From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: Wild, Wild Week
Date: 8 November 2004 7:01:30 AM EST

ĮHola!

So, Bush won. Everyone on Wednesday and Thursday told us. So thatÕs good. Before I forget again, all of the Zone Leaders apartments have microwaves. Which means that now I can make microwave popcorn. But I donÕt think thereÕs anywhere that sells it in my mission. Just so you all know. Also Mom, could you send me a package of normal black Bic pens, please? Thanks. Also, if I want to go back to BYU for the fall of 2005, when do I have to start applying (since I have to re-apply)? 

This week was absolutely crazy, but we had our baptism of Fidel, Estiben (thatÕs how itÕs spelled, so that it sounds just like ŅStephenÓ) and Cristian and it went pretty well despite going through a lot to have it happen. But back to the beginning of the week.

On Monday night, we got fallar-ed a lot, but did manage to get in some good charlas with members. That was it.

On Tuesday morning, we had our normal Zone Meetings, and Pte. Gavarret came and did our interviews. And the Hna. sent us doughnuts (thereÕs a place in Asunci—n that makes real american doughnuts, theyÕre good). So that was nice. In the afternoon, we went out to the Flia. EstigarribiaÕs and read with them. TheyÕre doing good, but the Hno. keeps trying to get work off on Sundays, but he canÕt, so heÕs also looking for a new job. So our goal is still to get him to go to church. After that, we dropped by a couple other peoplesÕ houses and visited the Flia. Gimˇnez. Except I found out that their last name is really Mart’nez (Gimˇnez was the Hna.s last name before getting married). That was good to know. After that, we visited a couple member families, and then went to JavierÕs house to talk to his mom. She wants to get baptized, so we taught her the first lecci—n. Oh, that reminds me. We started the new teaching program, so now instead of 6 discussions, there are 5 lessons. The first one talks about the Apostasy and Restoration, the 2» talks about the Plan of Salvation, the 3» about the First Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel. Then the 4» lesson is all the commandments they have to be living to get baptized, and you can teach it by itself, or in parts, or add parts of it to all the other lessons. Then after baptism, we teach them all the lessons again and add a 5» which talks about duties of members and stuff like that. So it will take me a while to not say ŅcharlaÓ (since that means ŅdiscussionÓ) anymore. But yeah.

On Wednesday morning, we did divisions with Guarambarˇ. Elder Nichols went there with Elder Marshall, and Elder Seerden came here with me. He goes home this month, with Elder Nichols. In the morning, we went and visited the Flia. Olmedo, and they gave us a reference, so we went to check that out. After that, we found a few other people and taught a lesson 1. That went pretty well. After that, we were supposed to have lunch with the Flia. L—pez, but they werenÕt home, so we came home and made sloppy joes. They were good. In the afternoon, we went and taught Ruth the lesson 2 (which is pretty much the same as charla 4 before), and that went well. After that, we tried visiting a couple of people that werenÕt home, but did get in some reactivation. We were supposed to have Consejo de Rama that night, but right as we got to the church, it started to rain really hard. So only Javier and Pte. Silvero were there. After that, Javier went with us to FidelÕs house, and we taught all of them the last charla and planned their baptism. We were planning it for Saturday, but we had to do it in Yaguar—n, which is like a half-hour bus ride away, because we donÕt have a baptismal font until they finish the new capilla. But they said they couldnÕt do it on Saturday, so we moved it to Friday. After that, we dropped by the Flia. Caballero and talked to the Hno. a little and then came home. 

On Thursday morning, we met up with the other Elders and undivided, and then came back, and Elder Manwill and Elder Roblero came from Paraguar’ (which is like an hour away) to do the baptismal interviews. So while he and Elder Nichols went to do that, I went with Elder Roblero to make the program, and then met them there at the Mart’nezÕ house. The interviews went mostly well, but Elder Manwill had to call Pte. Gavarret, but he wasnÕt available because he was doing interviews (of missionaries). So we had to wait to confirm with him that everything was alright. Then the Klevens called, because they were on their way to Asunci—n, but their truck was having problems. So we took them to GuidoÕs and he fixed it good enough to get to Asunci—n and do a more thorough fixing. Then we had lunch and they went on their way. In the afternoon, Elder Manwill finally got a hold of Pte. And everything was fine for the baptism, and they went home. But when we were going to leave, we found out that Elder Manwill had the keys to our house (we had given them to him at lunch when we went with the Klevens). So we wanted to call him, but our cell phone ran out of minutes, so we had to go buy a new card (cell phone minutes come like a calling card) and call him and wait for them to get here. Then we finally got to leave. We went to the EstigarribiaÕs and taught them the lesson 2, and that went pretty well. Then we visited the Hno. Mor‡n, an inactive, and a couple other people. After that, we went to LinoÕs and talked with him about if the church is true, what does that mean (ie, the Catholic church canÕt also be true, and you should be a member of the true church). It went well. After that, we visited some members and then went to Yaguar—n to make sure they were going to get everything ready for the baptism (they donÕt have a phone). Then coming home, we were lucky to get a bus since it was late and they werenÕt running. But we did get one, and came home. 

We had another big rain storm on Thursday night, and all day Friday it was kind of sprinkling, like if it was colder, it would have been snow, it was coming down like that. But anyway, in the morning, we got fallar-ed and visited the Flia. L—pez and set up some citas before going to the LargostaÕs house for lunch. Then in the afternoon, Yaguar—n called and said that the storm was really big there, and lightning struck a few places, and just about the whole city was without light or water, which means they couldnÕt fill the font. So we went over there, and their church (itÕs a rented house too) has a well with a pump. So there was at least electricity when we got there, so we borrowed an extension cord and plugged in the pump and started filling the font. We also cleaned up the church, since there were leaves an branches all over the place. Then we came home and made some last minute preparations. We rented a big van to take everyone over, so we went and got everyone (it was just us, the Flia. Mart’nez, Pte. Silvero and Javier) and went to Yaguar—n. The baptism went pretty well even though there wasnÕt a lot of water in the font and it was kind of pretty cold. But it all turned out well and then we came home, glad that that was over.

Saturday morning, we went and talked with Ruth and taught her about the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, and then tried talking to a few other people, but without any luck. We had lunch with the Flia. Fern‡ndez, and that was pretty normal. In the afternoon, we went to the church for Correlation meeting, but Javier never showed up. So we went and got fallar-ed and then visited the Flia. Caballero. After that, we got fallar-ed a lot, and visited a couple of members before going and having a good charla with Guido and Maida and coming home. 

Yesterday was a really nice day, and we had a lot of people in Church, so that was good. The meetings were all pretty normal, and then we came home and ate and studied. In the afternoon, we went to the Flia. EstigarribiaÕs and read some with them. After that, we tried visiting a LOT of people and got fallar-ed a LOT of times. We did get in a lesson 1 
And a couple of lessons with members though. Then we came home and planned and stuff.

So, thatÕs it. Hopefully this week will be a little less stressful, and the only special thing we have planned is Zone Conference on Thursday. That should be really good. But yeah, thatÕs it. Go BYU! Thanks everyone for everything, and weÕll talk to you next week.

I Love You Guys!!!!

Love,
Josh