Hola from Eldorado - February 20th

Hey family,
I hope all that is well at home. I must say that the whole transfer thing was kind of a surprise, but I really hoped I would be around a bit longer to see the family Benites get baptized and a few other people as well. Still, I have confidence that they will all be baptized anyways. Elder Cranford already speaks well and has the confidence to do what he needs to do.
I suppose that Eldorado is a really big city but I hardly know yet. It is a long city though for sure. More jungle…maybe. I feel really blessed to have been in misiones for so long because it really is a beautiful place. A lot of missionaries hardly even get the chance to see it.
Internet is definitely a lot faster than it was in Jardín America and it will be possible to send and receive pictures it seems. Posadas kicks the can though on speed.
My comp. Elder Peterson is not the same Peterson that the Veigals know. There is another Peterson in the mission. He is the first companion I have had from Utah. He lives up in Pleasant Grove. Member for his whole life and he only has 4 months left in the mission so he is teaching me a bunch. It is a good change. I have always learned from my companions but he has a lot of experience in the language and teaching. Not really sure why you ask if my comps are skinny or fat but he is skinny and tall like me. He worked in the office before he came here to Eldorado and only has 6 weeks here so we are both pretty new here and trying to get to know everyone. Part of the problem is that our zone is huge with 7 companionships (2 companionships of hermanas) and 3 districts spread out from Iguazú to Puerto Rico (almost back in Jardín America). We have to travel a bunch all transfer long. We recently just got back from a meeting with all the zone leaders in Resistencia. From here we had to travel 9 hours both ways so the whole thing ended up taking 2 and a half days and we traveled all last night so I am feeling some lack of sleep. Still we have a lot to do today so I will sleep well tonight I guess.
Church starts at 8 in the morning now and we have a good strong branch it looks like, including a chapel. The missionaries are only in charge of the class that they are supposed to be in charge of and since I was new they made me teach. I recruited Elder Fielding though who just ended his mission and was there with his very American family. It was a blast talking to them all. Elder Fielding has been a buddy of mine in the mission and I thought that I wouldn´t see him for awhile so it was a nice surprise. I should only have to teach about once a month now though because the branch has two sets of missionaries. Elder Vincent and Elder Bruce are there with us. It is going to be a lot of fun. Plus we already had 5 investigators in church this last Sunday even with the few days we have had to go and visit everyone.
Saturday we had two baptismal interviews in different places. The first was in the morning at our church, but the guy has had quite a few problems and wasn´t able to pass his interview. He is still plugging away though until he can talk with President Shakespear. In the afternoon we traveled to Puerto Rico where I did my first ever baptismal interview. It was a bit nerve racking for me but I felt prepared for it. It went well and Ariel is going to be baptized this Saturday. He is really excited for it. I am excited for him. I am gratefully for the chance I had to interview him.The consejo (meeting with the zone leaders in the mission) was a really great experience and I got to see a lot of Elders I haven’t seen for a long time, including some really good friends. Elder Vega, who helped me out a lot as my zone leader in posadas, has become assistant to the president and I was excited to see him among many others.
We have some great families that we are teaching here but I really don´t know much about them yet. We have another family Benites that came to church and the family Gassmann which is also trying to get to church (the husband came this last Sunday). I will be able to see Elder Cranford at zone conference so I will check up on my families there as well.
My shirts are holding up really nicely, a lot nicer than a lot of other Elders so I think I am good there. Same with pants. I haven’t been receiving Tim´s emails. I haven’t received anything for a long while so I think they are not being sent to my address. So if you could tell him for me that would be great. It is fine to get emails from people. I got Nichole´s last week, but I can´t reply.
Anyways I got to go now, but I want you all to know that I love you and pray for you.
Elder Aaron McDonald