From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: ÁHey!
Date: 24 November 2003 6:37:20 AM EST

ÁHola!

How are you all doing? Everything is going good here.

Last Monday night, we had a family home evening with some people that E. Bybee baptized about a month ago. It was fun.

Last Tuesday, we had our Zone Meetings in „emby in the morning, and in the afternoon, we had a few charlas. One was a 1ˇ charla with a Brazilian guy and his wife, and it went pretty well. They were really interested and seem like they'll progress. And that night, we put some goals with a family we have, they have to get married first, and then we'll baptize them the next week. So that was cool. When we got home, we had dinner with the other Elders and celebrated my birthday a little bit. Man, 20 years old is old. That's crazy.

Anyways, on Wednesday morning, we met some people and got in a couple of charla 1s, so that was good. And we had an appointment for lunch, so that was nice. In the afternoon, we visited some members and looked for some other people that weren't home. Then we went to the church for Noche de Rama. We played soccer. It was pretty fun.

On Thursday, we had to get some copies done, so we did that in the morning, and then took our clothes out to the laundry lady and shared a little message with them. Then, we had a lunch cita in „emby; I guess one time when Elder Andersen (who was here before me) was on divisions with one of the Zone Leaders, they went there for lunch, and when the people found out that the Ytororo Elders didn't have any lunch appointments, they invited them every other week. And the Zone Leader said it's okay, so that's the way it is. They're a pretty cool family. In the afternoon, we went back to the Brazilian guy and his wife and read a little with them, and invited them to church on Sunday. Incidentally, they didn't come, but we haven't found out why yet. After that, we went and visited a few members, and a couple other people. 

On Friday, we went out looking for a 1ˇ charla, and we found one, and met some other people in the process, so that was good. Then we went to a member lady's house, and cut hr grass. With machetes. That's the way the poorer people do it down here. Anyway, we had a lunch cita with our laundry lady's family after that. In the afternoon, we got in another first charla, and visited some members. And we went around looking for a reference we got, but nobody knew them. So we still haven't found them yet. After that, we went to one of our investigators' house and had a charla 2 and she committed to be baptized, but she has to talk with hr husband first, and she's not sure what he'll say. But we'll work with that. After that, we visited an hermana that's confined to a wheelchair and sang and prayed with her, and she talked for a while. She's really lonely, it's kinda sad.

On Saturday, we went out and talked to some old investigators that aren't progressing (one of them because he's never home) too much. We'll probably drop them in not too long. After that, we had another 2ˇ charla and another guy commit to be baptized, so that was nice. We made pizza for lunch, with the other Elderes, it was good. In the afternoon, we went and cleaned the church. That place would be really cool, if it was kept in shape, which unfortunately, it's not. But yeah. After that, we went and visited the member lady that doesn't like me at all because I don't like dogs (dogs in general, and her's in particular. And the only reason I don't like hers is because it jumps on you and gets you dirty and tries to bite you when you're just sitting there talking). She's a little odd. I also met her son, he seemed pretty cool. On Saturday night, we went to Eugenia's (the recent convert of Elder Bybee/E. Andersen) because her son turned 7 on Tuesday. We made brownies, and a pi–ata, so we had a bit of fun. When we got home, there was no water. Surprise, surprise.

On Sunday, we started church a half hour earlier. We changed the time I think so that people can get home earlier in the day, before it gets too hot. And it was hot on Sunday, I think it was like 95 degrees on Sunday, with like the worst humidity I've ever been in. We were sweating like crazy. Anyway, in Priesthood Meeting, Presidente Gavarret came in, which was a surprise. But he just talked to the branch president, and then left. I guess he's talking to all the bishops and branch presidents about the missionaries; making sure we're on the ball. And stuff. After church, we had lunch with President Marin (that's our branch president) and his family. After that, we went out and talked to people, all sorts of people, members, inactives, investigators, future investigators. We were all over the place. Then we came home.

So that's it. This morning we're going into „emby to get our mail and play around with the Zone. It should be fun. 

I thought of some little stuff (if it's not too late) that you could send me for Christmas. Por ejemplo (for example), soap, toothpaste, deodorant, shoe polish, 400 speed film, and maybe a calendar. That would be neat, man. Yeah.

Everything's going great here, I Love it. I'm having a great time and learning and developing way a whole bunch. It's fantastic. Thanks to everyone for everything you do for me! ÁÁI Love You Guys!!

Love,
Josh