Elder Rojas and Eric in the penche 
Eric with his birthday cake, wearing the new River jersey. We had sent the candles (and the matches you see in the little Ziploc bag.)
Happy Birthday, Eric!
Eric and Elder Petersen after playing soccer on P-Day, wearing their "penche jerseys." This picture is from the old area of San Martin, Venado Tuerto. Hey everyone!! How's it going!!
Right now I'm in La Paz, so I'll be sending you some fotos!! Also, yesterday (Tuesday) I just got the other package you sent! It was the one with the gas detector (Mom's note: it's a propane/methane detector), the bouncy balls for the kids, and the candies!! Thanks so much, I love American candy and the bouncy balls are great, and I'm going to use that gas detector everywhere I go!! Monday night we accidentally slept with the gas on. Luckily we had to get up at 4 in the morning on Tuesday to travel, because much longer could have been bad!! Every time we cook, we have to go open the gas valve, cook, and then turn it off when we're done. Well, Elder Rojas was doing the cooking but forgot to turn it off Monday night so we slept with the gas on all night, it was pretty bad at 4 when our clocks woke us up!! Don't worry, we're fine, but now I have the desire to always have that gas detector with me while I'm sleeping, ha ha!*
I also got your dearelder letter, too, which is always good!! Also, I wanted to let you know about the buttons that you sent me. They worked great, and they were actually the same size as the original ones, so I just had to add the one. Our member whose place we live in sewed it on really good for me, it's great to live by members.
I have been enjoying my new cd player. It wasn't too expensive and it's really good quality for here. No one really knows what kind of music we can listen to, it seems the rules change every week, but basically we're allowed to listen to good music that gives us the desire to be more spiritual and prayerful. I have about 8-10 cd's from when I was in Venado, copied from Elder Petersen and Elder Wilkinson, so I already had some. I have all the EFY songs, a Joseph Smith tribute CD, and a couple of other random ones.
Speaking of Elder Petersen, he's doing really good. I spoke to him Tuesday night on the phone and he's doing really good as Zone Leader, and I'm sending you right now a picture of us in our matching jerseys! It's the Real Madrid team, you can't tell from the front but the back has the name of the famous guy of Real Madrid and all, it's pretty cool. Although this is one of my birthday jerseys, I bought it a little early because it was our "penche jersey" that all four of us in our penche in Venado bought together. The black and red jersey that you see in the picture with the birthday cake is the River jersey. There are two big teams in Argentina, River and Boca. I'm technically a Boca fan, but don't really care too much, hence the River jersey because I liked the way it looked.
I'm in La Paz right now, after this we're going to go have an asado (barbecue), and then we have to return home and get right to work as soon as we arrive. I'm very excited for the asado, we're going to have it along the river!!!!!!!!!! Oh, and yes, Hermana Hansen, she's in my DISTRICT, I could hardly believe it when she told me! I wish I had been old enough to remember being neighbors and playing in the sandbox and all. This world is a small place, especially in the church. A new hermana just came into our zone and is in the same district as Elder Welker. And believe it or not, they were friends before the mission! It's crazy how small the world is!! (Mom's note: a district usually has about 4-8 missionaries in it, and 3 or 4 districts typically make up a zone. So it's kind of like the district is the "family" and the zone is the "extended family", for at least that particular 6-week transfer period. There are 12 zones in Eric's mission, with a total of approximately 190 missionaries.)
Yes, I would love to have you send me some recipes. We usually eat pretty boring because we always have to travel and have no money, but I'd still like some recipes to try, nothing too fancy though, there's not a lot of spices and whatnot to buy in Feliciano. We drink bottled water here too, we buy the big 5 gallon jugs when the water guy passes by in his truck.
Things are going good in Feliciano. We brought it back from the dead, ha ha. I don't think we'll have any baptisms this transfer :( but we did a lot of good at least. Elder Rojas and I get along great, and yes, I get to teach a lot. He has a year and 5 months in the mission, and he just barely went up as senior comp, so as a result, he's both experienced and new at the same time. So he lets me teach plenty, because he's very shy and timid and doesn't like to contact very much.
Feliciano is a lot like Venado, for fun the people go partying, which we hear outside our penche all night until we fall asleep. That's about all they have here, it's so small and poor there isn't much else.
No, we have not taught any gauchos. We really can't understand them. They're funny people, and they have their own language, I think. I usually can't understand a single word they say, and neither can my Latin comp!!! He is always asking them to repeat, and repeat, and finally gives up. Walking away from them, I always ask my Latin what they said, and he always says that he has no idea what they are saying!! They are way cool though, they all wear these sweet looking hats, with the big belt and boots and all, but the hat is the best. I will try to get a picture of it for you. It's kind of like the flat french hat, but really cool. (I guess he is already forgetting English, or at least French-English words! I think he means a beret.) All the gauchos look like they've been in the sun too long, and I think their skin is made of leather, ha ha.
Mom, that's very exciting about your new calling, I'm sure you'll love it, and I'm glad you were able to give a talk in sacrament meeting! Church here is going great, but with only 15 to 20 members each week, sometimes we get called on randomly for things. Last week Elder Rojas got called on to give a talk in sacrament meeting. I was randomly called on to give the prayer (whew.)
Mosquitoes aren't bad here, we don't have problems with that, if I needed any repellent it would be dog repellent, ha ha. The seasons are changing, and the leaves too, so I'm glad you sent the winter gear because it gets cold in the nights and mornings. We're allowed to work with hats, like the beanie type, and gloves, so if you could send some I would really appreciate it. If not, don't worry, it's still not terribly cold, but it's definitely changing!
I love you all and thank you so much for your love and all you do for me!!!
Love,
Eric
The new birthday CD player. It's a good thing he could choose his own, because I would have thought he needed a really small one.
Eric said he also bought this new bag with his birthday money. I think it is for carrying missionary supplies around every day, and/or to carry stuff as they go on their overnight travels to La Paz. * Mom's note: If this were a "miracle" kind of story, Eric would have received the gas detector one day earlier. However, I still can't understand how Eric received this package so quickly, in less than 3 1/2 weeks since I sent it. This package beat the one I had sent two months ago, which was smaller and he still hasn't received. Usually the packages sit in customs for about a month, not even counting traveling time...and then Eric wouldn't normally be receiving any mail until the next zone conference which is in the middle of May. I guess Heavenly Father knew that they really needed it, and I'm glad because I wouldn't have slept a wink after hearing about the gas valve incident, if the gas detector hadn't arrived! :)
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