Saturday was the best day ever!

Eric with the new missionary he is training (Elder Larson) and President and Sister Villalba

Eric and Elder Larson on the grounds of the mission home

Three generations of missionaries living under the same roof. Trainee Elder Larson, Trainer Eric, and the elder who trained Eric, Elder Peterson. (Or as they refer to it in mission slang: son, dad and grandpa!)

The four missionaries sharing the pench in Pergamino: Elder Larson, Elder Rallison, Elder Peterson and Elder Hanson

This picture was taken on Eric's last day in Rincon. I think the man in the picture is Julio, who got baptised the day after Eric left for his new area.

Hey family, what's up!!!! I hope everybody's doing great!! Ha ha, those are funny pictures of Maya, she is really cute.

There were lots of changes for me this transfer. I am training! And I was also made District Leader! And I have been assigned to the zone Pergamino, in the area called Ameghino. It's in the small city of Pergamino, and it is the only zone in our mission in Buenos Aires province. I am SUPER EXCITED to be in my area, although the previous missionaries here had no success at all. So the entire zone has been whitewashed, and we are going to change all that! And that's not all! I'm in a four man pench with my dad! (Elder Peterson) So basically we have son, dad (me) and grandpa in the same pench! I don't know if that has ever happened before in a mission, and it has to be pretty rare because there are 200 missionaries in our mission! And then of course, we have the outsider, Elder Rallison, but he's a cool guy and fun to have in the pench, but he's just not family, ha ha. So I'm sending you a three generation picture. Also one of all four of us in the pench.

First I want to tell you about leaving Rincon. I left Friday, and Saturday we had two more baptisms! I was so happy, but it was hard not to be there for the baptisms. Elder Romero (Eric's previous comp) stayed in Rincon, and he is training this transfer too, so he and his new hijo (son) from Colombia did the baptisms. I was so happy to hear that they got baptised, and then that they were confirmed Sunday, woohoo! I am going to miss those people so much. We have several more baptisms in Rincon that should be taking place next week, but in our mission you can't go back for the baptisms, no matter what. But I am still super happy that all of these people are starting on the path to their eternal progression!

It's hard to believe how connected this whole transfer is. My hijo (son) is from ................................. (drum roll here) ............................... Dallas Texas!!! (Jared's mission!) So now Elder Romero and I are both training, my hijo is from the mission of my best friend, and I'm in the same pench with my dad.

On Friday, I went along with the other trainers to the mission home and President Villalba talked with us for a while. He told me that my hijo speaks very well, and wow that's true! For just arriving here, he speaks awesome. Naturally he doesn't understand everything, nor can he say everything like a seasoned missionary, but he speaks and understands a lot better than most missionaries coming from the MTC. He's way cool and loves to work. He is a stud, and I think he's training me more than anything, ha ha. Encima, (on top of everything else) we have a really fun pench, and often have brother battle type stuff, so he's born in a good home. He loves the people already, but is a little nervous like all nuevos. (newbies) Our first day we did lots of contacts. We found 6 new investigators in a couple of hours which is great success!!! Near the end of the day I asked my comp if he wanted to try a contact (I had been doing them all). He said he was scared but he'd try. So he got WAY FOCUSED on one door to prepare himself to speak, and he knocked the door. Well, the person slid open the window to the right (where he wasn't expecting) and so he got nervous and just said "hola" (hello) and stared at her and smiled, like a deer in the headlights for a good ten seconds or more! So finally I had to jump in, ha ha, it was so funny, and a lot more funny stuff like that happened but I don't have time to tell you.

As far as the area goes, I LOVE IT!!!!!!! I am the District Leader over me and my companion and four hermanas (sister missionaries) which I love already. A lot of people don't like being leader over the hermanas because they think they are needy, but I like it and they're way cool. (A note to Eric's sisters: it seems that you have trained him well!) Elder Peterson and Rallison are the zone leaders.

The new pench is awesome (zone leader penches are always just a little better than the rest) because we have the best shower in the mission, with the exception of the mission home!!! It has good pressure and lots of hot water!!!!! Also, for the first time in my mission, I have running water in the whole pench!!!!!!!!!!

When we arrived in our new area Friday night, our area had zero programados, zero investigators, zero contacts, and not a single thing. There has not been a baptism in this entire zone for several transfers!!!! The previous missionaries had gotten discouraged and gave up and had no success. The last investigator they had was written in the area book, and it was from 3 months ago, and he fell. So it's basically like we're opening up a new area, but that's okay.

At first the members weren't too excited to see us, but the first day when we got here I started calling the bishop, mission leader and everyone to let them know that we are here to work. I think they started to get excited because they see us willing to do whatever it takes! I have already found us someone to wash our clothes, but so far I have not found us very many lunches yet, just twice a week so far, but I will keep working on it because it really helps us work better. We have a small ward, only 20 people, but we have plans to increase this A LOT.

I GOT YOUR PACKAGE THAT YOU SENT WITH THE KRADOLFERS! (They are a wonderful couple who were traveling to Argentina and took a package for Eric in their suitcase and then dropped it off at the mission home.) When I went to the mission home to get my son, I was able to get my package, and I love it! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I love the socks, and thanks everyone for the DVD player! I love all the stuff you sent me in that package, thanks so much! So now I have everything I need, and a DVD player to use to help teach the families that couldn't watch our church dvd's any other way! So I'm way excited, and it's so great to have socks to walk in and acne meds too. I love all the letters and things like that!!!

It's a lot of fun training a nuevo, but pretty intense, because I realize that whatever I do with him now is what he'll do for the rest of his mission, and will influence what kind of missionary he turns out to be. It's quite a responsibility to be a trainer, and not everyone gets the opportunity. It's hard to start him out in a new area like ours that has absolutely nothing going, but we were able to find a great part member family and they came to church this Sunday, so we had one investigator in church, which is good for one day of work! I think she wants to be baptised, but the problem is that she has to get married with her husband, and they have problems. Were going to work with them and continue finding tons of people! I am planning to fill the chapel (it's a huge chapel with capacity for about 100) by the end of this transfer, ha ha! I'm loving it here. Saturday, our first day working here, and knowing that my two investigators in Rincon were being baptised, was the best day ever!!!!!!!!

Well, I better finish, just want to tell you all how much I love you and thank you for all you do!!!

Love you all!!!!!!!!
Eric

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Three baptisms

The baptism of Elias. Elias is in white, standing closest to Eric.

This picture was taken at Elias' baptism, but shows both of the boys Eric baptised (one on Saturday and the other on Tuesday.) Elias is in blue and Laoreano is in red.

Stella's baptism

Stella with her family at her baptism

Elder Romero and Eric at the baptism of Laoreano

At Laoreano's baptism

This is one of the boys from a family they reactivated in Yapeyu. They happened to meet again by chance at the church building on the day of Elias' baptism.

Hey family, how's it going!!! I'm writing you late because yesterday I had no time to write! I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing good. Yesterday was a great day, but it was very full.

Well, this past week was awesome. We got the Standards again, which is always good, and we had 3 baptisms!!! Saturday we had the baptism of Elias! He's an awesome kid and is 9 years old. Then Tuesday, yesterday, we had two baptisms, Laoreano, who is 8 years old, and Stella, who is 27. I baptised the two young'uns and my comp baptised Stella. It was such a good baptism. I have lots of photos to send you from them, so I can't send them all today, but I will send a few from each baptism, as many as I can in the time I have today.

I'll tell you a little bit about each. Elias Ortega, who recently turned 9, is one of a bunch of kids in his family. He is somewhere in the middle, and has two younger sisters who are not old enough to be baptised yet. He also has 3 or 4 older brothers, and they're all baptised. The whole family are members, but they just aren't active. We are working on reactivating them, and the whole family came to church on Sunday, to see the confirmation of their son. We'll keep working with the family!

Now I'll tell you about Stella. Stella was an absolute gift we received, because we didn't even have to work super hard to find her or anything. She called us one day and said she wanted to be baptised. Naturally we were quite shocked, but she explained how she had talked with the missionaries about 6 months ago, and wanted to be baptised then but couldn't because she was living with her boyfriend. She then explained how she had separated from him and wants to change her life, be baptised, etc. So we passed by her house and found that she really is a woman that wants to change her life!!!!!!!!!!!! And also that she already knows a lot that we would be teaching her!!!!!!!! We also found that she smokes about 20 cigarettes a day!!!! So basically our job with Stella was to keep helping and teaching her, but most of all help her to quit smoking. She went from 20 cigarettes a day, gradually to NONE! The really cool thing is that all her friends smoke and are always offering her cigarettes, and making fun of her for converting to being a Mormon, and she doesn't mind a bit because she is so happy to be a member. Well, she gave up smoking and did everything she needed to, so we baptised her Tuesday, in one of the most spiritual baptisms I've had. In the service, Jorge Franco, who is the cop in the picture and her brother-in-law I think, gave his testimony and a talk, and Stella cried and cried. It was such a cool baptism. It was really cool helping her and everything, although it wasn't easy. But what I've learned is that if a person really wants to stop smoking, they'll do it. For Stella, we did a lot of things to help her, like we always had to call her, and she'd tell us how hard it was, etc. but she did it, and she's happy now she gave it up!!! Anyway, so she's a great lady.

Laoreano is the first member of his family to be baptised. His parents are new to the church, and we're now going to baptise the whole family soon! We were inspired to knock their house, and they accepted us happily. So Laoreano was baptised first, because he took some of the lessons with his friend Elias. Both of those boys were certainly fun to teach, it was always a party. But they both love the gospel and they love coming to church. So now we need to teach the rest of the family a few more lessons and they need to attend church some more, and they are planning to be baptised!!!

We had Super Saturday in our church this past Saturday, and the whole stake came to Rincon!!! So, if you're wondering who the kid in the non-baptism picture is, he is one of the kids of a member family that we reactivated in Yapeyu! (Eric's previous area.) He's an awesome kid too, and as you can see he is active still, although he said his mom is falling a bit. Anyway, I'd love to tell you more about Super Saturday and all the people from my last area that I saw, but I have no time.

So as you can imagine, yesterday was hectic. In the morning my comp and I went to the church in Santa Fe, the stake center, for the zone Pday activity. We got there at 9 but nobody else in the zone showed up till 11! To pass the time we played ping pong. We didn't have the paddles or a net, but we improvised. So we ended up playing ping pong with erasers as paddles, it works pretty good actually. It was fun, and after that we watched a dvd called "Journey of Faith" that talks about the Book of Mormon, and then the whole zone finally arrived and they put on a movie, and brought all the equipment to play ping pong, foosball, soccer, everything, but we had to leave!!! It was hard because everyone just got there, but we had to leave to go back so we could fill up the baptismal font. Then after that we had the two baptisms, and after the baptisms we played soccer with Elias, Laoreano and all their brothers and friends. After that we talked to Rocio who desperately wants to be baptised, but can't due to her mother's decision. (?)

I was able to go to Rosario to do my paper work a few days ago, it was fun to go to Rosario. What I was doing was applying to get the new Argentine identification card thing. We went in a group of about 8, and we had to wait in lines forever to do it, and it took a lot of time, but was necessary due to new regulations in Argentina. After we passed by the only Burger King in our mission.

Unfortunately I have still never gotten those 3 packages, but thanks for sending them. In the next package, please send lots of socks. I'm down to 3 pairs. All are destroyed or lost. I think the lady that washes my socks is throwing them away because they have such huge holes in them, which is bad, but better than no socks!!!! So now all I have are the three pairs with huge holes, I know you tried to send me socks and they never arrived, but hopefully we'll have better luck with the next batch, so please send TONS of socks!!! (Socks are on their way to Eric, and he should be receiving them soon! I wish I could tell him to just go out and buy a few pairs until the package arrives, but he won't be able to read anything I write to him until his next Pday. And missionaries never shop or do personal errands unless it is on their Pday.)

Anyway, the new elders that were supposed to be arriving in our mission all got delayed, so transfers got put off until Friday, and we still haven't been told what transfers are. So no one will find out until Thursday (or at least us common folk won't know until Thursday) although we have connections so maybe we'll be able to find out earlier, but as of now, we know nothing!! Will try to let you know where I'll be when I find out!

Well, anyway, I have to go, just know I love you all and am grateful for all you do!!! Thanks for your support and I will write soon!!!

Love,
Eric

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We were blessed like crazy this week!

Santa Fe zone on P-Day, October 11, 2010. It looks like Eric set the self-timer on his camera and made it into the picture just in time.

The sign on the outside of the church building. You can see the fence in the reflection.

Elder Romero during a break in the soccer game


The soccer field at the church. Looking through the fence, it seems that many people keep horses in their backyards. (Click on the picture to see it larger.)

Hey family, what's up! I am doing great here! I just had a stupor of thought as I sat here trying to figure out how I could say everything in English, but all of the sudden now I've got it! It took a few minutes, ha ha!

After I first read your letter and saw the pictures, we had to leave for a little bit. While we were out, I got an alfajor just like the one you are holding in the pics! Yes, that is a terrabusi alfajor and seeing it made me hungry! So I just ate one like the one that you guys bought at that store.

Today was a good day. We started out joining the zone where we played some really good and intense 3 on 3 soccer. The teams were me, my comp and a Chilean elder, against Banks, Demke and a new elder from Peru. Anyway, it was a good intense game, mostly because I was playing with and against very good people! In the end, we won, probably because we had 2 Latins on our team. Anyway, after that we were supposed to have pancakes and watch a movie. After waiting around a while, we got two tiny pancakes each and we never did get to watch a movie. So I was a little bummed out because I was looking forward to watching a movie with the zone, but at least we had played some good soccer. So we were starving so we went to McDonalds, and then we came to a very far away ciber, because today is a holiday, so everything is closed and it was hard to find a ciber open! Today is Dia de la Raza, or Race Day, so maybe us Americans will get some respect today!!! (Race Day is the Argentine celebration of Columbus Day, which honors all the different races that help to make their culture unique.) So anyway, it was a good day!

After this letter, we have to go to Walmart where I'll take and print out pictures which I will have to use to apply to stay here in Argentina, it's like renewing a visa or something. This Wednesday I'm going to the mission home with Elder Troncoso, a Chileano, and from there we'll travel to do some paper work. I'm excited to go to Rosario, and there's a Burger King there, so I'll be able to eat good. The bad thing is that I have to leave for Rosario at about 3 in the morning!! But it's okay, I'm excited to go just the same!

This week was awesome work-wise. We had the blessing of having 8 investigators in the church (the most in the whole mission!) I hope that doesn't come across as prideful, but believe me, it wasn't us, we were just blessed like crazy! Two of them were the friends of Elias, the kid that is going to be baptized this Saturday!! We should have a couple of baptisms this Saturday, Rocio, Elias, and possibly Eduardo or Stella. Oh, and we got the Standards again! So yeah, it was a good week, I really like Rincon!!!

Next week is transfers already! So that means Tuesday is when you'll get an email from me. We had interviews a few days ago in the stake center, and IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!! The first and best part was that I got to see Diego, my convert from my old area, in the church building!!! He was attending a seminary class!!! Yay, still active and assisting (attending) a seminary class in a building that isn't even his own!! He told me how happy he is and how much better his life is now!! Even if he hadn't said that, I can testify of it just by his appearance. He really is a perfect example of how the Lord can change the life of anyone, and make them happy! He was way happy to see me, and after that, I had my interview with President, who was equally happy!!! President asked me if I wanted to train, but I don't think I'm going to train for a bit, I think he was just asking it to see how I responded. At least that's what he told me. Anyway, it truly was a joy to see Diego there in the church, and to speak with the mission president.

Regarding email, we are allowed to receive and read emails from other elders, but I can't actually email back. So send Jared both my email address as well as the mission home address. Also, please send me his address. I'll have to snail mail him, at least that's what I think, I'll double check to see if could email him, but I don't think so.

Anyway, all is good here, I've got to head out now because we've still got to hit up Walmart and do those official photos, and I've got to buy some doughnuts so I can feel American. I love you all and thank you for all you do!!! I will talk to you next week,

Love,
Eric

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Loved General Conference

A few months ago, I had asked Eric to take a picture of one of his pairs of shoes, so I could see how they were holding up. This picture shows his shoes after about 6 months in Argentina. With most of the roads being dirt, sand or mud, this is probably typical of how his shoes always look.

This is a new, identical pair of shoes that are currently on their way to Eric. By the time he receives them, he will probably need them.

Hey family, how's it going!!!! Happy birthday, Dad! I hope everyone is doing good!!! Aca andamos (one of the most common phrases here.) Things are going really good here!! We managed to get the Standards this week, which was amazing because all our five investigators that came had to spend a lot of money, travel for 30 minutes in the bus, and walk 30 more minutes to get to church this week, and yet they came to church!!!! We were definitely blessed, because most of the time it seems people struggle to walk a block to get to church!

Today was a good day, too. We found out that interviews are going to be in all of the missionaries' penches this month! So we cleaned our pench really good this morning, including one room which is basically a big dump. (Believe it or not, many penches have this.) Whenever we have stuff we don't quite know what to do with, we just open the door and randomly throw whatever it is in the room and close the door before the dusty air escapes. We've done it since I've been here, and so have missionaries for the past however many years. So you can imagine the amount of stuff in there! It's been like that in a lot of the penches I've lived in so far. We worked hard all morning and cleaned the room and the pench is pretty good now, although we need to cut the grass! Cutting down the grass here is something different. The most common way is with a machete, or sometimes a weedwhacker. I've only seen about two machines for cutting grass here the whole time, and believe me, they are not really lawnmowers, they are sort of weedwhackers on wheels. So mostly everybody just uses machetes to cut the grass, they just hack away all day and night cutting the grass. I really want to take a photo because it's really funny to see entire families with their kids and all, outside all hacking away at the earth with their machetes. It's usually an all day (and sometimes several day) activity to cut it, too!

Well, after cleaning the pench, we went to the closest place we could get to America, or in other words, Walmart. I took my suits in to be drycleaned because now because of the warmer weather, I am no longer going to use them till next winter or zone conferences and stuff. We then played some awesome soccer with the zone, just like last week, and dominated everyone. I think we won 20 times in a row, ha ha! There are 3 teams, and the team that loses leaves and the other team rotates in. We NEVER LEFT, cause we never lost. I can't really take credit for our amazing success though, but I will anyway because the person making all the goals was my companion! He plays really good!! Anyway, after that we hit up McDonald's with the zone leaders, which was fun too, because we have really good zone leaders. Then we came here to use the internet.

I apologize today because I don't have the right camera card with the pictures, so I can't send any pics, but next week for sure I'll send some. Please tell Nana and Papa thank you, I got their letter and they told me all about the happenings in Lopez, it was a great letter!

Well, this past week was good, I absolutely loved General Conference, the part I heard at least. We watched the Saturday morning session with a member while eating lunch, it was really cool and I loved it. (We watched via the internet.) The afternoon session we weren't able to see, so I was sad. Also, we missed the priesthood session which really made me sad. I heard it was awesome. (Mom's note: If I remember correctly, the missionaries in Eric's mission are only permitted to watch the Saturday and Priesthood sessions if they have an investigator with them; if not, they go out to work as usual.) For Sunday, we were able to go to the stake center itself and watch the conference!!! Ha ha, Mom and Dad, the funny thing is that as you were watching it in Spanish for me, I watched it all in English! That's really funny that we watched it in opposite languages, what a switch! So thanks for trying, even though it turned out opposite, hopefully you understood some of it. I loved all the talks (except maybe the one about the stuff in the tree from the guy with the strong accent, maybe I would have understood it better in Spanish.) I loved all the talks and learned a lot from them. We, all the American elders, watched the conference in English in a classroom, and it was awesome!! It was awesome to be able to peacefully watch the conference on a TV with a group of about 8 guys, with big desks and room to spread out and take notes. In addition, we had tons of food and snacks to eat the whole time. I loved it and wanted more conference! My comp, of course, watched it in Spanish in the chapel with the members and investigators, so we split up (divisions) for a bit. It was a really good conference, I loved all the talks, and I hope you guys enjoyed it too.

You asked what I needed, and I don't need too much, but this is what I do need....SOCKS!!!! It seems every time the lady washes my clothes, a pair of socks is missing. Socks are something that I never have enough of, so please send lots of socks! In addition, the few pairs of socks I have left, have holes already, so please send lots of socks, I can never have too many socks.

One other thing that would be really nice is to have a watch (cheap) that could clip onto my bag. It doesn't have to look good or anything. Also, I am almost out of acne medicine.

Our investigators are progressing, hopefully we'll get a baptism or two before the end of the transfer. The people of Rincon are doing good also. To answer your questions, lots of times they just eat with a spoon instead of a fork, which is frustrating at times with pasta and noodles! Also sometimes you'll see an Argentine who tries to keep to the Italian ways and uses the fork and spoon together. But they use knives and forks, too.

I also wanted to ask if you could send more photos, the printed out type. Any photos will do, I'd especially like photos of my baptism (I think you have some) or any photos with church stuff in it, to be able to show investigators. Also, just whatever other fun or exciting or boring photos that you have, I'd like those too!

My comp and I get along great, he's an awesome guy, and I love having an Argentine comp. My Spanish is doing good, and he teaches me some culture stuff sometimes, and some soccer stuff. He's a great guy and lots of fun.

Well, to close I'd just like to say I love you all very much, and appreciate all you do. Thanks for the support, prayers, letters, and everything else you do for me, have done, and will do. Thanks for all the help, I love you all and will write again next week!!!

Love,
Eric

Since Eric did not send any pictures this week, I went online and found these scenic shots of Rincon.

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Alen's baptism

Eric with Alen at his baptism

The Mendoza family

Some of the relatives and family members at Alen's baptism

Hey family, what's up?! Those are some pretty cool pictures you sent me. I'm also sending you some, but not quite so exciting as the adventures you guys are having, but some of the baptism and painting a house. Just kidding, not really a house, just a kid's play house for the school, although to be honest, I've seen lots of much worse and smaller real houses here that people are living in with their big families!

The first thing I want to talk about is the baptism!!!! The baptism of Alen went great. He was excited the whole time and everything went like you always hope. His whole family came, as well as a few distant family members who are not members of the church, so it was good for them to see that. The next day, Alen was confirmed a member and received the Holy Ghost, completing his baptism and starting his eternal progression. Alen is an awesome kid, and one of the best things about his baptism is that due to his baptism and us passing by their house, the whole family has reactivated, and they've gone to church four times in a row already, and we expect them to continue.

Recently we found another part member inactive family, and we plan on working with them to get their child baptised and the family reactivated. This past Sunday, all of their kids went to church (most are baptised but one or two aren't) and we plan on continuing to help them. We had 7 investigators in church! That's the second most investigators in church out of the whole mission, so of course we got the sobresalientes on that. Also, we got the Standards again! Only four other companionships got them this week. They are pretty hard to get, one of the (many) requirements is you have to have at least 5 investigators in church. The sad thing is that we could have gotten Super Standards, something that is obtained by perhaps only one companionship in the mission during a whole year. We would have gotten them because we had almost every requirement which include a baptism, seven or more investigators in church, etc., but on the last day my comp really wanted to work in the area of our district leader instead of working in our own area to get the Super Standards. (When we work in someone else's area, the dats count for them, not us.) But I guess it turned out to be a good thing after all, because my comp and the district leader did not get along together too well before, and they are getting along great now that we helped him, so it was a good week.

Another good thing is that I got 2 packages from you!!! (We had to go to Rosario to do DNI which is kind of like Visa stuff for people who have been here more than 7 months.) I don't know why I never got the other packages you sent back in May and July, but these two packages (sent a week apart the second half of August) made it here in record time! You probably expected that I'd get them much later, because they had my Christmas presents, the tracting bag I asked for, and lots of candy. I was very excited and still am for the packages, I love them, thank you!!!!! I've been using my new bag which at first I thought might be too big, but I actually really like the size, and love the bag!!!! It's a perfect bag, and of course all the candy is delicious. So thank you so much for the packages and don't worry, I'll wait till Christmas to open the presents! (I hope I can hold out that long!) I also got two letters from the ward, with writings from all the members saying hi and wishing me luck. It was great to be able to read from all the ward members, so please tell the ward members hi and thank you from me.

The weather is changing a lot here still, it's very hot every day now, it feels like summer! The mosquitoes are going crazy and my legs looks pretty nasty right now from all the bites. We have a ton of mosquitoes in the pench. (Like all missionary penches and Argentine homes alike, the houses have MANY openings to the outside, they're not sealed or protected well.) So yeah, it's hard at night sometimes with the mosquitoes, but not too bad because we're so tired we just fall asleep anyway.

Our other investigators are progressing alright, we have tons of people we are trying to get married, although many can't because of their individual problems. But as a whole, everyone is progressing, some just not as fast as I'd like. We're still helping Eduardo stop his smoking. We don't have a program necessarily to help people stop smoking, basically if they really want to they'll be able to. We do lots of things to help them though, like daily visits, gifts, lessons applied to them, and whatever, but ultimately it's up to them. The Word of Wisdom is a huge barricade here. Drugs are crazy here, they run rampant, and just about everybody over the age of 10 has at least tried some type. The worst part is that the law isn't really enforced down here.

I've got to go right now, hopefully I'll be able to finish later because I still have like 10 minutes left, but I have to go. In case I can't get back to finish, just know I love you all and wish the best. Thanks for the constant support and help and love.

Love,
Eric

The service project: painting the children's playhouse on the school grounds

Eric shows his artistic side

Cleaning and fixing up the school playground

This picture was taken a few weeks ago, before transfers took place. Eric and Elder Boudreau are with Marcela (in green), her children, and Marta (the grandmother) in their home. Rocio is not in the picture. The ceiling is very interesting; it looks like a thatched roof.

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Argentine companion

With the Franco family. You can see a silver mug of mate on the table, with the bombilla (filtering straw) sticking up out of it.

With Gimena (the former sister missionary) and the bishop's wife and kids

At the city bus terminal on transfer day

Elder Romero, Eric's new companion from Buenos Aires

Hey family!!! How is everyone!!! I hope everybody's doing good!!! It sounds like Marisa had a fun birthday celebration and that baby Maya and everyone is doing good.

I'm doing very good here as well. My new comp is awesome. His name is Elder Romero and he's from Buenos Aires!!! It's a city called Nichocheo in Buenos Aires. He's an awesome comp and a great worker, too. The only thing that's hard with him is that we can't get contacts! (I think a contact is someone they speak to briefly and arrange to come back at a later date to have a lesson with.) Yes, I said we can't get contacts, because every time we talk to people, all my comp has to say is that he is from Buenos Aires, and the people get all excited and always let us in their house to talk!!! It's awesome!!!! As soon as the hardest to talk to people in Rincon find out my comp is from Buenos Aires, they will let us in and want to talk immediately. It's not like that for Americans!!!!!!! So that has been awesome and we work together great. We got the Standards this week, despite it being a short week! (It is two days short of a full week because of transfers.) We actually overshot the requirements for teaching 20 lessons, and almost doubled it, teaching 35 lessons!

We're helping a lot of people work on getting married here, and also some others who need help to stop smoking. President Villalba was actually very happy with us and told the assistants that we're "capos" which is pretty cool, because I've never heard him say anything like that, or even close to it before, (capo is slang for like stud) because he's always very formal and what not.

Anyway, the blessings of all the work came when Evangelina came to church for the first time. She told us a few days ago, "Elders, I want to be baptised!" We loved her enthusiasm but she didn't realize she had to be married first. So now she really wants to get married, but her husband not so much. We're working with them, and hope to get them married and then baptised. Eduardo is stopping his smoking. I don't like to talk about baptisms before they've actually taken place, but Alan should be baptised this Saturday. We have a lot of other good people that we're helping now and I expect many baptisms this transfer. Although, guess what, this transfer is only 5 weeks!!!! So yeah, 5 weeks only, and the next one will be 7 weeks!!! Crazy!! But that is because there will be an Apostle coming to the area in October, and so that change was made by the area president.

We have lots of good things lined up now, we also have a Family Home Evening tonight with Marcela and her family! I'm excited to learn more Argentine Spanish from my comp, and help lots of people. It's nice to be the experienced one here now, because I actually get to choose basically what we do, and we can work in the areas that I want to work in.

Okay, to answer your questions. The water tanks that you see on the roofs of many people's homes is so that they can have water pressure, because gravity is the only way to get water pressure here. Without a tank on the roof, you can't have pressure here.

The mosquitoes and bugs are coming pretty fast with the changing weather, and this area (surrounded by water) has a lot!!!! I may have to take out a little personal money, but will try to hold out. It's kind of hard when you receive 150 pesos for the transfer and have to spend 500 pesos for the bus card and electricity.

Yes, lots of people use the buses here, but lots of them have horses, and there's lots of horse drawn wagons and what not, it's kind of cool. We use the bus daily and we walk A LOT!!!!

Well, I'm glad to hear everyone is doing good up there and enjoying the weather while it lasts! I love you all very much and will write you again next week!

Love,
Eric

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A day in the life of a missionary

Eric with his zone on P-day, September 6, 2010

The zone enjoying P-day at the stake center

Ready for tacos!

A homeade pinata (with a face and a smile) hanging from the basketball hoop

Give it a good whack, Eric!

Hey, what's up family!!!

I'm happy to hear that everyone's doing good up there. That's awesome that you talked to Jim and left him with the Jesus the Christ book! I imagine you guys were pretty excited to meet him and to leave him with that book! That makes me really happy to think of us as a whole family of missionaries!! Everything you just told me about sounds so much like a story that gets told in sacrament meeting (the first half, anyway.) Now we just have to wait for the second half where he reads it, prays and gets baptised!!! You guys did a great service, I hope he reads it!! Thanks for being awesome parents, it helps me lots in the mission. The mission is pretty hard, but the main thing that helps me is knowing I have good parents who support me. I imagine you guys felt the join of missionary work when you gave him the book, that is so great! Ha ha, who would think that my parents would try to convert one of my favorite movie stars.

Send my greetings (is that how we say it in English? I don't even remember??? manda saludos???) to Maya and give her a kiss from me. From the pictures she looks great and like a very strong, healthy baby, which makes me very happy. Okay, well, say hi to everyone else from me and tell them that all is well here.

Oh, I almost forgot...I imagine you've been scanning this email for info on transfers!!! So I'll let you know what's up with transfers!!!! This transfer I'm going to............stay! Finally I'm staying in one area! And Elder Boudreau is leaving to go to San Cristobal. He's going to be training a Latin! I think that would be hard to train a Latin, but he seems very happy and says he'd prefer to train a Latin than an American, so I guess everyone wins. And as he is going to San Cristobal, my new companion will be coming from there, so they are basically switching places. My new comp will be Elder Romero. He is a Latin, but that is all that I know about him right now. Elder Boudreau says he's a good guy and that he knows him from before. Well, so I'm excited because I like Rincon and am excited to have a Latin comp now, especially since I can now understand pretty much everything that anyone says to me in Spanish. I'm looking forward to this transfer and expect we'll be able to do a lot of good, and change is fun. But don't get me wrong, Elder Boudreau has been a great comp, the typical goofball, he's a good guy and I love him because he always has a good attitude.

I will be sure and let you know about everything in next week's email. So everything else is good here. I finally get to inherit all the GOOD PARTS OF THE PENCH! The good table and the GOOD BED!!!!! So I'm very excited for that!

I heard from the hermana (sister) missionaries in our zone that there is a package for me at the mission home. So, yeah!!! Hopefully I will get it soon, and not have to wait until November. I think they might let the zone leaders pick up packages if they go there.

Okay, you had a few questions so I'll go ahead and answer them. Regarding Spanish study, we spend 30 minutes a day on studying the language. However, for a new missionary's first two transfers ONLY, you have to study the language for one hour. You just study it however you want. I often read a grammar book or the Book of Mormon in Spanish. This coming transfer I definitely want to read it out loud with my Latin comp to perfect the pronunciation.

I think in English mostly, but that's because I'm with an American. I think more in Spanish if I am with a Latin. Also, if I'm doing something Spanish, I can think in Spanish!!

Okay, here is a typical day for us.
6:30 am: Wake up, fall on knees, pray, beg for help to not fall asleep again, and try to put a smile on. Then we do exercises for 30 minutes...lay on the mats and do push ups, situps, whatever, you can imagine how that must feel right after waking up...now your blood is pumping, clearly exercises are an inspired rule...

7-8:00 am: You shower, eat, dress, get ready. The shower drain always backs up, so by the time you're done you'll be swimming in water, so step out of the shower and rinse the soapy water off your feet again. You probably don't have anything in the fridge, but if you do, APROVECHAR!!! (seize the advantage) EAT IT, before your comp finds it, ha ha. Then get dressed and all ready for the day. You feel better now, and it's time to study.

8:00 am: Pray and start your study based on what you planned to study the night before (this is my favorite part of the morning, and often the whole day!)

9:00 am: Sing a hymn together with your comp, trying to harmonize, and trying not to injure all the nearby people and dogs who have to hear it. Then pray, review what you learned in personal study with your comp, and then study together as a companionship. (There's lots of things to do to study together, read the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, practice teaching, etc.)

10:00 am: You study the language for 30 minutes

10:30 am: Pray with comp (yes, we pray a lot), bear brief testimony to comp and leave to start working. Sometimes you contact, go by investigators, or do callbacks, teach lessons, or other stuff like that.

Around 12:00 you go to your lunch appointment (or cook food yourself if you don't have a lunch appointment), eat everything both good or BAD, try to act like you like it all even when they bring out something crazy. (Lunch is their big meal, there's really no dinner.)

Anyway, I'm almost out of time now, but basically you keep working till 9 pm (or 9:30 if you have an appointment) then go home, plan, and go to sleep. And that's basically what we do every single day for 2 years straight...two and a half hours of study daily, and working all day.....without pay!!!! But believe it or not, I love this schedule and want to follow something like this my whole life! The blessings of serving a mission are great, which is why following a schedule like this isn't a burden but a blessing. I love my mission!

Anway, I love you all very much, and thank you for all you do. Will give you more details on the changes next Pday.

Love,
Eric

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