09 October 2012

My Birthday/Conference Weekend - October 9, 2012

Family and Friends,

I don´t have too much time to write because we are going to a local Zoo/Animal Reserve! I have no idea what kinds of animals we will see, but it should be fun (although traditional zoos tend to depress me a little....but I think this place is more open and jungly).

This week was fantastic and my birthday was very unexpectedly remembered by many and very thoroughly celebrated. I received THREE cakes and many little gifts and phone calls. Celebrations started on Tuesday when my old companion Hna. Pack who recently was transferred to my zone, organized a little post-district meeting party. On Friday I received phone calls all day starting with my district leader and his companion in the morning calling and singing happy birthday. Around lunch Hna Hobbs and her new companion called and sang. Mid-afternoon the mission office called and a sweet Argentine Elder made his best attempt to sing me happy birthday in English and then, right before bed the other sisters in our district called to give me birthday greetings and sing.

Friday night, about an hour before we had to be back in the apartment, my companion managed to organize a little surprise birthday dinner for me at Sol´s house. Sol is one of my favorite people here in Formosa. She is actually in a different ward but she lives just a few blocks away from us and is basically best friends with all the sister missionaries in all of Formosa. She has me and my companion over for lunch every Thursday. She is about our age and is preparing to go on a mission herself.

Anyways, I suspected something was up, as sometimes my companion had rather random, cryptic phone conversations with Sol earlier in the week. But I chose not to pay too much attention -- and they really ended up surprising me! I walked into a room decorated with a birthday sign, and balloons and home-made pizza and cake. It was soooo sweet!

THEN, Saturday night, one of my favorite families in our branch told us that we HAD to stop by their house after the last session of conference. So we stopped by and they surprised me with a GIANT delicious creamy vanilla-y cake. The husband is a baker, and you could tell. It was delicious!

I loved General Conference. It was a little bittersweet to think that it was my last conference in my mission... I have a lot more stamina for listening to conference as a missionary. I was BLOWN AWAY by the announcement about lowering the mission ages. I think it´s pretty exciting! I think a lot more girls will go now that they don´t have to wait so long.

Aaron is right, I loved the Saturday sessions more than the Sunday sessions for some reason. There was just one great talk after another. I especially loved Elder Cook´s talk, Elder Uchtdorf´s talk, Elder Ballard´s talk about bees and honey and I was very interested to hear Elder Oaks’ talk about protecting children. There are a lot of children who need a lot of protection here in Argentina.

More thoughts and pictures from my birthday (and the zoo) next week!

Love,

Hermana Parker





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