March 7, 2010 (mailed letter - not e-mail)

Hola familia!
It's Sunday and I have a little preparacion time so I thought I'd write and include stuff I didn't have time to tell you about on Thursday. Half an hour is not as long as it sounds when it comes to e-mails. I usually write my one long e-mail and print off e-mails I don't reply to, hoping to write a letter when I get a chance. I don't really remember who asked me certain questions, but I remember if I didn't answer them. So I just wanted to send a letter home and answer as many as I could.

#1. Are you getting "dearelder.com" letters? Yes. Eventually. "Dearelder" receives your digital email. They save it until the day they ship. They combine all letters to me from the week into the same page or pages. Then they mail it through the pouch. So, yes. But it takes as long or longer than normal pouch mail. I haven't actually gotten non-dear elder letters, so I don't exactly know how long it takes. I think it's a couple of weeks.

#2. Is there anything you need? Nothing life and death. Stamps might be nice. I'm borrowing envelopes because I didn't think we could even use them. A Tide Pen might be nice. Letters are always nice, but we only get them Wednesday and Thursday, so it's not a huge deal. We don't wait by the mailbox every day. Lots of people's addresses would be good. I forgot to bring that. An e-mail of that would be great.

#3. Susan asked if I was craving anything. Answer: not especially. I miss ice cream, but we get ice cream alfajores every once in a while. Peanut butter cups sound really good and I doubt they have them here if they don't have peanut butter. We're really fed well here in the CCM (MTC). If you're thinking of sending stuff, coordinate. If you combine into one padded envelope it'll save alot of money.

#4. Letters or e-mails? E-mails are more reliable but I don't have much time to respond. I have time to read them though. If you don't mind not getting a response or getting a letter back much later, emails just fine. I don't write tons of letters but I have time to write a few more than I do. Mail to the US is really fast. Mail to Argentina is not. In emails, let me know how long my letters to you take.

#5. MTC: Long classes, Spanish is coming - really fast the first week, not as fast this past week but still pretty well. Days are moving faster when I realize I've already been here 2 weeks 4 days. My companion is Elder Pike, one of my travel companions from Utah. He's a good companion. We've done proselyting twice now. I'll tell you about my most recent one in the email. It was . . . a missonary story.

I love you all. Talk to you soon!
Elder Bryan Parry