Cosas y La Rocio

9 Nov 2009

Dear Family,

Thank you for your letters and especially thank you for the package. I got it about two weeks ago, I think. I love it. I´ve finished up the trail mix and I´m nearly done with the Gardetto´s, but I´m munching away on the other stuff. And thank you for the pictures.

And what do I want for Christmas? That´s a good question that I don´t really have an answer to. It seems like after so much time in Argentina, I have stopped craving things from the US. I don´t really care that much. As for clothes, I believe my pants and my shirt will last the rest of my mission (and I found my white baptismal pants about a month ago. They were with a member who had taken them home to wash). My main worry is my shoes. In one of the pairs that I bought at home I´ve worn through the sole and when I walk around in it, it lets in a lot of dust and dirt to the ball of my foot. But, I´m going to take it to a place to get it resoled. The ones I bought last christmas are holding up, but I´ll have to get them resoled before the end of my mission too. And I´m starting to use the shoes I kept for conferences and interviews to go working in. So, I might want to go out looking for some more new, high quality shoes. They´ve served me quite well. A lot of other missionaries have the leather come apart before the sole wears out. I might also want another package of good socks because with the soles like they are, the socks are wearing through much faster. But don´t worry, my feet feel fine because I have nice thick, strong calluses there on my feet to protect me. But as for other stuff, I don´t really know what to ask for. Oh, yeah, the charger for my electric razor stopped working this past week. I don´t like to shave by hand as much. You also asked about replacement blades and I think that would be good too if I can charge up my razor. And...I like letters and good ties. But the good ties tend to get given away quickly. And in the letters, I´m kind of curious about what has happened in the past year in scientific and space news. I have no clue what kind of discoveries have been made.

About housing? I´ve been kind of worried about that my whole mission because I don´t know at all. I had thought that I´d like to get to school on a bike or by moped, but I´m not sure if I want to rough it in the cold. The single apartments sound good but that could be a shock after living with a companion 24-7. I also was thinking about asking Elder Gilmore and Elder Sabey if they wanted to try to room together. I´ll ask them on the 22nd when we have our transfer meeting.

And I don´t think it would be the best idea to get the new computer now. I wish I would have time to get good suggestions from the Astronomy professors to know what to get. It is possible, but not certain, that any computer I get, I would wipe in order to put Ubuntu or another Linux operating system, which is much more compatible with scientific study and programming than Windows. But I´m not sure if I´d go to the trouble of doing that.

How´s the weather been here? It always reminds me of Louisville—very sporatic. This past few months it has been changing constantly. It has been a bummer that it´s rained many sundays, making attendence much lower and cuts our hopes for investigators. Other days it is really hot. Other days really nice. Other day cold. A bit of everything. But I´ve been pretty good at guessing what will happen and at what time in the day it will rain. I´ve learned to judge the weather.

This past week, all of our success and be rooted to Rocío Mendez, the recent convert. She is an excellent missionary, inviting and teaching everyone. She can get to the kids much easier than we can. For the first time, her Mom, Nora, came to church. We´ve been teaching her a little, but in order to be baptized she has to either marry or seperate with Victor, who is really lazy. But, this past week, if I have the story right, Victor hit one of the younger daughters and Nora said that he had to leave, called the Police, and he has a restraining order now. That is really sad, especially since they have two children together, but Nora will now be able to be baptized on the 22nd. It makes me glad that she´ll be able to have salvation and eternal life with her family, but it is sad that the family is without a family figure in the home.

Then, we are teaching Patricia, the neighbor of the Mendez family. She too came to church yesterday. And so did their two step sisters, Estefanía and Yenny (the y and ll sound like a sh sound in Castellano). They are 8 year old twins and are quite inteligent. But we are uncertain if these kids will get parental permission to be baptized. Then, we recieved Mariana as a referal. She is the best friend of Rocío. And we taught the whole family and they are really good. I love how all the children have dreams for a better future. One wants to be a lawyer, another and architect, and I believe they are graduating early from high school. The mom especially felt the spirit in the lesson.

So, that is what is happening in Moreno 2. I hope to be able to tell you great things the next week.

With love,
Elder Drake Ranquist