Everything is going great

Hey family!!!

I am writing this week on Tuesday instead of Wednesday because something came up. Tomorrow we have a special zone conference (which only happens once a year, if at all) and we got it by surprise because of all our success!!! They didn't tell us until last Friday, and by then it was too late to tell you about my P-day change. Anyway, we're going early tomorrow morning by bus to the Mission Home in Rosario. We'll be there two days so we'll be sleeping in the mission home one night! No one knows what a special zone conference is like exactly, since no one in my penche has had one, but we hear they're awesome!!

To answer your question, no, I knew nothing about the earthquakes until we went over to a member's house who talked about it. So maybe if we had been awake we would have felt the rumbling, but we were all asleep and felt nothing. We also don't really know anything about it even now. (Mom's note: They have no TV or radio.) We have some Chilean elders who are from Concepcion and they have not even heard anything yet as to whether their families are okay or not. (All of the Chilean missionaries are called to serve in Argentina, and the Argentina missionaries are called to serve in Chile.) The day of the incident, I heard that none of the Chilean elders worked. But they have no way to contact their families, so it is very hard for them right now.

Yesterday I got to work with Elder Medina on divisions. He's our new zone leader (Elder Koch was transferred) and he's Chilean. He was very worried, but he worked awesome nevertheless!! It was my first time with a Latin who speaks zero English! It was really fun, though! He's a really good and smart worker. We worked in our area for all yesterday, and I had to lead him around to all the places, because he's never been to our area. It was fun, and we had huge success.

Well, I know you have been worrying about my health. Last Thursday I got very sick, I think because we played soccer intensely for like 3 hours straight on Pday (Wednesday) and with me being a little sick all of this time, it just aggravated the sickness. Hermana Villalba said (on the phone) that she thought I had the "gripe" or the flu, so I picked up some pills and took them all for the flu, although I don't think that's what I had. So Friday and Saturday I had to stay in the penche. I went back to working Saturday evening, though. The two days in the penche helped me a lot, though. I feel really good right now, and as long as I use the ear drops and a nose spray, my ears are clear! I feel good, and my cough is tiny now. I cough only a few times a day now, and when I do cough, I no longer cough up mucus. (sorry to be gross but I don't know how else to explain it.) So my health is doing good, you have nothing to worry about!

By the way, I want to wish Linzey a Happy Birthday now! so.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINZEY!!! I wish I could be with all of you when you celebrate all these birthdays, but of course, I will be doing the Lord's work here in Argentina. I hope everyone has a lot of fun, and that Linzey gets a chance to relax a little from all her travels.

I can't wait to hear if Marisa's baby is going to be a boy or a girl! Either would be cool...although I'm definitely rootin' for a boy!!

This past transfer, Elder Carrillo from Colombia left and....a new Elder Carrillo from the States came here to take his place!!! So our penche has all North Americans in it this transfer. You can't really say we're "Americans" here, because technically all the Argentines are Americans too, because they live in South America. If you say you're American, they get really confused, because they all call themselves Americans too. They refer to us as the people from Los Estados, meaning the States.

No, we don't really do any sight-seeing here on our P-day, because after we do our zone activity (when we play soccer or volleyball), do our shopping and do email, we don't have much more time, so we go back to the penche and then leave to go back to working again. We probably could sight-see for a very short time, although there is really nothing touristy in our area, ha ha.

Anyway, our typical food in our penche is like this. Every morning we have a bowl of cereal called zanaritus. It has only 2 ingredients, flour and sugar. It's very cheap, though, and that's why we eat it. For lunch we'll usually have noodles or rice with a melanesa, or noodles or rice with some chopped meat, or mashed potatoes with a little meat. Or sometimes we have chicken patties with bread. Once in a great while, we'll order pizza or empanadas. Dinner is just more of the same. I don't mind eating similar every day, we're eating pretty good.

Although we are not allowed to take our cameras with us for safety reasons, on the last P-day of an area, if you or your companion is going to be transferred, we can walk through our area and take pictures, so soon I'll do that. And also, this computer doesn't have any connections to plug my card in, so sorry but I can't send any pics today.

I'm glad you asked about Argentine sleep habits, because you're going to get a good laugh, but trust me, this is the truth. Argentines are very lazy, most of them sleep in until around 11, then go back to sleep around 2 until like 5 or 6. They stay up late, though, it's not even considered "noches" (evening) until like after 8 or 9. EVERYTHING is closed from 1 until 6 for the siesta, and everything opens late in the morning, the earliest for anything being around 9ish. It's funny because we'll talk to the clerks at the store, and they'll be telling us how they work so hard, saying, "oh, I have a 12 hour shift today." But then we ask about their breaks. They all take like a 2 hour breakfast break, 6 hour siesta break, and a 2 hour dinner break, so a 12 hour shift is really like working less than 4 hours. Everyone here thinks they work hard all the time. I'm exaggerating a little, but not much!!! They sit outside their house drinking mate all day, and whenever we try and talk they always say they're too busy and are working. It's pretty funny.

No, I don't really know the life expectancy of this area, but as I told you before, they mature very early here. I haven't seen very many old people, but there are some.

We got our mail because the zone leaders had to go to the Mission Home. I got all of your dearelder letters, thanks so much for them!!! I also got your camera card with the pics, it was great! I got all Dad's inspirational stories and letters, so thanks for that, I always love getting them. And I also got some dearelders from Aunt Lisa which were awesome. Also, I got a letter from Ben Driggs telling me all about what's been going on down home in our neighborhood.

I just finished the Book of Mormon in English and now I am going to start over again in Spanish.

Whew, I have been multitasking while writing this, just finished writing President Villalba (we write him every week, and send in our reports, etc.) I write to him all in Spanish.

I'm out of time now, so I'll tell you more next week. I love you all and thank you for all the letters and support!

Love,
Eric

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