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

Los Aguas Del Bautismo - July 16, 2012

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

The Difference Between Chile and Argentina

Dear Family and Friends,

A very quick email this week. Sorry! We got in to the ciber at the very last minute and we are already over time. I will write more next week.

First, Happy Fourth of July! Second, Happy 9th of July! Yesterday was Argetina´s Independence Day, a national holiday, so naturally our P-Day was moved to today.

I was quite surprised to find that no one really does anything to celebrate the 9th of July here. Argentina and Chile are very different in that respect. Chile freaks out on the 18th of September, which is their Independence Day. Everything shuts down for like a week (okay maybe only 3 days...) and they have parades and parties and dances and flags everywhere and more parties and they dance cueca (the national dance) and there are little carnivals and more parades. (Aaron, you can look forward to this).

Here, most people studied. Or cleaned. Or slept. And I saw maybe 2 Argentine flags. Someone explained that Argentina only gets really patriotic when it´s about soccer. I can see that. Also, May 25th is another sort of patriotic holiday here and they tend to celebrate that more than July 9th. But, still, it was surprisingly low-key.

This week we had to travel to Resistencia to renew Hermana Griffeth´s visa. That means 11 hours of traveling (about 5 and a half each way) and another 4 or so hours waiting in bus terminals and about 5 hours sitting around the mission offices waiting for her to finish all her paperwork and get finger printed and stuff. We left at 2 in the morning and got back around 11 at night. LONG day. But it was fun to see some of the other missionaries that are in different areas that we never get to see. There were about 10 other companionships that had to come and do the same.

This week is Victoria´s baptism. Please pray that everything will go smoothly!

Love,

Hna Parker

Julio de Corazon - July 2, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

It has been another crazy week. This has felt like one of my longest weeks in the mission, but it has been good. I am still in Posadas and still with Hermana Griffeth! It´s our THIRD transfer now together!

I will start with San Ignacio since I didn´t have much time to write last week about it. This time I am attaching a few pictures.

We left on a colectivo (a nice double-decker sleeper bus) at around 11, right when our P day begins. The ride to San Ignacio is only about an hour, but it was nice to enjoy the hour-long ride in air-conditioned comfort. Hna. Griffeth and I were very excited.

The ruins were fascinating, like I said. The old San Ignacio colony was laid out in the form of a giant square with the church as the focal point of everything and then the housing making up the outskirts. The GIANT columns are from the old church, then all the photos in windows and doorways are from the houses where people used to live.

On the way home we found out that they are willing to pack as many people into the colectivo as possible, not taking into account how many seats they actually have. Running late, we jogged up as the bus was ready to pull out and they told us to "hop right on!" So we did, and this time rode the hour home, standing/sitting on the stairs of the double-decker bus. It was pretty fun.

Okay, now, you remember how excited I was to have 6 investigators in church last week? Well, this week, miraculously, we had NINE investigators show up! And that means several of them are well on their way to baptism! I am still in shock. Posadas has been my hardest area so far in terms of finding new investigators and teaching lots of lessons. In the mission we have certain "standards of excellence" or certain numbers we are supposed to reach every week in lessons we teach and new investigators we find and ever since I´ve gotten here our numbers have been depressingly, dismally, low. I honestly thought in Resistencia we were struggling, but here it is even tougher!

However, all of a sudden we have been seeing miracles and I feel so grateful that I get to spend another transfer here in Posadas. Suddenly, we have Maria and her 4 kids who are all just GOLDEN and so excited about the gospel and coming to church every week! And we found Ramon, a nice blind man who just wanted to come to church so bad that we scrambled around last minute to find him a ride, and when we got there he had invited his cousin to come too! We also have a new family in the ward who had been inactive for a while but are just now coming back and want us to teach their daughter. We also have an adorable young couple in the ward who are about to have their first baby and are planning to get married soon so the wife can get baptized. I feel so blessed to be working with all of these people! And I think it´s incredible how they all just sort of seemed to appear out of nowhere. Bottom line is, we are preparing for a busy July with 4, maybe 6 baptisms to plan!

I will keep you all posted. I have to go! I am already over time!

Love,

Hna Parker