Every Day is a Holiday!
Dear family and friends,
Yesterday was another holiday here in Argentina which means our P-day was pushed to Tuesday (today). I asked many many people what holiday we were celebrating but no one seemed to know. Juan, one of our recent converts (and a man so kind and constant and gentle and pure in his actions and intenions that I do not hesitate to say he is one of the best human beings I have ever met. he is a widower and lives with some nephews and a bunch of cats and he always makes us tortas fritas and smiles really big when he sees us or anyone from church and he is always one of the first to arrive at church every sunday and he also seems to come to every baptism and pays his tithing faithfully every single month although he doesn´t know how to read so he always asks for our help to fill out his name and the other information on the tithing slip) told me it was something to do with "Malvinas", but someone else told me very emphatically that it absolutely was not. Someone out there in the real world should do a little googling for me to let me know what holdiay we were celebrating so I can celebrate retroactively. I love celebrating.
Anyways, all is well in Goya. Tonight we will find out what happens with transfers. I have not the slightest inkling about what might happen. President Heyman is known for making sort of crazy changes (including sending an elder to a very remote province in his very last transfer to be a zone leader). I´d love to stay with Hna. Da Silva for her last transfer in the mission (and for Christmas!) because we are working with a lot of great people and it would be sad to have to leave them. Also, we are just about to install air conditioning in our apartment, and to be honest, that is a major plus for staying in Goya as well. Anyways we hope everything stays the same but Hna. Da Silva and I are afraid that one of us will leave, so we have been making little preparations--visiting all the people we love and explaining to them about transfers, just in case. They give us NO time to go say goodbyes in my mission (they call us Tuesday night and we are usually on a bus for another city early Wednesday morning) so we have to say lots of just-in.case goodbyes. Lujan, who doesn´t have a phone, left us with the phone number of a neighbor who lives a few houses down so that we can call there and they can pass on the message to her if one of us leaves. Yesterday we also visited one of our favorite families with their 6 little children that live out in the countryside and brought each of the kids popsicles and took picture. I will let you all know what happens in my next email. It could be that everything will continue as normal. Or, if there are changes, I am sure it will only prove to be a new adventure.
I would like to thank very much the anonymous sender of a small ziplock bag of peanut butter playdough. I recieved the envelope earlier this week and I loved the surprise! I can´t believe it made it all the way here in the regular Argentine mail without being intercepted or disgarded. But, anyways, I thought I would thank the not-so-anonymous sender (I know who you are!) and let them know it made it here safe and sound. And just in time! I was just down to the last spoonfuls of the peanut butter I got in my birthday package.
This week some beautiful things happened. Many of my favorite moments as a missionary are sometimes hard to summarize or quantify. Sometimes it is a single image or sentence or a meaninful look. Yesterday, for example, as we approach Sandra´s little wooden house there was a moment, right before she looked up and noticed us approaching that we watched her sitting there unawares, on a bench in the sun, reading the book of mormon, her little naked baby Bruno at her side happily splashing in a makeshift pool she made for him from a stray bucket. When she saw us coming she smiled. "you´re reading!" we exclaimed. She nodded and said that Lucas (her two year old) was sleeping and Bruno was being so good and quiet that she thought she might as well take a moment to read. Anyways that moment: Sandra, sunshine, Book of Mormon in lap, Bruno smiling and spalshing. That moment is still shining brightly in my mind.
Well, that´s all I have time for today. There are "bigger" things that have happened this week but sometimes I like to write about the details. I think it´s these details that make life endlessly fascinating and rich and unpredictable and beautiful.
Well, we are off to try a few more flavors in our favorite ice cream shop...you know, just in case.
Love from Goya,
Hna. Parker
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