Dear Family and Friends,
This week was nice.
Starting off this week it was a little like starting new in the area. Most of our progressing investigators were either baptized or had moved to other areas and seeing as we were homebound for most of the two previous weeks caring for my sick companion, we were not able to look for many new investigators or keep the work moving here.
So, we started out asking for and looking up references from members, talking to everyone we met, knocking doors, tracking down inactive members and old investigators, and everything else we could think of to try to find new people to teach.
I think looking for new investigators is still the most challenging and daunting part of missionary work for me. Although I have learned how to be more outgoing on my mission, talking to new people is still a little terrifying. But I am always surprised and grateful to see that as I try my best to get over my fears and shyness and do my little part, God does His. We had some wonderful experiences this week talking to new people and visiting new neighborhoods.
This week we were talking to some people and one man said that he lived in the neighborhood behind Divino Niño (a huge and very popular Catholic church here in my area). I had no idea there was a neighborhood back there and I have been in my area almost 6 months, so we decided to check it out. It is BEAUTIFUL, in a quaint, humble, rural sort of way. There are all this little houses scrapped together from cardboard and wood, and they are all situated along the shore of a tiny river.
There in that neighborhood tucked away behind Divino Niño, we found several amazing new investigators and a handful of inactive members who all received us well. One young man, Pedro, lives in a tiny house with his mom and several adult siblings and nieces and nephews. They have a little wooden boat and often cross to the other side of the river where there is a tiny forest and where they also have planted a large garden with watermelons, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, etc.
We are going to go back tomorrow and I am going to take pictures because Wednesday we have transfers and....
It looks like I will be leaving Parque! My mission president was in town for a conference this week and he called me for an interview. We talked a little about how I´m doing, and everything that happened with Hna Espinoza, and my thoughts as I finish my mission and then he told me he was thinking about giving me a special assignment in my last transfer. Nothing is set in stone, but next week I MIGHT be writing to you from a new area in the province of Santa Fe (an area where previously there were never sister missionaries).
I will be sad to leave, but I am also excited to work hard, with a renewed energy, in a fresh new area.
Thank you all for your emails and pictures and love. I am so excited to get back to you all in just a little over a month. Today I received my re-acceptance to BYU and I am registering for classes here in Argentina. Weird.
Love,
Hna Parker
No comments:
Post a Comment