Live Email Chat with Coop!

July 8, 2008

Today was awesome because I happened to be sitting at my computer when Cooper's email came in! We were able to chat back and forth live, which was so much fun. As soon as I would send him a question I'd just sit at my desk and stare at the screen, anxiously waiting for a reply. It was great! He sent the 2 pictures above of where he lives - his "pension." He looks so sad in the picture of him pointing to his empty mailbox, so I asked if we could mail letters directly to his house, but he said no. I guess that mailbox is going to stay empty then.

Here are some of the things he wrote when I asked him the following questions:

1. What is your companion's name?

2. What is your new Mission President's name?

3. What is your snail mail address?

4. Where do you type your emails each week?

5. Do you have someone that does your laundry?

6. How is the food there?

7. Do you have someone to cook for you or do you cook for yourself?

8. Have you had any dinner appointments yet? How often?

9. Do you live in that house with just your companion or are there other missionaries there too?

10. Who are the missionaries in your district? The missionary moms love it when they find out each other's kids are serving together.

11. Do you walk everywhere or are you on bikes?

12. Have you guys done the "Pancarta" thing in the street? Do you guys call it that?

13. Do you guys say "Chao" or "Adios"?

14. How many discussions are there in the series?

Buen Dia familia,

I´ll start out by answering the questions you asked me in the last couple emails you sent me. I live with 3 other Elders in our pinch. We say pinch just as an easier way of saying ¨pension¨.

My companion, Elder Clegg, is from California as well. Actually only about 30 minutes away from us I think, I forget the name of the town though oops. I also live with Elder Ritchie (from Las Vegas) and Elder Hollan (from South Dakota). All great Elders. My comp said yesterday that our District, which is just 4 of us, is one of the best he´s seen on his mission. Everyone is being obedient which is great, and we´re doing well.

And about mail. I think for sending letters I´d rather you just send in pouch mail, because even if it gets straight to my pinch, if I got transferred before it got there I would probably never see it. Oh, ok nevermind I just asked my companion and he said you´re not allowed to send things straight to our address. Sorry!

Lauren told me in a DearElder letter that she got accepted into the China program. Isn´t that cooL! I got 2 DearElder letters. I thought both were from you but when I opened them I saw that some were from Lauren and I even got one from Matt, so that was fun. And nope you´re the only one that writes to me at my email address. Oh and by the way, my last letter that I sent to Lauren I sent to her home address because I´m pretty sure the semester ends like in a week or something. So I´m just gonna keep writing to her home adress until I get another address to write to. And I won´t recieve any mail from her for another 6 weeks. So when she has a new address she wants me to mail to, it would be faster if she told you and had you email it to me. So if you could let her know I´d really appreciate it :)

And yep transfers are every 6 weeks. Our transfers are tomorrow actually. But I´m going to be staying here in Paraná for the next transfer. I don´t think there´s many changes since we just got our new mission president.

Thanks for all those pictures you sent me! Looks like Calvin had a good graduation haha and it looks like Bo had a fun birthday. P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Calvin!!! (in a few days...)!!! Umm I´m not really sure if I should send a Birthday card in case you´ve moved before it gets there. But I will, so I hope you don´t move within the next 2 weeks!

Thanks for selling that computer and putting the money in my account Mom. I actually withdrew 400 pesos the last couple weeks I´ve been here. It´s a little over 100 american dollars. Don´t worry though I haven´t spent it I´ve just bought a few small souvenirs and thought it would be good to have extra money on hand. And I didn´t buy the wedding ring in Baltimore; a different Elder did and it was only about 20 dollars haha

And I can´t believe you´re actually moving now! So weird!!! I hope this buyer actually goes through though. I bet that built everyone´s testimony of the power of the fast. He he

I´m actually writing this in between sending other little emails to you Mom. Just so you know. I´ll try to answer all those questions you asked me. Lets see. My new mission president is Presidente Villalba. We type our emails at a cyber. It´s just a little internet cafe kind of deal. We can take our laundry to the lavanderia but we wash all our garments by hand.

The food is good and I´m learning how to be a good cook because my comp is a pretty good cook. Yay! We cook our own food. We´ve had one dinner appointment since we´ve been here. Except people don't really eat dinner here, so we have lunch appointments. And did I ever mention that we can´t really do anything from about 12:30 to 4:30 because of the siesta? We also walk everywhere here. I guess they used to have bikes but it was too dangerous, apparently they got stolen a lot.

I don´t think they have pancarta here. There are street vendors selling stuff depending where you are though. Does a pancarta sell sweet little bread treats or something? And we teach 3 lessons and then there are 2 more for after they are baptized. Ok I think that covers all those questions you asked.

So this last Friday we had a Zone Conference. We met the new president and he is great. We also got mail. ya! I got a few DearElders so that was fun. Thanks to everyone that sent one! I didn't get the ones you said Dad and everyone sent though so I´ll probably get those next zone conference.

We had zone conference on the 4th of July, and it took almost all day. But it was a great day, because afterwards we were able to give out a Libro de Mormon which is tough here and we found a couple really good investigators. Then at night we all gathered around in our room and listened to the Star Spangled Banner on my ipod and put our hands over our hearts, looking at a little american flag that someone had pasted on the wall for some reason.

Oh and I have kind of a funny story. The other night it rained really hard. And my comp slipped and got a bunch of mud on him. Then as I was still laughing about it a car drove by us and I got drenched by a puddle of water on the side of the road. The story is funnier if you´ve been to Argentina, cuz then you would know that it wasn´t water that goes down the side of the roads....(they don´t have underground sewage here).

It´s been a good week though and we´ve found some people to teach that I´m pretty excited about. On the other hand yesterday was the first time we had a door slammed on us before we could even get a word out. I don´t think that happens too often, haha.

We did a pancarta when I was here the first couple days in the mission home in Rosario. I bought an Argentine soccer jersey today as a souvenir for this area. I think I´ll probably get one thing in each area I serve in. We usually make noodles and sauce or pizzas sometimes. Also chicken, beef, rice. I like the food here.

Alright, I have to go now, but it was great talking to you!!! Tell Lauren thank you for the DearElders for me. And if you could tell her about the address thing I would appreciate it too so that I can find out her new address faster.

Alright talk to you next week! Next week P day will be on monday like normal. I love you mom! ttyl We say "Chao" here, but it's really funny when the Argentine women say the really long Adioooooooooooosssssss. I love you all! I hope your next week goes well. Suerte!

Love,

Elder Boice