From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: What a week!!!
Date: 14 June 2004 10:41:22 AM EDT

ÁHola!

How's it all going up there? I guess the family's in Utah for basketball camp right now. I hope you're having fun. Tell everyone Hi for me. Things are going well here. I forgot to tell you last week that changes (the normal every-six-weeks ones) were going to happen. And they did. And last week was pretty eventful. And it's started to get pretty cold here. But yeah, I'll just go on.

On Monday, like I said, once everyone got to Ayolas, we went to see the Yacyret‡ dam. It was neat. After that, I went with Elder Worthen and did a baptismal interview for them. Then when everyone got back to their house, we had a District Meeting with the whole district. Also, we found out that there weren't any more buses leaving until late at night, so we all had to stay the night there. Luckily, they recently moved from a really little apartment to a house. Anyway, we split up and went separate ways, and I went with Elder Payne to do another baptismal interview, and we went to borrow some mattresses. Then we went home and talked and went to bed. 

On Tuesday morning, it was raining. And we all came home. We didn't get home until around 2:00, and we had some lunch and studied and then went out to work. We didn't take our bikes because all the 6-inch deep sand roads were now all 6-inch deep mud roads, and that wouldn't have been fun. So we went to the house of one of the youth that's getting ready to go on a mission, Dany, and we went and talked with Cristina and planned her baptism for Saturday. After that, we went and visited a couple more members and investigators. It was weird walking and not being able to get to places fast, but oh well.

On Wednesday morning, we got our cambios. Elder Borja and Elder Tippets both went to Caaguazœ (different ramas). So in the morning, we visited a couple of people and said goodbye and arranged stuff for them to leave, and we came home and had lunch and E. Borja packed. In the afternoon, we did pretty much the same thing; we visited a lot of people. 

On Thursday morning, they're bus left at 7:15, so we went and sent them off, then Elder Garaguso and I went to their apartment and studied and planned the day. We visited people and made arrangements for the baptism (Cristina, Pamela, and a 9-year old boy from the other rama). Then we went home and had lunch
and studied. After that, we went and visited a couple people before going to the terminal to get Elder Garaguso's new companion, Elder Gilbert. He came from Encarnaci—n, so he just came directly here instead of going all the way to Asunci—n first. So we took his stuff to their house, went and got my bike, and went and did the entrevista for the little kid getting baptized. After that, we went to the capilla for Noche de Rama, and some people from the other Rama actually showed up, and the youth played volleyball while the old people stayed inside and talked. After that, we went and got something to eat, and then went back to the other Elders' house until around 10:45, when my companion got here. His name's Elder Webb and he's from Bountiful, or around there. He had 3 changes in Santani (Zona 7) before coming here. If you want to see what he looks like, more or less, look in the Ensign from June in the article with Elder Ballard, Elder Scott, and Elder Eyring. He's the one studying, below the picture of the two missionaries sitting on the grass talking. Yeah. Anyway, we went home and he unpacked and we went to bed.

On Friday, we went out and got the keys of the capilla and went and cleaned the baptismal font (it's one of the outside ones again) and the area behind the capilla (there's a lot of land). Then we went and had lunch with the Hna. Guicela (that's how her name's spelled, I found out). Then we went home and studied. In the afternoon, we went and talked with the Hna. Nelly and with Adriana. Then we went with Dany to Estela and Cristina's and we read with them. Then we went by and met Hna. Valvina (an older member lady), Basilio y Cristina (an investigator family), the Berdejos (the 1¡ counselor's family), Hna. Asunci—n (another old member lady), and then the Flia. Blanco. The Hno. was leaving on Saturday to go work in Buenos Aires for a few months, so we said goodbye to him. Then we came home.

On Saturday morning, right out the door, one of E. Webb's tires went flat, so we had to go get a new one. Then we went by the capilla and talked with Pte. Barreto (the branch president) and Pte. Berdejo, and it turns out that the rama doesn't have small baptismal clothes (we've been trying to find out all week and people just kept telling us to ask someone else), so then we went looking for white pants, and nobody sells them, I think it's because it's after Labor Day, and so we finally just bought some fabric and asked a lady to make some. That was a wild morning. Then we went by Estela's to tell Pamel to bring a white shirt, and then finally came home and ate. In the afternoon, we went by Pte. Barreto's to get the keys to the capilla, and found out that Pte. Berdejo had just come and got them. So then we went and talked to Carolina (one of our investigators), then went and got the pants and took them to the capilla. Then we went and talked to another investigator, and went to the capilla. Amazingly, almost everyone showed up more than 15 minutes early. That's not something that ever happens, so we weren't sure what to do for a while. But anyway, the baptism went fine. We heated up the water a little, so it wasn't REALLY cold. But it was pretty cold outside. But no one got sick, so it was okay. There were a lot of people there, and the refreshments were good and after everything, we (the missionaries) went and got some hamburgers before going home.

On Sunday morning, we went to pick up Basilio y Cristina to go to church, but he had to work. But she came with their 2 daughters, Delia (16) and Tasiana (7). They had to leave after Sacrament meeting, but it was cool that they came. Church was normal, with the confirmations in Sacrament Meeting and I taught the lesson in Sunday school. After church, we took Pamela home because her mom had left earlier. Then we came home and ate and studied. In the afternoon, we had a few people we wanted to charlar with, and we didn't get a charla with any of them except one, and we spent a long time looking for an old investigator and finally actually  did in the end. And we made a couple good contacts, and finished the night talking with the Flia. Ben’tez. Then we went and had dinner with the other Elders, then came home and went to bed.

So how about THAT? 

In the news, they're doing away with the MultiCourier package sending system, o sea, they're switching to a different company called SkyBox. So DON'T send anything else to the MultiCourier address because anything received there after the last day of June will just be tossed. So advise everyone, por favor. The new thing pretty much works the same, but different. They're supposed to be sending you information sometime about it. To start off, you have to pay $15 a year to have an account to be able to send me packages, and I think it's $5 a pound for packages. And you just pay for it with a check or a credit card and I don't have to pay for it again when I get it. Or you can just use normal post office or UPS or FedEx. But yeah, they're supposed to be sending you more information (at home), so when you get it, if you could let everyone else know, that would be neat. But just don't send any more packages to the MultiCourier address. Whew.

I do believe that's finally it. Have fun at basketball camp. And stuff. Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday to Matt and Chris. I'll write you happy birthday letters today. Probably. But yeah. Thanks everyone for everything.

I Love You All!!!!

Love,
Josh