From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: You can call me Tom Sawyer
Date: 22 March 2004 10:32:12 AM EST

ÁHola!

Well, this past week was quite an interesting one. The highlight of which being me getting changed. I am now in It‡ Enramada. It's closer to centro. But on to the beginning of the week...

Last Monday night, we went to the Palmero's and showed them the video of their wedding. Elder Urling has a camera. That was pretty fun.

On Tuesday morning, we had our last Zone Meeting of the change. We found out that afterwards, we had to go to the oficina for our entrevistas with Presidente. He apparently forgot that we hadn't had them yet. So, after we ate and took pictures, we went to the office. They recently redid it all and now it's way fancy. I was surprised. But yeah, Pte. Gavarret told me that I was getting a change. So that was interesting, After all that, we went to Florentino's and talked to him for a little while, and then went to Paola's and talked to her about the mandamientos. The commandments. That was all for then.

On Wednesday morning, we went out and visited members and then went to Florentino's and had lunch with him and his family. We made it. It was good. We also called the Zone Leaders and got our changes. As I mentioned, I was going to It‡ Enramada, which is in Zona 2, and closer into the city. My new companion is Elder Workman, he came a couple of changes after me. And he's from Las Vegas. And, by the way, he knows the Elder Wheeler that's from Arkansas and is related to Sister Kleinman. Small world. In any case, what they DIDN'T tell me, but which I found out later, is that we were replacing a pair of Hermanas, and having to just go from what they left us. We refer to it as "whitewashing". That was interesting to hear. In any case, after that, we came home and I started packing.  Then we went out and talked with Claudelino and Eugenia's, and I said goodbye to them. Then we went out to the Palmero's to get some little kids that wanted to go to Noche de Barrio. Luckily, Hno. Palmero was taking his truck, so we just got a ride with him. We taught a charla 3/4 to the Hno. Baez, who hadn't been there for either, and by the time we were done, everyone else was gone, which was kind of too bad, because I wanted to say goodbye to everyone. Oh well. We came home after that and I finished packing.

The next morning, we went out and said goodbye to Florentino's family, and to the Duartes, and to Valdelice's family, and to the other Duartes. And then we came home and got my stuff and got a taxi, and went to the office. Our driver got a little lost, but we still made it okay. So we talked to people until the meeting started, and then we had that. Elder Urling is training a nuevito this change. That Elder's going to have a pretty good start of his mission. After the meeting was over, we had to wait for our Zone Leader Elder Allred to come and take us to our house. So he did that, and then we went and got his companion (oddly enough, he trained last change as opposed to having another Zone LEader companion) and they showed us a member's house and then had to go. So we went home and unpacked a little, and read over the list of investigators and members that the Hermanas left us. Then we had a couple of citas that they set up for us, so we took our map and went out a-searching. After getting way lost because of Paraguayans' lack of ability to give good directions, we gave up and went to another cita, and the guy was just leaving. So, then we came home and ate a little and finished unpacking.

On Friday morning, Elders Allred and Gardner came over and took us on a little tour of their area. Then they had to go, so we just wandered/explored our area for a little bit before coming home for lunch. After lunch, we went out and met a few members and investigators, or at least found their houses. A lot of them weren't home. That was about our whole afternoon. We were pretty worn out from walking probably seven hours all day, so we slept good that night. 

On Saturday, we went with the other Elders and painted our capilla a little. It's not a real one, but the church owns the land it's on and is waiting for the rama to grow to build a capilla. So we did that in the morning, and then had a lunch appointment with the familia Laneri. They're a recently married couple who are both returned missionaries. And the wife's mom and brother live behind them. They're pretty cool. After that, we came home and studied, and then went out and had a few citas but got fallar-ed twice and talked to one family that seemed pretty neat. The husband anyway. The area here is pretty fancy, there's a lot of really big houses. And we have a hot water heater in our apartment. And we were looking for a guy on Saturday afternoon and talked to someone through their intercom on their front gate. Pretty fancy. But anyway, we went out and met more members and investigators and did a whole lot of walking again, and finally came home. 

On Sunday, we were going to take the family we talked to yesterday to church with us, but it seems they were still asleep when we went by. Church here starts at 8:00, but really starts around 8:20. Today was Conferencia de Rama, and the Branch President got changed to a guy that just moved in and lives on the other side. So I don't know him. That was interesting for our first Sunday here. After that the meetings were normal (Sunday School, Priesthood/Relief Society). After church, we had a lunch cita with the former branch president's family. They have 3 kids from 11 to 17. They're pretty neat. After that we came home and studied, then went back out and met more investigators, visited some members, and explored a little more before coming home, studying, and then going to bed.

So that was that week. Pretty crazy, eh? Today we went to Republicano, which is the center of the Zone, I guess, and we talked with the other Elders of the Zone. And now we're here. This place is sure a lot different from either Villarrica or Ytororo, but it's a pretty cool area, and we'll see what we can do with it. I'm excited to see.

So, yeah. Oh, I got Dad's email. Thanks a lot. And that's too bad about BYU. Someday we'll win an NCAA Tournament game. But anyways, thanks for everything. Good luck with the last leg of school and stuff. We'll talk to you laters.

I Love You!!

Love,
Josh