Dear Family and Friends,
It´s been another crazy, stressful, wonderful week. Right now I am sitting in a ciber and they are playing the first Harry Potter movie dubbed over in Spanish, very loud on a TV screen right in front of me, and I must say it is rather distracting. Especially because it is right at the climax where professor Quirrel unravels his turban and you discover that Voldemort is living like a leech on the back of his head... but I am trying to be a good missionary. must. not. watch....
Much of this week involved running around prepping everything for Victoria´s baptism. We were making and delivering invitations and making all kinds of phone calls and checking on baptismal clothes, running around telling people there was a time change, and trying to find enough priesthood holders to come to the baptism because nobody in the bishopric could make it. It was all made extra stressful because Victoria´s mom had been on a trip to Buenos Aires the last few weeks and Victoria had been living with her aunt and uncle in a different ward, outside of our area, where we couldn´t go and visit her. Her mom was supposed to get back over a week before her baptism, but she kept on getting delayed and she didn´t end up getting home until the Friday night before the baptism. We ended up having to send the elders over to her uncle´s house to finish teaching her some of the lessons. Anyways, she made it back just in time to have one last lesson with us, try on her baptisimal dress (she looked great!) and have her baptisimal interview.
All´s well that ends well I suppose. The baptism was beautiful--worth every second of stress. and I will gladly do it again this week for Maria and her family (who came to the baptism and loved it and are excited for their baptism this coming Saturday).
I am not sure if I have shared enough about María and her kids. It has been an absolute JOY to teach this family. They are the type of family where you walk out of lessons and think "THIS is why I am on a mission." They live in rather heartbreaking circumstances: a tin-roof shack with old tattered cloths that divide the rooms. They have no bathroom so they do their "necessaries" in a plastic bucket (I am not sure where they dump the bucket...) and they shower by heating up water on the stove and dumping it over themselves in the little concrete passageway outside their house. They have shared some sad stories from their lives: stories of abuse and neglect and financial hardship that just make me ache and ache inside. But, anyways, the real point is, this family is just golden and I have seen how the gospel is beginning to light up their lives and transform them and help them overcome every hardship. They seem happier and lighter now. Full of enthusiasm and optimism. We came over for a lesson last weekend and Maria told us that her kids had been singing the new primary song they learned all morning and that the older girls had been reading their Book of Mormons.
There was one moment, just a simple moment the other day, that I don´t think I´ll ever forget. Maria doesn’t have a phone so if we want to tell her something, we just have to drop by her house. The time of Victoria’s baptism had changed and Maria and her kid´s were planning on going, so we had to drop by to tell them about the time change. The "moment" was just seeing the kid´s reaction to our unexpected visit. It was so precious--they were all smiles. Silvana came running out to the gate to give us a big hug and to tell us all about her week and how she prayed for help on her tests at school. Then little Alba and Rubén came out too. They chattered and gave us hugs and high fives, and Alba asked a million questions (as always) and I remember as I was standing there, talking with them and listening to them and just being with them, I was just overcome with a powerful love for them. I remember thinking--"Wow. I LOVE this family" And then it hit me that this isn´t just a right now thing either. I am going to care for them and ache for them and worry for them and keep on loving them for the rest of my life... and I wouldn´t have it any other way. I love knowing that we can form beautiful eternal relationships here on earth. And not just eternal families but, I think, eternal friendships too:
"And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy." D&C 130:2
Thank you to so many of you back home for your support and friendship. It has meant the world to me on my mission. I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Parker
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