Christmas Day Phone Call

It was wonderful being able to talk to Eric on Christmas Day, although we had a few challenges with the phone lines and connections. It was the high point of the day to hear his voice and for all of us to talk to him. Eric's sisters think he now sounds exactly like his dad on the phone, and if they hadn't known it was really Eric, they would have thought their Dad was playing a trick on them! Eric sounded happy and healthy, which made us all very happy. Following are some of the questions we asked him and his answers:

How has your Christmas been? Great, it's been a really good day. We woke up, opened our presents and hung out a little bit, and then we came to the church to do our phone calls. We even got permission to watch the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on DVD. We started it and it is really good, but then we stopped because we are all taking turns to call home now. There are six of us elders taking turns with the phone here in the church building, because this building is the stake center. We have a planning meeting from 6 to 9 tonight, so we hope we can finish the movie.

Did you receive the package? Yes, it was awesome, thank you! I loved all the presents, I loved every single thing. The helicopter (toy that flies up in the air) is a big hit while we're all waiting for our turns to use the phone. We played some games with those blue balls that you sent, too.

What was your favorite gift? That's a hard call, because I enjoyed all of them. Everything was great. I traded a couple of the ties though. We all got ties and so we did a big tie swap. I kept a couple and traded two, so I ended up with the best ties of all!

What are you going to buy with the Christmas money you received? I'd really like to get an authentic Argentina soccer jersey, the real kind that costs like 300 pesos. (About 80 dollars.) I'll have to wait to buy it, though. We can't leave the area we work in, and in my area, there are no stores. But sooner or later I'll get transferred to an area that has stores.

How was your experience passing by the members' homes on Christmas Eve? Did you have a nice dinner? It was fun passing by all the members' houses, but here everyone celebrates by having a big asado (barbecue) at midnight. So no one had any food when we passed by, but they all wanted us to come back and eat with them at midnight. We ended up just having a piece of bread, because we can't be out that late. But that's okay, because we're going to make tacos today and they should be good.

How was the ward Christmas party? It was fun, we had a ping pong tournament!

What part of Christmas in the States do you miss the most? I guess mostly having a really nice dinner on Christmas Eve with the family, and just being with the family.

What is it like there today? Christmas here seems more like a crazy, intense 4th of July. There are fireworks going off everywhere, it sounds like we're in the middle of a war zone. They have lots of fireworks here that would be illegal in the States.

How is the work going? It's going great, we hope to have some baptisms in the near future. The districts all got changed up a few weeks ago. There are still six in my district, but now there's only one set of the hermanas, and some elders. So yeah, the work is going really good. Ameghino (his area in Pergamino) is a good area.

Have you had any "tummy troubles"? Well, that's just a fact of life here in Argentina. But I haven't had anything out of the ordinary. Everyone has to deal with that here.

Are you reading the talks and articles that we send you? I've read them all in the past and really enjoyed them, but right now it would be hard to read anything you send me, because we started a Book of Mormon reading challenge in the mission, where we read the Book of Mormon in 120 days. So that's taking most of my personal study time.

Will you be able to email us on Monday, your regular P-day? No, because we're talking to our families on the phone today. So on Monday we will have a little time to get our laundry done and buy groceries, but then we just go back to work as usual.

We asked Eric if he would speak some Spanish for us. He laughed and told us that he can't, but he could speak some Castellano for us! He reminded us that the Argentines think they have their own language, Castellano, from the Castilian region of Spain, even though it is exactly the same as Spanish except for pronouncing "ll" as "sh".



In this clip, Eric is describing a typical day in the mission.




Eric is bearing his testimony near the end of the phone call. The baby that you hear is Eric's little niece in Utah, because of course she needed to be in on the phone conversation, too!


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Merry Christmas!!!

The bedroom in the Pergamino pench. Eric's bed is against the wall with the navy blanket

Hey everybody, Merry Christmas!!! Wow, I can't believe it's already Christmas. Of all the Christmases I've had in my life, this Christmas season has been the shortest ever! I can't believe that in 5 days it will be Christmas! A combination of hard work, hot weather and being in a country where Christmas just isn't all that important make it hard for me to believe it's almost here. Either way, I'm very excited for the phone call, and feel like it has been FOREVER since my last phone call, even though the time has gone by fast. (Eric last called us on Mother's Day.) I think it will maybe be around 5 my time that I will be able to call.

Christmases here are a bit unique. Christmas Day we have to be in the pench the whole day for safety reasons, except we can leave to go and call our families. And Christmas Eve is just a normal day of working, the whole day! I was afraid that the members wouldn't really want the missionaries hanging out with them on Christmas Eve, but to my surprise lots of people in the ward want us to pass by on Christmas Eve. So we're trying to plan it so we can pass by to see many people, and I imagine we'll be well fed that day. Definitely not the same as Christmas back home, but I expect it will be enjoyable and fun.

Regarding our pench, we have no decorations or anything like that, but just the same we're enjoying the season. I still have my gifts which I just took out of my bag and have sitting on my desk waiting for Christmas morning. For Christmas, we plan on opening our gifts in the morning, eating tacos for lunch, and making the phone calls later!!! I'm very excited!!!

Our ward is also going to have a Christmas party on the 23rd, so that should be pretty fun. Regarding the Christmas traditions, they're somewhat the same as they are in the States, except just reduced about 20 or 30 times. Everyone has a tree, but they're just usually one foot tall, and many people have like one string of lights, or maybe they have one star in a corner somewhere, and most kids know who Santa Claus is. Many people treat Christmas just like any other free day from work, to dance and get drunk, but some take it more seriously. Fireworks are thrown wildly from what I've heard. Of course, there's fireworks or explosions almost every night in this country, and often right outside our pench, too!

Church is going good here, we're still needing to help out a lot with the Sunday meetings. Just about every week now we have to teach Sunday School and/or Priesthood, or give talks in Sacrament meeting without warning. At this point, however, I just know it's going to happen, so even though we act like it's a surprise that we have to teach classes and give a talk that day, we're already expecting it. I enjoy teaching the classes, especially because we get to teach to our recent convert, which is always good. I really liked teaching a class about Christmas (since I just so happen to love that holiday!) One thing that I mentioned in the class is that we could think of "Christ-mas" as Spanglish for mas-cristo, meaning more Christ, which really is what Christmas (more Christ) is all about!

Normally each companionship cooks separately, but for Christmas we're doing all together big Christmas meals, like tacos and stuff like that, so it will be fun. It's crazy to think this will be my only Christmas like this, with a fan instead of a fireplace, and fireworks instead of family, but I'm going to enjoy the season however it is. I'm definitely excited to be able to call home this Christmas, so it'll be good. I'll be sure and take lots of pictures, I promise, of all the Christmas stuff I do, as well as the gifts and all that. Also, we have zone conference in two days, so I should get the package you told me about then!!!

Well, I hope you all have a great Christmas together!! If there's one thing I've realized being here in Argentina, it's what a great family I have back home. I miss you guys a lot, and love you too, and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Love,
Eric



The following paragraphs are a few excerpts from the letters that Elder Larson (Eric's companion) has written to his family in the last few weeks:

José is doing great. He should be receiving the priesthood sometime in the next few weeks. He has been reading in the scriptures and a lot of the other pamphlets we gave him. We went over to his house on Friday to watch a movie with him. A big storm was rolling in and we went inside and talked for a little bit. José asked what movie we were going to watch, and Elder Hanson jokingly replied, "Transformers 2". Not even a second later, a huge bolt of lightning struck super close to where we were, and it made all of us jump in surprise. He then said, "I'm just kidding, we're watching The Testaments!". It was pretty funny. I always thought God had a sense of humor, but I guess not when it comes to missionaries joking about watching worldly movies. Haha.

The weather here is getting pretty hot. It's also really humid, pretty much like Texas. I am actually surprised at how much the weather here reminds me of Texas. A lot of times there will be not a cloud in the sky, and then an hour later it will be raining. We have a fan in our pench that we keep on all the time when we are there. It helps the heat to not be so bad. Also a lot of the countryside looks just like Texas.

I have a funny story.... Earlier this week, Elder Hanson and I were walking down a road and I felt something hit me really hard in the back of the leg. I realized that it was a rock from a kid's slingshot. (Every kid here has a slingshot they carry around to shoot birds with). I turned around but whoever it was had already hidden in their house. It hurt a little bit, but it just left a little bruise. Then, yesterday, Elder Hanson got shot in the head and he turned around and yelled at the kids "¡Ojo!", which means "eye" or "I'm watching you". Then the kids ran away. He was okay, too.

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It's almost Christmas!

These are the packages Eric received that contain his Christmas presents. Although they are fairly small boxes, a lot of fun things were squeezed into them!

Hey family, what's up?! I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing great. I'm doing good here, too.

Christmas is coming up pretty quick, but I hardly even realize it, it just doesn't feel like Christmas here. I admit I miss having a good Christmas in Utah, snowy, with decorations and the family all together. It's funny to think that last year at Christmas I was in the MTC! It's very hot here now, and the biggest decoration I've seen here is a Christmas tree about two feet tall, the type that you put on a table. I guess their houses are so small that they couldn't have bigger decorations anyway. I've yet to see any big lights, or a big tree, or a big anything. Above all, it just doesn't feel too much like Christmas in 100 degree weather to me.

Either way, I'm still excited for Christmas, it's just going to be a little different this year. I'm definitely excited for the call home I get to make! We have to plan the call with the other elders, because we are all going to use the same phone in the church. Elder Petersen and Rallison have set up to call in the morning and early afternoon, so I will get the latest time I can. I'll try to sign up for around 4:30 my time, but I'll let you know for sure next week if I can have that time. I think it will be okay.

The area is going good and Jose is doing good, getting prepared to receive the priesthood in the next few weeks. We had a good week. We made our goals and so we helped the hermanas out in their area on Sunday, and did really good there, so that helped them and it was pretty fun. Plus we found a really cool family for them to teach! Also, Elder Larson had his birthday this week, so we ate pizza and cookies, so he had a good birthday.

It has rained and rained here this past week, which means everything shuts down and nobody leaves their houses. It is hard to get people to show up to church or do anything in the rain. There were also some awesome lightning and thunder storms.

I still have the Christmas gifts you sent me, still all wrapped and put away. The other elders have already opened their Christmas gifts, (although some are expecting some more packages, too, but they have already opened what they have received.) But I'll have an awesome Christmas day.

Regarding packages, in the future you'll be able to send them directly to the pench or to the local post office! So far I have not received any of the things you are asking me about that you and Dad sent long ago. But I will still be able to receive any packages and letters that might be waiting at the mission home because we are having a special conference a few days before Christmas.

Well, thanks to everyone for all that you do!

I love you all,
Eric

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The baptism of Jose

The baptism of Jose

Family and friends at Jose's baptism

Another shot of family and friends at the baptism

Eric with Jose in classic thumbs-up pose ;)

HEYYYY!! What's up family!! Well, firstly I want to wish a happy birthday to Papa and Devyn! From the photos you sent, it looks like everyone had a great time!!!

A lot happened this past week! First thing that I want to tell you about is the BAPTISM!!!! This Saturday Jose got baptized! It was an awesome baptism!! I have to tell you that all baptisms are good, and I probably shouldn't pick favorites, but I'm going to be honest and say that Jose is my favorite baptism. Maybe partly because it's my first baptism as comp mayor. (Even though we both work together as a team, any returned missionary knows what I mean when I say it just feels more special when you get the baptism as senior comp.) We found this guy knocking doors, and we were the first missionaries to ever talk to him. He's 18 years old, and is ready for the priesthood, and in a year, A MISSION!!! He's had a HUGE CHANGE OF HEART and has made big changes in his life!! President Villalba called him a "eligido" which is like an elect or chosen one. He's just a cool guy and we're good friends.

His name is Jose Pena. We found him when we were just knocking doors and doing contacts. His brother let us in, who had been baptised in Rosario at the age of like 9 and never went to church again and doesn't really remember anything about the church. We shared something with him and Jose was in the background and didn't participate much, because he didn't have much interest. We passed by again to see the brother another time, and Jose was there again and listened but just didn't really care about religion and that type of stuff. I never would have believed then that he would get baptised a month later! Anyway, eventually we started teaching to Jose more and less to his brother, and finally just to Jose. He's just a really chill guy and we became really good friends with him and he has great trust in us, and he was able to stop smoking. Anyway, he plays the guitar a lot and knows lots of cool songs. The coolest song, though, is the song he wrote in between his baptism and confirmation, which he sang to us yesterday. I'll copy it here.

(Because Eric's blog is public and Jose wants to publish his song, I removed the Spanish lyrics.)

That's the song!! I'll do a basic summary in English for everyone so you know what he's saying. Basically he says that he's finding the path to happiness and that his old life has finished and that something better and new has started that gives him more happiness, God is his guide and it would be harder to destroy him now because he's stronger now than he was before.

So that is a great song!! He wants to sing it in English too (he plans on starting a band and selling this song) because he says that's where the real money in music is (very true), so yesterday we started translating a bit, trying to translate it so it fits with his music, which is also really cool!

So the whole baptism went really good. You ask the person who is going to be baptised, who they want to baptise them, but Jose wouldn't choose which one of us he wanted, so we had Elder Larson do it because being new and his first transfer, he hasn't baptised anyone yet. In case you're wondering why I am wearing white, it's simply because I think it looks better in the pictures and helps to bring the feeling of the spirit to the baptism. We started out hearing a couple of talks, then we had the baptism, which was way cool. It was kind of funny when they were in the water and Elder Larson was getting started, he was going to baptise him facing away from the people so that they couldn't see his face, and he didn't understand the testigos (witnesses) that were telling him (in Spanish) to turn around, but finally he got it and they turned, and Elder Larson did the baptism perfectly. After that we did a special song of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" with just us 4 missionaries, and then we had food. The next day was the confirmation, which the bishop performed, and Jose really liked it. He also said he really felt the spirit, after saying jokingly, "senti tres manos nada mas." (We have no idea what he means by that. Maybe it is an expression in Argentina.)

Anyway, this morning we went running with Jose which was pretty fun too. I won the race at the end, but I guess that's because I have the longest legs, ha ha!

Anyway, you are probably wondering about transfers, I'M STAYING HERE another transfer and SO IS LARSON! ALSO THE OTHER TWO ELDERS! So we all got our wish, because we all wanted to stay together as a pench, companionship and in the area, so we're happy!!!! I'm still district leader over the hermanas. Well, I'm definitely happy with the changes this transfer. Okay, I'm out of time, so very quickly I'll answer some questions. Yes, I like training, yes we're going to get a Christmas tree, and yes, starting in January you can send packages directly to the pench.

I love you all very much!!! Thank you for all you do and for the support of everyone!!

Love,
Eric

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