The Provo Temple, November 2009
Elders Vanderholm, Hanson and Anderson at the fountain in front of the Provo Temple
At the Temple
The district with one of their first teachers, Hermana Burrups. She is laughing that no one can touch her, because she is a girl.Hey family and friends,
Only 3 more days till we leave for Argentina!
First, thank you to all who have written me and sent me packages. I had a great Christmas, and really enjoyed all of my gifts! I hope you got the personal letters I sent through the mail.
You wanted to know about my flight. Here's the schedule: On Jan 4 at 9:40 a.m. we leave the SLC airport, at 3:25 p.m. we arrive in Atlanta and have a 4+ hour layover, at 7:40 p.m. we leave Atlanta, and at 7:50 a.m. on Jan 5 we arrive in Buenos Aires!!!!! After that I'm not sure, but we'll probably take a bus to Rosario, which I think is a 3-ish hour drive!!! It will be a very long flight, and worst of all, I will be in a suit the whole time!! I'm looking forward to the flight a lot though!! I will be able to call you from the airport in Atlanta, and at the SLC airport you can come to say good-bye to me for the last time!!!! They said we can't make it a huge ordeal, but I would love to see you all again before heading down to Argentina.
I can't wait to hit up the "real food" at the airport and see what American food is like one last time. The MTC has plenty of food, but it isn't the same! I can't wait to go to hot weather, and of course to see Argentina, and I especially can't wait to finally start contacting and teaching real people!!!!!
I am very happy now with the language, because I have successfully mastered all types of Spanish grammar. I'd know how to say any sentence, what tense to use (passive voice, subjunctive, etc.) So I'm very happy for that, because I read through my yellow book last night, and I knew everything in it!!! That being said, though, don't think I can actually speak Spanish now, ha ha! I know how to make an accurate sentence now, but only if I have a minute or two to think about it. Also, I can only understand gringo speakers who speak very slowly like me, and my vocabulary is pretty small. But I'm not sweatin' it anymore. Although I'm sure I'll feel different when I get down there!!!
A few days ago, we did Spanish calls at the RC for like 45 minutes. I was amazed at just how little I understood when talking to the native speakers. I'd ask them questions and listen for some easy key words, but they never gave me those!! Instead they'd go off on some long spiel whenever I asked a question, and I'd have to say "sorry, again please" (in Spanish) quite a bit! I was talking to one guy (who I thought was the man who ordered the DVD) and after about 5 minutes I realized it wasn't even him, but his brother, ha ha! Just the same, I absolutely loved the Spanish calls!!! Despite that I couldn't speak their language well, the Spanish people were so open and friendly that I sent out missionaries to many people! I loved how they were all just so relaxed and accepting, like "sure, why not, send the missionaries over" etc.
The Christmas speakers we heard from were Elders Perry and Anderson (of the Twelve.) They gave great talks, and I had a great Christmas. The day was so busy that we all opened our Christmas presents right before we went to bed. And yes, I did get the package you sent yesterday with the debit card, calling card, watch and other essentials, thanks! If it's possible, could you please send me the extra links you had taken out of the watch band? I think I had actually only had two taken out of the band altogether, not two on each side. I'd prefer it a little looser, so hopefully you still have the links, but if not, don't worry, because it's not a big deal and the watch works fine how it is.
I've taken quite a few pictures with Elder Anderson's camera and was hoping to get them printed out to send you, but the MTC Bookstore is always closed or else the picture machine is broken!!! I'll see if I can order them Saturday, although the machine will probably still be broken. :( If I can, however, I will have someone from another district in my zone who is staying behind (probably Elder Smoot, a good friend), pick them up when they're ready and send them to you. (Mom's note: I asked him if his camera isn't working, but he says it is fine. So either the MTC picture machine doesn't accept his type of camera card, or else Elder Anderson remembers to bring his camera along and Eric doesn't, I guess!)
So Elder Wolff left yesterday for the Salt Lake City South Spanish-speaking mission!!!! He was very excited to go, and will be even more excited when he gets to finally go down to the Dominican Republic! All his Christmas gifts are down at the MTC in the DR, and they won't ship them back, so he won't have Christmas for a couple of months.
Thank you again to everyone, for all the letters and packages you have sent me. I'll try to send home my camera card before I leave.
Love you all,
Eric
*Thank you to the families of Elders Groll, Wolff and Anderson for sharing their pictures with us. Since Eric's first camera card was lost in the mail, many of the pictures on this blog are from them.
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