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