From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: O Senhor Dos Aneis
Date: 23 February 2004 11:22:38 AM EST

ÁHola!

I bet you didn't know that's how you say The Lord of the Rings in Portuguese, did you? That's a small little well known fact. In any case, this week was a good one, capped off by Soledad's baptism on Saturday. It was a good one. But to start at the beginning...

Last Monday night, we pretty much just visited members, since the other people we were going to visit weren't home. Oh well.

On Tuesday morning, it was raining pretty good, but stopped around 10:00 or so. That caused a need to clean the water out of a couple of our rooms. We had our Zone Meetings like normal, and had a few announcements, like we're going to the temple later than we thought, and Zone Conference will be a different date, and Elder L. Whitney Clayton, the President of the South America-South area, which includes Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, is coming next week (this week) to have a fireside with all the converts from 2003 and so far this year. So everyone in Asunci—n, from our mission and the north mission, is supposed to go to that. After the normal meetings, we ate, and then E. Urling had a meeting as District Leader, and then we went home and studied. So by the time we got out to working, it was kinda late. We went out to Florent’n's house and gave him charla 2, and he accepted our baptismal invitation, so that was cool. After that, we visited a few member families to finish up the day.

On Wednesday morning, we went to see Adela, but she got a new job recently and wasn't home. So we went over to Eugenia's house and talked with her and JosŽ. After that, we went and had lunch with Noelia and her family. She got baptized at her aunt's house in centro and goes to San Antonio (which is the area right next to ours), even though she lives in our area. And her mom is inactive. Anyway, lunch was good, and afterwards, we taught a little charla 1 to her two step-sisters who aren't members. And then we came home and studied. After that, we went out to Hna. Yolanda's, the Uruguaya, and started the Red de Contactos with her and her son. We'll see how that turns out. After that, we went by the Duarte's, and then by Adela's, and then went to the church for Noche de Rama. We played soccer and a game with water balloons, and had fun. On Thursday morning, we were going to do divisiones with the Elders Edwards and Yrigoitia in Thompson (which is 10 or 15 minutes away), but there was some confusion as to where we were going to meet and they were late, so we went out and talked to the Duarte's, and then taught a charla 1 to a guy who was just sitting outside his house. Then we came home and the Thompson Elders were there, so we had lunch, and then I went with Elder Edwards back to Thompson. He came a change after I did. Just in case you were wondering. We first went out and talked to their branch president's wife, because they were supposed to go there this morning and didn't. Then we went and visited a couple of investigators, and a couple of members. Then we went to their capilla, and Elders Urling and Yrigoitia came to do a baptismal interview. The guy (who got baptized on Saturday)(I'm assuming) is pretty cool, I got to teach him the 6¡ charla with Elder Edwards. After that, we went to a members' house and shared a little message with them, and then came home and made tacos and talked a little and went to bed.

On Friday morning, Elders Urling and Yrigoitia came to Thompson, and then I came back with Urling. We went to talk to our branch president at his workplace about some asuntos (I think the english word is... Well, like, items of discussion. Or something) of the Rama. Then we went out to the blind guy's house and gave him charla 3. He's pretty cool, and he's learning very well, and most importantly, he's willing to fulfill his commitments. Anyway, after that, we went and had lunch and came home and studied. After lunch, we went and got some copies made, and then went out to the Duarte's and charlar-ed and planned her baptism. After that, we went to visit some members who weren't home, then went and got something to eat, and then visited more members to end the night.

On Saturday morning, we went and talked to Valdeice, and met her on the way to her house and she was having to go to work. So then we went and we talked to a Adela a little and to see how she's doing, since it's been a while since we've really talked to her. After that, we came home and made lunch and a couple of cakes for the baptism. Then we went to the church and cleaned while the Young Men had an activity, so there were some parts we couldn't clean. Then the Flia. Baez (Mabel and Nieve and their parents) came to have a charla. We watched "Camino a Casa" ("On Our Way Home") with them, and then gave them the second charla. They accepted our baptismal invitation, so that was cool. After that was the baptism. As always happens, everyone was late, but when we finally got started, everything went really well. All of the Duarte's came except for Nadia, who, by coincidence, is now the only non-member. In any case, it was a really nice baptism. Speaking of the Duartes, the mom has come to church 2 weeks in a row now, which is a lot better than when I came and she was a bedridden apostate. So their family is really coming along well.

On Sunday, we had our church meetings like normal, and did Sole's confirmation. The old branch president who moved to Chile and now came back was there, and everyone made a huge deal about that. After church we came home and had lunch, which was pretty good seeing as how we hadn't planned on eating at home today. And we studied. And our work day was pretty much made up of making sure that people know about the thing on Tuesday and seeing who's coming with us. That was fun. And then we came home, studied a little more, and then had dinner with the other Elders.

So that's it. This morning, we did our normal stuff in „emby, and then came home. Quite the week. In addition to the thing on Tuesday night, Elder Clayton wants to talk to us the missionaries on Wednesday morning, so this week will be interesting. But everything is going quite well.

So, happy George Washington's Birthday to everyone, and I'll talk to you again in March. Whoa. Time flies when you're having fun.

I Love You Folk!!!

Love,

Josh