i am glad to hear that you are all living in the new house now. i got the letter to send for a ballot a little while ago and thought that if it would take a month for me to request a ballot, a month for them to send me one and my vote would arive in time for the inaguration of the new president, pluss i dont know a thing about what is going on in the us or the world.we are teaching this lady leticia, she wants to get baptised but has to get married first andshe said that her partener wants to get married, we just have to make it hapen. irma is cool as well. she is a friend of the family of the bishop and they told us that irma wants to get baptised, she had a accident a while ago and as a result, she cant hear very well. and since my accent and spanish in general arent very good, we have a hard time comunicating but shes realy cool, just needs to come to church. and elvia and her family as well are cool. their biggest obstacle is that they havnt come to church. i think that her husband is impeding them. sergio is cool as well. he has problem with the word of wisdom. and we are teaching more people but these are the people most likly to progress soon. tell sam i miss him as well.love ben

well its good to hear that you liked your race. i love races. the feeling that i feel after a race i imagine is kind of like how it will feel to come home from the mission, or when we leave this world and see our heavenly father. trail running is cool. we hiked in this canyon today. its a realy popular place and tons of people were there running up or down the trail.how is stu doing?things are well here. this week, i contacted a guy in the street and put a cita with him, but we didnt have time to go visit him. then i contacted the same guy a few days latter and he told me that he was waiting for us when we said that we would visit him but we never showed up. so we visited him, and he came to church sunday. he realy liked it. im glad that i was given an opportunity to repent of not visiting him and that he is progressing well. the members in this area have given us alot of refrences. its cool. people are almost afraid to talk to us in the street and everything, but if a member presents their friends to us, its compleatly different. its cool. just hard to get members animated to give us more refrences. they called a new ward mission leader in our ward. he is a recent convert from 3 years ago and is realy excited to work with us. he said he could come to teach with us every day if we have citas that he can help with. he told us about his conversiohn story, he had huge problemas with the word of wisdom, and the missionaries came and brought him to a baptism, and he stoped drinking that day. it was cool.tell brother shaw that i got his letter. he told me some things that president watson said when i was set apart. it got me animated it was cool. i dont have many oportunities to respond to the letters that people send me, but im greatful for them. life is good. time is flying realy fast. thanks for the letter.love ben

i loved general confrence. it was awsome. president uctdorf is incredible. and elder scott was great in the preisthood sesion. he translated it into spanish and spoke in tu form. tu form is how you talk to one person specificly, so when he did that, even though millions were listening, it felt personaly directed to me. we had a baptism this week.it was ther sister of a member. she has a tender heart and it was a cool experience. do you remember who spoke about gratitude in the confrence? i cant remember, but i liked the talk alot, was it uctdorf when he talkded about hope? i realised gratitude is one thing that i have lacked my whole life. im going to change.we went runing this morning with hermano silvestre. we went trail running, it was realy fun. and we cleaned the house for a few hours. i remember dad spending all day saturday cleaning the house alot of times. im glad that i had that example and that you guys kept the house clean. and that you taught me the importance of spiritual things. well its time to go. but i love you. what is the new adress on dean drive? i need to sent you somthing.elder lariviere

i just got the absentee ballot and your package. thanks for every thing, ill try to set up the excursise equipment soon.my companion is new in the mission, or was born in the mission so im his dad.things are well. we are excited for general confrence, and if all goes well we should have a few baptisms between sesions. and we played socar today. we got lost coming home so we dont have much time. but we had a good week. we blessed the house of one lady, with the preisthood and she felt the spirit realy strong that was a cool experience. and all is well. love you, have to runben

i havnt heard of any one with food storage in mexico. good luck selling the house. how soes my landscaping look? and my painting? you know we are doing baldface when i get home right? and we are jumping in the pool?as a district leader i have to motivate other missionaries, give an hour and a half district class evert week, i have to report every ones numbers to the zone leaders, and thursday all the district leaders in the city went to the presidents house for a confrence. it was cool. they made us pancakes and eges and it got me realy motivated. i just need to learn to motivate others without making them mad, and hopfully stil being their friends. we went down town today, and i say my old companion. it was a realy happy experience and good to hear about how my area is doing after i left. im learning alot and i hope i can fulfil all my responsibilities.my "son" is doing well. hes learning alot. im trying to get him to talk in the lessons more so sometimes ill finish a principle and look at him. a few times hes started teaching about the plan of salvation when we were teaching about the restauracion. but i was alot worse when i was learning.we went to the temple 2 weeks ago. my first time in 9 months. it was realy cool. i felt alot better after.love you byeben

i should have brought my camera today. they made me a trainer. i have a kid. it was a crazy day. a few other missionaries in my zone are trainers as well. so we all went together. we got lost getting to the offices and got their late. my son is from chiwowa. its spelled differently but i dont know how. hes way cool. im realy excited. they made me district leader as well. i saw elder mikami my trainer who lives by the offices, elder jones who was my companion in the mtc and a bunch of other people that i hadnt seen in a long time. it was realy cool.a baptism that we had planed for yesturday, when he had problems with his family and couldt come to church. but after we visited him and it was a realy cool visit. i love when investigators have our confidence and they just open up and tell us what they are thinking. he told us about how his way of thinking has changed compleatly since we started visiting him. life is good. we are going to have succes.

well i just finished writing you a long letter and it got deleted. but thank you for the happy birthday. i cant beleive im 20. we had a good week, one investigator that was giving us excuses for 3 months about why he couldnt come to church finaly came and should get baptised sunday. and an area 70 came and talked. it was cool, he gave a great talk. thansfurs are next week. my zone leader thinks that ill be a trainer. well see. life is good, but im running out of time at the computer so i have to go. i still dont have the package, ill let you know when i get it. oh and im proud of sam for calling out his teacher. i should have done things like that so many times. way to go sam. love youben

have fun in vegas. there are lots of clean cool thigs to do. besides climbing and stuff, alot of the casinos have roller coasters. ive heard that they have realy good and inexpensive food at buffets and stuff. this week we played socar in the morning and then went to a sports store to by jersies for next week. they were selling the mexican olimpic team speedos and me and my companion who is a swimer as well bought some for when we get home. they are realy cool and i couldnt pass it up.we had a good week. we are working with a family of 5. they al want to get baptised but they work on sundays. they work in a huge outdoor market so all they have to do is sell their spot and start coming to church. maybee work a different day as well. it was cool, we put a baptismal date with the mom and she said that missionaries have pased by before but we must have been the ones preordained to do it. the date fell because her daughter who dosnt have kidneys, had to go to the hoispital and couldnt come to church. it was a special experience to hear that she beleives we were forordained to help them know th gospel. pray for them. pray that we will find more people that are prepared.love you momelder lariviere

tyler hufacer is living in wells? i didnt know that. i saw him once at school. what is matts bride like?are they similar? is dad a good dancer? im jelous of your time at the beach house. this morning we woke up early to go running with this cool member in a vally. valle in spanish i cant remember how to write it in english. we desended very steep on switch backs and we went down through clouds and we saw the rivierebelow us. it was realy pretty. running back up was hard. but i feel great, then he fed us.last week we found this cool family. the husband used to have word of wisdom problems, but he has compleatly stopped since we started visiting him. and the whole family is progressing. we hope to baptise them in 2 weeks. ill let you know how it goes.im reading the new testiment, and paul just confuses me. he dosnt make sence. im ready the bible dictionary as well to help me understand it. life is good. my companion and i live alone, but we get along well. i love you. hope all is wellben

the pictures of the bike trip made my realy home sick. i wish i could have done it. thanks for the picture of the sign. that made my day. ill see if the mission president will give my my vacation time around the bike trip next year.things are well here. we baptised juan yesturday. his wife has been a member for a few months but he tried to avoid the church for a while and then finaly started going to church. and got baptised. we have a family home evening withe a family that we are teachinga and the bishiops family tonight. they are a cool family that we found my first week here and we have high hopes. and we have a bunch of other realy cool investigators. optomism and hard work are the secrets to happyness, we are tachng this one lady that smoked 2 packes of cigarets a day. we set daily gaols with her to quit in a week. the idea came into my head to tell her that every morning she should pray and tell heavenly father her goal, and ask for stregth, pray every time that she felt tempted and every night report to heavenly father how it went, giving thanks for the help and talking about what she can do better. i started doing that with my goals. not to quit smoking but with my goals. its a cool experienc telling heavenly father my goals and then reporting every night.well love you mom.ben

reading your letters always make me happy and give me animo. my companion has less time then me and is from california, and so we are both learning spanish. but my new area is in the stake of mirador. its awsome. it used to be 2 areas but they closed one, so we have a huge area, and the past few missionaries wernt hard workers so there are alot of people prepared, waiting for us. the members are awsome. so many of them ore converts of 2 or 3 years that share the gospel with every one. my companion was a swimmer. a spriter. we get along and work hard together. i even got him to run with me in the mornings.we found this cool family that came to church, they were waiting for us when we passed for them. that is the first time that has happened, usualy we have to wake them up. we are going to put a baptismal date this week. we are excited, and this dad named jaun, his whole family is baptised except him and hes getting baptiesed saturday.things are great here. keep me updated on the olimpics. we should go in 4 years.love you mom.

the pictures from your blog are so cool. it makes me miss home and free time to go play, but this is way better. in a few hours im goingto gaudalajara, mirador, im going as senor companion. im excited. a little nervous. im not sure if my spanish is good enough. congragulate sam for the open water swim. i cant imagine the bike trip happening and me not going. i would love to ride a bike, but no one in our mission has bikes. i think most of mexico is on foot.im sad to leave. we had a baptism sunday and one saturday. then sunday we went to visit converts. it was kind of sad. but ive been asking the lord to prepare a family in my next area, i have never baptised a family and i want to baptise them before i finish a year so that i can see their sealing before i go home. that is my goal.its funny that some one asked how it was teachiung all those cathlics. they are the best to teach, you just need to know how to do it. if your to direct they think that we are insulting them and their ancestors. so you have to be sneakier like ammon with king lamoni. if people ask us if we beleive in the virgin of talpa, we say that we beleive in the virgin mary and we respect her alot. but we dont worship her. and if we invite them to get baptised and they say that they are already baptised, we say "when you were baptised you received a name right? the father said i baptise you with this name..... but this baptism is different. it wont take away your other baptism, it will just take away your sins and open the door to live with god after this life"well i love you, next week ill let you know how my new area is.loveben

3rd over all! no wonder you liked all the weather. how did sam do? i hope you all have fun with kate and scott. how is the lake house coming? it will be nice to come home to the lake house. things are well here. this is almost for shure my last week in this area. but you never know. life as a missionary is full of ups and downs. a couple of our investigators that were going to get baptised disapeared, but we have a few that are getting baptised this weekend. that is the happiest time that we have, baptisms. and a missionary that left from our ward, told us through his mom to visit his friend, we were going to baptise him after church this next sunday, but when we went by his house in the morning, to bring him to church he wasnt home. so hell still get baptised but after i leave. its interesting how opposition makes happy times evern happier.
we went to the beach today and played socar. it was way fun. im going to finish the book of mormon in spanish this week. i love the story of the brother of jared. and how he excercied faith the lord couldnt hide himself from the brother of jared. and then he had a perfect knowlege and not faith, and he saw a vision of every one that was going to live on the earth. i hope finishing the bom will give my spanish a boost. im excited to go to a knew area. love you mom.
ben

mom
i was real excited last week, we had a buch of people progressing and we had about 8 baptismal dates. then only 1 of those baptismal dates came to church so about 3 might get baptised this transfur. that was a big blow and i was about as frustraited as i have ever been. but things are well. after, we visited the nonmember husband of a strong sister. when we got there, we heard the sister say "dont get mad, i didnt tell them to come by, but the missionaries want to talk to you" we were his friend and taught a little and im pretty sure that we are going to come back and help him build a second floor on his house this week. things are well here. i hope you and dad get called on a prosilyting mission. you would have so much success. i know this area pretty well and im happy to be here.
have you read in the ensign the article that is about helping the youth become leaders and has a ton of quotes from uckdtdorf? it is in the ensign from a month ago. i love it. it is a great article. i realy like ucktdorf he is a powerful man.
we went hicking today, we went to a little town on the edge of our area and hicked half an hour into the mountains with a member that lives there and we saw some realy cool waterfalls. one was more then 50 feet high. and we waded in to take a picture closer, it was way cool. ill try to send pictures after. love you thank you so much for everything. keep praying for me and my investigators.
ben

your trip sounds great. i think i want to go camping my first night after my mission. today we went to syulita, my favorite beach. we played socar and unlimate frisbee. its realy pretty. the waves were small this time but thats okay becaus we didnt go surfing. a good p day gets me excited to work the rest of the week. i cant beleive that sam is swimming so well. i wish that i had started training seriously when i was younger. or maybee the trick is hes just big for his age.
so if someoe is on the edge of getting baptised, what can we do to to help them tip the scale to get baptised? the work is going well. i contacted this guy that said he was going to get baptised in utah when he lived there but things kept comming up. and we went to visit him like 5 times and we couldnt find him. we were walking near his house friday and i thought why not well see if hes home one more time. he was home and he told us that he wants us to start planning his baptism. the only thin is that his wife is out of town and they have to get married before he gets baptised. i have worked hard here and we havnt had much succes, then all of a sudden, things keep falling into our laps. w went to a peuplito thats realy far from our house but still in our area, and there is only one member that lives there. he has a killer testimony and want to share the gospel with the whole town. hes very humble and sincere and i realy like him. he dosnt have a clue how to be a missionary but he realy wants to be one. from the weak and the simple great things are brought to pass. and he helped us find this less active lady that got baptised 8 days after she meet the missionaries. and her grand daughter came to church with her. we are going to have succes this change.
a seventy came a while ago and said that in door aproches, the longer we are on their door the more time they have to think of exccusses. he said that when he knocked and people said "who is it" he shouted "with permission" and walked into their house. he was kidding but we just say our names and that we would like to visit with them and talk about christ. then after we get to know them and try to win their confidence. in contacts in the street, i try to talk to them a little more, maybee find a need and promise the the gospel is what they need. but when it comes down to it, if they are hard hearted or not prepared right now they will be rude and if they are more prepared or more humble thell give us their adress.
oh i forgot to tell you my scripture size. i dont know it. they are taller then dads if in doubt to big is better thento small.
tell dad i think im getting cavities. i might be imagining it, but my molars are starting to ach and im not sure if i sould wait or try to see a dentist. let me know hwat you think. well i love you. im excited to hear your missoinary experience.
bye mom
ben

its good to hear that pop is okay. what does pop believe about god and the purpose of life? ask him for me.
we where knocking doors and we found this lady sule, she has 22 years or something like that and it kind of reminds me of your storry. she prayed and got an answer but hasnt been to church yet. we always comit to baptism on the second visit and she didnt accept, but she very excited to read the book of mormon. maybee in 25 years shell write to her son thats on a misson about those two elders, gutierez and the weird name that began with an L. how long did you wait before you were baptised? i hope that when i bear my testimony people feel it. i keep thinking that it would be so easy for people just to feel the spirit, be converted and become great leaders in the church, but i take a long time to learn and change, every one else is the as well.
i cant beleive the olimpics are going to start again. when do the light the torch? a 41 year old in the olimpics? wow. im impressed. i want to see the triathlon. that would be cool. the king lamoni story is cool. i cant remember it its his conversion or his fathers, but amon asks him if he beleives in god, and he dosnt know what that means, so he asks the king if he beleives in the great spirit. when the king says yes he tells him that that is god. then 2 pages later, he subtly says that god is a perfect man. what a great missionary, starting with what the king king beleived, he smoothly worked in that the great spirit dosnt exist but a perfect man who is our father.
i love the people here. this lady fransisca who ive been teaching, i feel like she is my sister or my mom or somthing like that. she had an interveiw with the bishop to help her know what to do so she can get baptised. in the spanish bom, im in 3 nespi 9. ill finish in about a month.
its rainning realy hard right now so we are just going back to clean the house today. well would love to go the bach house and surf and talk on the porch and read and all the cool things that we do in the summers, but it will be 10 times better when i get home. and im the happiest that ive ever been. love you mom ben

ive been here for ever. and our area is kind of small. its rare to contact someine in the sreet that ive never talked to. its good though. we found 4 realy cool people this past week, 3 people who prayed and got an answer about the book of mormon the firts try. that had never hapened before. a 14 year old that reads the book of mormon every day and has to start working to help feed his little brothers and a man that came to the chapel one sunday and said that he liked it so much hell keep comming and wants to get baptised in 2 weeks. we also taught 47 lesson last week. 25 lessons is pretty normal for me thats almost double. and my new companion is a great guy. we ran a few times and we get along great. and my friend hector that got baptised but started smoking again a few weeks after is talking to the bisiop and his goal is to pass the sacrament before i leave. i wish i could be at the beach house with you. and val said that you are all going up to visit her in a few weeks, that would be great as well. i wish i could be there as well. and im going to miss the bike trip. its okay. this is more rewarding. give uncle sam a high five for me. i hope its done before i get home so i can road trip like crazy for almost no money.
oh and we were walking down the road the other day, and this man that was reading the book of mormon invited us over and asked us if we beleived in thisbook. we are going to visit him in a few days. there is a reason that im here for another change. as frustrated as a was when i found out.
ill try to remember that scripture about taking on the yoke of christ and being meek. im not meek but i think you are closser than i am. how is sam? care package express is the best way to send packages. i think its specificly for missionaries. check the rules for sending packages across the boarder so that there arnt any probles.
love you mom. bye

ts raining here too. it rained realy hard for 2 or 3 days last week, then it was the hotest that it has ever been here. it rained lat night again. well im here for another month and a half. that will be 7.5 months in one area. at first i was a little down because ive knocked every door in the area and asked for references from almost all of the members. but we have some cool investigators and we should have success. my companion, is going to the other end of vallarta to be a zone leader. so im staying, but elder mikami, who trained me, trained another elder before me and hes coming to be my companion, my "brother" in the mission. hows kristen? if you havnt sent the package yet, could you send a few more things? if not dont worry about it, a new bag to carry my things not a backpack because its realy hot and i sweat alot, i take off my backpack and i have a back pack shaped sweat stain that dust sticks to. so a messenger bag type thing maybee? small i only need room for my scriptures a ldm and pamphlets. and new dress pants. 2 pairs? things that can be washed in a washing machine. cheap. some photos as well, maybee i have some on the computer that kristen is using. thanks mom. i love you. im in helaman 2 in the book of mormon. if i read 5 pages a day ill finish it before the next transfures. i finished preach my gospel.
good luck selling the house, make sure that you say the land scaping was done by and experienced profesional.
where areyou going to be trained to be a personal trainer? youll have to help me train for my iron man. if i keep jumping rope for 20 minutes every morning ill be in perfect shape to break 12 hours.
ive heard good things about my new companion. i just hope he will want to run with me in the mornings. its wonderful running.
thank you for everything mom. what is val doing right now? il email her rapido after yours mom i love you.
bye
-----Original Message-----
From: "Mardie"
To: "'benjamin LaRiviere'"
Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:10:18 -0400
Subject: RE: care packages and bikes
Dear Ben,
We have had a lot of rain this week. Twice we missed an hour or more of swimming because of a thunderstorm. It sure is green and beautiful here.
Kristen and Sal have been here this week. Scott was gone on some business, so Kristen decided to come here.
We had one person come and look at the house on Saturday. We had made up our minds that no one would come all summer, so we had let the packing and organizing go. We worked 4-5 hours Friday night and 5 more on Saturday. Kristen helped a lot trying to get it to look fresh and de-cluttered. You wouldn't believe what is under my bed right now! We ran out of places to stash things.
We didn't hear how they liked the house, so I figure, not enough. Anyway, next time should be easier.
Dad and I are dipping shingles in stain to get them ready to be stapled to the house. It is actually fun if you don't do too much at a time. There are a lot of shingles going on this house! Rick says he'll teach me to use the staple gun if I want!
I'm off to Girls' Camp this week. It might be my last time.
I'm just reading the Book of Mormon now. No Old Testament just yet. How far along are you in Spanish?
I just talked to Ashley Harper on the phone. She said your mission president and trainer both said really, really good things about you.
I'll try to get Ben Gong's address. I'll send it to you as soon as I get it.
I plan to get trained in becoming a personal trainer.
I love you and think you are doing a lot of good. Your family will be blessed for generations for your faithfulness. Keep on keeping on. I'll try to do the same.
Love,
Mum

i might not be able to write next week because im almost defenetly leaving. things are well here. ashley harper came to my ward yesterday. she was here studying spanish from byu and they are in vallarta for a week and came to my ward. it was a little weird, i talked to her for a few minuets and went off to sit in class with investigators. but she said that ben gong is going to taiwan? do you know what mission? can you ask and then send me his address if you can find it. where are you reading in the scriptures? do you have any cool insights you want to share? i kind of want to read the old testiment, and read all about the symbolismo. but i should finish the book of mormon is spanish first. sam said he broke 25 in the 50 free. thats increadible. i cant beleive that. it started raining so it muddy and i havnt run for a while. its okay though. im still jumping rope. i love exurcising, i always feel great after and more focused. well im almost out of time, we are going to eat at a realy expesive restaurant for a zone leader who finishes his mission this saturday. life is good. im excited to get to know a new area. let me know how val is doing. love you.
ben
-----Original Message-----
From: "Mardie"
To: "'benjamin LaRiviere'"
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 21:18:47 -0400
Subject: care packages and bikes


Dear Ben,
I just checked out the care packages website. I will send you anything you want. Quick and easy food; junk food; stamps; you name it. I just don't want to get you stuff you can't use.
Dad and I have been riding our bikes in the morning. Dad goes more than me since I have early morning swim practice sometimes. It is so beautiful. I need to get mine tuned up. I am surprised you don't ride bikes. Are they considered expensive? Would it be too hard to ride around: is walking just as easy? I can't believe it would be, but if it is hilly, I guess it could be.
You look so fit and trim in the pictures and I like to look of your companion. He looks like a good elder.
It's a little late. I'll write again this week.
Love,
Mum

here is the 70 elder tenorio that came

i didnt know dad was a veil worker. i got permission to go with my ward to the temple, but the ward moved the date after transfurs so ill be gone. almost for sure. i realy like elder nelsons talks. i cant put a face with the name jacob smith but i remember playing at his house once, and that i saw his sister last summer. i cant beleive that that was a year ago. say hi to kristen for me. and sal.
we went to the beach to play socar, but there was a storm, so the beach was covered in 2 feet of foam. we played volly ball instead. it was realy fun. and this 45 year old engeneir from the midwest came and played with us. it was a fun day. life is good. we have been working hard, but almost no one came to church sunday, it was a little disapointing. but one of our investigators told us that she is going to marry her partener so that we can baptise her. i just hope we can make it happen before i leave. weve knocked every door in our area, so we are looing for new ways to find people.
im jelous. i want to go on a good bike ride and swim after. i think that we dont use bikes here because a while ago, a missionary got hit and killed by a car. it would be weird to have bikes, we have to do alot of street contacts every day so it would be harder on bikes, and our area ist very big. its pretty hot here. the rainny season started so its realy humid and we got rained on a few times. we are aloud to listen to classical music, so one of my compaions got a i pod full of classical music, and orcestas playing led zeplin. its pretty cool.
if you could send me a package that would be great. i need a scripture case, im not sure exactly what size, but something that will protect my scriptures, and keep them dry if it rains hard enough to soack through my back pack. chocolate would be good. a pair of shorts for p day, socks, pictures, flossand any thing else that you think i could use. thats all i can think of right now. in my last interveiw with the president, he told me he saw ashly harper. i gues shes in gaudalajara on a byu spanish trip. and she saw him at a stake confrence. he said it was a funny visit.
things are good. im kind of ready to get to know a different area. love you and thank you for your letter. elder lariviere
-----Original Message-----
From: "Mardie"
To: "'benjamin LaRiviere'"
Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 21:01:15 -0400

Hi Ben,
Dad has been sending letters regularly except for 2 weeks. I think you should be getting lots more next time.
Dad and I went to Nashua today. There was a special meeting for temple workers and their spouses. Since Dad is a temple veil worker, we were invited. Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke. I really wanted to see and hear him in person.
He talked about temples through history and how ancient they are and how much they are like temples today. He said Moroni, who was given the keys to the Book of Mormon spoke about Elijah during his first message to Joseph Smith. Elijah and the keys of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. This dispensation is all about getting those sealing ordinances and other temple ordinances in place to bind families together.
I was so happy to listen to him.
We saw the Smiths there as well. I haven't seen them for over a year and it was a nice reunion. Their son Jacob just got his mission call to Hamburg Germany. He will be entering the MTC September 10.
Don't forget Valerie in your prayers.
Pop has gone home for about 4 weeks. He has a bunch of doctors' appointments.
Kristen comes here in a week for a quick visit. Sal is coming with her, but not Scott. Scott is through with school for the summer and has a job with the school doing something. Research? I don't remember, but he has to be gone for a week and Kristen decided to come here. That will be great.
Dad went fishing again yesterday. Frank Gilcreast has been staining the dock and I hope we can get it set down tomorrow.
It was in the 90's today. All of a sudden it was very, very hot. Yesterday was the first meet at Dover: cold in the morning, hot in the afternoon.
I actually didn't go for most of it. The stake Relief Society (that's me), put on a women's conference about families. I hated to miss the meet, but thoroughly enjoyed myself (except for having to speak).
I hope you are keeping cool. Buy a slushie!
Love,
Mum

the area 70 that came was awsome, elder tenorio. his message focused on work, focus and joy, and how we can use these things on our missions and for the rest of our lives. he told a storry about how he was workin in a company, and they said they were happy with his work, and if he could only speak english thed send him to new york to work in their headquarters for alot more money, he took a two week vacation and enrolled in a 16 hour a day 2 week class on english. he said he just kept fthinking about getting his raise and going to new york and that gave him motivation. at the end, he had an interveiw with his boss to see if he had learned anything. he said that he knew he couldnt understand anything, so his plan was just to talk for his whole interveiw and not give his boss a chance to speak. and he just started talking about what he are for breakfast and what color the floor was. and at the end, they gave hime the raise. he said we need to focus and work, and we will have joy. he was a great guy. i liked him alot. and i think that message was ment for me because ive never known how to focus or work hard before. i learned alot. he also talked about the first lady who swam the english channel. and how she was about to give up halfway through, and she pictured her self in the convertable that was the prize for the first woman to swim it, and she swam it faster then any man ever had. what is the record now? mom id love to swim it with you some time. mom i love you
did dad send any letters recently? i didnt get any the last zone confrence.
ben

things are great here. my companion and i get along great. we like alot of the same music, even though he dosnt understand the words, he runs in the mornings and we work hard together. ill send a picture of us. tell joan to feed the missionaries. how are her girls? they all look bigger in the picture. the house looks like its making progress as well. that is exciting. the work is going well. two of our coolest families that we want to baptise didnt come to church. it was disapointing. but a few other came. and two others we are going to baptise as soon as we can get them married. its realy hard to get people married here. in the states, a bishop can do it, but here, we need a birth certificate that has been printed within the last year, blood tests for all the kidsand a few other things.
one of my converts comes every other week because she has to work. the rest of them come fairly reguarly. hector is still coming. hes got a problem with depression. he told us that he used to cover it up with his alcohole and cigarets and drugs, but with out those things he feels depressed more. we are going to teach him about family history today, so that he has another hobby, and apostles have said that geneology helps us know who we are. so we think that will help him. my spanish is fine, i just cant speak when im even a little nervous, so i need to be very relaxed to be able to comunicate.
i wish i could have heard your talk. you should ask the bishop if you can talk my first week home so that i can hear you. hows sam? and val?
mom you should do an iron man with dan and me. our bishop is great. there was a problem withthe piping for months, and the first week with the new bishop, he gave us the keys we needed and the money to clean the systerna to fix everything. and he realy wants to help us out with alot of things. hes a good guy who want things to hapen.
love you mom. send some pictures of the family. bye
ben

its funny you should mention trees. a few weeks ago we went to the river to fish. (there was more trach then fish) but we took a picture with all of us in a tree. and we have videos of both the sister missionaries falling out of them. they didnt get hurt but the videos are funny. one of the sisters was a championship swimmer. she went to el salvador for a latin american championship. she was a butterflyer. she told me times in meters but that didnt mean much to me and i forgot what they were. she gained 13 kilos since shes been here.
we went to a beach today. we were suposed to meet up with another zone and play socar on the beach, but the other zone bailed out at the last minute. and a few missionaries wanted to fish. a few of us played socar for 5 minutes until some of the elders got tired. i had my heart set on playing socar, but its ok. and it was fun en todos modos. and we saw some kids with a water polo ball. what a temptation. my new companion elder serrano is great. we get along well. hes the district leader. hes from mexico city and is a convert of 5 years. we are pretty similar and we work well together. hes a hard worker and good at planning. we taught the most i ever have before. 41 lessons! we baptised hector yesturday. that guy that couldnt stop smoking forever. it felt so good. hes realy heavy so it was hard to bring him back up out of the water. maybee thats why the recomend that missionaries work out.
maybee a good looking garden will make the house sell faster. who knows.
have you swam recently? im jealous.
we have an erea 70 comingfor a zone confrence soon.
i dont have any advice for your talk sorry. well thats about all the news that i have but

ill try to send pictures next week. this week we dont have much time to write. we have to run off to pick up my new companion. elder mikami left today and my new companion is soposed to be at the station in half an hour. ive heard nothing but good things about him. hes mexican and is a great miossionary i hear. my hair is still short. i cut it with a #4 buzer. its realy hot here and thats the best. ive cut my hair myself a few times. last time, the gaurd fell of the razor and i took a huge chunk out of my hair. today, on of the sisters that the other missionaries baptised, cut our hair for free today. shes studying to get her hair cuttin degree. the shoes that we baught at mens wearhous fell apart about a month an a half ago. the sole started falling off and getting dirt in. im usting my old dock martins. care package express is a good way to send packages. look for it online. alot of missionaries get packages that way.
it was so good to talk to you. it made me emotional also to talk to you. it just made me wish that i could talk a few days off and come visit. ill ask the president about when i can take my sabatical. we visited hector, that guy that backed out of his baptism 2 days ago. he said that he was afraid of falling again because he knew it would be worse to fall after the baptism. we are going to visit him every day untill saturday and we are going to baptise him this time.
well i have to go but i love you mom and dad and the rest of the family. elder lariviere

cinco de mayo isnt realy a big deal at all. its probibly bigger in the states. may 3rd, day of the holy cross, was bigger. there were fire works and stuff. but nothing today on the 5th.
i need to work on being a better people person also. my companion is the best people person i know and im worried for when he leaves, i wont know how to deal with stuff. hes almost deffinatly leaving this nex week. we havnt had alot of succes together, im not realy sure why, because we work hard and hes a great missionary, but thats how it goes. the one lady, fransisca probibly cant get baptised within this next week or two. she and her husband decided that they are going to try to work together and get along. and then thell get married. so it mught be a little while until we can baptise her. theve had relationship problems as long as theve known each other, but the gospel is changing them both. and hecter, an investigator who we droped because he couldnt stop smoking, went to the doctor and the doctor said that hes going to die of heart problems if he doesnt stop smoking. the last we heard, he hadnt smoked in a while and we should baptise him this saturday.
i forgot about the borrowing the car part of the story. a few times people have tried to say that the only reason im mormon is that my parents are. i like being able to say that you are converts and that i choose to follow your exaples, or at least try.
im glad to hear that you are trying to get maine swimming on saturdays. someday, youll have succes.
ill have to write val and see how shes doing.
oh next sunday we can talk! at 3 30 my time. we are going over to the house of some other missionaries that have a phone at their house. i tink that thats 4 30 your time. could you call me at 011 52 322 297 5890 ? well be their waiting. im excited.
life is good. im growing alot in alot of ways. my spanish is pasable as long as im not nervous, then it just falls apart.
how is sterling? i herd that he had back surgury coming up? im going to try to send a picture of two in a different email. love you. cant wait to talk to you. elder lariviere

wow coach of the year! so when are the universities going to startoffering you big bucks to coach for them? thats awsome. i am so glad that dad is doing alot of missionary work. i have been praying for him to have sucess. and when members want to help out the missionaries here, it makes me very happy.
have you found any cool stories about our ancestors? my companions mom sends him personal histories of family members sometimes. it sounds very interesting. send me some short stories about our ancestors if you find any.
things are good here. we had 10 investigators at church yesturday. that one lady that i told you we were going to baptise, fransisca, we taught her and here husband about parental responsibilities, hoping that we could get him to marry her, and set a good example for their kids. he went off about all the problems that theve had, and she tried to read the book of mormon while he was talking, trying to ignore him. we reminded them that if they decide to follow the example of christ,and decide to have a happy marrige, they can do it, but they cant keep living together and fighting all the time. it just gave me so much respect for bissops and leaders better than i. but we are going to baptise her. she has a strong testimony.
also our investigator carlos should be getting baptised. he has been a homosexual for his whole life, but hes comited to live gospel standards and hes been active in the church for 2 months. hes given us a few refrences, and hes doing missionary work. it is realy cool to se the change that has hapened in him. im learning alot. im still not a good patient, loving teacher who can listen to the investigator and tie what they say perfectly into the gospel, like my companion is but at least people can understand my spanish now.
abinadi was a great missionary, iven if he got transfured before he could baptise his convert, but i could learn alot from him.
good luck selling the house. i love you mom. cant wait to talk to you on mothers day.
elder lariviere

hey mom. i bought a camera today. it seems like its a realy good one. its a cannon 550. and with a 1 gb card it was only 200 dollars. im pretty excited to use it i just need to be realy carful and make sure that i dont brake this one.
we went and played socar today and ate at the members house. it was fun. elder garcia, an elder that played profesionaly before his mission is way good. i got realy competitive and checked my companion into a wall. but its okay because i scored 4 points.
francisca, the lady who wants to get baptised realy bad but her husband and her still arnt married. we did a family home evning with her whole family last night. they loved it. and when her girls fought during the prayer, the dad explained, with love why we need to be reverent during prayes. it was cool, because we havnt seen him lovingly discipline his children before. this month its free to get married by the state so we realy hope that we can help them this week. we are also going to baptise elfiga this week. shes a 40 year old widow. shes realy cool too. we were going to baptise here about a month ago but she got scared. its for sure this time though.
life is good here. i got the picrure that you sent me last time. next week when i have pictures on my camera, ill send you a few. i think it takes a lot of time to send pictures from here.
tell dan to write me and tell me about his new job. im curious. love you mom elder lariviere

next p day ill look at cameras if we get the chance. we just got back from the beach. we played socar for a long time and i am tired and sunburt but it was so much fun.
the only mexican that lived in our house was tranfured to be a zone leader and now we have 4 gringos in the same house. my companion and i are going to try to to speak more spanish in the streets. we had a good week. i think we are going to get some of our investigators married this week of next. we taught them tithing and the sister wanted to start paying. her esposo when we firts met him didnt trust us and didnt realy want to talk to us but we have been teaching him too and hes changed so much.
also diego, the first person that we baptised, hes 9 and his mom isnt a member. weve been teaching her and i think we can baptise her soon also. the work is going good. the other day, i contacted a guy and i said somthing about christ and he said he didnt beleive in that stuff. i bore my testimony about christ and he said we had somthing, but he didnt know what. so were going to visit him soon here.
i miss swiming and competing. i havnt been able to run at all since my runing partener left and i cant even talk any one into playing socar in the mornings. but im getting good at jump roping.
i cant wait to see the house. when are they going to finnish? send pictures when they do.
general confrence was so cool. elder badnars talk on sunday was awsome. and elder uctdorf is realy cool too. his accent was way better this time also.
the new apostle seems very powerful as well. we should get letters tonight. our zone leaders just gor back from the mission home.
its starting to get hot here.
love you mom. cant wait to talk to you in a little over a month.
has dad received the letters that i sent him? love you mom. bye eleder lariviere

my computer logged out in the middle of my email and now i dont have much time to write you. but im proud of your track and fgeild accomplishments and i wish i could have seen you. and swimming too. i want to swim realy bad. my running partener got transured so i dont know if ill be able to run much any more. but im still going to work out. hey should i buy a digital camera down here? my camera stopped working and i dont know if its fixable. would it bee a good idea for me to buy one down here or would it be better for you to fed ex it to me. im here with my trainer for another transur. thats rare for us to be together this long but it should be good. i think we will have lots of succes.
zone confrences are good here. our president is a realy good speaker and we get good training. love you mom. bye

We're up to the second floor!

Pop suggested I throw my first weight throw at the National Masters' track & field meet in Boston. I came in 3rd with a 26 foot throw. (There were 4 women in my age group). We threw the 16 pound weight.

if you get this let me know. you said that you havnt been getting my emails and im a little woried because ive been writing faithfully. oh before i forget, my camera stoped working. it wont take pictures. i changed the film, the bateries are charged, it just wont take pictures. ive hit every button that i can find but it wont work. do you have any insights? im thinking about buying a new digital camera from wall mart. what do you think?i need advice. we just had 2 baptisms last saturday. it was realy cool. and we should have 2 more next week. things are going well. but transfurs are next week and i think my companion is going to leave. thats to bad because this area is realy cool and my companionn is cool and the whole zone is cool. we just went to eden, this jungle park place. they filmed preditor there. some movie that i havnt seen, but they have a resturant at the botom and cool waterfalls. we hiked up to the top. it was realy cool but my camera wast working so i dont have any pictures of it. ill try to get some from the other elders.
easter sounds pretty fun. its okay though. i almost forgot that it was easter.
friday, we went to a families house that live in our ward to eat, they have a condo on the 10 floor of a sweet hotel complex that overlooks the bay and it was realy pretty.
how is sam? he hasnt writen me in a while. kaity said that they moved to boise. thats cool. tell dan to write me. i havnt heard from him in a while.
thats cool that the sister that came to my ward sent you an email. she was a realy nice lady and i was at the mtc the same time as her son but we never met.
thats about all the new from here. we are just wondering who is leaving next week, me or my companion.
i got a letter from our house that was signed by some family, whose name i couldnt realy read or regognise. do you know who it was? it was nice though.
love you mom. let me know if you got the last leter or not, and this one too.
elder benjamin lariviere

Hello Brother and Sister Lariviere.
I just wanted to make this Easter a little more special by letting you know we got to spend a wonderful Sacrament meeting with you wonderful son, Elder Lariviere. We are down in Pureta Vallarta on Spring Break and were able to find the Church this morning. Your great Elder looks wonderful and happy! They had several families they were teaching at Church this morning- it was really nice to see.

Our son is serving a mission down in Rosario, Argentina. He has been out 6 months. The most exciting day was when I came home a few Sunday's ago and found an email from a couple from Arizona who had spent the morning with my son. It was neat to know someone actually saw him and I knew he was doing great!

I asked the Elders when the last time they sent a picture home, and the answer was about 6 months!! So......Attached is a picture of the 4 Elders I enjoyed talking to for a while and then the church building they go to (its 2 years old and probably one of the nicest buildings in the area), and then the inside chapel. Thought you'd like to see a few things (my son only sends pictures occassionally- so I understand!!). I think I learned more about the area my son is in from the people from Arizona than from my son!!
In the picture of the Elders-
From left to right- Elder Sanchez (Mexico), (your sweet Elder), Elder Mikami (Utah) and Elder Pierce (Utach) !!

He said to tell you ......Happy Easter!!

Our family wishes you a happy Easter too! (We are from just south of Springfield, MO between Ozark and Branson, MO).

Tricia and Dan Derges

i dont know what happened but all of the missionaries had their emails returned. i hope this gets to you. i tried to send last weeks again. how long has it been since you have received an email from me? i dont want to have to wait for 2 months to find out the news through snail mail!im sorry that we havnt been able to communicate very weel. ive been getting your emails.
you can totaly bee ready for peaks to portland. just swim hard to make up for me not swiming. i dont even realy get wet, i shower out of a bucket. good luck with the shoulder.
this week is the semana santa, so all the calthics (mexico) are going to places where they can worship the virgin of talpa better. so we might not teach very much.
we played socar with the other missionaries at the church today. gringos contra mexicanos. i scored twice and we won. then they wanted to play footbal americano and i played with the mexicanos, and we lost bad. i dont have a clue how to play that game. its a doumb game anyway.
things are going well. we should have 2 baptism this saturday. we have alot of people with baptismal dates. we had 8 until one of them moved to baja california. my spanish is comming. i can teach fairly well but i dont have the vocabulary for much else.
elder sanchez had been telling me about mexican history, the aztecs and such, and how he thinks it lines up with the book of mormon. mexico is so cool.
is there any way you could get me american stamps? there is no way for me to get any here.
i love reading the scriptures as much as i do. i wish i had started studying like this sooner. the topical guide is incredible. do you know how th church put that together? well i hope you get this, but i should run. love you mom. ben

thanks for the cleavland update. it sounds like you had a realy good time. i realy miss spending time with my family.
my ward here has an interesting culture to. almost all the member have been members of the church for less than 5 years. and mexico has a different culture in general. every one is less formal about everything, witch i like but sometimes people dont give much thought about how other people might feel about somthing. for example crying babies usualy stay in the chapel. and if you are ever in mexico, be prepared to deal with ridiculous drivers that speed and pass all the time. the only traffic laws are the multitude of speed bumps at intersections and where ever people might go to fast. it works fairly well. thats cool that you got to see kristen and her family. do you have any pictures? ive been running with my friend elder sanches in the mornings. feels great to be able to do that.
my spanish is getting better. i can understand ost things. i heard that president moson promised missionaries that if they read the book of mormon in their mission language, they would be fluent by the time they finished. im in 1 nephi chapter 13 and i already can understand better then i could before. my speaking still isnt verry good. somtimes my comp has to re teach things that i said but it getting better. i can contact people without much trouble.
when i get home ill cook some food and teahcyou how to eat it without silverware. just tortillas. sometimes we get soup without spoons just torillas. there are tortiarias that sell them on every coner. every corner. we only have an electric burner and one pot so we cant realy cook much. its funny the tricks satan uses the create hatred of the church of christ. we got asked if we recieved money for eahc baptism. the church across the street warned its members about us beeing a cult? thats awful. i wish i could show them that scripture in the acts that says if this work is of man it will fail. so dont fight against it or you might be fighting against god.
we found lots of new investigators this week. great week till saturday. the sisters had a baptism first thing, and i did it. but a lady came with her kids. right after the baptism, she said she was going to the store, and she left her kids. we had to wait with the kids for four hours wile we tried to figure out where she was. she eventualy showed up again adn casualy took her kids adn left. then no one was home for our apointments. and no one came to church the next day either. its okay though. things are going well.
today we wnt back to the weathly members house and played socar and stuff. then we went to a beach. its realy touristy. ist cool having mountains right on the edge of the bay but its too touristy for me.
did hilary win for the democtats? if she did youd better buy an asult rifle so she dosnt try to take your bible. or freedom. and a pick up truck to carry it.
it hasnt rained since ive been here. i gues it rains for 2 monts strait around agust. that sould be enjoyable.
half our ward is tourist. there is this one old guy that lives here and gives out 500 pesos to people every sunday. i got it twice. he wont take no for an answer. send some pictures. i should write val now.
have agood week and get dad to type a little next week.
love you.
ben

i dont know if im happy mccain won or not. thats less important then the lords work any way.
it was a great blessing having good kids in the stake. i hope same has good friend in the stake. lessons are always different. most of the time my companion say everything then will look at me and ill try to teach somthing and hell re explain what i taught and then move on. its humbling. my spanish is terrible and somtimes my progress feels realy slow. and my companion always talks to our investigators forever. i feel like we waste time doing that but its okay. our president said that in our area we shouldbe baptising weekly but we only had one last transfure. it can be realy frustraiting.
there is this one 87 year old recent convert that we visit alot. she has tons of calothic virgin images. and we always try to get her to take some down but she got realy mad at us last week.
i gues things are suposed to be hard though. so il keep studying spanish and sitting through lessons that i cant contribute much to. well have fun with sal. i didnt get pictures. try again i didnt even know you were sending some. did you go to the church leadership confrence? our prez told us to. it was weird beeing told how to raise kids. things are good. just pray for my spanish.
love ben

news from ixtapa

could you send me val and dans email adresses?
mccain might win? thats way cool. romney is pretty cool too. either way, things will be alright. the cacus sounds crazy. i wish i could follow things better i might change my mind who i want. and mom its obvious that chaves and clinton trying to take god out of the bible so some one has to stand up to them.
how much time do you spend with your calling in the releif society? it sounds fun. hows sterl doing? things are good here. we had a kid with a baptismal date fall through. he thought that hell should be a place with fire, pitch forks and little red devils. it was weird, he was beary testimony that he knew that hell was like that. we havnt taught him again yet. its getting warmer every day here. but it doesnt seem like we made much progress last week. its okay though. we are working hard. and my spanish is slowly improving.
is val happy? ive been praying for her. shes subing now thats cool.
how is dad? the house coming along good? we had a slow p day. we were going to go to this cool state park in the jungle but for some reason it didnt happen. to bad. maybee next week though. you know that verse where paul says that women shouldnt talk in church or cut their hair? alot of people take that seriously here. should that even be scripture? i need a good answer. there might be a many jehovas witneses here as members of the church. they are awful to teach. the belive that the bible is every thing and that even excepting a book of mormon and praying about it is blasphemous. they tell all of our investigators that since it doesnt say the name joseph smith in the bible, he cant be a prophet. im still trying to stay in shape but jumping rope gets old. maybee ill try running up and down the stairs this week. i had to watch gordon b hinklys funeral in spanish. i was too bad because i didnt under stant a whole lot. elder uckdorf is the new counceler though? i wouldnt have thought that. its cool though. i miss you and love you. make dad write me another e mail.
love ben

im still a mcCain man but i dont have any news and i am not realy informed right now. yea get me a bumper sticker. ill save it. oh the pouch has new rules. they only accept letters that are on one peice of paper and folded in thirds, taped on the long side and with the adress on the outside. but im 6 hours from the mission home so i only can get letters at zone confrences.
so i just realised that i have been on my mission for 3 months. that is incredible. i cannot beleive it. can you? i bet your lesson went better then mine usualy go. my comp is a great missionary, but my spanish is not very good. though i can understand almost everything, many times i dont have the vocabulary to say what i want to and somtimes i try saying things that are to hard and i just confuse people. but i have not yet said that "i know these houses are true" yet so im doing great. we have 2 baptismal dates and we are realy close with alot of others. i love teaching progressing investigators that want to grow spiritualy and are willing to lear from us. its way exciting. i decided to to be optomistic always and im it makes things way better. sufficient is the evil unto the day there of. complaining and being negative just makes it worse. try sending pictures. i think i could even print them off here. i think dad should run for govenor too. i cant beleive that sam did a 101 fly. its incredible. i wish i had started realy swimming and training sooner. oh well. we walk tons and tons. the other day i said to my companion that it was getting hot and i was sweating alot. he looked at me and reminded me that it is only january. i almost cried. its buitiful though.
there is a realy rich member that lives in our zone, and the whole zone was invited over for the p day. we played socar with the mexicans. im not bad. i should have played that too. it was way fun. he had a realy nice house with gaurd dogs and cheffs and stuff. and an awsome out door grill. it was odd going from the poorest houses in the world, filthy dirty tiny and dark. 10 ft by 15 ft shacks with leaky roofs and held together with wire to that. i wouldnt be happy living like that but it was cool playing pool and socar there today. he had a nice pool that was realy tempting in the hot sun but we resisted.
im the only one in my house that works out every morning. thenthey all complain they are getting fat. i might actualy be gaining more muscule because ive never realy just worked out muscules. its always been swiming and biking and stuff. and i jump rope witch is a good work out.
yesterday we ate at this sisters house. she gave us this realy good mexican style spageti. i finished, and i was thinking, i had enough food but it might be a good idea to ask for another pate so i wouldnt have to eat that night. i finished that plate and she started brining out even bigger plates of rice chicken, salad and home made torillas. i almost cried. then when i was about half way though with that, she started bringing out the ice cream. most meals arent like that but it still would be easy to gain weight.
hey i heard the stock market crashed real bad? do i have a mutual fund yet?
im realy happy. things are going well. we are helping a guy named hector quit smoking. then we are going to baptise him. hes a realy cool guy i like him alot. hes got potential. keep me updated. adios. love you mom ben

im near puertovillarta. a town called ixtapa. it way cool. we have a baptism tonight. i´m pumped. the erea is realy poor and every one works in villarta in hotels. its realy pretty and gets kind of hot. rummer has it that it gets 110 and way humid in the summer.
we don´t have a bishiop right now and the ward is kind of falling apart. but we are workong hard. my companion is a good guy. he´s from salt lake and is a good hard working missionary. he wants to go to new york and ´´make it´ acting. he does most of the teaching because i can´t understand much of what the mexicanos say. but i think i´m getting a little better. we live with two other missionaries. one mexicano and one 23 year old kid from salt lake area. i think letters will take a ridiculously long time to get to me. i have to wait for zone confrences to get my mail im pouch and i don´t know if i trust the mexican mail.
we walk everywere and our erea is kind of big. some of the sisters in the ward cook us great food. we had a 3 course meal the other day. but the day before we got beans and tortias. i was just as thankful for that meal though. hows pop doing? life at home? well can´t wait to read your next email. love
ben

so im in gadalajara typing on a spanish keyboard. either me or my companion is going to peurto viarta tonight. its a 5 hour bus ride but we dont know who is going where. the elders ive meet are pretty cool. one from boston. and the mission presidents son in lay is from maine. he dad was a stake president and patriarch in farmington. i forget his name. would you or dad know who he is. ill let you know wher im going when i know. its been a crazy day. we ate at a mexican stake house. it was delicious. should get going though. love you. elder lariviere

hey mom. how are you? don't forget i can call home monday at around 8 or 9 my time so 10 or 11 your time? it would be nice if dad could take and earlyt lunch or something? make sure your home. i've nebver used a calling card before so i hope it's not to hard to figure out. we went to the mexacan consulate to get our fingerprints taken. it was in salt lake. it was nice to go on a little feild trip. they told us to singthe thing exactly like our signature on the passport, but my signature is not consistant so i hope they still let me in the country. i sent sam a late birthday gift. i hope it comes. i put the return adress 25 dean drive because i'll be gone by the time it comes back if there is a mess up so i hope it gets there some time soon. love you can't wait to talk to you! love elder ben