Finding new investigators

Hey family! Hello from the Delights!!! Hope everyone is doing good! I'm doing great out here.

Elder Towner and I are enjoying the area and the work here, and I'm quite happy to be able to stay one more transfer with Sonilda. (The landlady who cooks and cleans for them.)

This past Friday was mission council, and we enjoyed the LAST EVER mission council in the mission home, so it was pretty special. Mission council was pretty fun, although I expected it to be a little different than last time, but it was the exact same. Well, it was good though. We presented our vision of the zone, listened to talks from President and the assistants, and enjoyed seeing our old friends and hanging out. Then we played the Mission Cup (soccer) and I don't even remember who won, but it wasn't us. It was still fun playing soccer together with the other ZLs. After the soccer tournament, we do all the pedidos (stuff people asked for) and get all the mail, my favorite part.

First thing I'd like to do is thank everyone for writing me and sending me things. I finally received the book from Dad on "Becoming a Bold Missionary", the second time I believe he's had to send it because the last one I'm guessing got "lost" in the mail. And I'm excited to hear the talk on the cd that he put inside. I also got some dear elder letters from Aunt Lisa, Nana and Papa, and you, which were really nice, I love reading all the letters. I got the Valentine's Day card with the picture, and I got a letter from both Marisa and David which was also very cool. Then I spent almost 300 pesos getting pedidos for people in our zone, and probably won't ever get paid back all the way, but hey, that's just how it is sometimes.

So it was a pretty good week. The whole week went good, even though we really only had one day to work. Elder Calvert's hijo had a problem (Elder Calvert, Eric's previous companion, is a trainer this transfer, and his new greenie missed a flight connection on the way to Argentina.) So Calvert came back with us and worked with Towner and I for a day. We, of course, were in the terminal all day helping people get their buses and whatnot, and making calls to coordinate travels so nobody travels alone. After that, the 3 of us enjoyed doing all the ZL dats stuff until lunch Thursday, and then Elder Calvert met up with Elder Carillo, who also is a trainer this transfer, and those two went up to the mission home to get their kids.

After that, we worked pretty normal, and then Saturday in the afternoon until nighttime, we did divisions with the assistants which was awesome. I went with Elder Avalo, who's Argentine and is a really good guy, a good spiritual guy. He's a great guy because he doesn't act like a superstar assistant, he's just a humble simple guy who can really follow the spirit. I did almost all the talking even when we worked!! But he really is great at inviting the spirit and helping the people. We had an awesome evening and we ran around the whole time trying to pass by everybody, and we found over 13 new investigators. Elder Towner who was working with Elder Hardy, also found tons of new people, so we were waiting on probably about 30 new investigators to go to church, and about ten of those people had SPECIFIC PLANS to come to church with members, where the members were going to pass by the new investigator's house and walk with them to church. So we figured we'd have a ton of investigators in church this week! Well, Sunday came and we only had one of our investigators in church. But the Lord blessed us for our efforts, and we actually got 7 investigators in church, although 6 of them we'd never met before. They were new people that came to see the baby blessing of their friends, and we talked with them, and gave them a tour, and of course they loved it and we're now teaching them. So it was pretty cool.

Regarding the one investigator who came, he is a guy named Carlos. He wants to be baptised on the 19th and he's very excited for that. He's awesome because he's a very old guy, and knows the Bible perfectly and what's more important, he understands it. We believe he's a third Nephite, because somehow he knows everything about our doctrine even though he's never gone to church or talked to missionaries before. Well, a third Nephite doesn't need baptism, but maybe he's just testing us, so I'll do everything I can to pass the test, plus it's fun to teach him. Every time we teach him, he just teaches us and quotes scriptures the whole time, so we just let him teach himself, leading him in the general direction. I think the best part was when he came to church. He came with a member who uses a cane to walk about .0001 miles an hour. They both walked past the gate (all Argentina churches have gates) and Carlos immediately started raising his hands and like worshipping the church and doing a quiet prayer while waving his arms as if to worship the building. He continued doing this, walking at the speed of his handicapped friend, and praying until they finally got inside about 5 minutes later. It was pretty funny. Then after a great Sacrament meeting, he blessed us both by touching our hearts (he often does that) and then went up to our bishop and started blessing him. It was pretty funny because the bishop wasn't expecting it.

I better go now, so a quick recap to answer your questions. The zone is doing good, with a bunch of potential baptisms for the 19th. I didn't get your package yet, but I think people are still receiving packages, even if they're not prepaid. And regarding drinking the tap water, well, that's all we have here, we drink it daily. In the pench that's our only water supply, and we definitely can't afford to buy bottled water, so I don't know how to avoid tap water and I don't know if that's what was making me sick. I'd like to avoid tap water, it's just not possible. Also, in this ciber, I can't upload photos, so I'll send some next time. Today we went bowling. We played bad and unknowingly got charged about 100 pesos instead of 50 because it's a holiday, and places always charge more on holidays.

I love you all very much! Thanks so much for your support, letters and everything. I love you all and wish the best!!!!

Love,
Eric
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