Eric Hanson: So hard to say good-bye

Eric with his district while in Casilda. The caption he wrote for this picture is, "I am going to miss my district so much!"

The two Lopez sisters who remind Eric of his own sisters. Daniela (the Marisa sister) is on the left, and Karla (the Holly sister) is on the right. This was taken in the church building. (The third sister that he talks about in the letter is married and in Utah.)

Another view from the balcony of the pench. You can see a white sign advertising a Kiosco, as well as a sign across the street advertising eggs 3,75$ pesos per dozen.

Since Eric mentioned that they pass by the candy shop (kiosco) every day, this might be the owner of the kiosco whose white sign you saw in the previous picture.

Hey family, what's up!!!! Happy Late Father's Day!!! It sounds like you all had a great time on Father's Day celebrating together, and Mom, it sounds like you had a fun time at Girls Camp. I spent Father's Day working and some of the time with our favorite members here, the familia Lopez. They're like my family here in Argentina because they're so nice and loving, I feel like I'm with you all when I'm with them sometimes.

Anyway, I'm sure you all want to hear about transfers so I'll let you know what's up. For transfers, I'm going to leave Casilda. My comp is going to stay. I'm going to an area called Yapeyu/Recreo Sur in the zone Rafaela. My comp's name is Elder Herold, the same comp that Elder Eldred had in the MTC! From what I hear, he's an awesome guy, and it should be another great transfer! Our pench is on the street Malvinas, which should be interesting seeing as how we're "Ingleses" and all. (I think he is referring to the Argentines' grudge towards English-speaking people after the Falkland Islands/Malvinas war.) Just about our whole district is being transferred, and even the zone leaders are transferred.

Anyway, so yes, I'm going to leave. I think this is going to be BY FAR the hardest area for me to leave. I LOVE THE MEMBERS HERE and they love me. I love the area, the people in my zone, my comp, my district, members, my position as secretary, everything about Casilda I LOVE. I felt like I was going to die when I found out that I am going to leave, and then my comp felt like he was going to die when he found out he had to stay! (He has been here two transfers already and was hoping to leave Casilda.) So neither of us are really big fans of transfers but I'm going to look forward to the new area and companion also!

I really am going to miss Casilda, all the 6 street intersections (instead of 4 way intersections, here in Casilda there are 5, 6 and 7 way intersections, very confusing.) Also, another thing I'm going to miss is this awesome guy, who is the owner of the candy shop that we went by every day. I took a picture with him, he's an awesome guy and we're good friends with him. I'm including this photo of him in the email. I am also going to miss the class of English that I teach here in Casilda. Well, so yes, I'm very sad to leave, and I even cried a little yesterday, and today in the evening we're going to pass by our "family" members to say good-bye, which will be hard too. Elder Reyes will have to survive another transfer here, he is so lucky and he doesn't even think so.

Speaking of surviving, my comp almost died a few days ago. It was at the busy rotunda that we have here in Casilda. The way was clear so he decided to cross. I've been trying to follow the slightest promptings I have without hesitation or thinking about it (in other words, following the spirit as much as possible) so when I had the slightest prompting not to cross the street with my comp, I held back. Well, what happened next, was a car came flying around the corner very fast and came about a foot away from slamming into my comp. The car screeched to a halt, and stopped surprisingly fast, luckily for my companion who just stood there in the line of fire without moving. Anyway, just an interesting story.

Also, Mom, I know how much you love talking to people, such as other missionary moms, so I sent your phone number and name to Jessica, the sister of Daniela and Karla. Daniela is the former missionary that lives here with her parents and sister Karla, and their other sister is Jessica who had served her mission in the Salt Lake Temple. After her mission she decided to stay in Utah (who wouldn't??) and so she still lives in Salt Lake. Anyway, so she's going to try to call you just to talk, so you have the opportunity to talk to a bilingual Argentine!!! By the way, that family is the members that are like "family" to us. I call the girls my Argentine sisters, because they're two sisters (Karla and Daniela) and they act a lot like Marisa and Holly, surprisingly. So hopefully you can make time in your busy schedule to have communication with Jessica.

Well this last Sunday, we here in Casilda had a special visitor. President Villalba came to our church and attended all the meetings with us!!! It was so awesome, I wish he'd come to my church every week, but of course he can't. It was a lot of fun to have him here, and of course, I love being able to talk with him.

By the way, have you heard how Jared is doing in the MTC? Let me know.

Elder Reyes and I have been able to keep up with the World Cup. We're not allowed to watch the soccer games, but we can't help but see some of it because the World Cup is on in every single home or anyplace you go here. Honestly, I can't think of a Latin that hasn't been watching every one of the World Cup games! Anyway, I'm glad Argentina's doing good....unlike Spain!! I saw part of the Spain match where they lost, I was going to take a picture of me crying in my Spain jersey to send to Dad, but didn't have time. Just wanted to let Dad know how "his" country is doing, ha ha. Argentina plays today against Grecia (Greece), so we'll see how that goes.

As far as working goes, President Villalba tells us to work without change, even during the World Cup games unless it is Argentina who is playing, but of course that is hard to do. Still, one must love it here because the people are all so animated (enthusiastic) and they love to cheer and celebrate. Whenever Argentina even gets close to scoring, everyone is screaming, so you can imagine what it's like when they do score. Casilda is pretty small, so there's not tons of celebrating in the street, but the people are all still happy. The area I'm going to is a big city, and quite dangerous from what I hear. But maybe there will be more action in the streets with celebrating the World Cup there.

You asked about my clothes, and they're all holding up pretty good. One of my shoes (the type with gel pad) is falling apart in the heel, but apart from the heel it's doing okay.

No, I don't eat that cereal for breakfast anymore. I don't eat anything for breakfast, mostly we just eat lunch, which is either noodles or we order something. Ordering here is very common.

I'm very sorry to hear about Uncle Roland and his cancer. My prayers of comfort are with him and Aunt Lisa in this very difficult time. I hope they can have some happy moments in the time there is. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Roland, stay strong and remember that our Heavenly Father loves you both very much.

Well, I better go, just want to say I love you all so much, and am very grateful and happy for all you've done and still do for me. Good luck with the baby shower!!! I hope it goes well and is lots of fun.

Love,
Eric

Eric captioned this picture as "The Chile flag, from when we saw some of the Chile match of the World Cup." I'm guessing that this Chile flag belongs to his Chilean companion, Elder Reyes.