The church building in the Las Delicias area in Rosario
The ping pong paddle that Eric bought at Libertad store
Eric took this picture of The Monument to the Flag (Monumento a la Bandera) a few weeks ago when he visited it on his Pday
Another shot taken at the Monument to the Flag. The monument honors the man, General Belgrano, who designed the Argentina flag in 1812. The flags at the monument show it as it was first designed. The yellow sun in the middle of the flag was added in 1818. The monument is situated along the Parana River. Hey family, how is everyone? I'm doing great here and loving my mission! Everything is going good here in the Delights. (Las Delicias means the Delights.)
Well, firstly, you can stop worrying Mom, because I'm feeling better now. Although I think I unfortunately may have gotten a few members sick.
Anyway, the baptism didn't go through, which was sad, but we're still working hard and helping people progress here!!! The zone is doing much better. We decided to work on our weak spot, so we did an "afternoon of miracles" in one of the areas. (That is when everyone in the zone--about ten companionships--work in one area for the afternoon.) Elder Calvert and I did divisions with some other elders, and found many new families, and even gave them all a baptism date, so hopefully there will be some good results! It is exciting to help the people in the zone realize that no matter what area they are serving in, that EVERY AREA has people prepared to hear the gospel, and every area has people that will listen to you!! So, after all that, the dats for that area went through the roof! The whole zone in general is doing good. We've been improving all along, and I expect it to continue to improve.
Rosario is a very open area. I think Elder Calvert and I sometimes get more new investigators than we do contacts (or call back appointments), because the people here just can't say no when we smile and ask them if we can teach them. The only problem with that is because the people are so open, it's harder for them to keep commitments.
Yes, the mission conference was very good. I was still pretty sick then, so it wasn't as fun as it could have been, but I could still enjoy it. Basically we had a workshop by the assistants, and so we learned some good things, and then each companionship goes up and on the screen it shows their average dats personally for the month, and the average dats of the zone for the month, and the baptisms. After talking about the dats, each companionship explains their zone vision. It all went pretty good. At the end of it, all the zone leaders get to play THE CUP!! The cup is soccer at the mission home, which was pretty fun and pretty intense. I tried to play a little bit, although we lost. It was pretty fun, though, and I look forward to it next time when I'll really be able to play.
After that we had to organize the caja chica (petty cash) and get it refilled with money, and get all the letters and supplies that the people in the zone had ordered. It was all pretty fun, although on the way back is when Elder Calvert lost our cell phone.
Tomorrow we have zone conference, and we have to give a one hour long workshop. But we were just told about it today! So we haven't prepared anything yet, but we already have an awesome idea in mind, so we'll work it out. The reason we weren't told beforehand is because of our lost cell phone. So we went a few days without real communication. For a couple of days we tried to use our landlady's phone, which was not fun, because while she is an awesome person, she really is sort of crazy, so it didn't work out too well. So today we went out to the mission home and got a brand new phone. And it's a different model! We're the only missionaries that have this model of phone which is completely different from the others. So that's kind of cool.
Speaking of the mission home, the rules on packages are the following: 1. You can send letters like you've been doing. 2. Packages, however, now need to be "certified" meaning that EVERYTHING is paid for in advance by the shipper, so that the mission home pays nothing. (They used to pay to get the packages, and then we would pay them back.) How to ship certified, I don't know, but I'm sure you could explain that to the people at the post office and they'd know what to do. Also now is a great time to send me packages because we're having to go to the mission home all the time, so I can always check when I'm there for packages. I could really use that new pair of shoes you mentioned. (Note: I went to the post office and there is no "Certified" shipping to Argentina from the US. It might exist from other countries, but there is nothing like that from our country. Eric's South American mission president is probably unaware of that.)
We are still getting dinners regularly, and lunches often. The days that we don't have lunches scheduled, we just put our dinner in the fridge and save it for lunch the next day, so we always have something to eat! Sonilda (landlady) makes all kinds of stuff. She makes noodles, meats, soups, just everything, and I like the food usually. We never have breakfast, I always have the idea of buying fruits so I can eat fruit in the morning, but we never get around to buying fruit.
It's very rainy today, and we weren't able to do much. We were hoping to go bowling, but we didn't feel like walking so far in such a downpour, and it's impossible to get a taxi when it's raining, because everyone's already trying to get one.
Well, I was excited to hear that Holly and Scott had a fun vacation in the Bahamas, and that they're still alive after swimming with the sharks. I've always wanted to go there!! And I'm glad to hear that you had a fun trip too, and I'm glad to hear all the other daily things!
I love you all, and thank you, everyone, for all that you do,
Love,
Eric
A few months ago, Eric sent us this picture of the soles on his second pair of worn-out shoes. Because of the changes in mailing packages, we have not yet sent him the new pair. 
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