From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: Happy 5th!!!
Date: 5 July 2004 4:21:23 PM EDT

ÁHola!

In case you were wondering, there is a 4th of July in Paraguay, and there were fireworks. However, that's just because the 2 most popular soccer teams in the country were playing each other, and every time one of them scored, have the country sets off fireworks, and when the other half scores, the other half sets of theirs. As’ es. 

Things are going pretty well here, we didn't have Basilio y Cristina's wedding yet because they wanted to wait another week so that some of their friends could come. So we said okay, and we're going to do it this Saturday instead. Yeah.

Last Monday, the Elders from San Ignacio came in the afternoon, and we went and played basketball at a park. And at night, the Elders from Ayolas came too and we had our full District Meeting, which went really well, and then we all went and ate hamburgers together. And the Ayolas Elders stayed the night with us. So that was all a lot of fun.

The visitors left on Tuesday morning, and when we went out, we went and visited CŽsar, and talked with him about the apostasy, and why all the churches aren't true. After that, we went and talked with the Flia. Arce to re-schedule our lunch cita from Saturday to Thursday. After that, we went and taught a charla 1 to a random charla 1 to a couple of people. Then we went and had lunch with the Hna. Guicela. In the afternoon, we went to the Hna. Asunci—n's house and walked with her to one of her friends' house and met her and gave her a blessing because she's sick, and we were going to teach her a ch. 1, but she wasn't feeling too good right then. So after that, we went and tried visiting a few people that weren't home, and then visited the Hna. Silva (the inactive with all the kids), and then talked a little bit with Adriana. Then we tried visiting more people that weren't home, and then visited Dany (the member kid who's preparing for his mission and goes with us when we need him), and went with him to Basilio y Cristina's, where we taught them the 5¡ charla. It went really well. And after that we came home.

On Wednesday, it rained again. Really hard, all morning, but then all afternoon the skies were clear. Anyway, we had to run some errands in the morning, like looking for stamps and taking out money. But neither one worked out. Oh well. We went and visited Carolina, and read a little with her. After that, we went and visited Emili, and a couple other people before lunch with the Flia. Acosta. All of Pablo's papers finally came through, so he'll be leaving the 14¡ of this month for Chile. In the afternoon, we went our and got fallar-ed a couple times, and then went to Basilio y Cristina's to teach the first part of ch. 4 to Delia, because she missed it. Then we went and visited a couple of members, and got fallar-ed a couple more times. Then we were supposed to have a meeting with the Pte. de Rama, but he couldn't make it, so we went to his house and talked to him. Then we went and visited the Flia. Arguello and planned a Noche de Hogar with them and some non-member friends. And that was all for the night.

On Thursday morning, we went out to CŽsar's, but he wasn't home, so we went and met a guy who used to talk to the missionaries, but travels a lot for work. And we went to visit the Flia. Vera before going to the Flia. Arce's for lunch. Por la tarde, we went with Dany to the friend of the Hna Asunci—n, her name's Emma, and taught her and her husband the charla 1. It went okay. After that, we went and finished teaching Delia ch. 4. After that, we tried visiting a few people that weren't home, and then visited the Flia. Ben’tez. Then we were going to teach Vitor (Estela's son) the second part of ch. 2, but he was sick and in bed. So we just shared a little with the rest before going to Noche de Rama. There weren't very many people there, but we ended up playing volleyball and it was pretty fun.

On Friday, we went out and got fallar-ed by a couple of people, and then went and talked with Adriana. Then we went to the Hna. Balbina (I had thought her name is spelled with "v"s. because in Spanish they sound the same, but it's with "b"s) and had a lunch that the Hna. Asunci—n had made us, but couldn't be there to give it to us. It was pretty good. In the afternoon, we went and made some contacts and met new people. And we visited with the Flia. Morel (the ones that live really far away). Then we went and talked to Antonio, and finally got him to admit that he isn't really interested. After that, we went to Basilio y Cristina's and talked about their wedding and shared a little. After that, we went and had a Noche de Hogar with Estela and her family. That went really well and was pretty fun.

On Saturday morning, we went to San Ignacio to help them with a service project. We cleaned up the sides of a street for a few blocks. There's a LOT of dirt here, all over the place, and especially on the sides of the roads (left over from when it rained), so there was much to do. After we were done, we went to the church and had lunch, and then came home. In the afternoon, we went by a couple of people's houses, but they were busy and not there. Then we went by Carolina's and found out that her grandma died (she's been sick for a long time), so next time we'll share the Life after Death with her. After that, we went to Basilio y Cristina's and read a little with them. And then we came home.

Yesterday morning, we went by their house again to go to church, and they told us that they were going to come late because they had to see about some land again. But the daughters, and a neighbor kid went with us. It was a pretty normal sunday meeting day. After church, we came home and studied. In the afternoon, we tried visiting a whole lot of people that weren't home or were busy, but we did make one contact that asked us why Joseph Smith had to start a new church, and it just so happens that that's what the ch. 1 tells us, so we gave it to them. After that, we tried talking to more people, dropped by Basilio y Cristina's because they (the parents) never made it to church, and we shared a little with them. Then we went to Estela's to talk to Victor, but he was doing something else, so we just talked to his mom again. Then we had to go to the church for a fireside with the youth, the first one they've ever had, and we talked a little in that. Then we came home and had some good tacos with the other Elders and sang "The Star Spangled Banner". It was good stuff.

And that was the week. It sounds like the Justin and Laurie move went well, so that's good. Just to remind you all, don't send any more packages to the Miami MultiCourier, because as of a couple days ago, they'll just be thrown away once they get there because the mission isn't using the company anymore. Or so they tell us. So yeah. Other than that, thanks for everything, and have a good week everyone!

I Love You Guys!!!

Love,
Josh