Uncle Eric!

Looking out from the front of the pench

A washing machine in a member's home

Hey hey, what's up family???!!! This is Uncle Eric! Wow, that's so awesome that Maya was born Monday night and that everything went perfectly. Baby Maya looks so awesome in the pictures. And Marisa and David look like such parents already! They look like such a great little family.

I was soooo happy to see the pictures of my new niece, and happy to see everyone there together. I imagine it is a lot of work now. I've taught many families with young babies like that and I can tell already just how much work they are! Well, congratulations again and give Maya a kiss from me. Marisa and David, can you believe you are parents now???? If there's one thing I learned on my mission, it's that a united family really is the ultimate happiness. I'm sure you both understand that since we ourselves are part of a great united family!!

Well anyway, to be honest, I think this is the first baby that's really important to me and that I want to hear more about, so keep informing me on the progress because Maya is family!!! Before we know it, I'll be home, and Maya will have more than a year already! I'm sure she's going to grow up fast, because life just goes fast.

Well down here another week has gone by like always. The weather's heated up again, and right now I'm in the ciber in my soccer shorts and my Renaldo jersey. We got to the stake center early today, which has ping pong, foosball, pool and COUCHES (believe me, you'd be excited too if you knew what a rarity couches are in this country!!!) My comp and I got there early so we played a few games and then came to this ciber to do our emails! After that we're going back to the stake center to play soccer with the zone, and ping pong, and HAVE TACOS!!! (Tacos are not Argentine food, but I guess the American missionaires miss them.) So it'll be pretty exciting. I will take pictures and send them next week. I'm pretty excited that we're finally doing a zone activity. My comp brought his chess board, he really likes chess. He's good at it, too. I beat him once, but I think he's beaten me like three times now.

Well Rincon is going awesome, we got the STANDARDS again, and we also got outstanding on progromados, it's called sobresalientes (top five companionships with the highest dats), and so we got the most in people with a baptism date.

Our investigators are doing good, we have some investigators that assisted (attended) this past Sunday, and now have two who can be baptized as soon as they stop smoking, or other things. We're helping them with that.

Last week in my Sunday school class, I gave a lesson on repentance, and received a lot of help from the spirit. Saturday night we had passed by Rocio and we taught a lesson on overcoming addictions basically, and she got really uncomfortable and left halfway through the lesson. When I saw that, I was VERY HAPPY because when a person needs to change something in their life and feels the spirit, they feel very guilty, scared and uncomfortable, and those feelings usually lead them to repentance. Next day she came to church even though she was very embarrassed and didn't want to come to see us, but she came and we helped her and the class understand that these feelings of discomfort mean we need to repent (among many other things taught). I was happy because afterward she talked with church leaders about her issues. You'd have to know Rocio, but she's very closed, and I know it's only the spirit that opened her up, because we certainly couldn't do it. But yes, the class was probably the best one I've given, I received more help from the spirit than I ever have before in a lesson. It's always such a joy to teach repentance and forgiveness from Heavenly Father, although many missionaries fear calling people to repentance and don't do it. I like the example given in the book Dad sent me. Basically the principle is that we're not here calling people to repentance, or baptism, or whatever it is, for ourselves, but we're merely the messenger sent from God to call the people to repentance, baptism, etc. When you look at it like that and really understand your calling, you can be bold. It's important to have the spirit with you so you can be bold and not overbearing, like the scriptures say. So when you understand your calling as that, you realize that people never deny what you are saying, they are merely denying the Lord's request. Another one of Dad's articles on overcoming doubt teaches that basically their responsibility isn't to us but to the Lord. I've actually told that to a few good but hard people, and asked them to pray with me and tell the Lord that they refuse to follow him and keep his commitment; they never can, because they want to follow the Lord. The only problem is that many people just don't recognize us as servants of the Lord. I assume the whole world is pretty much like this, but in Argentina, there are MANY missionaries of many churches, and many of these people just teach nice messages of peace and happiness. It's hard for the people to understand that we're not here to teach a "lindo mensaje" (as they call it) (pretty message), telling them something to feel good and then encouraging them to go out and get drunk or do whatever they want to ten minutes later. We're here to change lives and to give people everlasting life!!!!!! Anyway, that's my tangent of the week.

Regarding the question about fish, no, I don't think I've ever eaten fish in this country. Yes, DVD's are very effective teaching tools, especially the new Joseph Smith movie and the Testament. I've seen the new Joseph Smith movie change lives, including Rocio (that was the movie that converted her, even though she's not baptised, she's very good and reads like five Book of Mormon chapters a day.) The only problem is that most people don't have DVD players so we can't watch them, but the few that do, we like to share the films with them. No, we don't have a portable DVD player, but some missionaries do.

Yes, my ears are good, and I can hear better. With my ears clear, I can understand the people and everything sooooo much better and perfectly, it's pretty new for me. I still have a tiny bit of ringing in my ears, but I hear really good now.

The Spanish is good, don't really have trouble. I wish you guys could spend like one day with me to see what the mission is really like, I think you'd like that, maybe one day I'll buy a hidden camera, ha ha. Anyway, more than that I'd just like to spend one day with all YOU!!! Either way, don't worry about me, I'm enjoying focusing on the work, and I know I'll be home in no time, because I have seen how fast a mission goes.

We reactivated a family here, and they want their 9 year old son to be baptized. So we'll have one sure baptism in two weeks, which is cool. He has to have the lessons and assist twice, (they assisted this last week and have a couple of the lessons already.) But transfers are coming up, so who knows if I'll be here for that.

Anyway, I love you all very much, and give Maya a hug for me!!! Tell Marisa and David congrats again from me and that I love them also, and yeah, will write you again next week!

Love you all,
Eric

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