A great week!

President and Hermana Guiliani

The birthday party for Gustavo's little son. Gustavo is a church member in the ward in Ramallo.

Another cake at the party

The birthday party was held at the church, which is the building you see in the background

This is the cheese packet mix from a box of macaroni and cheese that I had sent in a package to Eric. (I sent only the packet, since they have noodles in Argentina.) I had written the cooking instructions on the other side of the packet, and the message in red letters is the warning from the customs office.

A dog in the bus terminal in San Nicolas.

Hey family!!! I hope everyone is doing great!!! We're doing great here, I think I finally got over that stomach flu thing.

Well first, we had a great week! To start, we had interviews with the new mission president, President Guiliani, which is pronounced in Castellano like Jew-lee-oni. I really enjoyed the interview and really like the new mission president. He's a very loving guy and I really enjoyed our little chat.

It was also great because of course we ate at McDonald's, since we were there in Rosario.

The most exciting part of all was that I got a package!!! I finally got that package you have been asking about, the padded envelope! Thank you very much for it!! I took pictures of it, and of various other things, but my camera's not uploading for some reason, don't worry though, because I asked my comp to send the pictures he took. It was great to get a package, especially so unexpected, because it was sent so long ago I just figured it was another lost one I'd never see. After enjoying my package for a few minutes, I think I figured out why it took so long to get here!! As I was looking at each item carefully, I read the instructions you wrote on the macaroni and cheese mix packets, which p.s., we're going to make for lunch today. Anyway, as I was reading the instructions, I looked on the back of one of the packets and written in angry Spanish letters, it said, "Next time you send something like this, we're keeping it in customs!" So we can assume they don't like mac and cheese.

Thanks for the tie, as well. It's a great choice and I've gotten good remarks on it. I've already eaten all the candy.

Anyway, my health has gotten better, but I still have had clogged ears the whole time I've been here, which makes it harder to hear. I went to the doctor during the time when I was with Elder Boon doing divisions. The doctor's visit consisted of the doctor trying and failing to speak English, and looking in my ear with that little tool all doctors have. After looking in there, he explained there's nothing wrong in the ear itself, and so the problem lies in the canal between the ear and nose, but that a number of things could cause blockage in there. He decided that putting a tuning fork on the top of my head would determine what's causing the blockage. So after hitting the fork, he put it on my head and asked where I heard it. I felt it on the side of the worst clogged ear and told him that. So then he said, "I don't know what the heck you have." So he wants me to go back in for tests in a week or two. He did say that allergies were a possible cause, but we can't be certain until the tests, according to him. Anyway, at least I have an appointment for the tests and the good news is, it is free because as he says, we're "boys with big hearts and boys with *the Word*." He apparently respects us as missionaries enough to give us free visits, although he was less than excited to learn more about what we have to teach, because we tried and he wasn't interested.

One highlight of the week was our English class. We only had 3 people come this week, but it was cool because one is now an investigator and the other is an inactive. It was a guy named Fakundo who's pretty cool. We passed by his house Friday morning and for the first time taught him with a family member who is a 10-year-old kid, who was also at the class. The kid's name is Santiago, and like all little kids, fell in love with us missionaries. We had a great chat with them, getting to know them and doing magic tricks, and afterwards a friend of Fakundo came over who had a good Mormon friend before and was very happy to see us, although a little hesitant to hear what we wanted to teach him at first. But he asked us some questions about life on other planets, and started to get excited when we answered him by explaining about how our church believes there are other planets with life, etc. So he got really interested because he has always felt that there is even though most of his friends disagree with him. So he ended up happily listening to our lesson and promised to read and pray and everything, and then went off to work.

The next day there was the birthday party of a little boy that was held at the church. It was the son of Gustavo, who is a member. It was a huge party, of course, because Argentines go all out on birthdays and parties, with those blow up bouncy things and everything, so it was cool. It was a very expensive party. It's amazing to us that they spent so much, considering that there are days that the family doesn't eat because they're so poor!!! Us, as the awesome missionaries that we are, took advantage of the party by going there and we got to meet and know lots of their non member friends. We found and taught tons of people there, and found some cool people who might become investigators. We also played some ping pong. So all in all it was pretty good.

Thanks for sending me those recipes, I'm going to print it out and give it to the lady for her to use.

Well, I got to get off now, but I love you all very much!!

Eric

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Sick today

Eric did not send us any pictures this week, but we want to thank Elder Page's family for sharing these pictures with us.

The zone on Pday July 5, 2011 (before Elder Page was transferred)

Every Friday they would eat lunch with this family who have these little twins. They love to sit on their laps and play with their nametags.

Hey family, how is EVERYONE!!! I hope good. Thanks for sending me those photos and that video clip of Maya. I was able to view the pictures and watch the video clip this time. They look great.

We're doing great here. Today for Pday we went and played soccer with a pretty big group because everyone in the zone wanted to play. I wasn't able to play because I got some stomach flu thing combined with a very achy body, and have been pretty sick today, which is why I'm writing you so late today, because I just woke up. I expect this stomach problem sickness to pass in a day or two. So don't worry, I'm not like dying, I expect it to pass quickly. So it's been a pretty boring Pday for me, but I think my comp had fun playing soccer.

Anyway, it's been a good week, although despite all our work, we only had our same investigator in church again, no other investigators came. She's waiting to get married so can't get baptised yet.

Our recent converts are all doing good and coming to church. We haven't been able to pass by David's house for like 2 weeks because he's always busy in San Nicolas or some other city, he has a problem with his previous job, and he's going through a whole legal process and so he's been super busy, but at least we always see him in church, cause he always comes. Jorge also has been coming, the only times he doesn't is when President Cansinos forgets to pick him up (which happens a lot, and did again this week but he remembered during Sunday School and so he ran out and picked him up late.)

The Rios family's doing good, although since we've been trying to let them come on their own (no phone calls, reminders, etc.) they usually come about every other week. They never forget, they just get lazy sometimes. They're doing good though, I just wish the ward would visit them, because every time they go to church, all the ward leaders say they're going to visit them that week, and yet not one has visited them still, which makes it harder for them to go to church. It's hard because especially new people need good support, and we're doing our part and leaving them a little to the ward, but the ward just makes promises and never follows through, so they end up with less support! They're doing good though, Juan says he's going to pay tithing and he wants to become fully active. Probably the biggest problem is that people in this country just do what they feel like. For example, the Rios kids only go to school about 3 days of the week, because they don't go on those days when they feel more tired. Same mentality with church.

A few days ago we played dodgeball with Juan for a little bit, along with their kids, which was really fun because I love that sport! After that, my comp lost 20 dollars (American dollars) in a bet (don't ask me why he was betting!) for playing chess, in which Juan beat him in about 10 moves. (P.S., about the betting, I think my comp just didn't understand Juan when he agreed to bet 20 dollars, because my comp has trouble understanding Spanish.) Juan plays really good actually. After that I played chess with Juan, it was a good and really intense game, with lots of heated back and forth and narrow escapes, and in the end I checkmated him.

We started doing English classes in church last Friday, hoping to find some new investigators that way, but nobody went. Which is okay because not too many people knew about it yet, but we expect to see lots more there in the future. My comp and I played some ping pong while we waited for people, which was fun, he's really good and can beat me sometimes.

I wanted to ask you for 2 American recipes, the best would be something simple (something like French Toast, or something easy but good.) This is to help the Vasquez daughter (her mom washes our clothes) in her English translator homework.

I was excited to hear that your friends are coming to Buenos Aires. I think I should get the package they're bringing around the 2nd or 3rd of August, because that's when the zone leaders will be going to the mission home for their conference.

By the way, I just remembered you asked me about those guys in the accident. We don't know too much about them, but last I heard they were alive.

Anyway, I love you all very much, thanks for everything.

Love,
Eric

New mission president

As Elder Page was preparing to be transferred, they stopped by to visit some families so that he could say goodbye.

Eric with his new companion, Elder Faldmo

San Nicolas zone at the huge zone conference where half of the mission gathered to meet the new Mission President and his wife. (The other half of the mission met a different day.)

While at the zone conference, they took this picture because all four of them have served in Ramallo at some point

Hey family!!! It's great to be able to write you again. I hope all is going well for everybody. We're doing great here as well. My new comp Elder Faldmo is really good, and he's young in the mission, because he came in the same group as Elder Page, so I am his second comp. He's from California and has a girlfriend currently serving in Utah in the Temple Square mission. He seems very excited about the work, and we expect great things this transfer. He loves to study, and really wants to learn Spanish this transfer, too.

The other day my comp and I were in the pench studying at roughly 9 o'clock in the morning, when we heart a big hit outside the pench on the (street) corner. We ran outside to find that a Toyota Hilux (like a new Tacoma) had hit a moto, which is a little scooter bike thing, with two guys on it. One guy was lying about a foot from the truck not moving, and the other guy must have been thrown some 15 feet and was lying there bleeding all over the place and screaming for someone to help him. We were the first people out there, and were extremely shocked at the scene, and I immediately ran inside to grab my cellphone so we could call for help. When I ran back out 30 seconds later, the neighbors were there and some more people. The driver did have a phone and had just called the accident in and so help was already on the way. A few minutes later the ambulance came (there are no EMT's or anything like that in Argentina) and they started to load up the man who we thought was dead already, but as they were putting him on a stretcher he moved a little, so I guess he was just unconscious. When the medics put him in the ambulance though, I feared even more for the man. I can promise you I would NEVER have guessed it to be an ambulance if the outside wasn't painted. But inside it was completely empty!! Not a single gadget or anything!! It was just a big empty space to put a man inside!! They may as well just have thrown him in the bed of the truck which hit him and taken him to the hospital! The next ambulance showed up a couple of minutes later to get the other guy.

After they had taken them away, we went back inside the pench, and of course were a little shaken up, but we got over it. To finish the story, and at the same time to show how unsuccessful public health care is, or even a mix of public and private health care is, we found out what happened through Brother Correjidor. Apparently the unconscious guy was taken to the hospital in San Nicolas (FAR AWAY!!! ISN'T THERE ANYTHING CLOSER??? it takes us over an hour to get there...) well when he got there, for the first time since the accident they looked at him to diagnose him. Upon looking at him, they realized his kidneys and many other things were failing, and that he needed emergency surgery and would probably die if he didn't get help soon. Unfortunately for him, they "realized" that San Nicolas doesn't have any hospital equipment to do emergency surgeries, so they put him back in that empty tomb-like ambulance and they took off for Pergamino. The doctors said if he could survive the long drive and make it through the surgery, he could possibly live. We heard that he did in fact survive the long drive, but that is as far as we have found out, we don't know if he made it through the surgery or anything.

The other man we heard less about, we only found out he was taken to the hospital, again in San Nicolas, and that he had higher chances of surviving, but we don't know what happened beyond that. Health care here is definitely a big problem, and according to all the locals, people are being hauled off in ambulances daily, yet they don't have hospitals, or the hospitals they do have don't have the equipment or anything to help people.

On a happier note, we've had lovely weather lately. We've had all sunny days and it's been so warm lately I've been sleeping comfortably without thermals and without our portable heaters! It's pretty crazy, but I like it.

Anyway, I'm going to talk about the zone conference and the new changes now which you've been waiting to hear. First, our zone conference with the mission president was great. It was with half of the mission, so as you can imagine, I got to see many old friends which was spectacular. It was a shorter conference, too, which was nice, and it was held in Rosario. President Guiliani and his wife are awesome, too. I love them both already, and their personalities seem opposite. President Villalba was always the loving, patient, forgiving guy, and his wife was always the scary, correcting one. Our new pair of leaders seem to be the opposite. The hermana seems like just such a sweetheart, and she even calls herself our Mission Mom! Her husband is the strict, cane-dropping (scolding) one. That's what the office elders had told me before the conference, and I saw the same thing in the conference. Either way, though, I LOVED Presidente Villalba and his wife, and I already love the new president and his wife.

The mission hasn't changed a whole let yet, but one BIG thing did change. MUSIC!!! We can now listen to ANY MUSIC with the church's seal on it (EFY songs, and other songs/albums made by the church!) It's great and my comp and I have enjoyed listening to some of my music! So that's super good and we both love it. It makes me respect this president more, too!

Also it was great because I got Dad's notebook package while at the mission home. The office elders told me that package was there when Elder Romero went to the mission home last time, but that he didn't pick it up because it was too heavy. And the same thing happened to a package that Elder Page was waiting for all this time. Anyway, it doesn't matter really, it's not much later, so thanks Dad, it was awesome. I loved it and have already organized it. I found that a surprising number of your letters and articles never made it to me, much more than I thought. It also seemed like the missing ones were some of the more important or best articles! Either way, I'm just glad I have it now, I have lots to read now!

Also I got dearelders, including a dearelder from Nana and Papa. Mom, the package you sent still has never arrived.

Funny thing, I just finished listening to the song playing in the ciber, which happens to be one of the few Argentine songs I got to listen to after receiving my call. It's weird listening to it, because the last time I heard that song I had recently received my call, about two years ago!!

Anyway, everything's good here, I got to go now, but I love you all very much!!! Thanks for everything!!!

Love,
Eric

Staying in Ramallo

Elder Page and Eric in front of the brick oven

The asado they enjoyed after doing the roofing

Playing soccer on Pday at the stake center, while waiting to hear the news about transfers. Eric has his back to the camera, kicking the ball. Some of their shirts look bunchy because they are wearing several layers underneath because it is winter.

Hey, happy late 4th of July to everyone!!! It sounds like you guys had a fun one. We did the best we could to celebrate it, eating hot dogs and stuff like that.

Well, I'll go ahead and let you know about the transfers. I am staying here and will get some new elder who I believe is pretty young in the mission. The Lord knows what is best for us, and it is all good. Elder Page is going to Parque Field which is in Rosario Norte.

Regarding the new mission president, you know as much as I do. But we will get to meet him later this week.

I got your dearelders, as well as a dearelder from Aunt Lisa today. I also got a letter from the Relief Society in the ward, and a padded envelope from Dad with two books, "How to make the most of your mission", and "Drawing on the Powers of Heaven." Dad, I already had the "Making the Most" book, you had already sent it to me before and that is a package that I actually received that didn't get lost. So I will share the book with companions. But Mom, the package you sent with all the stuff in it that you keep asking me about has still not arrived. It was great to receive the mail and to hear from everyone, although I was a little sad to hear about Aunt Lisa's health scare. Please let her know I love her and have received and enjoyed all the dearelders she often sends me. Please also let the ward know I appreciate all they do to write me their letters. And congratulate Grandma for me on reaching 80 years, even though I know this is late.

This week we helped Juan do a job for his work. He needed a lot of guys to help him do a concrete roof. It's a lot of work but we were glad to do it. It takes a lot of guys because the cement is all carried in buckets. At the end he wanted to pay us for the job, but of course we said no, and so then they did an asado for us instead with really expensive meat, which was really good!

Right now I'm sending you three pictures from Elder Page's camera.

I wanted to ask you if you could send a few dollar bills in the next package, people love getting dollars here. It's considered good luck to carry around an American one dollar bill, so I'd like to have some to gift to people. Also, you asked about which pictures I have received and which ones I haven't, I guess the only pictures I've asked for and never received are some pictures of the motorcycles. I've received pretty much everything I've asked for, despite that many packages have been lost, so thanks.

I was able to watch the video clips you and Dad put on the card, although I was a little concerned about what Dad said. (He was joking about his Apple iMac computer.) The only good apple in my opinion is the fruit, but I'll get over it.

Well, I better write my new president now. I love you all very much and thank you for everything!

Love,
Eric

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