April 6, 2009

Hello folks,

So how’s it going? This week was just absolutely crazy for me, we had like no time to work whatsoever! On Tuesday we had a leadership meeting called Consilio which is just the ZLs in the house of Pte. Wade, but it went until like 4 in the afternoon, and we didn’t get back out into the field until 6, so that was only like 3 hours to work. Then on Wednesday it was the same thing, we had Zone Conference. So we get out again at like 4, but we had to buy stuff in the Distribution Center that’s next door to the temple and main chapel of the mission where we have the zone conferences. So then we get back to the area just in time to have the baptisms of Francisca and Victorina. It was so funny though! Okay, so Victorina is the mom, and Francisca is her 8 year old daughter. So Victorina gets baptized first, and Francisca sees it and starts freaking out cause she’s scared of water, but her mom like shoves her down into the font with me and she’s all screaming and thinking she’s gonna die hahaha. And then her mom is like ready to just shove her under screaming and all! But we took a few minutes and I calmed her down with the help of Elder Nolan who was there, and got it done hahaha. It was so funny, her mom was all like wanting to swim in the water and her daughter was freaking out, and her mom was like splashing her with water like, hey its nothing while we were trying to calm her down and it was NOT helping hahaha. So that’s the funny story of the week.

But then in Thursday we basically got to work, even though we had a liderazgo, which is a weekly leadership meeting we hold with the DLs in the zone, but thats tranquilo. But then on Friday we used up all the morning with the weekly planning, and then by 5 we were in the church to set up for the weddings of Hugo and Sofia and Dionicio and Lucia, which almost didn’t happen because they almost didn’t show up in time, but they managed to show up half an hour late and just as the judge was about to have to leave. Trust me, mormon standard time and paraguayan standard time should never have come together... its a thousand times worse than back home. It was pretty cool though, Hugo and Dionicio are brothers, and we’ve been working with the two families separately for quite some time now, like we baptized the daughters, Natalia and Karina, of Dionicio and Lucia awhile ago because they were taking so long. So it was cool to see them pull together to support each other and want to do it together. Afterwards we had their baptisms and we didn’t get done until pretty late. Then we had General Conference on Saturday and Sunday, and because we had to go to the stake center to watch it we didn’t get to work like, at all, because only the stake centers have the big satellite receivers here. But it was absolutely awesome, especially the priesthood session. Sorry mom, you always miss out.

But yeah, you guys should feel so blessed to get to watch the speakers giving their talks in your native tongue, because in all of the other languages, its just dubbed, and wow it is not the same. We, fortunately, got to watch the transmissions in English in the high council room in the comfy... not as nice as the states but still... chairs at the big table. And it was really cool at night during the Priesthood session, Pres. Wade and the temple president showed up, because they were able to watch the other sessions at their homes, so it was cool to take notes with two of the great Moroni like leaders of this dispensation. But a little bit of what I was hearing got me kind of worried. Is the economic situation back home really as bad as the talks were making it sound? It seemed like every single person mentioned it, and I don’t know, here in Paraguay that situation has and probably always will be bad, so we don’t feel the drop in the economy that much. Plus the dollar is staying stable down here at least, and that’s basically the only indication that I have of how it is up there, cause we hear absolutely zero about what’s going on.

But yeah, that was my third of four General Conferences... and next Monday I hit one year in Paraguay, officially, and 14 months in the mission. I’m officially on the downhill, and it’s sad I must admit. Time is really just flying now, I can’t believe that time can move as fast as it is now. I remember when I was a kid, back in Willoughby, when those summers, the best summers of my life, just passed like decades. I miss being a kid. I wish I were the same age as Cole, and we could just play with Legos all day long. I’m looking forward to it when I get home and have a couple months to kill... by the way, I have no clue what I want to do yet, and every passing day just makes me more confused. I don’t even know where I want to go to school. I don’t know if you’d be able to pick me up some school catalogs of whatever of like the U, BYU, BYU-I, maybe like Arizona or something, I don’t know, whatever other inspiration you get for me. Focus on like architecture or archealogy/history, and I don’t know, business stuff like computers or accounting or something, I have no clue. I know its a little early feeling right now, but I figure by the time you can pick up some stuff and send it off to me it’ll be a couple months down the road. Oh, by the way, I got a call from the mailman of the mission today, one of my best buddies, telling me I got your package and a package from Aunt Audrey, so I’m stoked to pick those up tomorrow.

Love you lots,

Elder Dennis