From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: Now for the thrilling conclusion!!
Date: 6 November 2003 4:11:01 PM EST

ÁHola otra vez! (that's "again")

Okay, where was I...

So that was neat, with Roque. On Saturday afternoon, we visited an inactive and helped her set up her son's 2¡ birthday party. Then, we went out, taught a 1¡ charla, talked with Vicente and a couple other people, then had to go back to the birthday party to take a picture. I think a lot of people think it's a rule that the Elders have to take pictures at birthday parties, just because we have cameras. But whatever.

On Sunday, we had church like a normal Fast and Testimony meeting. And the rest of the meetings were normal as well. After church, we had lunch with the other Elders. Then we went out and taught a charla and talked to a couple of people before coming home and studying. A pretty tranquilo day.

On Monday, we got up ready for a nice relaxed P-Day. Little did we know what adventures lurked on the horizon. See, on Thursday, when President Gavarret talked to us, he said that we would have our P-day like normal and then start on Tuesday. But there was some lack of communication going on and he called us at 6:40 Monday morning to tell us we needed to go today (Monday). So we frantically got dressed some Army guy (not a soldier, but something else) came and got us, and we went and got the other two Elders. Then we went to a little town about 40 minutes away called Colonel Mart’nez. They had everything set up at the local school. There was a little opening ceremony (they played the national anthem! It was nice.) and then we started. There was a room where they took people about 30 at a time and talked to them about preventing stuff and gave them a bug killer medicine (as in bugs in your stomach). That's where I was most of the day, helping translate when they needed it. Then in the next room, they took blood pressure and stuff. Then there were just general clinics, dentists and eye doctors. And they were giving out medicine and glasses and pulling teeth all day. The US Army doctors happened to be from Salt Lake, so about half of them are members of the church, which is neat. And there were some Paraguayan Army medical people too. So, that was the day, I think we saw over 500 people. We got MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) (Army food that's all in packages and stuff) for lunch. That was like Christmas. It wasn't the best food, but it was American food. You'd think it was good too after eating Paraguayan food for 4 months. Anyway, they brought us back on the bus with all the soldier/doctors, and we got some ice cream, then went out and gave Vicente the 6¡ charla.

On Tuesday, they told us to be waiting at the school by our house at 6:00, but they went by early, and Elder Kennington and I missed the bus. So they had a guy come back and get us, and we ended up not being late at all. The day was the same, but more organized, so we saw a lot more people. And I was mostly directing traffic and helping in the vital signs room. Tuesday night, we went and talked to some people, and two Elders from Oviedo came to go with E. Kennington and I Wednesday while Elders Adcox and Gneiting took P-Day.

Wednesday was the same drill as before, but we didn't miss the bus. After we were done, we packed up everything to take it to the next little town for the next three days. When we got home, we went to the church and did Vicente's baptismal interview. President was going to come at 7:00 but he didn't come until nine, so we got in some study time. Then the APs came and got us and took us to the Villarrica Palace Hotel, which is really fancy, especially for Paraguay, and we had interviews with President Gavarret and had dinner with him and the Hermana. That was it.

So, that's the whole story, except the part that hasn't happened yet. This next week is going to be crazy, and we're baptizing Vicente on Saturday at 7:00. Yippee!!!

But yeah, we gotta go work now, so I'll talk to you all later.

Áƒxito! (that's "success")

I Love You Guys!!

Love,
Josh