Sept. 7, 2009: Hey Everyone Que Tal

Hey Everyone Que Tal,
It's awesome to hear that everything back at home is going well. Thank you for all your emails. I especially want to thank you for your prayers and for fasting for our investigators here in Bosques. I know that you had a huge part in all that has happened. So first off, I'm excited to tell you all that we have 2 more baptismal dates from this week. One is a kid named Matias Ponce. He is about 21ish years old and is actually the son of the Bishop here in Bosques. We've been teaching him for over 7 weeks and he has been progressing really well. He was really excited about his baptism and we are too. We set the date for the 26th of this month. The other baptismal date that we have from this week is with a little 9-year-old named Agustin Dussauge. His parents are members but have been inactive for a really long time. We met them a couple of weeks ago and the dad has been coming to church the past 2 weeks. We are really excited for Agustin and he is really excited because he's been making a lot of friends in the church. One thing that he told me a while ago is that he doesn't have any friends here in Bosques. We are really excited for him. We set his baptismal date for the 19th of this month.
I've got a pretty sweet story that I thought I would share with everyone. So on Friday we had interchanges. Elder Garcia went to El Parque and this other Elder came here to Bosques. He was a pretty sweet Elder from Northern Argentina. He doesn't know much English, but it was still cool. So that day, we were going down this street and I decided to knock on this door...actually we don't knock on doors here in Argentina. Everyone has fences around their houses, so everyone just claps outside the house. Just a fun fact about Buenos Aires. So anyway, I thought we should go to this house. It's definitely one of the nicer places. But we started talking to the guy who owns it and found out that he is in the band Los Dinos. It's a pretty popular band here in Argentina. It's awesome. Then on top of that we were about to leave and he runs inside and comes back with 2 CD's. He signed the CD for me and for the companion I was with. It was so sweet. We got an appointment with him and his family too. We'll see if anything happens with that. I just thought it was pretty cool.
Things have been really hard with Elder Garcia. When we had transfers, I talked to a lot of people and everyone that found out I was his companion told me two things: number one was that Bosques is one of the more dangerous parts of the mission; the second was that Elder Garcia is probably the most difficult Elder in the mission. Neither was news to me - haha. But people tell me that this will probably be my last transfer with him so I think I can hold out.
Another thing that I'm glad to tell you all is that I set a goal that I would memorize D&C section 4 in Spanish in 2 weeks. I'm happy to tell you all that I was able to do it. If you don't know the section, you should definitely look it up - it's a great one.
I want to thank you all for your emails this week. They were seriously awesome. Mom, your email was great as usual. Your story was really great and I hope that something awesome comes out of it. If I've learned anything from the mission it's that we should always listen to the promptings that we have. Even when we don't understand why, just do it because the Lord is guiding you. Dad, I'll be sure to look that scripture up when I get back to the pension. Thanks for keeping me posted on sports and all too. Sean, dude...BYU!!! Are you serious?! How did they beat Oklahoma. That's crazy. I didn't think they had a chance. Wow that's seriously so awesome! Be sure to keep me posted on all that. And by the way guys...what's up with that saying of yours. I've got to say that I got a good laugh out of it - you two are ridiculous. haha. Paige, thanks for writing with Dad and Sean. In answer to your question, you can use whatever you find that was mine. Bridg, thanks for writing again this week. Your dog story was hilarious again. Maybe you can turn those 5 bucks into pesos because I don't think you're getting a dog. But if you do, just make sure that it's nothing like the dogs here in Argentina. They are everywhere and pretty gross. That reminds me, Dad and Sean, I've only been bitten once but it wasn't even a big deal. For the most part, the dogs here only chase you for a block and then they usually leave you alone.
Well, I think that's about it for this week. I want you to know that I pray for you all. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything that you do for me. You are all amazing. Until next week...
Con carino,
Elder Ryan Hall