How's it going!! I hope all's well. Life here in Feliciano is going great!!! We spent our last week on the road a lot and in La Paz. But this week, we only have to travel on Friday and Saturday!! This time all of the other missionaries in our district came up here for Tuesday's District Meeting. So as a result, we'll probably be able to get the Standards (hopefully) and get to stop by to see all of our investigators this week!!! We still have to travel Friday and Saturday though, but at least not as much as most weeks.
Regarding the bus ride, we usually try to sleep on the buses because we often arrive back at our penche around 1 or 2 in the morning. But we still have to get up on time the next morning, even if it's only 4 hours later! So even though I could, I haven't taken the time to write letters while on the buses. But today, I'll probably be able to write a few letters because we actually have a P-day (instead of spending it traveling). But I will have to wait until we go to La Paz again to mail them.
Well thanks again everyone for the birthday gifts and money. I'll tell you about the cool stuff I got with the money. I took pictures of it all, and I also finally found and bought a camera card reader that can hook up to the USB port! However, as I am here in Feliciano this time, I can't send any pictures because these computers don't even have a USB port. I guess we're just lucky they have computers here at all. So I'll send you some pictures next week when we go back to La Paz.
I bought everything in La Paz and brought it back. I bought a really nice CD player that plays CD's, Mp3's and it has a USB port to connect ipods and whatever to listen. It's a really cool CD player and has great sound. I have about 10 cd's from Elder Petersen, so I have good music. (Mom's note: The missionaries can listen to church music and similar types of things.) Elder Rojas already had a cd player, but now it is nice to have one of my own. Last week I also bought two trucho soccer jerseys at Taco, which sells trucho jerseys. (Trucho means a fake or knock-off.) The real jerseys are around 300 pesos, but we got awesome ones that look the same for 40 pesos each! One of them is for the team River (even though I'm a Boca fan, ha ha) and the other one is Real Madrid! Dad should like that one! Hopefully I can send you the pictures next week because they are really cool. I also bought a butterfly knife, which is way cool. Don't worry, I don't need it or anything, it's just cool to have because everyone around here has one, and it only cost 40 pesos. (I looked it up, and a butterfly knife, or balisong, has two handles that open up and close around the blade. You may have seen these knives used in the movie West Side Story, as well as some martial arts movies where people demonstrate great skill flipping them.) I bought my knife at the terminal. They sell them everywhere around here. What's crazy is that you can even buy them in some of the kioskos, along with switchblades. (Mom's note: With all of the strict rules these missionaries live by, I was somewhat surprised to hear that he is allowed to buy a knife...but then I realized that his mission president is a South American, who encourages them to do interesting things like climbing up to sleep on the roof on hot nights, so I guess this is simply just one of those culture differences.)
It's crazy the way they can sell just anything here to anyone. We see little 5 year old kids going down to the local kiosko buying beer and smokes for their parents and then walking back home with them. The police don't care about anything, they are usually sleeping in their cars, and they are so lazy they don't even usually have their shirts buttoned up. But the armored truck guys all walk around with uzi's and submachine guns, it's a really funny world down here!
The Spanish is going pretty good. I feel I have been blessed to be able to speak it pretty well now. People understand me the majority of the time. The thing that's been hardest for me is being able to understand them, ha ha! But I have found, that when you really need it, that's when the Spirit helps you. Whenever Elder Rojas is off in an interview or talking with someone else, and I have to talk one on one with somebody, I can understand everything they say and have a good conversation. But when Elder Rojas is with me and they all start talking really fast, sometimes I still get lost! But having a Latin comp helps a lot. All of my studies and my whole life right now is in Spanish!
We're doing really good here, and we now have about 30 investigators!! That is great, because at the time I arrived here, we had none. Many of them are progressing, although I don't know that any will be getting baptized really soon. I'm hoping we can get more members and build up the church. Our church is so small here that Elder Rojas and I always have to bless or pass the sacrament on Sundays. We also need to help out with lessons in Sunday School, too. It's fun, I really enjoy a close, small branch, and we're good friends with all the members, although none of them have had us over for any meals yet.
Yes, there's plenty of dogs here, although I haven't seen the gangs or packs of dogs roaming wild like there was in my old area San Martin VT. So it's safe here dog-wise.
The financial status here in Feliciano is about the same as San Martin. Overall poor, although every once in a while, there's a mansion in the middle of the ghetto, but otherwise poor houses. Many have the thatched straw type house that you think of as only being in Hawaii and tropical islands. They look pretty cool.
I hear that the rain here can be really bad, but surprisingly, so far we have not had any. There are plenty of streams in this area. There is one stream in particular that we have to cross often, which we can cross by walking on a narrow pipe. Elder Rojas is kind of a chicken so he takes the 5 minute detour, ha ha, but I always take the pipe.
It's awesome the way we are teaching the people here with the spirit in almost all of our lessons. And the mission itself is awesome here in Feliciano. I'm coming to love the place more and more, and I can't believe how much time has passed already!! It just gets faster and faster.
Thanks for all the love and support! ;)
Love,
Eric
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Mom's note: I found this article and two pictures in a Feliciano online publication dated March 23, 2010. The article discussed how a team of Social Health and Welfare workers visited families in Feliciano and provided mobile health and dental services to the residents for several days, as well as worked on ways to improve conditions there. Since Feliciano is so small, I wonder if Eric has met or perhaps even knows some of these residents?
Info. Local | 23/03/2010 | |||
UN EQUIPO DE PROFESIONALES RECORRIÓ BARRIOS Y EL ÉJIDO DE LA CIUDAD | ||||
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I also found this picture showing the stage where each year in February Feliciano holds a festival...it is called "Fiesta del Ternero Entrerriano" which is some sort of celebration about bull calves. Since the area is inhabited by mostly cattle farmers, I guess that makes sense!
The last article and picture I found, dated April 20, 2010, is about a man the authorities are trying to track down for smuggling into the country $12,000 worth of electronics. They suspected he was traveling through the Feliciano area, which would be logical since there aren't very many other roads from Brazil or Uruguay to reach the more populated areas in Argentina. I guess it must be just the local police that sleep in their cars, because this operation looks like they mean business!
Info. Provincial | 20/04/2010 | |||
EN PROXIMIDADES DE LOS CONQUISTADORES | ||||
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