Padre Parte 2

Hello everybody!

This week was good. My companion is leaving. I'm sad about that, but we had a good transfer together. Presidente Cowan called on Monday and told me that I'm going to train! haha. It will be fun and I'm going to make him love the mission, whoever he is.

I went on an exchange with Elder Cutler from Cottonwood Heights. We played soccer against each other when we were little. He is a super good missionary and I learned so much from him. He is going home on Thursday. He is the closest one to the camera in the pizza picture.

We couldn't write on Monday because there was a riot because of the gas prices. haha. We went to this one restaurant that these Chinese people own. They saw a big group of people and got scared and locked us in, but it was actually nothing. We didn't see anything the whole day and I told my companion that the riot was lame, but I definitely changed my mind after we got to the house.

I called one of my converts, Elpidio, from Puerto Plata. He is like 55 years old and he told me that he is GETTING MARRIED! He is getting married to a member that lives across the street from him. He told us that he was in love with her when we were teaching him. That makes me so happy. He is such a good guy.

We have a lot of good people. There is so much sin in the world, but I know that I'm doing all that I can. I can't change the world, but I've been able to change the world of a few people and that feeling is priceless. I love the mission. The church is true. Cristo vive.

Pictures,

This is what I look like.

PIZZA

A better way to eat marshmallows... thoughts?

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY

This week was super good. Mainly today.

We were walking down the street one day and this guy called us over. He said he is a member, but has been going to another church for a long time. He started basically following us around and going to our appointments with us. He introduced us to a bunch of his family. They don't seem very receptive to the gospel, but we were walking and he contacted this one house for us haha. He just said, "Would you allow us to share a message with you?" Just super straight forward and I was like, dude that's not how you do it, but then they let us in and they are super cool and very nice. Maybe God put this crazy man in our path so that we would talk to this family...Who knows?

We had interviews with Presidente Cowan. He is such a good guy and I learn so much from him. In the interview, he asked me how everything was going and I said good then he just started saying a bunch of nice stuff about me. How could you not like this guy?

Today is my Birthday. I'm 20. We went to Santiago and I saw all of my missionary friends. My last birthday here we literally did not do anything so I would say that this was a big improvement.

This guy was drunk. My companion asked him what happened to his arm that he didn't have. He said he killed 14 people... uh...

This is what I look like when I'm 20. I don't know if there is that big of a difference from 19.

This week was super good haha.

I laughed about this all week long but we are teaching these two guys and I don't know if they have that much potential but they listen really good and ask a lot of questions. We were teaching them about the book of mormon and where it came from and all of that. They are asking a lot of good questions and stuff then this guy named Alec says, "Nephi and Moroni where Americans because they lived in America right? so why did Joseph Smith have to translate the book of mormon if it was already in English?" HAHAHAHA it was so funny. They are good guys, but sometimes don't think very much. We explained to them that Nefi's family came from Jerusalem so they didn't speak English. Then the other dude, Danilo, grabs the book of mormon and is looking at the pictures and said, "oh theres a mistake here." He said that Jesus didn't go to America. But we explained to him that it was the American continent and not The United States of America. Being a missionary is fun.

We are teaching this guy named Porfirio. He is super good. We taught the word of wisdom to him early in the week and he said he wont smoke or drink coffee again. He is struggling financially right now and so we took him some food that we had in the house. He is super humble and he should be getting baptized soon.

We are teaching this really cool family. It's a couple and they have four daughters. They are so funny and I love going over to there house to teach them. They are super good, the only bad thing is that they live SUPER far away from the church and only have one motorcycle. This Sunday, two of the daughters came for the first time so we are very happy about that. They have a lot of potential and I'm excited to see what happens with them.

There is nothing cool to take pictures of in Bonao. Sorry. But this is me and my companion.

I LOVE YOU ALL! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

Power

I feel like so many things have happened in the last week, I'll do my best.

First, on Tuesday we had the best day ever. We taught lessons the whole day long and we found a lot of good new people. Usually when we have nothing to do, we contact for a while. Every time we contacted, the first person we talked to let us it. It was weird but I felt super blessed. After our last lesson which was really good we are walking out of this apartment complex and there is a 50 peso bill laying on the ground. WOW. I don't know why but I felt so blessed and thanked God for it when I prayed in the night.

So it's Friday night. It's one thirty. We are sleeping. Then we hear this loud noise and there's this super bright light flashing outside. Then the power goes our and somebody knocks on our door. We jumped up super quick and went to the door. We live on the 3rd floor and the light post outside of our house was smoking so bad hahaha. It just like blew up in the middle of the night for no reason and now we haven't had power or water for 3 days. I live in a jungle.

It rains here basically everyday. Lighting struck like right across the street from us when we were in the house. It was so scary. I'm now afraid of lightning, I'm not joking.

General conference was super good. 2 HOUR CHURCH. HAHA. I don't know what I think about that. Hopefully it motivates more people to go to church. But I didn't see that coming at all. I really liked when President Nelson talked about the name of the church. THIS IS THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST. I felt the spirit super strong while he was talking about that and I know that this really is Jesus' church!

This is me and my companion leaving the house without light. He is from Texas and we get along really well. He is still learning a lot of things, but I have learned a lot from him despite his inexperience.

I love you all.

D&C 4:4

Eric was asked by his former seminary teacher for this video...

Where am I?

A lot has happened in the last 2 weeks.

I left Puerto Plata, the best place on earth. I love that place so much. It was really sad to go. There are so many good people there and I have so many friends there and my converts there are the best people ever. I feel like I was sent to the Dominican Republic for the people in Puerto Plata. I feel so blessed to have been in that area and to have been able to find the people that I did. YO AMO A PUERTO PLATA!

Anyways, my new area is Bonao 1 which is basically in the middle of the country, I don't know where I am. I'm pretty sure that Santo Domingo is closer to us than Santiago, but I don't care. This area is super cool. First off, we have the best house of all time! It's super clean and we have hot water, and we are on the third floor. Bonao is just surrounded by a bunch of mountains and it rains basically everyday. We work in Bonao which is pretty urban, but also we have this other neighborhood super far away called Los Arroces. It's named that because there are just a bunch of gigantic rice fields all over so that means that we have to walk forever to get to some houses. We have to take a little bus thing to get there and we preach there 3 days a week.

My companion is Elder Perez from Texas. He is a good guy. He has 8 months in the mission. Its pretty weird to speak English so much and I decided that it's a lot better for my Spanish if I have Latino companions. But me and my companion get along really well. He doesn't know how to cook and there aren't any cheap places to buy food by us so I have been experimenting with a few things lately. It's going pretty good, for the most part. haha

I love you all! The church is true!

Pictures

Me and a super cool mural

Me and Maceko and Rodrigo. I love them.

These people are cool. I kind of just wanted to take the picture because both ladies are pregnant haha