Wait a second… you guys are going to Disney World, withOUT me?! First a cruise and now this… you pigs disgust me. Haha just kidding. About the cruise anyway. But whatevs, I’ll keep walking the dusty dirt roads everyday in extreme heat. That's a lot funner than Disney World anyways. Well another week... still no dollar. Which is rising by the way. Just in case you wanted to know.
Well, this week kind of stunk as far as the numbers went... everything is very carefully marked and organized and the numbers very well kept around here. We have to talk to our district leader 4 times a week now, so that the mission can keep tabs on all of us little twenty somethings, and make sure we’re actually working. But we lost a lot of time by going in to Asuncion for 2 whole days, so yeah, whatever. But while we were in Asuncion, we totally went out to eat at this really really nice, expensive restaurant, and we were all like this is soooo expensive... until we realized how much we were paying in dollars. Because here, the food is about the same ratio as it is in the states. Like, 1 dollar will buy the same amount of food as like 1 mil guarani here. So while it was a 50 mil dinner, it was only like, 10 bucks. So yeah, take that Paraguay!
Well, we had another baptism fall, so our animo is a little low, but were just wiping the slate new and starting again basically from scratch with our investigator pool. Its a little difficult, but no one was progressing, and they were just wasting our time that could have been spent with someone else. But yeah, we don’t have thanksgiving around these parts, so the Christmas decorations totally went up like two weeks ago around here... that was a little weird, not gonna lie. Oh yeah, I got the Christmas gift package by the way... I like the cute little note to the APs... who don’t see the package anyways. That was a little embarrassing... :-p But I still love ya.
Well that's about it for now... I can’t think of anything else to ramble on about. Love ya,
Elder Dennis
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Nov 18, 2008
Hola, so right now I’m in Asuncion because my comp had to sign in to the country today, and then tomorrow we have our zone conference. Anyways, the bus in sucked, because we took the bus that left from Saltos at 10pm last night and got in to Asuncion at 5.30 this morning, where we took a taxi to the office where we crashed until my comp had to go to sign in at like 9. Then I just hung out at the office until about 12, when we took off and ate at Shangra-la, which is really good Chinese buffet. And now we’re just taking care of the internet use for the week. So yeah, it was like impossible to sleep on the bus but whatevs, I’m not about to fall asleep while writing this, I swear.
Well it sounds like yall are having a good time at home with all of the activities. I hope things keep going well for you all, and that you’re having a good time shopping today for Robyn’s birthday. And tell Cole he better keep that Spanish up!
Well let’s see if I can’t explain a little bit more about Saltos. It’s a tiny little branch that gets about 20 people to the Sacrament meetings on Sundays… the classes only pull in like 5-10 on a good day. But we’re working our best to try and activate the numerous inactive members that live here, and strengthen the ward with some strong new members. However, this past week we were lined up to have a baptism of this really awesome lady named Rosi. Anyways, we go over the baptismal interview questions with here on Thursday and we tell her we’ll be coming back tomorrow with our district leader to do the interview, but overnight she got cold feet and ‘’got out of Dodge’’ for the weekend… so yeah, we finally find her on Sunday night, and she had went to Brazil for the weekend, but we ask her if she still wanted to be baptized and she’s like I don’t know so we didn’t have a lot of time at the moment cause we were running late and we had to get home to rendir, so we told her we were coming back tomorrow to talk about it and she like skipped town on us again… so yeah, we’re a little down about that right now, but whatevs. We got a sweet lady lined up for next week, but what we really need is just a solid family to find.
Anyways, the town is very popular because its on the frontera of Brazil. So all the Brazilians come over because they get the stuff cheaper over here, especially electronics… (I don’t know what it is back home, but a 4GB Kingston memory chip is only 12 US dollars… its unreal!) Anyways, because of that there’s a ton of shops and that means a ton of jobs, so that brings a ton of people from both sides of the border, and its just growing like crazy. Well, I hope that that answers some questions that you’ve had. Its an awesome area, it just needs a kick start in the heart to get this place thumping… Its sooo close!
Well, I’m out. Loves ya,
Elder Dennis
Well it sounds like yall are having a good time at home with all of the activities. I hope things keep going well for you all, and that you’re having a good time shopping today for Robyn’s birthday. And tell Cole he better keep that Spanish up!
Well let’s see if I can’t explain a little bit more about Saltos. It’s a tiny little branch that gets about 20 people to the Sacrament meetings on Sundays… the classes only pull in like 5-10 on a good day. But we’re working our best to try and activate the numerous inactive members that live here, and strengthen the ward with some strong new members. However, this past week we were lined up to have a baptism of this really awesome lady named Rosi. Anyways, we go over the baptismal interview questions with here on Thursday and we tell her we’ll be coming back tomorrow with our district leader to do the interview, but overnight she got cold feet and ‘’got out of Dodge’’ for the weekend… so yeah, we finally find her on Sunday night, and she had went to Brazil for the weekend, but we ask her if she still wanted to be baptized and she’s like I don’t know so we didn’t have a lot of time at the moment cause we were running late and we had to get home to rendir, so we told her we were coming back tomorrow to talk about it and she like skipped town on us again… so yeah, we’re a little down about that right now, but whatevs. We got a sweet lady lined up for next week, but what we really need is just a solid family to find.
Anyways, the town is very popular because its on the frontera of Brazil. So all the Brazilians come over because they get the stuff cheaper over here, especially electronics… (I don’t know what it is back home, but a 4GB Kingston memory chip is only 12 US dollars… its unreal!) Anyways, because of that there’s a ton of shops and that means a ton of jobs, so that brings a ton of people from both sides of the border, and its just growing like crazy. Well, I hope that that answers some questions that you’ve had. Its an awesome area, it just needs a kick start in the heart to get this place thumping… Its sooo close!
Well, I’m out. Loves ya,
Elder Dennis
Monday, November 10, 2008
Nov 10, 2008
Well we actually found out our changes on time this week. And it turns out that all of us out here lejos will be staying together. Surprise surprise. But that's okay with me, I like my comp a lot, he’s a good kid. Today we went as a district to check out this water fall and lake thing just a little ways off the main road in Puente Kyjha, the last area on the road out here. So we just took a ton of photos and actually had a pretty good time. I was a little bored after like 5 minutes, but whatevs, I keep the people happy. So you should be getting a decent amount of those sometime in the next 50 hours.
So I heard about the elections... Barak Obama, eh? I’m glad I still have a little while to go here in Paraguay, I’ll just say that.
Oh, and I totally just got your other package this week... so I currently have more candy in my possession than the entire United States eats in a year... but hey, Elder Peterson and I aren’t complaining. But to make up for that Dad, don’t worry, I brush after every meal and before I go to bed. But... I’m sorry to inform you that I do not, I repeat, do not have floss in my possession. But oh man am I scared of coming home with bad teeth, the way peoples’ teeth look here! But I totally forgot to mention the saweet Counting Crows shirt I got in the package last week! That thing is awesome. But after receiving the pictures in this new package, I feel quite left out without an OSU shirt out here. By the way, Cole is getting HUGE! Tell him to stop growning because I still want to play with my little guy when I get home!
So I was going to mention the lack of college football reports, but Dad came through for me this week, so I won’t... But his mention of demonstrating a certain photo on his PHONE doesn’t make me jealous... okay, TOO jealous... if that's what he was going for. So hah! At least I don’t have to drive a car to work with my tunes playing and relax all day while my assistants do all the work in chilly fall air and eat delicious american food like ya’ll. Viva la Paraguay, baby!
But yeah, last Monday night, we hit up a store and picked up some Raid, and we killed all those suckers! It actually sucked that night, because we just doused our house in it and cleaned it up quite a bit, but then we left for the night and came back in and there were this little gnat things that look like ants but have wings, anyways, there were these little harmless things just flying around all drunk like because they were dying from the spray, but we had no clue where all of them were coming from so we were just killing them as they fell to the floor. Anyways, I finally spot that they’re congregating around this hole in the wall and so I jump up and I’m like ‘There they are!’ and I jump up on Peterson’s bed cause its right above it and I pick up the spray can on the way and I just unleash on this hole and then like thousands of them start falling out and dying and we’re screaming like little girls and spraying everything in sight. Anyways, we had to run out to the store because we ran out of this huge bottle of stuff so we got another one, and we also bought this towel things and we hose that down with this spray and shove it up into the hole. But by that time everything was dead, so we just cleaned them up and long story short, we haven’t really had any problems since, we just spray that stuff every morning before we leave the house. We did make ourselves sick the next day though, because our house wasn’t very well ventilated but we’re doing good now so don’t worry.
It has also come to my attention that certain children who shall remain nameless are taking away from the very precious ‘Write Josh’ time available to the parents. So in order to make up for it, each child is hereby commanded to write Josh an email for next week, and at least once every month proceeding hereafter. Also, mom, you better not be embarrassing me by posting way too many photos of yours truly on the bulletin board at church... because that is wayyy not humble girl. You are only allowed to put up as many as the other mothers have put up. Capish? Totally don’t know how to spell that...
Anyways, things are going good, I’m exhausted and want to sleep but the Lord doesn’t feel like letting me so I just keep on going. Loves ya,
Elder Dennis
So I heard about the elections... Barak Obama, eh? I’m glad I still have a little while to go here in Paraguay, I’ll just say that.
Oh, and I totally just got your other package this week... so I currently have more candy in my possession than the entire United States eats in a year... but hey, Elder Peterson and I aren’t complaining. But to make up for that Dad, don’t worry, I brush after every meal and before I go to bed. But... I’m sorry to inform you that I do not, I repeat, do not have floss in my possession. But oh man am I scared of coming home with bad teeth, the way peoples’ teeth look here! But I totally forgot to mention the saweet Counting Crows shirt I got in the package last week! That thing is awesome. But after receiving the pictures in this new package, I feel quite left out without an OSU shirt out here. By the way, Cole is getting HUGE! Tell him to stop growning because I still want to play with my little guy when I get home!
So I was going to mention the lack of college football reports, but Dad came through for me this week, so I won’t... But his mention of demonstrating a certain photo on his PHONE doesn’t make me jealous... okay, TOO jealous... if that's what he was going for. So hah! At least I don’t have to drive a car to work with my tunes playing and relax all day while my assistants do all the work in chilly fall air and eat delicious american food like ya’ll. Viva la Paraguay, baby!
But yeah, last Monday night, we hit up a store and picked up some Raid, and we killed all those suckers! It actually sucked that night, because we just doused our house in it and cleaned it up quite a bit, but then we left for the night and came back in and there were this little gnat things that look like ants but have wings, anyways, there were these little harmless things just flying around all drunk like because they were dying from the spray, but we had no clue where all of them were coming from so we were just killing them as they fell to the floor. Anyways, I finally spot that they’re congregating around this hole in the wall and so I jump up and I’m like ‘There they are!’ and I jump up on Peterson’s bed cause its right above it and I pick up the spray can on the way and I just unleash on this hole and then like thousands of them start falling out and dying and we’re screaming like little girls and spraying everything in sight. Anyways, we had to run out to the store because we ran out of this huge bottle of stuff so we got another one, and we also bought this towel things and we hose that down with this spray and shove it up into the hole. But by that time everything was dead, so we just cleaned them up and long story short, we haven’t really had any problems since, we just spray that stuff every morning before we leave the house. We did make ourselves sick the next day though, because our house wasn’t very well ventilated but we’re doing good now so don’t worry.
It has also come to my attention that certain children who shall remain nameless are taking away from the very precious ‘Write Josh’ time available to the parents. So in order to make up for it, each child is hereby commanded to write Josh an email for next week, and at least once every month proceeding hereafter. Also, mom, you better not be embarrassing me by posting way too many photos of yours truly on the bulletin board at church... because that is wayyy not humble girl. You are only allowed to put up as many as the other mothers have put up. Capish? Totally don’t know how to spell that...
Anyways, things are going good, I’m exhausted and want to sleep but the Lord doesn’t feel like letting me so I just keep on going. Loves ya,
Elder Dennis
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The Bug
The bug that is literally from h.e.double hockey sticks that I had to kill last night while we were both screaming and whining like little school girls. We bought Raid today...
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
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
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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
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
Monday, October 27, 2008
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
So now I’m working in a really tiny branch, with a new elder, E’ Peterson, who is in his second change. He’s awesome though, he’s from Canada. But anyways, my area is absolutely gorgeous. And as far as the eye can see, and farther, is all my area. Its HUGE! There are only 3 areas out here, running down the same road that cuts into Paraguay from my town, each about 45 mins apart by bus, and then after that, its 6 or 7 hours to the next nearest area. So that's just awesome. Yeah, and part of my branch’s boundaries go into Brazil, so that's pretty sweet too. OH yeah, so like I started out, there's just a ton of people who just speak portuguese out here, and it sounds like german with a french accent... its definitely weird. Umm... so yeah, this area was in pieces when I got here. The last elder was just a slacker and hadn’t done anything, but we went to town this week and got this place kicking again. We still have a lot of work ahead of us though.
Oh, and we show up at the church today in La Paloma, the next nearest area, to have our district meeting, and two 16 year old girls who were cleaning the chapel come running out and they're like, ‘¡Está quemando! It’s burning!’ So we rush in there and I grabbed the fire putter outer thing (I totally forget what its called in english) and I put out the fire. It was just like the light exploded when it got turned on and then the roof kind of picked up the spark. But still, I stopped the chapel from burning down, so that was cool.
Okay, I suppose I’ll explain the cigarettes. Its a remedy to make people stop smoking, that has like a 95% rate of working. You just mix like 2 packets into about a liter of water, and then boil it and strain it, and then give it to the person. So that's what we did. It worked, he hasn’t smoked since... Oh, and I don’t know how long it’ll take to get my package now, because while they send our letters to us every week, they don’t normally send us out our packages, so I probably won’t get it until we go into Asunción for the next Zone conference, which probably won’t be until the end of next month...
Anyways, I think I covered everything. My new house sucks, I love you all, and its really, really fetching hot!
Elder Dennis
Monday, October 20, 2008
Oct 20, 2008
Hey druggie, how’s it going?
So ya’ll never told me why mom had to get surgery... I feel very out of the loop here. And secondly, I’ve never been eaten by so many fetching mosquitos in all my life as I have this week! But that’s okay, I’m starting to get used to it, and after one day of it I started using my bug sprays, and that helps a little bit, but not as much as you’d think. Plus that and it got rainy and cold during the middle of the week, so I think now that its getting hot again we might be in for some more. Oh and I’m now 2 hours ahead of you, because we moved the clock forward and yins moved it back. So yeah. That sucked by the way, losing an hour of sleep. We don’t get many of those as missionaries...
Hey, and what’s this trying to send me link to a comic strip... I don’t think I can just cruise there on the internet mom. Do you want me to be macanero? Haha So if you want to send it you gotta send an actual photo of that. You can capture of picture of it on the mac, but you have to go into the Help thing and look it up. Its like command + 3 and then click, or something like that.
Oh, and I got a bit of news for Robyn: she’ll be pleased to hear that down here, I’m actually eating quite a bit of carne de soja, or soy meat. Thats cause its cheaper than real meat down here, and the people are really poor. I’m still not a big fan, it has a wierd taste. OK, the other bit of food news. You’ll never guess what I had to eat this week... something that here they call churra, or in english, Cow Intestine. Yummy. I think if I had my choice I wouldn’t eat it again. So the next time you see a cow you can think about me eating the intestine and putting a smile on my face a saying that its “riquisimo.”
So we had a sweet Stake Conference down here though this past weekend. We showed up and I had no clue what it was going to be like, but it was being broadcast from Salt Lake for all of Paraguay and Uruguay, and we got to listen to W: Craig Zwick of the 70 and the 1st counselor of the Relief Society and then Richard G Scott and Steven B. Eyring. Only Pres Eyring didn’t know spanish and had to use a translator, but it was legit. We learned a lot of cool stuff. So yeah. Anyways, the work moves on. Nothing really all that interesting to comment on this week. So I hope you’re all doing good and that you like the video and recover alright. Remember to tell me what of. Oh and who sent me the yo-yo, I still want to know!
Love yas,
Elder Dennis
So ya’ll never told me why mom had to get surgery... I feel very out of the loop here. And secondly, I’ve never been eaten by so many fetching mosquitos in all my life as I have this week! But that’s okay, I’m starting to get used to it, and after one day of it I started using my bug sprays, and that helps a little bit, but not as much as you’d think. Plus that and it got rainy and cold during the middle of the week, so I think now that its getting hot again we might be in for some more. Oh and I’m now 2 hours ahead of you, because we moved the clock forward and yins moved it back. So yeah. That sucked by the way, losing an hour of sleep. We don’t get many of those as missionaries...
Hey, and what’s this trying to send me link to a comic strip... I don’t think I can just cruise there on the internet mom. Do you want me to be macanero? Haha So if you want to send it you gotta send an actual photo of that. You can capture of picture of it on the mac, but you have to go into the Help thing and look it up. Its like command + 3 and then click, or something like that.
Oh, and I got a bit of news for Robyn: she’ll be pleased to hear that down here, I’m actually eating quite a bit of carne de soja, or soy meat. Thats cause its cheaper than real meat down here, and the people are really poor. I’m still not a big fan, it has a wierd taste. OK, the other bit of food news. You’ll never guess what I had to eat this week... something that here they call churra, or in english, Cow Intestine. Yummy. I think if I had my choice I wouldn’t eat it again. So the next time you see a cow you can think about me eating the intestine and putting a smile on my face a saying that its “riquisimo.”
So we had a sweet Stake Conference down here though this past weekend. We showed up and I had no clue what it was going to be like, but it was being broadcast from Salt Lake for all of Paraguay and Uruguay, and we got to listen to W: Craig Zwick of the 70 and the 1st counselor of the Relief Society and then Richard G Scott and Steven B. Eyring. Only Pres Eyring didn’t know spanish and had to use a translator, but it was legit. We learned a lot of cool stuff. So yeah. Anyways, the work moves on. Nothing really all that interesting to comment on this week. So I hope you’re all doing good and that you like the video and recover alright. Remember to tell me what of. Oh and who sent me the yo-yo, I still want to know!
Love yas,
Elder Dennis
Monday, October 13, 2008
Oct 13, 2008
Hey there,
I’m still kickin’ it. It was a pretty difficult week to get through, but I came out on top. One of the main problems is my comp is getting the whole “I’ve been here 6 months longer than you, I speak spanish, what the heck am I still doing underneath you” syndrome... I had a feeling that would be coming. But I’m just shrugging it off, because there’s no way that he won’t be senior comp come next change. I was really really surprised when he didn’t go up last change. Anyways, that, and wow, all but 1 of our investigators that went to church this week, we found this past week (there was 9 of them in total). It was just a huge line change in terms of investigators this week. But they’re showing us that these are the ones that want to progress, so I’m running with it.
Anyways, I sent you 2 cds of all of my photos (sorry, no videos, there wasn’t enough space or time...) so you should be getting those in a few weeks. I also got Cole’s chain letter today, and I’ll be getting that off here probably tomorrow, because tomorrow we’re going to Asunción for Zone Conference with the President, so I’ll be seeing the zone leaders before they turn in the letters to send this week. Haley stuck a nice little letter in there with it, so I was a little confused at what was going on at first haha.
Ok, its getting HOT... I don’t think I like it. One of the plus sides though is that like a month ago our shower head exploded (because they’re cheap little water zappers that heats up the water as it goes through the head). Anyways, it had exploded once before while I was in there, but it kept working, so I was like, whatever. But this time it exploded on E. Bischoff, and it didn’t keep working. So we’ve had cold showers ever since. And now that its getting hot, its not so bad. But its a very thick, humid heat, like back home but like, thicker. I don’t like it. Dry heat, which we’ve had here before, I didn’t mind all that much, but I don’t know if I can take a whole summer like this.
Oh yeah, the whole summer and you guys winter reminds me, next week, I’ll be tripping and “falling forward” while you guys get to “fall back” in time, so I’ll be two hours ahead of you guys. And tell dad to stop rubbing it in with the sleeping in til 10, just in time to watch the football games... Oh, and you should forward E. Fiala’s emails to me, so I can feel in on the loop too... oh, and tell him I already tried the ball and stick game here, but by far the funnest is shooting birds with a sling shot, where you just use your fingers and hand as the stick... because down here thy haven’t quite progressed to the using sticks part of it all. They’re actually pretty legit sling shots though, you can get them for like 30 cents in any of these little stores that are everywhere. I might send a picture next time, but no promises cause I’ll probably forget. Oh and sorry, but I didn’t take any photos this week, soooo, no photos this time around.
But now, I got some food advice. First off, the next time you go to NYC, you totally got to look up a food joint that has Lomito Arabe... you won’t be disappointed. Unless they make it bad. That I can’t offer any garauntees (I have no clue how you actually spell that word, me english chupa). Also, as of Saturday night, I can officially say, that I have eaten, the blood of a cow... Notice how I said “eaten,” not “drank.” That’s cause they make it into a sausage like thing... I’m not sure if I’d recommend trying it or not . . . I probably wouldn’t eat it again. Apparently its like super expensive and a delicousy here though. Go figure.
Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
I’m still kickin’ it. It was a pretty difficult week to get through, but I came out on top. One of the main problems is my comp is getting the whole “I’ve been here 6 months longer than you, I speak spanish, what the heck am I still doing underneath you” syndrome... I had a feeling that would be coming. But I’m just shrugging it off, because there’s no way that he won’t be senior comp come next change. I was really really surprised when he didn’t go up last change. Anyways, that, and wow, all but 1 of our investigators that went to church this week, we found this past week (there was 9 of them in total). It was just a huge line change in terms of investigators this week. But they’re showing us that these are the ones that want to progress, so I’m running with it.
Anyways, I sent you 2 cds of all of my photos (sorry, no videos, there wasn’t enough space or time...) so you should be getting those in a few weeks. I also got Cole’s chain letter today, and I’ll be getting that off here probably tomorrow, because tomorrow we’re going to Asunción for Zone Conference with the President, so I’ll be seeing the zone leaders before they turn in the letters to send this week. Haley stuck a nice little letter in there with it, so I was a little confused at what was going on at first haha.
Ok, its getting HOT... I don’t think I like it. One of the plus sides though is that like a month ago our shower head exploded (because they’re cheap little water zappers that heats up the water as it goes through the head). Anyways, it had exploded once before while I was in there, but it kept working, so I was like, whatever. But this time it exploded on E. Bischoff, and it didn’t keep working. So we’ve had cold showers ever since. And now that its getting hot, its not so bad. But its a very thick, humid heat, like back home but like, thicker. I don’t like it. Dry heat, which we’ve had here before, I didn’t mind all that much, but I don’t know if I can take a whole summer like this.
Oh yeah, the whole summer and you guys winter reminds me, next week, I’ll be tripping and “falling forward” while you guys get to “fall back” in time, so I’ll be two hours ahead of you guys. And tell dad to stop rubbing it in with the sleeping in til 10, just in time to watch the football games... Oh, and you should forward E. Fiala’s emails to me, so I can feel in on the loop too... oh, and tell him I already tried the ball and stick game here, but by far the funnest is shooting birds with a sling shot, where you just use your fingers and hand as the stick... because down here thy haven’t quite progressed to the using sticks part of it all. They’re actually pretty legit sling shots though, you can get them for like 30 cents in any of these little stores that are everywhere. I might send a picture next time, but no promises cause I’ll probably forget. Oh and sorry, but I didn’t take any photos this week, soooo, no photos this time around.
But now, I got some food advice. First off, the next time you go to NYC, you totally got to look up a food joint that has Lomito Arabe... you won’t be disappointed. Unless they make it bad. That I can’t offer any garauntees (I have no clue how you actually spell that word, me english chupa). Also, as of Saturday night, I can officially say, that I have eaten, the blood of a cow... Notice how I said “eaten,” not “drank.” That’s cause they make it into a sausage like thing... I’m not sure if I’d recommend trying it or not . . . I probably wouldn’t eat it again. Apparently its like super expensive and a delicousy here though. Go figure.
Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Monday, October 6, 2008
Oct 6, 2008
Hey again,
Well conference was just awesome, but it made things a little different in working this week. But other than that, everything is pretty normal around here. Umm… I don’t really know what else to say. Nothing all that interesting happened this week. Oh wait, I forgot, you guys still don’t know some things.
Well, for starters, the President didn’t show up to that thing, but it went alright, I got some shaky photos that I had a buddy take, so I’ll be sending those to yins. We look way Beatles, I’m just warning ya.
And then for cambios… yeah, I’m still in Salado… it’s REALLY exciting. And I’m still with E’ Betancourt, but that’s okay, because he’s pretty cool. Other than that, we’re working hard, even though it was really hard to go out and get to work again. Hearing that we were just staying just sucked all of our umm.. in spanish the work is animo, I can’t think of it in English… just right out of us, but we got it back by just forcing ourselves to work. There’s a great quote in Preach My Gospel that I love that talks about Work, and how it’s the best kept secret in missionary work. I gotta say, its true.
A question: Am I really a missionary? I don’t think I am, I’m just on a vacation working my butt off in Paraguay… I don’t see any connection yet. I still can’t believe I’m on the trip of a lifetime, the one that I’d been prepared for since before I was born. Every once in awhile that feeling comes, but slightly, and only for a moment. But to think I’ll get to tell you guys all these stories though and to my kids one day is a sweet thought. Hopefully my journal will be interesting enough to read to help me remember in the future. On the 22nd of this month it will have been a year straight since I’ve missed but 2 or 3 days.
Anyways, I got a video and some photos for you guys again, so I’m going to try and send those. Oh and you can tell Santa to just hold all gifts until February 2010. I won’t have any need of anything really until then.
Love yas all,
Elder Dennis
Well conference was just awesome, but it made things a little different in working this week. But other than that, everything is pretty normal around here. Umm… I don’t really know what else to say. Nothing all that interesting happened this week. Oh wait, I forgot, you guys still don’t know some things.
Well, for starters, the President didn’t show up to that thing, but it went alright, I got some shaky photos that I had a buddy take, so I’ll be sending those to yins. We look way Beatles, I’m just warning ya.
And then for cambios… yeah, I’m still in Salado… it’s REALLY exciting. And I’m still with E’ Betancourt, but that’s okay, because he’s pretty cool. Other than that, we’re working hard, even though it was really hard to go out and get to work again. Hearing that we were just staying just sucked all of our umm.. in spanish the work is animo, I can’t think of it in English… just right out of us, but we got it back by just forcing ourselves to work. There’s a great quote in Preach My Gospel that I love that talks about Work, and how it’s the best kept secret in missionary work. I gotta say, its true.
A question: Am I really a missionary? I don’t think I am, I’m just on a vacation working my butt off in Paraguay… I don’t see any connection yet. I still can’t believe I’m on the trip of a lifetime, the one that I’d been prepared for since before I was born. Every once in awhile that feeling comes, but slightly, and only for a moment. But to think I’ll get to tell you guys all these stories though and to my kids one day is a sweet thought. Hopefully my journal will be interesting enough to read to help me remember in the future. On the 22nd of this month it will have been a year straight since I’ve missed but 2 or 3 days.
Anyways, I got a video and some photos for you guys again, so I’m going to try and send those. Oh and you can tell Santa to just hold all gifts until February 2010. I won’t have any need of anything really until then.
Love yas all,
Elder Dennis
Monday, September 29, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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
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
Monday, September 15, 2008
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
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
Monday, September 8, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
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
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
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