Happy Argentine Mother's Day!

Eric gets a hug from President Arnold

Eric with his two "sons"

Eric with Elder Strate

Eric said they went by the dinosaur museum one Pday, but it was closed so they couldn't go in.

Hey family!! How are you!! It's great to be able to write again.

This week has been good, especially with the visit of President Arnold!! He, his wife, and the mission president and his wife all gave great talks, with President Arnold of course taking up most of the time. We had it in the HUGE Rosario chapel Wednesday morning. I enjoyed his talk, focused mostly on obedience. It was a good talk. All the talks were given in Spanish, even by President Arnold and his wife who clearly are new to the language. President Arnold did an alright job although he had a pretty thick accent. I used to find it easier to hear Americans speaking Spanish with their accents, but now I find it easier to hear just a normal Argentine speak. He didn't do anything wild or make any big changes, but it was a good motivational talk.

Sorry I had to take out more money. The worst part is I may have to take out more. Money goes very quickly here, with all the expenses and travels, etc. Transportation is really expensive but we have to do it of course. If the mission would send me the money like it should, I wouldn't have to do this. The mission is currently indebted to me over 1000 pesos. I have been waiting a long time. I'm not the only one, of course, but apparently the financiero Elder Faldmo keeps forgetting to send off reimbursals, which is his main job! Oh well, perhaps someday I'll get it, if not I'll have to take out more personal money!

Today was good, we played soccer, but my comp doesn't play, he doesn't like to do stuff. I played exceptionally well, although we lost anyway. It was really fun, and sorry I forgot to take pictures. It was probably the last time to play with other missionaries for Pday, too! It was fun, though, we completely destroyed the soccer ball, and then headed back to Ramallo where we ran into the Rios familia who were coming back from their Mother's Day trip in Santa Fe. By the way, Happy Mothers Day from Argentina! It was this past Sunday! They were happy to see us, and they are still active and coming to church, except for this past Sunday when they went on a trip. But we'll have to see about getting the mom baptised. We'll keep working and try and help them.

Glad to hear about the progress of the house building, and no, I don't mind one bit about living in some condo until it's ready. In fact, I'm sure it will be an improvement. If it has hot water, it will be a luxury! So yes, I'm excited to come home to a condo and I like the sound of it being so close to the temple. That also means I'll be able to get to know the downtown area more, which is an area fairly unknown to me.

That's great news about David, Marisa, Scott, Holly, Grandma and Grandpa. I'm so glad that they're all doing good in their personal things. Thanks for all the advice and stuff. I better get off now, just know I love you all, and hope the best!!!

Love,
Eric
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Last interview with mission president

Hey everyone!!! I hope everyone's doing good!!

We're doing good here in Ramallo. This week, along with everyone else, we had our interviews with the President, which I'm pretty sure was my last interview because most elders that have gone home told me later that they didn't get another "last" interview in this mission home, so I believe I had my last interview with my mission president! It was a good interview.

Don't worry, I haven't become trunky in the slightest. In fact, I think it's been quite the opposite, the longer I've been in the mission, the more I forget about you guys, except of course on Pdays!!! (sorry) Well, that doesn't mean that I don't love you, it simply means that I've trained myself to not think of home and that has become a habit at this point. It'll be hard to leave, but of course I'm excited to come home and see everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today's Pday has been pretty slow as today was my comp's decision of what to do. He just likes to stay in the pench all day and do nothing, so it's pretty boring for me, but oh well, he likes it. We get along really good and I like it with him, although I think it's good that he's my comp now and not earlier in the mission, when I understood less about patience and love.

As far as the shopping when you guys come to pick me up, I think we'll be able to do BOTH. So, I want to do the shopping with my mission friends on the 4th (the ending missionaries are allowed a few hours to shop for souvenirs on the last day) and then the 5th, that Saturday, I'd like to do a little bit with you guys and show you some other cool stuff in Rosario. Then on Sunday I'd like to go to Ramallo where we can attend church in the Ramallo branch and you guys (well, mom at least) will experience her first church session in 100% CASTELLANO!! As far as the last dinner thing, I have no idea how it'll work, so seeing as this is an Argentine dinner and I'm in Argentina, I'll answer you as any Argentine would, "si te digo te miento." (If I tell you it would be a lie.) I'll try and find out.

Well, I guess that's about it, nothing too exciting happened this week. Next Pday we're going to San Nicolas to play soccer, and this Wednesday we're going to have the conference with Elder Arnold which should be really cool!!!!!!!!!

Love you all very much!!!!!!!!
Eric

Enjoyed General Conference

Eric with Elder Perez

Hey family, how is everyone!! All is well here, here being Rosario right now. We had a good Pday but unfortunately I feel pretty sick now and am struggling to think at all due to a bad headache, so I apologize that this will be short.

We had a good week and are working well together. I especially enjoyed the General Conference that I could watch! (We only got to see some of Priesthood and Sunday's conference, though.) We all heard some really good talks. My favorite talk was definitely President Monson's Priesthood talk. He's always been one of my favorite speakers and his talk was incredible. It was very motivating for me.

I also enjoyed many of the other 70's talks, including the 70 who talked about the Book of Mormon. (although it seemed like everyone mentioned the Book of Mormon in their talk!) He explained the book was either from the devil or from God, and went on explaining more reasons why the book was from God. I really enjoy the strong straightforward and bold talks like those and Monson's. I of course loved all of Monson's talks, and enjoyed his moving talk at the close of the Sunday night session, motivating us all, letting us know, "We're all in this together"...or was the prophet quoting Red from the Red Green show? Ha ha ha.

Anyway, I'll answer the questions quickly and then I'm going to put my head down and rest.

Elder Godoy got back safely although I had to pay for all our many travel expenses including a couple hundred peso ticket to La Paz, and MUCH MORE! So yes, that's why I took out the money, it's a good thing I brought my card just in case.

I got your card that has the quote from my missionary placque. Alejandro's good. Rios mom is good. We played soccer today, I played really well, although that's why I feel sick (any physical thing lately makes me sick.) We're in Rosario because my comp has to do some visa stuff.

Thanks for everything.
Love,
Eric

Staying for last transfer!

View of the river

Girl with baby chick in Ramallo

Eric's foot with a blister. He sent this photo to ask what it was, because he didn't think it could be a blister in that location of his foot.

Hey everyone!! Well, transfers are in and it turns out that I'm staying!!! I was okay with either staying or going, so I'm happy. My new comp will be Elder Rivera. I never could've imagined when I got here like 7 months ago that this would be my dying area! But here I am!!

Well, it'll be cool to continue working here. I've seen great progress here and we'll see more. Last week we once again got 7 investigators to church (3rd highest in the mission) so we expect some baptisms in the future!

So yes, to answer your question, my mini comp goes back to his home now to sell cleaning supplies! He loved the mission from what he's told me daily and what I've seen. It's been a great learning experience for him, and me too as well. He wants to do a mission as soon as he's 19, which is soon, although I heard that it's a requirement now for all missionaries to finish high school before they can do a mission. I haven't had this confirmed but have heard it from a couple of people, which would mean that my comp couldn't do a mission as he's quite far from completing high school. We'll see how things turn out.

I got your package a few days ago!! It arrived at the church, and the members that were at the church at the time (it arrived on a weekday) informed me immediately of its arrival and at night we picked it up, and of course all the members wanted me to open it up there. So I opened it and shared about half my candy, the other half went to my comp and various other people. I got a bite of the candy bars they shared with me. It was good though and everyone loved it, me too!!!! So thanks for sending it. P.S. yesterday I used two of the taco mix packets making tacos for the Rios family, and they brought two non-member friends, woo hoo! It was really fun and I laughed harder last night than I have this whole time in Ramallo. Anyway, it was good, we had the Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) in the church where I made the tacos, yes, they were delicious! The topic was on Christ, reading the Living Christ and then certain articles.

HOLD ON!!! HOLD THE PHONE!!!! Apparently new transfers have arrived, they do that sometimes and make some changes. Okay, I will still be staying here but instead of being with Elder Rivera, I will be with Elder Perez! Well, I would rather have been with Elder Rivera, but I'm simply going to do what the Lord needs, which is all that really matters. So it should be a GREAT TRANSFER!

By the way, I stopped taking those pills for my ears because I ran out and I kind of forgot and now it's been about 4 days since I haven't taken any. I don't think I'll buy more though anyway, seeing as they weren't really doing much, unless you think I should. My ears still are clogged as always here.

Today I'm going to see how Alejandro is doing (tuberculosis), for now I just know that he's doing good! As far as how he got the disease, they don't know. They suspect someone in school. Okay, I will use caution.

The new juntado lady I told you about got dropped like a hot potato. After passing by several more times, and her saying she couldn't attend us, I asked to speak to the husband, who unhappily came to the door and our fears were confirmed. She is one of the many women in this country who can't be baptized or listen to the missionaries due to their husband. Anyway, this happens so much to us you wouldn't believe it. Her next door neighbor also dropped us the same day for a similar reason. It happens. Well, despite all the droppings (there were more, believe me!) it doesn't really matter because there are plenty of good ones out there too!!!!

Hence we got many people in church, although about 4 can't be baptized because they're juntado and have husbands that don't want to know anything about marriage or the church, although they do allow their wives to go to church!

Last thing I wanted to ask you is if there is some way we could arrange it to assist (attend) church the Sunday we arrive in Salt Lake City. I noticed that we'd be arriving around 3 I believe, (although maybe I'm wrong) but I just remember it being late afternoon, and I was really hoping to assist church that day. I've now gone at least 2 straight years without missing church (and however long I went before the mission) and I'd like to keep that record going! Anyway, I understand that plane tickets can't be changed easily, so just do whatever works for you, I just thought I'd throw that out there, in case there's a way to fix it easily.

CONGRATULATIONS to Marisa and David!!! That's great that a new baby is on the way!! This baby I'll be able to know from it's birth!!

Well, send my greetings to all!! I love you all very much!!

Love,
Eric

Stake Conference

Eric with Elder Godoy

A picture of another dead rodent, sure to delight any mother of a missionary

Hey everyone!! I hope everyone's doing great!! I'm excited to hear about the progress of the house and the family!

First of all, tell Holly and Scott congratulations on being ward missionaries! They'll be awesome!! I would love to have ward missionaries like them! Here in Ramallo, our current ward mission leader is 80 years old and has many health problems which prohibit him from walking much or really doing anything. He's a great guy and would help us more if he could because he likes the missionary work, but he just can't do much due to his condition. So that's great that Holly and Scott get to be the ward missionaries. They'll see the joy of teaching people!!!

Regarding my comp, he's doing great! He's really enjoying the mission and is learning so much. I understand more every day why he went to a special school, the biggest reason being that it's hard for him to learn things, even things that never change and that he does repeatedly. Nevertheless, he's learning a lot, and thankfully I've learned in my mission how to teach the doctrines of the church very simply so that a child can understand. I definitely could do it a lot better and will continue to work towards being a simpler and more effective teacher, but it's all going good. I've helped my comp understand some of the basic lessons of the church. We're going to keep working on lesson one, so he understands well the importance of everything. He's improving amazingly fast at reading. He already reads twice as fast as he used to, so that's really cool! He's a very teachable person, which helps and he has a big desire to serve and work hard.

He's great too, because he gets up daily at 6:30 without problems and does all the other hard things perfectly. He's a good elder and has a good heart. The church sent me some money so he can have food, travel, etc. so we'll be good! He came here with pretty much just the clothes on his back, and his only shoes are the woven type you'd expect to see an Indian wearing. (I think by Indian he is referring to the indigenous people of Argentina who were there before the Italians, Spaniards and Germans came.) They look respectable though, because here in Argentina they can be used as dress shoes, too. He'll be able to go to the dentist after the mission, the 28th for him, and get his teeth fixed since it's free for him.

Alejandro (the child with tuberculosis) is doing good and they caught it early so they'll be able to treat it well. He's doing a treatment for 6 months and I'll have to ask again now that they might know about what it's called, but I feel good about the treatment because it's a specialist from Buenos Aires that's handling this, instead of just the local Ramallo doctor. So he'll be just fine! I just hope the pills don't cost a lot because I know how poor that family is!

As far as where I'll be ending my mission, it's true that staying another transfer would be a long time in this area, but it definitely has happened before with other missionaries. My comp is a mini and can't stay, so if I go for sure it'll be a whitewash, which happens all the time here, but I don't think they'd put me in a new area for one transfer. It could happen, but it's more likely that I stay here and finish in Ramallo. Whatever happens, I don't care, I'll take whatever thing they throw at me! We're working super good here in Ramallo, so I haven't gotten sick of this area at all.

Yesterday we found a super elect lady that's already read and prayed about the Book of Mormon and knows it's true. She has a testimony stronger than many members! Anyway, we found lots of people but she's the coolest one, but of course she's juntado and isn't married but said she wants to and will talk to her husband. (That'll be the hard part.)

We had stake conference this past weekend and it was amazing. We also enjoyed hearing the talk of President Giuliani and his wife, who came to talk. Anyway, they were super good and we also heard the testimony of two young men who were about to leave on their missions. One's going to Brazil and the other to Chile. It was a good conference and we all enjoyed it a lot. The church also rented a bus to take everyone which was cool, although we missed it in the morning because apparently it left super early so the kids could prepare for their musical number! We made it just fine though, because we took the city bus, it's sad we had to pay though. It was a good stake conference, and everyone enjoyed it.

To answer your questions, yes, many people have chickens as pets. All kinds of animals serve as pets here, and sometimes food for the family. Basically in Argentina, it doesn't require ANYTHING special to start your own: fruit shop, kiosko, clothing store, anything store, farm, etc. You just decide to do it so you do it. So many people just start things whenever they feel like it.

Well, we're doing good here, thanks for everything. I'm going to continue helping my comp email (it's his first time using a computer.)

Love,
Eric

Chachi's baptism

At Chachi's baptism

Elders Bowcutt and Jones, Chachi (Abril) and Eric

Chachi with family members

Chachi with family members

Hey everyone!! I hope everyone is doing great!!!! We're doing great here!! Well, the first news of course, is the baptism news!! As you've seen by now from the photos, we had a great baptism and confirmation. The baptism was held with me, Elder Jones and Elder Bowcutt, and the confirmation was held with Elder Godoy and I. Both were fabulous. Confused? I'll start from the top.

So Wednesday we were out doing divisions, so we could have the baptism interview for Chachi (which we did), when I received a phone call and it was from the offices looking for my comp, and they told me he's going to be working in the offices for the next 9 months as financiero. So then they called my comp in the area he was working in. We were all very excited. Financieros always have to start 3 weeks early to receive their training, so he was told that we had to leave early next morning. So the next day, Thursday, we headed to the mission home early where I was supposed to receive my mini. (A "mini" is a local youth who serves a mini mission for a few weeks when there is an opening in the mission.) We arrived at the mission home and my comp started working with the financiero and starting his training. I was told to stay and wait for my new comp, the mini, so I just hung out there for a long time, but it was fun because Elder Larson and I talked a lot. (Elder Larson was the first missionary Eric trained, who currently works in the office.)

Finally, they found out that they still didn't have a mini for me, so they sent me back to San Nicolas solo to meet up with the zone leaders. So I got back with the zone leaders, slept, and in the morning we headed off to Ramallo. Now we're at Friday morning. So Friday we got things ready for the baptism. We got everyone invited again (you need to invite again or people forget), we filled the font, etc. and visited some people that I needed to visit. Also I gave a blessing to Alejandro, one of the Zapata kids, which I will explain later.

So anyway, the baptism came around and we had possibly the best most spiritual service ever. At the service, the parents came, brother, grandparents and some other various members and family. It was a good turnout, not too big and not too small. So we started the service off doing the normal stuff. Then after singing the hymn that Chachi had chosen, and praying, we had a discurso (talk) by Danni, who used to be a missionary. It was a good talk. After that Elder Jones talked about the Holy Ghost. Then after that us three elders and Danni got together and we did a musical number which is the same one I did in Pergamino. We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer, but to the music of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. We sang the first verse together, and then for the second and third verses, they hummed it while I acted out Joseph Smith receiving the First Vision, and then we got together for verse 4 and sang together. The spirit was so strong during the musical number and we performed it flawlessly. What's so amazing is we didn't even practice it, I just told them what to do and we did it without practice. It was really cool.

After that, we went to the baptism font and I baptized Chachi. She had a very complicated name, but I was able to say it with no mistakes, and the ordinance went perfectly. After that we had a short testimony meeting and many shared their testimonies, and everyone felt the spirit way strong. Then we finished and had refreshments and went back. It was a great baptism, and everyone was super happy. Now we need to keep working on getting her parents married.

Then us three elders celebrated with pizza. After that we slept. In the morning, I was informed that my mini was at the mission home, and that he would arrive at 12 in Ramallo! So I told the assistant on the phone to BE SURE and tell him to come to the terminal in Villa Ramallo, not Pueblo Ramallo. He said sure, but then he had to leave the mission home, and so he told the financiero to relay this information on and basically the financiero forgot, so my mini never got the news. So....what happened is after waiting around from like 12-2 in the bus terminal, I get a message from Angel, who is an investigator and friend of the Rios family, saying that there's a lost elder in Pueblo. I told her to tell my mini to stay there in Pueblo, and we went and got him. So after that whole fiasco, we got back to Ramallo with my mini and the zone leaders headed off for their area.

Then me and my new comp had a great evening, visiting a few people and found some new ones, too. That same night (Saturday night) we also visited the familia Rios who we haven't been able to visit for a long time, and they were so excited that they insisted on making us homeade pizza!! Jorge, a friend of their family and a coworker, and Angel also came by, and everyone was so excited and wanted to celebrate. Anyway, we didn't have time to stay and eat so they just gave us the bowl of sauce which she home made, the pizza dough and cheese and meat, and then they took us back to the pench in the truck so we could be back at 9:30. In the pench we put the pizza together, cooked it and ate the BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD. The sauce was truly amazing. The cheese, meat and pizza dough were pretty standard stuff, but the homeade sauce was incredible. We each had our own pizza and I ate it all and also some of my comp's!

So it was great, and the next day the familia Rios came to church and even invited Jorge to come, and he came!!! It was great since they haven't been to church in like forever and they really liked it and were glad to be back. We had a huge assistance (attendance) with many less actives that came back yesterday, it was awesome!!

Of course the best part about Sunday was the confirmation. The good news is that the confirmation was great and the parents came to church. The bad news is that the parents came late and missed the confirmation itself. Oh well. The grandpa did the confirmation (which really isn't the grandpa, and the dad isn't really the dad, because like I explained her real dad abandoned her as a newborn.) The grandpa had been inactive when Elder Page and I first got here, and we helped him reactivate so it was cool to see him do the confirmation, which he did fabulously.

Whew, so much to write. Well, it was all good. By the way, before I forget, last week after finishing my ciber sesh (session) and waiting for Elder Faldmo who would always take like 3 hours, I found Ximena, a member here, and she is going to contact you with the pictures of the dance last week that she took with my camera. So hopefully you saw the pictures cause she took most of the pictures of the dance.

Well, I'll tell you about my new comp now. His name is Elder Godoy. He's from La Paz, Entre Rios (close to Feliciano.) He's 18 and was baptized May 14th of this year. He's a great guy and we get along great. Although this is definitely a HUGE CHANGE and it's definitely NOTHING LIKE TRAINING, like you'd think. I feel more like an MTC teacher of special children. My comp is super cool and I love him, although he's a typical villero (person from the poorest area) so there's lots of things he doesn't know. Because he was baptized recently, he really doesn't know too much about the gospel. He also struggles with speaking and went to a special school to help him speak, and also because he has some academic challenges. I think it's really cool that he's doing the mini mission, and he says he wants to do a real mission, which I hope they let him, because it'd be great for him. It's really funny because I always have to explain things to him that I never thought I'd have to explain. Some funny examples follow: brushing your teeth, controlling acne (can you believe I of all people have to teach that, ha ha), learning how to find books in the scriptures, helping him pray correctly, helping him learn to read better, etc. He dropped out of school young. He's really dedicated and practices reading every day now. I enjoy it a lot, I just hope I can do a good enough job to really help him. P.S., I'm going to need more acne cream!

Anyway, I'm a little concerned about money because I have to pay for everything, because he has nothing. Meals, travels, etc. and I barely have enough for me! So we'll see what happens. Either way, it's great to be with him because he's just a great missionary, because he has a great heart. I think his childlikeness just helps me love him even more. I never thought I'd be teaching these many different things, but hey, I'm learning from him too!!

Please keep the Zapata boy in your prayers. Alejandro, the boy that's like 9 or 10, has tuberculosis!!!! I know that can be fatal so please keep him in your prayers. They get his study results on Tuesday, so then they'll know which medicines to treat him with. I'm going to call the mission doctor to make sure that he agrees with what the Argentine doctor says.

Yes, the Argentines are just like the Spaniards about the root beer. They all hated it, saying it has a horrible flavor and yes, they too said it tasted like medicine, but it's the thought that counts anyway, right? So it was great they got to try it.

I'll let you know next week of some of the things I want to visit when you come. So far some things I want to see apart from people are: Boca and River Stadiums, Flag Monument and Justice Building in front, Rosario Central Soccer Stadium.

I'll hurry and answer a few last questions: I had no idea it's the 9/11 anniversary, we didn't hear anything about it here. I got a postcard from Holly and Scott from Newport. For stuff to bring for people, the Argentines all want just a simple American dollar bill cause it brings good luck, so that'd be a good gift but of course that's just one idea.

Anyway, love you all,
Eric

Eric at the soccer tournament he wrote about last week

Eric helped with preparations before the church dance, "La Gran Baile Ramallo"



All of the pictures below were taken by a church member, Ximena. Because the dance started at 10:00 pm, I think the missionaries had to leave before it began.

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Two church activities

Hey family!!! I hope everybody's doing great!! We had an awesome week. Well, the first thing to mention is that we're going to have a baptism this Friday! Woo hoo! It's the girl Abril, although everyone calls her Chachi, that's going to be baptized. (It seems like almost everyone in this country has a nickname known by everybody, not just family or friends.) We're super excited and today I called up President Cansinos and he said he'd love to accompany us to our appointment tonight with her at 7, so it'll be cool for her to get to know the branch president well. The whole family is excited, because lots of them are members, except for her adopted mom who wants to be baptized too, but can't because they aren't married. Just the same, though, she's very supportive of Chachi's baptism and is very excited. We're trying to cram in all the lessons now to have her ready, but we're not too worried for a girl her age that has a good family and friend support in the church. She's almost or possibly by now has finished reading 2 Nephi (yesterday she had finished chapter 31) in the Book of Mormon, so it's really cool to see how much she loves to read. She's a really smart girl and has a bright future ahead of her. I'll be sure and take lots of photos for you guys.

This week we also had 2 super successful and fun activities. Don't worry, I took plenty of photos at both activities; however I lent my camera to a member to take some photos so she could put them on her computer and then pass the camera back to me, but she still hasn't given it back and I can't get a hold of her, so sorry but I don't have the camera this week to send photos. Next week there will be tons, though!

Well, the first activity was a stake dance here in Ramallo! It was Friday night and it turned out really good. They did a fabulous job decorating (we helped a little but the members did the majority) and the church looked like a little "boliche mormon" which is like a Mormon dance club, and it looked really good! Tons of less active people went, and also some non members. Actually, more less actives went than actives, so it was cool to see so many new faces at the dance. The dance was in the sacrament meeting room and they had a little bar set up with "shots" of juice and things like that. All the juice was homeade by us. We made orange juice by squeezing out the juice of at least 9999999 oranges, or it seemed like that, and they also made a cool banana and orange mix after we left. Of course we didn't dance and we couldn't stay because we had to get back to the pench in time. They had empanadas and lots of cool things there, and it was very successful. The music was pretty good, too! So it was a great activity.

Then the next day, we had our soccer tournament that we had set up in Ramallo. It turned out great and about 30 people showed up. It was a good mix of about 15 kids and 15 adults so we had some great games! The Rios family showed up too, and I was super happy to see them and they were super happy to see me too. I gave Juan the dollar (for luck) and a letter I wrote them. The soccer tournament was great. Again, more less actives showed up than actives! The main teams were me, my companion, Juan and his two friends. One of them came with his girlfriend and played in alpargatas (like slippers!) and just destroyed everybody, and the other friend also just rolled up casually in pants, but he was the best goalie I've ever seen. It was a great team, but the other team was also very good. We definitely had the two best players, but the other team had 5 strong players, so they beat us 2-1, and then after that we just went around playing mixed up teams for fun. My comp and I were definitely the weak links on the team, but we still had lots of fun with it.

After that we played ping pong, while the kids just played and did whatever stuff. It was all really cool, and everyone enjoyed it.

That's great that you'll be able to come and pick me up!! It sounds super exciting and don't worry, everything you guys are planning sounds fine with me. I'm a deprived missionary remember, we're easily entertainable!!! I'm excited to be able to visit people in my old areas and to see Iguazu Falls. We have an investigator named France who's there right now! He's taking photos for us cause I told him I might go there after the mission. He accepted a baptism date for the 24th, so we'll work with him and see how it goes. He's going to send me his photos and tell me the good places to go and all that!

So the travel details sound great! It'll be good to have time to think and plan out where to go. The great thing is most of my areas are really pretty close. It feels like some areas are really far away because we have to take slow buses which make like 500 stops, but in a car I think everything's pretty close. The top areas I want to visit so far are this area (Ramallo), Rosario, Santa Fe, and Venado Tuerto (in that order of importance), although I want to go to more areas too, if there's time.

I wanted to ask you about the sending things home that you mentioned. I am planning on giving away lots of my stuff, so I should have lots of extra space in my suitcases. So I don't think I'll need to mail anything home. Let me know what you think about that.

I wanted to tell you about the root beer mix you had sent me. I've already used it up, I made a ton (all) of it a few days ago, to gift it to all the members and people, so Argentines will know the taste of root beer! So thanks for that, it was great!

Well, I really am enjoying it here and I just love all the people of this area. I better get off, but I love you all very much, and hope the best for you!

Love,
Eric

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