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
Monday, September 29, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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
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
Monday, September 15, 2008
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
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
Monday, September 8, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
