Hey there peeps,
It was great to hear from you on Christmas. I realized today while I was thinking about it, I’ve been blessed to talk to the whole family every time that I’ve gotten to call home. There’s a lot of missionaries who only get to talk to a part of their family because the others are in college or have already moved out of the house. But now that you guys have made me officially trunky, I still gotta go out and work hard this last couple weeks. To me its just incredible that my time as a missionary is coming to an end, I still feel like I just got started, but truth is my group is the oldest in the mission right now, because those going home at the end of this change are getting sent home a week early to make it home for school.
But some more good news, I’ll be getting my New Years package this week, and I’m excited to see what my “gift” is... dad mentioned that I’ll be getting a cool little photo in the package. But I got a call from Elder Curtis, who is one of my buddies, who’s the assistant right now, and told me how a got a tiny little package from one James Fiala that includes just one can of Mountain Dew... So I’m super stoked for that little taste of heaven as well. Being deprived of good foods you know and love is definitely the worst part about being on the mission... that and family, of course...
But I’m glad to hear that the family was able to come to a conclusion as to what’s going down this March and April, and I’m perfectly fine with just chilling during March, and getting ready to head out come April. Plus I think it’d be nice to have you come out with us to Utah, I mean, I’m all grown up and everything, and I’ve been living on my own for two years, but let’s face it: I’ve been doing that all in spanish! There’s no way I could do that in english anymore! So Mom can ride with me if Dad’s not gonna go too.
But enough trunky talk, we’re working pretty hard in our area, but it was kind of tough with Christmas this past week, plus it rained on Sunday, which made for a poor church attendance, with only 5 people who made it to church other than us. But we got two investigators there, so that was cool, but then I just felt bad for them the whole time. I’ve heard that a lot of missionaries get home, and they find themselves searching for their investigators in the crowd at church, or feeling that protectiveness over making sure that the new people there feel comfortable, just to find out that they don’t have anyone there and that they don’t do that anymore. I’m not sure if I’ll feel that or not, but one things for sure, I will probably always listen to the things that members say and just cringe at the things that come out of their mouths as if an investigator who doesn’t understand completely the lingo or the doctrine enough to not take something offensive or downright weird. Like how I’ve heard a couple times in testimony meeting in Paraguay... “Joseph Smith died so that we can be here today.” Now I know that those people mean well, and that they’re refering to how he died for his testimony and how if it weren’t for his efforts we wouldn’t have the restored gospel today, but just think about what an investigator would think about us if they heard that statement without any background information! No wonder so many people think we worship Joseph Smith.
I love this work though, I’ve learned so much on my mission, I’m a completely different person since when I left... but don’t you worry, you’ll still be hearing my saweet guitar riffs and playing video games with me when I get home... I’m pretty sure those things are going to be in Heaven.... So Cole, you just get ready to bust out the Zelda games when I get home! And I call first dibbs on the Medal of Honor!!!
Love ya all,
Elder Dennis
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Dec 21, 2009
Merry Christmas!!!
Santa Claus is rolling in a little late to Pedro Juan this year for Elder Dennis hahaha, no packages made it here on time. But I got a card from Grandma and Grandpa Dennis this past week. But to me it doesn’t really matter, I didn’t want anything anyway, because I’ll be getting home in less than two months now. You should have the flight itinerary already and everything. Elder Reid’s mom was nice enough coughcough to forward him the information already, but he goes out west, so once we land in the states I don’t know how long it will take for me to get home. The only thing I’m looking forward to is the last phone call. Its so hard to believe its actually coming this week, because I’ve always thought of that as the start to the end. But while we’re talking about the phone call, I’ll finalize the details with you...
So Elder Adamson’s family wants to do it a little later, because more of his family will be there, so if you guys could call at 3.30 pm my time, that way he’ll talk to his parents starting at 5.00 our time, leaving that little space for the common errors and bugs and whatnot that always happens. We’ll probably be there like 10-15 mins early too, so if you get scared its not gonna work you can start trying just a little early. So be there, or be square.
We’re planning a Christmas dinner for the branch for tomorrow, and right now we have to go finalize on a house in our area... well, not really a house, just a little one room apartment like in Saltos, because it is soooo expensive here. Well not really to us Americans, but for the Paraguayans, its like trying to live in downtown Manhattan. But the mission didn’t get us money on time to buy stuff to move in there with, so we’ll still live with the ZL’s in Rama 1 for another week or so until that gets to us.
It doesn’t feel like Christmas, but we’re doing our best here to set the mood, listening to Christmas music and always singing one of like the 6 holiday hymns that are in Spanish when we visit people. We usually start off singing a hymn to invite the spirit when we teach. The work is really tough right now mom, it’s really pushing me, but I'm trying to find new people that are excited about what we have to offer. Elder Adamson is great though, he really wants to do his best, and is really excited to be here. But we don’t have like any progressing investigators, and we only had 11 people in the church on Sunday, including an investigator and two little girls younger than 8. It is so sad here, and we’re trying so hard to fix all the petty little problems that the less active members have about “so and so” or “what’s his name” and solve their little excuses for why they don’t go to church. I love this work, I love this season to remember our Savior, and I’m trying to give him it all this last little bit that I still have. I’m almost done with the Book of Mormon again, we started October 1st as a mission, with the goal to finish on Christmas. I’m passing through Ether right now, and I absolutely love that book. I know it is the word of God, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Thanks for your love and support always, I can’t wait to talk to yins on Friday.
Love,
Elder Dennis
Santa Claus is rolling in a little late to Pedro Juan this year for Elder Dennis hahaha, no packages made it here on time. But I got a card from Grandma and Grandpa Dennis this past week. But to me it doesn’t really matter, I didn’t want anything anyway, because I’ll be getting home in less than two months now. You should have the flight itinerary already and everything. Elder Reid’s mom was nice enough coughcough to forward him the information already, but he goes out west, so once we land in the states I don’t know how long it will take for me to get home. The only thing I’m looking forward to is the last phone call. Its so hard to believe its actually coming this week, because I’ve always thought of that as the start to the end. But while we’re talking about the phone call, I’ll finalize the details with you...
So Elder Adamson’s family wants to do it a little later, because more of his family will be there, so if you guys could call at 3.30 pm my time, that way he’ll talk to his parents starting at 5.00 our time, leaving that little space for the common errors and bugs and whatnot that always happens. We’ll probably be there like 10-15 mins early too, so if you get scared its not gonna work you can start trying just a little early. So be there, or be square.
We’re planning a Christmas dinner for the branch for tomorrow, and right now we have to go finalize on a house in our area... well, not really a house, just a little one room apartment like in Saltos, because it is soooo expensive here. Well not really to us Americans, but for the Paraguayans, its like trying to live in downtown Manhattan. But the mission didn’t get us money on time to buy stuff to move in there with, so we’ll still live with the ZL’s in Rama 1 for another week or so until that gets to us.
It doesn’t feel like Christmas, but we’re doing our best here to set the mood, listening to Christmas music and always singing one of like the 6 holiday hymns that are in Spanish when we visit people. We usually start off singing a hymn to invite the spirit when we teach. The work is really tough right now mom, it’s really pushing me, but I'm trying to find new people that are excited about what we have to offer. Elder Adamson is great though, he really wants to do his best, and is really excited to be here. But we don’t have like any progressing investigators, and we only had 11 people in the church on Sunday, including an investigator and two little girls younger than 8. It is so sad here, and we’re trying so hard to fix all the petty little problems that the less active members have about “so and so” or “what’s his name” and solve their little excuses for why they don’t go to church. I love this work, I love this season to remember our Savior, and I’m trying to give him it all this last little bit that I still have. I’m almost done with the Book of Mormon again, we started October 1st as a mission, with the goal to finish on Christmas. I’m passing through Ether right now, and I absolutely love that book. I know it is the word of God, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Thanks for your love and support always, I can’t wait to talk to yins on Friday.
Love,
Elder Dennis
Monday, December 14, 2009
Dec 14, 2009
One more week til Christmas!
It's just absolutely crazy how fast the time flies. I remember trying to think of what it would be like to be at my last Christmas of the mission, and it always seemed so far away! But next week we'll be talking, and then a month and a half later I'll get to walk bare foot on carpet! I'm getting excited... It's not too hot here in Pedro Juan, so that's pretty lucky, but right now the work is pretty tough. We had these awesome girls, five sisters, who we were teaching, but this past week they really fell in excitement for what we teach. I think the main thing was that this past week in Paraguay it was the "Virgin's" birthday, so everyone is hardcore into their idols and images, saints and virgins right now. That and I think that they are getting a lot of flak from their family, who are pretty hard core Catholic.
That's basically the story with everyone right now. Our area is pretty Catholic, and we're having a lot of trouble trying to find good investigators right now, and even less success trying to find a house to live in. The walk to our area isn't bothering me that much anymore, I'm getting used to it, and we usually just eat with the members during the week. If we don't have a lunch appointment, we usually just stay in the house to eat, and don't go out in the morning, because we're supposed to leave at 11.00 in the morning, and so that would mean we'd get about 20-30 mins to work before lunch, and its not even worth it, so we just eat a little earlier and then head out to get to the area the time we would normally start anyway. I'm in Branch 2, which is literally one block from Brazil, and its like 4 blocks north of Shopping China, this HUGE shopping store place that´s really big and fancy. It's also right next to this place called the Aduana. Good luck trying to find it. But no, we don't go into Brazil this time, there's missionaries over there, we met them today at Shopping China, even though its on our side, but whatevs.
It sounds like the ward is having a bunch of success in baptizing youth, they really are amazing, aren't they? Their testimonies are just so strong and simple. Our branch is definitely NOT functional, I don't know where you came up with that idea. There's only one priesthood holder that goes to church, the branch president, and there's a relief society class that usually has four sisters in it, and this week we had 13 people at church in total. There's no primary, no young mens or young womens or elders quorom or anything. There's no activities during the week, and I'm embarrassed to invite people to church. We don't hold leadership positions, but I think I might talk to president Wade about that, because we're the only other priesthood holders, and there are some areas here where the missionaries are counselors or whatever.
Pedro Juan is a decently sized place, but right now it doesn't need the 5 branches, but back in the day it was pretty successful, so we run in to a TON of inactive members while we´re going around contacting the people. I got the envelope and Cole's pictures of his Bionicles and stuff. Way cool little man! When is Cole's baptism going to be? Have you guys planned it at all yet? Any word on my BYU admission? Well it doesn't feel like Christmas at all, but I hope my package gets here on Saturday (thats when we get mail) or I'll have a presentless Christmas haha.
Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
It's just absolutely crazy how fast the time flies. I remember trying to think of what it would be like to be at my last Christmas of the mission, and it always seemed so far away! But next week we'll be talking, and then a month and a half later I'll get to walk bare foot on carpet! I'm getting excited... It's not too hot here in Pedro Juan, so that's pretty lucky, but right now the work is pretty tough. We had these awesome girls, five sisters, who we were teaching, but this past week they really fell in excitement for what we teach. I think the main thing was that this past week in Paraguay it was the "Virgin's" birthday, so everyone is hardcore into their idols and images, saints and virgins right now. That and I think that they are getting a lot of flak from their family, who are pretty hard core Catholic.
That's basically the story with everyone right now. Our area is pretty Catholic, and we're having a lot of trouble trying to find good investigators right now, and even less success trying to find a house to live in. The walk to our area isn't bothering me that much anymore, I'm getting used to it, and we usually just eat with the members during the week. If we don't have a lunch appointment, we usually just stay in the house to eat, and don't go out in the morning, because we're supposed to leave at 11.00 in the morning, and so that would mean we'd get about 20-30 mins to work before lunch, and its not even worth it, so we just eat a little earlier and then head out to get to the area the time we would normally start anyway. I'm in Branch 2, which is literally one block from Brazil, and its like 4 blocks north of Shopping China, this HUGE shopping store place that´s really big and fancy. It's also right next to this place called the Aduana. Good luck trying to find it. But no, we don't go into Brazil this time, there's missionaries over there, we met them today at Shopping China, even though its on our side, but whatevs.
It sounds like the ward is having a bunch of success in baptizing youth, they really are amazing, aren't they? Their testimonies are just so strong and simple. Our branch is definitely NOT functional, I don't know where you came up with that idea. There's only one priesthood holder that goes to church, the branch president, and there's a relief society class that usually has four sisters in it, and this week we had 13 people at church in total. There's no primary, no young mens or young womens or elders quorom or anything. There's no activities during the week, and I'm embarrassed to invite people to church. We don't hold leadership positions, but I think I might talk to president Wade about that, because we're the only other priesthood holders, and there are some areas here where the missionaries are counselors or whatever.
Pedro Juan is a decently sized place, but right now it doesn't need the 5 branches, but back in the day it was pretty successful, so we run in to a TON of inactive members while we´re going around contacting the people. I got the envelope and Cole's pictures of his Bionicles and stuff. Way cool little man! When is Cole's baptism going to be? Have you guys planned it at all yet? Any word on my BYU admission? Well it doesn't feel like Christmas at all, but I hope my package gets here on Saturday (thats when we get mail) or I'll have a presentless Christmas haha.
Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Monday, December 7, 2009
Dec 7, 2009
Hey there again,
How are preparations for the Christmas season coming? It does not feel like Christmas here in Paraguay, but people are putting up lights and all the stores have Santa Clauses and posters of snow and stuff... it´s kind of weird, not gonna lie. But yeah, Elder Adamson is a good kid, his spanish is way awesome, and he really wants to work hard. Who would've thunk that the two New Yorkers would be together. It makes it easy though, because everyone asks us where we´re from, and we just have to say New York.
Pedro Juan is a pretty cool place, but there´s a lot of Portuguese, as you can imagine, since like you said, there is absolutely no border control whatsoever. The city is literally divided in half, the Brazilian side is called Ponta Porã. As far as describing where my area is though, it´s right up on the border of Brazil, the church building is literally 2 blocks from the border. The only difference is the visible difference, because Brazil is so much nicer than Paraguay. On one side there is the cobble stone streets of Paraguay, and on the other it´s nice pavement, and its just a whole lot more organized. Anyway, my area, I have no clue how to describe where to find it. Does it have names of building on google earth? Or you could just hop on the church website and look for Pedro Juan Caballero 2, that´s the branch I'm in. I think it should have maps.
Our area is a good 40 minute walk everyday, there and back, from Branch 1, where the ZLs are, and so we're looking hard for a place, but it is so expensive out here that nothing we can find is in our price range, which is up to about 800 mil guaranies, or like $150 a month. I mean, it´s so cheap, but out here that price, if you're in a normal area, can get you premium living. Most places in Asuncion are only 400-500 mil a month, and they're nice big houses. But no luck so far out here.
But we're working hard, we're getting soaked quite a bit in the rain too, because it likes to rain out here, and its a long 40 minute walk home and we usually aren't prepared because in the morning its all nice a clear, and then we get to walk home in the rain. Last week we were fording the flash flooding rivers of streets that were caused by all the rain, and that was awesome. Don´t worry, the lighting hasn't hit us yet :)
We had a baptism and wedding on Saturday, so that was awesome. We´re working hard, and having a good time. I'm doing my best to stay focused, but it's super hard on P-Day hahaha. I love this work though, it really is the most important work on the face of the earth. I love you all,
Elder Dennis
How are preparations for the Christmas season coming? It does not feel like Christmas here in Paraguay, but people are putting up lights and all the stores have Santa Clauses and posters of snow and stuff... it´s kind of weird, not gonna lie. But yeah, Elder Adamson is a good kid, his spanish is way awesome, and he really wants to work hard. Who would've thunk that the two New Yorkers would be together. It makes it easy though, because everyone asks us where we´re from, and we just have to say New York.
Pedro Juan is a pretty cool place, but there´s a lot of Portuguese, as you can imagine, since like you said, there is absolutely no border control whatsoever. The city is literally divided in half, the Brazilian side is called Ponta Porã. As far as describing where my area is though, it´s right up on the border of Brazil, the church building is literally 2 blocks from the border. The only difference is the visible difference, because Brazil is so much nicer than Paraguay. On one side there is the cobble stone streets of Paraguay, and on the other it´s nice pavement, and its just a whole lot more organized. Anyway, my area, I have no clue how to describe where to find it. Does it have names of building on google earth? Or you could just hop on the church website and look for Pedro Juan Caballero 2, that´s the branch I'm in. I think it should have maps.
Our area is a good 40 minute walk everyday, there and back, from Branch 1, where the ZLs are, and so we're looking hard for a place, but it is so expensive out here that nothing we can find is in our price range, which is up to about 800 mil guaranies, or like $150 a month. I mean, it´s so cheap, but out here that price, if you're in a normal area, can get you premium living. Most places in Asuncion are only 400-500 mil a month, and they're nice big houses. But no luck so far out here.
But we're working hard, we're getting soaked quite a bit in the rain too, because it likes to rain out here, and its a long 40 minute walk home and we usually aren't prepared because in the morning its all nice a clear, and then we get to walk home in the rain. Last week we were fording the flash flooding rivers of streets that were caused by all the rain, and that was awesome. Don´t worry, the lighting hasn't hit us yet :)
We had a baptism and wedding on Saturday, so that was awesome. We´re working hard, and having a good time. I'm doing my best to stay focused, but it's super hard on P-Day hahaha. I love this work though, it really is the most important work on the face of the earth. I love you all,
Elder Dennis
Monday, November 30, 2009
Nov 30, 2009
Opa, ¿Cómo vai vocé?
Well, changes. So I´m no longer in Yverá, and I´m not a zone leader anymore either! Instead, I´m training!! That was awesome, I´m super excited for that, I was a ZL for forever. But yeah, it was good that I was training, because I probably wouldn´t have met E. Adamson, cause he went wayyyyy out Lejos to Pedro Juan Caballero, a city out on the border of Brazil. Luckily I was training though, so now I get to go out and work with him everyday. That´s right baby, I´m opening an area in Pedro Juan, a little branch called Rama 2 (´Branch 2´), and I´m training the other New Yorker! I couldn´t believe it when I heard, the other Elders back in my old house, E. Gage and E. Hill, both knew of E. Adamson by some way or another, and they were teasing me that I was so old as a ZL that I was just gonna drop down and train him, and it totally came true. It´s amazing how small this world is, let me tell you! So now I´m just a District Leader, but we´re living with the ZLs out here while we look for a house to live in, one of whom is E. Reid, from the MTC, so that is awesome, I love that guy.
It´s funny how I have some weird traditions in the mission though. Both times, I trained the day before a major holiday and spent the whole day on a bus to get out to my area in the zona Lejos, and so my childrens´ first day in the field was a major holiday, Christmas the first time and Thanksgiving this time. And I´ll have spent both my Christmases in the mission while training. We´re right on the border of Brazil, so I´m dealing a lot with Portuguese again, luckily I had plenty of training in Saltos, and this time around I understand just about everything and am speaking a lot more. I really love the language, I want to be able to speak it fairly fluently by the time I get home.
The branch is in ruins, but don´t you worry, E. Adamson and I are going to get things back in shape in no time. On Sunday there was a total of 15 people in the building, including the 3 investigators and the 3 kids under 8 that came... so basically just like Saltos when I showed up out there. There are a couple amazing members though (they´d have to be to keep going in situations like that) who are helping us out quite a bit, and we have some awesome investigators right now that we´re working with who are super excited for everything. I´m really excited for the change up of the routine, and E. Adamson is a stud, he already basically speaks Spanish, he just runs into a lot of trouble with the Portuguese and the Guaraní, which we have to deal with quite a bit out here too. It´s such a melting pot here, the people just mix those three languages together, and it's amazing but I understand it all. I´ve really fallen in love with foreign languages, I´d love to keep learning more after the mission.
Well, I don´t have much time today, but it sounds like everyone is doing awesome, and I love you all a ton. Sis. Wade said she´d find out what happened to that paper, and I´ll see her on Wednesday so I´ll check up on it again. I don´t have a phone yet out here so I can´t call her easily and remind her. Thanks for all the support.
Love,
Elder Dennis
Tracie here - just a fun fact: the new missionary that Josh is training grew up in the Albany NY Stake. He and Haley went on a few dates when they were seniors in high school. We knew he got called to the same mission as Josh and were thinking that it would be pretty neat if Josh got to train him - pretty cool that it actually happened :)
Well, changes. So I´m no longer in Yverá, and I´m not a zone leader anymore either! Instead, I´m training!! That was awesome, I´m super excited for that, I was a ZL for forever. But yeah, it was good that I was training, because I probably wouldn´t have met E. Adamson, cause he went wayyyyy out Lejos to Pedro Juan Caballero, a city out on the border of Brazil. Luckily I was training though, so now I get to go out and work with him everyday. That´s right baby, I´m opening an area in Pedro Juan, a little branch called Rama 2 (´Branch 2´), and I´m training the other New Yorker! I couldn´t believe it when I heard, the other Elders back in my old house, E. Gage and E. Hill, both knew of E. Adamson by some way or another, and they were teasing me that I was so old as a ZL that I was just gonna drop down and train him, and it totally came true. It´s amazing how small this world is, let me tell you! So now I´m just a District Leader, but we´re living with the ZLs out here while we look for a house to live in, one of whom is E. Reid, from the MTC, so that is awesome, I love that guy.
It´s funny how I have some weird traditions in the mission though. Both times, I trained the day before a major holiday and spent the whole day on a bus to get out to my area in the zona Lejos, and so my childrens´ first day in the field was a major holiday, Christmas the first time and Thanksgiving this time. And I´ll have spent both my Christmases in the mission while training. We´re right on the border of Brazil, so I´m dealing a lot with Portuguese again, luckily I had plenty of training in Saltos, and this time around I understand just about everything and am speaking a lot more. I really love the language, I want to be able to speak it fairly fluently by the time I get home.
The branch is in ruins, but don´t you worry, E. Adamson and I are going to get things back in shape in no time. On Sunday there was a total of 15 people in the building, including the 3 investigators and the 3 kids under 8 that came... so basically just like Saltos when I showed up out there. There are a couple amazing members though (they´d have to be to keep going in situations like that) who are helping us out quite a bit, and we have some awesome investigators right now that we´re working with who are super excited for everything. I´m really excited for the change up of the routine, and E. Adamson is a stud, he already basically speaks Spanish, he just runs into a lot of trouble with the Portuguese and the Guaraní, which we have to deal with quite a bit out here too. It´s such a melting pot here, the people just mix those three languages together, and it's amazing but I understand it all. I´ve really fallen in love with foreign languages, I´d love to keep learning more after the mission.
Well, I don´t have much time today, but it sounds like everyone is doing awesome, and I love you all a ton. Sis. Wade said she´d find out what happened to that paper, and I´ll see her on Wednesday so I´ll check up on it again. I don´t have a phone yet out here so I can´t call her easily and remind her. Thanks for all the support.
Love,
Elder Dennis
Tracie here - just a fun fact: the new missionary that Josh is training grew up in the Albany NY Stake. He and Haley went on a few dates when they were seniors in high school. We knew he got called to the same mission as Josh and were thinking that it would be pretty neat if Josh got to train him - pretty cool that it actually happened :)
Monday, November 23, 2009
Nov 23, 2009
Well, once again, I have to write everyone without the bit of information that everyone wants. We still haven’t heard as far as changes go, so we’re all still pretty anxious here in the mission. But it was weird, because the kids going home this change headed into the office this morning to do the whole good bye stuff with Pres. Wade, and they’ll be taking off tomorrow to be home in time for Thanksgiving. I hope the family is all happy and excited to be at Grandma’s house, I got a happy Thanksgiving card from her today, and all I can say is that I’m missing her amazing meals that she is famous for. I totally took that food for granted before, but let me tell you, the next Thanksgiving, we’re totally going to Grandma’s house again, because I’m not gonna miss out after two years of nothing haha. The people here don’t even know what Thanksgiving is… it’s so weird.
Last night, it was Elder Guest’s last night, because he went into the office this morning, so as a zone we got together and had a sleep over and monopoly party to send him off haha, it was pretty fun, plus I got to sleep in air conditioning, because we went over to their fancy house. His companion, Elder Rosales, from Ecuador, is with me and my companion until Wednesday, when the real changes will take place. So it’ll be weird being in a trio for a day. Changes should be coming later tonight, and I’m not gonna lie, I kind of want to leave. Actually I really want to leave my area. I love the members, and we’re starting to bring a couple inactive families back to church, but the work is so slow and we just don’t have any investigators who are really progressing. We busted our butts this change, but we haven’t seen much fruits for our labors. This area has just kind of killed my energy for the work, which I feel bad saying, because I love getting out and sharing this great message with the people, but it’s just like throwing pearls before swine, because everyone takes it for granted.
I hear that there’s lots of snow this year, is that just out west, or does Upstate have quite a bit as well? We are dying of heat down here, it hits the 100’s just about every day, like 38 C. It’s impressive, because it’s just like the heat at home, nice and humid! It sucks to have to wear a shirt and tie out to work every day, and the house is just an oven, I have to sleep with the fan right up against my bed, without any sheets to even be able to relax. Two seconds without a fan blowing on you and your whole body just begins to sweat profusely.
I’m so jealous I’m not around to be checking out all these cars and helping Dad make a decision, but that TSX is a pretty sweet car, I remember that from all the way back when I was home. And my poor Honda! That thing has been through so much, and yet it always seems like the Mercury takes a lot too, but I’ve never heard of us fixing that body up hahaha. That thing is a tank though, I bet the little Honda didn’t do hardly anything to it.
But this Adamson kid is pretty popular! He dated my sister, is the neighbor of Elder Hill’s uncle, and the friend of Elder Gage’s non-member girlfriend who is going to school in Boston… so basically the whole house knows the kid some way or another. I’m pretty interested in meeting him. Right now he’s traveling on his way down here. That poor kid, if only he knew what he was getting himself into hahaha. Just kidding, I love it down here.
I’ll call up Sister Wade right after this to make sure that little paper gets sent, sorry to keep ya’ll waiting. I get to talk to you guys in a month. Love ya,
Elder Dennis
Last night, it was Elder Guest’s last night, because he went into the office this morning, so as a zone we got together and had a sleep over and monopoly party to send him off haha, it was pretty fun, plus I got to sleep in air conditioning, because we went over to their fancy house. His companion, Elder Rosales, from Ecuador, is with me and my companion until Wednesday, when the real changes will take place. So it’ll be weird being in a trio for a day. Changes should be coming later tonight, and I’m not gonna lie, I kind of want to leave. Actually I really want to leave my area. I love the members, and we’re starting to bring a couple inactive families back to church, but the work is so slow and we just don’t have any investigators who are really progressing. We busted our butts this change, but we haven’t seen much fruits for our labors. This area has just kind of killed my energy for the work, which I feel bad saying, because I love getting out and sharing this great message with the people, but it’s just like throwing pearls before swine, because everyone takes it for granted.
I hear that there’s lots of snow this year, is that just out west, or does Upstate have quite a bit as well? We are dying of heat down here, it hits the 100’s just about every day, like 38 C. It’s impressive, because it’s just like the heat at home, nice and humid! It sucks to have to wear a shirt and tie out to work every day, and the house is just an oven, I have to sleep with the fan right up against my bed, without any sheets to even be able to relax. Two seconds without a fan blowing on you and your whole body just begins to sweat profusely.
I’m so jealous I’m not around to be checking out all these cars and helping Dad make a decision, but that TSX is a pretty sweet car, I remember that from all the way back when I was home. And my poor Honda! That thing has been through so much, and yet it always seems like the Mercury takes a lot too, but I’ve never heard of us fixing that body up hahaha. That thing is a tank though, I bet the little Honda didn’t do hardly anything to it.
But this Adamson kid is pretty popular! He dated my sister, is the neighbor of Elder Hill’s uncle, and the friend of Elder Gage’s non-member girlfriend who is going to school in Boston… so basically the whole house knows the kid some way or another. I’m pretty interested in meeting him. Right now he’s traveling on his way down here. That poor kid, if only he knew what he was getting himself into hahaha. Just kidding, I love it down here.
I’ll call up Sister Wade right after this to make sure that little paper gets sent, sorry to keep ya’ll waiting. I get to talk to you guys in a month. Love ya,
Elder Dennis
Monday, November 16, 2009
Nov 16, 2009
Hey family,
Alright Haley, I can’t help it if I live half-way around the world and Mom loves me enough to send me Christmas goodies hahaha. So stop your whining. In normal circumstances, I would totally agree with you, but this is an emergency, okay! But you wanna know what’s driving me out of my mind? Here in Paraguay, they don’t have the Thanksgiving Day, let alone in November, so they just pull out all of the Christmas stuff after Halloween! It’s so annoying! But I have never heard anything about customs fees here in Paraguay, so I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist, and some missionaries get like 10 packages a day. Not even exaggerating... So I’m sure the mission would have mentioned something if the mission had to pay anything to get them out of customs. I would hate to be in Argentina if that's the case.
I talked to Sister Wade, and she was going to take care of everything and I signed my part of the paper, and she was going to have Pres. Wade sign it and then fax it in, so I’ll give her a call after this to ask what’s up with that. Everything should be good to go, I probably just have to remind her to get that sent off. Elder Hill’s mom mentioned that you sent that photo to her, so once again the mothers have creeped out the missionaries. Technology is not a good thing in parents’ hands. Changes are tough to call, especially a week in advance. Sometimes you wake up with the feeling of what’s going to happen the day of, that’s what usually happens to me. There’s a good possibility that I stay with Elder Comte this change as well, but I could also easily see myself going to a different zone. Anyway I look at it, I can’t see myself ‘dying’ here in Yvera, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be staying a zone leader this change. As for the last one, eight changes as a zone leader is a long time, so that last one I might drop down just to train, but that’s too far out to call right now. It all depends on how the leadership of the mission is when that change comes around.
I could totally see you as the seminary teacher mom, you always got up early. That’s still the one thing that bothers me more than anything, you early birds. I can’t stand peppiness the first thing in the morning. But this week was pretty awesome, it was pretty eventful, let me tell you. Pres. Wade went out with us to work for about 3 hours on Tuesday, and that was awesome. We just did a bunch of contacts and taught some lessons, it was great to learn from him. He doesn’t change out in the street with the people from when he’s talking to us, and he’s such a great guy, he brought little candies for all the little kids and people we taught and gave away a tie to less active member who we’re trying to get out to church again. Then on Thursday, Pres. and Sister Wade came to inspect the houses of the zone and to have the interviews with President that we get once a change, so they were mixing things up on us, normally we just get together at the Stake Center and have interviews their. So we spent all of Wednesday night and Thursday morning cleaning our house like crazy, so it’s a lot nicer now hahaha. I went out with Pres. and Sister Wade Thursday to show them where all the houses of the zone were, and my comp did a split with a youth in the ward. It was awesome to have some more one on one time with the two of them, they are such great people!
But then Thursday night, the power went out for like twenty minutes, and we found out later that it was ALL of Paraguay and half of Brazil! But wow, it was scary, it cut off at like 9.10, and we were walking home, and then all the lights go out. And let me tell you, Paraguay is not a safe place to have the lights go out. At first it was alright because the full moon was out, but after like 4 minutes, it was as if the lights went out again! But it was just the moon going behind the clouds. THEN it was scary, we had to go by the light of the cell phone, and everyone on the streets was scared, because they know how dangerous Paraguay is, and they were always staying away from other cell phone lights. We got to the house just fine, and Elder Gage and Elder Hill showed up about the same time, and we called everyone in the zone to make sure they were okay, and luckily nothing happened, and the lights came on like 10 minutes later. Whew, that was fun.
But yeah, that was the exciting week. Hopefully we have a wedding and a baptism this week, so pray for us. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Alright Haley, I can’t help it if I live half-way around the world and Mom loves me enough to send me Christmas goodies hahaha. So stop your whining. In normal circumstances, I would totally agree with you, but this is an emergency, okay! But you wanna know what’s driving me out of my mind? Here in Paraguay, they don’t have the Thanksgiving Day, let alone in November, so they just pull out all of the Christmas stuff after Halloween! It’s so annoying! But I have never heard anything about customs fees here in Paraguay, so I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist, and some missionaries get like 10 packages a day. Not even exaggerating... So I’m sure the mission would have mentioned something if the mission had to pay anything to get them out of customs. I would hate to be in Argentina if that's the case.
I talked to Sister Wade, and she was going to take care of everything and I signed my part of the paper, and she was going to have Pres. Wade sign it and then fax it in, so I’ll give her a call after this to ask what’s up with that. Everything should be good to go, I probably just have to remind her to get that sent off. Elder Hill’s mom mentioned that you sent that photo to her, so once again the mothers have creeped out the missionaries. Technology is not a good thing in parents’ hands. Changes are tough to call, especially a week in advance. Sometimes you wake up with the feeling of what’s going to happen the day of, that’s what usually happens to me. There’s a good possibility that I stay with Elder Comte this change as well, but I could also easily see myself going to a different zone. Anyway I look at it, I can’t see myself ‘dying’ here in Yvera, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be staying a zone leader this change. As for the last one, eight changes as a zone leader is a long time, so that last one I might drop down just to train, but that’s too far out to call right now. It all depends on how the leadership of the mission is when that change comes around.
I could totally see you as the seminary teacher mom, you always got up early. That’s still the one thing that bothers me more than anything, you early birds. I can’t stand peppiness the first thing in the morning. But this week was pretty awesome, it was pretty eventful, let me tell you. Pres. Wade went out with us to work for about 3 hours on Tuesday, and that was awesome. We just did a bunch of contacts and taught some lessons, it was great to learn from him. He doesn’t change out in the street with the people from when he’s talking to us, and he’s such a great guy, he brought little candies for all the little kids and people we taught and gave away a tie to less active member who we’re trying to get out to church again. Then on Thursday, Pres. and Sister Wade came to inspect the houses of the zone and to have the interviews with President that we get once a change, so they were mixing things up on us, normally we just get together at the Stake Center and have interviews their. So we spent all of Wednesday night and Thursday morning cleaning our house like crazy, so it’s a lot nicer now hahaha. I went out with Pres. and Sister Wade Thursday to show them where all the houses of the zone were, and my comp did a split with a youth in the ward. It was awesome to have some more one on one time with the two of them, they are such great people!
But then Thursday night, the power went out for like twenty minutes, and we found out later that it was ALL of Paraguay and half of Brazil! But wow, it was scary, it cut off at like 9.10, and we were walking home, and then all the lights go out. And let me tell you, Paraguay is not a safe place to have the lights go out. At first it was alright because the full moon was out, but after like 4 minutes, it was as if the lights went out again! But it was just the moon going behind the clouds. THEN it was scary, we had to go by the light of the cell phone, and everyone on the streets was scared, because they know how dangerous Paraguay is, and they were always staying away from other cell phone lights. We got to the house just fine, and Elder Gage and Elder Hill showed up about the same time, and we called everyone in the zone to make sure they were okay, and luckily nothing happened, and the lights came on like 10 minutes later. Whew, that was fun.
But yeah, that was the exciting week. Hopefully we have a wedding and a baptism this week, so pray for us. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Monday, November 9, 2009
Nov 9, 2009
Hey there,
I always have such a hard time trying to figure out what salutation to use… I think its the hardest part of my letter hahaha. This week the primary had the special program in Sacrament meeting as well, and oh man, I wish you guys could just see this stuff. It’s so horrible its hilarious. Just try to imagine what it could possibly be like down here... they don’t even have someone who can play the piano to attempt to keep the kids on key... yeah, it’s pretty bad. I’m glad Cole did good this year though, that little guy is a stud, he’s going to be the best of us Dennis kids.
I wish I could go visit the temple whenever I wanted. The once every six months is definitely not often enough for me. I love seeing pictures of the Boston temple now. I’ve only ever seen it once in person, but I love that temple just because it was the first time I got to visit a temple other than to do baptisms. The temple truly is just the whole vision and meaning of why we’re here doing what we do, just to give these people that eternal family. Its something that hardly anyone truly understands down here, the importance and significance that the temple truly can have on their lives. Just knowing that I’ll be with the little man for forever is awe inspiring to me. Oh yeah, being with the rest of you will be cool too... hahaha just kidding, I love all of yins.
Speaking of counting down days though, tomorrow starts the hundred day countdown til yours truly will get to step foot on American soil again hahaha. Don’t worry though, I’m not counting, I was just informed today by one of the guys in my group. But today was pretty awesome, we had a Council Meeting with President Wade and then we went as the ZLs to visit the Museum of South American Soccer Association. I sent you a photo of the outside. Things are still going pretty tough here in Yvera, but I love my companion, and we’re doing our best to try and get things going, but the blessings for our efforts are taking a little while to get here haha. But todays meeting helped me out a little bit with some ideas as to what we can do to pick things up a bit. It’s weird though, I realized today that I’m the oldest ZL in the mission. In fact, at the end of this change I’ll have the same amount of time as a ZL as I did as a non ZL. Wow. The mission is flying by!
But as far as a Christmas package... how about an iPhone? When I get home? hahaha. Honestly I don’t have any requests, I don’t even really need a package... if its anything other than food it’ll just be more weight in my suitcases or will just be left here in Paraguay a month later. And before you get excited, don’t buy me garments or anything to have for me when I get home. Mine are all in pretty good shape still, and I think I’m going to want to get a different kind when I get home. Haha I can just see you getting antsy and we’d end up with a bunch of extra stuff on our hands.
But hey, I love you all, thanks for all of the support!
Love,
Elder Dennis
I always have such a hard time trying to figure out what salutation to use… I think its the hardest part of my letter hahaha. This week the primary had the special program in Sacrament meeting as well, and oh man, I wish you guys could just see this stuff. It’s so horrible its hilarious. Just try to imagine what it could possibly be like down here... they don’t even have someone who can play the piano to attempt to keep the kids on key... yeah, it’s pretty bad. I’m glad Cole did good this year though, that little guy is a stud, he’s going to be the best of us Dennis kids.
I wish I could go visit the temple whenever I wanted. The once every six months is definitely not often enough for me. I love seeing pictures of the Boston temple now. I’ve only ever seen it once in person, but I love that temple just because it was the first time I got to visit a temple other than to do baptisms. The temple truly is just the whole vision and meaning of why we’re here doing what we do, just to give these people that eternal family. Its something that hardly anyone truly understands down here, the importance and significance that the temple truly can have on their lives. Just knowing that I’ll be with the little man for forever is awe inspiring to me. Oh yeah, being with the rest of you will be cool too... hahaha just kidding, I love all of yins.
Speaking of counting down days though, tomorrow starts the hundred day countdown til yours truly will get to step foot on American soil again hahaha. Don’t worry though, I’m not counting, I was just informed today by one of the guys in my group. But today was pretty awesome, we had a Council Meeting with President Wade and then we went as the ZLs to visit the Museum of South American Soccer Association. I sent you a photo of the outside. Things are still going pretty tough here in Yvera, but I love my companion, and we’re doing our best to try and get things going, but the blessings for our efforts are taking a little while to get here haha. But todays meeting helped me out a little bit with some ideas as to what we can do to pick things up a bit. It’s weird though, I realized today that I’m the oldest ZL in the mission. In fact, at the end of this change I’ll have the same amount of time as a ZL as I did as a non ZL. Wow. The mission is flying by!
But as far as a Christmas package... how about an iPhone? When I get home? hahaha. Honestly I don’t have any requests, I don’t even really need a package... if its anything other than food it’ll just be more weight in my suitcases or will just be left here in Paraguay a month later. And before you get excited, don’t buy me garments or anything to have for me when I get home. Mine are all in pretty good shape still, and I think I’m going to want to get a different kind when I get home. Haha I can just see you getting antsy and we’d end up with a bunch of extra stuff on our hands.
But hey, I love you all, thanks for all of the support!
Love,
Elder Dennis
Monday, November 2, 2009
Nov 2, 2009
Hey there,
So Halloween was spent working really hard and putting it all out on the line to get people ready to go to church. Halloween as we know it in the states doesn’t exist down here, but most people have an idea of what we do, because of movies and stuff. Here they just go out and party in masks or something like that, and its fun, but we don’t see that side of life down here, so it didn’t really effect us. I don’t know, as a missionary holidays just don’t exist. Birthdays, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving... they’re all just normal days down here. The only thing that can kind of be thought of as a holiday is Christmas, because you don’t really do anything, just visit cool members or something. But there’s no family or american food or any of standard things that denote ‘Christmas’ for us. But hardly anyone went to church by the way... things are going tough right now.
One thing I’ve really come to appreciate on my mission is family, because like they say, you don’t really know how important something is to you until its gone. Luckily I’ll be getting you guys back haha, but it’s really hit me these past couple weeks just the weight of this message we are trying to just give away to these people, and they just turn it down. We’re trying to give them an eternal family, the blessings of being sealed together for the eternities. I watched the church movie ‘Between Heaven and Earth’ by the church, and it talks about temples, and what other religious leaders and scholars have to say about it last night, and it was pretty powerful. But if you could see how these people just pass day after day and don’t even have direction in life. We pass old old old people in the streets and its just like, why don’t you just die already? What do you really have to live for? They just wake up, work, drink beer, and sleep again. That is the Paraguayan life. It’s so awesome when you can see meaning come into their lives though. Thats what makes it all worth it, that’s why we got out everyday in 100 degree weather and get rejected, ridiculed, mocked and yelled at. Cause in the end, it’s all worth it.
Sounds like the family is having fun with Grandpa Bob out there though, so that's cool. I love that guy. You people and your history sights though, I never would’ve guessed hahaha. And you’re planning your funerals already... no comment. But I enjoyed the photos of the costumes! Robyn busting out the Princess Peach, and the little Indiana Jones looked awesome, I wish I could have been there. Can you believe it was over TWO years ago that I dressed up as the scare crow in the Trunk or Treat thing at the church and scared all the little kids while they reached in to the trunk for the candy? That was the last Halloween memory I have. I don’t even have a clue as to what happened last year, I don’t remember it at all. It sucks that I won’t be home til all the holidays pass. But whatevs, I only have 15 weeks left here in Paraguay. When you put it that way it feels like nothing, fetch, I gotta get working!
But I’m proud of you guys having Paige move in.. to my room.... nah just kidding, that really is awesome. Not gonna lie mom, I don’t want to make you feel bad, but that never felt like my room. I know you tried your best, but it was never the same to me. Tell Paige I think she’s a stud for everything she’s doing to follow the truth, I respect that more than anything anyone can do in this life. She’s kind of like that ‘mystery girl’ to me too, and I’m kind of disappointed I won’t even meet her when I get home, I feel like she’s part of the family already. I haven’t even seen a picture of her or anything, I’ve just heard you talk about her, but it sounds like she fits right in to our crazy family. I love you all more than you know. And I miss my electric guitar...
Love ya,
Elder Dennis
So Halloween was spent working really hard and putting it all out on the line to get people ready to go to church. Halloween as we know it in the states doesn’t exist down here, but most people have an idea of what we do, because of movies and stuff. Here they just go out and party in masks or something like that, and its fun, but we don’t see that side of life down here, so it didn’t really effect us. I don’t know, as a missionary holidays just don’t exist. Birthdays, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving... they’re all just normal days down here. The only thing that can kind of be thought of as a holiday is Christmas, because you don’t really do anything, just visit cool members or something. But there’s no family or american food or any of standard things that denote ‘Christmas’ for us. But hardly anyone went to church by the way... things are going tough right now.
One thing I’ve really come to appreciate on my mission is family, because like they say, you don’t really know how important something is to you until its gone. Luckily I’ll be getting you guys back haha, but it’s really hit me these past couple weeks just the weight of this message we are trying to just give away to these people, and they just turn it down. We’re trying to give them an eternal family, the blessings of being sealed together for the eternities. I watched the church movie ‘Between Heaven and Earth’ by the church, and it talks about temples, and what other religious leaders and scholars have to say about it last night, and it was pretty powerful. But if you could see how these people just pass day after day and don’t even have direction in life. We pass old old old people in the streets and its just like, why don’t you just die already? What do you really have to live for? They just wake up, work, drink beer, and sleep again. That is the Paraguayan life. It’s so awesome when you can see meaning come into their lives though. Thats what makes it all worth it, that’s why we got out everyday in 100 degree weather and get rejected, ridiculed, mocked and yelled at. Cause in the end, it’s all worth it.
Sounds like the family is having fun with Grandpa Bob out there though, so that's cool. I love that guy. You people and your history sights though, I never would’ve guessed hahaha. And you’re planning your funerals already... no comment. But I enjoyed the photos of the costumes! Robyn busting out the Princess Peach, and the little Indiana Jones looked awesome, I wish I could have been there. Can you believe it was over TWO years ago that I dressed up as the scare crow in the Trunk or Treat thing at the church and scared all the little kids while they reached in to the trunk for the candy? That was the last Halloween memory I have. I don’t even have a clue as to what happened last year, I don’t remember it at all. It sucks that I won’t be home til all the holidays pass. But whatevs, I only have 15 weeks left here in Paraguay. When you put it that way it feels like nothing, fetch, I gotta get working!
But I’m proud of you guys having Paige move in.. to my room.... nah just kidding, that really is awesome. Not gonna lie mom, I don’t want to make you feel bad, but that never felt like my room. I know you tried your best, but it was never the same to me. Tell Paige I think she’s a stud for everything she’s doing to follow the truth, I respect that more than anything anyone can do in this life. She’s kind of like that ‘mystery girl’ to me too, and I’m kind of disappointed I won’t even meet her when I get home, I feel like she’s part of the family already. I haven’t even seen a picture of her or anything, I’ve just heard you talk about her, but it sounds like she fits right in to our crazy family. I love you all more than you know. And I miss my electric guitar...
Love ya,
Elder Dennis
Monday, October 26, 2009
Oct 26, 2009
Hola mis queridos!
Bueno, this is Elder Comte’s first change as a ZL, so he’s pumped to get out there and get the zone pumped as well. Unfortunately, it’s pretty slow going still, even though we’re working our butts off. We’re living with Elder Gage, who showed up in the end of September, with Elder Shumway, and now he’s training Elder Hill. I have no clue how Elders in other parts of the world (cough the states..) work all day long! Because everyone is just out in the street and you can talk to anyone, it’s just so easy to ‘get the numbers’ here. We’re having trouble getting the amazing people we have to progress right now though.
We have a couple main investigators right now. Juliana went to church on Sunday, to Stake Conference, and she’s way awesome, but her boyfriend, the guy she lives with, is an inactive member who smokes and drinks and doesn’t want anything to do with the church, and she knows she needs to get married or break up, and she doesn’t want to get married. I can’t blame her, I wouldn’t get married to her loser boyfriend either. She is young, only 20, so we’ll see what happens. What’s awesome about that though is that we’re activating this inactive girl with her, because we got her all excited and put her with the responsibility of being the friend of Juliana and making her feel comfortable in church. Her name is Cinthia, and she’s 18. We have another lady named Liz who is cool, planning on getting married to her less active husband and get baptized, and also Marisa, who is a stud and loves the church. Her sister loves it too, but she needs to get married and is planning on it, but it’ll be a little bit farther down the road. We still need to just find newer better people to teach, because we’re running thin right now.
That’s awesome that Cole is a stud! When is his baptism going to be? Is he getting super excited? I’m touched that he keeps all of my old photos, that’s pretty cool. But yeah, I got my Halloween package, and its awesome! I’m glad you’ll be heading down to PA for Thanksgiving. How’s Grandpap Jones doing? And tell Aunt Audrey I’m excited to see her in church to hear my talk haha.
But about schools, what does LDSBC offer? I was looking at it a little bit in the brochures that Haley sent me, and it really just doesn’t seem like it has anything that I’d like to do. I’ll take a look at it again though. It’s so hard to tell you what it is that I want to do over email, because it can’t be explained well in written words. I don’t even know how to describe it to myself what I want to do, I can just feel like the tip of what it is, but the ideas are still developing. Anyways, love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
PS Does Haley write Elder Adamson? If she does, tell him that I'll be on the lookout. Haha.
Bueno, this is Elder Comte’s first change as a ZL, so he’s pumped to get out there and get the zone pumped as well. Unfortunately, it’s pretty slow going still, even though we’re working our butts off. We’re living with Elder Gage, who showed up in the end of September, with Elder Shumway, and now he’s training Elder Hill. I have no clue how Elders in other parts of the world (cough the states..) work all day long! Because everyone is just out in the street and you can talk to anyone, it’s just so easy to ‘get the numbers’ here. We’re having trouble getting the amazing people we have to progress right now though.
We have a couple main investigators right now. Juliana went to church on Sunday, to Stake Conference, and she’s way awesome, but her boyfriend, the guy she lives with, is an inactive member who smokes and drinks and doesn’t want anything to do with the church, and she knows she needs to get married or break up, and she doesn’t want to get married. I can’t blame her, I wouldn’t get married to her loser boyfriend either. She is young, only 20, so we’ll see what happens. What’s awesome about that though is that we’re activating this inactive girl with her, because we got her all excited and put her with the responsibility of being the friend of Juliana and making her feel comfortable in church. Her name is Cinthia, and she’s 18. We have another lady named Liz who is cool, planning on getting married to her less active husband and get baptized, and also Marisa, who is a stud and loves the church. Her sister loves it too, but she needs to get married and is planning on it, but it’ll be a little bit farther down the road. We still need to just find newer better people to teach, because we’re running thin right now.
That’s awesome that Cole is a stud! When is his baptism going to be? Is he getting super excited? I’m touched that he keeps all of my old photos, that’s pretty cool. But yeah, I got my Halloween package, and its awesome! I’m glad you’ll be heading down to PA for Thanksgiving. How’s Grandpap Jones doing? And tell Aunt Audrey I’m excited to see her in church to hear my talk haha.
But about schools, what does LDSBC offer? I was looking at it a little bit in the brochures that Haley sent me, and it really just doesn’t seem like it has anything that I’d like to do. I’ll take a look at it again though. It’s so hard to tell you what it is that I want to do over email, because it can’t be explained well in written words. I don’t even know how to describe it to myself what I want to do, I can just feel like the tip of what it is, but the ideas are still developing. Anyways, love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
PS Does Haley write Elder Adamson? If she does, tell him that I'll be on the lookout. Haha.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Oct 19, 2009
Hola, ¿qué tal?
So I’m still kickin it here in Yvera, but I got an amazing new companion, Elder Comte. He’s a stud, he’s a way funny guy and works hard, so I’m excited. He’s from Payson, Utah, so I got someone from the ‘Factory,’ as they call it. We worked hard this week, but we’re just having trouble finding more good investigators that will progress... we have a handful, but a couple of them aren’t all that secure just yet, but on Sunday I think the main problem some people didn’t get to church was the Daylight Savings Time. Down here we lost an hour because we’re in the spring time now, and like you were guessing, it’s starting to get hot. Its also cool because Elder Gage, who lives in the house with us, went up to senior companion and is training a greenie this change, Elder Hill. So our house just has a bunch of excitement and it’s interesting to see a brand new kid and his utter culture shock that we all have to go through when we show up hahaha.
Well, what’s gonna happen with this Summer thing at BYU? Are Haley and I just gonna be stuck in the dorms? Or would we be living together somewhere? Anyways, I get to see Pres Wade tomorrow so I’ll ask him about the application thing. And is Haley planning on going to the UVU come fall? Cause you mentioned she got in there or something. Welp, I guess I’m not too worried about it, and I just have to wait til next week to find out anyways, so whatevs.
Well, keep warm during those late night soccer games, and send that cool air down here if you can. I really don’t know what else to say, things keep going pretty normal, you know, the whole mission thing. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
So I’m still kickin it here in Yvera, but I got an amazing new companion, Elder Comte. He’s a stud, he’s a way funny guy and works hard, so I’m excited. He’s from Payson, Utah, so I got someone from the ‘Factory,’ as they call it. We worked hard this week, but we’re just having trouble finding more good investigators that will progress... we have a handful, but a couple of them aren’t all that secure just yet, but on Sunday I think the main problem some people didn’t get to church was the Daylight Savings Time. Down here we lost an hour because we’re in the spring time now, and like you were guessing, it’s starting to get hot. Its also cool because Elder Gage, who lives in the house with us, went up to senior companion and is training a greenie this change, Elder Hill. So our house just has a bunch of excitement and it’s interesting to see a brand new kid and his utter culture shock that we all have to go through when we show up hahaha.
Well, what’s gonna happen with this Summer thing at BYU? Are Haley and I just gonna be stuck in the dorms? Or would we be living together somewhere? Anyways, I get to see Pres Wade tomorrow so I’ll ask him about the application thing. And is Haley planning on going to the UVU come fall? Cause you mentioned she got in there or something. Welp, I guess I’m not too worried about it, and I just have to wait til next week to find out anyways, so whatevs.
Well, keep warm during those late night soccer games, and send that cool air down here if you can. I really don’t know what else to say, things keep going pretty normal, you know, the whole mission thing. Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
Monday, October 12, 2009
Oct 12, 2009
Hey there family (and friends),
Tell Cole that I can’t wait to play fútbol with him when I get home, because I’m not gonna lie, I love playing soccer now. We play just about every week, and it’s a ton of fun. We gringos suck pretty bad, but I can keep up with the best of em... um... sometimes. But Hey, congrats for accomplishing the half marathon! Glad to hear that the two old folks are still keeping in shape. But yeah, I also got those pants, and they fit just fine, thanks so much for that, because I definitely needed it. I’m not gonna lie, I’m getting pretty fat... sooooo, yeah. But yeah, now I’m good for the rest of my mission. I think I might take one of my suit coats in to a fancy store and try and get some pants tailored up of the same kind of cloth, because man, those pants are wayyyy too tight. But you don’t have to worry too much about packages, you should just save up to spoil me when I get home :)
But wow. This starts my 14th transfer... I only have 3 more to go, and wow, I’m getting so old in the mission. I was thinking about that today, and I swear it still hasn’t hit me that I’m actually on my mission, but tomorrow is 20 months... WOW: I’m just bummin it in Paraguay and talking to people about Christ. And its amazing. I definitely wouldn’t call it the best two years of my life, but it is by far the best possible thing that a young man can do to prepare himself to be successful in life. I’ve changed so much, I can just walk up to a perfect stranger and talk to him about anything. And it’s in spanish. I was so shy before! By the way, I really hope you people can understand spanglish, because trying to speak straight english is literally impossible. The phone call home should be pretty interesting.
Alright, I guess I’ll answer your trunky questions though. First off, yeah, just go ahead and have me scheduled to talk that first week back to just get it out of the way, no point in procrastinating. Plus my accent might fade after a week in the states, and we can’t have that now can we? Haha As far as getting into the spring session, I’m sure Pres Wade will do whatever he needs to to help me get that all done, I’ll talk to him about it the next time I see him. I’m thinking if I need to, I can just go to UVU to get my grades up a little, because I know they were pretty low before. I bet that would be cheaper too than going to U of U, and once I get residency I can decide if I want to go there or if I want to try and transfer to BYU. I’m not gonna lie, I just want the cheapest solution to get things started off, and then once I get back to making some money and getting into the hang of things, we can see what happens.
Well, no changes information as of yet, so it looks like you’ll just have to wait til next week. Its almost certain I’ll be staying in the area and getting a new companion, but you never know. And tell Elder Wagner that being a ZL is way overrated. I just want to be a beetle. Now that’s deep doctrine right there. Who says I haven’t learn anything in two years? Hahaha. (The Savior’s Atonement, by W. Cleon Skousen). Oh, and if you can find that in English you should totally send it to me, I only have it in Spanish.
Love you all,
Elder Dennis
Tell Cole that I can’t wait to play fútbol with him when I get home, because I’m not gonna lie, I love playing soccer now. We play just about every week, and it’s a ton of fun. We gringos suck pretty bad, but I can keep up with the best of em... um... sometimes. But Hey, congrats for accomplishing the half marathon! Glad to hear that the two old folks are still keeping in shape. But yeah, I also got those pants, and they fit just fine, thanks so much for that, because I definitely needed it. I’m not gonna lie, I’m getting pretty fat... sooooo, yeah. But yeah, now I’m good for the rest of my mission. I think I might take one of my suit coats in to a fancy store and try and get some pants tailored up of the same kind of cloth, because man, those pants are wayyyy too tight. But you don’t have to worry too much about packages, you should just save up to spoil me when I get home :)
But wow. This starts my 14th transfer... I only have 3 more to go, and wow, I’m getting so old in the mission. I was thinking about that today, and I swear it still hasn’t hit me that I’m actually on my mission, but tomorrow is 20 months... WOW: I’m just bummin it in Paraguay and talking to people about Christ. And its amazing. I definitely wouldn’t call it the best two years of my life, but it is by far the best possible thing that a young man can do to prepare himself to be successful in life. I’ve changed so much, I can just walk up to a perfect stranger and talk to him about anything. And it’s in spanish. I was so shy before! By the way, I really hope you people can understand spanglish, because trying to speak straight english is literally impossible. The phone call home should be pretty interesting.
Alright, I guess I’ll answer your trunky questions though. First off, yeah, just go ahead and have me scheduled to talk that first week back to just get it out of the way, no point in procrastinating. Plus my accent might fade after a week in the states, and we can’t have that now can we? Haha As far as getting into the spring session, I’m sure Pres Wade will do whatever he needs to to help me get that all done, I’ll talk to him about it the next time I see him. I’m thinking if I need to, I can just go to UVU to get my grades up a little, because I know they were pretty low before. I bet that would be cheaper too than going to U of U, and once I get residency I can decide if I want to go there or if I want to try and transfer to BYU. I’m not gonna lie, I just want the cheapest solution to get things started off, and then once I get back to making some money and getting into the hang of things, we can see what happens.
Well, no changes information as of yet, so it looks like you’ll just have to wait til next week. Its almost certain I’ll be staying in the area and getting a new companion, but you never know. And tell Elder Wagner that being a ZL is way overrated. I just want to be a beetle. Now that’s deep doctrine right there. Who says I haven’t learn anything in two years? Hahaha. (The Savior’s Atonement, by W. Cleon Skousen). Oh, and if you can find that in English you should totally send it to me, I only have it in Spanish.
Love you all,
Elder Dennis
Monday, October 5, 2009
Oct 5, 2009
Alright folks, how’s it going?
I’m excited right now, because we had a great week of work last week, and General Conference was awesome, getting to hear the powerful testimonies of some of the most amazing leaders of the Church. I got jipped during the Priesthood session though, because I showed up late and missed the first talk, and it wasn’t in English, so I had to listen to it in Spanish. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, because I understand just fine, but man, it just does not have the same feeling as getting to hear it come straight from the mouth of the person speaking, its just some translator who is trying to keep up and get the grammar right, and it just looses all spiritual power. I heard the first talk was amazing though, about a father and son, and I’m really sad I missed it. I don’t have my notes with me right now, but there was one talk that I just loved that talked about teaching… it was by an unknown-to-me Seventy, and I forget his name at the moment. Well, they were all gold, if you know what I mean.
Okay, pancakes with that syrup mix that you sent me is AMAZING! We ate pancakes on Saturday and Sunday, and then today at a ZL Council with President Wade, Sister Wade cooked us all up pancakes as well… but I gotta admit it, her sauce just wasn’t as good as mine. If you throw some bananas in there, mmmmm! So this week we’re planning on cooking up some more French toast or something… I like this actually cooking thing, I’ve been doing a lot more of it lately.
Well, that one kid’s name is actually Manuel… we were kind of confused about that until we did up the Baptismal Register and asked him about it… so that was kind of embarrassing. But yeah, he’s still doing well. Enrique is a total stud, we’re gonna get him to bless the Sacrament this coming week. And Eddy is getting ready, he already has his papers that he’s filling out for the mission, and come January, he’ll be able to take off on a brand new journey. Everyone I talk to out there just mentions how awesome he is, so I’m excited. I haven’t gotten to talk to him in awhile, but I might try to get a hold of him here pretty soon.
Well, yesterday marked eight months as a zone leader… and next week I hit twenty months in the mission. Some would say I’m getting old, but I swear my receding hair line begs to differ… er… oh man, I guess I AM getting old! Not Cool! But yeah, there’s almost guaranteed a ton of changes this coming transfer, because there’s like twenty new kids who are going to be showing up, and the mission is going to have to open up like ten new areas. So everything is just gonna get all flipped around. But hey, you guys mentioned some kid who’ll be getting down here to Paraguay in November… what’s his name? We already have the papers with the names of all the newbies who will be showing up. Oh, and guess what my grandkid’s name is... Sorensen… Yup, that’s right. I still haven’t met him yet though.
But I’m glad the family is still working hard in the mission work, is Mark the one who was in the Navy? If not, I don’t know who it is… I have been out of the house for a year and 7 and a half months now, that’s quite a long time. But the fact that the Jessee’s are home is soooo trunky. I was with them in the MTC! That’s so not cool. Tell them I say hi and that I’m still working hard… most of the time. Nah, just kidding, I’m so flippin tired but the last 5 minutes of the game are the most important. Plus I’m a captain, and I gotta get out there and go crazy right now to fire up the team.
But some trunky talk… maybe you should start the papers for BYU as well… because I’ve been thinking a lot lately, and its so cheap, has great programs and reputation, but I don’t think I’ll get in right away, but just to see. UVU is looking to be the little community school back up if I can’t get into BYU or the U. I was thinking a lot about Arizona, but I feel like I should go to Utah all-in-all. I don’t know, I’m still so confused, but the Lord is helping me decide line upon line, precept upon precept.
Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
PS How are my teams doing?
I’m excited right now, because we had a great week of work last week, and General Conference was awesome, getting to hear the powerful testimonies of some of the most amazing leaders of the Church. I got jipped during the Priesthood session though, because I showed up late and missed the first talk, and it wasn’t in English, so I had to listen to it in Spanish. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, because I understand just fine, but man, it just does not have the same feeling as getting to hear it come straight from the mouth of the person speaking, its just some translator who is trying to keep up and get the grammar right, and it just looses all spiritual power. I heard the first talk was amazing though, about a father and son, and I’m really sad I missed it. I don’t have my notes with me right now, but there was one talk that I just loved that talked about teaching… it was by an unknown-to-me Seventy, and I forget his name at the moment. Well, they were all gold, if you know what I mean.
Okay, pancakes with that syrup mix that you sent me is AMAZING! We ate pancakes on Saturday and Sunday, and then today at a ZL Council with President Wade, Sister Wade cooked us all up pancakes as well… but I gotta admit it, her sauce just wasn’t as good as mine. If you throw some bananas in there, mmmmm! So this week we’re planning on cooking up some more French toast or something… I like this actually cooking thing, I’ve been doing a lot more of it lately.
Well, that one kid’s name is actually Manuel… we were kind of confused about that until we did up the Baptismal Register and asked him about it… so that was kind of embarrassing. But yeah, he’s still doing well. Enrique is a total stud, we’re gonna get him to bless the Sacrament this coming week. And Eddy is getting ready, he already has his papers that he’s filling out for the mission, and come January, he’ll be able to take off on a brand new journey. Everyone I talk to out there just mentions how awesome he is, so I’m excited. I haven’t gotten to talk to him in awhile, but I might try to get a hold of him here pretty soon.
Well, yesterday marked eight months as a zone leader… and next week I hit twenty months in the mission. Some would say I’m getting old, but I swear my receding hair line begs to differ… er… oh man, I guess I AM getting old! Not Cool! But yeah, there’s almost guaranteed a ton of changes this coming transfer, because there’s like twenty new kids who are going to be showing up, and the mission is going to have to open up like ten new areas. So everything is just gonna get all flipped around. But hey, you guys mentioned some kid who’ll be getting down here to Paraguay in November… what’s his name? We already have the papers with the names of all the newbies who will be showing up. Oh, and guess what my grandkid’s name is... Sorensen… Yup, that’s right. I still haven’t met him yet though.
But I’m glad the family is still working hard in the mission work, is Mark the one who was in the Navy? If not, I don’t know who it is… I have been out of the house for a year and 7 and a half months now, that’s quite a long time. But the fact that the Jessee’s are home is soooo trunky. I was with them in the MTC! That’s so not cool. Tell them I say hi and that I’m still working hard… most of the time. Nah, just kidding, I’m so flippin tired but the last 5 minutes of the game are the most important. Plus I’m a captain, and I gotta get out there and go crazy right now to fire up the team.
But some trunky talk… maybe you should start the papers for BYU as well… because I’ve been thinking a lot lately, and its so cheap, has great programs and reputation, but I don’t think I’ll get in right away, but just to see. UVU is looking to be the little community school back up if I can’t get into BYU or the U. I was thinking a lot about Arizona, but I feel like I should go to Utah all-in-all. I don’t know, I’m still so confused, but the Lord is helping me decide line upon line, precept upon precept.
Love ya lots,
Elder Dennis
PS How are my teams doing?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sept 28, 2009
Well well well.
That’s awesome that Cole is enjoying soccer, I love it down here. I’m so excited because I’ll be home in time to watch the World Cup in June! Paraguay already made it into the tournament, and so did the United States, so it’ll be cool to have two teams to root for. But why you gotta always go and ruin my little surprises that I have all planned up? Haha, I was already planning to pick him up some sweet little jerseys and was even going to ask his size in this email. So at least I don’t have to do that now I guess. We’ve begun playing soccer as a zone every week, er, for the past three weeks. Without having District Meeting on Monday, that morning time is all open now to play. So we go to this sweet turf field, and we each pitch in $1.50 to play for an hour and a half. Today it was cold and had the constant mist drizzle, but it was still a ton of fun, but man, I’m turning into Dad when it comes to sport injuries. A couple months ago, like right after my birthday, I twisted my ankle pretty bad… it’s still pretty weak, but today I totally busted up my toe. I hit a post while trying to kick the ball and I think the nail lifted up from the skin. All I know was that when we got home it was all bloody, but I took a shower and was looking at it, and besides being sore, it really isn’t that bad.
The temple was amazing, I got to do confirmations and a session and then some sealings and ended with initiatories. But the best was just getting to sit in the Celestial Room. I was praying a lot to know about where I need to go and what I need to do after the mission, just asking specific questions and listening to my feelings. I was like- BYU?... U of U?... … Utah?.... Arizona? … .. ….. … alright, I’ll say it, Idaho? ….. Nope, nothing. But I just got the impression that I just had to pick up the Book of Mormon that was on the table, and just open it up because it’d have the answer. Now I was kind of skeptical, because I’d never had the luck with that, but after a few moments I was like, alright. So I picked it up and flipped it open and I swear, my eyes just popped to the first verse that I saw and I read it, and it was the PERFECT scripture for me right now. It was incredible. But it was also in Spanish, and later I looked it up in English, and the feeling the scripture gives is way different, and totally wouldn’t have worked for me if I were to have read it in English. Anyways, that was very powerful for me. It had nothing to do with after the mission though.. so I’m still at a loss as to what to do when February rolls around. I’m glad you were able to get Paige to visit the temple so soon, that’s something that President Wade and the Temple President are pushing right now, that recent converts visit the temple right after baptism to just strengthen their testimony that much more. I’m so glad my family was able to feel the joy as well of helping a friend find the truth and joy of the restored gospel.
Alright, well, I guess I’ll answer some of your questions now. First off, the Eccos survived the operation, if barely, and are now usable again, but they look a little funny now, not gonna lie. But whatever, I just need them to trek around in the dirt and the cobble stone streets that they have here, I’m not trying to impress anyone. The baptisms also went very well this past Thursday, Enrique and Paloma were both baptized in freezing cold water hahaha. I feel so bad for the converts here, the water is never warm. But as a missionary, I just have to hop right on in and act like its warm and look up at them with a smile and offer a hand so that they come on down haha. But yesterday they both were confirmed and Enrique was ordained as a Priest. But the kids here have a very relaxed school system that is just a disaster, they don’t learn anything. All schools have morning, afternoon, and night classes, but none are the normal 9-3 that we’re used to in the states. Seminary is only held on Saturdays, for like an hour and a half to two hours, but I guess in places where the church is more established, like in Chile where my companion is from, they have it in the morning like at home.
Anyways, Love you a lot, and I love empanadas a lot too,
Elder Dennis
PS. Have you found a lomito arabe place?
That’s awesome that Cole is enjoying soccer, I love it down here. I’m so excited because I’ll be home in time to watch the World Cup in June! Paraguay already made it into the tournament, and so did the United States, so it’ll be cool to have two teams to root for. But why you gotta always go and ruin my little surprises that I have all planned up? Haha, I was already planning to pick him up some sweet little jerseys and was even going to ask his size in this email. So at least I don’t have to do that now I guess. We’ve begun playing soccer as a zone every week, er, for the past three weeks. Without having District Meeting on Monday, that morning time is all open now to play. So we go to this sweet turf field, and we each pitch in $1.50 to play for an hour and a half. Today it was cold and had the constant mist drizzle, but it was still a ton of fun, but man, I’m turning into Dad when it comes to sport injuries. A couple months ago, like right after my birthday, I twisted my ankle pretty bad… it’s still pretty weak, but today I totally busted up my toe. I hit a post while trying to kick the ball and I think the nail lifted up from the skin. All I know was that when we got home it was all bloody, but I took a shower and was looking at it, and besides being sore, it really isn’t that bad.
The temple was amazing, I got to do confirmations and a session and then some sealings and ended with initiatories. But the best was just getting to sit in the Celestial Room. I was praying a lot to know about where I need to go and what I need to do after the mission, just asking specific questions and listening to my feelings. I was like- BYU?... U of U?... … Utah?.... Arizona? … .. ….. … alright, I’ll say it, Idaho? ….. Nope, nothing. But I just got the impression that I just had to pick up the Book of Mormon that was on the table, and just open it up because it’d have the answer. Now I was kind of skeptical, because I’d never had the luck with that, but after a few moments I was like, alright. So I picked it up and flipped it open and I swear, my eyes just popped to the first verse that I saw and I read it, and it was the PERFECT scripture for me right now. It was incredible. But it was also in Spanish, and later I looked it up in English, and the feeling the scripture gives is way different, and totally wouldn’t have worked for me if I were to have read it in English. Anyways, that was very powerful for me. It had nothing to do with after the mission though.. so I’m still at a loss as to what to do when February rolls around. I’m glad you were able to get Paige to visit the temple so soon, that’s something that President Wade and the Temple President are pushing right now, that recent converts visit the temple right after baptism to just strengthen their testimony that much more. I’m so glad my family was able to feel the joy as well of helping a friend find the truth and joy of the restored gospel.
Alright, well, I guess I’ll answer some of your questions now. First off, the Eccos survived the operation, if barely, and are now usable again, but they look a little funny now, not gonna lie. But whatever, I just need them to trek around in the dirt and the cobble stone streets that they have here, I’m not trying to impress anyone. The baptisms also went very well this past Thursday, Enrique and Paloma were both baptized in freezing cold water hahaha. I feel so bad for the converts here, the water is never warm. But as a missionary, I just have to hop right on in and act like its warm and look up at them with a smile and offer a hand so that they come on down haha. But yesterday they both were confirmed and Enrique was ordained as a Priest. But the kids here have a very relaxed school system that is just a disaster, they don’t learn anything. All schools have morning, afternoon, and night classes, but none are the normal 9-3 that we’re used to in the states. Seminary is only held on Saturdays, for like an hour and a half to two hours, but I guess in places where the church is more established, like in Chile where my companion is from, they have it in the morning like at home.
Anyways, Love you a lot, and I love empanadas a lot too,
Elder Dennis
PS. Have you found a lomito arabe place?
Monday, September 21, 2009
Sept 21, 2009
Well, another week down. Which means only 21 left. Which means before the end of this change I’ll be in the teens. That’s a cool little tid bit for those who might be trunky. We played soccer today. It was fun. My team won 16-11... We as goalies suck... But yeah, District meetings here are actually zone meetings, because the areas (and wards) are so tiny because they have to be walkable for the missionaries (and the members). So the whole zone meets up at the same chapel, and then the meetings start off with each district getting together and have their own meetings for like 30-45 minutes, and then we all get together and talk about the zone for 15 minutes, and then it ends and we go rule the town. Literally. We own this place. I’m pretty sure we’re the only people with money here.
But that’s exciting that Paige was able to get a Bible. I remember having to do those calls when I was in the MTC. She totally talked to a sister missionary who’s in the MTC right now. But that totally sucks that her quad got tossed. I would have been so mad, my scriptures (and my fotos!) are my most valuable possession. I don’t know if I told you guys but I lost a month's worth of photos, and it was quite upsetting. It was awhile ago now, so whatevs, but my fotos from like the middle of February to mid March all got deleted before making backups. But tell Paige to keep going strong despite what others may say, trust me, I can totally sympathize with her right now. A great example is a young man that will be baptized this Thursday named Enrique. He was cool, but I never really saw that he had a testimony or anything until Friday last week, when we shared the Restoration video with his mom (it went okay, but I don’t know if she’ll get baptized anytime soon). Anyways, after she left to go attend some other people, we were talking about how Joseph couldn’t be swayed from what he knew was true, and Enrique was just like ‘Yeah, I know it’s true, and I don’t care what anyone else says.’ It totally caught me off guard, but it was super exciting. Anyways, he and another girl, Paloma, are getting baptized on Thursday, so we’re excited for that.
Tomorrow, we get to go to the temple! I’m so excited, it’ll be my last time going to the temple as a zone in Paraguay. I’ll go once more as I’m leaving to go home, but this is it. Then comes my last general conference, and before you know it, we’ll be talking on the telephone machine. Another exciting note: The LDS Bible came out in Spanish this last week!!! It’s so amazing, I can’t believe it, all of the members are super excited haha. Reading Paige’s story again totally reminded me of that. Anyways, no new pictures, but wish Elder Shumway a happy birthday, because today is his cumpleaños. We woke him up with that cake in a bowl thing that you sent. Those things are AMAZING by the way. You should totally send more next time. The cookie was my favorite.
Much love,
Elder Dennis
But that’s exciting that Paige was able to get a Bible. I remember having to do those calls when I was in the MTC. She totally talked to a sister missionary who’s in the MTC right now. But that totally sucks that her quad got tossed. I would have been so mad, my scriptures (and my fotos!) are my most valuable possession. I don’t know if I told you guys but I lost a month's worth of photos, and it was quite upsetting. It was awhile ago now, so whatevs, but my fotos from like the middle of February to mid March all got deleted before making backups. But tell Paige to keep going strong despite what others may say, trust me, I can totally sympathize with her right now. A great example is a young man that will be baptized this Thursday named Enrique. He was cool, but I never really saw that he had a testimony or anything until Friday last week, when we shared the Restoration video with his mom (it went okay, but I don’t know if she’ll get baptized anytime soon). Anyways, after she left to go attend some other people, we were talking about how Joseph couldn’t be swayed from what he knew was true, and Enrique was just like ‘Yeah, I know it’s true, and I don’t care what anyone else says.’ It totally caught me off guard, but it was super exciting. Anyways, he and another girl, Paloma, are getting baptized on Thursday, so we’re excited for that.
Tomorrow, we get to go to the temple! I’m so excited, it’ll be my last time going to the temple as a zone in Paraguay. I’ll go once more as I’m leaving to go home, but this is it. Then comes my last general conference, and before you know it, we’ll be talking on the telephone machine. Another exciting note: The LDS Bible came out in Spanish this last week!!! It’s so amazing, I can’t believe it, all of the members are super excited haha. Reading Paige’s story again totally reminded me of that. Anyways, no new pictures, but wish Elder Shumway a happy birthday, because today is his cumpleaños. We woke him up with that cake in a bowl thing that you sent. Those things are AMAZING by the way. You should totally send more next time. The cookie was my favorite.
Much love,
Elder Dennis
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