Cold weather and a pet hawk

Elder Faldmo on the streets of Ramallo

A bug on a stick...

Eric did not tell us who this child is, but it might be Santiago, who along with his uncle is one of the new investigators

This dog is on the outside looking in. Eric says there are dogs everywhere.

This picture of Elder Boon and Elder Laws was taken in the mission home

Tony Hawk, a new pet

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is doing great and having a great week! It seems like you have all been very busy, and that's there's lots of changes since I left! Hopefully I can find and recognize you all when I get home!! By the way, happy birthday to Nana!

I received the one dollar bills you sent in the "Lengthen Your Stride" card, and some more letters and dearelders. Thanks for those, they were great. In regards to the package being delivered through the Kradolfers, I called the offices today and they let me know it's arrived at the mission home now! Luckily, the zone leaders will be going in to the mission home on Wednesday and will pick it up for me. I'm of course very excited to get it.

This past week the weather has been crazy. We've had awesome short sleeve summer weather until suddenly, when it radically changed on Saturday. Since then it has been freezing, the coldest it's been yet!

So this week's been pretty good, regarding the branch, it's doing pretty good. We managed to get two investigators to church this week, and two inactive families to come. So we're happy that they came. The two investigators that came are great, but one is waiting on marriage, and the other is a kid whose parents don't want to come, so neither one of them is likely to get baptized anytime soon. The investigators that we most hoped to see didn't come. But it has been so cold and Argentines don't like to get up in the mornings when it is cold. We just want to see more people in church.

So, I think it was last Friday, the Rios kids shot a hawk out of the air, but didn't kill it. They tied it up to keep it as a pet. My comp really wanted it and asked for it, and they gave it to him, so since then we've had a hawk in the pench, caged inside our old trash bin. Today my comp turned the outside room thing we have into a bird habitat by nailing up screens so it can't escape, so it's no longer inside which will be nice. He named it Tony, so it could be Tony Hawk. (a famous professional skateboarder) It's been pretty cool, not many people can say they have a hawk as a pet. It's still scared of us, of course, but it's been quiet and hasn't made a sound since we've had it.

On Sunday we went to Barrio Sur, Elder Law's area, to do divisions with him and Elder Boon, and then we spent the night last night having a sleepover in the church because it was too far to get back (to the pench) in time. We slept on some wrestling mat style pads and used blankets. In our small room, we had two little gas heaters so we stayed pretty warm. It was really fun and we had a little time to just hang out in the church and watch some Mormon messages and talked and then today we played some soccer. It was a good Pday.

To answer some questions, the Rios mom is doing good but she still has to give up some things and she just isn't ready, but we'll keep working with her. And don't worry, our area's very safe and there's no danger here.

I'll have to get off now, because I'm trying to send Elder Page some pictures he took for himself with my camera, since I got a really fast computer today that's uploading and sending them good.

Love you all very much,
Eric

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