Hey folks, how’s it goin?
Things just keep moving forward down here in what feels like the depths of h-e-double hockey sticks. This week almost every day has been over 100 degrees, and wow, it’s hot. But today it’s a little cooler, because its going to rain… actually I think its raining right now, but we’re inside so I’m not sure. Anyways, I’m sorry those photos didn’t make it through last week. This week I got to use my other camera for a little bit because I borrowed the charger of someone who has the same camera and got my battery charged up a little, so that was cool. So I have a ton of photos that I’m sending your way this week. But tell Grandma Karen Happy belated birthday for me, I feel bad I didn’t know it was her birthday.
Well this week we had 5 baptisms… so we were stoked for that. They were of Maria Elena and Ruth, and of Zully, Jessica, and Sara. But the most amazing part of this week is even though we had 5 baptisms, we’ve maintained the same amount of investigators and people in church from week to week. But it was truly amazing this week, because on Friday we met Juan and Angelica by helping them in a mini service of bringing these big pallets of wood to their house, and then we went back on Saturday but Juan’s mom was there so we just got talking and didn’t get to teach anything, but we invited them to go to church but he was going to take the wood and make his fence with it so it was just a small invitation, but then yesterday they just showed up on their own for church! It was awesome. We went back last night and put them with fecha, and it was probably one of the best lessons ever. They understood everything perfectly; it was like I was doing a practice with a pair of missionaries. And there was a HUGE blessing in a miracle that the Lord worked for us during that lesson. We’re in that part of our area every night, and the mosquitoes bite like CRAZY! And they were biting last night like normal, but when we showed up to their house, I don’t think I was bit once until we left again, and that just helped us teach so much better. I’m not gonna lie, it’s like super hard to teach a lessons when everyone is being bitten like crazy by mosquitoes and everyone is just restless and smacking away. So it was just a special day for me.
But as for my MTC district, Elder Reid is out in La Paloma still, and Elder Bullcreek is out in Pedro Juan Caballero as a district leader, so I got to see him this week because we had a huge consilio guazu… which is a leadership training meeting which is usually only for zone leaders (consilio), but it was a special invite of the district leaders as well, so it was consilio guasu, or grande, or big (Guarani, Spanish, English). So that was cool. That was on Thursday. But as for Elder Legler, I actually saw him for the first time since my first change during the changes when everyone is hooking up with their new comps. He’s still in his second area, as a senior comp, but I’m pretty sure he’s doing pretty well, that goofy kid.
Anyways, keep it real. Love,
Elder Dennis
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Feb 16, 2009
Hello again,
So, I have half…I’ll be home on the 19th of February of 2010… Its still a long ways away, but tell Cole its only a couple of days… he asked how many more days til I get home in his email haha. But this week went pretty good, we had two more baptisms and man we blew up the numbers this week. This area is great, it has a ton of potential. Right now we have eleven people with baptismal dates, and we had just as many in church. The zone is doing pretty good too, so we’re excited that its progressing along. Some investigators that could really use some help though are first, Domingo. He just needs all the help he can get to stop smoking… but other than that, he’s an amazing guy. His wife is a member and is helping us out a ton. The other is a young woman, Maria Elena. She needs a lot of support, because she’s going through a kind of bad family situation right now as her parents are splitting up. She’s also awesome though. She should be getting baptized on Wednesday if all goes well. We also have 3 other baptisms, of Zully, Sara and Yesica this week, who are doing great as well. Their mother is also waiting for her baptism, but her husband is working in the Chaco, but he’s supposed to get home this week. Well I guess he’s not technically her husband, because they’re not married, but ya know, its Paraguay, so its okay haha. So we have to teach him or just get them married at least so that she can get baptized too, but she doesn’t want her children to wait. It’s the same case with the two girls we baptized this week.
Anyways, they do celebrate Valentine’s Day here, but Elder Perez and I didn’t even realize what day it was until like, 7.30 at night. But tell Elder Fiala that I wrote him, and I really hope that letter gets there, but if its not there in another like week or two, I’ll get another one sent off. Stupid Paraguayan mail system… But speaking of mail, I forgot to mention last week that I got your little Dear Elder letter the 4th of February. I also got your package this week, and I’m excited to say that all but the grey pants fit… the grey ones were just way too small in every direction. But the other ones fit perfectly. So I don’t know what the deal is, cause they’re the same exact size, but whatever. The UTAH shirt is also way sweet, it fits perfect. And the socks are a blessing from the gods. That’s all I got to say about that.
As for schooling for me when I return, I figure that yah, I probably will try to go to BYU as a visiting student for the summer, because I don’t think I can take another boring summer out in NY. But I might also try applying to other schools to just start in the summer quarter, like U of U or Arizona or where ever. Because even if I get in to BYU for school, I’m not sure I want to go there… I’m pretty sure that after my mission I never want to have to shave again. So…. yah. But I’m pretty sure it won’t be a problem if I need to do school applications here, but I think I’ll be getting home in time to just do those there at home. But if you want me to go to this visiting student program, you gotta send me information about it, cause I don’t even know what it is really. However, last night I found in the fridge in the house a little bottle of Root Beer extract from McCormick… its about half full, and I’m going to put some drops into some gassified water (very easy to find here) and try it out. I’m thinking if it works, it just might as well be manna from the gods.
Anyways, Love you all,
Elder Dennis
So, I have half…I’ll be home on the 19th of February of 2010… Its still a long ways away, but tell Cole its only a couple of days… he asked how many more days til I get home in his email haha. But this week went pretty good, we had two more baptisms and man we blew up the numbers this week. This area is great, it has a ton of potential. Right now we have eleven people with baptismal dates, and we had just as many in church. The zone is doing pretty good too, so we’re excited that its progressing along. Some investigators that could really use some help though are first, Domingo. He just needs all the help he can get to stop smoking… but other than that, he’s an amazing guy. His wife is a member and is helping us out a ton. The other is a young woman, Maria Elena. She needs a lot of support, because she’s going through a kind of bad family situation right now as her parents are splitting up. She’s also awesome though. She should be getting baptized on Wednesday if all goes well. We also have 3 other baptisms, of Zully, Sara and Yesica this week, who are doing great as well. Their mother is also waiting for her baptism, but her husband is working in the Chaco, but he’s supposed to get home this week. Well I guess he’s not technically her husband, because they’re not married, but ya know, its Paraguay, so its okay haha. So we have to teach him or just get them married at least so that she can get baptized too, but she doesn’t want her children to wait. It’s the same case with the two girls we baptized this week.
Anyways, they do celebrate Valentine’s Day here, but Elder Perez and I didn’t even realize what day it was until like, 7.30 at night. But tell Elder Fiala that I wrote him, and I really hope that letter gets there, but if its not there in another like week or two, I’ll get another one sent off. Stupid Paraguayan mail system… But speaking of mail, I forgot to mention last week that I got your little Dear Elder letter the 4th of February. I also got your package this week, and I’m excited to say that all but the grey pants fit… the grey ones were just way too small in every direction. But the other ones fit perfectly. So I don’t know what the deal is, cause they’re the same exact size, but whatever. The UTAH shirt is also way sweet, it fits perfect. And the socks are a blessing from the gods. That’s all I got to say about that.
As for schooling for me when I return, I figure that yah, I probably will try to go to BYU as a visiting student for the summer, because I don’t think I can take another boring summer out in NY. But I might also try applying to other schools to just start in the summer quarter, like U of U or Arizona or where ever. Because even if I get in to BYU for school, I’m not sure I want to go there… I’m pretty sure that after my mission I never want to have to shave again. So…. yah. But I’m pretty sure it won’t be a problem if I need to do school applications here, but I think I’ll be getting home in time to just do those there at home. But if you want me to go to this visiting student program, you gotta send me information about it, cause I don’t even know what it is really. However, last night I found in the fridge in the house a little bottle of Root Beer extract from McCormick… its about half full, and I’m going to put some drops into some gassified water (very easy to find here) and try it out. I’m thinking if it works, it just might as well be manna from the gods.
Anyways, Love you all,
Elder Dennis
Friday, February 13, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Feb 9, 2009
Hey there family (And friends),
First things first:
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy birthday dear Cooole,
Happy Birthday to YOU!
Wow, the big number 7! Congrats little guy, only one more year, and you’ll be seeing yours truly! :)
So, I’m back in Asuncion… and its really weird. It’s a LOT hotter, mostly because its just humid. I’m in the area Zeballos Cue, which is really tiny but there’s a ton of people, and its actually a really good area. We had a baptism this week, so that was fun. But being a zone leader is way different, I was such a fish out of water for the first couple days, but now I’m starting to grow legs and I’m getting the hang of things. But my comp is a stud, and like, the level of teaching is so much higher that it feels like I just showed up and am being trained all over again. Well technically I AM being trained, but whatever. So the zone: The zone is 5 districts, 4 groups of 2 companionships and then all of the people that work in the office are in our zone too, but they’re not really… cause they don’t have to rendir… you have to translate that word, I’m not sure what you call it in English… like, give us their numbers, but they’re still considered in our zone or something. Anyways, so I’m not going to include them in these numbers. So there’s 12 Elders and 4 Sisters, and then us. All of the numbers we have to get each week are the same, and we’re the examples, so basically we HAVE to get them or else bad stuff starts to happen in the zone. There’s a good quote from Pres. Wade about that, like, the level of diligence and obedience of the zone leaders is the highest the level of diligence and obedience can be in the zone (mission).
The house is pretty nice, it has air conditioning again, so I was stoked for that, plus its like pretty big and just the two of us in there. I don’t have any pictures yet because although I got my other camera working again, I forgot to bring the adapter to attach it to the computer today, so sorry haha. Thanks for ordering that other charger though, you’re the best mom ever! But still no package, but we go into the office every Tuesday to drop off all of the letters and pick up everything for the zone, and then we eat at McDonald’s… its amazing! So tomorrow maybe it’ll be there. I left Eddy a shirt and a tie, but all of my shirts are holding up really well, it’s only the pants. Trust me, I’m praying so hard that these pants fit me, because I really need some pants that aren’t tight on my waist.
As for the ‘traditions,’ yeah, we have the same ones, but not a lot do them. Like I didn’t do anything for my 6 months, but I have a pretty badly stained shirt I’m thinking about burning on Friday. We’ll see what happens. But yeah, one year…. It’s crazy that its already here. Its like I’m so close to being done, but then on the other hand its like oh wait, I still have a whole other year left. But yeah, things are going pretty good, the zone is fun, I like the Elders and the members that we’re working with, and the house is nice, oh, and we’re getting new mattresses on Wednesday, and they’re supposed to be like, real mattresses, not these cheap Paraguayan ones that we’re sleeping on right now. So that’s exciting. But I hope you’re doing good, and that dad is able to recover from his little pull. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
First things first:
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to You,
Happy birthday dear Cooole,
Happy Birthday to YOU!
Wow, the big number 7! Congrats little guy, only one more year, and you’ll be seeing yours truly! :)
So, I’m back in Asuncion… and its really weird. It’s a LOT hotter, mostly because its just humid. I’m in the area Zeballos Cue, which is really tiny but there’s a ton of people, and its actually a really good area. We had a baptism this week, so that was fun. But being a zone leader is way different, I was such a fish out of water for the first couple days, but now I’m starting to grow legs and I’m getting the hang of things. But my comp is a stud, and like, the level of teaching is so much higher that it feels like I just showed up and am being trained all over again. Well technically I AM being trained, but whatever. So the zone: The zone is 5 districts, 4 groups of 2 companionships and then all of the people that work in the office are in our zone too, but they’re not really… cause they don’t have to rendir… you have to translate that word, I’m not sure what you call it in English… like, give us their numbers, but they’re still considered in our zone or something. Anyways, so I’m not going to include them in these numbers. So there’s 12 Elders and 4 Sisters, and then us. All of the numbers we have to get each week are the same, and we’re the examples, so basically we HAVE to get them or else bad stuff starts to happen in the zone. There’s a good quote from Pres. Wade about that, like, the level of diligence and obedience of the zone leaders is the highest the level of diligence and obedience can be in the zone (mission).
The house is pretty nice, it has air conditioning again, so I was stoked for that, plus its like pretty big and just the two of us in there. I don’t have any pictures yet because although I got my other camera working again, I forgot to bring the adapter to attach it to the computer today, so sorry haha. Thanks for ordering that other charger though, you’re the best mom ever! But still no package, but we go into the office every Tuesday to drop off all of the letters and pick up everything for the zone, and then we eat at McDonald’s… its amazing! So tomorrow maybe it’ll be there. I left Eddy a shirt and a tie, but all of my shirts are holding up really well, it’s only the pants. Trust me, I’m praying so hard that these pants fit me, because I really need some pants that aren’t tight on my waist.
As for the ‘traditions,’ yeah, we have the same ones, but not a lot do them. Like I didn’t do anything for my 6 months, but I have a pretty badly stained shirt I’m thinking about burning on Friday. We’ll see what happens. But yeah, one year…. It’s crazy that its already here. Its like I’m so close to being done, but then on the other hand its like oh wait, I still have a whole other year left. But yeah, things are going pretty good, the zone is fun, I like the Elders and the members that we’re working with, and the house is nice, oh, and we’re getting new mattresses on Wednesday, and they’re supposed to be like, real mattresses, not these cheap Paraguayan ones that we’re sleeping on right now. So that’s exciting. But I hope you’re doing good, and that dad is able to recover from his little pull. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Monday, February 2, 2009
Feb 2, 2009
Hey there,
So, things are still just cruising along down here. Its really hot today, but it always seems hotter on P-Day, I’m not sure why that is. Oh, but I thought I told you, I got Grandmas Christmas package like 3 weeks ago… I could have sworn I mentioned that in a letter. But I still can’t find my charger, but unfortunately its not the same one as the one before, it’s a new G type battery that the Sony W-150 model has. Now I’m trying to charge up batteries for my old camera but that’s not working either! Because I really, really want to take pictures with people, because on Wednesday I have to go back into Asuncion to be a zone leader for the zone Asuncion Norte… so much for shirking responsibility, I thought I was doing pretty good considering I wasn’t a district leader yet. I’ll be with a latin, Elder Perez, from Colombia if I remember what they told me correctly, in an area called Saballos Cue (spelled something like that, I’m not exactly positive). So I’m like super nervous, and don’t have any idea what to expect, considering I haven’t had a whole lot of training with leadership positions yet, and I haven’t even hit the year mark yet, so that’s kind of rare as well, but you know, you just gotta go and do what ya gotta do. It should be fun to be back in Asuncion, where you get to see tons of other missionaries every week, and they have pan felipe and manteca de mani. Its been killing me to live without that stuff.
But I’m sorry to hear that you two have been pretty sick, I hope that by now you’re feeling a little bit better, especially the little Cole man, he has to keep hitting those slopes so he’s all fresh for me when I get back. :) But what is Robyn doing with a boy friend? She is way too young for that… isn’t she? Tell her no more thinking about boys, she has to get ready for a mission! And as for the asking Dad for a blessing, I’m totally the same as you, I didn’t even think about it the whole time my comp was feeling sick, and it wasn’t until he was starting to feel better that I was talking to Elder Tinco, the district leader about it, and he was like, did you give him a blessing and I was like whoops, dropped the ball on that one haha.
But yesterday was pretty awesome, I confirmed and ordained Eddy, so that was really awesome, but I’m really sad that I have to leave now. But I gave him his line of authority, for now, which includes me haha, so that was really interesting to see my name on the list along with dad’s and grandpa’s. But I think that about covers everything that really happened this week… I don’t have any photos because my camera doesn’t work soooo yeah. And still no sign of your package, but I’ll be to the office on Wednesday, so it might be there waiting for me, cause its getting close, I can feel it. Take it easy and hope you feel better.
Love,
Elder Dennis
So, things are still just cruising along down here. Its really hot today, but it always seems hotter on P-Day, I’m not sure why that is. Oh, but I thought I told you, I got Grandmas Christmas package like 3 weeks ago… I could have sworn I mentioned that in a letter. But I still can’t find my charger, but unfortunately its not the same one as the one before, it’s a new G type battery that the Sony W-150 model has. Now I’m trying to charge up batteries for my old camera but that’s not working either! Because I really, really want to take pictures with people, because on Wednesday I have to go back into Asuncion to be a zone leader for the zone Asuncion Norte… so much for shirking responsibility, I thought I was doing pretty good considering I wasn’t a district leader yet. I’ll be with a latin, Elder Perez, from Colombia if I remember what they told me correctly, in an area called Saballos Cue (spelled something like that, I’m not exactly positive). So I’m like super nervous, and don’t have any idea what to expect, considering I haven’t had a whole lot of training with leadership positions yet, and I haven’t even hit the year mark yet, so that’s kind of rare as well, but you know, you just gotta go and do what ya gotta do. It should be fun to be back in Asuncion, where you get to see tons of other missionaries every week, and they have pan felipe and manteca de mani. Its been killing me to live without that stuff.
But I’m sorry to hear that you two have been pretty sick, I hope that by now you’re feeling a little bit better, especially the little Cole man, he has to keep hitting those slopes so he’s all fresh for me when I get back. :) But what is Robyn doing with a boy friend? She is way too young for that… isn’t she? Tell her no more thinking about boys, she has to get ready for a mission! And as for the asking Dad for a blessing, I’m totally the same as you, I didn’t even think about it the whole time my comp was feeling sick, and it wasn’t until he was starting to feel better that I was talking to Elder Tinco, the district leader about it, and he was like, did you give him a blessing and I was like whoops, dropped the ball on that one haha.
But yesterday was pretty awesome, I confirmed and ordained Eddy, so that was really awesome, but I’m really sad that I have to leave now. But I gave him his line of authority, for now, which includes me haha, so that was really interesting to see my name on the list along with dad’s and grandpa’s. But I think that about covers everything that really happened this week… I don’t have any photos because my camera doesn’t work soooo yeah. And still no sign of your package, but I’ll be to the office on Wednesday, so it might be there waiting for me, cause its getting close, I can feel it. Take it easy and hope you feel better.
Love,
Elder Dennis
Monday, January 26, 2009
Jan 26, 2009
¿Mba’e chapa?
SO, you have a lot of questions, so I guess I’ll just get to it, in order of appearance.
Well, here, I’m not really sure, but you have about a 50/50 chance of staying with your kid. So I’m really not sure whats going to happen, however there are like 17 Elders leaving this change, all of whom are zone or district leaders, so there is going to be a ton of people going up. And there are 3 of us who have the same amount of time in the mission out in this district, all of whom are qualified in my opinion to go up to district leader, so we know E. Reid is staying because E. Tinco is leaving, and so its possible that E. Hermosilla or I or the both of us could leave to go up someplace else. I don’t know, I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’ll probably see a lot of changes and a huge re-organization of the mission this change, so anythings game.
But it was a great week with getting Eddy baptized, but unfortunately he couldn’t get off work on Sunday, so we still have to confirm him and ordain him to the priesthood, but that’ll just have to wait til this Sunday. It was awesome though, Elder Spencer sang and I played the guitar to a song that’s called ‘His Love.’ I’m not sure who its by. But out here the heat continues, but it is a little bit cooler out here than it is in Asuncion, mostly because there’s less humidity I think. But yeah, we’re enjoying the work out here in Saltos, though this past weekend, my greenie was what we call tore up inside, he had the runs SO BAD. I felt so bad for the kid. We spent all of Saturday in the house, but I managed to pull people together to do a division and run out at night and visit a couple people to get plans set up to get them to church the next day. We’re not sure what it was that caused it, but that poor kid went like almost 30 times in 24 hours. I felt so bad, cause my system can take whatever for the most part, but it just destroyed him. Oh, and I’m happy to inform you that the color of our walls is still the same… I guess they like that color here or something. However, in the move my camera battery charger was lost, so I’m unable to send you photos cause my camera is dead now… I’m looking really hard for a charger, because I’ve seen them around town before, but I’m having some troubles. But I’ve torn apart our new apartment, and my charger is nowhere to be found, so I need to get a new one. But I haven’t made it over to the mall yet, and I’m pretty sure I should be able to find one over there. If not, I might have to beg you to send one down to me. It’s the type G sony charger for a head’s up.
But yeah, Asuncion is pretty big I guess… but its not that big I don’t think, its just that when you like want to cover every square inch of the city with a pair of missionaries and all they can do is walk, the areas have to be kind of smaller. So you never get areas, or hardly ever, that cover the whole city of say, Saratoga. That would be carved up into 2 or 3 areas, just because of the distance involved. And the sister missionaries, of which are many gringos, serve in the main city areas, where its safer and closer to the office. But man, sister missionaries are just amazing, they tear it up from what I hear. But I’ve never been in a zone with sisters, so I’ve never had close contact. But yeah, things go on down here in paradise. Oh yeah, I got all your photos from the bowl game, looked amazing out there! Anyways, hope you have a good week, tell Cole to keep zipping along on those ski runs so he’s all ready for me when I get back.
Love,
Elder Dennis
SO, you have a lot of questions, so I guess I’ll just get to it, in order of appearance.
Well, here, I’m not really sure, but you have about a 50/50 chance of staying with your kid. So I’m really not sure whats going to happen, however there are like 17 Elders leaving this change, all of whom are zone or district leaders, so there is going to be a ton of people going up. And there are 3 of us who have the same amount of time in the mission out in this district, all of whom are qualified in my opinion to go up to district leader, so we know E. Reid is staying because E. Tinco is leaving, and so its possible that E. Hermosilla or I or the both of us could leave to go up someplace else. I don’t know, I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’ll probably see a lot of changes and a huge re-organization of the mission this change, so anythings game.
But it was a great week with getting Eddy baptized, but unfortunately he couldn’t get off work on Sunday, so we still have to confirm him and ordain him to the priesthood, but that’ll just have to wait til this Sunday. It was awesome though, Elder Spencer sang and I played the guitar to a song that’s called ‘His Love.’ I’m not sure who its by. But out here the heat continues, but it is a little bit cooler out here than it is in Asuncion, mostly because there’s less humidity I think. But yeah, we’re enjoying the work out here in Saltos, though this past weekend, my greenie was what we call tore up inside, he had the runs SO BAD. I felt so bad for the kid. We spent all of Saturday in the house, but I managed to pull people together to do a division and run out at night and visit a couple people to get plans set up to get them to church the next day. We’re not sure what it was that caused it, but that poor kid went like almost 30 times in 24 hours. I felt so bad, cause my system can take whatever for the most part, but it just destroyed him. Oh, and I’m happy to inform you that the color of our walls is still the same… I guess they like that color here or something. However, in the move my camera battery charger was lost, so I’m unable to send you photos cause my camera is dead now… I’m looking really hard for a charger, because I’ve seen them around town before, but I’m having some troubles. But I’ve torn apart our new apartment, and my charger is nowhere to be found, so I need to get a new one. But I haven’t made it over to the mall yet, and I’m pretty sure I should be able to find one over there. If not, I might have to beg you to send one down to me. It’s the type G sony charger for a head’s up.
But yeah, Asuncion is pretty big I guess… but its not that big I don’t think, its just that when you like want to cover every square inch of the city with a pair of missionaries and all they can do is walk, the areas have to be kind of smaller. So you never get areas, or hardly ever, that cover the whole city of say, Saratoga. That would be carved up into 2 or 3 areas, just because of the distance involved. And the sister missionaries, of which are many gringos, serve in the main city areas, where its safer and closer to the office. But man, sister missionaries are just amazing, they tear it up from what I hear. But I’ve never been in a zone with sisters, so I’ve never had close contact. But yeah, things go on down here in paradise. Oh yeah, I got all your photos from the bowl game, looked amazing out there! Anyways, hope you have a good week, tell Cole to keep zipping along on those ski runs so he’s all ready for me when I get back.
Love,
Elder Dennis
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Jan 20, 2009
NOTE: Sorry, the internet in town went out last night right before I got this sent off to you guys, so I got it saved, and hopefully you got the pictures alright, I sent those off about a minute before the internet stopped working. Love ya lots, E. Dennis.
Hola,
Well now that you’ve sufficiently made me trunky by describing in detail your adventurous cold weather sports and my little brother, I don’t even know what to say. Oh, and yeah, like 2 weeks ago I got a letter from Shane describing it all to me, so I was so stoked! I’m gonna be getting him some saweet stuff for sure before I take off. He’s one heck of a friend, that’s for sure, I miss that kid. The heat continues, though we’ve been getting a ton of rain this past week. So that’s just making it a humid heat, which is even worse. But this week was pretty sweet, because we had District Conference, or what you would know as Stake Conference. Out where we are though there are only 3 little branches, so its not big enough to be a stake, so it’s a district. Districts of the church are directly under the direction of the mission president, so President Wade and his family all came out for it, so that was pretty fun. They stayed in Saltos because its this nice touristy town with lots of shopping, so we got to show Sister Wade and her two sons that still live at home all the good places to shop and show them where their hotel is and all that fun stuff. Also, in Asuncion, Sister Wade goes and inspects all the houses to make sure they’re up to stuff for her little sons here in the mission. So good news, we moved this morning… hahaha. Bad news, no pics of the new place yet. We had actually found it earlier this week, so timing just worked out perfectly. Its small, but a TON nicer than that other place.
Alright, now I’m just gonna hit into your questions, and that should take quite awhile. First off, you should be getting pictures if this, but on Friday, Sambrina and Ever got married, which was really exciting and they were all dressed up nice, and it was just a ton of fun. We don’t really have any new strong investigators, but we did find this inactive member, who supposedly was the first member baptized here in Saltos, and we’re working to get her reactivated and to baptize her two children, so I guess that counts. We also have a couple other people, but we’ll see how much they progress. They’re good people, but they don’t always get it. We have one kid with some real promise though, his name is Sergio, and he’s like 20ish and seems truly interested. We’re visiting him a lot with Eddy, who knew him a little bit before. Oh yeah, Eddy is a stud! He’s gone and visited people with us just about everyday of last week… and on Thursday he went out with us for the whole day! He’s so excited for his baptism too, this Thursday, and in a year from now he’s already planning to go on a mission.
Elder Spencer is doing pretty good, he’s slowly but surely getting adapted to the new environment. It’s a hard change, that I know, but he’s having a lot of problem with the foods… he was a quite picky eater before the mission like me, and unlike me, the foods of Paraguay don’t rub so well with him. But his Spanish is coming along, and he’s a great kid, always animated and ready to do whatever. Elder Peterson went to a place called Ypacarai (U-pack-a-rye-E), and I talked to him just the other night on the phone, he seems to be doing really good over there. It’s the promised land in the mission… the people just line up to get baptized over there. Elder Reid is still with Elder Tinco, who will be going home in February. He’s our district leader and from Peru. He’s very trunky. And Elder Reid is ready to go up, I say he trains next change as well. So its me and Elder Spencer in Salto del Guaira, Elder Tinco and Elder Reid in the next area over, La Paloma, and Elder Hermosilla, senior comp from Chile who will be going home next Feb with us, and Elder Gibson, who is in his 2nd change, and 2nd area. We belong to the Zone Lejos… which means ‘Far’… it includes our three areas, and then two other cities, Pedro Juan Caballero, where our zone leaders are, and Concepcion. They’re all really far apart, but make up the areas outside of Asuncion… so we’re Zona Lejos. There’s about 20 of us in the zone. There’s like, 10 zones in the mission or something like that, 9 of which are in Asuncion and the surrounding communities. So yeah, that’s the low down… any more questions on how the mission works?
Love yas,
Elder Dennis
Hola,
Well now that you’ve sufficiently made me trunky by describing in detail your adventurous cold weather sports and my little brother, I don’t even know what to say. Oh, and yeah, like 2 weeks ago I got a letter from Shane describing it all to me, so I was so stoked! I’m gonna be getting him some saweet stuff for sure before I take off. He’s one heck of a friend, that’s for sure, I miss that kid. The heat continues, though we’ve been getting a ton of rain this past week. So that’s just making it a humid heat, which is even worse. But this week was pretty sweet, because we had District Conference, or what you would know as Stake Conference. Out where we are though there are only 3 little branches, so its not big enough to be a stake, so it’s a district. Districts of the church are directly under the direction of the mission president, so President Wade and his family all came out for it, so that was pretty fun. They stayed in Saltos because its this nice touristy town with lots of shopping, so we got to show Sister Wade and her two sons that still live at home all the good places to shop and show them where their hotel is and all that fun stuff. Also, in Asuncion, Sister Wade goes and inspects all the houses to make sure they’re up to stuff for her little sons here in the mission. So good news, we moved this morning… hahaha. Bad news, no pics of the new place yet. We had actually found it earlier this week, so timing just worked out perfectly. Its small, but a TON nicer than that other place.
Alright, now I’m just gonna hit into your questions, and that should take quite awhile. First off, you should be getting pictures if this, but on Friday, Sambrina and Ever got married, which was really exciting and they were all dressed up nice, and it was just a ton of fun. We don’t really have any new strong investigators, but we did find this inactive member, who supposedly was the first member baptized here in Saltos, and we’re working to get her reactivated and to baptize her two children, so I guess that counts. We also have a couple other people, but we’ll see how much they progress. They’re good people, but they don’t always get it. We have one kid with some real promise though, his name is Sergio, and he’s like 20ish and seems truly interested. We’re visiting him a lot with Eddy, who knew him a little bit before. Oh yeah, Eddy is a stud! He’s gone and visited people with us just about everyday of last week… and on Thursday he went out with us for the whole day! He’s so excited for his baptism too, this Thursday, and in a year from now he’s already planning to go on a mission.
Elder Spencer is doing pretty good, he’s slowly but surely getting adapted to the new environment. It’s a hard change, that I know, but he’s having a lot of problem with the foods… he was a quite picky eater before the mission like me, and unlike me, the foods of Paraguay don’t rub so well with him. But his Spanish is coming along, and he’s a great kid, always animated and ready to do whatever. Elder Peterson went to a place called Ypacarai (U-pack-a-rye-E), and I talked to him just the other night on the phone, he seems to be doing really good over there. It’s the promised land in the mission… the people just line up to get baptized over there. Elder Reid is still with Elder Tinco, who will be going home in February. He’s our district leader and from Peru. He’s very trunky. And Elder Reid is ready to go up, I say he trains next change as well. So its me and Elder Spencer in Salto del Guaira, Elder Tinco and Elder Reid in the next area over, La Paloma, and Elder Hermosilla, senior comp from Chile who will be going home next Feb with us, and Elder Gibson, who is in his 2nd change, and 2nd area. We belong to the Zone Lejos… which means ‘Far’… it includes our three areas, and then two other cities, Pedro Juan Caballero, where our zone leaders are, and Concepcion. They’re all really far apart, but make up the areas outside of Asuncion… so we’re Zona Lejos. There’s about 20 of us in the zone. There’s like, 10 zones in the mission or something like that, 9 of which are in Asuncion and the surrounding communities. So yeah, that’s the low down… any more questions on how the mission works?
Love yas,
Elder Dennis
Jan 19, 2009
No letter today :(
Looks like he didn't have time to shoot off a letter this week - he did send an email with 4 photo attachments, though - check out his web album for pics of Ever & Sambrina's wedding day and Sambrina's baptism. What a great week!
Looks like he didn't have time to shoot off a letter this week - he did send an email with 4 photo attachments, though - check out his web album for pics of Ever & Sambrina's wedding day and Sambrina's baptism. What a great week!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Jan 12, 2009
Tracie here - this one may need some explanation: I have made contact with Elder Spencer's mom through the missionary moms email group that I belong too - so she and I have been exchanging emails, and I told her about Joshua's blog and Picasa web album - now you'll know what he's talking about ....
Hola,
So another week, another month on my mission. Only one more month, and I’ll be halfway through! That's so exciting. But man, its just a freaking oven down here, and it just keeps getting hotter and hotter! But things are going pretty good down here, so yeah. Anyways, we’re super excited, because this week we’re going to have the baptism and marriage of Ever and Sambrina, and yeah, that's how we met Sambrina, cause she’s the girlfriend of much time of Ever. And Ever was inactive and yeah. So we’re getting all of that fixed and planned right now, and then next week we’re stoked to baptize Eddy, and that should be some saweet fotos because he wants to do it in the river.
But things are going pretty good. I’m not gonna lie though, its kind of creepy to know that families are talking to one another. I found out from my comp at first that all of his sisters were looking at my pictures and reading my blog... so that was weird. But of course I knew it had to have been you to contact first haha. But whatevs, I’ll just wipe the sweat off my forehead and keep moving on. Cause that's like all we do all day long. Did I mention it was hot down here yet? Man, I am like brown, not even kidding. I might still look white compared to the other people, but you are most definitely going to see a negro getting off of the plane in a year and not even realize its me. Oh, I also shaved my head today.. .sorry, no pictures yet. But my hair definitely shows that its thinning so I’m starting to think that it was a bad idea. And I’m praying that those pants fit, because mine are getting either too tight or really beat up. But we got Eddy all dressed up and he went out with us for the day after church... I don’t think he’s ready to be baptized yet... NOT! Dude, this kid is a stud for sure, definitely going on a mission. Its like all he talks about when he’s with us. The funniest thing in the world though was yesterday when we taught him the law of chastity. Anyways, so we explain what it is and he’s all like,
‘What?! You mean I can’t...! That's crazy!.... okay okay, I can do that, its alright. Nothing at all?! Okay okay, whatever, I’m down with that. My girlfriend might want to, but no, nope, I’ll just be like no way girl. .... .... But I don’t want to get married young!!! Sigh okay, okay, I’m good.’
Hahaha, it was the funniest conversation ever, just to listen to him kind of talking to himself. But he’s so cool that when he found out it was like, alright, now that I know, not going to be a problem.
But yeah, that's about it, nothing else really new around here. We’re just working hard the best way we know how. Love ya lots.
Elder Dennis
PS Send some of that cold my way...
Hola,
So another week, another month on my mission. Only one more month, and I’ll be halfway through! That's so exciting. But man, its just a freaking oven down here, and it just keeps getting hotter and hotter! But things are going pretty good down here, so yeah. Anyways, we’re super excited, because this week we’re going to have the baptism and marriage of Ever and Sambrina, and yeah, that's how we met Sambrina, cause she’s the girlfriend of much time of Ever. And Ever was inactive and yeah. So we’re getting all of that fixed and planned right now, and then next week we’re stoked to baptize Eddy, and that should be some saweet fotos because he wants to do it in the river.
But things are going pretty good. I’m not gonna lie though, its kind of creepy to know that families are talking to one another. I found out from my comp at first that all of his sisters were looking at my pictures and reading my blog... so that was weird. But of course I knew it had to have been you to contact first haha. But whatevs, I’ll just wipe the sweat off my forehead and keep moving on. Cause that's like all we do all day long. Did I mention it was hot down here yet? Man, I am like brown, not even kidding. I might still look white compared to the other people, but you are most definitely going to see a negro getting off of the plane in a year and not even realize its me. Oh, I also shaved my head today.. .sorry, no pictures yet. But my hair definitely shows that its thinning so I’m starting to think that it was a bad idea. And I’m praying that those pants fit, because mine are getting either too tight or really beat up. But we got Eddy all dressed up and he went out with us for the day after church... I don’t think he’s ready to be baptized yet... NOT! Dude, this kid is a stud for sure, definitely going on a mission. Its like all he talks about when he’s with us. The funniest thing in the world though was yesterday when we taught him the law of chastity. Anyways, so we explain what it is and he’s all like,
‘What?! You mean I can’t...! That's crazy!.... okay okay, I can do that, its alright. Nothing at all?! Okay okay, whatever, I’m down with that. My girlfriend might want to, but no, nope, I’ll just be like no way girl. .... .... But I don’t want to get married young!!! Sigh okay, okay, I’m good.’
Hahaha, it was the funniest conversation ever, just to listen to him kind of talking to himself. But he’s so cool that when he found out it was like, alright, now that I know, not going to be a problem.
But yeah, that's about it, nothing else really new around here. We’re just working hard the best way we know how. Love ya lots.
Elder Dennis
PS Send some of that cold my way...
Monday, January 5, 2009
Jan 5, 2009
Hey there,
I’m so stoked to hear that the Utes crushed Bama, I totally wish I could’ve been there. I absolutely loved the photo of Dad though going crazy like I know he would’ve been. But that totally made me remember that you might try and squeeze in like an OSU or Ute shirt or hat or tshirt or something to help me represent down here. You can probably find something in my room haha. But as far as the pants go… I’m not really sure, I’m really nervous, because I might need a bigger waist. I’m pretty sure the jeans I brought down here are 30x30, and they fit fine still. But they might be 31x30s, I can’t really run back to the house to look at them right now. But as far as packages go, I didn’t get anything this week from Grma, but we’re going into Asuncion tomorrow night for Zone Conference on Wednesday, so there might be something waiting for me when I get there. We had a sweet New Years though, we got together as the 6 missionaries out here in la Paloma and we grilled up some steaks and sausages and built a fire and played with firecrackers until midnight, at which time we all promptly fell asleep. It was way past our normal bedtime.
Anyways, things are going pretty good out here, Edison finally got off work on Sundays, so he came to church for the first time yesterday, which was awesome. I sent a picture of him walking home from church and then of him helping us clean up our apartment haha. It was awesome, we were walking home though together and he was like, where are you eating today, and we usually just eat in the house, so he was like come on over to my house, and so we went and ate with his dad and brothers (no mom) and had some amazing barbeque! It was sweet. He’s a great guy, and he speaks decent English, so its fun to help him learn more. He’s like this little punk rocker though and talks about all these different bands that I like, and I also gave him a copy of the RM soundtrack cause he loves it and thinks its awesome that its church songs haha. He’s already ‘preparing’ to go on a mission too, so its so awesome. He just turned 19, so he has plenty of time.
Sambrina is also doing really good, next week we’re going to marry her and Ever and get her baptized, but Ever went to Brazil to get some medical treatments, and it was going to happen this week, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be home in time, so we pushed it back just a little bit. As far as my favorite families out here, its definitely those two and then this member family that has been baptized for just about a year, David and Rosa. You’ve seen pictures of their daughter, Angie, she’s so darn cute. But I mean, I love all of the families, but they’re the funnest to visit and hang out with for me, because they’re all younger, like 23. Actually, those four are all 23 now that I think about it. So that’s a cool coincidence haha.
Okay, you have no idea how hard it is to be in this area… its like one of the only places in Paraguay where you can get like any new fancy electronic you can think of, so any store we go into they just have Wiis and Playstation 3s everywhere, and its driving me crazy to not be able to play! Plus you can get old systems for dirt down here, and I might end up bringing some home just to have, because they’re getting harder and harder to find in the states, like super Nintendo and stuff. But yeah, such is life.
Loves yas,
Elder Dennis
I’m so stoked to hear that the Utes crushed Bama, I totally wish I could’ve been there. I absolutely loved the photo of Dad though going crazy like I know he would’ve been. But that totally made me remember that you might try and squeeze in like an OSU or Ute shirt or hat or tshirt or something to help me represent down here. You can probably find something in my room haha. But as far as the pants go… I’m not really sure, I’m really nervous, because I might need a bigger waist. I’m pretty sure the jeans I brought down here are 30x30, and they fit fine still. But they might be 31x30s, I can’t really run back to the house to look at them right now. But as far as packages go, I didn’t get anything this week from Grma, but we’re going into Asuncion tomorrow night for Zone Conference on Wednesday, so there might be something waiting for me when I get there. We had a sweet New Years though, we got together as the 6 missionaries out here in la Paloma and we grilled up some steaks and sausages and built a fire and played with firecrackers until midnight, at which time we all promptly fell asleep. It was way past our normal bedtime.
Anyways, things are going pretty good out here, Edison finally got off work on Sundays, so he came to church for the first time yesterday, which was awesome. I sent a picture of him walking home from church and then of him helping us clean up our apartment haha. It was awesome, we were walking home though together and he was like, where are you eating today, and we usually just eat in the house, so he was like come on over to my house, and so we went and ate with his dad and brothers (no mom) and had some amazing barbeque! It was sweet. He’s a great guy, and he speaks decent English, so its fun to help him learn more. He’s like this little punk rocker though and talks about all these different bands that I like, and I also gave him a copy of the RM soundtrack cause he loves it and thinks its awesome that its church songs haha. He’s already ‘preparing’ to go on a mission too, so its so awesome. He just turned 19, so he has plenty of time.
Sambrina is also doing really good, next week we’re going to marry her and Ever and get her baptized, but Ever went to Brazil to get some medical treatments, and it was going to happen this week, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be home in time, so we pushed it back just a little bit. As far as my favorite families out here, its definitely those two and then this member family that has been baptized for just about a year, David and Rosa. You’ve seen pictures of their daughter, Angie, she’s so darn cute. But I mean, I love all of the families, but they’re the funnest to visit and hang out with for me, because they’re all younger, like 23. Actually, those four are all 23 now that I think about it. So that’s a cool coincidence haha.
Okay, you have no idea how hard it is to be in this area… its like one of the only places in Paraguay where you can get like any new fancy electronic you can think of, so any store we go into they just have Wiis and Playstation 3s everywhere, and its driving me crazy to not be able to play! Plus you can get old systems for dirt down here, and I might end up bringing some home just to have, because they’re getting harder and harder to find in the states, like super Nintendo and stuff. But yeah, such is life.
Loves yas,
Elder Dennis
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Dec 29, 2008
Hey there family!
Hey, so why didn't you let Aunt Audrey talk to me, it would have been fun to here from her too. But I´m glad you enjoyed talking to me. Only 5 months to go until the next time. But wow, it is really really hot right now, and we went out to check out a waterfall today as a district. So the two new guys in our district were excited to see a little bit of the country side, because we have to drive way out to the middle of nowhere to get there. This one was different from the last one, so I hope you like some of the pictures that I sent you.
Anyways, my new comp is pretty cool, he has a ton of enthusiasm and wants to work hard, so we're doing it the best we can. Edison and Sambrina are doing awesome, so in a couple weeks hopefully you'll be seeing their baptismal photos, if everything goes according to plan. My comp is still going through the major culture shock, and I totally am coming to appreciate just how great of a missionary and trainer Elder Nilsen was, because I just find myself thinking "Okay, what would Elder Nilsen be doing right now? How would he explain to me what's going on?" It’s a lot harder than it might seem to get a kid to understand what the people are saying to him and adjust to a new culture on top of getting him used to doing the missionary kinds of things. I find myself forgetting to do a lot of things just because of how much I'm trying so hard to make sure I'm covering all of the bases haha. But it hasn't even been a week yet, I'm sure things will settle down here pretty soon. As for favorite families here, there's always favorite families/people wherever you go.
But now its time to reprimand haha. What's with all this talk of me being married?! Its just all like out of the blue. But no, I didn't know Jeremy Arnold. I think he was the guy who gave his homecoming talk when I gave my farewell, but I don't know anything about him really. I did know Maddie though. Haha that’s weird to think they're getting married. Don't you worry, I'll be taking things nice and slow when I get home. For starters, I'll be in NY for forever when I get home and I KNOW there ain't nobody there. And there's some things I wanna do before I have to settle down, just take some time and enjoy single life for awhile, like start up a band or study abroad in Austria or Spain or something fun like that. Don't think that me going and living in a foreign country for 2 years has satisfied my appetite, if anything its just made me want to travel more. Haha.
Anyways, I hope all of your travel plans go good for this week, and that you guys really enjoy the game. You'll have to send pictures and tell me all about it. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Hey, so why didn't you let Aunt Audrey talk to me, it would have been fun to here from her too. But I´m glad you enjoyed talking to me. Only 5 months to go until the next time. But wow, it is really really hot right now, and we went out to check out a waterfall today as a district. So the two new guys in our district were excited to see a little bit of the country side, because we have to drive way out to the middle of nowhere to get there. This one was different from the last one, so I hope you like some of the pictures that I sent you.
Anyways, my new comp is pretty cool, he has a ton of enthusiasm and wants to work hard, so we're doing it the best we can. Edison and Sambrina are doing awesome, so in a couple weeks hopefully you'll be seeing their baptismal photos, if everything goes according to plan. My comp is still going through the major culture shock, and I totally am coming to appreciate just how great of a missionary and trainer Elder Nilsen was, because I just find myself thinking "Okay, what would Elder Nilsen be doing right now? How would he explain to me what's going on?" It’s a lot harder than it might seem to get a kid to understand what the people are saying to him and adjust to a new culture on top of getting him used to doing the missionary kinds of things. I find myself forgetting to do a lot of things just because of how much I'm trying so hard to make sure I'm covering all of the bases haha. But it hasn't even been a week yet, I'm sure things will settle down here pretty soon. As for favorite families here, there's always favorite families/people wherever you go.
But now its time to reprimand haha. What's with all this talk of me being married?! Its just all like out of the blue. But no, I didn't know Jeremy Arnold. I think he was the guy who gave his homecoming talk when I gave my farewell, but I don't know anything about him really. I did know Maddie though. Haha that’s weird to think they're getting married. Don't you worry, I'll be taking things nice and slow when I get home. For starters, I'll be in NY for forever when I get home and I KNOW there ain't nobody there. And there's some things I wanna do before I have to settle down, just take some time and enjoy single life for awhile, like start up a band or study abroad in Austria or Spain or something fun like that. Don't think that me going and living in a foreign country for 2 years has satisfied my appetite, if anything its just made me want to travel more. Haha.
Anyways, I hope all of your travel plans go good for this week, and that you guys really enjoy the game. You'll have to send pictures and tell me all about it. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Monday, December 22, 2008
Dec 22, 2008
¡Feliz navidad!
Alright peeps, are yas ready to talk to yours truly? Well... I kinda forgot to get the information... HA! Gotcha! Alright, so here’s whats ya needs to do: First, go out and buy a phone card, and make sure Paraguay is included on it. Then, at exactly 4:00 on Thursday, Christmas day, Eastern standard time, call the number xx-xxx-xxx-xxx. It’ll be six o’clock here in Paraguay. If the number doesn’t go through you might have to put a 0 in front of it, but you should be just fine. You’ll be calling a member’s house, the branch president’s, and we’ll be getting there a little early to be there in plenty of time. Its funny to think its been like, 7 months since I’ve talked to any of you people.
Okay, now I gotta say, I just love my funny little branch. Its so hard to not just bust out laughing at most of our functions, its deserving of a mormon reality tv series almost. You can check out the photos of the christmas party. Its was cool, we actually got a really great turnout, we were kind of surprised as missionaries. We spent all week inviting people, and it actually turned out decent. Also, I got your package of gifts, so no worries there. Although, I’m sorry to say that all your effort to put Elder Peterson’s names on the gifts was a wasted of time, cause now I have to scratch them off. But I’ll be giving a couple to him on his way out, cause I love that kid. Oh, but you’ll be happy to know that I only opened the seat cushion (which is splendid, by the way). Oh, and the magnets, those I couldn’t figure out, and they’re really fun to play with. And the AAA batteries. Which will be coming in handy because I bought a guitar tuner today that uses em. Before today I thought is was the most pointless gift ever, but then again, I haven’t opened anything else, so I wouldn’t know... but I’m pretty sure that unless the book is just like a cover up for something than you didn’t send anything that could use them. I’m really excited to find out what the book is by the way, and I’m stoked for all the cds. But I’m not gonna lie, the things I’m most geared up to open is the ties... haha.
So I guess that brings me to changes: I get to have my first kid this change! I’ll be training some kid, but we don’t find out who until we get there cause its this huge big surprise and everything, so it’ll be exciting. I do know he’s american though, because there’s no latins coming this change haha. So you’ll be able to find out all about him this Thursday when we’re chatting. But I’ve decided to share something with you that I’ve come to realize the last couple weeks... The things I took for granted the most before my mission was, by far, shade. DO you know how much cooler it is when you’re under shade?! It’s like stepping into a freezer! I am never going to take shade for granted when I get back to the states... the first thing I will ever think about when I’m looking at houses to buy later on is where the shade is in the yard because man, it can literally save your life to have just a itty bitty piece of shade to be get out of the oven.
Okay, one last thing. I want to ask you to pray for Ever. He’s an awesome guy that isn’t feeling well. He’s helped us find 2 of our best investigators that we have right now, and he really wants to go on a mission, but he has lupus, and he’s going through a tough spot right now. So just keep him in your prayers. Him and Sambrina and Edison, the two investigators. I sent a photo of Ever and Sambrina with the elders. Anyways, I love you all, can’t wait to talk to ya. Chao.
Elder Dennis
Alright peeps, are yas ready to talk to yours truly? Well... I kinda forgot to get the information... HA! Gotcha! Alright, so here’s whats ya needs to do: First, go out and buy a phone card, and make sure Paraguay is included on it. Then, at exactly 4:00 on Thursday, Christmas day, Eastern standard time, call the number xx-xxx-xxx-xxx. It’ll be six o’clock here in Paraguay. If the number doesn’t go through you might have to put a 0 in front of it, but you should be just fine. You’ll be calling a member’s house, the branch president’s, and we’ll be getting there a little early to be there in plenty of time. Its funny to think its been like, 7 months since I’ve talked to any of you people.
Okay, now I gotta say, I just love my funny little branch. Its so hard to not just bust out laughing at most of our functions, its deserving of a mormon reality tv series almost. You can check out the photos of the christmas party. Its was cool, we actually got a really great turnout, we were kind of surprised as missionaries. We spent all week inviting people, and it actually turned out decent. Also, I got your package of gifts, so no worries there. Although, I’m sorry to say that all your effort to put Elder Peterson’s names on the gifts was a wasted of time, cause now I have to scratch them off. But I’ll be giving a couple to him on his way out, cause I love that kid. Oh, but you’ll be happy to know that I only opened the seat cushion (which is splendid, by the way). Oh, and the magnets, those I couldn’t figure out, and they’re really fun to play with. And the AAA batteries. Which will be coming in handy because I bought a guitar tuner today that uses em. Before today I thought is was the most pointless gift ever, but then again, I haven’t opened anything else, so I wouldn’t know... but I’m pretty sure that unless the book is just like a cover up for something than you didn’t send anything that could use them. I’m really excited to find out what the book is by the way, and I’m stoked for all the cds. But I’m not gonna lie, the things I’m most geared up to open is the ties... haha.
So I guess that brings me to changes: I get to have my first kid this change! I’ll be training some kid, but we don’t find out who until we get there cause its this huge big surprise and everything, so it’ll be exciting. I do know he’s american though, because there’s no latins coming this change haha. So you’ll be able to find out all about him this Thursday when we’re chatting. But I’ve decided to share something with you that I’ve come to realize the last couple weeks... The things I took for granted the most before my mission was, by far, shade. DO you know how much cooler it is when you’re under shade?! It’s like stepping into a freezer! I am never going to take shade for granted when I get back to the states... the first thing I will ever think about when I’m looking at houses to buy later on is where the shade is in the yard because man, it can literally save your life to have just a itty bitty piece of shade to be get out of the oven.
Okay, one last thing. I want to ask you to pray for Ever. He’s an awesome guy that isn’t feeling well. He’s helped us find 2 of our best investigators that we have right now, and he really wants to go on a mission, but he has lupus, and he’s going through a tough spot right now. So just keep him in your prayers. Him and Sambrina and Edison, the two investigators. I sent a photo of Ever and Sambrina with the elders. Anyways, I love you all, can’t wait to talk to ya. Chao.
Elder Dennis
Monday, December 15, 2008
Dec 15, 2008
¿Qué tal?
Well, first things first… I forgot to collect the phone information hahaha... so yeah, you have to wait another week. But next time I’ll have it, I promise. And I haven’t gotten your other package yet, so don’t worry... Well, now you’ll probably be worrying about why I haven’t gotten it yet, so I’m sure I’ll be getting it this week, don’t worry. Also, I’m currently sending you some photos taken with my new camera, hope ya like em. I also added explanations to that email so you should know what’s going on. It sounded like Haley had fun with her little trip though, I’m glad she got lucky enough to have some great people go pick her up. Man, I really hope I don’t have any problems getting home in like a year... I really really really miss my music...
Anyways, I guess I’ll answer your questions about the branch. Just about everyone is converts of at the VERY most 15 years, cause thats when the church started out here. Most are within the 2-5 year mark. Only one family is a transplant, but its a pretty strong family. They’ve been members the longest, since the early 80s, and have lived in several different places. The members do various things, like construction and selling things and working at the bus terminal, things like that. There is poverty in the area, but its a little bit different, because its not as widespread, because here, most people have jobs. So while the houses are just as small, they’re usually a lot nicer, with chuchi, er, nice, things inside, but still well below the poverty level for the states. Its hard to describe, you just have to be here and see it. Its like they’re living in the same conditions, they just take better care of themselves and their stuff. As for Brazil, I’ve crossed the border and wow, is it a heck of a lot nicer over there... like paved streets and nice cars, its like a whole other world. That and they all speak portuguese which is supposed to be close to spanish but its like impossible to understand. We have some members over there because for whatever reason there’s no missionaries or church over there, but they don’t come very often. As for food, we mostly cook for ourselves... we eat a lot of pasta, its quite easy to make... We eat usually twice a week with members. The main problem is that most of them are working during the day so they’re not home during lunch time. Just in case you didn’t remember (I’m pretty sure I’ve explained this before) we eat the big meal of lunch here, and just lightly at night... which is how it should be. No packing in calories just to store them away during the night. And we’ve stopped looking for a house becasue we got tired of looking at very tiny places for a lot more than what we’re paying at our current house... which isn’t all that bad, not really. If I can live there, you know it can’t be that bad haha.
Anyways, I’m looking forward to talking to everyone next week, hopefully I’ll get you the information hahaha. Love yas,
Elder Dennis
PS Tell Haley I’m sorry but I didn’t have time to write her today.
Well, first things first… I forgot to collect the phone information hahaha... so yeah, you have to wait another week. But next time I’ll have it, I promise. And I haven’t gotten your other package yet, so don’t worry... Well, now you’ll probably be worrying about why I haven’t gotten it yet, so I’m sure I’ll be getting it this week, don’t worry. Also, I’m currently sending you some photos taken with my new camera, hope ya like em. I also added explanations to that email so you should know what’s going on. It sounded like Haley had fun with her little trip though, I’m glad she got lucky enough to have some great people go pick her up. Man, I really hope I don’t have any problems getting home in like a year... I really really really miss my music...
Anyways, I guess I’ll answer your questions about the branch. Just about everyone is converts of at the VERY most 15 years, cause thats when the church started out here. Most are within the 2-5 year mark. Only one family is a transplant, but its a pretty strong family. They’ve been members the longest, since the early 80s, and have lived in several different places. The members do various things, like construction and selling things and working at the bus terminal, things like that. There is poverty in the area, but its a little bit different, because its not as widespread, because here, most people have jobs. So while the houses are just as small, they’re usually a lot nicer, with chuchi, er, nice, things inside, but still well below the poverty level for the states. Its hard to describe, you just have to be here and see it. Its like they’re living in the same conditions, they just take better care of themselves and their stuff. As for Brazil, I’ve crossed the border and wow, is it a heck of a lot nicer over there... like paved streets and nice cars, its like a whole other world. That and they all speak portuguese which is supposed to be close to spanish but its like impossible to understand. We have some members over there because for whatever reason there’s no missionaries or church over there, but they don’t come very often. As for food, we mostly cook for ourselves... we eat a lot of pasta, its quite easy to make... We eat usually twice a week with members. The main problem is that most of them are working during the day so they’re not home during lunch time. Just in case you didn’t remember (I’m pretty sure I’ve explained this before) we eat the big meal of lunch here, and just lightly at night... which is how it should be. No packing in calories just to store them away during the night. And we’ve stopped looking for a house becasue we got tired of looking at very tiny places for a lot more than what we’re paying at our current house... which isn’t all that bad, not really. If I can live there, you know it can’t be that bad haha.
Anyways, I’m looking forward to talking to everyone next week, hopefully I’ll get you the information hahaha. Love yas,
Elder Dennis
PS Tell Haley I’m sorry but I didn’t have time to write her today.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Dec 10, 2008
Howdy,
So as you guessed it, I already picked up a camera. Its really sweet! I got the Sony dsc-W150, and I got it for super cheap, for 850 mil guaranies, or like, $170 dollars. It takes sweet photos and is everything you could ever need in a camera. And don't worry, I had already thought about saving my camera and seeing if we can´t repair it when I get home. Oh, and sorry its taken me so long to write to you guys this week. Yesterday we had to go into Asuncion for our little Christmas lunch in a fancy restaurant with the Pres and 2 other zones, so Monday was a working day for us. But yesterday we didn't get the chance to do internet, so here we are today. By the way, I just spent two nights in a row on a bus… we left Monday night at 10pm from Saltos, and got in to Asuncion at like 6am on Tuesday, then we played a game of soccer as a zone because we never see each other and then did interviews with the pres because we never see him either. Then we ate lunch and then hung out at the office til 9pm, when they took us back to the terminal, where we had to wait until midnight to catch a bus back to Saltos, arriving here in the morning at about 7am…. I hate being the area the farthest away you can get from the office…
As far as changes and calling home, we´re still doing changes on Christmas eve… I think… but its almost for sure that I´ll be staying here in Saltos. I´ll probably be training too, because 22 new missionaries will be showing up this change! That’s a TON! I´m pretty sure just about every person in the mission is going to receive a change this time around though, there hasn´t been too many for a change or two now, and with all these new kids coming, its going to be an interesting Christmas. We got the information on calling home a week or two ago, but I don´t have it with me yet, because we still need to verify some stuff. We´re planning on doing it at a members house again. We have a cell phone (wehhehehe power!) but the connection isn´t that reliable for something like this. So I´ll be getting you the information here this next week I think. Just let me know like, what time is better for you guys. Are you going to be going anywhere for Christmas, or staying at home? Because on Christmas eve day, if we get changed up and plans have to change about when or where we have to talk, we have permission to call home for like 3 minutes to confirm things, so if something happens i'm going to need to know where to call. Also, Paraguay is 2 hours ahead of you guys right now, so we´ll have to plan for that as well.
Well, I love you guys a lot, hope all is well, and talk to ya laters,
Elder Dennis
P.s. I don´t really care about Disney World, you should know I´m just joking about things like that. Now snowboarding in Switzerland or surfing in Australia… then I would be jealous. haha.
P.s.s. Dad, you´re going to love your Christmas present from Mom! hehe
So as you guessed it, I already picked up a camera. Its really sweet! I got the Sony dsc-W150, and I got it for super cheap, for 850 mil guaranies, or like, $170 dollars. It takes sweet photos and is everything you could ever need in a camera. And don't worry, I had already thought about saving my camera and seeing if we can´t repair it when I get home. Oh, and sorry its taken me so long to write to you guys this week. Yesterday we had to go into Asuncion for our little Christmas lunch in a fancy restaurant with the Pres and 2 other zones, so Monday was a working day for us. But yesterday we didn't get the chance to do internet, so here we are today. By the way, I just spent two nights in a row on a bus… we left Monday night at 10pm from Saltos, and got in to Asuncion at like 6am on Tuesday, then we played a game of soccer as a zone because we never see each other and then did interviews with the pres because we never see him either. Then we ate lunch and then hung out at the office til 9pm, when they took us back to the terminal, where we had to wait until midnight to catch a bus back to Saltos, arriving here in the morning at about 7am…. I hate being the area the farthest away you can get from the office…
As far as changes and calling home, we´re still doing changes on Christmas eve… I think… but its almost for sure that I´ll be staying here in Saltos. I´ll probably be training too, because 22 new missionaries will be showing up this change! That’s a TON! I´m pretty sure just about every person in the mission is going to receive a change this time around though, there hasn´t been too many for a change or two now, and with all these new kids coming, its going to be an interesting Christmas. We got the information on calling home a week or two ago, but I don´t have it with me yet, because we still need to verify some stuff. We´re planning on doing it at a members house again. We have a cell phone (wehhehehe power!) but the connection isn´t that reliable for something like this. So I´ll be getting you the information here this next week I think. Just let me know like, what time is better for you guys. Are you going to be going anywhere for Christmas, or staying at home? Because on Christmas eve day, if we get changed up and plans have to change about when or where we have to talk, we have permission to call home for like 3 minutes to confirm things, so if something happens i'm going to need to know where to call. Also, Paraguay is 2 hours ahead of you guys right now, so we´ll have to plan for that as well.
Well, I love you guys a lot, hope all is well, and talk to ya laters,
Elder Dennis
P.s. I don´t really care about Disney World, you should know I´m just joking about things like that. Now snowboarding in Switzerland or surfing in Australia… then I would be jealous. haha.
P.s.s. Dad, you´re going to love your Christmas present from Mom! hehe
Friday, December 5, 2008
Dec 1, 2008
Wow, its December already! Who da thunk? Anyways, I hope your vacation is going well, and you’re enjoying the parks. Right now its really really really fetching hot, and we sang Christmas songs in church yesterday... that felt very very wierd! But things are plugging along down here. We’re not having very much success right now though, so spirits are kind of low, but what can ya do?
But, I have run into a tiny problem... my camera is starting to freak on me. I think it might be the dirt getting into it or something... but whenever I try and focus it, the lens motors just start grinding like its trying to focus but it just makes it so that everything comes in blurry. It started a while ago, but wasn’t that bad, but its just gotten progressively worse as time has gone on, and now I can barely get a good picture out of it. So I’ve started looking at some cameras, and most are in the 200-250 range. Of course I’m sticking with Sony, and the main ones I’m looking at are the W150, W170 and T77, with prices or 220, 240, and 260, respectively. Thats the starting prices, but around here you can usually talk them down about 20 bucks (or 100 mil). So I just wanted to consult with you to see if these were good prices and if its okay that I get one before I do anything. I don’t know, these are like the main cameras out right now with some of the better specs but staying in what seems like a decent price range from what I can tell in my very shelter bubble of a missionary. :-)
Anyways, thats basically all thats really going on down here... its just really hot and I REALLY want to play in the snow. On a snowbaord.
Love,
Elder Dennis
(Wow, my letters suck when I don’t have any questions to answer...)
Tracie here - he didn't get an email from us because there was no free internet service @ Disney World - he obviously missed my incessant barrage of questions! :)
But, I have run into a tiny problem... my camera is starting to freak on me. I think it might be the dirt getting into it or something... but whenever I try and focus it, the lens motors just start grinding like its trying to focus but it just makes it so that everything comes in blurry. It started a while ago, but wasn’t that bad, but its just gotten progressively worse as time has gone on, and now I can barely get a good picture out of it. So I’ve started looking at some cameras, and most are in the 200-250 range. Of course I’m sticking with Sony, and the main ones I’m looking at are the W150, W170 and T77, with prices or 220, 240, and 260, respectively. Thats the starting prices, but around here you can usually talk them down about 20 bucks (or 100 mil). So I just wanted to consult with you to see if these were good prices and if its okay that I get one before I do anything. I don’t know, these are like the main cameras out right now with some of the better specs but staying in what seems like a decent price range from what I can tell in my very shelter bubble of a missionary. :-)
Anyways, thats basically all thats really going on down here... its just really hot and I REALLY want to play in the snow. On a snowbaord.
Love,
Elder Dennis
(Wow, my letters suck when I don’t have any questions to answer...)
Tracie here - he didn't get an email from us because there was no free internet service @ Disney World - he obviously missed my incessant barrage of questions! :)
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