From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject:
Date: 3 May 2004 12:50:30 PM EDT

ÁHola!

How's it going? Sorry about last week's email (being sent 3 times), it didn't show up in my "sent mail" list ever, so I wasn't sure if it ever got through until today. Anyways. It rained a whole lot this morning, but now it's pretty much stopped. Lucky for me my jacket's still sitting in my package in the office. But anyway, everything's all wet here. Oh well. Things are going pretty well. This week was changes, but we're both still here. However, Elder Gardner left, and the new Zone Leader is none other than Elder Adcox. How about that. But yeah, on to the week.

Monday night, we tried to talk to some people that weren't home/didn't have time. But then we went and got AndrŽs y Martha and their family, and we all went over to the Laneri's for a Noche de Hogar. We did a twisty balloon/apostasy lesson/activity with them (we did the same thing with Elder Bybee once) and it was really fun. Then we had to run and get our ropa and then come home real quick.

On Tuesday, we didn't have Zone Meeting, because we had it on Wednesday because that's when we got our changes. So it was weird having it e a normal day. In the morning, we looked for some inactives that had moved and died. Needless to say we didn't talk to either of them. And we went to the Hna. Irene's for a little bit, and tried talking to other people that weren't home. And then we came home for lunch. n the afternoon, we got fallar-ed a few times, and we went to see how Julio CŽsar's to see how he's doing, and we read with him. After that, we went and finished teaching charla 3 to Nimia and Noelia. That went really well. And after that we went and talked to the mom of a kid that we always see on the street and told us to come by. She didn't seem too interested though. And then we went home.

On Wednesday morning, we had Zone Meetings and they were normal, except at the end when we got our changes. There were actually only 4 or 5 changes in the whole zone. Oddly enough, 2 Elders that were in Villarrica both went to Puerto Pabla. (That's in our Zone). And yeah, Elder Adcox came here. Anyway, we took pictures and went and had lunch and stuff, then came home and studied. We had a charla 1 with a lady whose granddaughter is a member in Amambay (which is closer in to the city). It started out kind of rough, but got better by the end. After that, we tried talking to about 5 or 6 people who weren't there, but we did talk with AndrŽs for a little bit, and also with the Flia. Formigli. And then we went to the church for Consejo de Rama, and then went and ate dinner because it was Elder Gardner's last night here. Plus someone broke some of the windows in the capilla and stole the curtains. Of all the things to steal, I'm not sure why they picked the curtains in the capilla. But yeah. That was interesting.

On Thursday morning, we went and looked for a couple of people and clapped for a while in the farther out part of our area that we don't go to as often. Then we went to Carlos' and taught him ch. 2, and he said he thinks his Catholic "baptism" was valid, and we explained about authority and everything and told him to keep reading the LdeM and praying. After lunch and studying, we went and clapped a little more, and we also talked again to the lady we met a couple few weeks ago that's a Catholic missionary and English teacher. We got her to agree to read the LdeM and pray about it, so that was good. What wasn't so good is that that was our last Libro de Morm—n that we had, because the office didn't send us more until today. So we didn't have anymore for the rest of the weekend. That wasn't too fun. But anyway, after that, we went and talked to a couple investigators and tried to talk to others that didn't have time. And then, we went to AndrŽs' and taught him ch. 2. And he committed to be baptized. He said he wants a little time though, so we set it for the 29ˇ of May. So that was good, and that was it for the day.

On Friday morning, we went over to the other Elders' and we all went to Pte. Borba's house to do service. They recently moved in (like a couple months ago) and their property has a bunch of old car frames. A bunch. And so we moved some of them, and we played around a little. It was fun. And service. At the same time. Plus after that, they made us lunch, which was good. In the afternoon, we went and visited a few members and some other people that we would have liked to talk to but weren't home. And then we went to Noche de Rama. There were a whole lot of people there, and from what I hear, they all stayed until pretty late. But we went home and went to bed.

Saturday was Labor day, more or less. So in every few yards there were a bunch of guys drinking and eating steak and listening to their music loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear. That's not an atmosphere that's very conducive to the Spirit. Anyway, we did talk with Oliver (from last week), and we read a little with him. Then we went to eat with the Laneri's. It was good. In the afternoon, we had citas (scheduled earlier in the week) for every hour from 3 to 8. And the only one there was the one at 6:00. That was a surprise. Just kidding. We did talk to a few other investigators though, with our newfound time. That wasn't a fun afternoon. But that was it for the whole day.

On Sunday morning, our meetings were pretty normal. Noelia came, but Nimia was sick, so she stayed home. And AndrŽs had to take his mom to the hospital, so he wasn't there either. But it was a pretty good meeting. In the afternoon, we ate lunch with the Sanabrias and studied a little, tried to visit some people, and went to the church for a cleaning-up-the-branch-directory meeting. And then we visited a few more people and Hno. Kike and AndrŽs and his family. They have 2 sons that are 8 and 10, and we're going to plan on baptizing them too. That should be neat. And after that we went to the other Elders' house for a little. then came home. And that was the week.

Okay. So I sent a letter to Chris home because I wasn't sure where he was going to be this summer. So when it gets there, I would appreciate it if you forwarded it to him. Tanks. Plus, despite the fact that I payed for my package 2 weeks ago, the office still hasn't sent it to me yet. I'm not sure what the deal is there, but I'm going to call them today and find out what in the world is going on. And, for Mother's Day, the Laneris said we could use their phone, so we'll be calling you (probably on Saturday, around 1 local time (which is the same as Eastern time)) to tell you when. Their number is 904-520, and the country code (I think) is 0521. But yeah, we'll call on Saturday to set everything up. And that is all for now, I guess.

Thanks again for everything.

I Love You All!!

Love,
Josh