The baptism of Talia

The family and the missionaries at Talia's baptism

Eric with Talia right before the baptism. This was when she was so nervous and afraid that she couldn't even look at the camera.

Axel and Talia (and perhaps another sibling?)

Eric with Talia after the baptism. She looks very happy here!

Hey everyone, what's up!!!

I'm excited to be writing again, and definitely excited right now because Marisa should be having her baby right now!!! I thought she would have had it already, but the suspense continues, I guess. From what you have told me, Marisa is in the hospital right this minute and ready to have the baby any minute, I can't believe it!!! Tell Marisa I love her and that I am sure that all will go well!! Hopefully I can hear word from you guys before I have to get off the computer about the baby! Well, just know that I love you and am there with the rest of the family, even though I'm here in Argentina.

A LOT has happened this week, I'll try and tell you a bit about all of it, but first I want to tell you about the BAPTISM! This past Saturday we had the baptism of Talia!!! She's the sister of Rocio and is like 14 years old. She's way cool, but way timid! She and Axel were supposed to be baptised this past Saturday, but basically what happened, well, I can't say it basically, I'll just start from the beginning..........

Obviously we've been working with this family for a while. They're all good people, but like most people, they have their problems to work out. Rocio really wants to be baptised and comes to church weekly and pays attention more than anyone, even me, ha ha. She's awesome and loves the church, but she has some things she needs to take care of before we can baptise her. She's working towards it, but still isn't ready. Talia and Axel are the youngsters. So all three kids wanted to be baptised, but Rocio can't yet, and Talia was TERRIFIED of the baptism, and therefore at one point told us she was too scared to go through with it. We talked with her and the family for about an hour, just getting her to trust us because she was so scared. Finally she felt brave enough to go through with it, and she had her baptism interview and passed it, and said she wanted me to do her baptism. Axel was going to be baptised too, and he got interviewed also, and my comp was going to baptise him. At this point, everyone in the whole family was no longer scared about the baptism and could hardly wait another day for the baptism to take place! Well, the next day the mom sends us a message that they can't go through with the baptism after all. What happened is the father of Axel heard about the baptism and was very upset. The father doesn't live with the family, but he provides all the money, food, etc. and he hates ALL RELIGIONS! He said if Axel was baptised, he won't give them any more money or food! So, thus being the case, Axel couldn't be baptised. So Talia was really nervous to be the only one baptised.

So it was finally time for the baptism, and a former sister missionary had filled the font and everything was ready. So we went to our separate areas to change for the baptism. I've never seen anyone as scared as Talia, she was soooooo nervous! You can tell even in some of the pictures where she wouldn't look at the camera or drop her arms to her sides. It took her a little while of pacing around the font nervously before she slowly and cautiously entered the font. I was already in there and seeing her fear, just told her to hold on to my hand as hard as she wants to, and I would help her. Ha ha, maybe that was a mistake, because when I told her that, she seized my arm and didn't let go, almost breaking my arm with the force, good thing she's so little! Anyway, then I said that awesome powerful baptism prayer and then baptised her. She even screamed a little as she entered the water, but she was submerged and baptised perfectly! After that, we changed and she came out in dry clothes and for the first time since we entered the church, she gave me a big old happy smile and a high five, hence you can see in the picture taken after the baptism she is smiling! She was really happy after the baptism and is glad she did it!!

Well, we had a good cake made by the former sister missionary, and we had some pritty (my favorite soda drink down here). The next day my comp confirmed Talia in church, she was also very nervous to do that (just be in front of people) but she did an awesome job. Okay, telling all that took longer than I planned, but those are the basics, let me know if you have questions.

I received some letters, so thanks for the letters, I got some dearelders and the missionary book from Dad, woohoo! I already had time to read the book you sent me and really like it, and I might even read it again now.

Congrats Dad, on winning the longest drive at the ward golf tournament!

I got to go and do divisions with Elder Calvert, from my MTC district, and it was awesome doing divisions with him, to be able to work together, actually out in the mission field, actually speaking Spanish, and actually teaching REAL PEOPLE, just as we had dreamed about in the MTC. It was cool to see the progress we each have made and just laugh and talk with an old buddy.

The pench this week is holding strong, doing good after all the repairs we did last time! Our next door neighbors got robbed, but everything on our part is good.

We've got tons of awesome investigators right now, I don't have time to tell you about all of them, but I'll tell you about one because it's pretty funny. On Tuesday or Wednesday, we were working in an area, and we contacted a home where we talked with some women outside in their yard for a few minutes. Three days later we passed by them again, and they're all investigators now. Anyway, as we had been teaching the women, out of the corner of my eye I saw a man in his front yard and thought we should talk to him, but after the discussion with the women, forgot about him and we headed back on the long journey to the bus stop to go back to Rincon. (We were out in La Guardia, also part of our work area, because our area is huge.) Well, we had been walking about 5 minutes when we noticed someone was awkwardly following us. If we were cars, he would have been in my "blind spot", and he would neither pass us nor slow down, just hanging there awkwardly. My first thought is that this guy is planning on robbing us, because he was close and closing in, but very awkwardly. So finally I just stopped and turned and looked at him and gave him a big HOLA!!!! (hello) He didn't really expect that and looked a little startled but said hola, and then asked us if we teach the word of God. When I heard that, my next thought was Oh, another guy who wants to Bible bash and drop some cane on the missionaries (give them a hard time.) That's what I was thinking but of course I didn't say it, so I nicely said yes, and then he told us he was interested in hearing us, and that he was chasing us cause he wanted us to teach him!!!!! Well, we walked back with him to his house and taught him!!! I've never had anyone chase after me because they wanted me to teach them before!!! It was cool, we had a really good lesson, and he accepted to be baptised in the future after everything, but then he didn't go to church on Sunday. :(

Right now we're here in the ciber just chillin', and we hung out at Elder Calvert's pench for a bit this morning, too.

Don't worry about my health, I am fine, I think I am maybe just vomiting from the chorizo here, which is kind of like a sausage. I only mentioned it in last week's email because I never used to have blood in my mouth when I vomited before the mission, so I thought it was weird, but don't worry about it, it is not a big deal, I am fine.

The Sunday School classes are going good, our class is for the new conversos so it's really cool, because well, who knows better how to teach these people than missionaries?

Anyway, this is a great area, it was a little colder this week but still not terrible. There are lots of fishermen here and we often pass by little stands with guys selling freshly caught fish.

I'm all out of time, so I've got to go, and I've already written the president. I can't believe the baby didn't come while I was writing all this, I was hoping to hear news, but I guess I'll hear the news next week!

I love you very much and thank you very much for EVERYTHING! Really, everything you do and then all the things you don't even know that you do. I love you all very much, and wish you luck and send my prayers that all will go well with the labor!!

Love you so much!
Eric

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