March 30, 2010-Buenos Dias

¿que tal everyone?
well i guess i should start by thanking you all for the package that you sent me. i haven´t really had time to open it yet cause i just got it today and its been pretty crazy, but i was able to see all the pictures that you sent me and the letters. be sure to tell all the people who wrote that i´m really grateful and that it means alot to me.
i guess that i´ll get started on everything thats gone on this past week...so luis actually wasn´t able to get baptized on saturday. i don´t want to go alot into detail about why not, but lets just say that i´m kinda disappointed with some of the members in this area. its really easy to underestimate the importance of the members who can be friends to people who are new and investigating the church. but yeah, we know that luis is going to get baptized sometime. he´s got a super strong testimony and he just needs a little more help from members. the missionaries can really do alot, but its to a limit. the members can really be the difference in someone changing their life completely. but maybe it just wasn´t the right time for luis to get baptized. not yet at least...
we had a crazy experience the other day with sara and valeria. so we went over to visit them and found out that valeria had to be taken to the doctor cause he was having some pain in her body. i talked to her mom and apparently its something thats happened more than once. the next day we went over and gave her a blessing. we talked to her and her mom for a while...sara was pretty sad about it and really wasn´t taking it that well. but we kept talking to them and they ended up bringing up the baptism. they told us that they felt like valeria should get baptized earlier instead of waiting for her mom to get married...i think that that was the most difficult lesson that i´ve had in my mission. just trying not to break down and cry. i needed mortensen to just talk for a little bit cause i tried and i really couldn´t get anything to come out. after about 5 minutes i was able to talk again, but thats really not something that normally happens to me. i think that they both felt worried that valeria might die while shes still really young (they never actually said that, but its just what i felt) and they feel like being baptized will bring her even more blessings and protect her. so we haven´t put an official date yet, but its really possible that valeria could get baptized in the next week or 2.
alright so about transfers...i´m sad to tell you all that mortensen isn´t my comp anymore. he was sent to an area in adrogue with a peruano. we were both pretty bummed cause we would have loved to stay together for another transfer. but i think that this is going to be really great for him. hes really become one of my best friends...not just in the mission, but one that i´ll have for a really long time...so yeah he left, which means that i´m staying in alto san lorenzo again. i´m really excited to be staying here. i didn´t want to leave and wasn´t expecting to either. i´m actually going to be training this transfer, so i don´t know who my new comp is yet hahah. i´m gonna meet him tomorrow, so you´re gonna have to wait til next week for that...i´m also super surprised cause i was asked to be a district leader here in this zone. i know that this is a great opportunity for me to learn and hopefully be able to help other people in the missionary work too. i know that this is what the Lord needs me to be doing right now. i´m excited and ready to keep finding more of the Lord´s sheep.
thank you all for your emails and support. mom, i actually do remember what its like to go to the beach all the time ...vaguely hahah. its just a dim memory but its there ...yeah right how could i forget about going to the beach and doing stuff like that. dad, thanks for the email. thanks for wishing me a happy birthday. i´m definately gonna try to stay away from those... what did you call them? gangsters? no i can´t remember what you said, but it definitely made me laugh. here we just call em ¨chorros¨ or ¨pibes¨. sean, its sweet that the lakers and gettin back on track. i´m way stoked to hear about that. but if they win another championship while i´m on the mission, i might flip. they owe me a championship in 2011! paige, i talked to gubler today and he still hasn´t gotten your letter that you sent a while ago. i think that hes startin to lose hope on ya so you better hurry and grab this chance of a lifetime while you still have it. bridg, i´ll bet that you´re way excited for 2 weeks of spring break. wow that sounds way awesome. be sure and let me know all the things that you do. but i also wanted to thank you for the letter you put in my package. i thought that it was great.
ok i need to get going now. i´m here in la plata today with elder mclain (from the mtc days...he´s also training and hes gonna be in my district too) and tomorrow morning we´re heading back to adrogue. thats another 4 hours of train rides tomorrow hahah. but it should still be fun. i hope that you all have an awesome week and that you´re safe. take care. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall