Casilda is awesome!

Elder Reyes and Eric in their pench. It is cold in Argentina now, and I don't think any of the homes there have heat, which is probably why they are bundled up.

The view from the balcony of the Casilda pench

Another view from the balcony of the Casilda pench

Hey family!!!

How is everyone?!! From the pictures you sent me it looks like you're all having a good time!!

I'm here in Casilda, loving the big city and the life here, and I'm writing from a real computer!! Casilda is an hour away from the main city Rosario, so I guess that's why Casilda is so big. It's a huge city and is very beautiful here. (Mom's note: Casilda has about 30,000 people, so it probably just feels huge to Eric after coming from the tiny little pueblito he was serving in previously.) I don't have much time right now, but I guess I'll try and describe Casilda as best I can with words. It's awesome here, I love everything about it. Our pench is a "house"on top of another house. So we go up some perilous Argentine-made stairs every day which is fun, and then since we're upstairs we have an absolutely enormous balcony. Our pench is VERY small, but very comfortable, and VERY NICE. I love it. We have our basic kitchen, with a working oven :) and our bedroom, and then our study room, and bathroom. We also have a real shower and a hot water heater!!!!!!!! It holds 5 minutes of hot water for a shower, I love it!! It also has pressure!!! The only hassle is that every morning you have to go out and attempt to light it because the pilot light always goes out, but it's awesome. Ha ha, I saw the fan in the bedroom that hit Elder Anderson in the head, although now it's cold so we'd never use the fans.

I wanted to let you know that I received your packages!! I got the Sudafed finally, along with the camera cord, thanks! I decided to wait until I stop taking my other meds to take the Sudafed, but will soon use it to hopefully clear me up. Dad, I also got both the inspirational cd's you sent, I love them, and hope you will send more. They're very interesting. I took 4 pages of notes while listening, and it goes right along and explains a lot of Book of Mormon teachings, although the author has no idea about that. Of course, the Book of Mormon is a much more descriptive resource to use, but I learned a lot from them. I love all the letters I got from everyone! I received Jared's letter and was way excited to hear about his mission call to Dallas, Texas! I wish I could attend his farewell, but think it's way cooler that we'll both be serving our missions at the same time.

Well, I only have a few more minutes because we're going to take the 11:00 bus to Rosario!!!!!! Our zone is going to eat at a BUFFET IN ROSARIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be the first buffet I've eaten here, it's supposed to be a really good restaurant, I am VERY excited!!!!!!!! And it will be like a mini mission reunion, because two of my old comps, Elder Anderson and Elder Peterson will be there!!!

Please tell Grandpa and Uncle Roland that I will be praying for both of them, that their surgeries will go well and they will recover.

We are going to be leaving now, but if we can, my comp and I are going to come back to finish our email time and so I'll write you more later today.

I love you all and hope all goes well for you. I'm glad you're all having fun doing stuff together and I wish I could be there, but of course I love the time I have now in my mission, love you all!!!

My computer just died, but I am now sending again, thank goodness for gmail autosave.

Love,
Eric

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