From: Elder Joshua Freeman
Subject: Concilio week
Date: 11 April 2005 10:06:35 AM EDT

ĮHola!

This week was pretty normal, except that we had Concilio on Thursday. It was a pretty good week overall.

On Monday night, we went and visited Carlos Ayala and shared a little with him. Then we went to the Gonz‡lezÕ and talked with him about the Sabbath. His sister Mariza was also there. She got baptized a few months ago. After that, we went to Carlos and AdaÕs house and read a little from the Book of Mormon with him. Then we came home.

On Tuesday, we had our first Zone Meeting of the change. The Zone is now: Elders Worthen and Longo (a nuevito) in Obrero, Elders Ray and Landon (a nuevito) in Sajonia, Hermanas Curtis and Almada (sheÕs from Argentina) on the other side of Sajonia, us, Elders Gutiˇrrez and Womack in Amambay and Hermanas Anderson and Svetz in Centro. EveryoneÕs pretty cool, and it should be a really good change. After the meeting, we all ate and then came home. In the afternoon, we went to LourdesÕ, but she had to go to the doctor, so she wasnÕt home. Then we went and talked with Luc’a for the first time in a long time. That went well. After that, we went and talked to a contact we made last week, then taught a lesson 1 to a new couple we found that live by another investigator. So thatÕs always good. After that, we went to the capilla for Noche de Rama, and there were a whole lot of people there, so that was good.

On Wednesday morning, we got fallar-ed a couple of times, then went looking for inactives. We found them, but werenÕt able to have a really good talk with them. Oh well. In the afternoon, we went to LourdesÕ, and Julieta came, and we taught her the lesson 3. That went well. After that, we went to ViviÕs and gave her a charla franca, and she said she doesnÕt plan on progressing any time soon. So thatÕs good to know. After that, we went and talked with a guy named Antonio about the Libro de Morm—n. Then we went and talked with the wife of a guy that we taught a lesson 1 to last week. She was pretty nice, they just arenÕt ever home at the same time. After that, we went by a memberÕs house, then went to teach Manuel more of the lesson 4. Then we went and talked with Mariza and Miguela and Lizza and Luc’a. That went pretty well, and then we came home.

Thursday was a long day. We had to be in the office at 8:30 for breakfast (doughnuts & juice) for Concilio, then we had the actual meeting. The Gavarrets and Asistentes talked about keeping our apartments clean, about working as a team, about working with ward leaders, and about being bold in opening your mouth, testifying, and inviting people to obey the commandments. Then we went to the GavarretsÕ house for lunch, and after that, in a new development, we got to go to the temple! So that was pretty neat. After that, we went back to the office and talked about our numbers and goals and stuff like that, and then the going-home ZLs gave their testimonies and Pte. talked to us a little more. Then we had pizza and then came home. And by then it was 9:40. So that was an interesting day.

On Friday, we did divisions in Sajonia. I stayed there with Elder Ray and Elder Landon came here with Elder Higbee. We went out and taught a lesson 2 to a lady named Irene. It went okay. Then we went and talked with a guy that they met yesterday, and he was sweeping the sidewalk in front of his house and separating the trash from the leaves so that he could use the leaves for fertilizer. So we helped him, then taught him the lesson 1. Then we went to our lunch cita, which was really good., then came home and studied. In the afternoon, we went to do a verification, and the guy had a lot of questions about what happens after we die, so we taught him the lesson 2. It was good. For the next three hours, we walked around trying to visit people and trying to make a few contacts. Then it started to rain, but luckily, we were in a despensa (a little store), so we waited until it stopped, then went to visit some inactives. And right after we got there, it started raining again, except a lot stronger and a lot longer than before. But it stopped right as we were leaving. We went and visited a new member, Clara, and her husband, Enzo. They are really neat, and made us hamburgers, and we talked with them about faith, and then we came home.

On Saturday morning, we came back here and un-divided. We went and did a verification from last Thursday, and the guy, his nameÕs Arnaldo, had read a little, so we told him to read more and pray. Then we tried visiting a couple more people, and went and visited Liz. Then we had lunch. In the afternoon, we tried visiting a couple of people that live far away, but they werenÕt home. Then we talked with Dani at the Flia R’osÕ house, then went and did a verification from last Saturday night. The lady had asked people at her church about our church and the Book of Mormon instead of reading it, asking God, and finding out what He thinks. So that was kind of sad, because she then didnÕt really want to talk with us. After that, we had to go to the capilla to give some keys to the Hno. Ortellado so that they coulod watch a video in Seminary. Then we tried visiting a lot of people with no luck, so we talked with a guy sitting on the sidewalk listening to the radio, and he was pretty nice. And we gave him a Book of Mormon. Then we went and shared a little with Carlos y Sonia, which went well. And after that, we got fallar-ed and then came home.

Yesterday, there was some confusion because the Branch President didnÕt come (his momis in the hospital), and the first counselor wasnÕt sure if we were supposed to have Fast and Testimony meeting because we said we should but other leaders didnÕt. So we didnÕt. Instead, we (the missionaries) spoke. It still went okay, though. And the rest of church was pretty normal. After church, we came home and ate and planned, then went to LourdesÕ. Unfortunately, she had just left. So then we had about 20 minutes before we had to go to a Stake Correlation meeting of the missionary work. So we clapped a couple of houses and taught a quick lesson 1 to a nice guy named Nino. Then we went to Centro. The meeting was us, Elders Marsh and Bell from Zona 2, the Stake President, Pte. Damiano, Pte. Gavarret and the Asistentes. It was a pretty good meeting. After that, we came back here and had our branch correlation meeting of the missionary work, which went okay. Then we went and visited the Flia. R’os, then took our ropa to CelinaÕs and talked with Manuel. He went to visit his mom in Thompson this weekend, but still went to church over there, and took his brother with him. So that was good to hear. After that, we came home.

This morning, we cleaned our apartment good, and now weÕre going to go to Centro like normal. ThatÕs about it.

So, hope that everyone had a good week. We have LourdesÕ baptism scheduled for this Saturday, so we hope everything comes out well with that. And things are going pretty well here. So weÕll talk to you all next week.

I Love You All!!!

Love,
Josh