We made Zone Standards this week!

Hey everyone!!! It's great to hear that you had a great past week like I did!!! That all sounds really exciting about your trip in Mexico, I'm glad you enjoyed it, but sorry to hear you got sick at the very end. Sounds like a dream vacation! Hopefully when I get back we can do a family trip somewhere!!

Well the first thing I want to tell you is that we got the Standards again!!!!! It was hard, but we made it. The second thing is that Elder Petersen and I had the most new investigators in the zone!! We had 20!!! The third thing is that our zone got the zone standards. Which didn't exist until now, because no one thought it possible for everyone in the zone to get Standards!!!! Actually, every companionship in the zone didn't get it, but collectively we averaged out to get the zone standards. So we all got treated to ice cream and we got to watch the movie "Up" today because of it. The movie was pretty good.

So I'll tell you a little about Argentina, and the things I was asked about. Our laundry is done by a member. She washes them in her machine (surprisingly most people here have machines...well, more like a bowl with a spinning piece inside) and then hangs them out to dry. (No one has dryers.) She does a good job with the clothes, although the neck is always brown. She irons them which is really nice, and she does all this for Elder Petersen and me for just 10 pesos a week, which is very little. Of course we only have about 80-100 pesos a week, so it's still noticeable to us. The reason I say 80-100 is because we should have 100 pesos a week, but the financiero here shorts us a lot.

The food here is really good. I had my first asado but unfortunately I was really sick that day so couldn't really enjoy it. I still have that same sickness I had at the airport, so I have been feeling a little draggy, but I think I'm feeling a little better each day, and I don't let it stop me.

Shopping is fun here. Things are super expensive, but we don't have a lot of money, so we just buy the necessities of life. Here in Argentina, though, they have things called kioskos. Kioskos are like a little shop with drinks, candy, and a couple food items. They're small, but there's one or more in every street! Most kioskos are just people's homes! They just turn the front room of their house into a little shop! So when walking through our area, there's a kiosko every hundred yards. One street has 3 kioskos in a row! They're nice if you need to pick up a drink when you're out working or whatever, especially since we don't get a dinner break, so sometimes we'll grab a quick drink in the evening. (Mom's note: I think the big meal is at lunch, and that Argentines have the siesta, which is why they don't get a dinner break.)

When I say evening, in Argentina, it is actually afternoon, because they don't consider it "evening" in Argentina until about 8 or 9 o'clock. Elder Petersen always says something like, "See you at 6 en la noche" and the people answer back, all confused, "en la tarde???" and he just laughs and says "si!!!"

There aren't any big Wal-Marts or other big name stores here, it's all just local stores mostly, but the shopping itself is pretty normal. One cool thing is that they have these things called facturas, which is like their equivalent of a doughnut, which are sold for like just a peso or two, which is good because they're fairly big, so you can get filled up cheap. Also, they have the best candy here. The alfojores are amazing, and all their sweets are just plain delicious.

The air conditioner in our pinche has unfortunately been broken for the past week, so it's hard to sleep at night. We might sleep up on the roof tonight again. I'll be sure and take some pictures and send you some soon. I can email you pictures from a different internet cafe, I believe, so I'll try and do that next week. We're not allowed to carry our cameras with us so I can't photograph my area or anything. Just my pinche.

My belt is already falling apart. My shoes are doing good, although we do so much walking I don't know how long they'll last. Elder Petersen has been through 4 pairs. So far so good though. They're always dirty, because our area is all dirt roads, but they're holding up good. You can tell Dad that our shoeshine kit here consists of a damp rag and spit.

Caesar is doing very good. We passed by his house yesterday and saw him sitting there reading the Book of Mormon with his glasses on, for the second time!!!! It's great to see that, because most people don't want to be bothered to read (and some can't read, which is fairly common). We still have to wait for him and Victoria to get their marriage though, which could take around a month. Everything is going good though, we're having lots of fun and working hard.

I hope that Marisa is getting better from her morning sickness, and I hope everyone else is doing well and staying healthy!! Tell everyone to write to me! And tell Marisa and Holly that I understand that they can't email me right now since both of their internet is down, so not to worry about it, I know they love me, but when they get the chance, I want them to feel free to email me!!!!

I love and miss you all, and wish the best for you!!!

Love,
Eric

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