From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: Chock-full of action
Date: 28 February 2005 9:48:44 AM EST

ÁHola!

This week was extremely busy, with a lot of stuff going on all over the place, and it ended really well with the baptisms of the Flia. Quintana and the Flia. Marecos. So that was good. Also it finally rained, so that cooled things down a little bit.

On Monday night, we got fallar-ed a few times, but we went and visited Clides and Milciades, and went by the Flia. Marecos' to see if they had any questions or anything before the interviews. Then we went and taught the lesson1 to a guy that we met a couple fo Sundays ago with Federico. he already had the Libro de Morm—n, one of the ones that was one of the first 20,000 printed in Paraguay. So we committed him to read and pray. That was it for our night.

On Tuesday morning, we left around 7:00 to go to Asunci—n for the Conference with Elder Robbins. The entire mission of 144 missionaries, plus a bunch of locals, was there, so I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a while. The Conference was super good. He talked a lot about how because we have 100% agency, we're 100% responsible for what we do. Also, he talked about how if we help people to understand the doctrine behind the commandments and laws of the church, it will help them a lot more than if we just talk about the laws. Overall, it was really good. After that, we had to come straight home, and we did divisions with Elder Amelang, who replaced Elder Marshall as DL in GuarambarŽ, who came with me to do the baptismal interviews, and Elder Gunter went to GuarambarŽ with Elder Woodbury. We didn't really have any time to eat anything for lunch because we were already kinda late. So we went and did the interviews, and that was good. And in between the Quintanas and the Marecos', we also visited the Flia. G—mez. After everything, we went back to meet up with the other Elders, and we talked about Pilar because Elder Amelang replaced me when I left and just came from there. So that's always fun. And so we met up and came home.

On Wednesday morning, we left again to go to Concilio. It was pretty normal, as far as Concilios go. The Gavarrets said that Elder Robbins was really impressed with our mission, so that's nice. Also, they talked about the importance of faith and energy in the work as well as obedience and doing the technical stuff. And we went and had lunch at the mission home. It was lasagna, and it was pretty good. After everything was over, we came home and just had time to go by Catalina's real quick and then go to the church to plan the baptism with Javier and have Noche de Rama. That was pretty normal, and then we came home.

On Thursday, we got fallar-ed a few times in the morning and so we had time to meet some new people. Also, we went to the Flia. Olmedo's and shared a message with them. And we had lunch with the Hno. Oscar as usual. In the afternoon, we got fallar-ed a couple more times, so we went and visited Nilson and his mom. Then we went and talked to Santiago and taught him the lesson 2. It went pretty well, and he said he'd come to church on Sunday. After that, we went to the Quintana's and talked about the baptismal service and stuff. Then we got fallar-ed a couple more times, so we wentand got something to eat. Then Elder Young and Elder Shimada (who was the Financiero but is going to be leaving the office as soon as the new one gets a hang of things) came to do divisions with us. So we went and talked with the Flia. Vega while we were waiting for them. When they got here, Elder Young came with me to go meet the Flia. Marecos. It was an interesting visit; we try to go over there later at night so that their kids are asleep or at least sleepy, but since it was earlier, they were really a handful. But oh well, we still had a good talk with them. Then we met up with the others and talked a little and then came home. 

On Friday morning, we went to study with the Elders Luna and Rivero in Yaguar—n, and in the middle of the trip, it started raining, so in the 2 blocks from when we got off the bus to their house, we got completely soaked. Then they couldn't here us clapping from outside their fence, so we just climbed over it and called them and told them to come down and let us in. So we were wet, but still had a good visit. When we came home, we went by the capilla to drop some stuff off, then went and made the baptismal program. Then we went and fijar-ed a cita with Martina and went to the Largosta's for lunch. Right as we were leaving in the afternoon, it started raining really hard, so we walked all afternoon. We went and talked with Raquel a little, then went to the fire station and talked with Catalina. After that, we went to the Flia. G—mez' and shared a little with them before going to Blas' to meet up with the Karns, who were picking some stuff up for other senior couples. After that, we went by the Torres' house to ask the Hno. to participate in the baptismal service tomorrow. Then we went to the Flia. Mart’nez' and shared a little with them before coming home.

On Saturday morning, we got fallar-ed more, then went to Martina's and talked about the 10 commandments again. Then we went to the Marecos' to make sure everything was okay for the baptism befoer going to the Fern‡ndez' house for lunch. In the afternoon, we got fallar-ed and then went and talked with one of the people we had met earlier in the week. Then we went and fixed a couple of things in the baptismal program and went home and got all the stuff and took it to the capilla. Elder Young came for the baptism, but this time with Elder Armstrong, who was the secretary but will be leaving the office soon. And it happened to start raining a half hour before we started, so not many people were there, but all the ones involved in the program were. The service went pretty well, and we had refreshments and everything afterwards. Then we helped clean the capilla for tomorrow and then went home.

On Sunday, we went to get Santiago, but no one was home. Oh well. At church, Pte. Villalba and the Hno. Vidal, Pte. Gavarret's secretary, came to visit us. The confirmations went well, and so did all of the meetings. After church, we came home and ate, then had to go to GuarambarŽ, because their cellphone hasn't been working and we really needed to talk to them. Then we came back home and had correlation meeting at the church, then Federico and Javier did divisions with us. Federico and I went and visited the Quintanas, then the Flia. Ayala. Then we got fallar-ed and talked to a new guy before going to the Flia. Caballero's. Then we came home.

Today, we're all in Asunci—n to take out money and go eat at a Chines restaurant. It's been a while since I had Chinese food, so it should be good. As’ es.

So, it sounds like everything's going well at home, and things are sure to be busy with all of the auditions and everything. Thanks to everybody for everything. We'll talk to you all next week.

I Love You All!!!!

Love,
Josh