OW Charlie! That Hurt!

Dear Everyone,

Well, I did it. I have completed one year on the mission. Crazy to think about. I am now more than half way through with my service to the Lord. Everything is going great here in Mariló. We are working really hard to baptize people. We have a lot of candidates who have baptismal dates. We are really working so that they keep their commitments. We have the goal in the mission of baptizing someone on Sunday the 10th of October (happy birthday Marcos) because that day is 10/10/10. Pretty cool no? If I repeat myself from my last email, act like it’s something new ok? Jaja.

So Wednesday was a pretty cool day. We got challenged by our zone leaders, who live with us, to see who could teach the most lessons in the day. So we went out and just started going crazy with finding people. While going crazy looking for people, we both got bit by dogs. My comp got bit on the hand by a rottweiler. The dog stuck his head outside the fence and bit my comp. It was so scary/weird. Then about half hour later we reached a dead end where we had to turn around. (Way to go Elder Pickett, didn’t you know you had to turn around on a dead end?) Yes, yes I know, I know. So when we turned around there was the dog. It was kinda like those movies where the terrorist dog corners the person and then tries to kill them. The dog stopped in front of us and I went to pass/kick the dog just like any other dog but no, it’s not like any other dog. As I go pass the dog, it starts attacking my pant leg and actually grabs my leg. Let’s just say that it hurt really bad and that the dog was hurting worse. JA! I kicked the dog so hard that I thought I killed it for a second, but then it got up and whimpered away. Oh the life of a missionary. Oh, anyway, the competition, so we went just teaching like crazy. We ended up with 13 lessons that day. And the zone leaders… 10! JA! We won a pizza napolitana from them. It was so good. I love pizza from here. It’s better than the states. I am very convinced that the food here is better than the food there except for Mexican food.

So the mother-in-law of one of our investigators is Paraguaya and she knows how to speak Guaraní, Portuguese and castellano. I am trying to learn Portuguese because I want to go to Brazil in 2014. I have a lot of phrases down but still a long ways to go. It is starting to get really hot. It’s like 75 degrees…. Ja ok that’s not hot but it’s hotter than it was before. I have to pull out my short sleeves again. Time for summer. YAHOO! We are really happy with the progress of our investigators and we have a lot of faith that they will reach their baptisms.

Thank you Mom and Dad, Abu y Grandpa, and Grandma and Grandpa Packard for your emails. I love hearing from you all. And for the rest of you who have sent me letters and stuff, I have no post office to send letters so just accept this for now. Thank you mom I got my package. I’m just having a blast here in Argentina. Loving everything about it. And don't forget General Conference this weekend! Until next week, SEE YA!

Love,

Elder Pickett