Dec 14, 2009

One more week til Christmas!

It's just absolutely crazy how fast the time flies. I remember trying to think of what it would be like to be at my last Christmas of the mission, and it always seemed so far away! But next week we'll be talking, and then a month and a half later I'll get to walk bare foot on carpet! I'm getting excited... It's not too hot here in Pedro Juan, so that's pretty lucky, but right now the work is pretty tough. We had these awesome girls, five sisters, who we were teaching, but this past week they really fell in excitement for what we teach. I think the main thing was that this past week in Paraguay it was the "Virgin's" birthday, so everyone is hardcore into their idols and images, saints and virgins right now. That and I think that they are getting a lot of flak from their family, who are pretty hard core Catholic.

That's basically the story with everyone right now. Our area is pretty Catholic, and we're having a lot of trouble trying to find good investigators right now, and even less success trying to find a house to live in. The walk to our area isn't bothering me that much anymore, I'm getting used to it, and we usually just eat with the members during the week. If we don't have a lunch appointment, we usually just stay in the house to eat, and don't go out in the morning, because we're supposed to leave at 11.00 in the morning, and so that would mean we'd get about 20-30 mins to work before lunch, and its not even worth it, so we just eat a little earlier and then head out to get to the area the time we would normally start anyway. I'm in Branch 2, which is literally one block from Brazil, and its like 4 blocks north of Shopping China, this HUGE shopping store place that´s really big and fancy. It's also right next to this place called the Aduana. Good luck trying to find it. But no, we don't go into Brazil this time, there's missionaries over there, we met them today at Shopping China, even though its on our side, but whatevs.

It sounds like the ward is having a bunch of success in baptizing youth, they really are amazing, aren't they? Their testimonies are just so strong and simple. Our branch is definitely NOT functional, I don't know where you came up with that idea. There's only one priesthood holder that goes to church, the branch president, and there's a relief society class that usually has four sisters in it, and this week we had 13 people at church in total. There's no primary, no young mens or young womens or elders quorom or anything. There's no activities during the week, and I'm embarrassed to invite people to church. We don't hold leadership positions, but I think I might talk to president Wade about that, because we're the only other priesthood holders, and there are some areas here where the missionaries are counselors or whatever.

Pedro Juan is a decently sized place, but right now it doesn't need the 5 branches, but back in the day it was pretty successful, so we run in to a TON of inactive members while we´re going around contacting the people. I got the envelope and Cole's pictures of his Bionicles and stuff. Way cool little man! When is Cole's baptism going to be? Have you guys planned it at all yet? Any word on my BYU admission? Well it doesn't feel like Christmas at all, but I hope my package gets here on Saturday (thats when we get mail) or I'll have a presentless Christmas haha.

Love ya lots,

Elder Dennis