Eric with Elder Petersen, enjoying lunch at azone conference*
Well first I wanna say thanks to the family, I hope everyone is continuing to do well, and that David has a successful trip to Brazil. Sounds waaaay fun, and I hope everyone else is safe with their daily activities.
I have some really exciting news!! We're going to have two baptisms on Saturday!!!!! They are Hermana Estella and her 10-year-old son Matias. They are such awesome people and it has been great teaching them the lessons. I will tell you more about them and the baptism next week when I write to you!!!!!
Another exciting thing that happened this week is that we helped to build a house! From about 9 in the morning until like 2, we started and finished the entire roof. The week before, we had put up the support beams and put in the bricks in between, and this week we did all the cement and finalizing work. It's an experience I'll probably never forget, it was really funny. I'll tell you how it all works. They had already laid out the bricks, so what we did was the roof. We laid support beams all across the roof and put bricks all in between the beams. It's hard to do because you can't really put your weight on the support beams, believe it or not, because even though they're the support for the roof, they're very fragile, ha ha. After that we laid down metal grate type things so we could walk on the roof safely, because with the grates, our weight was dispersed over several beams instead of just one. Yes, Argentine houses are pretty fragile, but the funny thing is they think Argentine brick houses are better than wood houses in the States. Anyway, then we started laying the cement!! We made the cement by throwing in sand, rocks, water and cement mix all into a cement mixer (it's like a spinning cauldron) and it all gets mixed together. Then once it's mixed, it gets dumped out into a big trough. We then filled buckets with the cement from the trough and passed the buckets in a line (there were like 10 people all working there, along with us) up to the people on the roof while the people on the roof dumped and spread the cement, and then threw down the buckets. (They literally just chucked them down, if you didn't watch out you'd get hit.) And we just continued the process over and over. We were moving very fast, always catching, throwing, filling buckets, while another crew of about 2 or 3 was always making more cement. We didn't take any breaks, but they had lots of doble colas for everyone to keep drinking (their brand of generic Coke). After the cement was all laid and done, we left, which was another adventure!
We left with the guys from the branch, who are all really good friends, so they were making jokes and having fun the whole time, and as we were leaving they were all playing bumper cars with their cars. The guy who had cooked us the frogs a few weeks ago gave us a ride, and it was really funny to see how they all drive here. He had to hot-wire his car to start it, and Argentines bump cars around a lot! For example, when people parallel park their cars, they always leave their car in neutral, so that way when there's not enough room and another car needs to get in to park, they just "bump" the car so it rolls until it hits the car in front of it, so that way there's more space. It's funny to see people parking because they're always rolling around the other cars so they can squeeze in. But they also just bump cars for fun, and it was really funny (and crazy!) to see the Branch President, First Counselor and the frog guy all hitting each other with their cars the whole time we were driving back, ha ha!
After that everyone met at a member's house and had an awesome asado!!! (barbecue) It was my first legit asado, and it was sooooooooooo good!!! They brought out a huge grill and threw on tons and tons of meat and cooked it up, and ate the meat with bread (their "pan" here is really good), sauces and of course always the coke. It was tons of fun!!!
The seasons are changing, and it's cooling down a lot. Daytime is still very hot, but mornings and evenings are quite cool, making it not so fun to get breakfast anymore, ha ha. (Mom's note: their kitchen is outside.) It's funny to think that you're going into summer now and heating up, as we're cooling down. I can't wait to see what an Argentine winter is like.
Dad, since you suggested it a few weeks ago, I have been trying to read aloud more in Spanish, which I think is helping me with the language, so thanks for the advice.
Next week is transfers, so my P-day will be on Tuesday. Elder Petersen will probably be transferred, but I will probably stay here. I love my area and would like to stay. I am hoping I get a Latin comp because I think it would really help me with the language!!
Without a doubt I can say I'm glad I'm here serving a mission. I've really come to know that this church is the true church of Jesus Christ, and I love my mission because I know what I'm teaching is true. If I didn't know what I was teaching was true, I imagine I would hate this. I'm away from my family, I work hard all day, many people reject and yell at us, we get paid nothing and actually have to spend our own and our family's money to be here, and the living accomodations in Argentina are quite lame compared to the States. Yet, despite all that, there's no place I'd rather be than right here. The truth is that I wouldn't be here still unless I knew this is true. And because I know it's true, I'm sacrificing many things, but I'm having fun because it feels good to be able to share this knowledge with those who are willing to listen and want to accept the gospel into their lives. I miss you all very much, but I love my mission, and I am so glad to be here.
Well, I'm all out of time. I want you all to know I love you very much, and hope the best for you every day!!
Love,
Eric
* Thank you to Elder Petersen's family for sharing the lunch-time picture!
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