Saturday was the best day ever!

Eric with the new missionary he is training (Elder Larson) and President and Sister Villalba

Eric and Elder Larson on the grounds of the mission home

Three generations of missionaries living under the same roof. Trainee Elder Larson, Trainer Eric, and the elder who trained Eric, Elder Peterson. (Or as they refer to it in mission slang: son, dad and grandpa!)

The four missionaries sharing the pench in Pergamino: Elder Larson, Elder Rallison, Elder Peterson and Elder Hanson

This picture was taken on Eric's last day in Rincon. I think the man in the picture is Julio, who got baptised the day after Eric left for his new area.

Hey family, what's up!!!! I hope everybody's doing great!! Ha ha, those are funny pictures of Maya, she is really cute.

There were lots of changes for me this transfer. I am training! And I was also made District Leader! And I have been assigned to the zone Pergamino, in the area called Ameghino. It's in the small city of Pergamino, and it is the only zone in our mission in Buenos Aires province. I am SUPER EXCITED to be in my area, although the previous missionaries here had no success at all. So the entire zone has been whitewashed, and we are going to change all that! And that's not all! I'm in a four man pench with my dad! (Elder Peterson) So basically we have son, dad (me) and grandpa in the same pench! I don't know if that has ever happened before in a mission, and it has to be pretty rare because there are 200 missionaries in our mission! And then of course, we have the outsider, Elder Rallison, but he's a cool guy and fun to have in the pench, but he's just not family, ha ha. So I'm sending you a three generation picture. Also one of all four of us in the pench.

First I want to tell you about leaving Rincon. I left Friday, and Saturday we had two more baptisms! I was so happy, but it was hard not to be there for the baptisms. Elder Romero (Eric's previous comp) stayed in Rincon, and he is training this transfer too, so he and his new hijo (son) from Colombia did the baptisms. I was so happy to hear that they got baptised, and then that they were confirmed Sunday, woohoo! I am going to miss those people so much. We have several more baptisms in Rincon that should be taking place next week, but in our mission you can't go back for the baptisms, no matter what. But I am still super happy that all of these people are starting on the path to their eternal progression!

It's hard to believe how connected this whole transfer is. My hijo (son) is from ................................. (drum roll here) ............................... Dallas Texas!!! (Jared's mission!) So now Elder Romero and I are both training, my hijo is from the mission of my best friend, and I'm in the same pench with my dad.

On Friday, I went along with the other trainers to the mission home and President Villalba talked with us for a while. He told me that my hijo speaks very well, and wow that's true! For just arriving here, he speaks awesome. Naturally he doesn't understand everything, nor can he say everything like a seasoned missionary, but he speaks and understands a lot better than most missionaries coming from the MTC. He's way cool and loves to work. He is a stud, and I think he's training me more than anything, ha ha. Encima, (on top of everything else) we have a really fun pench, and often have brother battle type stuff, so he's born in a good home. He loves the people already, but is a little nervous like all nuevos. (newbies) Our first day we did lots of contacts. We found 6 new investigators in a couple of hours which is great success!!! Near the end of the day I asked my comp if he wanted to try a contact (I had been doing them all). He said he was scared but he'd try. So he got WAY FOCUSED on one door to prepare himself to speak, and he knocked the door. Well, the person slid open the window to the right (where he wasn't expecting) and so he got nervous and just said "hola" (hello) and stared at her and smiled, like a deer in the headlights for a good ten seconds or more! So finally I had to jump in, ha ha, it was so funny, and a lot more funny stuff like that happened but I don't have time to tell you.

As far as the area goes, I LOVE IT!!!!!!! I am the District Leader over me and my companion and four hermanas (sister missionaries) which I love already. A lot of people don't like being leader over the hermanas because they think they are needy, but I like it and they're way cool. (A note to Eric's sisters: it seems that you have trained him well!) Elder Peterson and Rallison are the zone leaders.

The new pench is awesome (zone leader penches are always just a little better than the rest) because we have the best shower in the mission, with the exception of the mission home!!! It has good pressure and lots of hot water!!!!! Also, for the first time in my mission, I have running water in the whole pench!!!!!!!!!!

When we arrived in our new area Friday night, our area had zero programados, zero investigators, zero contacts, and not a single thing. There has not been a baptism in this entire zone for several transfers!!!! The previous missionaries had gotten discouraged and gave up and had no success. The last investigator they had was written in the area book, and it was from 3 months ago, and he fell. So it's basically like we're opening up a new area, but that's okay.

At first the members weren't too excited to see us, but the first day when we got here I started calling the bishop, mission leader and everyone to let them know that we are here to work. I think they started to get excited because they see us willing to do whatever it takes! I have already found us someone to wash our clothes, but so far I have not found us very many lunches yet, just twice a week so far, but I will keep working on it because it really helps us work better. We have a small ward, only 20 people, but we have plans to increase this A LOT.

I GOT YOUR PACKAGE THAT YOU SENT WITH THE KRADOLFERS! (They are a wonderful couple who were traveling to Argentina and took a package for Eric in their suitcase and then dropped it off at the mission home.) When I went to the mission home to get my son, I was able to get my package, and I love it! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I love the socks, and thanks everyone for the DVD player! I love all the stuff you sent me in that package, thanks so much! So now I have everything I need, and a DVD player to use to help teach the families that couldn't watch our church dvd's any other way! So I'm way excited, and it's so great to have socks to walk in and acne meds too. I love all the letters and things like that!!!

It's a lot of fun training a nuevo, but pretty intense, because I realize that whatever I do with him now is what he'll do for the rest of his mission, and will influence what kind of missionary he turns out to be. It's quite a responsibility to be a trainer, and not everyone gets the opportunity. It's hard to start him out in a new area like ours that has absolutely nothing going, but we were able to find a great part member family and they came to church this Sunday, so we had one investigator in church, which is good for one day of work! I think she wants to be baptised, but the problem is that she has to get married with her husband, and they have problems. Were going to work with them and continue finding tons of people! I am planning to fill the chapel (it's a huge chapel with capacity for about 100) by the end of this transfer, ha ha! I'm loving it here. Saturday, our first day working here, and knowing that my two investigators in Rincon were being baptised, was the best day ever!!!!!!!!

Well, I better finish, just want to tell you all how much I love you and thank you for all you do!!!

Love you all!!!!!!!!
Eric

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