December 25, 2011

Today was an awesome day because Garrett called us. It was so incredible to talk to him. He is doing well, and is really happy. I could tell though that he was missing home. About the time we hung up, it was hard to hang up.

He is a district leader, and has lots of responsibilities in his area. In the branch where he serves has no secretary to the branch president so he takes the tithing and works on the computer and is learning so much. This is on top of his responsibilities that he has as a district leader and a missionary.

We asked him if he had his eye on any of the girls there in Argentina, and he said no way! Very nice people, but because the government just gives people money and supports them, the people have no ambitions to do much of anything. They live in squaller and why work if the government gives you everything. (Mom is glad that her daughter in law will be from the states) lol

He has lost 35 pounds, but eats well. He likes armadillo! He said that is is boiled and eaten cold. He says the skin gets rock hard, but he enjoys eating it. Mom says no wonder he is getting skinny. Because he has lost this weight, he is off of his medication. The dr says his blood pressure is normal. He left his meds with the doctor.

For Christmas he bought himself an iron. He has to wash his clothes by hand, and needed an iron to make sure he looks good.

He encouraged Paige to go on a mission, and told Gavin that he can't wait to come home and just sit and watch movies all day.

My little boy has grown up in so many ways. I won't know him when he comes home, but the count down has begun as he only has 9 months left. Can't wait to see this kid!

Saludos del paiz de la milanesa!

Well first off, I hope that you enjoyed the pictures that I sent. They´re of the big statue in my area in the central square. Kind of strange but really cool. Plus, and asado that we had with the new family. Plus, a picture of me in my suit. Look howskinny I am! Haha Also, some Tarzan songs in Spanish. We listen to them quite often. And yes, it is Phil

Collins. Apparently he sings in Spanish too.

Thanks in advance for the money that you guys sent me. I took it out today, but I won´t spend it until Christmas :-) I still don´t know what I´m going to get, but I´ll look around. I would think I would need about 25 bucks for phone cards, because to talk for an hour, I need about 4 phone cards.

Also, thanks for talking to BYU for me. I really appreciate it! I´m quite excited start studying after all this is said and done. Don´t know how I´m going to do it, but I guess I´ll figure it out right?

Send Coy my congratulations! I haven´t heard from him in forever! I remember when I spoke to him the night before he left on his mission, seems like such a short time ago. Time isjust flying by. I hope it doesn´t go by so fast after my mission.

Thats so awesome about Paige. I was praying for you the whole week. I´m glad everything turned out okay.

Dad, that temple story I do have to say was pretty hilarious. I laughed a lot when I read it. Hopefully your next temple trip will be a little more pleasent. I am looking forward to going to the temple with you guys after the mission, and then going to Applebee´s after the session of course, with Stewie and Adam too.

Neeldess to say, finding a job in Post Falls instead of Florida is just peachy. I really want to stay in Post Falls for the rest of my life if I can, but we´ll see. Maybe I´ll end up in Argentina, who knows? I think it would be really cool to do a semester of college here in Buenos Aires. In Capital, theres institute and everything. Just and idea to chew on.

This week, on Wednesday, we have a Christmas party for our zone, and I´m pretty stoked. Elder Alkema will be there and I´m pretty excited to see him after a really long time. Out here, in the countryside, we don´t really have interaction with other elders. I haven´t seen another missionary in about a month and a half, since I got transfered. So, I really want to see some other missionaries.

We are going to have two baptisms on saturday. One of them is from this new family that we found, because the parents need to get married still, but we´re working on that. So, the daughter is getting baptized on saturday. So, we´re definitely excited to see this family starting to accept the gospel.

Its so hot here. The bikes help a little bit to combat the heat, because we´re constantly moving instead of slowly walking on the side of the street.

We went to wish a sister happy birthday and she asked us to come out back. She led us to a big metal barrel and it was covered with a sheet of metal. She lifted it up and lo and behold, there was a big armadillo! First time i´ve seen one of those outside of a cage. Armadillos are eaten here, and everybody tells me that they are really tasty. I would like to try it before I leave Argentina.

I´ll be writing you guys next week with what time I´m going to call you guys on Sunday the 25th. Tell meif your numbers are still the same, if not send me the new ones please. I don´t really know what to write about, given that I´ll be talking to your guys in a little less than two weeks. So, we´ll talk a lot on Christmas. I love you guys so much and I can´t wait to talk to you in two weeks! Have a good week and you will always be in my prayers.

Con amor,

Weekly Letter December 5, 2011

Hola!

Well, we had a good week this week. Up til now, I still haven´t received a letter from Dad. But, hopefully as I write this letter, I will recieve it.

Congrats to Paige on your interview with Panda. Careful that you don´t eat too much when you get the job. If I worked there, I would eat way too much. But, its kind of weird to think that I´ll be working a job like a regular guy when I get home. Can you believe that I hit fourteen months in the mission tomorrow? Crazy! The time is flying by so fast!

Thats awesome that you guys served lunch at a zone conference. We are definitely thankful for the sisters that serve us lunch at our zone conferences. Quite an experience right? To be around other missionaries all at once. I´m still amazed when I go to zone conferences.

We heard some bad news about our Mission President. On Tuesday, his Dad died after a bad fall. I guess he fell and hit his head and went to the hospital, but died a few hours later. Really sad to be thousands of miles away from home and have a parent die. I guess he´s not making plans to leave the country. He is so cool. I love my mission president. I feel really bad for him.

Gavin, have fun with Spirit week! I always loved spirit week. Grease will be cool. Gotta love grease man. Say hi to everybody I know still in High School. Dude, you need to send me some pictures of the snow with your new camera so I can print them and show everybody what Post Falls snow is like. Plus, if you could send some pictures from my facebook, that would be awesome. If you have time.

Well, not much to report on this side I´m afraid. Nothing really interesting happened this week. Just working and loving the mission. This week sped by unbelievably fast. I really can´t believe it. Tomorrow I have fourteen months in the mission and ten months left. Argentina is so awesome. I love it. I really want to come here again with you guys someday. We need to save money to come back here. At least we´ll have places to stay. We won´t have to stay in a hotel. Its so pretty here. But, we need to come down in fall or spring, because summer is terrible But, we´ll see.

We are teaching this family about a block away from our house. They are golden! They have come to church twice now, and the mom is going down to the city hall today to find out about marriage to her boyfriend. They are so cool, and they are already feeding us. I´ll take a picture with them this week and send it to you. Well, I need to go. I know I didn´t write much, but there is not much to write. I love you guys so much and I pray for you daily and nightly. Good luck Paige with everything and I hope everything goes well. Thank you so much for all the love and support that you all give me. I love the talk that I attached from Jeffrey R. Holland. I always listen to it and it always makes me feel better. Listen to it. I think you guys will remember this talk from conference. I remember when he came to the MTC. Probably the most spiritual experience of my life. I love you guys and I´ll write next week!

¡Chau!