A day in the life of a missionary

Eric with his zone on P-day, September 6, 2010

The zone enjoying P-day at the stake center

Ready for tacos!

A homeade pinata (with a face and a smile) hanging from the basketball hoop

Give it a good whack, Eric!

Hey, what's up family!!!

I'm happy to hear that everyone's doing good up there. That's awesome that you talked to Jim and left him with the Jesus the Christ book! I imagine you guys were pretty excited to meet him and to leave him with that book! That makes me really happy to think of us as a whole family of missionaries!! Everything you just told me about sounds so much like a story that gets told in sacrament meeting (the first half, anyway.) Now we just have to wait for the second half where he reads it, prays and gets baptised!!! You guys did a great service, I hope he reads it!! Thanks for being awesome parents, it helps me lots in the mission. The mission is pretty hard, but the main thing that helps me is knowing I have good parents who support me. I imagine you guys felt the join of missionary work when you gave him the book, that is so great! Ha ha, who would think that my parents would try to convert one of my favorite movie stars.

Send my greetings (is that how we say it in English? I don't even remember??? manda saludos???) to Maya and give her a kiss from me. From the pictures she looks great and like a very strong, healthy baby, which makes me very happy. Okay, well, say hi to everyone else from me and tell them that all is well here.

Oh, I almost forgot...I imagine you've been scanning this email for info on transfers!!! So I'll let you know what's up with transfers!!!! This transfer I'm going to............stay! Finally I'm staying in one area! And Elder Boudreau is leaving to go to San Cristobal. He's going to be training a Latin! I think that would be hard to train a Latin, but he seems very happy and says he'd prefer to train a Latin than an American, so I guess everyone wins. And as he is going to San Cristobal, my new companion will be coming from there, so they are basically switching places. My new comp will be Elder Romero. He is a Latin, but that is all that I know about him right now. Elder Boudreau says he's a good guy and that he knows him from before. Well, so I'm excited because I like Rincon and am excited to have a Latin comp now, especially since I can now understand pretty much everything that anyone says to me in Spanish. I'm looking forward to this transfer and expect we'll be able to do a lot of good, and change is fun. But don't get me wrong, Elder Boudreau has been a great comp, the typical goofball, he's a good guy and I love him because he always has a good attitude.

I will be sure and let you know about everything in next week's email. So everything else is good here. I finally get to inherit all the GOOD PARTS OF THE PENCH! The good table and the GOOD BED!!!!! So I'm very excited for that!

I heard from the hermana (sister) missionaries in our zone that there is a package for me at the mission home. So, yeah!!! Hopefully I will get it soon, and not have to wait until November. I think they might let the zone leaders pick up packages if they go there.

Okay, you had a few questions so I'll go ahead and answer them. Regarding Spanish study, we spend 30 minutes a day on studying the language. However, for a new missionary's first two transfers ONLY, you have to study the language for one hour. You just study it however you want. I often read a grammar book or the Book of Mormon in Spanish. This coming transfer I definitely want to read it out loud with my Latin comp to perfect the pronunciation.

I think in English mostly, but that's because I'm with an American. I think more in Spanish if I am with a Latin. Also, if I'm doing something Spanish, I can think in Spanish!!

Okay, here is a typical day for us.
6:30 am: Wake up, fall on knees, pray, beg for help to not fall asleep again, and try to put a smile on. Then we do exercises for 30 minutes...lay on the mats and do push ups, situps, whatever, you can imagine how that must feel right after waking up...now your blood is pumping, clearly exercises are an inspired rule...

7-8:00 am: You shower, eat, dress, get ready. The shower drain always backs up, so by the time you're done you'll be swimming in water, so step out of the shower and rinse the soapy water off your feet again. You probably don't have anything in the fridge, but if you do, APROVECHAR!!! (seize the advantage) EAT IT, before your comp finds it, ha ha. Then get dressed and all ready for the day. You feel better now, and it's time to study.

8:00 am: Pray and start your study based on what you planned to study the night before (this is my favorite part of the morning, and often the whole day!)

9:00 am: Sing a hymn together with your comp, trying to harmonize, and trying not to injure all the nearby people and dogs who have to hear it. Then pray, review what you learned in personal study with your comp, and then study together as a companionship. (There's lots of things to do to study together, read the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, practice teaching, etc.)

10:00 am: You study the language for 30 minutes

10:30 am: Pray with comp (yes, we pray a lot), bear brief testimony to comp and leave to start working. Sometimes you contact, go by investigators, or do callbacks, teach lessons, or other stuff like that.

Around 12:00 you go to your lunch appointment (or cook food yourself if you don't have a lunch appointment), eat everything both good or BAD, try to act like you like it all even when they bring out something crazy. (Lunch is their big meal, there's really no dinner.)

Anyway, I'm almost out of time now, but basically you keep working till 9 pm (or 9:30 if you have an appointment) then go home, plan, and go to sleep. And that's basically what we do every single day for 2 years straight...two and a half hours of study daily, and working all day.....without pay!!!! But believe it or not, I love this schedule and want to follow something like this my whole life! The blessings of serving a mission are great, which is why following a schedule like this isn't a burden but a blessing. I love my mission!

Anway, I love you all very much, and thank you for all you do. Will give you more details on the changes next Pday.

Love,
Eric

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