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
Monday, October 27, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
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
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
Monday, October 13, 2008
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
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
Monday, October 6, 2008
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
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
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