Posadas - May 21, 2012

Dear friends and family,

Transfers! I was moved just when I least expected it. I am not sure why, but I really felt like I was going to stay in Barrio 4 for at least one more transfer with Hna. Pack. I actually hoped to stay because I was excited to keep working with Marcelo and helping him prepare for his baptism. I also had really grown to love the area and the members. It is strange how you don´t realize how much you love something until it is gone, but this last week I have been remembering fondly and sometimes missing my cute little ward there in Resistencia.

However, I am in a great new area! And my new assignment is a bit of curveball from the mission president. I got a call from the APs early Tuesday (usually they call Tuesday night) to explain to me that they were doing something a little different this transfer and that I had a special assignment. I am now in the city of Posadas in the province of Misiones and they put me as companions with...Sister Griffeth! Again! This almost NEVER happens. But it happened! And we couldn´t be happier. What this means for me is a lot of good food, origami and cool french braids. Hermana Griffeth is a champion chef, origami-er and french braider. So I am looking forward to one (or two!) more transfers with her.

Misiones is beautiful. Much more beautiful than Resistencia (in terms of physical landscape, at least). I am thrilled to be here. It was a 5 hour bus ride from Resistencia and as I was riding in I watched the landscape change from flat brown shrubbery to hilly and green. It actually reminds me quite a bit of Hawaii because there are lots of trees, including palm trees, it is more humid, they have all RED DIRT, and the city is built along the Parana river (which is as close as you can get to ocean in my mission). Posadas is an even BIGGER city than Resistencia and our area is the most urban part of it. We have el centro (i.e. downtown) and all of the surrounding neighborhoods. Including a few very very wealthy neighborhoods. So, so far on my mission each area I move to is more urban and more wealthy than the last. In the ward here they have had several convert baptisms of friends and spouses of members in the last year, but it, like barrio 4, is also generally a pretty tough area. There are lots of HUGE apartment buildings here (in Barrio 4 there were like 4 story buildings. Here, we are talking downtown skyscrapers with 50 stories).

A few other observations:

-There are lots of people that juggle knives and bowling pins and stuff in front of cars waiting at stoplights to get money.

-There are also people that sell chipas (delicious cheesy bread) on every street corner.

-Posadas is for lovers. Apparently. People are always making out on street corners and in the back of buses. It seems like there is a lot more PDA here than in my other areas.

-Posadas seems like a pretty artsy hip modern city. Or at least more so than Resistencia. There are lots of cools plazas and murals and statues and museums and theaters. I have also seen DOG WALKERS here. As in, people paid to walk other people’s dogs. Lots of dog walkers! So, I feel like you can´t get much more city than that.

My apartment here is really nice. My apartments just keep getting nicer and nicer. We live above a morgue which is both funny and strange, but we have a beautiful view of the city from our 3rd floor balcony and we are lulled to sleep every night by the sounds of car horns and squeaky bus breaks and dogs barking. Good thing I am a deep and easy sleeper because I honestly can fall asleep in seconds even with all the noise. Our balcony is nice and big so my plan today is to buy a few planters and plant some lettuce and herbs that will do well in chilly weather.

A couple missionary experiences from this week:

We went to contact a guy named Osvaldo who lives in one of the huge apartment buildings. It is still a new experience for me, standing in front of a block of hundreds of doorbells and finding one and then talking to someone over a speaker. But, I am excited for new experiences! Anyways he answered and then came down to meet us. He was an interesting fellow. Very very bright. Early 30s with a four year old son. He is going through a divorce. He seems to have a more intellectual interest in the church but we are still going to try teaching him a few lessons. He is a freemason. And talked for a long time about masonry.

We also ate lunch at the house of a member who is one of the richest people I have ever met, let alone dined with. The wife is a new convert (she is actually super amazing and inspiring) and the husband is an older man who has been a member for over 30 years but who just recently started coming back to church after marrying his new wife. He owns one of the biggest most popular brands of Yerba Mate (a very popular herbal drink) in Argentina and he, apparently, owns many houses in many countries and a lot of lands and factories and stuff. His house here in Posadas where we ate is 5 stories tall and has an elevator and a built in fish tank in the floor and a beautiful view of the coast and the river and a microwave (you dont see them much here!) and a jacuzzi on the roof and full-time hired help. I felt very out of my element eating with them (and their hired help) but they are great people and very strong in the church.

In other news, we went with an investigator to a stake "Standards Night" yesterday in the church, where they went over the new For the Strength of Youth pamphlets with the youth and their parents and leaders. At one point the speaker showed a 5 minute clip from The Lion King and Hermana Griffeth and I almost exploded with excitement. It was strange, but movies seem to be a lot funnier, more exciting, more engaging and absorbing when you have been deprived of them for MONTHS. Movies are going to feel so great in another 9 months when I get home! Seriously, it was just the Lion King and I felt like I was watching the best movie ever made. IS the Lion King the best movie ever made?! Someone please tell me.

Last, but not least, I hit 9 months in the mission this past Wednesday and apparently it is a tradition for sister missionaries to take a picture with a fake pregnant belly when they hit their halfway point (symbolizing the 9 months, you know...). I had never heard of this so-called tradition but I thought "what the heck!" and Hna Griffeth took some pictures of me in my Argentina jersey with my big belly. I thought the Argentina jersey would be especially appropriate because if I were to have a baby here it would be PURO ARGENTINO! Hna Griffeth also taught me an Argentine soccer song that she learned from her last companion who is from Buenos Aires. I will be singing it when I watch Argentina play in the next world cup.

Anyways, here´s to Argentina! And 9 months in the mission! Ole! Ole! Ole!

Hna Parker