor dental health and many people are missing several teeth.
I am very happy that I arrived in the springtime. The weather right now is perfect. A little cold in the morning and at night but very nice during the day.
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| Lujan's Baptism |
She has made some incredible changes in her life as she has embraced the gospel. She quit smoking, she went through a headache of a process to get the paperwork and officially marry her partner of many years. This Sunday she received the gift of the Holy Ghost and she put on her nicest collared shirt and slacks. She brought with her a tithing envelope to hand to the branch president. Tithing was the last lesson we taught her before her baptism and it was extremely gratifying to see her embrace that principle of the gospel immediately.
I have had many other wonderful experiences. The people here are, in general, very open. It is not hard to find people who are willing to listen to our message. Most times we strike up a conversation by simply asking people if they believe in God. I have not yet met one person who has said "no." In fact, most people respond with an emphatic "yes, of course!" Although people are quite willing to hear our message it is definitely more of a struggle to get people to make changes in their life or to do small things like come to church on Sunday. Last Sunday we had about 8 investigators that told us they would come to church. Only one showed up. But the one who did was a miracle. Leonardo is a single man in his mid 40´s. His wife left him many years ago and he has no children. He seems to be pretty lonely and depressed for the most part. He enjoys our visits, and welcomes us, but refuses to make promises because he says it is in his nature to be distracted and unreliable. He doesn´t want to tell us he will come if instead he ends up sleeping in or can´t seem to motivate himself to leave the house. We tried to talk to him about Jesus Christ and the power of the atonement to help us change and find happiness. We tried to teach him about free agency and how the greatest thing we can do in this life is use our gift of agency to "choose the better part," serve God and our neighbors and do good things. He persisted in saying he would make no promises. And then, he showed up! I couldn´t believe it. I was so happy.
On another note, I ended up having to teach the Gospel Principles class to our investigators and new converts this week while my companion went to pick up another investigator. She ended up not coming because she was off selling tomatoes, or something like that, so Hermana Da Silva came back to help--but it was quite an adventure to be left to my own devices with a class full of people to teach a lesson about eternal families in Spanish in my first week in Argentina. I think I did an okay job considering. I am sure stuff like this will happen many times while I am here.
We are meeting with many other people. My favorite person we have tracted into so far is a guy named Matias. We knocked on his door last night and he was very excited to talk to us. He seemed very sharp and intelligent and extremely kind. He is in his 20´s, I forget what he said he was studying but he told us that his father studies theology and that he loves to read and learn about other religions. He responded to our request to visit him again with an enthusiastic "yes."
Well, my time is running short. I forgot to bring my camera with me to the internet cafe this week but I will send pictures (including the one for sister bishop and of Lujan´s baptism) next week.
A BIG thank you to everyone for you emails and letters. Before I sign off here is the deal with letters and packages:
Dearelder.com still works and is probably the easiest way to send me a message. I was told that they print them in Salt Lake on Monday and that they arrive in my mission office around Thursday and I get them in my District Meetings on Tuesday.
I can also receive and write emails but if I get too many it is hard for me to read and respond to them all in my allotted email time. So, I think I prefer dearelders.
You can also send me regular mail to the address at my mission office. Regular mail in Argentina should be pretty reliable and get to the office in about 2 weeks. I would LOVE some cool handwritten letters. I will definitely write you back when I have time on P-days. I wrote about 4 letters that I am sending off today.
Packages are expensive to send and to receive so they have a rule in my mission that I can only receive 4 throughout my entire mission. You are not supposed to send homemade food and they said it is best never to declare a high value for the items you send. The higher you declare the more I pay (and they take the money out of my monthly allowance). They say that packages take a long time to process but that they all arrive safely. I don´t think a large padded envelope counts as a package but I am not positive. In the first package you send me I would love a giant jar of peanut butter. I only brought one small one and I am nearly out.
I love you all. Please write! I´d love to hear from you. Also send any questions you have my way and I will try to answer them.
Love,
Hermana Parker
Hey Sister Parker,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you made it to Argentina and Goya. We're exited to hear about your missionary experiences.
Love the Andersens in Parker CO