A 30 Year Wait

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the e-mails!!! Once again, thanks to technical problems, I'll have to keep the e-mail a little short but not too short hopefully. I did manage to get a picture through :). It was so amazing having another baptism already though Elder González and Elder Duarte did all the work. Oscar, the man Elder González baptized, has been investigating the church for 30-some years! I was fortunate enough to be with Elder González when he extended the baptisimal commitment that finally stuck :) . He lives with his friends, the Cobos family, because he'd been kicked out of his house by the police when his mother left the house because supposedly a paper's missing or something concerning ownership of the house. He offered a prayer before the baptisimal service and you could tell how ready he was for baptism. He'd already been reading in Jesus the Christ and he wanted to make sure that if he's going to be baptized he'll be able to keep the comandments and stay faithful for the rest of his life. He already has a great support group from the Cobos family so we know they'll keep him faithful. It really was amazing! Ok, time to respond to letters really quickly: For Mom: I'm doing great, how are you? I'm glad my letters made it so quickly so I'm going to have to send more because the post office is about a block away from our apartment...and I'd love to return to a Mormon Chino Hills :) . For Dad: we do ride the bus from time to time, in fact today we'll take the bus to the Libertad which is like a Wal-Mart the size of a small country. We're not actually going to buy anything there but it just happens to be the closest ATM. I actually got a card a few days ago that's kind of like a bus giftcard that you swipe with a RFID tag inside. The buses don't take cash so you use the card when you don't have change and if you don't have exact change you can put the extra on the card for later. Even though it's already been five months I still don't quite feel like a veteran yet. I am more in the routine of things though. Elder González is my second companion who was made senior companion when I arrived. We're all learning together. Everyone thinks I'll go to the offices from Godoy Cruz so that might be when I become senior companion. The office elders trade off being senior companion every week but always leave the offices as senior companion and sometimes as Zone Leaders. For Lisa: sounds like it's nice to have your car back again. Nothing like an accident to make your car better than it was before :) . Congratulations on the Pearl of Great Price test! You definitely returned to school with a vengeance.
Well I'm running out of time so I'll share one other quick story. Yesterday was el Día del Amigo when friends swap presents and things like that. We always pass by the Pizaro family, a less active family, and in honor of the occasion they gave us little presents that her cousin made for her to sell. They're such an awesome family, I'll tell you more about them in my next letter but I've got to go. Thank you so much again!!! I love you all!!! Bye!!!

Love,
Elder Williams