Eric Hanson: Preach the gospel to every creature

Eric with his newest investigator

Mark 16:15 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature

Members of the church in the Casilda branch

Hey family, how's it going!!

Firstly I want to wish a Happy Birthday to Grandma!!!!! I loved the pics of her birthday with the birthday candles in the cut pineapples and everything, it looked like a lot of fun. So Grandma, I'm glad you had a great birthday celebration and the family could all be there!!

Also, Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad, glad to hear that you had fun for that, too! It seems like a lot happened for you all this past week!

I will pray especially for Uncle Roland this week as he has his surgery, and I hope it all goes well.

Things have been a little hectic around here, too. We had our zone conference, which by the way, we now have every month, and it was really good. I had a great interview with President Villalba. I love talking with him, he's a spiritual giant, and really wants to help all the missionaries. I know he receives revelation for the mission because I've felt it.

Well, I thought that was the last I'd see of Pres. Villalba for another month or so, but then he decided to come up to Casilda to interview our branch president and a few other people. President Villalba asked us to be present, and during that, he asked us to give him Lesson Two!!! So I had to teach President Villalba Lesson Two, I was terrified, but it went alright. Also, President Villalba is going to come to attend our branch this Sunday!!! I'm very excited that he is coming, it should be nice.

He's a funny guy and is always trying to speak English (like my comp.) Whenever he says something really important that he really wants to be sure that you know, he says it in broken English, but it's still pretty good. It's funny because in all his talks, he'll be speaking to us and then stop and look at all the new missionaries and repeat it in English. I remember the days when I needed that translation, ha ha. I don't need it now, although he still translates to me occasionally! He's a great guy and does a lot for the mission.

Right now I'm attaching some fotos with our newest investigator, my good old buddy, Ronald McDonald. We took these fotos this past week at the McDonalds in Rosario. The pictures are of me trying to preach the word to every creature, ha ha. Well, funny story. While Elder Reyes was taking the pictures of me, the security guard (yes, even the McDonald's has a security guard, welcome to Argentina) was watching and thought it was really funny! He liked it so much that he came up and talked to us. Well, we became friends and we had a good chat with him, and afterwards we committed him to go to church, which he said he will. It's in the area of Rosario, so I won't be able to continue keeping up with him, but it was just a funny experience, and evidence that one of the keys to the work is to have fun and become friends with the people and talk to everyone.

I'm also sending a pic of the pench and also one looking from the balcony, and some members of an awesome family in our branch. I'm sad that not all the family is present in the picture, but I'll try and get a pic with the whole family later. Also, in the picture, the girl second from the right, Daniela, is a return missionary! She served in Chile. She's really fun and nice and likes to help us work, AND her sister lives in Salt Lake City!!! Her sister, Jessica Walker, served her mission in the Salt Lake Temple and decided to stay in Utah afterwards. She's now married and whatnot. Daniela plans to move to Utah, too, which would be awesome. So that's just another of those small world stories.

The World Cup here is going good. It is definitely crazy here, though. The day that Argentina played, we left our pench to walk like 10 minutes to a member's house. During that short time I saw a car accident, about 10 feet from me. It wasn't bad, and of course they just drove off after looking at the damage, but it was still intense. People were running around like crazy so they could be in their homes in time for the Argentina vs. Nigeria match, so that was fun.

Things are getting so much more fun, especially now that I can understand a lot more. I'm getting comfortable to the point that I can make jokes and everything pretty easily in Spanish, which is pretty cool. One of the pictures I'm sending you is a picture someone painted on the side of a building about Casilda. It says "La Cuidad que queres" which is the vos form. The vos form is spoken only here in Argentina, and if you ask any Argentine, Castellano is a completely different language than Spanish, but of course they're mostly the same.

Well, today we don't have much planned, we're not going to travel to Rosario because we don't have much money (it's very expensive to travel) so we're just going to hang out here. I'm going to take the church money over to deposit, which like you asked me, can be deposited here in Casilda.

I could really use that tracting bag that we had seen in Missionary Mall before my mission. We are not allowed use backpacks here, only side bags, and the one I bought here is already falling apart! I had bought it in Feliciano, but unfortunately it was not good quality, and not made for the constant use of missionary life. So if you could send it to me, it would really help me a lot, so thank you!

During my mission, I have been blessed with the opportunity to be able to share the gospel with many families. Many people are concerned and believe that this life is the end, and I promise and testify that it is not. I know that we will all live again after this life as families. This is the great plan that we're all part of. I know that we all knew this plan before this life and accepted it. We knew one day we'd all be reunited again, and this is because of the love of our Heavenly Father. I know that He loves us all, and will comfort us in our trials when we pray to him. I know these things are true because they've been revealed to us by God through the prophets. Life is still hard, were it not we wouldn't learn the many things we've learned during our short lives, but we need not worry about what happens after this life. The plan is made and the course is set, we'll all live after this life and God loves us all. I know these things of a certainty, and I also know that all of us, being sons and daughters of God, have the equal opportunity to learn these things for ourselves, and to feel the love of our Heavenly Father through prayer.

I love you all very much, and pray for you always. Good luck to my buddy Jared who enters the MTC this Wednesday. I know he'll do great, he is going to love the MTC!!! It's such a fun and spiritual place.

I look forward to hearing from you all next week!!!

Love,
Eric

This is the picture where the Vos form of Castellano is written on the side of the building

I'm not sure what we are supposed to be looking at in this picture....but maybe this car is looking pretty good to Eric after all the walking the missionaries do!