June 23, 2009

Dear Family and Friends, It is good to hear from you. Everything is going well here in Buenos Aires West. It's starting to get a little cold here but we are doing just fine. I'm sorry to hear about Elder Ludwig, I hope he gets better. I will be praying for him. Actually a lot of people are sick in our area here as well. So I thought I would fill you in a little more on the type of area I am serving in this email. I am serving in Buenos Aires the capital of Argentina, but my area doesn’t cover much of the actually capital of the city - that would be the north mission. The area I am in is also heavily populated. Our streets are full of suprizes and you never know what you are going to see next. Our apartment is located in Castillo but that’s not really our area. It’s the area of the other missionaries in our apartment. We have to walk a little extra just to get into our area everyday. As you leave the apartment you start to leave the paved roads and start walking on the dirt streets. At first this was quite a change for me, I told my companion I would be able walk all day because of the shape I had to be in for baseball and I was also used to being around dirt all the time but I just needed my baseball cleats, hah. Soccer is pretty much the only sport here. They play all day every day, anywhere with anything they can use. The other day we taught a family on their porch. As we were teaching I noticed one of the kids playing on the side of the house. He was playing with his brother and they were just playing around trying to keep the ball away from one another. As I looked closer I noticed they weren’t playing with an actual ball, it was actually a plastic trash bag filled with old clothes and trash. They were still having fun, and I wanted to play with them but resisted the temptation. It made me think... how content are we with what we have? Right now having the gospel in my life is more than enough and I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I received mail last week, thanks for the Dear Elder Dad and Sister Ludwig. This week they did not bring us mail so I am not sure if I received any other mail. The package has not arrived yet so I am going to keep praying for it to come one of these days, hah. Thanks for your love, support, and prayers. Take care, love Elder Brooks. P.S. - When you send dear elder letters, please type the date at the beginning or end of the letter. Thanks.