From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: Blame it on the rain
Date: 15 March 2004 12:06:28 PM EST

ÁHola!

How are you all doing? Things are going well here still. It rained almost every day last week, except for Friday and Sunday, and my other shoes are in the process of drying out. It was a hoot. Probably more rain that week than Arizona has seen yet this whole year. There were a few interesting firsts in my mission that happened last week, but you'll have to read on to find out what it was.

On Monday night, it rained a lot. Sort of. But still, we went and talked to Eugenia and her husband, and then we went and taught the Palmeros a get-the hermana-ready-for-her-baptism-interview charla. It went rather well.

On Tuesday, we had our Zone Meetings like normal. Afterwards, Elder Urling had his District Leader meeting, and that took a while longer, so I played the piano, kind of, and waited. Then we finally came home and studied. Afterwards, we went to Florentino's, (yes, that's his name spelled correctly) and listened to his tapes with him. Tapes of the Libro de Morm—n. After that, we went to Valdelice's and had a little charla with them. Then we went by an inactive family's house and talked to the Hna. That was it for that night.

On Wednesday morning, we went and talked to the Palmeros, or the Hna. at least, and then talked to Mirian. Then we went and talked to Natanael, but he had to go to school, so we weren't able to teach him a charla. And after that, we went to the flia. Ocampos' (they're members) and had lunch. And then came home and studied. In the afternoon, we went to the JosŽ and Soledad Duarte's, and a little bit after we got there, it started raining really hard, so we stuck around there a little longer than we had planned. Then we had to swing by Florentino's to talk with his member friend from Luque (In the north mission) about his baptism. Then we went to the church for Noche de Rama, and there were almost ten of us there, so we mostly just talked. And then came home.

On Thursday morning, it was still raining again. We had to call the Zone Leaders to tell them what time to come to do baptism interviews tonight. Then we went to Susi's and set up a cita for the next day, and went by Eugenia's and did the same thing with JosŽ. After that, we went to some members' house and then went to the Duarte's for lunch. In the afternoon, it finally stopped raining, which was nice. We went to the Flia. Baez's house and set up a charla with them in the capilla this Saturday. Then we went back home to meet the Zone Leaders. Elder Urling went with Elder Smith to do Florentino's interview, and I went with Elder Ames to do the Hna. Palmero's. But they weren't home when we went by, so we went and visited some interesting inactivos. Sometimes you wonder how people even got baptized in the first place. In any case, we did the interview after that and it went fine. So we set up the marriage for Saturday, but there's a mission rule that says they have to wait a week to do the baptism. So yeah. After that, we went back to our apartment, and the ZLs went home, and we went out and had a FHE with the other Duartes. And that was all.

On Friday morning, we went and taught Susi and Eduardo charla 3. It went pretty well, mostly because her other kid wasn't there, which kept the one more under control. After that, we went and had a good talk with JosŽ Fretes. We're still not sure what's going to happen with him or when, but we'll see. And then we went and had lunch at the Ben’tez's. In the tarde, we went to Florentino's and taught him the last charla, which went well. We also talked with some friends of theirs who had questions about us and the church and stuff. We were expecting the Zone Leaders to come, because Elder Smith was going to talk to him again, but he never showed up for a while. So after that, we went to Adela's and had a charla with her that went pretty well. And then we came home to call Presidente Gavarret about something. 

On Saturday morning, we had to go out to Thompson to tell them that we don't have to go to a meeting we were told to go to, but we went by Florentino's real quick first. Then when we got to Thompson, it turned out we were doing divisiones. So I stayed there with Elder Edwards, and Elders Urling and Yrigoitia came back here. So in the rain, Elder Edwards and I went out and visited some members, some of whom weren't home, and then came home and made lunch and studied. In the afternoon, we went out and talked to some of their investigators and some members who live next door to them. Then we went back to Ytororo for the Palmero's wedding. The first one I've seen here. It went pretty well, not too complicated. There's a judge that works for the mission and does weddings when necessary (which is often here), and so she came and did it. And afterwards, we had cake and pop and talked and congratulated. After all of that, we had charla 4 with Hna. Baez and Mabel y Nieve. That went pretty well, and it was unfortunate that the Hno. couldn't make it. After that, Elders Urling and Yrigoitia went to those friends of Florentino's and taught them a first charla, while Elder Edwards and I went to Florentino's to see if we needed to go and get him Sunday morning. But he wasn't sure he could go because some Ministry of Health people were supposed to come. Then we came home and the Thompsonites went to their home. An interesting day.

On Sunday, the entire Stake Presidency came, along with a couple other Stake people, so we knew something was up. And sure enough, in Sacrament Meeting, they released Branch President Mar’n... And then called him as bishop. Yes, that's right, Rama Ytororo was made into Barrio Ytororo. That was rather swell. So the speakers spoke a little less, and then we heard testimonies from some of the first members of the rama. It was neat. After lunch, we went and had lunch with the Flia. Rodas, who are the ones who moved in like a month or more ago and are only part active. Lunch was good though. After we came home and studied, we went out to Florentino's because it was his birthday. We gave him a bunch of batteries so that he can keep listening to his Libro de Morm—n tapes. After that, we had to go get our ropa because it was too heavy for them to bring to the church this morning, so they decided to let us do it. Then we went and talked to Mirian, and then set up a cita tomorrow night (actually, tonight) with them. And then we came home. The other Elders came up for a little bit, and when they left we went to bed.

So that was our week. Despite all the rain. Coming up this Saturday are a couple of baptisms, and next Saturday too, and a few in April. So that's cool. Also, on Wednesday we find out our changes, if we get one. I don't know what will happen, there are many options. So we'll see. In any case, it's been an awesome 3 changes here so far.

Well, that's it. I hope BYU goes to the NCAA tournament and wins a little. It would be nice. And I hope you enjoy Spring Break, for those of you that get it. And I'll be talking to you next week.

I Love You Guys!!

Love,
Josh