Christmas Day Phone Call

It was wonderful being able to talk to Eric on Christmas Day, although we had a few challenges with the phone lines and connections. It was the high point of the day to hear his voice and for all of us to talk to him. Eric's sisters think he now sounds exactly like his dad on the phone, and if they hadn't known it was really Eric, they would have thought their Dad was playing a trick on them! Eric sounded happy and healthy, which made us all very happy. Following are some of the questions we asked him and his answers:

How has your Christmas been? Great, it's been a really good day. We woke up, opened our presents and hung out a little bit, and then we came to the church to do our phone calls. We even got permission to watch the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on DVD. We started it and it is really good, but then we stopped because we are all taking turns to call home now. There are six of us elders taking turns with the phone here in the church building, because this building is the stake center. We have a planning meeting from 6 to 9 tonight, so we hope we can finish the movie.

Did you receive the package? Yes, it was awesome, thank you! I loved all the presents, I loved every single thing. The helicopter (toy that flies up in the air) is a big hit while we're all waiting for our turns to use the phone. We played some games with those blue balls that you sent, too.

What was your favorite gift? That's a hard call, because I enjoyed all of them. Everything was great. I traded a couple of the ties though. We all got ties and so we did a big tie swap. I kept a couple and traded two, so I ended up with the best ties of all!

What are you going to buy with the Christmas money you received? I'd really like to get an authentic Argentina soccer jersey, the real kind that costs like 300 pesos. (About 80 dollars.) I'll have to wait to buy it, though. We can't leave the area we work in, and in my area, there are no stores. But sooner or later I'll get transferred to an area that has stores.

How was your experience passing by the members' homes on Christmas Eve? Did you have a nice dinner? It was fun passing by all the members' houses, but here everyone celebrates by having a big asado (barbecue) at midnight. So no one had any food when we passed by, but they all wanted us to come back and eat with them at midnight. We ended up just having a piece of bread, because we can't be out that late. But that's okay, because we're going to make tacos today and they should be good.

How was the ward Christmas party? It was fun, we had a ping pong tournament!

What part of Christmas in the States do you miss the most? I guess mostly having a really nice dinner on Christmas Eve with the family, and just being with the family.

What is it like there today? Christmas here seems more like a crazy, intense 4th of July. There are fireworks going off everywhere, it sounds like we're in the middle of a war zone. They have lots of fireworks here that would be illegal in the States.

How is the work going? It's going great, we hope to have some baptisms in the near future. The districts all got changed up a few weeks ago. There are still six in my district, but now there's only one set of the hermanas, and some elders. So yeah, the work is going really good. Ameghino (his area in Pergamino) is a good area.

Have you had any "tummy troubles"? Well, that's just a fact of life here in Argentina. But I haven't had anything out of the ordinary. Everyone has to deal with that here.

Are you reading the talks and articles that we send you? I've read them all in the past and really enjoyed them, but right now it would be hard to read anything you send me, because we started a Book of Mormon reading challenge in the mission, where we read the Book of Mormon in 120 days. So that's taking most of my personal study time.

Will you be able to email us on Monday, your regular P-day? No, because we're talking to our families on the phone today. So on Monday we will have a little time to get our laundry done and buy groceries, but then we just go back to work as usual.

We asked Eric if he would speak some Spanish for us. He laughed and told us that he can't, but he could speak some Castellano for us! He reminded us that the Argentines think they have their own language, Castellano, from the Castilian region of Spain, even though it is exactly the same as Spanish except for pronouncing "ll" as "sh".



In this clip, Eric is describing a typical day in the mission.




Eric is bearing his testimony near the end of the phone call. The baby that you hear is Eric's little niece in Utah, because of course she needed to be in on the phone conversation, too!


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Merry Christmas!!!

The bedroom in the Pergamino pench. Eric's bed is against the wall with the navy blanket

Hey everybody, Merry Christmas!!! Wow, I can't believe it's already Christmas. Of all the Christmases I've had in my life, this Christmas season has been the shortest ever! I can't believe that in 5 days it will be Christmas! A combination of hard work, hot weather and being in a country where Christmas just isn't all that important make it hard for me to believe it's almost here. Either way, I'm very excited for the phone call, and feel like it has been FOREVER since my last phone call, even though the time has gone by fast. (Eric last called us on Mother's Day.) I think it will maybe be around 5 my time that I will be able to call.

Christmases here are a bit unique. Christmas Day we have to be in the pench the whole day for safety reasons, except we can leave to go and call our families. And Christmas Eve is just a normal day of working, the whole day! I was afraid that the members wouldn't really want the missionaries hanging out with them on Christmas Eve, but to my surprise lots of people in the ward want us to pass by on Christmas Eve. So we're trying to plan it so we can pass by to see many people, and I imagine we'll be well fed that day. Definitely not the same as Christmas back home, but I expect it will be enjoyable and fun.

Regarding our pench, we have no decorations or anything like that, but just the same we're enjoying the season. I still have my gifts which I just took out of my bag and have sitting on my desk waiting for Christmas morning. For Christmas, we plan on opening our gifts in the morning, eating tacos for lunch, and making the phone calls later!!! I'm very excited!!!

Our ward is also going to have a Christmas party on the 23rd, so that should be pretty fun. Regarding the Christmas traditions, they're somewhat the same as they are in the States, except just reduced about 20 or 30 times. Everyone has a tree, but they're just usually one foot tall, and many people have like one string of lights, or maybe they have one star in a corner somewhere, and most kids know who Santa Claus is. Many people treat Christmas just like any other free day from work, to dance and get drunk, but some take it more seriously. Fireworks are thrown wildly from what I've heard. Of course, there's fireworks or explosions almost every night in this country, and often right outside our pench, too!

Church is going good here, we're still needing to help out a lot with the Sunday meetings. Just about every week now we have to teach Sunday School and/or Priesthood, or give talks in Sacrament meeting without warning. At this point, however, I just know it's going to happen, so even though we act like it's a surprise that we have to teach classes and give a talk that day, we're already expecting it. I enjoy teaching the classes, especially because we get to teach to our recent convert, which is always good. I really liked teaching a class about Christmas (since I just so happen to love that holiday!) One thing that I mentioned in the class is that we could think of "Christ-mas" as Spanglish for mas-cristo, meaning more Christ, which really is what Christmas (more Christ) is all about!

Normally each companionship cooks separately, but for Christmas we're doing all together big Christmas meals, like tacos and stuff like that, so it will be fun. It's crazy to think this will be my only Christmas like this, with a fan instead of a fireplace, and fireworks instead of family, but I'm going to enjoy the season however it is. I'm definitely excited to be able to call home this Christmas, so it'll be good. I'll be sure and take lots of pictures, I promise, of all the Christmas stuff I do, as well as the gifts and all that. Also, we have zone conference in two days, so I should get the package you told me about then!!!

Well, I hope you all have a great Christmas together!! If there's one thing I've realized being here in Argentina, it's what a great family I have back home. I miss you guys a lot, and love you too, and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Love,
Eric



The following paragraphs are a few excerpts from the letters that Elder Larson (Eric's companion) has written to his family in the last few weeks:

José is doing great. He should be receiving the priesthood sometime in the next few weeks. He has been reading in the scriptures and a lot of the other pamphlets we gave him. We went over to his house on Friday to watch a movie with him. A big storm was rolling in and we went inside and talked for a little bit. José asked what movie we were going to watch, and Elder Hanson jokingly replied, "Transformers 2". Not even a second later, a huge bolt of lightning struck super close to where we were, and it made all of us jump in surprise. He then said, "I'm just kidding, we're watching The Testaments!". It was pretty funny. I always thought God had a sense of humor, but I guess not when it comes to missionaries joking about watching worldly movies. Haha.

The weather here is getting pretty hot. It's also really humid, pretty much like Texas. I am actually surprised at how much the weather here reminds me of Texas. A lot of times there will be not a cloud in the sky, and then an hour later it will be raining. We have a fan in our pench that we keep on all the time when we are there. It helps the heat to not be so bad. Also a lot of the countryside looks just like Texas.

I have a funny story.... Earlier this week, Elder Hanson and I were walking down a road and I felt something hit me really hard in the back of the leg. I realized that it was a rock from a kid's slingshot. (Every kid here has a slingshot they carry around to shoot birds with). I turned around but whoever it was had already hidden in their house. It hurt a little bit, but it just left a little bruise. Then, yesterday, Elder Hanson got shot in the head and he turned around and yelled at the kids "¡Ojo!", which means "eye" or "I'm watching you". Then the kids ran away. He was okay, too.

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It's almost Christmas!

These are the packages Eric received that contain his Christmas presents. Although they are fairly small boxes, a lot of fun things were squeezed into them!

Hey family, what's up?! I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing great. I'm doing good here, too.

Christmas is coming up pretty quick, but I hardly even realize it, it just doesn't feel like Christmas here. I admit I miss having a good Christmas in Utah, snowy, with decorations and the family all together. It's funny to think that last year at Christmas I was in the MTC! It's very hot here now, and the biggest decoration I've seen here is a Christmas tree about two feet tall, the type that you put on a table. I guess their houses are so small that they couldn't have bigger decorations anyway. I've yet to see any big lights, or a big tree, or a big anything. Above all, it just doesn't feel too much like Christmas in 100 degree weather to me.

Either way, I'm still excited for Christmas, it's just going to be a little different this year. I'm definitely excited for the call home I get to make! We have to plan the call with the other elders, because we are all going to use the same phone in the church. Elder Petersen and Rallison have set up to call in the morning and early afternoon, so I will get the latest time I can. I'll try to sign up for around 4:30 my time, but I'll let you know for sure next week if I can have that time. I think it will be okay.

The area is going good and Jose is doing good, getting prepared to receive the priesthood in the next few weeks. We had a good week. We made our goals and so we helped the hermanas out in their area on Sunday, and did really good there, so that helped them and it was pretty fun. Plus we found a really cool family for them to teach! Also, Elder Larson had his birthday this week, so we ate pizza and cookies, so he had a good birthday.

It has rained and rained here this past week, which means everything shuts down and nobody leaves their houses. It is hard to get people to show up to church or do anything in the rain. There were also some awesome lightning and thunder storms.

I still have the Christmas gifts you sent me, still all wrapped and put away. The other elders have already opened their Christmas gifts, (although some are expecting some more packages, too, but they have already opened what they have received.) But I'll have an awesome Christmas day.

Regarding packages, in the future you'll be able to send them directly to the pench or to the local post office! So far I have not received any of the things you are asking me about that you and Dad sent long ago. But I will still be able to receive any packages and letters that might be waiting at the mission home because we are having a special conference a few days before Christmas.

Well, thanks to everyone for all that you do!

I love you all,
Eric

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The baptism of Jose

The baptism of Jose

Family and friends at Jose's baptism

Another shot of family and friends at the baptism

Eric with Jose in classic thumbs-up pose ;)

HEYYYY!! What's up family!! Well, firstly I want to wish a happy birthday to Papa and Devyn! From the photos you sent, it looks like everyone had a great time!!!

A lot happened this past week! First thing that I want to tell you about is the BAPTISM!!!! This Saturday Jose got baptized! It was an awesome baptism!! I have to tell you that all baptisms are good, and I probably shouldn't pick favorites, but I'm going to be honest and say that Jose is my favorite baptism. Maybe partly because it's my first baptism as comp mayor. (Even though we both work together as a team, any returned missionary knows what I mean when I say it just feels more special when you get the baptism as senior comp.) We found this guy knocking doors, and we were the first missionaries to ever talk to him. He's 18 years old, and is ready for the priesthood, and in a year, A MISSION!!! He's had a HUGE CHANGE OF HEART and has made big changes in his life!! President Villalba called him a "eligido" which is like an elect or chosen one. He's just a cool guy and we're good friends.

His name is Jose Pena. We found him when we were just knocking doors and doing contacts. His brother let us in, who had been baptised in Rosario at the age of like 9 and never went to church again and doesn't really remember anything about the church. We shared something with him and Jose was in the background and didn't participate much, because he didn't have much interest. We passed by again to see the brother another time, and Jose was there again and listened but just didn't really care about religion and that type of stuff. I never would have believed then that he would get baptised a month later! Anyway, eventually we started teaching to Jose more and less to his brother, and finally just to Jose. He's just a really chill guy and we became really good friends with him and he has great trust in us, and he was able to stop smoking. Anyway, he plays the guitar a lot and knows lots of cool songs. The coolest song, though, is the song he wrote in between his baptism and confirmation, which he sang to us yesterday. I'll copy it here.

(Because Eric's blog is public and Jose wants to publish his song, I removed the Spanish lyrics.)

That's the song!! I'll do a basic summary in English for everyone so you know what he's saying. Basically he says that he's finding the path to happiness and that his old life has finished and that something better and new has started that gives him more happiness, God is his guide and it would be harder to destroy him now because he's stronger now than he was before.

So that is a great song!! He wants to sing it in English too (he plans on starting a band and selling this song) because he says that's where the real money in music is (very true), so yesterday we started translating a bit, trying to translate it so it fits with his music, which is also really cool!

So the whole baptism went really good. You ask the person who is going to be baptised, who they want to baptise them, but Jose wouldn't choose which one of us he wanted, so we had Elder Larson do it because being new and his first transfer, he hasn't baptised anyone yet. In case you're wondering why I am wearing white, it's simply because I think it looks better in the pictures and helps to bring the feeling of the spirit to the baptism. We started out hearing a couple of talks, then we had the baptism, which was way cool. It was kind of funny when they were in the water and Elder Larson was getting started, he was going to baptise him facing away from the people so that they couldn't see his face, and he didn't understand the testigos (witnesses) that were telling him (in Spanish) to turn around, but finally he got it and they turned, and Elder Larson did the baptism perfectly. After that we did a special song of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" with just us 4 missionaries, and then we had food. The next day was the confirmation, which the bishop performed, and Jose really liked it. He also said he really felt the spirit, after saying jokingly, "senti tres manos nada mas." (We have no idea what he means by that. Maybe it is an expression in Argentina.)

Anyway, this morning we went running with Jose which was pretty fun too. I won the race at the end, but I guess that's because I have the longest legs, ha ha!

Anyway, you are probably wondering about transfers, I'M STAYING HERE another transfer and SO IS LARSON! ALSO THE OTHER TWO ELDERS! So we all got our wish, because we all wanted to stay together as a pench, companionship and in the area, so we're happy!!!! I'm still district leader over the hermanas. Well, I'm definitely happy with the changes this transfer. Okay, I'm out of time, so very quickly I'll answer some questions. Yes, I like training, yes we're going to get a Christmas tree, and yes, starting in January you can send packages directly to the pench.

I love you all very much!!! Thank you for all you do and for the support of everyone!!

Love,
Eric

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Thanksgiving in Argentina

The pench in Pergamino. The metal basket on a pole is for garbage collection, to keep it out of reach of dogs.

The Thanksgiving feast

Looking forward to the Thanksgiving feast

Hey family, what's up again?!

It sounds like everyone had a really good Thanksgiving! And Happy Birthday to Grandpa! I was glad to hear updates about Nicole and Mark, Randy and Shawna, and all of the family.

Well, I also had a decent week. Our Thanksgiving was good. On Thanksgiving night, my comp and I ate dinner with a part member family, and then the next day on Friday, we all four (missionaries) got together and made a HUGE (for our budget) Thanksgiving meal, which consisted of milanesas de pollo, gravy, corn and mashed potatoes!!!! It was all really good. It was for our lunch of course, because we don't have dinners, but I really enjoyed the Thanksgiving lunch, and the meal the night before was good too! So we're looking forward to Christmas now, the stores are finally starting to decorate but there's no real hype or excitement yet.

Our area's going really good. A couple days ago we found someone who flat out told us she wants to be baptised after like a 5 minute lesson with her!!! She's way cool and came to church yesterday, but I think she's living together with someone, so she probably won't be able to be baptised any time soon. :( Another cool guy we're teaching, Jose, will be baptised this Saturday, assuming he doesn't smoke before then. (We're helping him drop it.) He's a really cool guy, he's 18 and has already been to church 3 times, and attended the baptism in Acevedo last week. So assuming all goes well, he'll be baptised and my dream would be him serving a mission after!! Either way, we have a lot of people that could be baptised, but sadly most just fall because of individual problems, so I'm just saying don't get too excited before it happens.

Well, I made good use of those last few pairs of socks with the holes in them. I gave them to Elder Petersen, who has zero socks!! What happened is Elder Petersen put all his socks in a bucket with the detergent and left them in the bucket for 3 days. The soap box says don't even think about leaving them in there more than 2 hours! So as a result, his socks are now purple, brown, yellow and every color of the rainbow! They're pretty ugly, and unfixable also!! So I did Petey a favor and gave him my old holey socks, that are at least BLACK. Our clothes washing lady (who does the clothes for me and my comp) has gotten much better, I believe she got cane dropped by all the members when they saw our wrinkled shirts. (People in this country don't hesitate to speak if they think something should be changed, like how someone washes clothes or eats food or whatever.)

Also as a side note, no, I have not gotten the baptism pictures you sent yet. Probably we just have to wait a bit!

The district is doing alright. The hermanas had a hard week, like many missionaries, because of not having a real P-day anymore, but they're going to do better this week. This week was really hard for me too. It seems I just really need to play something once a week to keep the energy up, but I like the advice from Randy, so I'll try to improvise and come up with something. We actually had a very successful week, it just was harder to keep working hard without a break. I still love giving tallers (workshops) and doing everything that I am supposed to be doing with my district.

Just want everyone to know I love them and THANK YOU to everyone for all you do.

I love you all,
Eric

Eric had said last week that he'd take some random pictures for us to enjoy...the missionaries still aren't permitted to carry their cameras around, so he is really trying to be creative. I'm not sure what room this is, but it's nice to see they have plenty of bottled water to drink.

A box of alfajors

These are the socks that were passed down to Elder Petersen

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A scary night

This painting of missionaries I found online. It portrays how they prepare themselves spiritually every day by putting on the "Armor of God."

Hey family, what's up!!!

This past week has been pretty good. The leadership training on Wednesday was really good!!! It was awesome because in the training there were only about 10 or 15 people. It was me and Elder Petersen and Rallison, the four hermanas in my district (hermanas always go, even though they don't hold leadership positions) and then 4 other elders from various parts. I was really happy to be in such a small group, it was very personalized. It was an intense all day thing from like 9ish in the morning until 7 at night, 10 hours of straight practices and lessons with the mission president! It was a good time and we all enjoyed it and the spirit was great. It was certainly exhausting and intense, but I really liked it and learned a lot.

After it was over came my favorite part, letters!!! I got a dearelder from Aunt Lisa and also one from you guys! I also got the WAY COOL personalized card with the flamingos on the front! Thanks a lot for the card, it was awesome!! I loved seeing it and also the thing on being a good district leader, it was quite a list. No, I have never received that book that you asked me about that Dad sent, or the one you sent. A few other things that Dad sent me have been lost or stolen as well. I know because Dad re-sent me some articles that he mentioned he had previously sent me, and some of them I have never seen before!!! Leading me to believe that a number of things you have sent me have gone missing and never got to me.

Well, I will tell you what happened after we had our training. We left the terminal in Rosario around 7:30 or 8:00 p.m. and were heading back to Pergamino, me, Rally, Pete and the 4 hermanas. Well, it was around 9:30 or 9:45 when we got off of the big collectivo about 5 blocks from our pench and we started walking to get home. We thought the hermanas would just take the bus to the terminal, but we were wrong. We had just arrived back inside the pench at around 10:00 at night, when we got a call from the hermanas, informing us that they had gotten off the collectivo early, just a few blocks after we got off, in order to walk to their pench faster, and had been robbed upon the leaving the bus!! Of course, the actual phone call we got was not quite so detailed, it was more of a "Elder! We're dying! We're being robbed at gunpoint right now!" We asked the address and Hermana Villareal was so shaken up that she gave us like the first thing that came to mind, I think. So we immediately called a remis (taxi) and told the guy to hurry to the address we had received. He lazily started off, and after a while we got there and...no hermanas! So we called them and clarifed the direccion (address) and the driver drove us there....still no hermanas! Well, after like 30 or 40 minutes of driving around in this wild goose chase, we found the hermanas. Luckily when they were robbed there were people close by that called the cops. And believe it or not, the cops got there so quick they retrieved the stolen bags, too! So the hermanas were just chillin' with the cops and the bishop who we had called on our way. Anyway, basically what happened is that as they were held up at gunpoint, one hermana gave up her stuff peacefully and the other hermana resisted, so the robber hit her in the hand with the gun, so it was bleeding...hence the "we're dying and being beat up" on the phone. Well, the robbers took off quickly, took 100 pesos out of a bag and then just dumped the bags close by. So basically no harm done, only 100 pesos gone and no real damage. The hermanas had been really scared but recovered after a little while of talking. Well, at this point I thought it was all over and we were good to go back home, when the hermanas told us they can't go back to their pench because it's haunted! Apparently, there's a ghost in the hermanas' pench, so we went by and did a priesthood blessing on their pench. We got together and did a prayer, Elder Petersen said the prayer. So one of the hermanas felt the evil spirit push past her as it left, and they all felt the spirit in the pench change to good. So basically after our night of wild car chases, saving hermanas from robbers, and casting demons out of houses, we went back to our pench VERY TIRED!!! The next morning was not too fun waking up at 6:30! But everything was okay, so it was a good week.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, although I don't believe we're doing anything special because of course it's not a holiday here. The pench is going fine, lots of fun. I'd like to stay here another transfer with my hijo, because we have some good things coming up, but we never know what will happen when transfers come up.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera for the training meeting, and we can't get together as a zone for p-day anymore so I don't have any pictures to send this week. The new strict rules by Elder Aidukaitis really have me bummed. We can't get together as a zone anymore, or play any sports, or even go anywhere like to see the flag monument, which I have never seen yet. Even though we only had a few hours in the week to do those things, but I guess this will keep us more focused on baptising. I'll try to take some pictures of random things so you guys have something to see for the coming week.

Regarding your question, my health is fine, I believe my vomiting is caused from migraines. I recently had another bad vomiting experience, and I've linked all of them to really REALLY BAD headaches for an hour or two beforehand, so I believe that to be the cause. So I'm sure that's all it is, so don't worry.

How is everyone there doing? I hope everyone is doing good still. I wish you all the best, and thank you all for everything you do for me always. Thanks for the support. I love you all!

Love,
Eric
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Two meetings with the special speaker

Fun with the zone on Pday

Elder Aidukaitis with President and Hermana Villalba

Hey everyone!!

Mom, it sounds like your birthday was a fun experience for everyone!! Happy birthday!

Whew, today I am so tired! I hope I don't fall asleep as I'm typing. I'm very excited to be writing you all, of course, but we just got done playing some intense soccer and "flying." For soccer we played Utah vs. everyone else, which ended up being 4 on 4. Unfortunately, we lost by one, but still had a lot of fun! We also played some dodgeball, mini dodgeball because we had the hermanas playing, but we played it with the kind of flat soccer ball we played soccer with, but it was fun. Then we learned how to "fly", which can't be described well, so just know it's pretty cool. It's basically just a psychological trick that someone taught us that makes you think you're flying.

Yes, I received the Priesthood Line of Authority and love it, thanks, but not the Pruebas book yet.

Well, I guess the coolest thing by far that happened this week was the training meeting on Tuesday with Elder Aidukaitis of the 70 and the Zone Conference with him on Wednesday. Both meetings were awesome and way cool! He's definitely the best public speaker I've heard from personally. The leader meeting was probably the best, because he has this gift to be able to bajar la cana, in English "drop cane" the whole time (or criticise) in a funny way that makes you really want to do better, and doesn't make you feel bad. It was an intense four hours straight of him talking to the district/zone leaders in the mission, dropping cane for 4 hours, but I loved it because we learned a lot!! Throughout the time he would have us stand or sit, if we did something or didn't do something, and if we were lacking he'd come up to the elders who didn't do the certain task good enough, ask them if they needed some sugar or if they wanted it straight and direct, and then dropped cane on them. I'll be honest, I really flew under the radar. In fact, I was just about the only one who didn't get cane dropped, instead I got a personal congratulation due to goal setting, and then the next day at zone conference he personally congratulated me again, but with my hijo that time. I'm not telling that to be prideful, because I'd be lying if I said I was perfect and couldn't use plenty of cane droppings. But I will say that I got VERY LUCKY and I LOVE GETTING LUCKY!!!! P.S. The reason I got congratulated was because I was the only person that made or exceeded the goals I set on the certain day he chose. Anyway, so it was way cool to be able to shake his hand and all that, but really it was just because I got very lucky.

He's a really funny guy, too, but also very serious about his work. He tells us that we should be baptising every week, so I'll really have to pick it up and start baptising weekly!! So that's kind of scary, but we're going to have to start baptising every week, I don't know how, but we'll do it!!!

Anyway, though, he's a really cool guy, he speaks good Spanish, although he said a few things kind of funny because he's from Brazil so speaks Portuguese, but overall speaks really good. He can also speak some English. I'd love to see him go up as an apostle. We didn't get to take our own pictures of our zone with Elder Aidukaitis, because he was doing back to back zone conferences, and he didn't want to take the time to have everyone setting their self-timers on their cameras and stuff, so he wanted only one picture taken, with the mission camera. They were supposed to email it out to all of us, but of course they didn't, so I don't know if we will ever get that picture. While they were taking a different zone's picture, I grabbed that picture I am sending you with my camera, so you can see him in the picture next to President.

So this past leadership meeting wasn't technically training, it was just cane dropping to whip us into shape, and this Wednesday, in two days, we're having the official leadership training with President Villalba. I'm way excited because I love these leadership training things, so I'll surely let you know how it goes.

Well, the work here is going well, also the hijo and the district are doing really good. I'm excited because tomorrow I give a taller (workshop) which I still haven't planned yet, but I will. I love this area, it's sooooo good, and just everything is going good. Our church assistance (attendance) is growing, and we have a few investigators attending. We have the perfect area, we have both extremes, it's rich, but not too rich, and it also has an awesome villa (villa is the ghetto slum area.) Most of the area is super clean, and like half our area is paved, and half is dirt roads. LOTS OF DOGS DOGS DOGS DOGS DOGS! In fact, last week I got nipped by a little one. Dogs are always barking and threatening us, in which case we do the baile (pretend to pick up a rock to throw) or we just let them be because they're just territorial and won't attack, they're just acting like it. But one little dog, just out of nowhere, as I walked by nipped my pants! It was crazy, and now I have a pair of pants with a bite hole in them! Don't worry, he only got the pants and didn't touch the skin or do any damage to me, it was pretty funny though.

Well, I've got to get going now. I love you guys, and wish the best. Thanks for all you do!!

Love,
Eric

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