From: Elder Joshua Freeman Subject: It's practically here Date: 15 December 2003 9:59:58 AM EST ÁHola! Well, christmas is almost here, and I believe that this will be the last email before then, because next week is changes. The change day falls on Christmas Day, but all the going-home people are leaving on Monday and the 2 new people are getting here on Tuesday. And we're switching our P-Day from Monday to Thursday. I'm not sure when we're going to call, but remember that we're 4 hours ahead, of you (right?) so it will probably be in your morning. And I think it would be cheaper if I called you guys. This morning we had choir practice in Fernando de la Mora again, and we got our mail too. I got the two packages from Mom, the one from Liss, and the one from the ward. So thanks a millions for those. I very appreciate it. But let's rewind a little... Last Monday, we went to a store called Real (which is like a Wal-Mart with a movie theater, and incidentally where we are now) to get fans for our apartments. After P-Day, we visited a few people, and we ended doing a Family Home Evening with an inactive family. There was a big rain storm Monday afternoon, and because of that, they (the family) had a whole bunch of bees in their living room. So that was fun. We helped them kill most of them with a torch. And some bug spray-aided fire. After that, the FHE went pretty well. On Tuesday, we didn't have Zone Meetings, because we had Zone Conference on Wednesday. So we worked in the morning, which felt a little weird seeing as how we've never done it before. On a Tuesday morning, that is. That night, we had a few good charlas with investigators and members. We went by ReubŽn's house, and he said he would try to get his cŽdula on Wednesday. On Wednesday, we had to leave early to get to Zone Conference. We have ours with Zones 1 and 2 (we're Zone 3) and they're at Barrio (that's "neighborhood", but in church terms it means "ward") Moroni, which is right next to the temple, and in the north mission side of Asunci—n. It's a really fancy chapel, because their old one was where the temple is now, but they gave it up to build the temple. The chapel even has carpet, which is the first time I've seen that in this country. Anyway, the conference was really good, mostly about putting your trust in the Lord and working with the members. Also, Pte. Gavarret told us that starting in January, everyone will get to go to the temple, and our schedule will be more regular after that. So that's really cool. After Conference, we went to PBO (the Distribution Center) and got some stuff. I got all my temple stuff, it was pretty pricey, about $6.00. That's one of the really nice things about Paraguay, everything's cheaper. After that, we went back to the church (in Ytororo) for Noche de Rama. There was a little kid baptism, so we had that. We had an investigator and her two daughters there (the lady we taught a first charla to on Saturday, her name is Valdelise, or something like that, I'm not sure about the spelling), so that was nice. On Jueves, uh, Thursday, we went out and met new people and started teaching the kid of a member who is 11 but never got baptized. It was a pretty productive morning. In the afternoon, we visited some members and more investigators. We went to ReubŽn's, and he didn't even try to get his cŽdula. And what's more, he went and got drunk yesterday. He was a drinker before, but quit like 4 months ago. So we had a good talk with him and his wife. He's really feeling bad about it, and we pointed out that it happened after missing two weeks of church and slacking off on his reading the Book of Mormon/praying. So hopefully he's learned his lesson. But, we're still gonna work with him, and hopefully someday he'll get his cŽdula, and we can go on from there. But we're starting to have some preguntas (questions) about when that will actually happen. On Friday, we visited an inactive family, then went out and taught a couple of charla 1s, and ended up at the Flia. Benitez's (who does our laundry) for lunch. In the afternoon, we went out and found/taught more people. We went to Valdelise's house, and they really liked the baptism, and she was already asking us about requirements for baptism. That's always a good sign. After that, we tried to visit other people, but they weren't home. Saturday morning, we visited a member lady, and we clapped at a house, and there was an inactive lady there just visiting. So we gave her a little message and she said she wants to be active again. But she doesn't live here. We got a reference from another member, and we went and taught them a charla 1, and that went well. We also visited a couple more people before lunch. After, we went and cleaned the church. There were actually other people there helping (it's supposed to always be that way, but that's the first time since I've been here), so that was nice. After that, we went to a birthday party (question for my ex-missionary siblings, did you guys get invited to a lot of birthday parties?) for a couple of Eugenia's kids that had their birthdays this week. We made them Tacos, and they enjoyed them a lot. On Sunday, Jorge (the Brazilian guy) and his kid came to church (his wife was sick), and a lot of stuff went wrong (like, with the microphones and stuff like that), but I guess he was impressed, because he said he's coming to Noche de Rama on Wednesday, and to church next Sunday. So that's always nice. I think reading about all your post-Thanksgiving sicknesses at home rubbed off on me, because I started to get a little sick on Sunday. Anyway, after church, we went and made fajitas for our Branch President and his wife. That was good. After that, we went to choir practice again. We're doing like a twenty minute thing with songs and narration in between. We're doing it in „emby, in Fernando de la Mora, and in Centro this Saturday and Sunday. It should turn out pretty good. Unfortunately, I think I wore out my voice, because it was already a little shaky, but when I tried to sing on the buses (we always sing on buses) on the way home, it just wouldn't work at all. When we got home, we went out and met a new guy and taught him a 1» charla. E. Bybee did pretty much all of it, and sang solo, on account of my lost voice. After that, we came home, studied, and made dinner with the other Elders. But even to this day, my voice hasn't come back. The End. So yeah, that was my week. It went well, and we're working hard, and hopefully, we're gonna see some real good fruit here in a bit. Ummm... About presents... I still won't get to go get them today, or next week for that matter, so... Yeah. Some day I'll get that. I hope before next Christmas. Thanks for everything, have a Merry Christmas for those I won't talk to next week. Good luck with finals and Kids' Chorus and stuff, although I suppose a lot of that has already happened. But yeah. I Love You All!!! Love, Josh P.S. If this doesn't get to everyone, please forward it. Gracias!