From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: It's getting hotter
Date: 13 December 2004 12:53:42 PM EST

ÁHola!

How are you all doing? Mom, great news, I finally got my package! It was like having my birthday twice. Everything got here fine, thanks a whole lot. Also, about the calling for Christmas thing, I hope you still have the country code from last time. You should call me at 8:00 AM your time (because we're 4 hours ahead), and we get 45 minutes to talk. And the number is: 0971-320-006. Tell me in your next email if there's anything else you need. 

In any case, this week was nice, because after Monday, we didn't have to go anywhere or anything. On Monday though, I went with Elder Carter to Villeta to do a baptismal interview, and it was raining really hard and on the way we discovered that I still had the keys to our house. So we had to come to It‡ and then go back to Villeta, which put us back a little. But everything went well with the interview. After that, we went and talked to another family that got married on Saturday and the mom and a son are getting baptized next week. So that should be good.  

On Tuesday morning, we came back to It‡ and had our Zone Meeting like normal. In the afternoon, we went and visited the Hno. Estigarribia, and he said that his boss told him that if he wants time off, tough luck, because there's a lot of people that want work. But he might get a new job in January, so we'll see. After that, we went by a couple of members' houses, and then went and got fallar-ed a couple of times. At the end of the night, we went and had a Noche de Hogar with the Olmedo and Garrido families. That went really well, and then we came home.

Wednesday was the Virgin of CaacupŽ day (CaacupŽ is a city). Basically a big pagan holiday where a lot of people walk to the said city to renovate their relationship with the Virgin Mary. And there's a lot more stuff that goes on that has absolutely nothing to do with religion whatsoever. In any case, it was a national holiday. Federico came by to go work with us, and we went to the Flia. Vega's, and they happened to have a tree that they wanted to cut down. And there's no chain saws or anything here. So we worked on that and got it down and said we'd come back the next day to cut it up more. After that, we went to Blas' and shared a little with him, then got fallar-ed for lunch, so we came home and ate. In the afternoon, we went and talked to Francisco (Javier's brother) about the Book of Mormon. Then we went and taught a 1» lecci—n to a lady that was at her neighbor's house the other day when we talked to them. It went pretty well, and it turns our her "husband" is the Hno. Largosta's cousin, so they already knew a little about the church. After that, we went and met a couple of Federico's friends and visited an inactive lady before going to the church for Consejo de Rama and also Noche de Rama. Those both went pretty well. 

On Thursday morning, we went to the church and cut grass (with machetes), and then went to the Vega's and cut the biggest branches off of the tree (with an axe and a saw), and then we ate lunch with them. The APs came and brought us some new furniture and stuff for our apartment, so we spent some time putting all that in place. In the afternoon, we went and visited the Flia. G—mez, and then went and talked to Liliana. After that, we met up with Javier and went out to Las Piedras. We went to a members' house, but he wasn't home, and we talked a little to his wife and daughter, but they weren't at all interested. So after that, we went and visited the Flia. Silvero, and then met an old investigator that hasn't been visited since they combined the two areas a few months ago. His name is Diosnel, and he's 18, and he's a pretty cool guy. After that, we went and talked with the family we met last time, and met Miguel, the husband. but they didn't have time to talk because they had a visitor. So after that, we came home and went by the church to see if anyone was still there for the Seminary Graduation, but nobody was, so we came home. 

On Friday, we got fallar-ed by the Flia. L—pez again, so we went and did a verification from Wednesday. The mom, Miguela, was sick, so she didn't talk to us, but her daughter read a lot. After that, we made a contact and then went and visited Oscar, who's an old member that we never visit. Then we went and lunch with the Flia. Largosta. In the afternoon, we got fallar-ed, and then went to the Flia .Quintana's and the „a Rosa had a couple questions about baptism, so we answered those and she said that she wants to get baptized in January. So we said okay. Plus, her husband is starting to stop drinking and smoking, so that's good. After that, we went out and talked with Clides for a while with Javier, and then went back to his house and shared a little with Martina and Francisco. After that, we went and visited the Taboada and Mattesich families, and then, like always, Guido brought us home.

On Saturday, morning, we went back to Miguela's to talk to her, but she was still sick, but their cousin was there, and his mom and grandpa recently died, so we talked to him about that a little. He's also a Largosta cousin. There seem to be a lot. After that, we looked for some people from the ward list, and found one of them, Leticia. Also, we saw Martina on the street and she told us to come and share a scripture, so we did. And we had lunch with the Flia. Fern‡ndez. In the afternoon, we had Correlation meeting, and the Relief Society was having their end of the year program with the whole district, and Elder Lloyd had to play the piano for a song they sang. Then we had to go quick to the Flia. Paredes', and we taught them the lesson 2, which is the Plan of Salvation, and that went pretty well. After that, we went back by the capilla and got Javier and some cake, and went and ended the night visiting the Mart’nez and Caballero families. 

Sunday morning was nice, and there were a lot of people in church. It was our turn to speak, and that went pretty well. And most everyone stayed after Sacrament Meeting, which was not normal, but nice. After church, we came home and ate and studied, and then went to Javier's house to watch "Regocijaos, Jesœs Naci—" with his family. It's the "Joy to the World" video that came out last year, but it just recently came out in Spanish. In any case it went really well. After that, we went and visited the Olmedos and then the Garridos. Then we went to the Flia. Quintana's house and shared a little with them before going to the Flia. G—mez' house and talking a little with their mom, who's not a member. Then we came home and planned and stuff.

Today, we had district meeting because this Wednesday we have Zone Conference. After we were done, we went and played soccer with some members, and that was pretty fun. That's it. This change is going to end on the 31¼ of this month, which is a little short, so it's already about half over, which is weird. But yeah, things are going pretty well. WeÕll talk to you all next week. For reals though.

I Love You All!!!!

Love,
Josh