From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: Whoa
Date: 16 February 2004 1:01:28 PM EST

ĮHola!

Well, this week was pretty kinda busy. That's really weird about the whole split ward thing. So when I get back, all the other ward people just have to miss out on my homecoming talk? I bet they didn't think about that, did they? Ummm... and that missionaries friend is in my mission, but I don't know him. But Elders in my district know him. Small world. Ummm... Plus also I'm pretty sure it ended Saturday morning at like 10:00 or so. But that's not a REALLY sure, it's just a pretty sure. Yeah.

In any case, on to the week...

Last Monday night, we had a Noche de Hogar with the Duarte's. We taught them how to make tacos. They were pretty good. They're not too used to spicy food down here though. But it was fun.

On Tuesday, we had our first Zone Meeting of the change. We have a new Zone Leader and a few other new people, and a nuevito. President Gavarret dropped in and talked about us going to the temple next Monday. That will be cool. After we ate and came home and studied and all that, we went out and we had a carla 5 with Josˇ Fretes. After that, we went and had a good charla 4 with Mariela and Sole. After that, we went to the church because the missionary part of the ward (the ward mission leader and us) put on a bring-a-friend soccer tournament. There were actually a lot of nonmembers there, which was good. And it was pretty fun, and we planned on finishing on Wednesday before Noche de Rama. After that, we went to Valdelice's and found out about problems she's having with her "husband". That puts an interesting spin on things. We don't really want to marry a family that doesn't have much hope of ever being eternal. So we talked to her about that for a while.

On Wednesday morning, we went and visited the (younger) Duarte family because we had a lunch cita with them that we had to move to Thursday. Then we went and taught another charla to Mariela and Sole. And then we came home for to study. In the tarde, we got fallar-ed, found out that Jorge and Ramona (the brazilian guy) are moving to Argentina, and got fallar-ed again. Then we went to visit some inactive sisters, and then went to the church. Unfortunately, no one came to finish the soccer tournament, so I don't know what's going to happen with that. But we did have Noche de Rama after that, and that was pretty fun.

Thursday morning, we went and taught Nathanael charla 2, and that went pretty well. Then we visited another member family that lives across the street from them, the flia. Ocampos. Then we went to the Duarte's and had lunch. It was pretty good. After that, we went to Florent’n's house. He's the blind guy that came to church last week. His member friend got him the Libro de Morm—n on tape, and he started listening to that, so that's cool. After that, we had divisiones with the Asistentes. We have an interesting AP situation; the two APs from last change extended their missions 40 days or something, and now they're training 2 new asistentes. So we got a new one and an old one. The new one, Elder Vester, is from Dewey. How about that? He went with me, and we went to do baptismal interviews with Valdelice and Stefani, her daughter, and Josˇ Fretes, and E. Urling and Elder George (the other AP) went to do Sole and Mariela's interviews. We can't baptize Valdelice yet, but we wanted to do her interview anyway, but we didn't have time, so we just did Stefani's, and that went fine. Then we went to Josˇ's, and that didn't go as well, he needs a little more testimony work. Then we came home and found out that Sole did fine, but Mariela wasn't there. So hmmm...

On Friday, we went and talked to Mariela's parents, but they weren't home, so we went and talked to some inactives. And we had our normal lunch cita. In the afternoon, we did divisiones with the other ELders, because Elder Urling had to do a baptism interview. So Elder Fern‡ndez came with me. We visited some members first, and then went and talked to Mariela's mom to make sure she's okay with Mariela wanting to get baptized, and she said she didn't have a problem. After that, we tried to visit a few members that weren't home, and had a Noche de Hogar with the Flia. Ocampos, which was good, but the hermano never showed up. Oh well.

On Saturday morning, we had breakfast with the other ELders, then went out and tried to visit a couple people that weren't home. And we went by Eugenia's to fijar a cita with Josˇ, and then we came home. In the afternoon, we went and cleaned the church, and then visited a couple of people before coming back to the church for Stefani's baptism. The Elders from Ypanˇ and Thompson brought investigators, so they came too. Unfortunately, none of the branch leaders did. So Elder Yrigoitia, who is in Thompson (and from Uruguay, by the way) directed for us, and one of the guys from the ward gave her her welcome. But it all went very well. It was nice.

On Sunday morning, we went to get someone to take them to church, so we left early. Our branch president moved to „emby, at least temporarily, but he's still the branch president, at least temporarily. Church was good, and after it was over, we went to Eugenia's and had lunch with them, and then had a charla with Josˇ. Then we went to visit the Hna. Yolanda, and then we came home and studied and had dinner with the other Elders.

So that was our week. Today, we came to „emby and played football. Uhhh, soccer. It was fun. And, yeah.

Well, I guess that's it for this week. We're going to baptize Soledad Duarte this Saturday, if all goes according to plan. So that will be good. And her mom came to church on Sunday, which is the first time in a good number of years. So that was cool to see. In any case, on we go.

Thanks for everything, we'll talk to you next week...

I Love You Guys!!!

Love,
Josh