We made the weekly Standards!

Hey family!

It's great to write you and hear from you again! I'm glad you're having fun in Mexico right now, and are able to relax a bit. It sounds like you're having a lot of fun adventures!

First I'll address some of the concerns you were having. So that you know, we don't receive the dearelder letters here weekly. We are over two hours away by a bus ride from the mission home, and so they can't deliver the letters weekly to us, and because the whole mission area is so huge, that's how it will be in most places. I will get my letters and packages every six weeks from the zone leaders when we have zone conferences. I do have a little bit more time on email than I did at the MTC, though. But, still limited. I already had a zone conference so I got all my letters that were waiting for me, thanks everyone!

This past week has been a lot of fun. The language is coming. I'm starting to understand my comp pretty well, but the natives still speak way too fast for me to understand. Elder Petersen hits his 8 month mark today!! (He was 3 months in the MTC because he had visa problems, and now 5 months in Argentina.)

This past week we also got the Standards!!!! The Standards are a goal that the President has set up for us to strive for. Getting the Standards means you get 30 contacts (talk to 30 people, get their address, and a return appointment to teach them) and you have to have a certain number of programados (people with a baptism date.) You also have to have a certain number of lessons taught, and a certain number taught with the members, etc. The hardest requirement is that you also have to have new investigators in church on Sunday. Last week we had all the requirements for the standards except 5 people in church. This week we pulled it off, barely! So it's pretty cool, because most companionships don't get the standards. So we were very excited to get the standards this week!!!!

Rosario is a huge mission, so no, I have not seen any of my MTC buddies since we left the mission home.

Our church is very nice here. It's new and in good condition, although by U.S. standards it's not what you would consider good. There's no air conditioning, and the water fountain consists of a big water dispenser and one cup, which everyone shares, and is never cleaned. Cleaning here doesn't really make a huge difference anyway, though, since no one uses soap to wash their dishes. This is true in our area, because we're in a very poor area, but nicer areas of Argentina wash properly, I'm sure.

All the people here are poor but they all have 3 things. Mate (not sure how it's spelled but it's that drink that all Argentines drink with a straw from a special cup), a TV, and a moped scooter thing. EVERYONE has a scooter, trust me, they do not want to have to walk or ride a bike. Yes, everyone has those three things, we've even been to some houses which are absolute trash, and are just a cardboard box, but they will still have those three things! Most people just pay a very little amount every month for their scooter, but some of the really poor ones will just buy parts and make their own. You have to see it to believe it. For example, the familia Rios that we're teaching, has basically a hand-made scooter. It's all duct-taped together, and the gas tank is a 2-liter soda bottle, etc. But, nobody goes without a scooter! Because nobody wants to walk anywhere!

We have done splits here (Mom's note: that's when you work with a different companion for a day) so I have had two meals with members here. I was on splits with Elder Koch, and in his area, they have meals with members almost every day. The meals were really good. The families will feed you until you pop, and then demand that you eat more, I love it. I've really learned to just pound down food then, because you need to eat all their 20 pizzas or whatever they make for you or they won't be happy. I prefer American pizza, although the pizza here is really good. Their pizzas have everything on them and they taste really good, but it's not really like a "pizza." It had ham and cheese and olives, and lots more cool stuff that I'm not sure what it's called. The ice cream here, however, absolutely dominates the ice cream in the states. It's so creamy and tasty, probably because they have to make it fresh every morning, and you can taste the freshness. Also the milk is better here. I'll let you know more as I eat more here, but so far it's only been the two meals. Both were excellent!!!!! One of the families owned a kiosco, so they gave us lots of candies, too, which I must say, are better than in the states, they are awesome.

You asked about my investigators, so I'll try and tell you a little about them. We have countless investigators, but sadly most don't end in baptism. Argentina is different than the rest of South America. Argentines, being more European, are less open, and so the average baptism rate for your whole mission is only about 15 to 20 people. Just so you know, I'm going to blow that number out of the water, I've already decided! But one guy we're teaching, his name is Caesar, is progressing very well. We got him a marriage date and a baptism date!!!! This is really cool, because marriage is a huge thing that holds us back here. We can't baptize a couple unless they're married, because they're breaking the law of chastity, and most people aren't married because they don't think it's important and because it's very expensive!!! A lot of families we've taught want to be baptized and married, but they can't afford the marriage so we can't do anything!!!!!!!!!

Also, like I said, my pinche (Mom's note: he's spelling it differently this time, so I'm not sure which is correct. Either way, he means his apartment) is very nice, because it's out of my area. Wish we had running hot water, or a shower with pressure, though. We just fill hot water into a 2-gallon thing on the wall and then push a lever and the water falls out. That is our shower, but it's still really good. We don't have a b-day, but a lot of other pinches do, and most public restrooms do, so I'm going to use a b-day someday. (Mom's note: instead of using toilet paper, a b-day is a toilet that squirts water to clean you.)

The weather here is crazy and can change on a dime. Yesterday I was with Elder Neilson (another one day split) and we worked in Elder Wilkinson's area. We actually saw the line at which it stops raining!!! We saw it raining all in front of us, and then a couple feet behind us...no rain!!! It was really cool because I've never actually seen that before.

I can't remember my pin number on the debit card we set up before I left, so if you can remember it and send it to me, I'll be able to use it. What I'm going to do is withdraw a bunch of money from an ATM and then just keep the card and money in my penche at all times, and just use the money if I ever need it. The reason is because it costs a couple bucks every time you swipe the card to transfer from American dollars to pesos, so this way I'll save money overall.

Well, I have to go, know that I love you all, and hope that you're really enjoying yourselves in Mexico, and I hope everyone else is continuing to do good.

Love you all,
Eric

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