BAPTISM!!!

Dear Family,

Thank you all so much for your love, letters, support, e-mail, and prayers!!! WE HAD A BAPTISM!!! Luis Espinosa was baptized last Friday after waiting about 5 years for his divorce to go through so he could get married to the woman he's living with. Yesterday he was confirmed a member of the church and his family came in to see him, including his son who happens to be a returned missionary. He was so happy to finally be baptized and he reminded me a lot of Juan Carlos from San Martin II who I believe is still waiting for his divorce to go through. We had to find baptismal pants for Luis which wasn't as easy as we expected it to be. The nearest Elders who had pants that would fit him just happened to live in San Ignacio so we had to stop by the offices in Godoy Cruz in order to get a bus that went out to San Ignacio's apartment. Sure enough they put me to work while I was in the offices and I ended up updating Internet Explorer on two of the computers in order to get them ready for the big change to the Internet Office System that everyone thought I would be there for. I finally got to say goodbye to Hermana Jarvis since she nor her husband were there when I got transferred. I also got a letter from Elder Ryan Spencer while I was in the offices which was really nice. Poor guy sent the letter in February and it just barely got to Mendoza and he's only in Brazil!

In other news, winter is finally coming to Mendoza. We've been having summer-like weather up until only a few days ago and this morning was delightfully brisk. We don't even need to sleep with the window open anymore. Our apartment is really nice, granted not as nice as the office Elders' home but we're only 2 and not 12. We live behind the landlady which is really nice for security but not so nice for the loud dogs that are deathly afraid of the Elders so they run a distance away, bark at us, then run away again. It's kind of funny actually. The apartment's big enough for 4 and actually has two bunk-beds but we only have two living there right now. The members have been feeding us well and yesterday was the first time I had corn cake (tarta de maíz). It was pretty good actually, a shell of dough filled with corn. The best Argentine food I've been getting is probably the pastel de papa (potato cake). It's basically shepherd's pie with dough on the bottom with sugar and cinnamon on top. The milanesas are always amazing though.

How's the Carbon Canyon Ward doing anywho? It's kind of funny down here because there was a huge birthday party on Saturday that went well into the night, causing much of our Sunday attendance to drop. Sometimes I can understand why the Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays :) . I'm pretty sure everyone has at least 4 birthdays a year because every day is someone's birthday in our area. If you think a sweet 16 birthday party is big then you've clearly never been to a quinceañera. It's bigger than a wedding reception and costs more than many cars. It's not uncommon for the party to start in the morning and then go until breakfast the next day. It's pretty crazy, I'm not going to lie. Fortunately you only turn 15 twenty-six times in a lifetime (I swear ("Didn't you just turn 15?")). Well, I hope everyone is doing well and I hope you have a week so great that the 7 'o clock news will spend a half hour just talking about your week. I love you all!!! Bye!!!

Love,
Elder Williams