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 pointHey 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
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
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