Three baptisms

The baptism of Elias. Elias is in white, standing closest to Eric.

This picture was taken at Elias' baptism, but shows both of the boys Eric baptised (one on Saturday and the other on Tuesday.) Elias is in blue and Laoreano is in red.

Stella's baptism

Stella with her family at her baptism

Elder Romero and Eric at the baptism of Laoreano

At Laoreano's baptism

This is one of the boys from a family they reactivated in Yapeyu. They happened to meet again by chance at the church building on the day of Elias' baptism.

Hey family, how's it going!!! I'm writing you late because yesterday I had no time to write! I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing good. Yesterday was a great day, but it was very full.

Well, this past week was awesome. We got the Standards again, which is always good, and we had 3 baptisms!!! Saturday we had the baptism of Elias! He's an awesome kid and is 9 years old. Then Tuesday, yesterday, we had two baptisms, Laoreano, who is 8 years old, and Stella, who is 27. I baptised the two young'uns and my comp baptised Stella. It was such a good baptism. I have lots of photos to send you from them, so I can't send them all today, but I will send a few from each baptism, as many as I can in the time I have today.

I'll tell you a little bit about each. Elias Ortega, who recently turned 9, is one of a bunch of kids in his family. He is somewhere in the middle, and has two younger sisters who are not old enough to be baptised yet. He also has 3 or 4 older brothers, and they're all baptised. The whole family are members, but they just aren't active. We are working on reactivating them, and the whole family came to church on Sunday, to see the confirmation of their son. We'll keep working with the family!

Now I'll tell you about Stella. Stella was an absolute gift we received, because we didn't even have to work super hard to find her or anything. She called us one day and said she wanted to be baptised. Naturally we were quite shocked, but she explained how she had talked with the missionaries about 6 months ago, and wanted to be baptised then but couldn't because she was living with her boyfriend. She then explained how she had separated from him and wants to change her life, be baptised, etc. So we passed by her house and found that she really is a woman that wants to change her life!!!!!!!!!!!! And also that she already knows a lot that we would be teaching her!!!!!!!! We also found that she smokes about 20 cigarettes a day!!!! So basically our job with Stella was to keep helping and teaching her, but most of all help her to quit smoking. She went from 20 cigarettes a day, gradually to NONE! The really cool thing is that all her friends smoke and are always offering her cigarettes, and making fun of her for converting to being a Mormon, and she doesn't mind a bit because she is so happy to be a member. Well, she gave up smoking and did everything she needed to, so we baptised her Tuesday, in one of the most spiritual baptisms I've had. In the service, Jorge Franco, who is the cop in the picture and her brother-in-law I think, gave his testimony and a talk, and Stella cried and cried. It was such a cool baptism. It was really cool helping her and everything, although it wasn't easy. But what I've learned is that if a person really wants to stop smoking, they'll do it. For Stella, we did a lot of things to help her, like we always had to call her, and she'd tell us how hard it was, etc. but she did it, and she's happy now she gave it up!!! Anyway, so she's a great lady.

Laoreano is the first member of his family to be baptised. His parents are new to the church, and we're now going to baptise the whole family soon! We were inspired to knock their house, and they accepted us happily. So Laoreano was baptised first, because he took some of the lessons with his friend Elias. Both of those boys were certainly fun to teach, it was always a party. But they both love the gospel and they love coming to church. So now we need to teach the rest of the family a few more lessons and they need to attend church some more, and they are planning to be baptised!!!

We had Super Saturday in our church this past Saturday, and the whole stake came to Rincon!!! So, if you're wondering who the kid in the non-baptism picture is, he is one of the kids of a member family that we reactivated in Yapeyu! (Eric's previous area.) He's an awesome kid too, and as you can see he is active still, although he said his mom is falling a bit. Anyway, I'd love to tell you more about Super Saturday and all the people from my last area that I saw, but I have no time.

So as you can imagine, yesterday was hectic. In the morning my comp and I went to the church in Santa Fe, the stake center, for the zone Pday activity. We got there at 9 but nobody else in the zone showed up till 11! To pass the time we played ping pong. We didn't have the paddles or a net, but we improvised. So we ended up playing ping pong with erasers as paddles, it works pretty good actually. It was fun, and after that we watched a dvd called "Journey of Faith" that talks about the Book of Mormon, and then the whole zone finally arrived and they put on a movie, and brought all the equipment to play ping pong, foosball, soccer, everything, but we had to leave!!! It was hard because everyone just got there, but we had to leave to go back so we could fill up the baptismal font. Then after that we had the two baptisms, and after the baptisms we played soccer with Elias, Laoreano and all their brothers and friends. After that we talked to Rocio who desperately wants to be baptised, but can't due to her mother's decision. (?)

I was able to go to Rosario to do my paper work a few days ago, it was fun to go to Rosario. What I was doing was applying to get the new Argentine identification card thing. We went in a group of about 8, and we had to wait in lines forever to do it, and it took a lot of time, but was necessary due to new regulations in Argentina. After we passed by the only Burger King in our mission.

Unfortunately I have still never gotten those 3 packages, but thanks for sending them. In the next package, please send lots of socks. I'm down to 3 pairs. All are destroyed or lost. I think the lady that washes my socks is throwing them away because they have such huge holes in them, which is bad, but better than no socks!!!! So now all I have are the three pairs with huge holes, I know you tried to send me socks and they never arrived, but hopefully we'll have better luck with the next batch, so please send TONS of socks!!! (Socks are on their way to Eric, and he should be receiving them soon! I wish I could tell him to just go out and buy a few pairs until the package arrives, but he won't be able to read anything I write to him until his next Pday. And missionaries never shop or do personal errands unless it is on their Pday.)

Anyway, the new elders that were supposed to be arriving in our mission all got delayed, so transfers got put off until Friday, and we still haven't been told what transfers are. So no one will find out until Thursday (or at least us common folk won't know until Thursday) although we have connections so maybe we'll be able to find out earlier, but as of now, we know nothing!! Will try to let you know where I'll be when I find out!

Well, anyway, I have to go, just know I love you all and am grateful for all you do!!! Thanks for your support and I will write soon!!!

Love,
Eric

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