Eric and Elder Reyes in front of the kitchen in the apartment
The kitchen
The front door of their apartment
Helping cook the meal at a member's house
With MTC companion Elder Anderson at thebuffet in Rosario last week
Hey family!!!
Finally I'm able to write you!!! I just barely got back to Casilda after another P-day in Rosario. Once again we all ate at the buffet and played soccer!!! The buffet is awesome just like last time, the main difference between the Argentine buffet and a States buffet is that basically you just would replace the salad bar with A HUGE ASADO ARGENTINE GRILL!!! I love it. It's a really good buffet, if you want pasta or anything like that they cook it up right in front of you, so your food is always super fresh and good. It's very expensive but it was a lot of fun! It makes me feel like I'm back in the States again when I enter. They even have a mini river and kids go and play in it sometimes, which I doubt would fly in the States, safety-wise.
After that we had an awesome soccer game (we won). We played in the rain, so the field was very muddy and like a giant Slip N Slide, it was a lot of fun. Playing soccer with Latins is always fun. After that we went to the terminal to go to Casilda. A huge dog fight was going on right inside the terminal (there's dogs everywhere in Argentina no matter where you go) but luckily we made it out alive, and it was fun to watch while we waited for our colectivo. (bus)
Well, I want to talk about my area but first I want to tell you that I found out that Lautero (one of Stela's kids!!!) got baptized several weeks back!!! He promised to be baptized when we left, the other missionaries got to be the ones to baptise him, which is okay, I'm just glad that he has made his covenants with Heavenly Father and will have the spirit to guide him, and that their family is all doing good, which I hear they are.
Here in Casilda the church is awesome. Our church is basically some rich person's house turned into a church. They remodeled it so it appears like a church, and it is really nice. I love it, it has really nice glass doors and is just nice. Because the branch is so small, my comp is the counselor in the branch presidency (there's only one counselor) and I am the secretary. As secretary I do lots of things, many of which I'm still learning, but one of them is I do all the finance stuff, or the stuff that the financial clerk would do if we had one. So it's kind of cool knowing that on Sunday I'm doing the same job as Dad (although it's much easier since we have less people.) Then on Monday we'll go to the bank with the money, like Dad would. I do other stuff, too, but that's the big stuff. We are always doing things during church like passing or blessing the sacrament, or giving talks. I'll be giving a talk this Sunday again (my first Sunday here I was asked to give a talk with only 15 minutes notice!) Luckily as secretary, I plan the speakers and stuff like that, so now they can't pull a fast one on me anymore, ha ha! I'm very excited to give my talk this Sunday, it's going to be about the Holy Ghost, and I have lots of good material, and I've learned lots about it through the stuff Dad sends me and through personal experience, as in EVERY DAY OF MY MISSION! That's what's so great about my mission!!!
Our branch president is a cool guy, and our members are great. We eat every Saturday with the branch president's family, and every Sunday with the branch president's parents, and we often get a meal during the week sometime. That helps us out so much and we eat so much better than what we have time to make. Now that the weather's changing, everyone's eating noodles with meat, which is good cause I love it.
Well, that's it about the church, so now I'll talk about the pench. It's great, I love it. Casilda's a nice and rich area, although we still have to hand wash our clothes in a bucket. Regarding the hot water heater, yes we're careful but we have to light it about 20 times a day because it keeps going out, but that's okay, because it is so awesome to have hot water!!!! The pench is very, very small but comfortable. As you can see from the pictures, it feels kind of like a cabin! No, we don't have a heater, but we have a stove that actually works, so we blast the burners and the oven when we get really cold. Like I said, our pench is on the second story, on the corner, and it's about two blocks away from the villa, so we're very safe. It's definitely my favorite pench so far, although the Venado pench (although not as nice) was really fun too with four American elders.
Elder Reyes is lots of fun, too. He doesn't really speak English, but he is trying to learn it because he wants to become a translator. So I teach him some funny phrases, and when the zone leaders call us, I tell him to call them "Sweetheart," and he does, or whatever other silly thing I tell him to say, ha ha. Now he knows the meaning of sweetheart, but he just loves to keep using it! He plays the guitar a little bit, too, which is fun.
Well, now I know why I didn't get to see Bryce's brother Jared, it was unfortunate to hear about everything getting stolen, but at least he is okay.
Regarding Grandpa and Uncle Roland, my prayers are with them and I hope they can recover from their surgeries!! Tell them I said, "I love you both, and hope the best for you!!! In my area and Rosario, there's lots of medical places, but they're all very lame compared to the quality back in the States, so just know you're being treated by quality doctors."
I've already seen lots of Rosario, I feel like it's my area almost! It's a very nice city, the parks are fabulous and the stadiums too, although I've just seen them from a distance. Tomorrow is like Argentina's Fourth of July, it's called Revolucion de Mayo, and it is their 200th anniversary of Independence. So there's lots of bicentennial festivities going on.
I received your pictures and loved them!!! It looked really fun at the Bees game, and Marisa looks huge (in a good motherly way, of course!) Also it is great to see the house, but it's crazy that you had snow today! And yes, so far the packages that I've gotten were in great condition.
Well, I've got to go because I am out of time now, but I'm glad I could finally write you a quality email, it feels like 2 weeks since I've been able to write you!! I love you all very much and miss you all, but am enjoying myself here as well!!! But I love you all and am so glad to see your pics always!!!
As the Argentines love to say, Suerte and Nos Vemos!!!! :) (Good luck and Til we meet again)
Love,
Eric
Elder Reyes with his guitar_____________________________________________
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