Hey there everybody,
So this week went pretty legit, if I do say so myself. We only had 2 of the 4 baptisms we were planning on, of Liz and Gricelda, but yeah, we’re happy. We’re just working hard like crazy, and the work really paid off this Sunday when the weekly ‘exam’ came: we had 28 people in church, with 5 men and 3 families. So yah, a lot of the families are starting to turn around, and we’re just being blessed with so much success right now, its truly amazing. That 28 in church marks my new record high of church attendance since back in my Salado days when I managed to bring in 16 for a couple of Sundays in a row. But as you stated that spring is in the air, as well I can say, autumn is in the air. Its still hot, but you can feel the cold starting to come. Like last April when I showed up in Paraguay, my first day here I was freezing, even coming from cold Utah. So April is really the start of the cold, but it won’t be until about mid May that it really stays.
Okay, so about the area. First off, none of the actual ‘city’ is in the North Mission. So like, thinking of Columbus, its like the mission has the area above the 270. So my area is actually very tiny, and its a little suburb thats actually pretty urban for Paraguay, with the normal working class people. Its on the Paraguay River, which loops down around the city, and yah, its cool. There’s a ton of people who live there. But its like a part of Asuncion, sort of like a Whitehall to Columbus. The area the Wade’s live in is like the nicest part of Asuncion, with mansions and nice cars and its like stateside houses, just on little stone streets. There are schools everywhere, and most of the kids go to school everyday, but its a very crappy system and most don’t pay attention to the teacher or learn anything. They only go for like 4 hours a day, and there is a huge problem of schools getting filled up and parents not being able to find an available school for some of their children.
But yah, I’ll be here until at least June 10th, because I have to stay in the area because my comp will be leaving. I guess I’m okay with that, but me, I get bored in the same place for too long. Living with military brats for parents didn’t help, and now getting to move every 4 months definitely isn’t helping me for later in life, but you know, I put up with staying put. But yah, the house is really nice, we just need to clean more... :) But as for more native companions, actually its not that likely that I’ll have a latin anymore, because there’s very few of them in leadership positions, and those that are are leaving this change and the next. So more than likely I’ll be training a new zone leader next change, because almost half of the zone leaders are going home. Its a very young mission now, most of the big leaders are going home this change or next, and there’s only 4 of us who are zone leaders (out of 20) who don’t go home in June. So there’s going to be some big changes these next couple transfers. But because I went up so early in my mission, there’s a big possibility that I’ll go down to train or something before I leave, but that all depends on what the mission is like 9-10 months down the road. But yah, that’s the mission right now. If anything is unclear, just hit me up. Oh, and are you still Google Earthing my areas? I still want to see your guesses when I get home haha.
Love ya,
Tuja Dennis
Hesukrísto
Tupao
Marangatukuéra
Arapahapegua
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Mar 23, 2009
How’s it going?
I’m pretty tired…we’re working hard. And we just played a game of futbol with another zone, and the air conditioning in this cyber isn’t working, so I’m not very comfortable at the moment. It’s still busting 90s out here, and I’m still dying. I just want it to be cold again, but that won’t be here until like June, but I’ll still be here in Zeballos then, cause I’m privileged to have the opportunity to kill Elder Perez this change, because we’re sticking together and he’ll be going home in April. But that means that I’ll be sticking here for another change after this at least.
But we’re still working hard and exploding our area. We had 3 more baptisms this week of Marina, Mirna and Graciela, who are all pretty awesome. So yeah, we’re excited. We should have like 3 or 4 baptisms next week too, but all of kids, because their parents can’t get baptized because they’re living in sin (i.e. not married) and the men drink and smoke and don’t want to get married on the off chance that a hot young girl comes along and wants to get with them… Paraguay is a messed up place people, I’m tellin ya.
But I’m glad that Cole is able to enjoy probably the most amazing invention ever made (aka Legos). I totally remember building that ice rink and then using it as a secret base with a slide away door on the right side that leads to HQ for my G.I. Joes. I think that part got destroyed though in combat if I remember correctly (Snake Eye’s forces were pretty tough man, those G.I.s really had to fight for their lives). I hope things are going good at home, tell everyone I say hey.
Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
I’m pretty tired…we’re working hard. And we just played a game of futbol with another zone, and the air conditioning in this cyber isn’t working, so I’m not very comfortable at the moment. It’s still busting 90s out here, and I’m still dying. I just want it to be cold again, but that won’t be here until like June, but I’ll still be here in Zeballos then, cause I’m privileged to have the opportunity to kill Elder Perez this change, because we’re sticking together and he’ll be going home in April. But that means that I’ll be sticking here for another change after this at least.
But we’re still working hard and exploding our area. We had 3 more baptisms this week of Marina, Mirna and Graciela, who are all pretty awesome. So yeah, we’re excited. We should have like 3 or 4 baptisms next week too, but all of kids, because their parents can’t get baptized because they’re living in sin (i.e. not married) and the men drink and smoke and don’t want to get married on the off chance that a hot young girl comes along and wants to get with them… Paraguay is a messed up place people, I’m tellin ya.
But I’m glad that Cole is able to enjoy probably the most amazing invention ever made (aka Legos). I totally remember building that ice rink and then using it as a secret base with a slide away door on the right side that leads to HQ for my G.I. Joes. I think that part got destroyed though in combat if I remember correctly (Snake Eye’s forces were pretty tough man, those G.I.s really had to fight for their lives). I hope things are going good at home, tell everyone I say hey.
Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Monday, March 16, 2009
Mar 16, 2009
What’s up my peeps?
So this was a good week. But we still don’t know the changes, as always… But it was still an awesome week. We had the marriage and baptism of Juan and Angelica, who are simply golden, and then of Zunilda and Lidia, who are also awesome people. But by far the coolest thing about the week was on Saturday. We got the call on Friday night at 10.30 that we had to be in the office in suits by 8.00 the next morning, so we did as we were told, and we show up and they caravan all of the zone leaders down to the south mission, where we got to listen to 3 area seventy, Elders Gonzalez, from Uruguay, Da Silva, from Paraguay, who just got called as a mission president in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Diaz, from Argentina. So that was exciting. Then President Wade took us the ZLs out to eat lunch at this super nice restaurant called Paulista, which was super delicious. So that was a good day.
But I got the camera charger, and it works great, thanks a ton! You’re truly a life saver. I can honestly say though that I’ve never had a single problem with any of my packages. Those priority boxes that you use are awesome. Most people don’t use those, but yeah, there are a lot of kids that are having trouble getting packages right now… some are still waiting on packages from Christmas. Haha, but I’m glad Cole finally got that birthday thing. I totally made that at like, Christmas time to send it out to him on time, and then I totally forgot to send it off hahaha. But that’s so crazy that Brenda is engaged! Wow, that proves that I’m getting old… before we know it it’ll be Haley that’s engaged. I don’t know what we’ll do then, all I know is that I swear we’re only like 10 or 11 years old still… we’re not old enough to be getting married! That’s just crazy talk.
Anyways, Dad, thanks for the bracket! It means that I wasn’t one of the disobedient missionaries who went and downloaded it themselves haha I didn’t have to break any rules. But I don’t really have anything interesting to say. I was looking forward to filling ya’ll in on the changes, but nope. So basically, I love you lots, hope you’re doing good, and keeping up the good fight.
Elder Dennis
So this was a good week. But we still don’t know the changes, as always… But it was still an awesome week. We had the marriage and baptism of Juan and Angelica, who are simply golden, and then of Zunilda and Lidia, who are also awesome people. But by far the coolest thing about the week was on Saturday. We got the call on Friday night at 10.30 that we had to be in the office in suits by 8.00 the next morning, so we did as we were told, and we show up and they caravan all of the zone leaders down to the south mission, where we got to listen to 3 area seventy, Elders Gonzalez, from Uruguay, Da Silva, from Paraguay, who just got called as a mission president in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Diaz, from Argentina. So that was exciting. Then President Wade took us the ZLs out to eat lunch at this super nice restaurant called Paulista, which was super delicious. So that was a good day.
But I got the camera charger, and it works great, thanks a ton! You’re truly a life saver. I can honestly say though that I’ve never had a single problem with any of my packages. Those priority boxes that you use are awesome. Most people don’t use those, but yeah, there are a lot of kids that are having trouble getting packages right now… some are still waiting on packages from Christmas. Haha, but I’m glad Cole finally got that birthday thing. I totally made that at like, Christmas time to send it out to him on time, and then I totally forgot to send it off hahaha. But that’s so crazy that Brenda is engaged! Wow, that proves that I’m getting old… before we know it it’ll be Haley that’s engaged. I don’t know what we’ll do then, all I know is that I swear we’re only like 10 or 11 years old still… we’re not old enough to be getting married! That’s just crazy talk.
Anyways, Dad, thanks for the bracket! It means that I wasn’t one of the disobedient missionaries who went and downloaded it themselves haha I didn’t have to break any rules. But I don’t really have anything interesting to say. I was looking forward to filling ya’ll in on the changes, but nope. So basically, I love you lots, hope you’re doing good, and keeping up the good fight.
Elder Dennis
Monday, March 9, 2009
Mar 9, 2009
Hey there folks, how’s life?
So this week went pretty good, but it was still hot. Yesterday it rained though, so today there wasn’t that much humidity, and so I’m doing alright. This week we had one baptism, of Raquel, so that was cool. She’s really smart, and she’s pretty solid. I also baptized a young kid named Alejandro at the same time for some other Elders, because they didn’t want to have to get in the water and change and all that stuff if I was already going to be doing that. But I’m sorry, I don’t have any photos this time, because the computers we’re using don’t except usb connections, cause we’re in Paraguay... But all is going well for the plans for baptisms this week, we have Jaun and Angelica and her sister Lidia, and then a lady named Ramona and her daughter Liz who are all getting ready for their baptisms. We’re praying hard that they all make it. There’s also a lady named Zunilda, but we’re pretty sure she’s lying to us about not having a boyfriend that lives with her, so its still up in the air if she’s going to make it to the water this week. As for Eddy, I got to talk to him over the phone once cause I called up Elder Spencer to see how things were going and he was there helping them do visits, but thats about it, I’m going to be writing him a letter though to send out this week. Apparently he’s just a stud though and just giving references like crazy and helping translate portuguese in the lessons.
We also had zone conference this week, so that was pretty cool too. It was actually an amazing conference, one of the best I’ve been to so far in my mission. Its a little bit different though being there as a zone leader, because we have to help out by doing demonstrations and introducing new topics or ideas in the mission and stuff like that. I also played a special musical number with two other Elders from my zone, Elders Rebilas and Maddux of a song which I’m not sure what its called in English, but in spanish its ‘Accompáñame.’ I played guitar while Elder Rebilas sang and Elder Maddux played the flute. It turned out alright I guess, but definitely wasn’t anything special, so it was in reality just a musical number.
But I liked the time change last Saturday night, I got to sleep an extra hour haha. Sucks to be you! But now we’re on the same time schedule here as Eastern time, so you can look up at the clock at 6.30 and be like ‘Oh, my little Elder Dennis is rolling out of bed right now.’ Exciting stuff right there. But another special thing with the time change: I only have one more time change left in my mission! Wow, that’s a scary thought. To think that one day this amazing adventure ends... right now we just look at it as the goal line, like yes! I made it! But really its quite sad to reach the end, to know that you have to take the plaque off and not be able to put it on again... I’m definitely not looking forward to that. The name on my plaque is starting to turn yellow by the way, does that happen to the Elders up there or is that just because we actually go to work down here? Hahaha Just kidding, I’m sure they work pretty hard every once in awhile. But I ordered a new plaque last week, so it should get here in a week or two, cause I don’t like the rag-tag look some of the Elders go for, I like to be all nice and clean and stuff.
I’m glad it sounds like you guys are having fun and stuff though, with sniff sniff, skiing and snowboarding. Oh man, do I miss that more than just about anything! That and my electric guitar. The accoustic is fun but I’m not gonna lie, it gets boring after awhile if thats all there is to play. I’m definitely feeling the lack of um... good music. But, it’ll be there again before I know it... this week I’m already hitting 13 months in the mission! Wow the time really does fly! As for a care package, some of those sauce packets for marinera (not sure if thats how its spelled, work with me here) sauce. Um, and some Skittles. And maybe if you could include another pair of those Dockers pants, I love my brown ones, size 30x30, but try and compare it to other pants and find one thats like, bigger haha of grey or black or whatever. Oh, and maybe like one of my bottles of Ibuprofin, its kind of hard to come by reliable medicine down here, and its like really expensive. Other than that, I’m good to go. But just remember, Skittles and starburts... not swedish fish. Haha.
Love you lots,
Elder Dennis
So this week went pretty good, but it was still hot. Yesterday it rained though, so today there wasn’t that much humidity, and so I’m doing alright. This week we had one baptism, of Raquel, so that was cool. She’s really smart, and she’s pretty solid. I also baptized a young kid named Alejandro at the same time for some other Elders, because they didn’t want to have to get in the water and change and all that stuff if I was already going to be doing that. But I’m sorry, I don’t have any photos this time, because the computers we’re using don’t except usb connections, cause we’re in Paraguay... But all is going well for the plans for baptisms this week, we have Jaun and Angelica and her sister Lidia, and then a lady named Ramona and her daughter Liz who are all getting ready for their baptisms. We’re praying hard that they all make it. There’s also a lady named Zunilda, but we’re pretty sure she’s lying to us about not having a boyfriend that lives with her, so its still up in the air if she’s going to make it to the water this week. As for Eddy, I got to talk to him over the phone once cause I called up Elder Spencer to see how things were going and he was there helping them do visits, but thats about it, I’m going to be writing him a letter though to send out this week. Apparently he’s just a stud though and just giving references like crazy and helping translate portuguese in the lessons.
We also had zone conference this week, so that was pretty cool too. It was actually an amazing conference, one of the best I’ve been to so far in my mission. Its a little bit different though being there as a zone leader, because we have to help out by doing demonstrations and introducing new topics or ideas in the mission and stuff like that. I also played a special musical number with two other Elders from my zone, Elders Rebilas and Maddux of a song which I’m not sure what its called in English, but in spanish its ‘Accompáñame.’ I played guitar while Elder Rebilas sang and Elder Maddux played the flute. It turned out alright I guess, but definitely wasn’t anything special, so it was in reality just a musical number.
But I liked the time change last Saturday night, I got to sleep an extra hour haha. Sucks to be you! But now we’re on the same time schedule here as Eastern time, so you can look up at the clock at 6.30 and be like ‘Oh, my little Elder Dennis is rolling out of bed right now.’ Exciting stuff right there. But another special thing with the time change: I only have one more time change left in my mission! Wow, that’s a scary thought. To think that one day this amazing adventure ends... right now we just look at it as the goal line, like yes! I made it! But really its quite sad to reach the end, to know that you have to take the plaque off and not be able to put it on again... I’m definitely not looking forward to that. The name on my plaque is starting to turn yellow by the way, does that happen to the Elders up there or is that just because we actually go to work down here? Hahaha Just kidding, I’m sure they work pretty hard every once in awhile. But I ordered a new plaque last week, so it should get here in a week or two, cause I don’t like the rag-tag look some of the Elders go for, I like to be all nice and clean and stuff.
I’m glad it sounds like you guys are having fun and stuff though, with sniff sniff, skiing and snowboarding. Oh man, do I miss that more than just about anything! That and my electric guitar. The accoustic is fun but I’m not gonna lie, it gets boring after awhile if thats all there is to play. I’m definitely feeling the lack of um... good music. But, it’ll be there again before I know it... this week I’m already hitting 13 months in the mission! Wow the time really does fly! As for a care package, some of those sauce packets for marinera (not sure if thats how its spelled, work with me here) sauce. Um, and some Skittles. And maybe if you could include another pair of those Dockers pants, I love my brown ones, size 30x30, but try and compare it to other pants and find one thats like, bigger haha of grey or black or whatever. Oh, and maybe like one of my bottles of Ibuprofin, its kind of hard to come by reliable medicine down here, and its like really expensive. Other than that, I’m good to go. But just remember, Skittles and starburts... not swedish fish. Haha.
Love you lots,
Elder Dennis
Monday, March 2, 2009
Mar 2, 2009
And the weeks keep moving on…
So yeah, I’m still here, and it’s still hotter than jalopeños frying in a pan. I don’t know, that’s what popped into my head. All I know is that it’s still hitting over a hundred everyday. And dad, its not dry Arizona heat, its New York humid heat… it sucks. Yesterday was like the worst day of my life, I was literally dying. This weekend something messed up my stomach. I didn’t have the runs but man it was not happy, so that definitely didn’t help. But our count of investigators just continues to grow. Right now we have 15 people, with 2 families with a baptismal date. This week I helped the Hermanas Smith and Arce out and baptized one of their men for them. It was cool, we had to go do the interview and then we were asking who he wanted to baptize him, talking about different men in the ward, but he wanted me to do it. So I kindly obliged. This week we don’t have too many baptisms, we’re planning on two, but then for the eleventh, we have a ton of people, with one family that’s just absolutely incredible. I think I mentioned them last time, Juan and Angelica. We found them through service and they’re about as golden as they come, so me and my comp are pretty stoked right now just because of them.
Um… I never got around to trying that root beer extract, I just never seem to have time, and I always forget. But seriously, I’m so busy as a zone leader, because we’re expected to get more numbers than everyone else (which we do cause we’re studs) to show the example, plus we don’t have like a single day that’s just like, normal. We always have meetings or interviews to do or we’re on divisions to boost the other elders, its insane! But I love it, I like keeping busy. Unfortunately my journal writing is kind of slacking now, because down time is absolutely zero. But I still try to hit it up 2-3 times a week when I can. This past week for example, I haven’t gotten to write yet about Friday, when at 7 in the morning we had a special meeting with Elders Jensen and Aidukaitis of the 70 with the ZLs of both missions in Paraguay, and then afterwards they met with everyone except zona lejos from our mission. That was just amazing, let me tell you. Blew my mind. Then I went on a division with Elder Agudelo from Colombia, who went on divisions with Elder Nilsen when Nilsen was his zone leader haha, so that’s a cool little reflection. And that night I had to perform the baptism of Virgilio for Hna Smith. So it was crazy. Definitely the craziest day I had last week.
Today we ate at Shangri-la though, which is like amazing all you can eat really fancy Chinese food with 12 of the elders from the zone, and we ate basically for free, because some man paid our billed for us. We went up to pay afterwards, and the cashier was like, He didn’t tell you? He paid your entire bill, except for drinks. So instead of dropping 45 mil I only paid 4 mil… that’s only .80 cents. We were all so surprised, and it was amazing. He paid like 100 dollars for all of us, and down here that’s over 500 mil… which is like, a LOT. We don’t think he was a member or anything either, just someone who came into contact with missionaries before and respected the sacrifice that we make to do what we do, and wanted to treat us. SO that was awesome.
Anyways, sorry if my letter is all over the place, I didn’t make an outline ahead of time like normal this week. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
So yeah, I’m still here, and it’s still hotter than jalopeños frying in a pan. I don’t know, that’s what popped into my head. All I know is that it’s still hitting over a hundred everyday. And dad, its not dry Arizona heat, its New York humid heat… it sucks. Yesterday was like the worst day of my life, I was literally dying. This weekend something messed up my stomach. I didn’t have the runs but man it was not happy, so that definitely didn’t help. But our count of investigators just continues to grow. Right now we have 15 people, with 2 families with a baptismal date. This week I helped the Hermanas Smith and Arce out and baptized one of their men for them. It was cool, we had to go do the interview and then we were asking who he wanted to baptize him, talking about different men in the ward, but he wanted me to do it. So I kindly obliged. This week we don’t have too many baptisms, we’re planning on two, but then for the eleventh, we have a ton of people, with one family that’s just absolutely incredible. I think I mentioned them last time, Juan and Angelica. We found them through service and they’re about as golden as they come, so me and my comp are pretty stoked right now just because of them.
Um… I never got around to trying that root beer extract, I just never seem to have time, and I always forget. But seriously, I’m so busy as a zone leader, because we’re expected to get more numbers than everyone else (which we do cause we’re studs) to show the example, plus we don’t have like a single day that’s just like, normal. We always have meetings or interviews to do or we’re on divisions to boost the other elders, its insane! But I love it, I like keeping busy. Unfortunately my journal writing is kind of slacking now, because down time is absolutely zero. But I still try to hit it up 2-3 times a week when I can. This past week for example, I haven’t gotten to write yet about Friday, when at 7 in the morning we had a special meeting with Elders Jensen and Aidukaitis of the 70 with the ZLs of both missions in Paraguay, and then afterwards they met with everyone except zona lejos from our mission. That was just amazing, let me tell you. Blew my mind. Then I went on a division with Elder Agudelo from Colombia, who went on divisions with Elder Nilsen when Nilsen was his zone leader haha, so that’s a cool little reflection. And that night I had to perform the baptism of Virgilio for Hna Smith. So it was crazy. Definitely the craziest day I had last week.
Today we ate at Shangri-la though, which is like amazing all you can eat really fancy Chinese food with 12 of the elders from the zone, and we ate basically for free, because some man paid our billed for us. We went up to pay afterwards, and the cashier was like, He didn’t tell you? He paid your entire bill, except for drinks. So instead of dropping 45 mil I only paid 4 mil… that’s only .80 cents. We were all so surprised, and it was amazing. He paid like 100 dollars for all of us, and down here that’s over 500 mil… which is like, a LOT. We don’t think he was a member or anything either, just someone who came into contact with missionaries before and respected the sacrifice that we make to do what we do, and wanted to treat us. SO that was awesome.
Anyways, sorry if my letter is all over the place, I didn’t make an outline ahead of time like normal this week. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Feb 23, 2009
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
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
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
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