A week of miracles

Eric with Elder Rojas

The pench Eric is living in while in the city of Santa Fe

The five elders Eric shares the pench with, from left to right: Elders Rojas, Welker, Renlund, Astudillo and Herold (who appears to be cleaning the grill.)

The asado. These five pictures were taken on the day of the Argentina-Germany match, when the missionaries had to stay in their apartments the whole day for safety reasons.

The giant garage that they play soccer in

Hey family!!!

Hey everyone, what's up?! Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July and the outings! From the pictures it looks like it was a fun holiday.

We too had a little celebration at our pench for the 4th of July. Saturday we had to stay in the pench all day. The mission rule was that Saturday, (the day of the Argentina vs. Germany World Cup game) we all had to stay in our penches, and if Argentina wins, we can leave the pench at 3 o'clock. And if they lose, we can't leave the pench the whole day, for safety. The Argentines could mistake some missionaries for Germans. So as you know, Argentina lost, so we all stayed in the pench the whole day. But it was cool because we had the whole day Saturday to celebrate our 4th of July! Lots of elders from our zone hurried through the streets to our pench, and even a few that were not in our zone, and we all hung out in our pench all day because it is a huge and very nice pench! We played soccer in the garage thing and we cooked up a good asado on our huge grill. It was a pretty good day. Also, we had some cool music (Elder Welker has some really nice speakers) and yes, we had fireworks. After Argentina lost, all the Argentines were upset and so there weren't any cool celebrations or explosions (except the fireworks of anger) but yeah, it wasn't too bad. My comp decided to take advantage of (living in) Argentina, and bought a lot of fireworks, including about 10 sticks of dynamite (yes, you can actually buy dynamite here) and many other illegal looking fireworks. The dynamite we got was actual dynamite, although it was smaller (about a fourth the size of a full stick of dynamite, or in other words, four sticks of our Argentine dynamite equals one stick of real dynamite.) We also got lots of other fireworks that aren't dangerous, just fun, which we've used as pranks in the pench. Lots of pranks in this pench, ha ha, it's lots of fun. But anyway, safe pranks, so don't worry.

This past week has been a good week for the work!! I don't know what happened this week, but after having gone my whole mission so far without needing to give a single priesthood blessing, I suddenly needed to give THREE BLESSINGS IN THREE DAYS! So a blessing a day! It was very crazy!!! Luckily I had studied all about blessings because Dad said you give them all the time on your mission. I was starting to think he was crazy, since I have gone all this time without even doing it once, until all of the sudden I needed to do three!!! Luckily I was prepared and they went pretty good, actually. Although they're somewhat hard because you have to talk in Tu form, which as a missionary, we never do!! We speak in Usted form all the time to all the people, it's what we're used to. We talk in Vos form once in a while to Latin missionaries and friends and some kids, and we never speak in Tu except in blessings and prayers. Just the same, the blessings actually went pretty good, and I really felt the spirit so strong, especially in one of the blessings, and I was given the words that I needed to say. As missionaries, we always try to live by the spirit, but it was also a matter of getting past the fear and just having the faith to be able to listen to the spirit, which can be hard, but it all went well and was very rewarding.

One of the blessings we gave was to this old lady we found doing contacts. She's basically a hermit, because she has one leg and is embarrassed to go outside in her wheel chair because people sometimes say things. She was embarrassed and didn't want to let us in, but her daughters that were there made us come in and talk to her, because they said that she needs a friend. Well, she asked for a blessing, and I gave her one, and I felt prompted to talk about Christ's life, how he was despised, mocked, and rejected because he was different, how he suffered for all our pains and afflictions, and many other things that I felt directed to say. The spirit was so strong. After the blessing, her appearance really changed (or her attitude) and she committed to going to church and she even threw open the door and hung out outside a little bit despite her fear. So many miracles like that are happening every day now!

Here's another miracle: today we went to Walmart, and while we were there, I was over by a big crate of alfajores (a cookie-like treat), selecting way too many alfajores for my own good, when some guy came up to me and started talking to me like we were best friends. We joked around a bit, and he was laughing and friendly with us. Then he started to get serious talking to us, telling us about his dad who had been dying a long time ago. He said Mormon missionaries came and knocked on his door, and he didn't want to let them come in, but then he did decide to let them come in because he wanted them to give a prayer on behalf of his dying dad. So the missionaries went in his house, and gave his dad a priesthood blessing. About 5 minutes after the missionaries left his house, the dad recovered completely, even though doctors had said it wouldn't be possible, and his dad is still living today! He said that those missionaries saved his dad's life, as well as his own, and he has never forgotten them but didn't know how to find them. Then he started crying and gave us a big hug, and demanded that we pass by his house. (He's a Baptist.) Well, just like all of the most awesome people that I find, he isn't in my area, so it's up to some other missionaries now, who had better teach him and get him baptized!!! I got his phone number and address and all that, so the other missionaries should make contact soon. But yeah, it's all good stuff anyway.

Today's been pretty fun, we started out by going to the Walmart, which is pretty much like Walmart in the States, it's really nice. I took a suit in to be dry-cleaned, for the first time since I've been in Argentina. After that we went to a mall, that was just like an AMERICAN MALL! It was really nice, although fairly small. They also have the only American candy shop in Argentina (well, that I've been able to find, anyway) and so I got some Skittles, Starburst, etc. We had fun there and found some cool stuff, and Elder Welker and his comp bought some stuff.

I'm out of time already, so I'll try and answer some questions real quick before I have to get off. Firstly, our weather has BEEN AWESOME!!! It's been like 70 degrees the whole week, great for working, outside patio asado-ing and everything!!! It has gone back to being like summer or early fall.

We have both dirt and real roads, so it's still hard to keep shoes clean because of all the dirt. We also have many old-school horse carriage trailer things. These horse trailers are basically a trailer or just a flat piece of wood on wheels, pulled by a horse, so the people stand on this while the horse pulls them to where they need to go. Believe it or not, there's lots of these things even in the heart of the city where millions of cars are wildly swerving around them.

Okay, to answer the last questions I've been asked. We eat with members all the time, American comps are easier to get along with than Latins, my comp and I get along really good, and we only receive mail at zone conferences, which are now once a month.

I love you all very much!!!
Eric

P.S. What day is the baby due?

This bridge is called "El Viejo Puente Colgante" and it spans the Rio Coronda, along which Santa Fe is located. It looks as if Eric took this picture while riding on a bus.

There are many beautiful Catholic cathedrals in Argentina. Judging by the date the picture was taken, I am fairly certain that Eric took this picture while in Santa Fe, although I have not yet been able to find out the name of this cathedral.

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