Zone Conference and Good luck to Jared!

The Rosario Oeste zone at zone conference, May 26, 2010. Although 3 zones were there, each zone was
photographed separately.

MTC buddies meet again at zone conference: Elders Anderson, Towner and Hanson

Since the missionaries aren't allowed to carry their cameras most of the time, I think Eric is trying to get creative in coming up with pictures to send us. This is the cover of his notebook as it sits on his desk.

Eric's pencil cup, which at one time held ice cream. The Pez dispenser is something we had sent him at Christmastime, because he loves the penguins in the Disney movie "Madagascar."

Hey family,

What's up!! Wow, a lot's happened here since I last emailed, and it sounds like a lot has happened on your end, too!

I loved the pictures you sent me of Jared and his family, that's awesome, I can't believe he had his farewell yesterday and is about to leave!!! I think it's way cool, too, to think that we both gave a talk in church on the Holy Ghost at the same time!! What an awesome topic!!! I'm glad to hear that everything went well for Jared and his family.

I too enjoyed giving my talk, and it went well. I hope it was a little bit of a good example for the people. When people here give talks, they don't really know how to do it. A typical Argentine talk consists of walking up to the pulpit with your "Principles of the Gospel" and reading it directly, word for word. Sometimes the people will add their two cents in after some of the points. So it's not common for them to hear a talk with stories, examples, and outside resources. PS to Dad, thank you for all the good stuff you send me, the material you sent me about the Holy Ghost (the one called "Living by the Spirit") really helped me prepare for this talk a lot.

We just got back from playing soccer with three zones, it was a blast!!! Also, we ate at the buffet. Also, I got more letters! I haven't even been able to thank everyone for all the letters that I received last Wednesday at zone conference! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!! That's the great thing about having the office elders in your zone. All mail is sent to the offices (Mission Home) and so the elders who are close by can get their mail EVERY WEEK!!!! Today I got a dearelder from Mom and Aunt Lisa, they were great!! And a letter from Dad written only two weeks ago!!! Last week I got lots of letters from everyone, from parents, Aunt Stacey, etc. I got the six-month anniversary card of being on my mission with the pictures, I loved it. And I received the PACKAGE!! The package was "de diez" or "de diez puntos" or just awesome!!! I loved everything in it, the vitamins and the muffin mix and candy and oatmeal packets and everything. (I've been having a nice bowl of oatmeal every night so far.) I loved the Rubik's cube, of course! Well, I was so happy to get my package and I still am loving it. There's no substitute for the Spirit when it comes to feelings of peace and joy, but next in line is PACKAGES!!!! So, THANK YOU!!! :)

I loved the bouncy balls and gave away a couple to a struggling, recently converted young family with two very young and wildly uncontrollable kids/babies. It was so great to see the happiness between the parents and kids as they played with the balls together.

Anyway, the same day I got my package, I learned how the Argentine doorbell system works. People use either knocking, clapping or doorbells to let you know they are at your door, just depending on how your house is set up. But that doesn't work here for us because we are on the second floor and we don't have a doorbell. Well, so what do they do??? While opening my package I hear a big THUNK on our roof, and then something rolling down, and then another! I thought we were under attack, ha ha! I went outside to find a delivery guy there just hanging out waiting for us, not feeling guilty or mischevious or anything, just acting like he had done the normal thing. Well, the next day the ice cream guy was going by (a different guy) and he did the exact same thing, he threw rocks on our roof, too! So yes, Argentines throw rocks on roofs as doorbells, can you believe it! There are so many little quirky things like this that I could tell you all day, and I hope to be able to, but I still have so much to write about and the time goes so fast!

Dad said in one of his letters that you were all going to go motorcycling. I miss my dirtbike a lot, and I would really love to hear how it all went!!!

I was glad to hear that Grandpa's surgery was a huge success, I'm very happy about that!

Yes, I have seen Elder Eldred although I haven't really been able to talk to him, but he's a great guy.

Dad, what's this I hear that you are considering buying a mac computer? As an ordained missionary, I'm going to call you to repentance and exhort you to change your ways, ha ha. PC's only!

I was able to buy a beanie (hat), gloves and a scarf today, so I'm all set for winter! It's already quite cold, I wore them all day.

It seems every time I travel that something tries to stop me. Last week it was the fighting dogs in the terminal. Well, this week our colectivo (bus) died, and pretty dramatically, out in the middle of Rosario. The engine just dropped, it sounded like the whole bottom of the colectivo just snapped and fell to the ground, so we had to get out and walk quite a ways. That's okay, we're used to it, we walk everywhere in Casilda.

We had our zone conference last week, it was a blast, and we learned a lot by having spiritual lessons and things. Three zones were there. Hanging out with good ol' MTC buddies was so fun. I'm pretty sure everyone else thought we were crazy we talked and laughed so hard, just talking about the good old MTC. I really miss the MTC and almost wish I could go back there sometimes! I think that's how my whole mission will be when I look back, I've had so many fun experiences here. Well, Elder Towner and Elder Anderson are doing great, and we already planned a reunion for when we get back, at my house and Towner's, so Mom, be ready!!!! Seeing them really brings back memories of the beginning, kind of how I feel when I see my "dad" (Elder Peterson) every week!

Did I mention that I did divisions with Elder Peterson a week or two ago? It was sooooooooo fun and we found an awesome family in his area who I know is going to be baptized in the future. After we taught them (this time I taught half the lesson and could respond to all questions myself, having more time in the mission now), the spirit was so strong that I know they'll be baptized. Well, they're planning it and Elder Peterson tells me they pass by a lot and they can't wait for their baptism!

Let me again say thank you to everyone for all letters, packages, emails, prayers, everything you've done and do, and just for being in my life. I love you all and hope the best for all.

Congratulations to Jared on his call and his successful farewell, knowing him they'll have to close the area after he's finished his mission because everyone will be baptized!!

Well, love you all, thinking of you all, and will write you next week!

Eric

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Happy Revolucion de Mayo

Eric and Elder Reyes in front of the kitchen in the apartment

The kitchen

The front door of their apartment

Helping cook the meal at a member's house

With MTC companion Elder Anderson at the
buffet in Rosario last week

Hey family!!!

Finally I'm able to write you!!! I just barely got back to Casilda after another P-day in Rosario. Once again we all ate at the buffet and played soccer!!! The buffet is awesome just like last time, the main difference between the Argentine buffet and a States buffet is that basically you just would replace the salad bar with A HUGE ASADO ARGENTINE GRILL!!! I love it. It's a really good buffet, if you want pasta or anything like that they cook it up right in front of you, so your food is always super fresh and good. It's very expensive but it was a lot of fun! It makes me feel like I'm back in the States again when I enter. They even have a mini river and kids go and play in it sometimes, which I doubt would fly in the States, safety-wise.

After that we had an awesome soccer game (we won). We played in the rain, so the field was very muddy and like a giant Slip N Slide, it was a lot of fun. Playing soccer with Latins is always fun. After that we went to the terminal to go to Casilda. A huge dog fight was going on right inside the terminal (there's dogs everywhere in Argentina no matter where you go) but luckily we made it out alive, and it was fun to watch while we waited for our colectivo. (bus)

Well, I want to talk about my area but first I want to tell you that I found out that Lautero (one of Stela's kids!!!) got baptized several weeks back!!! He promised to be baptized when we left, the other missionaries got to be the ones to baptise him, which is okay, I'm just glad that he has made his covenants with Heavenly Father and will have the spirit to guide him, and that their family is all doing good, which I hear they are.

Here in Casilda the church is awesome. Our church is basically some rich person's house turned into a church. They remodeled it so it appears like a church, and it is really nice. I love it, it has really nice glass doors and is just nice. Because the branch is so small, my comp is the counselor in the branch presidency (there's only one counselor) and I am the secretary. As secretary I do lots of things, many of which I'm still learning, but one of them is I do all the finance stuff, or the stuff that the financial clerk would do if we had one. So it's kind of cool knowing that on Sunday I'm doing the same job as Dad (although it's much easier since we have less people.) Then on Monday we'll go to the bank with the money, like Dad would. I do other stuff, too, but that's the big stuff. We are always doing things during church like passing or blessing the sacrament, or giving talks. I'll be giving a talk this Sunday again (my first Sunday here I was asked to give a talk with only 15 minutes notice!) Luckily as secretary, I plan the speakers and stuff like that, so now they can't pull a fast one on me anymore, ha ha! I'm very excited to give my talk this Sunday, it's going to be about the Holy Ghost, and I have lots of good material, and I've learned lots about it through the stuff Dad sends me and through personal experience, as in EVERY DAY OF MY MISSION! That's what's so great about my mission!!!

Our branch president is a cool guy, and our members are great. We eat every Saturday with the branch president's family, and every Sunday with the branch president's parents, and we often get a meal during the week sometime. That helps us out so much and we eat so much better than what we have time to make. Now that the weather's changing, everyone's eating noodles with meat, which is good cause I love it.

Well, that's it about the church, so now I'll talk about the pench. It's great, I love it. Casilda's a nice and rich area, although we still have to hand wash our clothes in a bucket. Regarding the hot water heater, yes we're careful but we have to light it about 20 times a day because it keeps going out, but that's okay, because it is so awesome to have hot water!!!! The pench is very, very small but comfortable. As you can see from the pictures, it feels kind of like a cabin! No, we don't have a heater, but we have a stove that actually works, so we blast the burners and the oven when we get really cold. Like I said, our pench is on the second story, on the corner, and it's about two blocks away from the villa, so we're very safe. It's definitely my favorite pench so far, although the Venado pench (although not as nice) was really fun too with four American elders.

Elder Reyes is lots of fun, too. He doesn't really speak English, but he is trying to learn it because he wants to become a translator. So I teach him some funny phrases, and when the zone leaders call us, I tell him to call them "Sweetheart," and he does, or whatever other silly thing I tell him to say, ha ha. Now he knows the meaning of sweetheart, but he just loves to keep using it! He plays the guitar a little bit, too, which is fun.

Well, now I know why I didn't get to see Bryce's brother Jared, it was unfortunate to hear about everything getting stolen, but at least he is okay.

Regarding Grandpa and Uncle Roland, my prayers are with them and I hope they can recover from their surgeries!! Tell them I said, "I love you both, and hope the best for you!!! In my area and Rosario, there's lots of medical places, but they're all very lame compared to the quality back in the States, so just know you're being treated by quality doctors."

I've already seen lots of Rosario, I feel like it's my area almost! It's a very nice city, the parks are fabulous and the stadiums too, although I've just seen them from a distance. Tomorrow is like Argentina's Fourth of July, it's called Revolucion de Mayo, and it is their 200th anniversary of Independence. So there's lots of bicentennial festivities going on.

I received your pictures and loved them!!! It looked really fun at the Bees game, and Marisa looks huge (in a good motherly way, of course!) Also it is great to see the house, but it's crazy that you had snow today! And yes, so far the packages that I've gotten were in great condition.

Well, I've got to go because I am out of time now, but I'm glad I could finally write you a quality email, it feels like 2 weeks since I've been able to write you!! I love you all very much and miss you all, but am enjoying myself here as well!!! But I love you all and am so glad to see your pics always!!!

As the Argentines love to say, Suerte and Nos Vemos!!!! :) (Good luck and Til we meet again)
Love,
Eric

Elder Reyes with his guitar

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Casilda is awesome!

Elder Reyes and Eric in their pench. It is cold in Argentina now, and I don't think any of the homes there have heat, which is probably why they are bundled up.

The view from the balcony of the Casilda pench

Another view from the balcony of the Casilda pench

Hey family!!!

How is everyone?!! From the pictures you sent me it looks like you're all having a good time!!

I'm here in Casilda, loving the big city and the life here, and I'm writing from a real computer!! Casilda is an hour away from the main city Rosario, so I guess that's why Casilda is so big. It's a huge city and is very beautiful here. (Mom's note: Casilda has about 30,000 people, so it probably just feels huge to Eric after coming from the tiny little pueblito he was serving in previously.) I don't have much time right now, but I guess I'll try and describe Casilda as best I can with words. It's awesome here, I love everything about it. Our pench is a "house"on top of another house. So we go up some perilous Argentine-made stairs every day which is fun, and then since we're upstairs we have an absolutely enormous balcony. Our pench is VERY small, but very comfortable, and VERY NICE. I love it. We have our basic kitchen, with a working oven :) and our bedroom, and then our study room, and bathroom. We also have a real shower and a hot water heater!!!!!!!! It holds 5 minutes of hot water for a shower, I love it!! It also has pressure!!! The only hassle is that every morning you have to go out and attempt to light it because the pilot light always goes out, but it's awesome. Ha ha, I saw the fan in the bedroom that hit Elder Anderson in the head, although now it's cold so we'd never use the fans.

I wanted to let you know that I received your packages!! I got the Sudafed finally, along with the camera cord, thanks! I decided to wait until I stop taking my other meds to take the Sudafed, but will soon use it to hopefully clear me up. Dad, I also got both the inspirational cd's you sent, I love them, and hope you will send more. They're very interesting. I took 4 pages of notes while listening, and it goes right along and explains a lot of Book of Mormon teachings, although the author has no idea about that. Of course, the Book of Mormon is a much more descriptive resource to use, but I learned a lot from them. I love all the letters I got from everyone! I received Jared's letter and was way excited to hear about his mission call to Dallas, Texas! I wish I could attend his farewell, but think it's way cooler that we'll both be serving our missions at the same time.

Well, I only have a few more minutes because we're going to take the 11:00 bus to Rosario!!!!!! Our zone is going to eat at a BUFFET IN ROSARIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be the first buffet I've eaten here, it's supposed to be a really good restaurant, I am VERY excited!!!!!!!! And it will be like a mini mission reunion, because two of my old comps, Elder Anderson and Elder Peterson will be there!!!

Please tell Grandpa and Uncle Roland that I will be praying for both of them, that their surgeries will go well and they will recover.

We are going to be leaving now, but if we can, my comp and I are going to come back to finish our email time and so I'll write you more later today.

I love you all and hope all goes well for you. I'm glad you're all having fun doing stuff together and I wish I could be there, but of course I love the time I have now in my mission, love you all!!!

My computer just died, but I am now sending again, thank goodness for gmail autosave.

Love,
Eric

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Audio Clip from Mother's Day Phone Call

Here is a short audio clip from Eric's phone call on Mother's Day of him speaking Spanish. Unfortunately, there is a buzzing noise and the sound is pretty poor, but for those dedicated family members and friends who would crawl over broken glass just to hear Eric's voice, enjoy!




In this clip, Eric is reciting part of the The First Vision. I think all missionaries have it memorized.

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Leaving Feliciano

Hey everyone!!!!! It was so great to talk to everyone Sunday, I'm glad you could all be there!!! I miss being together as a family talking like that, it was so fun! I loved the 3 pictures you sent me, too, they turned out perfect. The small file size on the pictures worked out great, because they only took a second to download!! I loved the pictures and almost fell out of my chair when I saw Marisa!! (No offense, Marisa, ha ha :) ) It was a great call, and now I look forward to the Christmas call!!!

Well, you're probably all wondering about transfers so I'll let you know. I'm going to........Rosario Oeste!!!!!!!!!!! Woooooo hooooooo!!!!!! This was my absolute dream zone, I was pretty sure I was going to stay in Feliciano but instead I'm going to go to the NUMBER ONE ZONE that I was hoping for!!! This is the zone where my "dad" went and still is as zone leader. (In their mission, the elders call their trainer/first companion "dad" and the trainer calls the greenie they train "hijo" or "son.") So I'm going to be in my dad's zone. I talked with Elder Petersen for quite a while last night, we're both pretty excited, and what's even more exciting is there's another old friend in the Rosario Oeste Zone. His name is.....Elder Anderson!!!!!!!!! My first comp in the MTC!!! Elder Anderson and I talked for a long time yesterday, too, it was awesome. What's really interesting is that I'm going in to Elder Anderson's old area and replacing him!!! (He is moving to another district but still in the same zone, which rarely happens.) I'm going to be with his old comp, in his old penche and everything, it's going to be awesome! Oh, and Rosario Oeste = Rosario West. Also, my comp for this transfer is another Latin, which is just what I wanted for language purposes!!!!! I found out that both Elder Rojas and I were originally planned to remain together in Feliciano for this next transfer, but at the last minute, the assistants changed it. My new comp is from Chile, and his name is Elder Reyes. I only talked to him for a few minutes yesterday, because I wanted to talk to Elder Andersen, but Elder Reyes seems pretty cool, and since he's a Latin, the pench will be full of commotion always, even though it's a two-man pench. I'm very excited about this new transfer.

My specific area is a town called Casilda, which is about an hour from Rosario, it's secluded and separate, but Elder Anderson tells me it's a good-sized city still. :) It can't be smaller than Feliciano!! So it'll be cool. I am hoping we get meals with members there sometimes, since that doesn't happen in Feliciano.

Today is also going to be an awesome day. After I finish my letter, we're going to an asado with our branch president!! He doesn't know we're leaving yet, he's going to be pretty sad, but the asado will be fun just the same!!! So it's pretty funny, that we are eating our first time with members in Feliciano when we are leaving.

To answer your question, yes, Elder Rojas got to speak with his family for Mother's Day too, but not until yesterday (Monday) because his mom couldn't call on Sunday for some reason, so he had to go buy a phone card and call her himself. So he talked to her Monday and said that all goes well with the family!!

No, we can never let anyone else (that's not part of the mission) into our penche, so having members over could never happen.

Yes, the kids study English in school, but can only say three phrases even when they have finished school. They can say, "How are you, What is your name, and How is your family." A member who went to school and has studied English for 6 years showed me her work book for the year. I thought it was her homework for one day because it was so small!!! They really do learn nothing! 6 years and she was learning the words for I, you, he, she, we, they. How they're so far behind and learn so little I'll never understand, but I love Argentina all the same. But it's okay, they feel special when I talk to them in English anyway.

I'll be taking a few different buses tomorrow to get to Rosario, then Casilda. The bus system is modern, and the buses are all good, most of them double deckers, and pretty nice.

Yes, I am getting better from this sickness, still coughing but feeling pretty good.

Well, I better go, let me just say, thank you to everyone for being there Sunday, it was the best and happiest phone call I've made in my whole life, and it was so great to hear, actually hear with my ears, all of you. Also, I know that relatives like Nana and Papa and all the others who live far away would have been there to talk if they could've.

Thanks for all you do and all your love and prayers. I love you all and hope the best for everything you do. Next week I will tell you about my new area as well as send photos. (I'm hoping and assuming the computers in my new area will be able to read USB at least, ha ha!!!)

Love you all,
Eric

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Mother's Day Phone Call

We loved being able to gather together as a family and talk to Eric on Mother's Day. It was so wonderful to hear his voice and his laugh, and he said that he loved hearing all of us, too. Here is a brief synopsis of some of the things we learned:

Eric is enjoying the Feliciano area, although he preferred his first area a little more, partly because there were real stores there and they did not have to rely on the kioskos for groceries. (Many kioskos are very small and sell only candy and sodas, along with beer and cigarettes.)

They have been getting quite a bit of rain lately. The area gets very muddy, but there are two pairs of big boots that stay with the apartment there for the current missionaries to use, so they are able to continue working despite the weather. Their apartment roof leaks in several places, but since the leaks are not directly over their beds, and it doesn't actually cause a flood in their apartment, they don't worry about it.

Eric and his companion are busy teaching lessons and working with a number of investigators. He said sometimes in the middle of teaching a spiritual lesson, the cars with loudspeakers advertising things drive by and are a real distraction, along with dogs and kids and things always wandering in and out. Nevertheless, they are making good progress and hoping for some baptisms in the future.

We asked Eric if they had beds or cots for when they stay overnight in La Paz once or twice each week. The answer is no, they just lie down on the tile floor and go to sleep. Eric said there is one blanket they could use, but it is so dirty and gross that he prefers to just sleep on the floor without it. When we sounded concerned, he reassured us that sometimes he stacks up a few books to use as a pillow. He also said that when he was in his first area of Venado Tuerto, San Martin, occasionally other missionaries would stay at their pench overnight, and the guest missionaries just slept on the bare floor, as well, so we guess that is just "how it is done" in their mission.

Eric had gotten sick later in the day last Wednesday, coughing and having some trouble breathing, and ended up having to go see a doctor. He was not too impressed with the country doctor, but he was given some medication and he said it is helping, so hopefully the doctor knew what he was doing. One of the medications that he told me the name of is a decongestant and fever reducer. (Quraplus.) The doctor also gave instructions that Eric was not allowed out of the pench through the weekend. We could still hear that Eric was quite congested as he spoke to us, but it didn't seem to bother him.

We asked Eric if he has eaten anything strange there, and he told us that he had some cow intestine recently. The family whose "barn" they live in had made too much cow intestine one day, so they brought the extra to Eric and his companion. Eric didn't know what it was, and said it was covered in some kind of goo, but he was hungry so he went ahead and ate it. He said it tasted like some kind of fishy chicken, but it was okay. He only found out what he had eaten when he was through eating it. But he also said that if he was hungry, he'd be willing to eat it again someday.

The P-days for the mission are going to change to Mondays. The change will start the following week, on May 17.

Eric seems to be loving his mission and doing very well, and he sounded very upbeat and positive the whole time. He said he has really learned the value of education, having seen what it is like in a country where so many of the people are poorly educated. He said he is going to continue to work hard, be obedient to the mission rules, and hopefully reach many people to teach them the gospel and the way to find joy and happiness with their families.

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Looking forward to calling home on Sunday!

These church pictures are from the batch of pictures Eric sent last week

The branch president checking out the church roof for leaks

This is the church

Another view of the church

Hey family,

It's great to be writing again, and it will be even better when I get to call this Sunday!! I'm very excited to make the call, and it's like you thought, we'll make it from the church in the afternoon. I think I'll be able to make the call around 3:00 p.m. Argentina time, which I think is 12:00 noon your time. I hope that everybody will be able to be there for the call so I can talk to the whole family. But if some can't make it, I understand, but I want to talk to everyone!

Regarding your question about the carbon monoxide detectors in the pensiones (apartments), yes, all have them, but they don't work. At the last zone conference, President Villalba said we need to have them all on, and everyone said theirs doesn't work, and that's because they don't. So the mission is supposedly going to send everyone new ones, but who knows about that. Things work differently here than they do back home. At least I am glad to have the detector you sent me so my comp can't kill me, ha ha! Don't worry, though, I feel fine now.

I'm glad you got the pics I sent last week and enjoyed them. I'll take more! Yes, as you noticed in my picture, we have bikes, but the bikes are broken. (Made in Argentina!) So we can't use them unless we take them somewhere to get fixed. It is very rare to have a bike in our mission, because in order to have one, you have to buy it with your own money and then leave it behind when you get transferred. So no one really wants to buy a bike here, and in most areas it would just be stolen from you right away. However, Feliciano is a very safe place, so it would be okay here if they worked. We walk everywhere, which is good, because it's easier to talk to people on the street. Because of the smallness, it's very peaceful and safe here. I believe it's the smallest town in the whole mission, and it's so tiny we don't even have a Grido, which is a chain of ice cream stands and shops that are everywhere, except Feliciano.

The only problem we ever have is the people here are mad because I'm from the States. Also, right now we are in the time of year when the Argentines fought for the Malvinas islands (Falklands) against the British, but they lost, so they are especially sensitive about it this time of year. I believe that the islands were owned by the British for many years, but the Argentines claim it was theirs, so that's why they fought but mostly they just lost a lot of lives and since it happened in 1982, I think a lot of people here are still missing their family members and friends who died then. As a result, they hate all English speakers. Even though it was the British they fought against, they hate the States, too, because they think we're all the same, and they call us los Ingleses. (the English-es.) Even our branch president told me he hates Ingleses, ha ha. This war sounds kind of like it should be old news, but here people are still talking about it, and they have not stopped thinking that the Malvinas are, or should be, theirs, and that those Ingleses are stealing their land.

I've come to hate the question, "Where are you from?" because as soon as I say I'm from the States, many people tell us to leave, and they tell me to tell Bush to stop killing people. But it's okay, I guess, because there's still plenty of good people here. The members are all really good. We're having an activity this Saturday to get references, which should be good, too.

We're teaching many investigators, one of which is going to be baptized in 3 weeks. I don't know if I mentioned her yet, but her name is Angelica. She's already read the Book of Mormon (from 3 Nephi to the end) and has started from the beginning now. She loves it and wants to be baptized. After I explained the baptism doctrine, I started to ask her if she wanted to be baptized, and before I could finish she was shouting "Yes!" I started to ask, "Will you follow the example of Christ" and she shouted "Yes!" To clarify my confusion, because I've never had anyone quite so eager to be baptized before, I added "and be baptized", to which she said, "yes, of course!" It's really cool to see someone so interested and anxious to learn. The only problem with her, is that her son has brain problems, and she has to travel to Parana and stay there on the weekends because he's going to have a huge operation, so she hasn't been able to attend church. However, she says this coming Sunday she finally will be able to come. After she's assisted (attended) twice, she can be baptized. We're teaching many other good people, who will hopefully progress to baptism.

This P-day I'm in Feliciano, and I'm going to write some letters. The last P-day we spent in La Paz, which was a blast! Remember I told you about the asado we were going to have. The asado was awesome. We all went down to the big lake, and to get to the lake, we had to take this awesome trail which was through the deep jungle. It was really lush, and looked just like the way the movies depict the deep jungle. It was really cool, I'm mad I forgot my camera to photograph it, and no one else brought theirs either. But anyway, after we got to this lake, it had the good beach sand and we had a huge asado. The food was really good, and we had the whole place to ourself. We played soccer, ate food, and played Uno, it was a great P-day.

Loving Feliciano, although the traveling's a pain, but this coming week is transfers, so who knows where I may end up, anyway. (Transfers are Wednesday, so next P-day will be a day early, Tuesday!!)

Tell everyone I'm very animated (excited) to call home this Sunday, and hope I can talk to everyone. Love you all and hope you are doing well. Will talk to you around 3 o'clock Argentina time!

Love you all,
Eric

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