Dec 29, 2008

Hey there family!

Hey, so why didn't you let Aunt Audrey talk to me, it would have been fun to here from her too. But I´m glad you enjoyed talking to me. Only 5 months to go until the next time. But wow, it is really really hot right now, and we went out to check out a waterfall today as a district. So the two new guys in our district were excited to see a little bit of the country side, because we have to drive way out to the middle of nowhere to get there. This one was different from the last one, so I hope you like some of the pictures that I sent you.

Anyways, my new comp is pretty cool, he has a ton of enthusiasm and wants to work hard, so we're doing it the best we can. Edison and Sambrina are doing awesome, so in a couple weeks hopefully you'll be seeing their baptismal photos, if everything goes according to plan. My comp is still going through the major culture shock, and I totally am coming to appreciate just how great of a missionary and trainer Elder Nilsen was, because I just find myself thinking "Okay, what would Elder Nilsen be doing right now? How would he explain to me what's going on?" It’s a lot harder than it might seem to get a kid to understand what the people are saying to him and adjust to a new culture on top of getting him used to doing the missionary kinds of things. I find myself forgetting to do a lot of things just because of how much I'm trying so hard to make sure I'm covering all of the bases haha. But it hasn't even been a week yet, I'm sure things will settle down here pretty soon. As for favorite families here, there's always favorite families/people wherever you go.

But now its time to reprimand haha. What's with all this talk of me being married?! Its just all like out of the blue. But no, I didn't know Jeremy Arnold. I think he was the guy who gave his homecoming talk when I gave my farewell, but I don't know anything about him really. I did know Maddie though. Haha that’s weird to think they're getting married. Don't you worry, I'll be taking things nice and slow when I get home. For starters, I'll be in NY for forever when I get home and I KNOW there ain't nobody there. And there's some things I wanna do before I have to settle down, just take some time and enjoy single life for awhile, like start up a band or study abroad in Austria or Spain or something fun like that. Don't think that me going and living in a foreign country for 2 years has satisfied my appetite, if anything its just made me want to travel more. Haha.

Anyways, I hope all of your travel plans go good for this week, and that you guys really enjoy the game. You'll have to send pictures and tell me all about it. Love ya lots,

Elder Dennis

Dec 22, 2008

¡Feliz navidad!

Alright peeps, are yas ready to talk to yours truly? Well... I kinda forgot to get the information... HA! Gotcha! Alright, so here’s whats ya needs to do: First, go out and buy a phone card, and make sure Paraguay is included on it. Then, at exactly 4:00 on Thursday, Christmas day, Eastern standard time, call the number xx-xxx-xxx-xxx. It’ll be six o’clock here in Paraguay. If the number doesn’t go through you might have to put a 0 in front of it, but you should be just fine. You’ll be calling a member’s house, the branch president’s, and we’ll be getting there a little early to be there in plenty of time. Its funny to think its been like, 7 months since I’ve talked to any of you people.

Okay, now I gotta say, I just love my funny little branch. Its so hard to not just bust out laughing at most of our functions, its deserving of a mormon reality tv series almost. You can check out the photos of the christmas party. Its was cool, we actually got a really great turnout, we were kind of surprised as missionaries. We spent all week inviting people, and it actually turned out decent. Also, I got your package of gifts, so no worries there. Although, I’m sorry to say that all your effort to put Elder Peterson’s names on the gifts was a wasted of time, cause now I have to scratch them off. But I’ll be giving a couple to him on his way out, cause I love that kid. Oh, but you’ll be happy to know that I only opened the seat cushion (which is splendid, by the way). Oh, and the magnets, those I couldn’t figure out, and they’re really fun to play with. And the AAA batteries. Which will be coming in handy because I bought a guitar tuner today that uses em. Before today I thought is was the most pointless gift ever, but then again, I haven’t opened anything else, so I wouldn’t know... but I’m pretty sure that unless the book is just like a cover up for something than you didn’t send anything that could use them. I’m really excited to find out what the book is by the way, and I’m stoked for all the cds. But I’m not gonna lie, the things I’m most geared up to open is the ties... haha.

So I guess that brings me to changes: I get to have my first kid this change! I’ll be training some kid, but we don’t find out who until we get there cause its this huge big surprise and everything, so it’ll be exciting. I do know he’s american though, because there’s no latins coming this change haha. So you’ll be able to find out all about him this Thursday when we’re chatting. But I’ve decided to share something with you that I’ve come to realize the last couple weeks... The things I took for granted the most before my mission was, by far, shade. DO you know how much cooler it is when you’re under shade?! It’s like stepping into a freezer! I am never going to take shade for granted when I get back to the states... the first thing I will ever think about when I’m looking at houses to buy later on is where the shade is in the yard because man, it can literally save your life to have just a itty bitty piece of shade to be get out of the oven.

Okay, one last thing. I want to ask you to pray for Ever. He’s an awesome guy that isn’t feeling well. He’s helped us find 2 of our best investigators that we have right now, and he really wants to go on a mission, but he has lupus, and he’s going through a tough spot right now. So just keep him in your prayers. Him and Sambrina and Edison, the two investigators. I sent a photo of Ever and Sambrina with the elders. Anyways, I love you all, can’t wait to talk to ya. Chao.

Elder Dennis

Dec 15, 2008

¿Qué tal?

Well, first things first… I forgot to collect the phone information hahaha... so yeah, you have to wait another week. But next time I’ll have it, I promise. And I haven’t gotten your other package yet, so don’t worry... Well, now you’ll probably be worrying about why I haven’t gotten it yet, so I’m sure I’ll be getting it this week, don’t worry. Also, I’m currently sending you some photos taken with my new camera, hope ya like em. I also added explanations to that email so you should know what’s going on. It sounded like Haley had fun with her little trip though, I’m glad she got lucky enough to have some great people go pick her up. Man, I really hope I don’t have any problems getting home in like a year... I really really really miss my music...

Anyways, I guess I’ll answer your questions about the branch. Just about everyone is converts of at the VERY most 15 years, cause thats when the church started out here. Most are within the 2-5 year mark. Only one family is a transplant, but its a pretty strong family. They’ve been members the longest, since the early 80s, and have lived in several different places. The members do various things, like construction and selling things and working at the bus terminal, things like that. There is poverty in the area, but its a little bit different, because its not as widespread, because here, most people have jobs. So while the houses are just as small, they’re usually a lot nicer, with chuchi, er, nice, things inside, but still well below the poverty level for the states. Its hard to describe, you just have to be here and see it. Its like they’re living in the same conditions, they just take better care of themselves and their stuff. As for Brazil, I’ve crossed the border and wow, is it a heck of a lot nicer over there... like paved streets and nice cars, its like a whole other world. That and they all speak portuguese which is supposed to be close to spanish but its like impossible to understand. We have some members over there because for whatever reason there’s no missionaries or church over there, but they don’t come very often. As for food, we mostly cook for ourselves... we eat a lot of pasta, its quite easy to make... We eat usually twice a week with members. The main problem is that most of them are working during the day so they’re not home during lunch time. Just in case you didn’t remember (I’m pretty sure I’ve explained this before) we eat the big meal of lunch here, and just lightly at night... which is how it should be. No packing in calories just to store them away during the night. And we’ve stopped looking for a house becasue we got tired of looking at very tiny places for a lot more than what we’re paying at our current house... which isn’t all that bad, not really. If I can live there, you know it can’t be that bad haha.

Anyways, I’m looking forward to talking to everyone next week, hopefully I’ll get you the information hahaha. Love yas,

Elder Dennis

PS Tell Haley I’m sorry but I didn’t have time to write her today.

Dec 10, 2008

Howdy,

So as you guessed it, I already picked up a camera. Its really sweet! I got the Sony dsc-W150, and I got it for super cheap, for 850 mil guaranies, or like, $170 dollars. It takes sweet photos and is everything you could ever need in a camera. And don't worry, I had already thought about saving my camera and seeing if we can´t repair it when I get home. Oh, and sorry its taken me so long to write to you guys this week. Yesterday we had to go into Asuncion for our little Christmas lunch in a fancy restaurant with the Pres and 2 other zones, so Monday was a working day for us. But yesterday we didn't get the chance to do internet, so here we are today. By the way, I just spent two nights in a row on a bus… we left Monday night at 10pm from Saltos, and got in to Asuncion at like 6am on Tuesday, then we played a game of soccer as a zone because we never see each other and then did interviews with the pres because we never see him either. Then we ate lunch and then hung out at the office til 9pm, when they took us back to the terminal, where we had to wait until midnight to catch a bus back to Saltos, arriving here in the morning at about 7am…. I hate being the area the farthest away you can get from the office…

As far as changes and calling home, we´re still doing changes on Christmas eve… I think… but its almost for sure that I´ll be staying here in Saltos. I´ll probably be training too, because 22 new missionaries will be showing up this change! That’s a TON! I´m pretty sure just about every person in the mission is going to receive a change this time around though, there hasn´t been too many for a change or two now, and with all these new kids coming, its going to be an interesting Christmas. We got the information on calling home a week or two ago, but I don´t have it with me yet, because we still need to verify some stuff. We´re planning on doing it at a members house again. We have a cell phone (wehhehehe power!) but the connection isn´t that reliable for something like this. So I´ll be getting you the information here this next week I think. Just let me know like, what time is better for you guys. Are you going to be going anywhere for Christmas, or staying at home? Because on Christmas eve day, if we get changed up and plans have to change about when or where we have to talk, we have permission to call home for like 3 minutes to confirm things, so if something happens i'm going to need to know where to call. Also, Paraguay is 2 hours ahead of you guys right now, so we´ll have to plan for that as well.

Well, I love you guys a lot, hope all is well, and talk to ya laters,

Elder Dennis

P.s. I don´t really care about Disney World, you should know I´m just joking about things like that. Now snowboarding in Switzerland or surfing in Australia… then I would be jealous. haha.


P.s.s. Dad, you´re going to love your Christmas present from Mom! hehe

Dec 1, 2008

Wow, its December already! Who da thunk? Anyways, I hope your vacation is going well, and you’re enjoying the parks. Right now its really really really fetching hot, and we sang Christmas songs in church yesterday... that felt very very wierd! But things are plugging along down here. We’re not having very much success right now though, so spirits are kind of low, but what can ya do?

But, I have run into a tiny problem... my camera is starting to freak on me. I think it might be the dirt getting into it or something... but whenever I try and focus it, the lens motors just start grinding like its trying to focus but it just makes it so that everything comes in blurry. It started a while ago, but wasn’t that bad, but its just gotten progressively worse as time has gone on, and now I can barely get a good picture out of it. So I’ve started looking at some cameras, and most are in the 200-250 range. Of course I’m sticking with Sony, and the main ones I’m looking at are the W150, W170 and T77, with prices or 220, 240, and 260, respectively. Thats the starting prices, but around here you can usually talk them down about 20 bucks (or 100 mil). So I just wanted to consult with you to see if these were good prices and if its okay that I get one before I do anything. I don’t know, these are like the main cameras out right now with some of the better specs but staying in what seems like a decent price range from what I can tell in my very shelter bubble of a missionary. :-)

Anyways, thats basically all thats really going on down here... its just really hot and I REALLY want to play in the snow. On a snowbaord.

Love,

Elder Dennis

(Wow, my letters suck when I don’t have any questions to answer...)

Tracie here - he didn't get an email from us because there was no free internet service @ Disney World - he obviously missed my incessant barrage of questions! :)

Nov 24, 2008

Wait a second… you guys are going to Disney World, withOUT me?! First a cruise and now this… you pigs disgust me. Haha just kidding. About the cruise anyway. But whatevs, I’ll keep walking the dusty dirt roads everyday in extreme heat. That's a lot funner than Disney World anyways. Well another week... still no dollar. Which is rising by the way. Just in case you wanted to know.

Well, this week kind of stunk as far as the numbers went... everything is very carefully marked and organized and the numbers very well kept around here. We have to talk to our district leader 4 times a week now, so that the mission can keep tabs on all of us little twenty somethings, and make sure we’re actually working. But we lost a lot of time by going in to Asuncion for 2 whole days, so yeah, whatever. But while we were in Asuncion, we totally went out to eat at this really really nice, expensive restaurant, and we were all like this is soooo expensive... until we realized how much we were paying in dollars. Because here, the food is about the same ratio as it is in the states. Like, 1 dollar will buy the same amount of food as like 1 mil guarani here. So while it was a 50 mil dinner, it was only like, 10 bucks. So yeah, take that Paraguay!

Well, we had another baptism fall, so our animo is a little low, but were just wiping the slate new and starting again basically from scratch with our investigator pool. Its a little difficult, but no one was progressing, and they were just wasting our time that could have been spent with someone else. But yeah, we don’t have thanksgiving around these parts, so the Christmas decorations totally went up like two weeks ago around here... that was a little weird, not gonna lie. Oh yeah, I got the Christmas gift package by the way... I like the cute little note to the APs... who don’t see the package anyways. That was a little embarrassing... :-p But I still love ya.

Well that's about it for now... I can’t think of anything else to ramble on about. Love ya,

Elder Dennis

Nov 18, 2008

Hola, so right now I’m in Asuncion because my comp had to sign in to the country today, and then tomorrow we have our zone conference. Anyways, the bus in sucked, because we took the bus that left from Saltos at 10pm last night and got in to Asuncion at 5.30 this morning, where we took a taxi to the office where we crashed until my comp had to go to sign in at like 9. Then I just hung out at the office until about 12, when we took off and ate at Shangra-la, which is really good Chinese buffet. And now we’re just taking care of the internet use for the week. So yeah, it was like impossible to sleep on the bus but whatevs, I’m not about to fall asleep while writing this, I swear.

Well it sounds like yall are having a good time at home with all of the activities. I hope things keep going well for you all, and that you’re having a good time shopping today for Robyn’s birthday. And tell Cole he better keep that Spanish up!

Well let’s see if I can’t explain a little bit more about Saltos. It’s a tiny little branch that gets about 20 people to the Sacrament meetings on Sundays… the classes only pull in like 5-10 on a good day. But we’re working our best to try and activate the numerous inactive members that live here, and strengthen the ward with some strong new members. However, this past week we were lined up to have a baptism of this really awesome lady named Rosi. Anyways, we go over the baptismal interview questions with here on Thursday and we tell her we’ll be coming back tomorrow with our district leader to do the interview, but overnight she got cold feet and ‘’got out of Dodge’’ for the weekend… so yeah, we finally find her on Sunday night, and she had went to Brazil for the weekend, but we ask her if she still wanted to be baptized and she’s like I don’t know so we didn’t have a lot of time at the moment cause we were running late and we had to get home to rendir, so we told her we were coming back tomorrow to talk about it and she like skipped town on us again… so yeah, we’re a little down about that right now, but whatevs. We got a sweet lady lined up for next week, but what we really need is just a solid family to find.

Anyways, the town is very popular because its on the frontera of Brazil. So all the Brazilians come over because they get the stuff cheaper over here, especially electronics… (I don’t know what it is back home, but a 4GB Kingston memory chip is only 12 US dollars… its unreal!) Anyways, because of that there’s a ton of shops and that means a ton of jobs, so that brings a ton of people from both sides of the border, and its just growing like crazy. Well, I hope that that answers some questions that you’ve had. Its an awesome area, it just needs a kick start in the heart to get this place thumping… Its sooo close!

Well, I’m out. Loves ya,

Elder Dennis

Nov 10, 2008

Well we actually found out our changes on time this week. And it turns out that all of us out here lejos will be staying together. Surprise surprise. But that's okay with me, I like my comp a lot, he’s a good kid. Today we went as a district to check out this water fall and lake thing just a little ways off the main road in Puente Kyjha, the last area on the road out here. So we just took a ton of photos and actually had a pretty good time. I was a little bored after like 5 minutes, but whatevs, I keep the people happy. So you should be getting a decent amount of those sometime in the next 50 hours.

So I heard about the elections... Barak Obama, eh? I’m glad I still have a little while to go here in Paraguay, I’ll just say that.

Oh, and I totally just got your other package this week... so I currently have more candy in my possession than the entire United States eats in a year... but hey, Elder Peterson and I aren’t complaining. But to make up for that Dad, don’t worry, I brush after every meal and before I go to bed. But... I’m sorry to inform you that I do not, I repeat, do not have floss in my possession. But oh man am I scared of coming home with bad teeth, the way peoples’ teeth look here! But I totally forgot to mention the saweet Counting Crows shirt I got in the package last week! That thing is awesome. But after receiving the pictures in this new package, I feel quite left out without an OSU shirt out here. By the way, Cole is getting HUGE! Tell him to stop growning because I still want to play with my little guy when I get home!

So I was going to mention the lack of college football reports, but Dad came through for me this week, so I won’t... But his mention of demonstrating a certain photo on his PHONE doesn’t make me jealous... okay, TOO jealous... if that's what he was going for. So hah! At least I don’t have to drive a car to work with my tunes playing and relax all day while my assistants do all the work in chilly fall air and eat delicious american food like ya’ll. Viva la Paraguay, baby!

But yeah, last Monday night, we hit up a store and picked up some Raid, and we killed all those suckers! It actually sucked that night, because we just doused our house in it and cleaned it up quite a bit, but then we left for the night and came back in and there were this little gnat things that look like ants but have wings, anyways, there were these little harmless things just flying around all drunk like because they were dying from the spray, but we had no clue where all of them were coming from so we were just killing them as they fell to the floor. Anyways, I finally spot that they’re congregating around this hole in the wall and so I jump up and I’m like ‘There they are!’ and I jump up on Peterson’s bed cause its right above it and I pick up the spray can on the way and I just unleash on this hole and then like thousands of them start falling out and dying and we’re screaming like little girls and spraying everything in sight. Anyways, we had to run out to the store because we ran out of this huge bottle of stuff so we got another one, and we also bought this towel things and we hose that down with this spray and shove it up into the hole. But by that time everything was dead, so we just cleaned them up and long story short, we haven’t really had any problems since, we just spray that stuff every morning before we leave the house. We did make ourselves sick the next day though, because our house wasn’t very well ventilated but we’re doing good now so don’t worry.

It has also come to my attention that certain children who shall remain nameless are taking away from the very precious ‘Write Josh’ time available to the parents. So in order to make up for it, each child is hereby commanded to write Josh an email for next week, and at least once every month proceeding hereafter. Also, mom, you better not be embarrassing me by posting way too many photos of yours truly on the bulletin board at church... because that is wayyy not humble girl. You are only allowed to put up as many as the other mothers have put up. Capish? Totally don’t know how to spell that...

Anyways, things are going good, I’m exhausted and want to sleep but the Lord doesn’t feel like letting me so I just keep on going. Loves ya,

Elder Dennis

The Bug

The bug that is literally from h.e.double hockey sticks that I had to kill last night while we were both screaming and whining like little school girls. We bought Raid today...

Nov 3, 2008

Tracie here - I have no idea why it took over 48 hours for this email to come through - he sent it @ 1:48 EST on Monday and I got it today @ 2:44 -

Hola,

Well, don’t you worry mom, the Pres was here a week before I came out, and he knows exactly what we’re living in. But don’t you worry, we’re already in full out exploring mode for finding a new house. The only problem is that this is a very touristy town, much like Saratoga, and prices are ridiculous... so we’re having some problems. Most places are at like 1.5 million, and we only have up to 600 thousand guaranies monthly to spend on a place... and all the reasonable places are already full. And its not that bad, really. The Salado house was one of the best you’ll find out in the mission... (may I remind you, we’re not in the states anymore Toto). But things are going pretty good, we’re still tearing things up. I hate rain. So the rainy season is starting I think, or something, because we’ve gotten dumped on just about every day this week.

Oh, and a little bit of good news now. The new cartero... or umm... mail guy... in the office is a lot better at his job, and he actually shipped my package out to me, so I got that on Friday (we pick up the folder the office sends out here to our little sector of the mission at the bus terminal usually around Friday). So I gotta say, cookie dough pop tarts are absolutely amazing!

So... I don’t really have anything else to really say. I don’t have any sweet hero stories like last week. I’m just settling in, and doing what I do best... putting a really confused look on my face as people try to speak to me in languages that I don’t know and then somehow convincing them that they need to go to church... I love it!

Loves ya,

Elder Dennis

Nov 3, 2008

Editor's note: I don't know why, but we did not get an email from Josh this week. Haley was so kind as to share hers for posting:

Hey girly girl,

So yeah, I'm picking up the portuguese a little bit, but man it is a language on drugs, not gonna lie! And don't you worry, your big bro is doing all he can to make you proud of him, and he's doing a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. Okay, as for the remedy: its like this tea thing that you cook up, and what it does is sort of like what happened to me with chocolate... it fills them up so much with nicotine and tobacco that they puke or get really sick, and then the next time they go to smoke or even just think about smoking it just makes them go into the gag reflex. It works really really good, I was surprised that I'd never heard of it before and more people don't use it.

Dude...ette, I totally got a letter from my boy Fiala the other day too, did he send you the photo of the mountain dew salt lake temple? That's the one I got, its totally legit. I can't wait to get back and hit that kid up. Anyways, remember to keep your head in the game, but have fun out there. Have you, do you, see anyone out there that I know? If so, that's awesome, say hi for me. Well, I don't have any cool stories really this week...

Love ya,

Elder Dennis

Oct 27, 2008

Well, they never told me I’d have to learn THREE languages on my mission. I’ll give you a hint as to what the third one is: looking out of the window of this cyber, I can see Brazil... and they don’t speak spanish over there. I guess I’ll explain. Last Monday, literally 2 seconds after coming up the stairs from doing internet, we get a phone call from our Zone Leaders, and I answer it, and E’ Love is like, ‘Dude, I’m gonna miss you.’ And after that, I had to RUN to say goodbye to some people, because at 9.30 on Tuesday morning I had to be in the office for a special change to Salto de Guairá. So I had to pack my bags and all that jazz, and then like all of the elders from the zone came over in the night and a couple the next morning to say goodbye when they found out. And then I was in the office and found out that I would be going on the 9 hour bus ride with E’ Reid, so I was stoked for that!

So now I’m working in a really tiny branch, with a new elder, E’ Peterson, who is in his second change. He’s awesome though, he’s from Canada. But anyways, my area is absolutely gorgeous. And as far as the eye can see, and farther, is all my area. Its HUGE! There are only 3 areas out here, running down the same road that cuts into Paraguay from my town, each about 45 mins apart by bus, and then after that, its 6 or 7 hours to the next nearest area. So that's just awesome. Yeah, and part of my branch’s boundaries go into Brazil, so that's pretty sweet too. OH yeah, so like I started out, there's just a ton of people who just speak portuguese out here, and it sounds like german with a french accent... its definitely weird. Umm... so yeah, this area was in pieces when I got here. The last elder was just a slacker and hadn’t done anything, but we went to town this week and got this place kicking again. We still have a lot of work ahead of us though.

Oh, and we show up at the church today in La Paloma, the next nearest area, to have our district meeting, and two 16 year old girls who were cleaning the chapel come running out and they're like, ‘¡Está quemando! It’s burning!’ So we rush in there and I grabbed the fire putter outer thing (I totally forget what its called in english) and I put out the fire. It was just like the light exploded when it got turned on and then the roof kind of picked up the spark. But still, I stopped the chapel from burning down, so that was cool.

Okay, I suppose I’ll explain the cigarettes. Its a remedy to make people stop smoking, that has like a 95% rate of working. You just mix like 2 packets into about a liter of water, and then boil it and strain it, and then give it to the person. So that's what we did. It worked, he hasn’t smoked since... Oh, and I don’t know how long it’ll take to get my package now, because while they send our letters to us every week, they don’t normally send us out our packages, so I probably won’t get it until we go into Asunción for the next Zone conference, which probably won’t be until the end of next month...

Anyways, I think I covered everything. My new house sucks, I love you all, and its really, really fetching hot!

Elder Dennis

Oct 20, 2008

Hey druggie, how’s it going?

So ya’ll never told me why mom had to get surgery... I feel very out of the loop here. And secondly, I’ve never been eaten by so many fetching mosquitos in all my life as I have this week! But that’s okay, I’m starting to get used to it, and after one day of it I started using my bug sprays, and that helps a little bit, but not as much as you’d think. Plus that and it got rainy and cold during the middle of the week, so I think now that its getting hot again we might be in for some more. Oh and I’m now 2 hours ahead of you, because we moved the clock forward and yins moved it back. So yeah. That sucked by the way, losing an hour of sleep. We don’t get many of those as missionaries...

Hey, and what’s this trying to send me link to a comic strip... I don’t think I can just cruise there on the internet mom. Do you want me to be macanero? Haha So if you want to send it you gotta send an actual photo of that. You can capture of picture of it on the mac, but you have to go into the Help thing and look it up. Its like command + 3 and then click, or something like that.

Oh, and I got a bit of news for Robyn: she’ll be pleased to hear that down here, I’m actually eating quite a bit of carne de soja, or soy meat. Thats cause its cheaper than real meat down here, and the people are really poor. I’m still not a big fan, it has a wierd taste. OK, the other bit of food news. You’ll never guess what I had to eat this week... something that here they call churra, or in english, Cow Intestine. Yummy. I think if I had my choice I wouldn’t eat it again. So the next time you see a cow you can think about me eating the intestine and putting a smile on my face a saying that its “riquisimo.”

So we had a sweet Stake Conference down here though this past weekend. We showed up and I had no clue what it was going to be like, but it was being broadcast from Salt Lake for all of Paraguay and Uruguay, and we got to listen to W: Craig Zwick of the 70 and the 1st counselor of the Relief Society and then Richard G Scott and Steven B. Eyring. Only Pres Eyring didn’t know spanish and had to use a translator, but it was legit. We learned a lot of cool stuff. So yeah. Anyways, the work moves on. Nothing really all that interesting to comment on this week. So I hope you’re all doing good and that you like the video and recover alright. Remember to tell me what of. Oh and who sent me the yo-yo, I still want to know!

Love yas,

Elder Dennis

Oct 13, 2008

Hey there,

I’m still kickin’ it. It was a pretty difficult week to get through, but I came out on top. One of the main problems is my comp is getting the whole “I’ve been here 6 months longer than you, I speak spanish, what the heck am I still doing underneath you” syndrome... I had a feeling that would be coming. But I’m just shrugging it off, because there’s no way that he won’t be senior comp come next change. I was really really surprised when he didn’t go up last change. Anyways, that, and wow, all but 1 of our investigators that went to church this week, we found this past week (there was 9 of them in total). It was just a huge line change in terms of investigators this week. But they’re showing us that these are the ones that want to progress, so I’m running with it.

Anyways, I sent you 2 cds of all of my photos (sorry, no videos, there wasn’t enough space or time...) so you should be getting those in a few weeks. I also got Cole’s chain letter today, and I’ll be getting that off here probably tomorrow, because tomorrow we’re going to Asunción for Zone Conference with the President, so I’ll be seeing the zone leaders before they turn in the letters to send this week. Haley stuck a nice little letter in there with it, so I was a little confused at what was going on at first haha.

Ok, its getting HOT... I don’t think I like it. One of the plus sides though is that like a month ago our shower head exploded (because they’re cheap little water zappers that heats up the water as it goes through the head). Anyways, it had exploded once before while I was in there, but it kept working, so I was like, whatever. But this time it exploded on E. Bischoff, and it didn’t keep working. So we’ve had cold showers ever since. And now that its getting hot, its not so bad. But its a very thick, humid heat, like back home but like, thicker. I don’t like it. Dry heat, which we’ve had here before, I didn’t mind all that much, but I don’t know if I can take a whole summer like this.

Oh yeah, the whole summer and you guys winter reminds me, next week, I’ll be tripping and “falling forward” while you guys get to “fall back” in time, so I’ll be two hours ahead of you guys. And tell dad to stop rubbing it in with the sleeping in til 10, just in time to watch the football games... Oh, and you should forward E. Fiala’s emails to me, so I can feel in on the loop too... oh, and tell him I already tried the ball and stick game here, but by far the funnest is shooting birds with a sling shot, where you just use your fingers and hand as the stick... because down here thy haven’t quite progressed to the using sticks part of it all. They’re actually pretty legit sling shots though, you can get them for like 30 cents in any of these little stores that are everywhere. I might send a picture next time, but no promises cause I’ll probably forget. Oh and sorry, but I didn’t take any photos this week, soooo, no photos this time around.

But now, I got some food advice. First off, the next time you go to NYC, you totally got to look up a food joint that has Lomito Arabe... you won’t be disappointed. Unless they make it bad. That I can’t offer any garauntees (I have no clue how you actually spell that word, me english chupa). Also, as of Saturday night, I can officially say, that I have eaten, the blood of a cow... Notice how I said “eaten,” not “drank.” That’s cause they make it into a sausage like thing... I’m not sure if I’d recommend trying it or not . . . I probably wouldn’t eat it again. Apparently its like super expensive and a delicousy here though. Go figure.

Love ya lots,

Elder Dennis

Oct 6, 2008

Hey again,

Well conference was just awesome, but it made things a little different in working this week. But other than that, everything is pretty normal around here. Umm… I don’t really know what else to say. Nothing all that interesting happened this week. Oh wait, I forgot, you guys still don’t know some things.

Well, for starters, the President didn’t show up to that thing, but it went alright, I got some shaky photos that I had a buddy take, so I’ll be sending those to yins. We look way Beatles, I’m just warning ya.

And then for cambios… yeah, I’m still in Salado… it’s REALLY exciting. And I’m still with E’ Betancourt, but that’s okay, because he’s pretty cool. Other than that, we’re working hard, even though it was really hard to go out and get to work again. Hearing that we were just staying just sucked all of our umm.. in spanish the work is animo, I can’t think of it in English… just right out of us, but we got it back by just forcing ourselves to work. There’s a great quote in Preach My Gospel that I love that talks about Work, and how it’s the best kept secret in missionary work. I gotta say, its true.

A question: Am I really a missionary? I don’t think I am, I’m just on a vacation working my butt off in Paraguay… I don’t see any connection yet. I still can’t believe I’m on the trip of a lifetime, the one that I’d been prepared for since before I was born. Every once in awhile that feeling comes, but slightly, and only for a moment. But to think I’ll get to tell you guys all these stories though and to my kids one day is a sweet thought. Hopefully my journal will be interesting enough to read to help me remember in the future. On the 22nd of this month it will have been a year straight since I’ve missed but 2 or 3 days.

Anyways, I got a video and some photos for you guys again, so I’m going to try and send those. Oh and you can tell Santa to just hold all gifts until February 2010. I won’t have any need of anything really until then.

Love yas all,

Elder Dennis

Sept 29, 2008

Hey there peeps,

I don’t have a whole lot of time to write today, because I have to leave and go practice again for this performance tonight. The church is throwing this huge show in San Lorenzo (like the richest area in the mission) and they invited the Elders to perform a couple songs and they also invited the President to come check it out. I don’t know too many details, only that I can’t play the song very well yet. So yeah, you’ll hear more about how it went next week.

This week was absolutely crazy, we went to the temple on Tuesday and then had a wedding and baptism that night, and it was a huge baptism. There were 17 people in white, with 12 people getting baptized between 2 companionships. It was just incredible to see that. And then yesterday we had 2 more baptisms after church, so our companionship baptized 9 in total this week. We also had a huge service project that the church threw on Saturday, where we cleaned up and painted a school in Limpio. There was a ton of people there, and we also got to wear the Spanish version of the “Helping Hands” shirts: Amar es Servir, or “to love is to serve.” It was pretty fun, I took some cool pictures, which I’m trying to send, but we have like no time today, so I’m not sure if I’ll get them off today or not.

Anyways, as usual we haven’t heard anything about cambios yet—we’re still waiting quite anxiously to know what’s going on with that. But my guess is that we won’t be finding out until tomorrow night… I really, really want to leave, which means I’ll probably be staying. But I’ll be sad to leave E. Betancourt if I do leave, or if he leaves, because he’s pretty sweet, we’ve had a lot of fun this change.

editor's commentary - I say "Ay Caramba" when I mess up in tennis class and my coach was teasing me last week about swearing - so I asked Josh if I was really saying something bad -

Well, I don’t think you’re swearing, but my knowledge of Spanish swear words is pretty limited, I only know the really strong ones. And they’re different in all parts of the world. Like my comp and the comp of E. Bischoff talk about the different words and if they’re bad in their countries, cause a lot of times one of them will say something, and then the other will be like “Woah!” and the other will be like “What, where I come from that’s not bad.” So yeah, can’t help you too much there. Well the family photo looks good… but it feels really really tiny…

Anyways, I gotta go, so umm… Love ya,

Elder Dennis

Sept 23, 2008

How’s it goin peeps?

Well this week was pretty crazy, we were all over the place. But we had three baptisms, of Tania, Graciela and Escolastico. But whew, it was a fight to get them all baptized, Satan was fighting back pretty hard. But today was awesome, cause we got to go to the temple! See the pics that I sent back. I will say, that Spanish is WAY different. Not really, cause I could understand everything, but man my tongue got all knotted up there, and it felt like my first day in Paraguay all over again. I also had interviews with the President this past week, and that was a lot of fun too.

Well I’m utterly appalled at the selection of cereal that Cole gets to choose from! Getting to eat candy cereal—I never got to eat candy cereal . Haha oh well, not that it really matters to me, I’m in Paraguay and get to eat whatever I want now… ok, so I get to eat whatever the members give me most of the time, though I do get to eat my corn flakes every morning. Oh, and I got those pictures from the Counting Crows concert… way to totally rub it in my face! Oh, and I suppose you’ll be finding out sooner or later, so I guess I’ll let you in on it now. So next Monday I have to play the guitar in front of the President of Paraguay… I’m not quite sure how I got myself into that one.

But I’m pretty excited, cause tonight we have another baptism, my first family! There’s 7 of them that are getting dunked, and they are so solid. The family has been going to church for over a month now, but the father travels for work, so we’ve had to wait for him to get back for them to get married and baptized. That’s one of the main problems here in Paraguay… no one gets married, they just get together and start their family. Or actually, what usually happens is a baby comes along out of the blue, and then they start the family. So like this couple, Guillermina and Hilarion, they’ve been together for like 17 years and have 8 kids, but they never tied the knot. So this is also my first wedding, and I’m so stressed out over the paperwork, cause this is my first time and I’m already senior comp so I gotta know whats going on, and I have absolutely no clue. I’m too inexperienced still to be senior comp waaaaa! But you guys never told me who sent the yo-yo… I’m still in love with whoever sent it. I have that and a slingshot to keep me interested during the day.

Anyways, I can’t think of much more to say, other than this might be the last full week in Salado, cause changes are already upon us again. Crazy fast the way time flies.

Love you all,

Elder Dennis

Sept 15, 2008

Hola yet again. I’m still just kickin it here in Paraguay… with not much to really say. Well, I can say that I hate paperwork! We’re trying to get a couple married so that they can get baptized, but the parents of the woman were stupid and didn’t take out her ID when she was born, so she never got one, and now we’re trying to get her an ID so that she can get married, and man! It’s one big hassle. But yeah, that’s all I have to really say right now. I’ve come to discover that Paraguay is very unorganized in the whole bureaucratic system. So that’s been just one big headache for me… we had to move back the wedding and baptism of 2 families until next week.

But like you predicted, I think that tiredness was a warning sign, cause this week I got SICK! I was battling a stomach flu with some crazy chivivi (look it up in a Guaraní dictionary) and a burning fever on Friday night, but it broke during the night, but left me with a splitting migraine for Saturday. So yeah, that was a lot of fun. I’m convinced whatever it was that was causing the problems just got flushed out as well. But I’m feeling a lot better today, and our baptisms start off this week, from all the people we’ve been working with, so I’m excited for that too. But yeah, I feel bad for the little guys working in the states… this week, even being sick and one of my families and some other people didn’t go (mostly cause I was sick and didn’t get to verify with them), I managed to get 14 in church and still have just as many fechas. But as for why, I don’t really know, cause its still the same area, but I think its just that I’m very open, smile a lot, joke around with them and my comp is the same way, so we just show the light that we have and people want to know why… And it works.

So I got your package, and I just gotta say, whoever came up with the idea to send me a yo-yo needs a big kiss! Cause that thing is amazing. I absolutely love you whoever that was. Well, you also proved psychic mom, coming up with the socks right when I needed them, and Pop-Tarts… mmmm! Some more practical things for next time… a permanent marker, maybe some of those felt tip pens I like (but not a lot, I only use them for journal writing)… oh! If you could get your hands on some of the CTR rings that the little kids get, that would be awesome. An Elder tipped me in on the idea for little rewards when the kids do cool stuff. So yeah, that’s about it though. Maybe if you have some more soundtracks or something, but you can just send me copies of them, you don’t have to send the original. Like Singles Ward or The best two years would be sweet. Anyways, love you lots, hope you’re all doing good. Its crazy though, you’re little boy is a missionary now. Chao!

Elder Dennis

Sept 8, 2008

Well I’m glad to hear Haley made it out to Idaho alright, I’m a little scared to think of all the staff that happened that they didn’t tell you… hahaha. But actually, I’m planning a road trip when I get back: just take a week or two and head around the country. Shane and I were planning that before I left, he’d probably still go with me. But thanks for making me trunky today with your little guitar card talking about Counting Crows and Maroon 5. Now I just want to listen to good music again! Tell Cole to keep up the good work, and tell him I haven’t gotten a good picture in awhile, so I’ll be looking for another one here in a months time.

But things are going pretty good, but I’m really tired. Like extremely tired, and I don’t really know why. We’ve been working hard, but I didn’t think it was That hard. We’re tearing it up though out here, your little boy is a rock star in the mission. Actually, I don’t know about that, but I was a little disapointed with my church attendance yesterday, I only got 16 people to go. But I still have to wait another week for the baptisms to start, but we have 15 people lined up to take a dunk over the next 2 weeks after that, so we’ll see how we can do with helping them actually get there.

I hope you’re liking the videos though, I think they’re a nice little touch. I didn’t take any pictures this week though, so thats why you didn’t get any. We’ve been so busy I have’t had any time to even think about taking pictures. We have so many people to visit that my head is swimming all day long trying to work in everyone and make sure everyone gets a visit. And they all love us cause we’re good lookin, fun to be around cause we got the light of the gospel kind of people.

There is one family in particular, the family Alvarez. They’re so awesome, its a family of 10, with 7 that’ll be baptized, the only problem is the husband travels to work so we’re just waiting til he can get back and stick around long enough to get the deed done. But the kids are all girls, and they’re so awesome. They totally make fun of my Guaraní though because I’m a gringo and can’t speak haha. But yeah, I love that family so much. And then there’s other people that are sweet, especially the members, like 3 or 4 families that each of them I could call my paraguayan family. I absolutely love it here. And I was thinking about it this last week, and I can actually speak spanish already. I don’t have to think about it at all to understand... unless they mumble or talk really really fast (which most paraguayans don’t do cause they’re all chill). So yeah, thats how I’m doing down here. Thanks dad for the update, but sounds like OSU is in for a tougher year this time around, but I liked to hear that alls going well for you too. Anyways, I can’t think of anything else to say soo... chao.

Elder Dennis

Sept 1, 2008

Well, another week down, and it was an amazing week! We’re just working hard, and the blessings are pouring in. We were able to have one baptism this week (we were planning three, but the two men fell, we’re working with them for next week), of Mercedes, who after putting personally 4 dates with her in the past, finally accepted and was baptized. You should have a picture by the time you get this. And then the most amazing part was that we just worked our tails off, and with the help of some amazing members, we were able to bring fourteen, one-four, people to church this Sunday! Wow. Talk about blessings. The Lord is sure blessing me in this new calling, and I’m just working as hard as I can, as smart as I can, and praying even harder.

But wow, its already September! Its crazy just how fast the time is passing. I’ve been in Paraguay since April, and it still feels like I just got here yesterday. But at the same time, its getting so hard to remember life before the mission, that I actually just sat around and wasted time. I didn’t actually do that, did I?

Oh man, that stinks about the tv, but that reminds me, did you guys ever get around to picking up Blu Ray? Oh wait, I don’t know if I want to know, I still have quite awhile to go haha. But has OSU started? You have to keep me posted with the highlights each week… not an option. And thanks for the money, when E’ Cameron left, he took his cd player with him, so today I picked up a cd player and speakers, so we’ll have some music in our lives again. Those soundtracks that you sent me awhile back are amazing though, I must say. Pirates and Mohicans are the best by far, but I was surprised by the new Indiana Jones, but kind of disappointed by the Harry Potter one. I also love the come sing to the lord cd of hymns, its amazing. But yeah, the MoTab… I’m not really a fan.

Anyways, you can tell Santa that little E’ Dennis wears medium crew neck drilux tops, and small boxer cut corban bottoms… and he desperately needs black socks, because he doesn’t know what happened to all of his. But he’s only in Paraguay so he’s fine for now, cause the socks don’t have to match. He’d also like an iPhone, but you can tell him that can wait.

Anyways, I can’t think of much else to say. Tell Haley to not get too attached… but to keep having fun. Tell Robyn that she can do it… I had to. Aaaannnddd… tell Cole to play a game of Wii golf for me. Love you all,

E’ Dennis

Aug 25, 2008

Well, its good to hear how everyone is doin back at home, and things are still just chuggin along out here in Salado. But I did get a new comp, a latin, Elder Betancourt, from Ecuador. He’s pretty cool, I like how I have to speak to him all in Spanish. Well actually, he knows quite a bit of English too, but we only use it when we’re in lessons and we just need to say something really fast to get us on the same page before we take an action or something. E’ Cameron went only 20 minutes up the road though to Bella Vista, where our chapel is, so all the members still see him every week at church, and his companion is E’ Bullcreek. So we have an interesting little family right now. Also, E’ Moreira went to a new place, kind of far away, called Benjamin Aceval, and E’ Bischoff has a sweet new comp named E’ Ventura, who’s from El Salvador.

I don’t know much of what else to talk about. Thanks for the other forward of funds… this will definitely last a lot longer than the last time, because I don’t have to drop ¾ of it on a guitar. Um.. I’m starting to look more and more like dad, cause my hair line just keeps going farther and farther up my head… its quite depressing. Or it could just be that they made me senior comp this change… Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that part didn’t I? …Tartar Sauce!

Yeah, so after only 4 months in Paraguay, or just 3 changes, they made me a senior comp. As the AP when I got here, who’s now a zone leader, E’ Stokes, said during the changes when he found out: “Wow. That’s… awesome. I’ve never heard of that happening.” So yeah, that’s definitely just blowing my mind right now. I’m with a comp who has over twice as much time in the mission as me, and I’m telling him what we’re going out to do. And I gotta say, it’s a LOT different from the perspective of senior comp than from just tagging along with the guy who knows what’s going on. But I’m working as hard as I know how, and we’re starting to tear up our area. I was able to bring over my goal to church yesterday, and I got 3 baptisms lined up for this week, with a family of 10 lined up for the next week, and yeah, I love just going out and working how I want to work and just showing my love for the people. But I need to to remember Luciano and Escolastico in your prayers, that they can both make it to their baptisms this Thursday.

Haley wrote me, and it sounds like she’s doing pretty good. I hope the young uns are getting syked for school… hahaha. Suckers! I love you all, but need some more random pictures… so keep em coming.

Your’s truly,

E’ Dennis

August 18, 2008

Tracie adding some commentary here- Josh sounds a little frustrated today. Here in the NY Utica Mission, the Elders find out on Saturday night whether or not they be will transferring to a new area on the upcoming Wednesday. It gives them time to say goodbye to the members at church on Sunday, and go around visiting investigators to say goodbye. For some reason, in Joshua's mission, they find out the day before they move - guess he doesn't like that too much -

¿Mba’e pico? What do ya mean you don’t have any questions? Don’t ya know I don’t have anything to write about if you don’t ask questions? Blah, I suppose I’ll try to put something together so that you have something to read… :p

So, first things first… I still don’t know my cambios yet, so you got another week. I know, I know, I hate it too. I also have some news for Dad, cause I weighed myself last week, and I officially weigh 68 kgs… or roughly 150 lbs, so my guesstimate was right: I’m getting fat. Also, I’m working on sending you some photos today. I’ll also be making a dvd of everything on my card here in the next week or two, but I’ll be doing that through the guys at the office, because I need to archive my stuff. I’m debating if I’ll send it or not, because I really don’t want it getting lost in the mail, because I’m very close to filling up my card. I have a lot of others though, so I guess I could send it and use the other until I hear you get it safe and then just delete the card so I can use it again… Anyways, I’m just thinking out loud (on paper) mostly so that I have something to say…

Anyways, we had some fun today. We went to the “Zoo” that they have here in Asunción today, and I took some fun pictures. But yeah, it’s a complete dump. Then we went to a place close by to eat, and after that there’s a building that stands empty now, because 3 years ago, a grocery store (kind of like a Walmart) caught on fire, and the owner, trying to stop people from stealing stuff, locked the doors and let 400 people, who were trapped inside, burn. That was on the way, and we stopped and paid tribute to them and took photos of it, so I’m sending some photos of that too. Its so sad what happened, and the owner just paid the judge off and got off free. There’s been a ton of corrupt things like that going on here in Paraguay that’s really making the people push for change. On Friday, the new president of Paraguay took office, and he is the first party change in the presidential seat in over 50 years here in Paraguay, and people have a lot of hope for him cleaning things up. I really hope he can help out too, because Paraguay really needs change.

But speaking of corruptness, its killing me to not watch the Olympics. I hear a few things here and there, but I’m just out of the loop as a missionary. The things I am hearing though are that there’s a bunch of stuff going on with the Chinese mafia and them taking out the top athletes of other nations. What exactly is going on over there?

But yeah, mostly I’m just like, we need to know our changes! Our parents would like to know too. And while I don’t really mind waiting until tomorrow, they have to let us know in the morning, because we need time to know if we have to say goodbyes or pack our suitcases. But we probably won’t know until 9:30 when we get home, the night before, because we don’t have a cell phone, so they’ll call E’ Moreira in the early afternoon, because he’s the District Leader and gets the phone for the house, so he’ll know and be fine because they can come home early or visit some people they want to say bye to, but for us, nope; because that’s how the mission works. It’s really pissing me off. Plus I just really, really want to know if I’m getting out of here or not.

Anyways, I’ve rambled enough, and I gotta go. Hope you like the pictures.

E’ Dennis

August 11, 2008

Okay, so I’m just going to Start out by saying, I now know why they call it Pique… because the Spanish word for itch is “pica”... and it itches like CrAzY!! Tracie here - pique is a parasite - a sand flea actually, that burrows under the skin - usually on the bottom of the foot. It is very common in South America, and all the missionaries in Paraguay eventually end up being "hosts". Josh and I read about it before he left, so he was prepared. I've added some pictures from a medical website so you can see what he's talking about - yuck!
I got some great videos, which aren’t actually of the pique itself, just its eggs, but E’ Bischoff got some great pictures close up on his camera when I actually extracted it, but I don’t have access to those right now. But yeah, it was pretty big ‘cause I didn’t know it was pique and it was in a spot on my foot that didn’t hurt to walk, so I just left it for about a week. It didn’t really hurt to take out though… it was actually kind of fun; like popping a zit but better.

But I finally got my “birthday” package, so my candy is still in fresh supply, which I love you guys for, but we haven’t baked up the cake yet, I don’t know when we’re going to do that, cause I have to buy a pan first, and I don’t feel like it cause I’m lazy. It could have been better that if it as the “rich dark chocolate” cake mix with the “rich dark chocolate” icing… but everyone else is excited for it. Don’t worry, I’ll take a picture.

Anyways, its awesome that Robyn got to be baptized for Grandma! I’m getting really anxious to get back and start getting names into the temple when I get home, because we have to teach people about it but I can’t do anything right now. It’s kind of frustrating, but I guess I should focus on the living first. And I just have to make mention of the fact that you would be so proud of me if you saw some of the things I was eating down here. Some times I have to fight so hard to keep the gag down, but I just keep shovelling it in. Yesterday I had two just awful meals. Well one was a snack at night, but still. It was milanesa (don’t know if that’s spelled right), which is just like breaded and fried, egg plant, as well as cow fat… yeah, you just keep sending that candy now, ya hear?

Also, one very exciting bit of news: I road for the first time today as the person that’s holding onto the bars with one foot on solid ground flying at 60 kmph through the air as the colectivo roars down the street… it was awesome!! I love the Paraguayan buses, they’re so much fun, especially when they’re just overflowing with people. Oh and also, I’m going to actually admit, there’s been a few time this past week when I’ve been scared of getting run over by a cow… ‘nough said.

Anyways, now to answer your quite demanding list of questions…

1. The video, I don’t really remember when I took it, it was the first day of the change, and I was just chillin. It doesn’t happen very often, just the two times in the time I’ve been with him. He is quite prone to illness though.

2. Jamming with E. Adams was sweet, he’s a drummer. We found this little place that had some drums and an electric guitar that was willing to let us use them, and it was just crappy stuff, but we rocked it with some good blues jams. It was just me and him playing, but E. Bischoff went with us.

3. The guitar I got is actually really nice, I like it a lot. But I´m planning on just selling it before I leave the mission, maybe pick up just like the cheapest Paraguayan guitar I can find just to have afterwards, but selling it would also give me quite a bit of spending money to pick up little things (cant think of the word) at the end of the mission.

4. I’m doing alright on money… okay so I have like $5 worth left of it, but I don’t really have anything that I need or want to buy, so yeah.

5. I’d really like to get to see a new part of Paraguay. I love the people in Salado, and it’ll always be special because it was my first area, but yeah, you know me, I like change. And I’ve been here for 4 and a half months… plus with a new area, I’d get a new companion :D

But yeah, that brings me to my last point, and then I´m off. In two days I’ll be a fourth of the way through my mission, completing 6 months since I entered to MTC and put on this little black plaque that turns you into someone just a little bit different. And from today, its been 6 months since I’ve seen everyone but Mom. Love you all, and hope you’re doing great,

Elder Dennis

August 4, 2008

Ho Upei?

Yeah, Haley going off to college... its still weird to think about, even though I guess she's already there. And wow, no one is going out with her, thats just crazy!!! I just sent her a letter, hopefully I helped her out a little bit with the computer problem she was having. And what'd I tell ya, Macs the only way to go. I'm surprised Dad's computer only lasted as long as it did though, I thought it was a pretty nice one. You can tell him that he's allowed to use my mac disk and play Medal of Honor on his new computer, it should still be in his office with all of my cds. Oh yeah, that reminds me, I got the two BOXES of Nerds Rope and the cds, and muchas gracias por eso. Wow, I don't ever think I've seen so much candy in all my life. And the cds are just amazing. I'm loving Pirates right now. da DU dada da de du, da DU... I'll stop singing, I think I've been bothering E: Cameron too much with that today.

Anyways, last week was pretty good, we had a division with the Assistants on Tuesday, and they're totally awesome. I impressed E. Olive, who I went with, and he hooked me up today with a Guaraní course book from BYU thats freaking huge. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, and I made a promise that I'd still only study Spanish for one more change, but I'm excited to really get into it. There's not many here who can really speak Guaraní, and I really really want to, cause it just helps them out to understand what we're teaching the people so much better. Its like Spanish and English to me, if someone says something cool, like reads a scripture, to me in spanish, I understand it, but if they read it in english, it means a lot more to me. Its the same with the people here and Guaraní. So yeah, and then we had interviews with the President on Wednesday, and that was a really good things too. I learned a lot from those two days. So this week was definitely a growing week for me.

As for a scale, I don't have one here, but there's places you can weigh yourself, and I really want to, but I haven't yet. I'd guess I weigh about 150 right now. So about 10 pounds more than when I left NY. I'm also doing my excercizes almost everyday, and keeping myself in pretty good shape... at least I hope. The food really gets to you though. But looking back at photos from the MTC to now, there's definitely a huge difference. I looked so young back then... I hope you're liking the few pics that are getting through today, I plan on making a cd today to send you guys too, so hopefully that happens. Anyways, love you all lots,

E. Dennis

July 29, 2008

Hey There Peeps!

Well it sounds like you enjoyed the empanadas, and I gotta say, so do I, so do I. But my favorite is definitely these things called tortillas, but they're nothing like the tortillas from mexican food. I don't know how to describe them, but they're amazing. I've already picked up some recipes, so in 18 months, you'll be having a treat. But down here things are going alright, we're trying to keep things moving, and while things between us comps got really bad last week, they're starting to work out for the better.

I'm glad to hear things are going good, and that you're starting to settle down a little bit, I know thats all I want to do right now... we played a great game of futbol yesterday, and my body just aches haha. But I got the game winning goal, so it was worth it. But because of circumstances out of my control, we didn't have any time to do internet yesterday, so we got permission to do it this morning. Things are going to be pretty fun tonight though, cause we have a division with the Assistants! So yeah, that should be fun. One of the Assistants was here in Salado for the equivalent of a year, and he's finishing his mission this change, so I think he wants to visit some of the people and stuff.

But yeah, I'm doing my best to hold on, but things have been going crazy with our schedule this past week, so I feel all out of place right now. As for people to pray for, we don't really have any specific people right now, our pool of investigators is pretty low, and the people we find just drop after a visit or two, so we're doing our best to fix that right now. It was pretty fun this last week though, we did a division with our district leader, and he went with Elder Cameron in our area, and I took his little greenie, with only 2 weeks in the mission out into his area, and I had a lot of fun being the one guiding the lessons, and putting the commitments. It was a little harder, cause I didn't know they're area, but I put a fecha with one of their investigators, and it was just a good time. I learned a lot and it just felt good to stretch my wings.

I hope Grandma is doing alright, I'll be keeping her in my prayers. Oh yeah, I need the address of Grandma and Grandpa Dennis, cause I went to send them a letter and I don't have it... And as for the package, I dunno... whatever you feel like giving a poor missionary in Paraguay.
I hope you liked the one picture I was able to get off.

Love you lots,

Elder Dennis

July 21, 2008

Tranquilo, I figured something like that had happened, since I knew you had a crazy summer going, but wow, I didn't know just how crazy. And its absolutely loco that Haley is out of the house...

And no, I haven't gotten the birthday package yet, but I'm excited to get some more soundtracks. Last of the Mohicans is absolutely amazing. And I couldn't tell you what kind of things you sent me, it looked like they were just the cheapest ones you can find, but they were GOOD. I haven't used all of them yet, because I save them for special occassions, but right now I'm in Luque, about a half hour by colectivo from my house... entonces, no puedo decir.

Anyways, things with my companion are pretty much awful, he is a very special son of God, but I'm doing my best to help him out without going crazy, and right now I'm getting a ton of help from E. Moreira, but especially from his new companion, Elder Bischoff. He's so sweet, we just chill and talk, he's just real chill and a good kid, so I'm grateful the Lord knew what he was doing when he sent him to Salado. Right now we're also working on a song, and its legit.

On to some of the crazy stuff, so at like 4.30 am on thursday morning, I wake up to the sound of water running, and since the tap in the bathroom never stops, I figured we just forgot to turn off the water to the house like we normally do at night, and being ODD I cant sleep with it, so I go to put my feet down to find my sandals, and SPLASH...
There was a good half inch of water over the surface of the entire house! So I get up and I'm just like shoot, and that wakes up E. Cameron, and I run into the kitchen, were what happened was our water went out last night, and someone left the faucet on, so when it came on in the middle of the night and a plate was covering the drain, the water decided to fill up the sink and spill over onto the floor. But we spent like an hour cleaning it all up. That was fun. It still smells like a flood in our house.

Also, I gave a talk on Sunday... with 5 mins prep time! Yeah! It was awesome. Actually, I think it turned out to be a pretty good talk. It was about 10 or 12 minutes long, talking about baptism. I've realized that as missionaries, all we do all day long is give 20 minute talks to people, on all the different aspects of the gospel, so all you gotta do is get up and act like you're teaching a lesson. Its cool stuff, the orginization they have here in Paraguay. Oh, and this past week especially, I've come to realize on who all the responsibility of a standard Paraguayan ward relies. Number one, the Bishop, who is king. The people just don't get how the Presidents and 1st and 2nd counselor are supposed to do stuff too. Everything they need they go straight, and only, to the bishop. Number 2, the missionaries. We are the home teachers, visiting teachers, and any other kind of person that checks up on the members in their homes. But the Bishop, who is young and a returned missionary, is really trying to get things to work, but no one will support him. They're just stuck in their ways, and its really frustrating and sad when you have to explain slash argue with the members that the bishop is actually doing things right and that they shouldn't be mad at us cause its been 2 weeks since we've been able to visit them...

But anyways, I gotta go. Love you lots,

Elder Dennis

July 14, 2008

Well things are still chugging along… very, very slowly. These days with E. Cameron just drag on and on and on, and I feel like it’ll never end… I did get your package though, and that was just amazing, with like a full candy store of skittles and starbursts, so yeah, that was awesome. Also I finally have some decent music to listen to with the Last of the Mohicans and I really like one of those cd’s you sent me of hymns, the white one. Its really good. So thank you for that.

Other than that, we had a good day today… we went to Pizza Hut! Which actually wasn’t like pizza hut at all, but at least it was better than most of the pizza one can find here in Paraguay. I’ve been taking some really cool pictures these last couple days, but this computer doesn’t read my USB thumb drive thing, so I can’t get any sent to you unfortunately. I was really hoping to get to organize my photos on the computer, because copying them over to my chip time after time gets things a little “busy” on the camera. And being ODD when it comes to organization, its really starting to bother me to have the photos like that.

But yeah, I’ve also decided that I don’t yet feel like I’m actually a missionary. I mean, I walk down the dirt paths, with a white shirt and tie and teach people who live in little cardboard and tin panel huts all day long, but the knowledge that I’m actually on that 2 year voyage that I’ve wanted to take for as long as I can remember hasn’t really set in. I’m just on a sweet vacation out in the jungle of Paraguay right now. At moments it comes to me, like when I’m playing with the little member children, and I have flashbacks to when the Elders used to play with me, and when I talk and look at this person who has changed their lives in a million ways because they met me, but the day to day moments just feel like this is just one big summer camp get away where I´m just having fun with my friends… most of whom can’t speak English. That part in itself is really weird. I think I might have mentioned it before, but I can’t remember. Just the fact that you guys back home couldn’t come here and join in on some of these amazing conversations with these amazing people, because you can’t understand them, while for me, I don’t even have to try to understand them anymore, I don’t even think as I switch from one language to the other. Its hard to remember the times when I didn’t understand what they were saying, but it was only 3 months ago. I don’t know how to really explain it, its just little thoughts like “oh mom and dad would get along so great with this family, but wait, they wouldn’t be able to talk to them, never mind.” Its crazy stuff let me tell ya.

But anyways, I hope all is going well at home, and I love you all,

Elder Dennis

Another letter from a Zone Leader

Hello Dennis family,

This is Elder Adams. I am his Zone leader. I just thought that I would write you to let you know how much we really appreciate your son. Me more than anyone else really. Except for the people he teaches. He has a wonderful spirit that just touches the people here. If you were here, you would really be surprised from his transformation from when he got here to where he is now.

In another note, I am supposed to tell you that your husband is supposed to get a crotch rocket, not a cruiser!! He told me that when we were playing video games last night at the arcade. Haha......yeah...not really.

Well ......I hope you enjoyed the little update about your son. I expect a letter back from you guys....(I hear he has sisters too, so maybe some letters from them... :D..... And I wont give anymore updates unless I do.

I hope you enjoyed this letter as much as your son enjoys his companion......I´ll write about that in the next letter.
Elder Adams

July 8, 2008

Hola,

Things are going pretty good here. Today we went to the Expo, which is like the big country fair thing, which is why we had our P-day on Tuesday again. It was pretty cool, I picked up a couple of the Indian bags that they had. I´ll wait until next year to pick up some of the cooler things though.

This past week we had another baptism, of a guy named Jose Luis, who is way awesome. He´s going to be a leader for sure in the church here. We´ve also been doing a lot of service this past week, and helping some members out in constructing a bathroom. haha. Its been a lot of fun. Also this week I had a lot of fun and I translated my patriarchal blessing into Spanish. But that’s about it for interesting stuff that really happened. Oh yeah, I got Haley´s graduation announcement today, so that was cool and weird at the same time…

Anyways, so cambios happened this week, but I´m just staying here again with E. Cameron. Its killing me, I wanna get out of here, but its all good. The Lord still needs me here for some reason, so hopefully I can take E. Cameron for another change. He´s definitely out there though, and he pushes me to my end everyday. But at the end of the day I know I will be able to talk with my best friend in the world, Elder Adams. Haha he just wrote that. He´s an awesome guy though, definitely my best buddy in the mission. He does keep me going though, and he says he´s going to write you guys, so be on the look out for an email from him.

I hope you guys enjoyed the few pictures I got sent to you last week. I´m in the same place today, but sadly I forgot my USB for my memory card, and I was sending on sending some more, but you´ll have to wait til next week. Oh, and as for me and a bike, definitely a crotch rocket. The Honda 600 that’s all black and you can see the engine, I forget the model number and all that stuff. But yeah, definitely not a fan of the cruisers, those are old folk bikes haha.

But things are keeping up down here. Love you all,

Elder Dennis

Translations - thanks to Sister Greco!

Here are the translations of the first and last paragraphs from his June 30th email -

Hello, my family and my friends,
Everything is great here in Paraguay, and this past week was nothing less. First, we had a baptism of Valeria Centurion, the daughter of the leader of missionary work here in Salado. We had a dress and everything for her. We were going to baptize her sister too, but she was sick, so we are going to baptize her this week. Also, we have a little girl who is 9 years old that we're going to baptize this Thursday. They both are named Norma.
Guarani is an incan dialect in Peru.

Other than that, everything is cool. I don't have many problems here except for my companion. He is just crazy, but I haven't killed him yet. I am very excited because this next week we are going to receive our futbol (soccer) shirts (uniforms) for the zone, and these will be quality. I bought a ball (soccer ball) last week and I am practicing. Futbol (Soccer) is very fun, I love it, but we need jerseys. They are cheap, one only needs to buy one, that's all. But I don't have anything else to share.....

I Love you a lot.

Pictures from Paraguay!

Josh was able to send photos this week - check them out in my Picasa Web Album :

http://picasaweb.google.com/traciedennis

June 30, 2008

¿Mba’e chapa che ra’a?

Todo bien aquí. This past week was just awesome. We had two baptisms, both named Norma, so we were excited, and then it was my birthday and we were just working hard and find people and achieving our goals, so yeah, it was just a good week. My birthday was awesome, except for it rained all day, but we had a couple great lessons, and then some members gave us some good food and yeah, it was awesome. My zone leaders, E. Pavon and E. Adams, woke me up at 6.30 with a phone call, and then yeah, I don´t know, it was just a good day. I ate all of the airheads you sent me that day as well… I saved them just for that. The night before, I also got all of my letters for this week, cause the zone leaders pick them up on Thursdays, its just that they don’t normally pass them out until Monday. It was just because it was my birthday, so after our baptism we went and got some food and they gave me my letters. I got a card from grandma Karen, and from elder Fiala, so that was pretty sweet. I sent you a photo of me standing on one of the streets in the rain on that day as well. (I hope you enjoy these photos, I actually got it to work this time.)

We also got some amazing jerseys today that are awesome, that we had custom made as a zone. So we wore those today as we played against another zone, and totally creamed them. It was the power of the jersey, I’m telling ya. They’re white with a red and black stripe down the right side of the front, with a custom insignia and then our names and numbers (27) on the back. We also got shorts, which are black with a white and red stripe and the insignia and number as well… very very nice. I’m a fan.

Also, I got to say, that marinara sauce that you sent me is sooooo good. I made it for the first time on Saturday, and it was like heaven in my mouth, after only having had a salsa kind of sauce for forever, the actual bursting Italian flavour was incredible. But yeah, its definitely weird to think that I already have 5 months in my mission (if you count by 4 weeks as a month). Next week is changes again, and I’m excited to see what happens. With that I’ll hit 3 months in Paraguay. The time is just flying by.

Well I´m going to just work on getting some more pictures sent before time is up. I love you all, and hope all is well out there. And hey, you still haven’t told me about Dad’s motorcycle! Did he get it did he get it?! Love ya,

E. Dennis

June 24, 2008

Hola mi familia y mis amigos,

Toda está bien aquí en Paraguay, y esta semana pasada fue bien no mas. Primero, nosotros tuvimos un bautismo, de Valeria Centurión, la hija del líder de la obra misional aquí en Salado. Tuvimos una torta y todo para ella. Fuimos a bautizar su hermana tambien, pero ella estaba enferma, entonces, vamos a bautizarle esta semana. Tambien, tenemos una niña de 9 años que vamos a bautizar también este jueves. Los dos se llaman Norma.

Ok, I´ll stop using Spanish, and let you try and figure out what I said there. But man, with the baptism last week, we showed up about an hour and a half early for the baptism, and the font was filled but was completely dirty. So we had to empty it out, and the make it go faster, we were also emptying it by hand with buckets, so we were getting all soaked and sweaty, and then we finally got it drained, and they were both there and ready to go, but the stupid water was taking soooooooo slooooowwww. So we ended up just having to put it off for the next morning, and then the one sister, Norma, got sick, so we only got to baptize Valeria, but this week we’re going to baptize her, along with a little girl who’s family is all members. So we’re excited to have those. This week we also held a Talent show night and stressed the use of our talents to share the gospel, but hardly anyone showed up and only we did stuff. I played the guitar while we sang “Praise to the Man,” a verse in Spanish, Guaraní and English. That was pretty fun. Afterwards we just played a game with everyone.

Its still pretty cold here, but its warming up a bit. I think we cold just be getting used to it as well, but yeah, you don’t need to worry about sending anything more, I’m staying warm just fine. But I also got all my cards and letters today, but no package, but no worries, the zone leaders (two of my best friends) are saying they’re going to throw some sort of party or something with cake and whatnot, so don’t worry. It should be a pretty good day, because we have to baptisms lined up for the night before. But coming from the cards, what’s the turtles name? Is it still up in the air? AND! Totally not fair, the itouch is the exact same thing as an iphone, minus the phone! Not that it matters to me for the next two years, but still, way jealous down here. Oh oh oh! And does dad have a motorcycle yet?! And if not, what’s the hold up?! Haha I’m a fan of the Honda bikes myself.

Other than that, todo tranquilo. No tengo muchas problemas aquí, menos el compañero. Él es loco no mas, pero no le maté todavía. Tengo animado porque esta semana proxima, vamos a recibir nuestras camisetas de fútbol de la zona, y estas van a ser calidad. Yo compré una pelota la semana pasada, y estoy practicando. Fútbol es muy divertido, me lo encanta, pero necesito camisetas (jerseys). Están borato, solamente necesito comprarlo no mas. Pero, no tengo mucho mas…

Les amo muchísimo,

Elder Dennis (Day - niece)

P.s. Sorry I didn’t write yesterday, our P-Day got switched up because of a leaders meeting that took place yesterday.

June 16, 2008

¿Mba’e chapa? ¿Todo bien? Tranquilo.

Life is moving along. Like you said, its crazy to think that I´ve been gone for so long already, I´m not even noticing the time moving. What’s even more crazy, is that next week, I have to start using a “2” at the front of my age… that’s just weird. And Happy Birthday to Papason! I hope he enjoyed the rest yesterday, and especially his chicken picata... not fare! But what is this about money coming out of my account?! I haven’t been able to get it out yet… haha chiste no mas (or in English, just kidding… I got you, didn’t I? :-p ) Yeah, I got my money out just fine once I dipped below the two hundred mark. So now I got my guitar (HOORAY!) and I also got my cases for my scriptures today! So I´m stoked about that, they’re absolutely awesome.

As for the life down here, its freakin cold! I´m not liking this. Its usually not that bad in the middle of the day, but in the morning and as soon as the sun goes down its horrible. The funny part is that its probably not really all that cold, I just got used to the heat of the end of fall here and now that we’re getting into winter, I´m already accustomed to the weather down here. Other than that things are going pretty good. E’ Cameron is still a little tough to really get along with, he’s quite out there, but I´m doing my best, and we’re trying to work hard and get some people to progress. But really cool today, Pte. Wade and his wife and son stopped in at our District Meeting this morning, and visited with us a bit, so that was really sweet, they’re so awesome.

At home, it sounds like Robyn is doing awesome in here new school and friends and all that, so that’s great to hear. Okay, so I have some way exciting news that I forgot to mention. First I’ll say that whenever I write anything anymore in English, I’m totally translating it from Spanish to English to write it down. Its so weird, some things are just so much easier to say in Spanish. And that leads me to my bit of news: this week I had my first dream (that I remember) in Spanish! So that was a really exciting morning, I was just kind of laying there, and I was like “Woah, that was in Spanish.” So yeah, the language is coming along well. I don´t have to really try to understand anymore, I still have to focus on what they’re saying, and I can’t have too many distractions, but for the most part I don’t have to strain anymore to understand these people.

As for E’ Fiala, it sounds like he’s doing good. And just a tidbit of random information, Joe Weeks from Olentangy hockey is at school in Elmira right now. Just thought I could share that. And as for the package, some more velveeta and shells sounds good, as well as some skittles or nerds or something like that… you know what I like. Also, you should definitely include some CDs, like all the ones you bought me, but more than anything, I could go for some nice soundtracks, like Last of the Mohicans and Lord of the Rings, things like that… :D

Haha, and yeah, E’ Pavon is awesome. He’s one of my Zone Leaders, and he’s one of the best latins here at English. He’s really cool, I love getting to hang out with him. My other Zone leader is E’ Adams, and he’s one of my best friends here on the mission so far. He’s really into music, and he’s a professional drummer, so we’re totally planning on jamming when we get back. But yeah, life is great. I love the work and the people.

I love you all,

E. Dennis

Surprise Email

Along with Joshua's regular letter this week, we got this messsage from one of his zone leaders:

Hi Dennis Family! I'm Elder Pavon from Argentina. I'm serving in the same zone your son/brother E' Dennis is, here in Paraguay. He's such a great pal, we're having a great fun with him.
Just wanted to tell you that he's a good example to all the zone; he works hard and that he takes full responsability in his call. I'm glad to share this time with him. I'm sure you all are nice people as him. Keep encourage him! Thank you for everything you do for him and all of us.
Hope you're doing great there in New York. Take care! See you!

ELDER PAVON
Paraguay Asuncion North MIssion

June 9, 2008

Hola otra vez,

So first things first… the card still doesn’t work. It tells me how much I have on the card, but it won’t let me take the money out from the card, it just denies me. So I don’t know if there’s some sort of permissions thing that has to be changed or what. I also tried calling the house and your cell a couple times today, if you find a weird number on there. Well it wasn’t me, but the guys I was with at the office since I can’t talk to family. I also tried calling the Customer Service number on the back of the card, but the computer system asked for the last 4 digits of my SSN, and it wouldn’t take it. So I don’t know what the deal is with that. But that’s Paraguay for ya.

Things are going pretty good. E’ Cameron is alright, but we were having pretty big tension moments about once a day and that was really zapping my energy and desire to work. But the past day or two things have gotten a lot better, and we started to have some success and get used to one another, and there’s been a couple things that have really given me my animo back. We’re starting to have some success and find some people who can really progress, so we’re pretty excited for that. E’ Cameron was also sick last week, so it made things quite interesting. I think in the past week I’ve gone on more divisions than the entire rest of my mission. There was only one day where E’ Cameron just stayed in bed, so I didn’t get to go out and work until about 4, when we got some members to come and stay with him, and then I had to go out with E’ Ralon, who got here the same time I did, so that was kind of interesting, but I really enjoyed it. I understand just about everything, and he’s only slightly beneath me, but our teaching level is about the same, so we really learned a lot and taught really well together, and we gained a ton of experience as we had to put a baptismal fecha and things like that. So I really learned a lot this past week.

Thanks for the candy from the packages, I’m loving it. I’m making it last, and only eating a little when I really get the craving for just some good sugar. I haven’t made use of the sauces yet, but the Velveta and Shells is amazing. Today though, a couple of us went into Asuncion, and went to this fancy Chinese buffet, and oh, it was amazing. It was definitely a relief from the same flavor all the time from the Paraguayan cooking. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but it felt good to have some different types of spices on my tongue. So yeah, that was sweet.

Um, what else… I don’t think anything too exciting other than what I’ve mentioned really happened this week, just chuggin along as always. Your summer sounds crazy, but they’re always better that way. Haley is actually graduating—that’s scary! But she’s going to have a great time out in Idaho this summer, and all that stuff. Its so good to get out on your own. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this past week for some reason. How I’m 19 years old, and living in a foreign country away from family and a language I know and just immersing myself into the culture and environment. When you think of it as just a mission, its just like oh, its just a mission. But when you really think about it for what it is, its pretty crazy! I absolutely LOVE it! I’m really fitting into the way of life around here. I know how to get around, what colectivos to take and I can communicate and ask questions and teach and I’m just starting to feel comfortable here.

But yeah, I can’t really think of anything else to talk about, other than saying that I’m having a great time. So I love you all, and til next week…

E. Dennis

June 2, 2008

Mba’e Chapa!

Or translated from Guaraní, How are ya? First of all, thank you so much for dealing with my card, that was just a headache. Pero tengo una pregunta. Should I keep my card that I have now or just cut it up? But I´d also like to thank you for the packages, they were both amazing. I got my second on Thursday, when I had to go into Asuncion and sign in to the country, and they picked up the mail in the same trip, and lo and behold, a package for me was there! Haha, I’m making the wonderful delicious candy last as long as I can, because they don’t have any of the good sugary goodness down here, its all just pastries. But I also have another item for the next time you send a package, the Gillete Fusion razor blades. They don’t have those down here, and I’m thinking in advance. I have a cartridge full left, so I don’t want you to panic and send a package right away, but just for the next time you put one together, I’m just letting ya know.

The mission activities sounded like fun, and I’m sure E. Parkin is loving having a family that really looks out for him, I know from personal experience. There’s a couple people here in the Salado ward that really look after us missionaries, and I love them so much. Oh, and I guess I just gave away a little about my cambio, or change, so I guess I’ll talk about what I know you’re dying to read about. As I just gave away, I stayed here in Salado, and I´m taking care of a new companion right now… And when I say taking care of, I mean it haha. My new comp’s name is E. Cameron, and he’s from Canada. He’s also 10 times weirder than my comp from the MTC… but that’s okay. I´m training him to be a senior comp, which means this is his first time in control. However, he doesn´t know the area, and is definitely out of touch with the people, so I’m basically senior comp right now as we plan and when it comes to reading the people and concerning their needs. I’m learning so much right now about myself, and seeing just how much the Lord is preparing me. I can see in myself right now a lot more of a leader than I ever thought I was, and I´ve really been impressing myself as I communicate with the people. The Lord is helping me, because he knows I need to be able to have that ability to communicate, and since the second I became comps with E. Cameron, I´ve understood everything anyone has said to me. But we’ve already had a couple little disagreements so far, and I´m definitely learning patience working with him. Oh, and to answer you’re question, I miss E. NIlsen so much, that guy was a stud, and he knew what was going on.

I’m also very excited, because this change I received a calling in the Zone. I´m the “hombrero”, which is the person who tracks the ordinations to the Priesthood of all the men who have been baptized, to help make sure that they all get it. So every week I get to call each companionship and talk with them about what they´re doing to make sure everyone gets the priesthood. I´m really excited about it, even though in reality its not that great. But it shows that the Zone Leaders trust me with that responsibility, and that reminds me, my zone leaders are just awesome. They are E. Adams and E. Pavon, and they´re both sweet. E. Adams is one of my better friends here in the mission so far, along with E. Moreira, who I´m still living with. E. Vasquez went to a different area this change, but he´d been in Salado for 9 months, so even though E. Moreira and I miss him, we’re also happy for him. Now E. Moreira has E. Ralon for a companion, and he came to Paraguay with me. Its weird to be living in a house with only one latino now.

Anyways, I think that just about covers everything for now. All is well, and I´m having a blast.

Love,

E. Dennis

May 26, 2008

Hola,

Well, my first change is just about over. But… I can´t tell you the details of the transfers cause, well, we don´t have them yet. But wow, our Zone Leaders played a GREAT trick on us this morning in District Meeting. Of course everyone was all excited to hear about where people are headed and who´ll be their comps and all that, and we had to wait until the end of the meeting to find out. Then we put all of our name tags into a hat, and as we drew out two at a time, we had to arm wrestle each other, and the winner got to hear where he was headed and who his companion would be... so it was all very fun, and I was the last to do the wrestling, which I won, and found out that I would be staying in Salado (which is in actuality most likely), and that my companion would be an E. Markus… and then a free for all wrestling match occurred as we were told it was all made up and that we wouldn´t be finding out until tonight, because the President is still working on them. But we all had a good laugh, and then we went and played a match of futbol. So it won´t be until next week that I get to tell you where I´m headed and who my new companion is. Sorry. I´m still with E. Nilsen until Wednesday morning. This first change went so fast, and people always say the first change goes the slowest, so I´m afraid to find out how fast the mission passes me by.

As for my card, its just because it’s a Mastercard… apparently they don´t work down here. It even didn´t work in the ATM at the HSBC. I could have gotten money from there though, but I needed my actual passport, and the have that in the safe at the office, and I just carry around a photocopy. So that would be a bit of a hassle to go through. But I was wondering if there is a way you could get a visa card for my account and get that sent down here like you did my other card… that would be awesome, and the best way to take care of the problem for the rest of my mission rather than having to try and obtain my passport and go into Asuncion every time I want to take out money.

Today I got the pictures that Cole drew of his hermit crab, so I understood what you were talking about when you mentioned the pet store in your letter. Haha I remember our hermit crab days when we were younger. I hope he´s having fun with them. I also got my package today… I haven´t opened it yet but it doesn´t appear tampered with, but man it sure sucks to have to lug it around all day. Plus I got my shoes and clothes for playing soccer, and I have to go get my groceries after this… I just love P-days.

We had an awesome opportunity this week though. The President of this part of South America, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, came and spent a week here. He had a Fireside for investigators and recent converts, and then we had a Zone Conference with him. They were both just spectacular. You can see him in the Presidency chart in the May Ensign, Elder Robbins. It was some great stuff, and he explained things so clearly and simply.

Anyways, a little more about Paraguay to wrap up my letter. Primero, Dad would be going crazy here haha, its very rare to see a mouth with all their teeth… and even rarer to not have their teeth decaying. Its quite disgusting… the Lord definitely helps me out, because at any other time I would probably be really queezy, but it doesn´t really bother me right now. Also, the Paraguayans like to play a lot of volleyball… but its more of a “slapball.” They just set the ball and then slap at it… they don´t play an actual game of how its supposed to be played. Its pretty funny to watch. They also like to play a lot of futbol, but in this they´re actually good. But most of the time in the evenings, everyone is out in their local soccer or volleyball field or sandpatch, drinking and playing and yeah, that’s Paraguay.

Anyways, I´m gonna use up the rest of the time I have and try and get some pictures over this stupid machine. Love you all,

E. Dennis