Dear Family and Friends,
I have survived another week at the MTC. The most important news this week is that I am leaving! On Monday, September 5th for Buenos Aires. I can't believe it! I won't have even been here 3 weeks.
What this means is that I probably won't recieve any DearElder.com letters (or, actually, any other letters sent to me after this Saturday). So send me a letter while it's still easy! It would mean the world to me. And I will write you back! I am not sure that they will forward any mail I recieve after I leave. I know for sure they just throw away DearElders since there is no postage. I think that when I am in Argentina the most reliable way to get mail to me will be through the pouch system. But I MIGHT be able to get emails, and longer letters and packages can be sent to my mission president's office. That address should be on the sidebar there.
I had some photos printed this week and will probably send some of those out so you guys can see everyone in my district and also pictures of ME as a sister missionary, nametag and all. I am sure I will have more time in Argentina to actually upload a few as well to be posted here on the blog.
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| MTC district |
Really quick, the elders in my distirct are Elder Cannon, Ovalle, Baldwin and Martinez. Two native speakers, two somewhat native speakers. They are all great. I wish I had more time to write about them. They are going to Denver South, Sacramento and Asuncion Paraguay on their missions.
I am experiencing that MTC time warp that everyone told me about. I've been here for 2 weeks and I already feel like I am some sort of aged MTC war veteran or wise old mTC sage entitled to impart all the wide-eyed newcomers with wisdom and knowledge. I am sure this would annoy those who are here for 9 weeks or longer...but oh well! I am out of here in 4 days! I am pretty excited about that. The MTC has been great but I also am fine with moving on to new things.
I have decided I DO feel very much like a nun at times here, calling all the women "sister" as I do. "Good morning sister, would you please pass the salt?" and "Sister, what kind of shampoo is that you're using?!!" I am sure this is the closest I will ever get to being a nun so i guess I will relish it while I can. It is pretty fun.
Something I neglected to mention last week in my email: all the sisters in my district and I are in the choir. It seems like everyone in the MTC wants to be in the choir right now because you always have to fight to get a seat at the practices. Anyways, it has been a wonderful part of my time here. The man who directs us on Sundays is an impressive fountain of scriptual knowledge. He is always spouting off scripture from the top of his head and relating the stories to whatever song we are singing. This last week we sang a beautiful arrangement of Faith of Our Fathers and he told us stories about Paul and about Abraham that I am not sure I've ever heard before.
Probably the biggest plus of singing in the choir is that you always get good seats at the Tuesday night devotionals. This was especially nice this week because Elder Holland came to speak to us.
I can't even begin to describe how powerful it was to be in the same room with him and to listen to him speak for over an hour--no prepared remarks, no notes--just speaking to us from his heart and answering our questions.
In the past I have been a little overwhlemed by the intensity of his speaking style and have felt his delivery to be too harsh and gating to resonate well with me. On Tuesday, however, he was as intense and as direct as ever, but I think it was something about his physical presence in the room, and the incredible depth of feeling with which he spoke, and the ewually, if not more intense love and reverence and humility he radiated--that made all the difference. I do not have time to summarize all of his words or even most of them. I filled up 8 pages of my journal. Here are a couple quotes from the Q&A segment of the meeting:
About prayer: "Pray. Break down that barrier. Try a little harder to be unrestrained in your prayers. Just burst into the kingdom with the vigor of your earnest supplication."
The last question he read during the Q&A was simple but touching. Someone asked: "why does God love us?"
He paused, looking for words, and then said with such feeling that his voice quavered throughout: "I am very, very, very imperfect. I feel very acutely my inadequacies and I am certain those who are close to me have noted them too. But, there is one thing that I'd like to suggest I am almost, nearly perfect in--and that is the love I have for my children. Sinful, inadequate, imperfect as I am--there is NOTHING, in righteousness, I wouldn't do for my children. (...) and I am just an regular, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, Latter-Day Saint Kind of guy. If that is true of me, what on EARTH does it mean for God?! Why does He love us? Because we are literally, truly and eternally his children."
I can't explain why that was such a powerful and satisfying and wholly satisfactory answer to that question, but it was. I could feel it. And I know it is true.
I still need to write about Sharon Eubanks talk. I need to do her justice. i might share some of her words with a few of you in private letters. Her talk was probably equally powerful to me as Elder Hollands. But I am running out of time once again.
I love you all! Please take 5 minutes here or there to write me a quick messgae these next couple days. It would mean the world to me even to get a quote or a lymerick or a haiku.
I will write you next from Argentina!
Love,
Hermana Parker
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