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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The last zone conference

Zone Conference August 26, 2011

Shrines for Gaucho Gil are common (He is the Argentine Robin Hood)

Hey family!!! How is everyone!!

Firstly, I'll let you know, I got my package!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was very excited to get it, and I love all the contents. I'm already using the shoes which I think help with my toe problem (?) because the soles are much tougher and thicker. I'm saving the taco packets to make with some cool investigators and all the candies I've already eaten with some investigators and my comp. Thanks also for the money, which saved me from poorness! I used the 20 dollars to buy a member girl who turned 6 a really cool princess beauty kit, and then with the change we've been able to travel to get around in our area! We're out of money but should get more money Wednesday. So thanks a ton for the package and the money, it's all great stuff. I also got many dearelders, including an update from Nana and Papa, letters from you, and Jared's letters. They were great and I enjoyed them all.

By the way, I don't know about other countries but here in Argentina they don't say que andas, they say como andas. There's also a very slangy phrase meaning like, what's up, that's not used that often but that's que ondas. That way you'll be able to sound very Argentine when you come!

We had a good zone conference, although unfortunately the dying missionaries (missionaries who are ending their mission) don't get to give their final testimony like they used to, but that's okay. This rule was changed by Elder Aidukaitis, and it's sad, but I'm sure he has his reasons.

The people are doing good here. Unfortunately, that girl we were talking about, her parents aren't married! That's super sad but okay because we're going to get them married! We had a family home evening with them Saturday that was really good, and then I found out Sunday evening that they aren't married and that's why he doesn't want to come to church. That is such a huge problem here, most people just don't get married and so it makes the work harder because it is so hard to get married here. It is expensive and there is a long waiting list, because it has to be done by the government. We're going to teach them tomorrow, though, and we'll help them out.

The Rios mom is still doing good. She makes homeade bread now and sells it door to door, which is cool. Unfortunately, my companion had a disagreement with the Rios family, so we aren't passing by as much, which makes me really sad. They've called me a couple of times and we talk by phone, and they say they're doing good.

Yesterday there was a huge kid's day celebration! Apparently they haven't gotten enough celebrating these past few weeks, so yesterday they had huge parties in the parks and it was cool, although we didn't participate.

Tell Marisa and Maya happy birthday and send my love to everyone! It sounds like they had a great birthday. Anyway, I better get off, I'm out of time, but I love you all very much and am doing great here!!!

Love,
Eric

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Holidays

Hey family, how is everyone!! I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying their changing lives! I'm glad to see the pictures of a great birthday for Holly, and also to see the pictures of the new house.

Thanks also for sending me the flight plans, although since you guys are coming down here I guess it really doesn't matter. Thanks for offering to come and pick me up, I think it's a great idea. As far as where to come I believe you can come directly to the mission home, from what I've heard. Most likely you'd fly into Buenos Aires and take a bus to Rosario and from there take a taxi to get to the mission.

I couldn't write yesterday because it was a holiday here and everything was closed. It was the memorial of Jose de San Martin, but it is celebrated pretty much the same as Kids Day, which was last week. Kids Day Celebration was Saturday and Sunday, the biggest celebration being Sunday. All holidays in this country are always moved to the weekends or Monday. For Kids Day, they give small gifts, and lots of chocolate. The government even gets involved and hires those big blow-up things for kids to play in, and buys LOTS OF CHOCOLATE AND CAKE to give out to all kids. On Saturday, the government had their little stands everywhere giving out free cake and chocolate, and then Sunday the park was filled (as it always is) with the big blow-up things and foosball and whatnot, but this day was from private companies.

In the church, they also gave out little gift bags, although we didn't get any. David's a really funny guy, and enjoyed making fun of all the adults that did get the gift bags (which as he pointed out conveniently fell into the hands of the leaders.) It was a good day. No fireworks that day, also no asados except the asados that people do just because. We saw the Rios kids on Saturday, which was cool, as they went hunting in the plaza with their slingshots.

I should get my package this Friday for the zone conference in Pergamino. By the way, Elder Larson (my first son) is secretary now! It's cool because that's a good job and not just a job where they put the lazy missionaries.

We found a cool girl who's the daughter of a less active. She's super cute and fun and wants to be baptized, so we're working with her parents right now, trying to get them to come back. We thought the dad might come to church this week, but he didn't. Surprisingly of all the less active people we taught this past week, the people we least expected came, and the people we most expected didn't. For example, one guy, Jose came to church who I thought would be in jail (when we met him, he told us he was leaving the house to do a murder.) We of course taught him and helped him, gave him a blessing, and invited him to church and he came!!! I almost fell out of my chair when he walked in. Anyway, so it's cool to see random people start going to church again. It's super hard to get people to church right now, because it's been VERY COLD and even many active people struggle getting out of bed. That's because most people here have a house with no insulation or heater, and it is FREEZING COLD inside their houses.

I keep trying to download pictures but this computer won't do it. I'll keep trying.

Everyone's doing good here. We're just enjoying Ramallo and everything. Anyway, I better go, but I love you all!!!

Eric

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Staying!

Hey family!! How is everyone!! I hope everybody's doing great!

Well, I guess I'll let you know what you've all been waiting to hear!! Transfers!! We're both staying!! So....I think I'm going to die here. (Die is a missionary slang term which means ending your mission.) Wow!! It's crazy because all the members when I first got here told me I was going to die here, and it's looking like it might come true. I think it would be weird to put me in a new area for just one transfer after this, especially since this mission president just wants to keep everything the same it seems, so it's very likely that I'm dying here! Wow! Anyway, all transfers are revelation, so I'm excited for this.

Our investigators are doing good but nobody's really going to church, is the only problem!! We've found lots of cool people though, so I think we should have good success this transfer. At least our assistence (attendance) has gone up as we've helped less actives come back, but we would like to see some investigators show up!!!

Regarding the new house, that's great news how it is coming along. I understand a little about Argentine house construction, but American homes still confuse me as they're much much more complicated. If I was home, I'd definitely offer myself as a volunteer to help build your new home, but I'll stick to Argentine homes for now.

I still haven't gotten my package with the shoes unfortunately, but there's an elder coming here to San Nicolas from Rosario, so I'm going to call him and see if he can pick up my package and bring it for tomorrow. We got a package from Elder Page's grandmother recently, so we'll have to try and send that out to him sometime!

That's exciting that you got the flight plans for me coming home, do you mind sending me that email just to see what it looks like? I've thought a lot about the whole trip thing, and to be honest, I am okay with whatever works out best! I think I would most like to come home, be set apart, see the family, and then from there make a trip back down to Argentina all together to visit, and maybe even see Brazil, too, I don't know. However, if that is not possible, I'd love you guys to come down directly to pick me up, and it would be great for you guys to see this place and I know you both really want to.

Marisa and David, I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy hearing about and seeing all the pictures of Maya. I carry with me a photo album and one of the pictures in there is a picture of you with Maya. Everybody here is excited when they see the picture of Maya and are amazed at her beauty. They all tell me that she looks like "one of those babies on the TV commercials." So you have a beautiful, famous baby.

Happy Birthday, Holly! I hope you have a great party and enjoy the time with the family. And I'm really glad that you had your anniversary last week. That's so great that you're married and sealed in the temple. In the MTC I often sat in on temple sealings and I really enjoyed them. It's such a great blessing to be sealed in the temple and it gives you such a capacity for potential!!!!! I´m excited you're going to study in St George, I hope you enjoy that also.

I want you all to know that I love you and pray for you!!!!

Eric

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All is well

Eric did not send any pictures this week, so I am posting these pictures that Eric's previous companion, Elder Page, had taken.

Ship on the river in Ramallo

Harvesting soybeans

Argentine pizza, with ham, red peppers and green olives

Hello family!!! It's great to be able to write another day and to tell you about my past week. I enjoy hearing about everybody's plans. That's very exciting that Holly and Scott are going to St. George to study, and that David is doing great with his job. As for your new house, I can't believe how fast it seems to me that it will be built.

Today's been pretty good so far, even though, or maybe because of, our losing our pet bird today. Like I've mentioned before, Tony is 100% my comp's bird, so he feeds it, cleans up after it, etc. I believe he's been feeding it eggs and chicken legs (raw) and he says that Tony really likes the eggs. Well, it turns out today, or possibly late yesterday, he escaped from the new habitat Elder Faldmo built for him. It's too bad but we're happy because if he escaped, it means he can fly now and is probably ready to be on his own again, a free bird.

Shortly after that, the power company came and shut our power off. It's too bad that the one area where we don't have money to pay the electric bill is the one area where the company is on top of it and actually cut the power. I've come to live in penches where the electricity hasn't been paid in years! Of course, those were only in the big cities where things are out of hand, but here in Ramallo, everything's well taken care of. Being in the Buenos Aires province, it has money, unlike for example the Santa Fe province, so it's clean, organized, and on top of things (well, at least more on top of things.) Well, it's been a month since we paid the bill, and it turns out here, that a month's the limit!! We're trying to get a hold of some more money, because for some reason our electricity bill was 900 pesos! (about $217. in US dollars.) Neither of us have close to that. We don't know why it was so expensive this month, either. So we'll be like camping without electricity for a few days, which should be pretty fun. I don't really mind too bad, although my comp says he can't live another minute without it, so we should get it fixed soon, don't worry.

Anyway, after that for Pday my comp and I went over to the church and just kicked the football (soccer ball) around and loved playing in our cleats. They're great and make soccer a whole new sport almost! After playing some soccer, we came straight here, so it's been a fun day.

This week in church was good, too. We had about 70 people in church, 5 of which weren't members. Oh, how I love baby blessings!! Well, it was in big part due to our efforts, too, having reactivated a family of 7 that came this Sunday, and other families too, but there were a few other families that came just for the blessing. We talked to them so we hope we can keep being in contact with them and they can continue coming!

I got two slingshots this week. The Rios kid, Juan, made me the first one, and then President Cansion's son Ezekial saw it and so he decided to make me one too, so I ended up with two. They've since broken, but I fixed them so they're good again. They throw really far and could definitely do some damage if misused, but for now it's just fun to have. Pictures to come, as soon as we get power I'll charge my camera and send some pics, or maybe I'll just charge it at someone's house, so look for pics next week.

My official release date still seems to be a mystery. In my interview with President Guiliani, he looked at his agenda, and he asked me if I'd like to go home the week before or after, because of that conference. (Eric was originally scheduled to be released on November 8, which now has to be changed because of a special conference which the mission presidents must attend.) I told him after, because I wanted to hit two years as a missionary and nothing less. He then asked me when I started, to which I replied November 4th. After that he looked at his big agenda again and said that actually he would be in the mission home until the 5th, and so he could release me the 4th and leave early morning of the 5th. I told him that's fine, I would be okay with either the 5th or the 15th, so we'll see how things go.

I just hope I can get my package before then! Yes, I still haven't gotten the package you sent through the Kradolfers!!! The zone leaders went in to the mission home last week, but the office elders forgot to bring the package to them, probably because it's a not a normal package through the mail and in a weird type of packaging, so they maybe didn't recognize it. So I'm out of luck for now. Maybe for transfers I'll get it.

I had my doctor's appointment scheduled for a few days ago, but as is typical here, when I went there, the secretary informed me that the doctor wasn't going to make it in that day, so all the patients for that day will just have to come back another day next week.

I enjoyed hearing how you guys are trying to be missionaries and answer people's questions. I think it's so cool that you can always be a missionary and help people your whole life. Here in Argentina, most people's questions or concerns are 1. Tithing (probably due to the obscene amounts of churches here which sole purpose is to make money), 2. A specific true church (the general belief here is that all churches are true, and that a specific church is not necessary for salvation, which of course is directly opposed to their main religion, Catholicism, but they don't even know that) and 3. Word of Wisdom. And the list could go on, but those are the major concerns. It's okay for people to have questions, doubts and concerns, as many people once doubtful, later become strong members of the church and faithful followers of Christ. I wish that people with serious doubts could just accompany me around (or any pair of missionaries) to see the miracles and hear the testimonies, both from the missionaries and from the people's conversion when they realize this is the only true church for them, and if that is, then it's the only true church for all.

Anyway, I better get off. I love you all very much!

Eric

P.S. Happy Anniversary Holly and Scott

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Cold weather and a pet hawk

Elder Faldmo on the streets of Ramallo

A bug on a stick...

Eric did not tell us who this child is, but it might be Santiago, who along with his uncle is one of the new investigators

This dog is on the outside looking in. Eric says there are dogs everywhere.

This picture of Elder Boon and Elder Laws was taken in the mission home

Tony Hawk, a new pet

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is doing great and having a great week! It seems like you have all been very busy, and that's there's lots of changes since I left! Hopefully I can find and recognize you all when I get home!! By the way, happy birthday to Nana!

I received the one dollar bills you sent in the "Lengthen Your Stride" card, and some more letters and dearelders. Thanks for those, they were great. In regards to the package being delivered through the Kradolfers, I called the offices today and they let me know it's arrived at the mission home now! Luckily, the zone leaders will be going in to the mission home on Wednesday and will pick it up for me. I'm of course very excited to get it.

This past week the weather has been crazy. We've had awesome short sleeve summer weather until suddenly, when it radically changed on Saturday. Since then it has been freezing, the coldest it's been yet!

So this week's been pretty good, regarding the branch, it's doing pretty good. We managed to get two investigators to church this week, and two inactive families to come. So we're happy that they came. The two investigators that came are great, but one is waiting on marriage, and the other is a kid whose parents don't want to come, so neither one of them is likely to get baptized anytime soon. The investigators that we most hoped to see didn't come. But it has been so cold and Argentines don't like to get up in the mornings when it is cold. We just want to see more people in church.

So, I think it was last Friday, the Rios kids shot a hawk out of the air, but didn't kill it. They tied it up to keep it as a pet. My comp really wanted it and asked for it, and they gave it to him, so since then we've had a hawk in the pench, caged inside our old trash bin. Today my comp turned the outside room thing we have into a bird habitat by nailing up screens so it can't escape, so it's no longer inside which will be nice. He named it Tony, so it could be Tony Hawk. (a famous professional skateboarder) It's been pretty cool, not many people can say they have a hawk as a pet. It's still scared of us, of course, but it's been quiet and hasn't made a sound since we've had it.

On Sunday we went to Barrio Sur, Elder Law's area, to do divisions with him and Elder Boon, and then we spent the night last night having a sleepover in the church because it was too far to get back (to the pench) in time. We slept on some wrestling mat style pads and used blankets. In our small room, we had two little gas heaters so we stayed pretty warm. It was really fun and we had a little time to just hang out in the church and watch some Mormon messages and talked and then today we played some soccer. It was a good Pday.

To answer some questions, the Rios mom is doing good but she still has to give up some things and she just isn't ready, but we'll keep working with her. And don't worry, our area's very safe and there's no danger here.

I'll have to get off now, because I'm trying to send Elder Page some pictures he took for himself with my camera, since I got a really fast computer today that's uploading and sending them good.

Love you all very much,
Eric

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