Nov 3, 2008

Tracie here - I have no idea why it took over 48 hours for this email to come through - he sent it @ 1:48 EST on Monday and I got it today @ 2:44 -

Hola,

Well, don’t you worry mom, the Pres was here a week before I came out, and he knows exactly what we’re living in. But don’t you worry, we’re already in full out exploring mode for finding a new house. The only problem is that this is a very touristy town, much like Saratoga, and prices are ridiculous... so we’re having some problems. Most places are at like 1.5 million, and we only have up to 600 thousand guaranies monthly to spend on a place... and all the reasonable places are already full. And its not that bad, really. The Salado house was one of the best you’ll find out in the mission... (may I remind you, we’re not in the states anymore Toto). But things are going pretty good, we’re still tearing things up. I hate rain. So the rainy season is starting I think, or something, because we’ve gotten dumped on just about every day this week.

Oh, and a little bit of good news now. The new cartero... or umm... mail guy... in the office is a lot better at his job, and he actually shipped my package out to me, so I got that on Friday (we pick up the folder the office sends out here to our little sector of the mission at the bus terminal usually around Friday). So I gotta say, cookie dough pop tarts are absolutely amazing!

So... I don’t really have anything else to really say. I don’t have any sweet hero stories like last week. I’m just settling in, and doing what I do best... putting a really confused look on my face as people try to speak to me in languages that I don’t know and then somehow convincing them that they need to go to church... I love it!

Loves ya,

Elder Dennis

Nov 3, 2008

Editor's note: I don't know why, but we did not get an email from Josh this week. Haley was so kind as to share hers for posting:

Hey girly girl,

So yeah, I'm picking up the portuguese a little bit, but man it is a language on drugs, not gonna lie! And don't you worry, your big bro is doing all he can to make you proud of him, and he's doing a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. Okay, as for the remedy: its like this tea thing that you cook up, and what it does is sort of like what happened to me with chocolate... it fills them up so much with nicotine and tobacco that they puke or get really sick, and then the next time they go to smoke or even just think about smoking it just makes them go into the gag reflex. It works really really good, I was surprised that I'd never heard of it before and more people don't use it.

Dude...ette, I totally got a letter from my boy Fiala the other day too, did he send you the photo of the mountain dew salt lake temple? That's the one I got, its totally legit. I can't wait to get back and hit that kid up. Anyways, remember to keep your head in the game, but have fun out there. Have you, do you, see anyone out there that I know? If so, that's awesome, say hi for me. Well, I don't have any cool stories really this week...

Love ya,

Elder Dennis

Oct 27, 2008

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

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

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

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

Sept 29, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

Aug 25, 2008

Well, its good to hear how everyone is doin back at home, and things are still just chuggin along out here in Salado. But I did get a new comp, a latin, Elder Betancourt, from Ecuador. He’s pretty cool, I like how I have to speak to him all in Spanish. Well actually, he knows quite a bit of English too, but we only use it when we’re in lessons and we just need to say something really fast to get us on the same page before we take an action or something. E’ Cameron went only 20 minutes up the road though to Bella Vista, where our chapel is, so all the members still see him every week at church, and his companion is E’ Bullcreek. So we have an interesting little family right now. Also, E’ Moreira went to a new place, kind of far away, called Benjamin Aceval, and E’ Bischoff has a sweet new comp named E’ Ventura, who’s from El Salvador.

I don’t know much of what else to talk about. Thanks for the other forward of funds… this will definitely last a lot longer than the last time, because I don’t have to drop ¾ of it on a guitar. Um.. I’m starting to look more and more like dad, cause my hair line just keeps going farther and farther up my head… its quite depressing. Or it could just be that they made me senior comp this change… Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that part didn’t I? …Tartar Sauce!

Yeah, so after only 4 months in Paraguay, or just 3 changes, they made me a senior comp. As the AP when I got here, who’s now a zone leader, E’ Stokes, said during the changes when he found out: “Wow. That’s… awesome. I’ve never heard of that happening.” So yeah, that’s definitely just blowing my mind right now. I’m with a comp who has over twice as much time in the mission as me, and I’m telling him what we’re going out to do. And I gotta say, it’s a LOT different from the perspective of senior comp than from just tagging along with the guy who knows what’s going on. But I’m working as hard as I know how, and we’re starting to tear up our area. I was able to bring over my goal to church yesterday, and I got 3 baptisms lined up for this week, with a family of 10 lined up for the next week, and yeah, I love just going out and working how I want to work and just showing my love for the people. But I need to to remember Luciano and Escolastico in your prayers, that they can both make it to their baptisms this Thursday.

Haley wrote me, and it sounds like she’s doing pretty good. I hope the young uns are getting syked for school… hahaha. Suckers! I love you all, but need some more random pictures… so keep em coming.

Your’s truly,

E’ Dennis

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

August 11, 2008

Okay, so I’m just going to Start out by saying, I now know why they call it Pique… because the Spanish word for itch is “pica”... and it itches like CrAzY!! Tracie here - pique is a parasite - a sand flea actually, that burrows under the skin - usually on the bottom of the foot. It is very common in South America, and all the missionaries in Paraguay eventually end up being "hosts". Josh and I read about it before he left, so he was prepared. I've added some pictures from a medical website so you can see what he's talking about - yuck!
I got some great videos, which aren’t actually of the pique itself, just its eggs, but E’ Bischoff got some great pictures close up on his camera when I actually extracted it, but I don’t have access to those right now. But yeah, it was pretty big ‘cause I didn’t know it was pique and it was in a spot on my foot that didn’t hurt to walk, so I just left it for about a week. It didn’t really hurt to take out though… it was actually kind of fun; like popping a zit but better.

But I finally got my “birthday” package, so my candy is still in fresh supply, which I love you guys for, but we haven’t baked up the cake yet, I don’t know when we’re going to do that, cause I have to buy a pan first, and I don’t feel like it cause I’m lazy. It could have been better that if it as the “rich dark chocolate” cake mix with the “rich dark chocolate” icing… but everyone else is excited for it. Don’t worry, I’ll take a picture.

Anyways, its awesome that Robyn got to be baptized for Grandma! I’m getting really anxious to get back and start getting names into the temple when I get home, because we have to teach people about it but I can’t do anything right now. It’s kind of frustrating, but I guess I should focus on the living first. And I just have to make mention of the fact that you would be so proud of me if you saw some of the things I was eating down here. Some times I have to fight so hard to keep the gag down, but I just keep shovelling it in. Yesterday I had two just awful meals. Well one was a snack at night, but still. It was milanesa (don’t know if that’s spelled right), which is just like breaded and fried, egg plant, as well as cow fat… yeah, you just keep sending that candy now, ya hear?

Also, one very exciting bit of news: I road for the first time today as the person that’s holding onto the bars with one foot on solid ground flying at 60 kmph through the air as the colectivo roars down the street… it was awesome!! I love the Paraguayan buses, they’re so much fun, especially when they’re just overflowing with people. Oh and also, I’m going to actually admit, there’s been a few time this past week when I’ve been scared of getting run over by a cow… ‘nough said.

Anyways, now to answer your quite demanding list of questions…

1. The video, I don’t really remember when I took it, it was the first day of the change, and I was just chillin. It doesn’t happen very often, just the two times in the time I’ve been with him. He is quite prone to illness though.

2. Jamming with E. Adams was sweet, he’s a drummer. We found this little place that had some drums and an electric guitar that was willing to let us use them, and it was just crappy stuff, but we rocked it with some good blues jams. It was just me and him playing, but E. Bischoff went with us.

3. The guitar I got is actually really nice, I like it a lot. But I´m planning on just selling it before I leave the mission, maybe pick up just like the cheapest Paraguayan guitar I can find just to have afterwards, but selling it would also give me quite a bit of spending money to pick up little things (cant think of the word) at the end of the mission.

4. I’m doing alright on money… okay so I have like $5 worth left of it, but I don’t really have anything that I need or want to buy, so yeah.

5. I’d really like to get to see a new part of Paraguay. I love the people in Salado, and it’ll always be special because it was my first area, but yeah, you know me, I like change. And I’ve been here for 4 and a half months… plus with a new area, I’d get a new companion :D

But yeah, that brings me to my last point, and then I´m off. In two days I’ll be a fourth of the way through my mission, completing 6 months since I entered to MTC and put on this little black plaque that turns you into someone just a little bit different. And from today, its been 6 months since I’ve seen everyone but Mom. Love you all, and hope you’re doing great,

Elder Dennis

August 4, 2008

Ho Upei?

Yeah, Haley going off to college... its still weird to think about, even though I guess she's already there. And wow, no one is going out with her, thats just crazy!!! I just sent her a letter, hopefully I helped her out a little bit with the computer problem she was having. And what'd I tell ya, Macs the only way to go. I'm surprised Dad's computer only lasted as long as it did though, I thought it was a pretty nice one. You can tell him that he's allowed to use my mac disk and play Medal of Honor on his new computer, it should still be in his office with all of my cds. Oh yeah, that reminds me, I got the two BOXES of Nerds Rope and the cds, and muchas gracias por eso. Wow, I don't ever think I've seen so much candy in all my life. And the cds are just amazing. I'm loving Pirates right now. da DU dada da de du, da DU... I'll stop singing, I think I've been bothering E: Cameron too much with that today.

Anyways, last week was pretty good, we had a division with the Assistants on Tuesday, and they're totally awesome. I impressed E. Olive, who I went with, and he hooked me up today with a Guaraní course book from BYU thats freaking huge. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, and I made a promise that I'd still only study Spanish for one more change, but I'm excited to really get into it. There's not many here who can really speak Guaraní, and I really really want to, cause it just helps them out to understand what we're teaching the people so much better. Its like Spanish and English to me, if someone says something cool, like reads a scripture, to me in spanish, I understand it, but if they read it in english, it means a lot more to me. Its the same with the people here and Guaraní. So yeah, and then we had interviews with the President on Wednesday, and that was a really good things too. I learned a lot from those two days. So this week was definitely a growing week for me.

As for a scale, I don't have one here, but there's places you can weigh yourself, and I really want to, but I haven't yet. I'd guess I weigh about 150 right now. So about 10 pounds more than when I left NY. I'm also doing my excercizes almost everyday, and keeping myself in pretty good shape... at least I hope. The food really gets to you though. But looking back at photos from the MTC to now, there's definitely a huge difference. I looked so young back then... I hope you're liking the few pics that are getting through today, I plan on making a cd today to send you guys too, so hopefully that happens. Anyways, love you all lots,

E. Dennis