I´m pretty exhausted. It´s been a fast but hard week, we have been working really hard. Elder Puga really knows what he is doing and I am learning a ton. Lots of experiences that I want to share... It´s been sorta stressful at times, I actually taught my first lesson with a different elder we did a division and we came to a open the mouth house and she let us in. Her name is jessica, We are going to see what will happen. We have been reactivating families slowly, it´s so amazing how much you can rejoice when you see your efforts start to show. Not than I am boasting in myself.. Just excited to be a tool in the lords hands. We are going to try to work with members, because it is an effective approach.
       My companion is from Peru, 2 peruvians in a row haha. He is a good companion, makes me laugh. Sometimes I don´t understand his crazy fast accent. We get a long almost always, but I get frustrated that I am not flexible enough to fully express myself. I will hit that point hopefully.
       Today we played basketball this morning, we were suppose to play with our ward but they all bummed out. So we were left to play one on one. But now we are going to play chess and monopoly lol. With a stud named jose quiroga. He is 18 and he is preparing for a mission. He is someone I would be good friends with.
       We don´t have an investigator yet. our works are just beginning to show. If we get to come back in one of the 3 houses we taught a lesson this week, we will have an investigator(s). I was having problems with how I could teach effectively. I recently learned how I could apply goals in my life. I thought they were ineffective, but lately I have been puting them in use by studying Preach my gospel over and over again  until I could see how I could make goals realistic and effective. And now it´s starting to show... I will have to show you how I set it up someday. I really put a effort in my goals and study plan. For spanish and in learning the lessons. I also came across a schedule that really answered my question. I started to memorize phrases from PME which was dumb. In D&C 85:83 it says we should treasure the words of life, and I wasn´t really doing that until I found out I was doing it wrong. And just puting what I have learned in my own words, and treasuring it, I could teach with more power. More sincerity, and I realized that we don´t have to teach everything we know. Just teach according to what we feel from the spirit. Pretty cool experience to see the difference it made by applying it. Man I love that I get to have the oppurtunity to learn a lot from the scriptures and the gospel.
       Well thanks for reading. Cuidense. BESITOSSSSSSS

My new companion has arrived, elder berrocal finished his mission here in argentina, it was a little awkward at first leaving my trainer, but it´s fine now. Elder Puga is my new companion and he is a hard working stud. We cleaned are little pension to the max, man it´s great, we are going to win the prize I hope. Every zone gets a chance, we took pictures and we are going to send them out. Elder Puga and I, are working supèr hard, we are going to try a new method.. Teach the members lessons, and they teach us back for practice. By doing this the members can become more knowledgeable and maybe than can teach a friend something or share a lesson, and get them interested so that we can start teaching. We are also opening the mouth with people more than ever, like twenty five times each day between me and my companion. The bad news is that he doesn´t know english at all, it´s actually good news, but it´s really hard to communicate sometimes, because I am still not perfect at spanish. For sure this is the hardest and most efficient way to learn. I´m trying to learn as much as possible from him, how they say things and stuff, it´s hard to pay attention because they talk really fast. Well at least my spanish is improving, inch by inch.
       LAvalle is great, the members treat us like kings, they are so nice. Even though yesterday was mothers day here, the family quiroga allowed us to come and eat a delicious asado... Asado is the famous barbeque´s they do. I have a picture that hopefully came through in this letter.
       I´m really pushing myself, elder holland said that as a missionary, we should need help getting down from the plane when we return... Because of working so hard. That is what I want. I could never push myself this hard, it feels like I am receiving help before I fall on my face to hard. BUt of course it is extremely dificult at times. I never been so pacient in my life. Getting mad is not a option, emotions can really take control if you aren´t carefull.
       Unluckily we don´t have anyone to teach at this moment either... we are getting rejected like crazy, but we still have hopes. lately we found really friendly people, one lady named marcela that use to go to church and got baptised, fell away when she moved, and we are trying to help her get back on her feet. We think we can teach a lady named jessica, she gave her direction, not some fake address, we just passed by when she wasn´t home.. We know because the neighbors told us she lives there.
       Well I love all of you, take care.
-Erik

PS:
The photos... The family Quiroga, A ward activity, We were on a roof a tourist roof tarraza... and other random events. We went to the zoo too. It was really sweet.

Well My companion is gone, and now I am in a trio. For the next two days. We had a good time together, we are going to be good friends I hope, he wants to keep in touch. He has taught me a lot and now I found myself as a different person. So many times I almost yielded to the natural man because of a small thing he did that I didn´t like... but I chose not too. It was a blast here in Lavalle with him. He is going to visit with all his conversos, and the country. I hope I didn´t annoy him too much with all the questions I would ask him. I sure took advantage of learning by asking him a lot because he knows english, and spanish really well. I have a great desire to learn this language, yo tengo deseos de aprender este idioama al maximo. And man I can see the difference. in the little time it has been.
Right now I am with a chilean, Elder naranjo, who has 3 months in the mission like me, he is a stud. A really good chef. The other companion I have is Elder Roy, a really efficient wise elder. Very friendly too. I found out who will be my companion, it´s another peruvian hahah. I am excited because he knows how to play the piano... And maybe during the ciestas he can teach me a little. His name is elder puga.. I heard a lot of good things about him. I´m really excited, I get to stay in lavalle also. It´s a great place, not dangerous at all... We run into great people and sometimes rude people just like everywhere else I guess haha. Lavalle has amazing members, there is like 4 priests getting ready to go on missions, they are such studs.
I found a sweet huge distrubutor center, where you can buy food in bulk, and I am going to costco shop each month to save money, it´s cool how we have the responsible to maintain a budget, I don´t have problems with it, but it makes me not want to waste money at all. Seems like the mission is getting better and better as it goes. I am for sure going to struggle a little bit with my companion because he does not speak english at all, but I think I am ready to use a ton of what I learned with elder berrocal.
I´m reading the scriptures side by side (out loud) en voz alta in english and spanish and it is helping my spanish and understanding of the scriptures a lot. If I don´t understand the scripture in english, then I will probably understand it in spanish better... I found a scripture that meant a lot to me, 2 Nephi 11:1... Like nephi we need moments to ponder and have a desire to know... like Nephi had a desire to know what his father saw. He acted upon it. we should take moments away from the world, where it´s quiet and where the spirit can be.
I haven´t had much oppurtunities to teach, but I am working hard, I know that there are people out there searching for the truth. Asking for references, opening the mouth with everyone... even groups of people. It´s really hard to not loose hope but I know things can turn around. It has happened so many times before. vez tras vez. Anyways, I hope all of you are doing good. Take care of yourself, cuidense.

Carta Obesa 10 5 09

Tengo sueño siempre...(I am always tired) This has been a super sweet week with the conference that we just had, I never appreciated it so much before. The mission has changed my perspective on a lot of things. I´m greatful for this oppurtunity every day. I am not going to lie there has been many times were I was humbled.. here in the mision. It´s tough at times, but I know it´s something I can handle. We aren´t given tasks that we can´t handle.
In the conference, I hope all of you had the oppurtunity to listen, we had to take a huge van with a ton of other members to la estaca (the stake building), and we had to watch it upstairs in english (the conference), while a ton of people watched it downstairs (the members). The other elders that were with us (gringos) were sharing so much junk food. I can´t resist the fatty food they have here. I bought a box of 40 alfahores from a distrubuting building near our pench (The place we live) for 15 pesos, which is like 5 dollars in america. I am excercising everyday to prevent gaining weight. it´s seems to be working so far. I hope it doesn´t catch up lol.
In the conference I really enjoyed the talk given by the prophet about anger. "Änger doesn´t build anything, but it can destroy everything". I also loved when uchdworf said "We have every reason to love him, because he loved us first". and Eyrings talk when he mentioned that the blessings that we give, the priesthood holders, depend on the individual choices we make. It makes me realize how much more important it is that we stay worthly as priesthood holders always. It was a really good conference...
Well we didn´t get a chance to open the mouth much lately, sometimes I struggle with approaching people, but I am fighting it off... especially in the buses, I talk to the people sometimes, one of my goals is to announce something from the church to everyone in the bus and pass out cards, and talk to each one for a little bit. something like that.
Well I hope you all had a good week, I surely did, we are lacking investigadores but we are looking all over. From what we heard our area in lavalle is really hard, no one has baptised for a long time... here, Or found someone interested. There was disobediente elders in the our area too which doesn´t help.
Recently I took on a new goal that I am really trying to accomplish, never in my life had I felt the spirit of understanding so strong, when I was reading I felt really focused (The book of mormon during the ciestas), I didn´t know that 1 nephi 12 or 13 talked about christopher columbus (It says he is a gentile, someone that doesn´t know about the gospel). All of you should read it sometime (chapter 12 and 13 in 1 nephi)... By reading the book of mormon in Spanish and English side by side. I am only in like 1 Nephi chapter 12, but I am using all of my ciesta to read the book of mormon side by side. Spanish is starting to come, I told my president that I am ready for a native companion, that only speaks spanish. It´s what I want, I speak almost always in spanish to my companion, but sometimes I go back to english for a moment in our apartment. I want to speak it always with out temptataion. Take care everyone, I love you.

I love panchos. Hey everyone it´s been a great week, I always wonder what everyone is up to. Right this moment as I am writing this letter, I am in central. It´s like a small version of newyork where I am at. A huge city full of people. My companion wants to do some shopping before I kill him. I just bought 2 bottles of grape juice, for 12 pesos, and they are straight from the vineyards, they are really delicious.
Man what happened this week, it was pretty fast. We haven´t found anyone, we handed out invitations for the general conference that is coming up. Opened the mouth like crazy, but they are stiff on the subject. It´s been so cold this past week, freezing winds, probably like 20 degrees outside. On saturday I wore a short sleeve shirt, pretty stupid of me, and we were walking for like 15 minutes. I had piel de gallina (Goose bumps). After today it should be good. There something called sonda here, it´s the hot wind that carries a lot of dust. It´s pretty powerful.
My companion had a birthday celebration from the ward. We ate in the church, and we had an enormous cake. How is it possible that I am not obese yet, I don´t know the answer. I guess we walk a lot. Pretty interesting what they have here to sale here. A lot of dirty stuff on the streets too.
I hope everyone is excited for general conference this week, it´s going to be so sweet. Watch it everyone, and gain all the counsel you can get from it. We are going to go watch it in some church building.
SO I guess that all I have to say for now, I would like to hear from all of you, and I will try to reply the best I can. You can write me but I can´t right you back individually. Sola la familia directa, lo siento.