28 September 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

Well this week was pretty swell. We had some great lessons, great contacts, etc. etc. I had some rather weird experiences también, but more of that later. First, Investigators. Carolan (the awesome one) couldnt come to church this week becuase she was sick, but she read in el Libro de Mormon y su folleto. She wants to be baptized too, so thats pretty fun. She LOVES our visits and felt really bad that she missed our last cita and church. Thursday we are going to set a baptismal date! I just hope i get to stay here long enough to see it, BUT the Lord´s will be done.
Next we have Ulissa. She was a reference from a member and she is pretty awesome too. She´s been to church a few times and she really likes it. Last lesson we asked her to pray about Jose Smith y el Libro de Mormon and she said she would even though she already knew it was true. I quote: What else could it be? We also challenged her to be baptized and she said yes to that too!

La familia Amades wasn´t in church this week, but the kids are always at all the activities. Antoni, the son, wants to come, but he has school sunday morning. Thpt. They read el folleto but not really in the Book of Mormon. Yesterday we stressed the importance of reading these scriptures and praying for the truth. They promised to read this week though, so hurray.

We set a date with Jorge on Sunday, we just need to finish the lessons with him. He´s is really old and has trouble understanding alot, but he wants to be baptized.

Pablo is doing really well too. He wasn´t in church but he read alot. He really wants to be baptized but he doesn´t feel like he´s worthy. He suffers alot of temptations like every male does in this crazy country (love it here by the way, not complaining). We focused on the power of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and asked him to pray about his baptismal date. He said we would and will continue to study the scriptures.

Estivan continues to be awesome. He is reading and praying every night with his sister Wanda and living the commandments. Really he just needs his mom´s permission to be baptised, but she´s against it.

We have ALOT more investigators, but those are the ones that are progressing. Now the week. So we had a few "fights" with some crazy evangelicals. One family that just refused to accept or listen to anything we had to say about prophets. In the end the mom was ranting about how we don´t need a prophet because we have Jesus and how she is actually a prophet...It didnt make alot of sense. I just kind of sat back and waited for my comp to finish talking. We testified and left with them laughing at us. The other was with a girl literally named Mary Magdeline. I´m pretty sure she has the New Testament memorized. You can imagine how that went. At least she was actually willing to listen.

Now the weird part. I saw Addi. Like straight up my niece Addison...except black. The same face, the same age, the same facial expressions, just Dominican. I almost stopped and stared in the middle of the street.
I also tried Coke for the first time. Before anyone freaks out is was completely on accident. One of our members gave us some. I was kind of apprehensive because it looked like coke, but the wife assured us it was cherry juice. Just as i took a sip, the husband called from the other room that it was coke. UUUUGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. Almost did a spit take. So my comp finished mine. (Fun side note, coke is not that good. I`m not sure what the big fuss is.)

We also had a ward activity in the local national park. Parts of it are really beautiful and cool...but alot of it is just nasty and covered in garbage. Theres a big lake and a "zoo" (Quotes there because it only had one animal, an Iguana. All of the other cages were empty.) a play ground and lots of stuff for sports. We didn´t have alot of people there, and it was kind of lame, but oh well. I also forgot to bring my camera!! DAH! Sorry, next time, next time.

And yeah! That was the week. Lots of lessons, we met some really great families and people and yeah! now for pics!

This is the moon through my window. Woke me up at about 3 in the morning. It was SO bright. Shining right in my eyes. Also, i broke my resistance band. I guess my triceps are just too buff and manly.

Also, we had a lunar eclipse last night! I tried to take pictures, but couldnt really see anything in them.

(Response to Dad's e-mail):

Dad, don´t worry. I´m not focusing on the time really. I hadn´t even thought about it until my comp asked me how long I´d been out. It just kind of blew my mind that itd already been 4 months. Also, my relationships are for the most part great. My Zone Leaders are like my best friends and President is AMAZING. We had interviews this week and it was one of the most amazing experiences ever.

With my companion is a little strained sometimes because I make him be obedient with me. Also, he has a lack of manners and people skills, but I can accept and work with that. Thanks for this letter though Dad. It was rather inspiring. Love you!!

21 September 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

(In response to Dad's e-mail, in which Dad described team teaching Gospel Doctrine as well as the pains he's been having in his shoulder.)

That sounds great Dad! I´ll write the big letter in a minute, but yeah. The missions good. The spanish is coming, slowly but surely. I can understand alot, especially in lessons and usually people understand me. ALot of the times people just refuse to understand me just because i´m white. Se llama Gringo Block. Its super annoying. That class sounds pretty awesome! Wish our classes were cool like that. We just read out of principios del Evangelio. SUPER boring. Sorry to hear about your shoulder! Hope you feel better realy soon! Love you Daddy!

(And now the weekly e-mail.)

Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls of all ages. This week I present to you an event four months in the making. Thats right...THE FOUR MONTH MARK!!!!!!!! (Whooo, whoooooo more cheering etc.) Thats right loved ones, i've been out for 4 months. How crazy is that? It feels like 4 weeks! The mish is just too short! Times flyin by too fast! Anyway, this week was totally amazing. On tuesday we were out in an area called El Centro. The lesson we were supposed to have didnt happen so we went contacting. We walked up to this one door and asked if anyone was there ( you dont knock on doors here) This 16 year old girl answered and invited us in. We took a sat on her porch and started talking. After a while of get to know you stuff, we got on the topic of baptism. She told us she´d been baptized in the Catholic church with the sprinkling of water on the head. Also that she only attended the Catholic church because it was the closest one to her house. Anyway we told her that we baptize by imersion and she said "I really like that. Thats awesome." WHAT??? haha Nobody says that. So we started teaching about the restoration and got through how Christ established his church and why there were so many churches on the Earth today. She was just fascinated and asked us when our church was. Sunday, she was there and in our lesson yesterday afternoon she said she wanted to be baptized! WOOOOOOO!!!! Man. Miracle contact. Her name is Carolan and apparently her mom wants to talk with us too, but she works alot. I am just PUMPED. Man! The Lord Blesses us for our work. Diligencia Constantemente!! to change a Mad Eye Moody qoute. But yeah, the rest of the week was pretty normal. We contacted alot and taught some really great lessons. I also had a kid say that I´m 50 years old. Yeah. And the mom thought I was Mexican so i guess my Spanish is improving. I´m still waiting to start dreaming the Language though! haha With time! Sorry no pics this week. Our pdays are kind of super lame and nothing has really changed...haha we still don´t have running water. Thats almost 3 weeks now. We have to make good use of our Cisterna and buckets.

14 September 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

I´m typing on an english keyboard...YES.

Also, I have to shave everyday now. Its really annoying. Sigh.

OK. this week. Typing time. So we had 6 investigators in church this week! Thats more than ever! We had Stivan and his sister Wanda (their parents decided to be bumbs and not come so Stivan won´t be getting baptized for a while), also a new investigator Ulissa. She´s awesome. She learns really quickly and already knows alot about the gospel and stuff. She´s great. Fausto has dropped off the map unfortunately and he won´t answer our calls. Oh well. Also, this Saturday we started our English class. We had like 8 people there and I taught them about introductions. (Hello, how are you, my name is... etc) It was fun. We also had some really great contacts and lessons this week.
Its been raining all day today. We´ve had like this one storm thats just been circling our area for days. Its been super humid and the thunder keeps setting off all the car alarms. Of course, thats not very hard. The other day, a dog barked and an alarm went off. And yes, I know that was the cause. I hate those things.

I guess our water pump broke or something because we havent had running water for like 4 days. We just use buckets do draw water from the cistern to take showers and flush the toilet and stuff.

My companion is driving me a little crazy. He doesnt like to let me teach and thinks I´m unable to understand alot of whats being said. I keep telling him that i understand, but oh well. We had a really great zone meeting this week where we talked about how If you receive a promise of The Lord, walk in faith as if it had already happened. Thats something I´m trying to work better with.

One of our contacts was an hermana sellama Lourdes. She learns really quickly and we left her with a BoM. Not sure how interested she is, but we´re working on getting her alot of friends in the church.

You guys ready to have you minds blown? We´re having ward council this week. (BOOM) Apparently we´re plannin a huge activity in the nearby national park. All the members will invite their friends so hopefully we´ll have tons of finding opportunities.
So yeah, that was my week. Love you all! Have a swell Semana.

Cooking selfie. We always cook.

The clouds here area always just so cool!

The neighborhood and the temple.

7 September 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

I looove the new testament.  I study that one alot because people here have some weird conceptions about Jesus.  Anyway, this week went by in the blink of an eye.  It was very busy.  We had a temple trip which was just fantastic ( my first in spanish.  I understood most of it), and a mission tour.  For that, we all went to the office and President and sister Corbitt talked to us alot, along with the APs.  We discussed Isaiah 3 and how we are really living in the time prophecied.  AWESOME.  Now for a little sad news.  Estivans mom suddenly decided that she doesn´t want him to be baptized.  That kind of bumbed us out, but we´re working with her and trying to explain why this is so important.  We have lots of other awesome investigators right now though.  We even found an entire family that we can teach! (finally)  This week really has been pretty great. :) Anyway, Love you all!!

We found a friend in our kitchen yesterday.

Our zone. Villa Mella, at the temple!