Alma Fuerte – December 17, 2012

Hello Christmas Family,

Just a short one again this week. Things are great here in Argentina. Hot and great.

I am sending a few photos and some explanations:

One of the biggest perks about having a companion whose family lives just a few blocks away, is that we get to visit them all the time and all of a sudden I feel like I have all these new aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews. Last Monday we spent the afternoon with her family and her adorable 6 month old twin nephews were in town and I am now best friends with baby Alejandro. He and his mom and brother live in a tiny town far away, but they come to Formosa a few times a months for treatments for little Ale´s club feet.

Yesterday was the best day for two reasons. Reason 1: We had TONS of investigators in church (6). We went to go get a couple of them and then we took the bus and it just kept stopping and MORE members and investigators would get on and by the time we all got off at the plaza a few blocks away from the chapel there were over 10 of us.

Reason 2: We found an adorable abandoned puppy on the side of the road and we SAVED her. Hna. Luna named her Alma and we carried her around with us in Hna. Luna´s sombrero all afternoon. We wanted so bad to keep her, but we did the second best thing... we gave her to one of the families in the branch that we visit often so we can see her almost every day. They loved her right away and we know they will take good care of her.

The last photo is very recent, taken just one hour ago in a store down the street. SAXOPHONE SANTA!

Merry Christmas! I don´t know exactly when I´ll be calling but you should send me all the phone numbers you have (home phone, all of the family cell phones, etc.) I will probably have more details when I write on the 24th, but I am sure we will communicate.

Love,

Hna Parker

AC AC AC! – December 10, 2012

Just a short email this week--we don´t have a lot of time. ...But I will make up for the length by sending pictures!

If all goes well, today we will have a new air conditioner for our bedroom! We have to go see if they sent the money though, and then go and buy it. I am so happy! After taking a quick poll of ALL the sister missionaries in the province of Formosa (there are like 10 companionships) I found out we were the only ones without AC. Anyways, this will be remedied soon. It has been soooo hot, and our one fan is so pathetic that I literally have not been able to sleep many nights and instead just lie in agony all night tossing and turning in my own sweat. Okay, haha. That was dramatic. It is not that bad. But AC will be a welcome improvement.

Besides the extreme heat, everything is going well here in Formosa with Hermana Luna. She was originally supposed to stay with me until this Wednesday, when we have transfers. But it looks like we are short on sisters and she will likely stay with me for my entire next transfer. It is weird serving with someone who lives here in Formosa (just a few blocks from our apartment) and is not a set-apart missionary. She lives so close by that we are always stopping by her house to drop off dirty clothes for her mom to wash, or to eat lunch or dinner (whenever we don´t have anyone in the branch to feed us). It is sort of like having a second home and a second mom. It is definitely a different feeling.

We have had several investigators disappear or drop out on us this week. We had been teaching one woman, Olga, and her two daughters and they were preparing to be baptized this month. However, we have a requirement in our mission that investigators must attend church at least 3 times to be baptized. This week was CRUCIAL if they wanted to be baptized on the 22nd. Well, this Friday they just flat-out disappeared on us and we still aren´t sure where they went. And they have no cell phone for us to call to see what´s up.

A few notes to accompany the photos I am sending.

1. The miracle of the umbrella! We found a perfectly good big blue umbrella in the trash just before a surprise mid-day storm hit. 2. These days ice cream and sun hats are a MUST. 3. Meeting a sheep.

A few notes to close:

Birthday: Mom! I received my birthday package several weeks ago, I am not sure if I told you. THANK YOU. The clothes are perfect. Also I got my birthday card from Ashley this week and it is the best card I have ever received. I loved it. :)

Mail: I sent out a package of letters over a month ago but for some reason it was returned to me and I am just now sending them out again. So if some of you get letters that say "happy thanksgiving!" in January, that is why.

Christmas: I still don´t know how Christmas phone calling will go. Everything is crazy and confusing with the sudden change of mission president. But I will let you know as soon as I know something.

That´s it!

Ciao,

Hermana Parker

A Miracle and a Nightmare – November 27, 2012

Dear Friends and Family,

It is amazing how much can change in just one week! I was not in the best spirits last week, as I am sure was evident in the tone of my email, but this week is a different story. SO MUCH has happened. Where do I begin?!

First, let me tell you about the MIRACLE of Ramon and the NIGHTMARE of Antonia.

Ramon was our golden investigator that we “lost” last week due to the interference of his semi-psychotic woman-friend Antonia. Antonia is very active in another local church, but despite this, at first she received us very well. She welcomed our visits, listened and participated and even went to church a few times with Ramon. However, to be honest, I doubted her sincerity from the very start and was not surprised to see her attitudes begin to change as Ramon got closer and closer to his baptismal date and to their wedding. We did everything we could to respect and strengthen her relationship with Ramon (for example: always invited her to lessons and to church, invited them to go to a couples dinner at the church, and helped get them the paperwork and everything they needed to get married). However, Ramon, from the very start was a little uncertain about whether he was ready to get married or whether he preferred to move out and separate from Antonia. In our very first lesson, before we ever met Antonia, he mentioned to us that things weren't going very well with his girlfriend and that he was thinking of moving out and going to live with his sister. We tried not to push him one way or the other, but told him that the important thing was to live the Law of Chastity and that he and Antonia needed to pray and ask God about what they should do and that we were only there to help them with their decision.

Anyways, Antonia began to say things like “the only reason I went to your church is because I was jealous.” She also insisted that the only reason Ramon ever went was to look for a new girlfriend. At this point she began to be very controlling and manipulative with Ramon, screening our calls, and saying awful, hurtful things and finally she told us that she didn´t want us to come back to her house. Seeing that it is her house and not Ramon's, we respected her wishes. We didn't want to cause any more problems, and no longer felt comfortable teaching Ramon or stopping by the house. So we just dropped him altogether, even though he was one week away from his baptism.

That was last week, Monday. Tuesday, we had a zone conference, and our zone leaders and district leaders were all very stressed out about the fact that we were not going to reach our goal of baptisms for November. A lot of the planned baptisms were falling through and our zone leaders started asking us what we could do to “save” Ramon's baptism.

Side note: I have to admit, all of the goals and numbers aspect of missionary work really stresses me out and sometimes irks me. I KNOW it is necessary to, with the guidance of the spirit, set goals and make plans. But sometimes I feel like the elders get a little distracted and carried away in the numbers game.

Anyways, at first I felt pretty annoyed that they were even asking us this. We had done EVERYTHING we could, but it was just a really complicated situation, especially considering that Ramon is a man and we are two young women and he had a crazy jealous (possibly dangerous) older girlfriend. So, they asked if they thought it would be any different if they tried talking with Ramon. We agreed and passed them his phone number so they could set up a lesson with him in the chapel and we “washed our hands” of the entire thing.

Well, the next thing we knew the AP´s and our Zone Leaders were doing his baptismal interview and filling out all the paperwork and they even brought the mission truck over to his house to help him move all of his stuff out and move IN to his sister´s house so he could get baptized three days later. We were not there for all of this, but we were told that Antonia came out and began to scream all sorts of obscenities and said she was going to call the police—so they had to stop moving stuff out of the house, and Ramon moved in with his sister with nothing more than a single change of clothes.

I am running out of time, so I will have to write part 2 of the story next week but, well, the miracle is, RAMON GOT BAPTIZED! When he moved in with his sister, he moved out of our branch and into the area of some other hermanas in our zone (hna Warnick and hna Hobbs). We had already taught him all the lessons, so all they had to do, basically, was make baptismal invitations and fill up the font.

Lots of other things happened this week. We celebrated Thanksgiving! I think there is nothing I love more than celebrating Thanksgiving with cute South Americans who have never ever celebrated this very North-American holiday.

We also organized a very successful branch activity Saturday—we played games and ate food and watched the movie 17 Miracles. It was a lot of fun and good way for Hna Medina to say goodbye to the branch.

Hermana Medina left yesterday morning for her mission in Colombia. It was bittersweet. I was very sad to see her go, but excited for her to finally get to her assigned mission.

And now, for these last two weeks of the transfer, I am serving with a “mini missionary” Hermana Luna! She is the very same member that threw me my surprise birthday party and gives us lunch every Thursday. Well, for the next two weeks, she is my companion full-time and I couldn´t be happier. She is amazing and in our ONE day together we have already had some great experiences. Specifically with a young woman named Julieta. Julieta is another mini miracle... but that is a story I will also have to save for next week.

So, next week you´ll have to tune in for the Ramon & Antonia Saga Part 2 and for the story of Julieta. And for PHOTOS.

Well, love you all tons and tons!

Happy Holidays!

Hermana Parker

Folklorico - November 12, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week has passed, and, as always, too much has happened to even begin to be able to recount it all.

I was reminded last night that the week isn´t over until it is really over. It was 9 PM, Sunday night (usually at around 9 PM on Sunday night we are arriving home exhausted from a week of work, ready to sleep) and somehow, at this hour, I found myself seated by the side of the road with a group of slightly drunken middle-aged men playing Argentine folk music. We were passing by on our way home, and Hermana Medina recognized some of the songs so we started up a little conversation, and the next thing we knew they had invited us to sit down and they were enthusiastically playing us love ballads. We gave them pass-along cards and invited them to church. One of the men kept talking to me in Portuguese for some reason, and I kept having to remind him that I speak Spanish.

Anyways, the best part of the week was our multi-zone conference with Elder Viñas. He is an area 70 and a very inspiring, spiritual man. He spoke to us for over 2 hours and I loved every second.

Before the conference he asked every missionary to come prepared with a 5-minute talk about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how it helps us in our missions. Everyone assumed he was going to select a few of us to give our talks in front of everyone, but in the end he just led a big discussion and had us all share what we had learned in preparing our talks. I love talking about the atonement...there is nothing else I would rather talk about. It is the root and the heart of my testimony and the reason why I am here. He invited us to make our lives and our missionary-work more centered in the atonement of Jesus Christ.

I left feeling inspired to be better and hopeful and determined to change, which proves that teaching true doctrine changes behavior much more effectively than talking about behavior changes behavior.

Well, it´s going to be a short one this week. I love you all very much,

Hermana Parker

From the Streets of Buenos Aires - November 5, 2012

Dear Friends and Family,

The biggest news from this week is that I WENT TO BUENOS AIRES!

The elder that was supposedly organizing the whole trip told us he was going to call us Monday to give us all the details. Monday came and went and we heard nothing. We figured he didn´t have everything set up yet and he would call Tuesday. Nope. We began to assume we had misunderstood and that we were going to go some other time. "Maybe it´s next week," we said to ourselves. I tried calling a few times but couldn´t get through. Finally, Wednesday morning, the day we were supposed to be leaving, I called again and finally got through. I explained that we were just a little confused because we thought we were going to be traveling to Buenos Aires, but we hadn´t heard anything, and asked if it was for next week. That is when Elder Flores said:

"NO, Hermanas! It is today! You are leaving today! Your bus leaves Resistencia at 7:30 tonight, you need to be here in the offices by 6:30."

Apparently he thought he had already called and told us all the details. Nope!

So, basically, we had to drop everything right then, go home, pack up our bags and hop on a bus to Resistencia. It is nearly 3 hours to Resistencia and then 13 more hours to Buenos Aires. To top it all off, right before we got on our first bus to Resistencia, Hna Medina fell and sprained her ankle pretty bad and scraped up her knee. Poor thing. Such awful luck! But the good part was that with looong bus rides ahead of her, she wouldn´t have to do her usual amount of walking.

We took a luxurious sleeper bus to Buenos Aires and they put us in the first class VIP seats. It was spectacular! The seats were soooo comfortable and folded back 180 degree to turn into beds. It was much more comfortable than my actual bed here in Formosa. There was lots of space: a personal curtain to draw around every seat for privacy, personal movie screens in front of every seat. They fed us a full hot dinner and breakfast, offered us free champagne and wine, played bingo, gave us toothpaste and toothbrushes, showed a movie (that I didn´t watch) , etc.etc.etc.

Okay, enough about the bus.... But I have never traveled in first class anything, so it was quite the experience for me.

When we got to the terminal we were greeted by Hermana Medina´s parents!

It was really cool to meet them. She lives right there in the city, about 15 minutes from the bus terminal. So she was freaking out the entire time about being so close to home. Her mom gave her a giant bag of clothes and gifts for the little kids here and hand cream and lots of other random stuff.

Then, we met up with the representative from the church offices and he took us all around the city in his car. Buenos Aires reminds me a lot of New York City. I had a

lot of fun even though it was basically all business all day. We went to the Colombian Consulate building, waited a whole lot, went to the bank, waited some more. Back to the Colombian consulate. Here's a photo of Hna Medina outside the Colombian state building with the Colombian flag. Outside we met a Colombian woman selling "arepas" (a typical food there, it is like a round cheese cornmeal bread thing). We began to talk to her and a whole bunch of other Colombian people. It was fun. They have a very different accent and Hna Medina

was stoked to meet so many people from her future mission land.

At one point, when we were waiting outside the bank, I got my shoes shined. Later, our new friend from the church offices took us to a huge shopping mall and bought us McDonalds for lunch. It was wild. I felt like I was back in the states. There is no such thing as malls or Mcdonalds (or ANY fast food) here in Formosa.

We took a plane back to Resistencia Thursday night. It was much faster, but much less comfortable. I liked how they spelled my name on my ticket: "Broocke." I think I will consider adding an extra C to my name, just to give it more pizzaz. What do you all think?

Well, after our brief little adventure, we returned back to work here and things are going so well. We found a new investigator a few weeks ago named Ramon. He is amazing. He has come to church two weeks in a row and this week came in a white shirt and tie, passed out hymn books (without being assigned, he is just super helpful and attentive), paid his tithing (!!!, keep in mind that we only met him a couple weeks ago and he is not a member), and is already making all sorts of friends. The only problem is that he needs to get married to get baptized so we are working on that.

I spent so much time writing about Buenos Aires that I don´t have much time to write about anything else. To close I´ll add that this Sunday was the first Sunday in a while that it didn´t rain and, so, for the first time in a long time our chapel was full! So many people came. And many many people who have been inactive for some time, who we have been visiting, came back. All of a sudden my little "rama parque" was HUGE (comparatively), and everyone was greeting everyone, and we had a lively, active Sunday School lesson, and lots of people got up to share their testimonies, and I just was filled with the most immense joy for the whole 3 hours. I don´t think I have ever felt so happy at church before. It was an amazing feeling. I was just smiling and smiling the whole time. I think it’s because I love this branch so much, and feel so invested in its success that I feel like when it is thriving and happy, I am thriving and happy.

So, I guess that´s it. I´ll end here. I am happy. I hope all is well at home.

Love,

Hermana Parker

Guaycolec - October 15, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

My letter today is coming directly from my personal journal. I am just typing up some excerpts from one of my entries... I do not usually write this much in a day (I wish!). I just happened to have a lot of time and thoughts this particular day...

Tuesday, Otober 9, 2012

Today we paid a grand total of 8 pesos to hop onto a colectivo and travel about 40 minutes out of the city to the Guaycolec wild animal reserve. Sol came with us and she prepared a delicous picnic lunch of swiss chard empanadas and ham sandwiches. We also brought an ice cold thermos of pear-mango tang (they have every flavor of tang imaginable here in Argentina!) that kept us going all afternoon.

Driving out into the countryside I was able to enjoy a little more of the natural landscape of Formosa. This land really is beautiful and greener than I imagined. Lots of lowlying scrubbish brushland dotted with tall slender palm trunks that explode into a firework of fronds and leaves. Every once in a while the vegetation became thicker and greener and a smill windy riacho cut through it. The weather was pretty perfect—hot but breezy. The sky a brilliant blue with tall white puffy clouds.

The reserve itself was a little empty and unkempt. Entrance is free and as we walked in we crossed paths with the hermanas from another district who were on their way out. Other than that, the whole place felt rather abandoned, and we were the only ones there.

A friendly guide smelling heavily of beer and cigarettes showed us around to some of the nearby cages—big scarlet parrots, a lovely happy little toucan, a funny rodentlike animal called a carpincho (they eat them here!), a little deer-like animal—then the guide gestured off in the distance to the path we´d have to take to see the monkies and jaguars and he returned back to his station (and presumably to his beer and cigarettes).

The monkies were my favorite. We could walk right up to their cage and stare at them nose to nose. They fascinate me. I think it´s because with their perfect little hands and facial expressions they seem so much like little furry humans. We spent almost 40 minutes staring at them and watching as they ate orange slices and climbed and jabbered and screeched.

On two separate occasions as we walked around the park a GIANT black and white iguana-like lizard creature darted across our path. I am not exactly sure what it was, but it was not caged in and it moved FAST, unlike what I usually expect from giant lizards.

On the way over, the colectivo dropped us off right in front of the reserve, but on the way back we had to walk back along the highway about a mile or so, crossing a bridge to a tiny busstop near the entrance to what seemed to be a rural farming village.

The walk was pleasant (we still had plenty of pear-mango tang) and when we reached our little out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere bus stop (seriously, there was just a little shelter with benches and then endless highway streching out for miles and miles cutting through wildnerness), we sat down and waited patiently for our bus to pass.

We ended up waiting for HOURS and getting back to our area an hour late, which was a stressful experience, but the bus never passed when it was supposed to. Still, as we waited I was overcome by the beauty of the landscape, the sky and the changing light, and I felt peaceful and happy. At one point a cow escaped from the pasture lands and several older fully-decked out Argentine “gauchos” (aka cowboys) came to corral it back in.

Sitting there, I had a lot of time to reflect and I began to think a lot about my mission and my short time here in Argentina which, wow, before I know it, will come to a close. When I first got here I thought all the time about home. For almost the first time in my life I struggled with feelings of being legitimatelyand painfully homesick. I didn´t write much about it here but I longed to be home, probably because it was familiar, beloved and much more comfortable, secure and altogether a lot easier than being a missionary. Now that home is closer in sight, I can feel my attitudes shifting. It is not any easier to be a missionary but I love being here, right where I am. I love this land, these people. I lately am struck by feelings of extreme tenderness and appreciation even for small moments—a child calling out “hermana!”, directing hymns in this tiny branch, drawing pictures of the plan of salvation. So many little things.

And lately I am starting to realize that “real life” and coming home to make very real, life-changing decisions about life and the future isn´t easy either. They are just hard in different ways. One thing at a time I suppose. I will cherish this while I still can and then move on to what´s next.

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

My Week in Audio - October 1, 2012

Dear Friends and Family,

I am not writing a traditional letter this week. Instead I am sending a series of voice recordings. This was an experiment. I carried my recorder around with me all week, but in the end, listening through it all, I realized a lot of it might not make sense for you or might be a little boring or random so I am only sending a few (even then, they might be boring or pointless to you, but for me they bring back good memories and capture some of the sounds of my life here). I also am still learning how to control the audi levels on my zoom recorder so sometimes the recordings are realy soft, other times loud, other times there is lots of wind sounds. Still, I enjoyed recording things this week and I think with practice I will improve and be able to create higher quality, more interesting, more organized audio-journal type things! Also, Hna Medina and I have plans to interview people and ask them to tell about local folklore, family stories, conversion stories, etc. So this might not be the end of my sending audio files...

I love you and hope all is well back home! Happy Birthday to me on Friday!

Love,

Hermana Parker

Ooops! Some of the files didnt attach because I accidentally recorded them in the WAV format. this will make my recordings even more disconjointed. oh well!

Audio files coming soon...

Newspaper Hat & Roberto Oviedo - September 24, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a good, interesting week. Wednesday we had transfers, so Tuesday night we went around and said a whole bunch of just-in-case goodbyes. It was really heart wrenching.

We have actually started to work with Ezequiel's entire family so we went to have a little Family Home Evening with them and take pictures and say our goodbyes. We even got Ezequiel to smile for us (he is much cuter when he smiles)! In our lesson we were also able to set baptismal dates with his mom (Raquel), his sister (Belen) and his little brother (Eduardo)! So we are working hard with them so that they can prepare for their baptisms.

Then we went to visit Lucas and his family. And then we went to our investigator Sandra´s house and ALL of her kids and all of the neighbor’s kids (her nieces/nephews/relatives) came over and we took pictures and made a video of all of them saying goodbye and they all started crying and then we all started crying and it was just a whole HUGE bittersweet mess of feelings!

We were pretty positive that Hermana Medina was going to be transferred to Colombia because, according to her contacts in Buenos Aires, everything is ready for her to go. But then we found out that she is NOT going to Colombia. At least, not yet. And we are together again for another transfer. So the rest of this week as we have passed by to visit people, we have heard lots of great sighs of relief and lots of exclamations of "you´re still together!"

I am excited to be here at least a few more weeks with Hermana Medina (it is possible she will be called to Colombia mid-transfer. NOOOO!). She is hilarious and we have a lot of fun joking together, learning English, inventing raps, making newspaper hats (do not worry family! I have top quality sun protection!), and dreaming of one day being on a popular radio/television show here: "The Roberto Oviedo Show" (well, actually it’s called, "El SHOW de ROBERTO OVIEDO!") The other day we passed by the radio station and decided to try to talk to someone to see if we could visit one P-Day and see how the radio works--and who should come out to talk to us but Roberto Oviedo himself!!! He showed us inside and showed us all his posters and trophies and all the old VHS copies of his show (30 years running) and we invited him to our baptism. It was an amazing moment. Now we joke all the time about one day making it onto his show (as far as we can tell it mainly features brassy, latin-y bands and exotic-ish dancers. but we are thinking we can change it up a little!)

This week we taught seminary one night and, oh boy, it was a DISASTER. We love them, but these youth from our branch are really hard to handle. We were teaching about the book of Proverbs and we only made it through 1/10 of the lesson.

Hna Medina takes a lot of short little videos and I thought I´d try sending one this week. The video I am attaching is from when we were waiting at the bus stop on our way to teach seminary. we had NO IDEA what was in store for us. It is half in Spanish and half in English--so for those of you who speak both you will understand it ALL. For those of you who speak only English, sorry! You´ll understand the first part. There is also ONE word in Guaraní--a word used commonly here in Formosa--"mitaii!" it means "kids."

Sorry, this week my email is all over the place. I am going to send a whole bunch of random pictures too from these last couple weeks to match the random tone of my email. Sometimes we make giant fires and sometimes I like to hold guitars. I love you all!

Keep keeping on.

Hermana Parker

Hope & Despair – September 17, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

I want to write a little bit about hope and despair and how I have experienced both of these feelings on my mission, and specifically, this week.

I will start with despair. In Preach My Gospel it talks about a cycle that starts with losing hope and becoming discouraged. Discouragement leads to weakened faith. Weakened faith leads to lower expectations, decreased effort, weakened desires and more difficulty in feeling and following the spirit. This cycle, as described in Preach My Gospel, has really impacted me on my mission. Sometimes it seems easiest to just give in to discouragement, but I always try to remember that doing so will weaken my faith. And, if I make an effort, and pray to avoid discouragement, that I can hopefully begin to put into action an opposite cycle--one that starts with hope, leads to a strengthened faith, optimism, greater desires and so on. There is a quote from a talk by Chieko Okazaki that I just love: "Sisters, I testify that the forces of life are always stronger than the forces of death. If we choose, if we even desire to choose, if we even hope for the desire to choose, we set in motion powerful forces for life that are led by Jesus Christ himself. He responds to those tender tendrils of crippled life with the force and energy that will bring them to flowering. Listen to these promises of love and yearning desire for us. Feel the hope they bring that with Him we can overcome the world."

I have to admit, that sometimes on my mission I encounter such tragic situations that I start to despair. A lot of it has to do with extreme poverty, but the greatest tragedies of all that I have seen have to do with sin--hatred, anger, violence, abuse, rape, addiction, neglect. I have seen these things all throughout my mission, and of course I saw them before my mission too, but for some reason they really have been weighing on me here in my new area in Formosa. Often we go to visit people and we hear such awful, heartwrenching stories, that it is hard to leave these lessons with a brightness of hope and an optimistic spirit. Often I feel a little helpless or powerless when the powers of darkness seem to be so strong and so deeply rooted in homes, families and even communities around me. How can I possibly make a difference when these things have become so widespread and accepted that they begin to seem inevitable? This week my companion and I have walked out of houses and felt to weep for the things we saw and heard. We have poured out our hearts in prayer for some of the people here in our branch. But sometimes, sometimes, they feel a little bit like the prayers of the prophet Mormon at the end of the Book of Mormon for his people that are "without faith" (see Mormon 3).

Still, now I want to write a little about hope. Even in the face of such tragedy, not always, but often, I do feel hope. I pray for hope and there are moments when feelings of hope come even when it should be impossible. My thoughts and impressions from the rededication of the Buenos Aires Temple were erased last week, but I wanted to share that there in the rededication I felt an incredible brightness of hope. I felt the certainty that light could overpower darkness and as sister Okazaki says that "the forces of life are always stronger than the forces of death." I know that purity and goodness are possible even in a world of darkness and corruption. This is my testimony of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. I felt an incredible peace in the temple last weekend.

I also felt hope as I watched Lucas and Ezequiel enter the waters of baptism this weekend. It was a beautiful occasion even though the preparations (as usual) were a little stressful. I feel hope that, although each of them face very challenging circumstances in their respective families and homes, that maybe, just maybe, they will be the ones to make a difference in their families and communities. I have a perfect faith that if they persevere in applying the gospel principles we have taught, they will be able to have happy, successful lives, regardless of material circumstances. This I know, because I have seen it in the lives of wonderful, humble, faithful members here.

I am attaching a few photos. It was pretty much a miracle that Lucas´s dad showed up! And please excuse the grim expression of Ezequiel´s face. He really is a nice, happy, person--he just needs to learn how to smile in photos.

Well, that is all I have time to write for now. Transfers are tomorrow. It is getting harder to get Argentine visas and so they are not sending as many North Americans to our mission lately. Rumor is that this transfer there will be LOTS of changes, so I would like to say I will stay in the branch here in Parque, but I am not sure.

I love you all.

Hermana Parker

Lost - September 11, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

What a week! I can´t even remember what we did most days, so I´m not sure what to tell you about them...one day just sort of blurred into the next. We are pretty busy working with two investigators who have a baptismal date for the 15th (i.e. this coming Saturday, i.e. Jared´s birthday! Happy birthday Jared!)

One is Ezequiel, he is 16, we found him because he has lots of friends in the church and has been attending seminary (a little background: they don´t have early morning seminary here in this stake. Instead they have it 3 nights a week from 7:30-8:30 PM. Lots of kids go that aren´t members, but, from my perspective it´s more as a social thing than anything else, because afterwards they play ping pong and soccer and hang out. We have tried visiting a lot of the non-member youth that go to seminary, but have only really seen progress with Ezequiel). He is pretty shy, and at first it was difficult for me to gauge how much he was learning or if he was really feeling anything when we had lessons with him, but these last few weeks we have had some great experiences. He has been reading everything we leave him, and will even sometimes read more on his own, he has the desire to be baptized and it has been tender and rewarding to strain to listen to his soft, whispered, but very sincere prayers.

Our other investigator is a 9 year old boy named Lucas. He is a riot! He is pure chaos! Every lesson with him is like a whirlwind. But he sure is a lot of fun, too. He was supposed to be baptized with his mom about a month ago but his dad (who is separated from the family) wasn´t fully on board and the previous sisters also felt that he lacked a little preparation and understanding. Still, he comes to church each week and he loves it and we continued visiting his family often because his mom and older brother are recent converts.

I wrote about 5 more paragraphs but then the window randomly shut down and I lost it all and now I have an angry, annoyed, devastated feeling in my stomach and I think I might cry. grrrr.

Basically, Lucas is funny. Our apartment almost caught on fire and we had the re-dedication of the Buenos Aires temple this weekend. It was great.

Sorry. I will write more next week.

Blah.

Hermana Parker

Rain & Miracles -- August 27, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Northern Argentina is bipolar and decides every other day that it wants to be a different season. Blazing summer heat one day, and bone-chilling winter cold the next.

On Thursday my companion and I went to help Sandra, an investigator, break up pieces of bricks and rocks with mallets and hammers so that she can create some sort of flooring in her dirt-floor house. I think we were working for 15 minutes and I already felt my neck and shoulders burning and sweat beading up on my forehead. Sandra loaned me her son´s Argentine cowboy hat to shade me from the sun, and a pair of gloves because after 15 minutes I also already had several nasty blisters (I felt so weak and self-conscious about my delicate hands...I so wanted to be strong and helpful and work for hours without tiring and with no signs of wear. Instead I hammered for 15 minutes and already had broken stinging skin. Pathetic. Oh well.) Sandra was amazing and kept on bringing out cups of cold juice and we would rotate, taking turns hammering.

Anyways, the point is, 2 days later I was bundled up in three layers of clothes trying not to freeze. The weather here never ceases to amaze me.

Anyways the cold rain proved to be a challenge in getting investigators to commit to come to church once again. For some reason it seems that it is lovely and sunny all week and then the rain hits on the weekend, right when we are running around like crazy trying to get everyone ready to come to church. The truth is that the cold rain and thick deep mud really does make it complicated for most people to come and so it is understandable, but it doesn´t make it any less frustrating.

Still, we had a little miracle I wanted to share. On Saturday night the elders and hermanas in the neighboring ward had a giant double baptism. Two older couples were getting married and then baptized. We were really excited to invite investigators because it´s always good for them to see what a baptism is like and there was even going to be a fun little party afterwards to celebrate. The elders only told us the night before, though, so we spent the morning visiting people and inviting them to come. One of our investigators, a teenage boy named Ezequiel, told us he wanted to come and his younger sister also excitedly asked if she could come too. We said "Yes!" (of course) and made plans to come get them at 6:30 PM. We got there at 6:30. No one was there. The house appeared empty. Finally, after much knocking, a little boy (I think the youngest brother) came out and told us that everyone left.

We were pretty sad. We can only go to baptisms if we bring investigators with us. We hadn´t made many back-up plans and the night was cold, wet, windy, dark. What would have been an enjoyable, spiritual night, turned into a 3-hour romp around in the mud knocking on doors and being rejected. At the very last hour, before turning in for the night I suggested that we pass by one last time for Ezequiel´s house so we could at least confirm with him about church the next morning and offer to come pick him up. When we got there he still wasn´t home but we talked to his younger sister and she said that they were already planning on coming to church and that they would be ready at 8:30 when we came by in a taxi. It was nice to hear, but I still didn´t feel very assured just because people often say one thing and do another (as our experiences that day had proved).

Well, we passed by yesterday morning and the mom (Raquel) came out, ready to go to church at 8:30 and Ezequiel (our investigator) and his younger brother too! Ezequiel´s mom loved church! It was beautiful to see her there. Ezequiel has already been to church several times but we had been trying to talk to his mom for WEEKS and then, all of a sudden, she just CAME. We had been feeling for weeks that Raquel would be the key in helping Ezequiel to progress towards baptism because she kept telling him that he should wait, that he shouldn´t do it, that he needed to learn so much more, that he shouldn´t go. Then at church, Raquel came to us, with tears in her eyes after the classes and told us that she wants Ezequiel to be baptized, and she wants to get baptized too, and she wants to help her family and make more time for God in her life, and she knows this will help her family. After all the meetings, one of the counselors in the branch presidency gave her a blessing, because she has been struggling with big health issues recently. It was simple. We went to an empty classroom, and the brother anointed her with consecrated oil and then put his hands on her head offered a short, simple prayer asking god to heal her according to her faith. Simple, but powerful. Raquel sat weeping. She stood up afterwards and touched my arm and whispered, voice-trembling "I felt the presence of God, I felt the presence of God."

These are the beautiful moments I cherish and hope to never forget.

I hope all is well back home.

All my love,

Hna Parker

Mud, Keys, Visas, Zone Conference – August 21, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

As usual, I am writing on Tuesday because Monday was a national holiday. And, as usual, I am not sure what the holiday it was or what we were celebrating. So much happens in a week it is hard to know where to begin.

I forgot to include an important detail about my life here in my letter last week.

Here is the detail: We are currently living with 4 Hermanas in one cramped apartment. I have not even been able to unpack my stuff since I arrived because there is literally no room. The other set of Hermanas are moving into a new apartment soon, but in the meantime we are sharing, which means we have double the furniture and double the suitcases squished into our tiny living space. There are two wooden bed frames that take up most of the space in the kitchen, the bedroom is filled wall-to-wall with our four mattresses, we have two stoves, two refrigerators, muddy sister-missionary shoes scattered EVERYWHERE etc. Don´t get me wrong, I LOVE sharing our space with the other hermanas. We have a lot of fun and I will miss them when they are gone. But it is pretty chaotic. It´s hard to focus and study and get through all of our morning showers in time. Also, we only have ONE set of keys. This makes life difficult.

In fact, right now we are locked out of our apartment, because bright and early this morning (4 AM!) Hna Lythgoe and I (she was in my same group when I arrived in Argentina and now she is one of the Hermanas living with us) had to travel to Resistencia to do visa paperwork. Our phone died while we were traveling, so we were not able to call and coordinate with our companions about the keys. We got back and they were nowhere to be found and all the doors are locked. Fun!

Anyways, that explains why I can´t send pictures this week. My camera is locked in the house. But here are a few fun things that happened, and I promise pictures in the weeks to come:

1. Monday after I wrote we DID go to the jungle. We met up with Hna. Green and my lovely little hijita Hna. Hobbs and they took us to a jungle in Hna. Hobb´s old area. We did not see any monkeys, sadly. But we did see viney trees and exotic brush and ferns and have an empanada/pasta picnic by a muddy river. It was a lot of fun and really great to enjoy the wildlife and catch up with my dear old companion.

2. I mentioned that I went to the offices this morning to do visa paperwork. In our mission "visa paperwork" can only mean one thing: You´ve hit ONE YEAR in the mission. Hey! Can you believe it? On Friday I hit ONE YEAR in my mission! Hna. Lythgoe did too, and as she is living with us right now, we figured it was the PERFECT opportunity to have a little combine "birthday" party. We had cake and balloons and even sang and blew out candles.

3. This week it rained and rained and rained and rained some more! There is SO much mud, seriously it is mud up to your shins--- and I haven´t slipped and fallen in it yet but I have come very close. The Hermanas were scheduled to move out this past Saturday but it was postponed for the pouring rain. Also, because of the rain, the attendance of our already tiny branch this Sunday was a cozy little congregation of 12 members.

4. We had Zone Conference yesterday! I always enjoy zone conference. My mission president is just such a good, Christ-like man and I love listening to his inspired counsel. He knows how to manage a mission, and how to work with the numbers and statistics side of things and how to implement plans and make necessary changes. But it is always so clear that he cares most about people, individual lives, making a true difference in the lives of others and becoming good disciples of Christ ourselves. He always emphasizes that the best indicator of success in our mission will be whether or not we are better disciples of Jesus Christ afterwards than we were before. He also talks about how our objective is to bring souls to Christ--emphasizing that the definition of SOUL is body AND spirit--so we are talking about true conversion and never about numbers.

5. My dear sweet companion got sick several times this week, and yesterday after zone conference while we were getting ready to go out and work she FAINTED in the bathroom. I just heard a loud CRASH and found her collapsed in the shower. SO SCARY. She woke up right away, but still, she got a good knock to the head and we are puzzled about what´s going on with her body. We made lots of calls to the mission nurse and area doctor. Health challenges seem to be ever-present lately. If it´s not me, it´s my companion.

6. I don´t think I mentioned last week that Hermana Medina is actually officially called to the Colombia, Cali mission and is only waiting for her visa to come through. This means that she could abandon me at any moment! ANY MOMENT! Hopefully we will make it through this transfer together though.

There are so many small stories and moments I wish I could share but I better go! My time is up!


Love,

Hna Parker

Hermosa Formosa - August 13, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Remember how last week I said that transfers were coming up and that this week I would probably be writing you from Posadas? I guessed wrong. I am now in FORMOSA! I can´t believe it. This means I have now had the chance to serve in all 4 provinces of my mission (Corrientes, Chaco, Misiones and now, Formosa). Hermana Griffeth stayed in Posadas for her 6th transfer in a row and she is training the only new sister missionary to arrive this transfer.

My new area is called "Parque" which means "Park" and I have already gotten a lot of hilarious jokes about "Parker in Parque". My companion is Hermana Medina from Buenos Aires and she is really great! This is only her second transfer in the mission so technically I am training again because we have to finish the new 12-week training program together. I love her already, she is hilarious and interesting and fun. One cool connection we recently discovered: her brother is also currently serving a mission in Bolivia, Cochabamba. When she told me that I said, "Cool! A boy from my home ward is serving there!" When I said that she started to ask me all sorts of questions because her brother´s current companion is from Hawaii and in no time we discovered that her brother is serving with Bryan McArthur!! In fact, just a second ago she showed me a photo of her brother and Brian McArthur together. Small world!!

So far I am loving my new area. Everyone always talks about Formosa like it is the promised land of the mission and I could seriously feel a difference the second I arrived. There is just something about this place. I have gone from city city (downtown Posadas) back to country again. We have lots of lovely dusty winding dirt roads, wide open spaces with makeshift soccer fields where little kids play soccer barefoot all through the afternoon, trees and brush, and (when it rains) LOTS of mud. As we were out walking last night, when the sun was going down, I watched a father and son flying a kite, I took a deep breath, looked at the clouds, felt the wind... It felt a little like coming home.

There are things I am going to miss so much about Posadas. I am definitely already missing Hna Griffeth. I love that girl. I will also miss desperately our investigators and amazing new converts. The mission can be a little cruel in that you form bonds with people, love them, feel very invested in their lives and progress, pray for them night and day and then you are often ripped away with little warning. Our phone call about transfers came at 9:30 PM and by 1:30 AM (4 hours later!) I already had to be packed and ready to go. But I am sending them letters and photos... and in the meantime I intend to love this area and these people just as much.

Something I love about Parque (besides that it is country again) are all the kids. There is nothing better than cute little kids yelling "hermanas!" and running to hug you. The only thing is I am pretty sure all the kids here think I am actually Spiderman´s real live sister. When I introduced myself as "Hermana Parker" they all said "oh, like Peter Parker! Like Spiderman!" and I said "Yeah, he´s my brother!" Their eyes got really big, and now they basically adore me and are always talking about Spiderman when we come by. I am not sure if I need to break it to them that I am not actually Spiderman´s sister. I think I might let them live with the fantasy...

Well that´s all for this week. More stories and pictures next week. Now we are off to go visit a JUNGLE with MONKIES! I am very excited.

Love from the jungle,

Hermana Parker

Sacrificio - August 6, 2012

Dear Friends and Family,

It is transfer time again and Hermana Griffeth and I are very anxious to know what will happen to us (we find out tomorrow night). Next week I will probably still be writing to you from Posadas, but I could be writing to you from somewhere else, and I will most likely be writing to you alongside a new companion. But, as always, anything is possible! Maybe Hna. Griffeth and I will stay together and have 4 transfers together! It is strange living life in short 6-week segments...but now I only have five six-week segments left before I return to living life in...semesters, or seasons, or sunsets, or 525,600 minute-moments, or what-have-you. I can hardly believe it.

This week nothing very notable or grand happened. We continue to visit the same wonderful investigators and recent converts and less-active members and that is very fulfilling, wonderful, satisfying work. But at the same time we are having a very hard time finding new investigators to teach and a lot of the time it feels like we are just walking and walking and walking around and accomplishing very little. About 3 times a week (or more!) I have a little mini breakdown where I dramatically exclaim "HOW do you find new investigators???!!!" I know there is no magical secret (just ask for references from everyone, talk to everyone, go door to door, etc. and eventually we´ll find them) but sometimes I feel very overwhelmed by the prospect. It´s like: "Okay, Hermanas, here is Downtown Posadas. Ready? Go!!! Find people who want to be baptized into a new religion!"

Anyways, I have been thinking a lot today about sacrifice and since not much happened this week I thought I´d write about that. We finally got our Gospel Principles teacher back at church yesterday after acting as substitutes for over two months while she took the "Teaching, No Greater Call" workshop--and I am so grateful to have her back! Our investigators and new members need to hear some other voice besides ours (we are already visiting them several times a week and smothering them with sister missionary words and wisdom), and Monica (our teacher) is an excellent teacher. It was the first time I saw her teach and she truly stunned me. The class was on sacrifice, and I have been pondering on it all day long. Monica has this amazing intensity--and somehow, even though we were basically just reading from the manual, she taught in a way that really sunk in deep. Before reading the first paragraph in the chapter she just said something like "this first paragraph is really great, and I want you all to pay close attention and think deeply about every single line! every line!" Then she read it with lots of emotion. Then we spent a long time just going over every sentence. She is good at leading a discussion and inspiring people to share stories and insights and interpretations. She emphasized several times "it is saying here we must be willing to sacrifice everything. absolutely everything. for the gospel cause." We read the story about the young rich man who lived all the commandments and asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responded that he must sell all his riches to the poor and come follow Him. He could not because he was very rich, and in his heart, deep down, was not willing to sacrifice his worldly comforts and riches to follow Christ. That story is really resonating with me right now. It is a story for self-reflection and examination. Sometimes it feels like obedience to commandments should be enough, but I love how Jesus shows us here that He requires of us a life of complete consecration. He requires us to give him our very hearts. Today I have been thinking about what things are especially hard for me to sacrifice and I am praying to have a change of heart.

Thank you all for your love and support. You are in my prayers, keep me in yours.

Love,

Hermana Parker

Clavulanico! - July 23, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank the heavens for two nostrils and drugs called Amoxcilina/Clavulanico! That´s the name of the antibiotic the on-call area doctor prescribed me last night when we determined this was no regular flu and I have a legitimately evil little sinus infection.

To summarize, this week has been a lesson in weakness, humility and patience. It was truly humbling to feel so sick and at the same time so helpless to heal. I am generally a very healthy person (for which I am extremely grateful), so I am used to battling little colds and bugs with lots of orange juice, vitamin c, a little ibuprofen, a little rest--and chao! Healed! 3 or 4 days TOPS! On day 5 when I was still sick, and not even seeming to get a little better (and even possibly getting worse) I started feeling a bit discouraged. I received a priesthood blessing and was told that my body would be able to recover (yes!) and that it would only require a little time, rest and patience (nooooo!). It was funny how much I wanted to hear "You Shall Be HEALED!" and then I was told "time. rest. patience." but that´s just how life works and how God works with us sometimes. So I started praying for patience rather than healing and then last night (9 days in!) we finally figured out what was really going on with my body and with these new meds I can already feel myself healing. Finally! I am on the mend. I can breathe again! Sometimes even out of both nostrils!

The biggest blessing through it all, though, has been my companion. Hermana Griffeth has been a miracle companion. I seriously love her and am so grateful for her. She brought me fresh juice and hot homemade lemon tea, made me meals, loaned me medicines (I tried lots of stuff...), cleaned the house while I slept, woke up with me on many occasions in the middle of the night to my coughing/sniffling and went to get me things and even sometimes even stayed awake with me for a while just so I didn´t have to feel so miserable and sick and alone at 3 AM. On Wednesday she came into the room and grabbed my laundry basket and asked "are these all your dirty clothes?" and I said "Yeah, um, wait, what are you doing?" and she said "I'm washing clothes." Just like that, as if it were nothing (please note we do not have a washer or a dryer or anyone in the ward who does our clothes, so washing clothes can be a 3-4 hour long grueling process) and I actually started crying because I felt so grateful and I sort of pathetically whimpered (keep in mind that my voice is shot) "Noooo, Hermana! How will I ever repay you? How will I ever repay you?"

So that is a good summary of my week. But sick or no, we had a baptism to plan this weekend and no flu/monster-sinus-infection was going to stop us! So, although we did not accomplish much else, I managed to put on a skirt, drug myself up and drag myself outside in the cold several times so we could visit Maria and Silvana and finish teaching them all the lessons and prepare them for their baptism. As a last little tender mercy, we decided a few days before to combine baptisms with our zone leaders and do it all over in their chapel. Maria and Silvana have an aunt who attends the other ward and she wanted to go to both baptisms anyway and we didn´t have a lot of time to put together the baptismal service, plus we had to travel to Resistencia the day before for Hermana Griffeth´s visa and we didn´t know when we´d have time to fill the baptismal font (5 hour long process), and, as has been previously mentioned (probably over-mentioned), I was very sick, so it was definitely a blessing to just combine baptisms and let the elders plan everything (side-note: love them to death, but their planning involved asking me right before the service to give a talk about the Holy Ghost).

In spite of all of this, the baptism was lovely. Truly beautiful. How could it not be? The water was cold and a kind of murky green (we aren´t sure why...), but the girls acted like they didn´t even notice! In fact Silvana said something like: "the water was cold, but I didn´t feel cold! I had faith!" I loved that. Maria didn´t talk much (she is a little quieter) but she came out of the font with the biggest smile plastered all over her face. It was precious. On Sunday I dragged myself out of bed in time to go and watch their confirmations. Very special.

And now I am here, writing to you.

I am including a few pictures to close. One to show how pathetic I looked while I was sick in bed. But I still tried to keep smiling...

A few others to show the sweet corn-rows that Hna Griffeth gave me one day when I was sick. We had joked about doing them before and this week we figured was our big chance since we weren´t going out much. I think they suit me, don´t you?

Last, and most importantly, the baptism! Lovely day.

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers, letters and support.

Love, Hermana Parker