Well, I loved this week! Gosh the mission is so awesome.
My new companion and trainee in the office is here! His
name is Elder Ross and he is from Spokane, Washington. Interesting fun fact is
that the office squad is now 50% from Washington state. Elder Welch (Kent),
Elder Millett (Bellevue), and now Elder Ross (Spokane). I’m cool with it…it
would be a different story if everyone was from Utah (that's a joke.)
Elder Ross is a great companion and we get along great! I've
realized the thing I like most about my best/favorite companions is that I
never have to worry that they won't be diligent with me. We are going to be
super diligent this change. Elder Ross is young in the mission – he’s been out
about 6 months. He finished his training, trained another elder, and now he is
here with me. I thought this might be a little setback at first, since we
aren't the best at Spanish in the beginning of the mission, but I couldn't have
been more wrong. He speaks great, and we teach really well together. I teach differently
with North American companions - we have to lean on each other a little more
and I like that a lot. No one talks too much or hogs the conversation. I also
like, because he doesn’t have too much time in the field, that I can answer all
his questions about mission life and our mission in general. He graduated high school
in 2016 with me, but decided to do a year at BYU when I was here in the first
year of the mission. Destiny is cool like that, huh? It has been interesting
getting to hear his input about college. Lesson of the week: everyone either
loves BYU or they really hate it. There is no in-between. What is up with that?
Still, my main question is: "Why do they care who has a beard?"
Changing subjects... This week came and went pretty
smoothly. Something fun is that since it is my last change in the office, I've
been super excited to try different things for the meals we provide in meetings.
In the orientation meeting with the new missionaries who arrived on Wednesday,
I ordered street tacos from this place called "Taco Madre" and it was
a big hit. We also changed up our usual chocolate-bread breakfast for quiches
from this Argentinian bakery.
On Tuesday, I dropped off the Hermanas from my group at the
airport. They seemed pretty calm and happy to be heading home. It surprised me
a little because I couldn't be more excited to still have 6 months left. We did
struggle to get one bag wayyyyyy packed down and over-weight, repositioned and
organized, hoping to avoid a fee. Misioneras, jajaja. I also dropped off some
really close friends, including Elder Miranda, my companion back in Tulcan. I
am really going to miss seeing him around the mission. Thinking back on it, we
had an amazing 3 months together.
Pday was again super fun today. We played basketball with President
Murphy again and Cole came along. We were all playing really well today without
explanation. After basketball we got some food and went bowling also with Pres.
Murphy and Cole. I really love spending time with them. I bowled the best game
of my life, again without explanation. I got 154! In the 10th frame I got two
strikes in a row and missed one pin in the last bowl. Some of my favorite
memories have been made in the past few weeks, seeing miracles with the best
missionaries, and really enjoying P-days with the same best friends. We have a
really fun group. It’s also been cool exploring volcanoes and stuff, but that
goes without saying. The next 6 weeks are going to go really fast and I’m going
to miss them. Oooof.
Dad, please send me a March Madness bracket when it comes
out. Also, the new camera works great! I didn’t take too many pictures this
week because we were super busy, but it takes really nice photos. I did send
some pictures of our house – any sort of mess you see can be explained by and blamed
on the missionaries that went home. J
I love you all. Que disfrutemos esta semana, no?
Elder Ericksen
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