26 October 2015 - Villa Hermosa (La Romana)

Woo! Another week! And what a week! More families and great lessons. I didnt have time to write yesterday because we were in the capitol all day for my comps medical stuff, but we got special permission to write today! Hurray! But this wont be super long. We had to investigators in church on sunday: Nikouri and Yorisa. Yorisa is awesome. She practically memorized the pamphlet and is praying for the truth. She said that she can feel the peace and power of the spirit during her prayers and at church. Were planning on putting a date with her fairly soon. Maybe this week or next, not sure. Nikouri is part of a bigger family, all of which wanted to come, but some had work or had to care for the sickly matriarch. Well see what happens with them. (Dave, Im sorry my punctuation is abismal, but this keyboard is terrible) We had some other good lessons and another family who wants to come to church this week. I dont have alot of time now, but thats pretty much it! Have a great week and I love you all!

19 October 2015 - Villa Hermosa (La Romana)

INVESTIGATORS! Yeah, we actually have them now! So really we have 11 new families to teach and some individuals, but lets just talk about progression. First, Tomasa and Yohkira. Mother and daughter, old investigators of the other pair of missionaries before the split. Tomasa is really just waiting for her back to heal so she can get baptized. We gave her a blessing last week and now she can walk with a walker! Shouldnt be too long until she can come to church! Next, the Pepen Jimenes family! This family was one of our first contacts and their great. THey love having us over and they´d promised they´d pray about Joseph Smith and the Gospel. We had a really great lesson with them. They werent at church though, which was kind of a bummer. And, Lucrezia.  Really, we´re trying to teach her whole (very large) family, but Lucrezia is showing the most progress. She´s this old grandma whose best friend is a recent convert in the church. She told us that she knows that we bring the truth and the word of God, so we´ll see where that goes! I dont have tons of time today, but I love you all and I´ll write more next week!

(Answers to Dad's questions: What are you sleeping on? How are the bugs? Did you say your companion doesn't speak English? How often is zone conference? How often are interviews? What is the mission compliment?):

Ok, your questions first. We were sleeping on beds, we did have that. We have lots of working wonderful things in our house now. Bugs arent too bad. Alot better than my last house. Nope, my comp speaks almost no English, Zone conference is every thursday, interviews I have no idea, and what the heck is a mission compliment?? haha glad to hear everything is going well! The new office sounds awesome! I tried to download the pics...didnt work. so if you could just send me some hard copies of family pics and friends and I dont know what else, thatd be great. I did not get my package and PLEASE just send it in the mail, covered in crosses and Jesus stuff. Thanks Dad! Love you! :D

This is speculoos cookie butter. Its like Peanut butter, but with delicious belgian cookies instead of peanuts. All hail. Found this at our totally awesome and partially american grocery store.

Elder Solis and I got Ice Cream in La Parque De la Corona.

THe familia Amades and...Jefferson. Again. Silly Jefferson.

A stream of goodbye photos that I couldn´t send last week. This is our miracle contact, Carolan.

16 Ocrober 2015 - Welcome Elder Frogley

Dear Brother and Sister Frogley,

We recently discovered that after a change in our office staff, the welcome letter and pictures were no longer being sent to parents when their son arrived in our mission. We apologize for this oversight. Attached, however, are the pictures we took on that special occasion.  We love receiving, interviewing and training our new missionaries on transfer day.

We look forward to a deep and abiding association with your son. He will have many opportunities to teach, serve, lead and train as he obediently and diligently acts in the privileged capacity of a missionary in the Lord’s church.

We are grateful for the support you give to him. It is very important to his peace and emotional well being.

In our mission we strive for unity in developing the attributes of our Savior so that we may humbly represent Him and have His spirit. We look forward with an eye of faith as we follow President Nelson’s counsel to begin with the end in mind* for each missionary as well as for those they teach and serve.

Warmest regards,

President and Sister Ahmad S. Corbitt

12 October 2015 - Villa Hermosa (La Romana)

Ok. Time for The Big Letter. So transfers. My new area is called Villa Hermosa in La Romana. Its about 2 hours from the capitol so we rarely get mail. Its the biggest zone in the entire country because it covers almost the entire east side of the island. Our area is actually Villa Hermosa B because it just got split in half, but its still HUGE. We live right next to our zone leaders who are in VH A. Our house has been abandoned for quite a while and had accumulated a fair amount of dust by the time we arrived. Its also completely barren. Theres a problem with the electricity so we can only iron really early in the morning, the fridge doesnt work and we dont have a washing machine, toaster etc. We didnt even have fans the first night. I thought i was going to die. haha The worst part is that we cant even clean the house because we dont have cleaning stuff and are completely out of the monies to buy cleaning stuff! BUT the work is good. We found 7 new families to teach this week and did alot of other contacts. Alot of people, as soon as they see us, yell ¨No! I´m Catholic and we worship God plenty at my church!¨ That being said, there are alot of really swell people here. The bishop is awesome and very helpful. The ward is pretty awesome too. The stake has a whole has alot of life and excitement.

We had stake conference this weekend and it was awesome. Our chapel is the stake center and it has amazing air conditioning. I was COLD!! Alot of the missionaries actually brought sweaters, but I was lovin it. The talks were amazing and President Corbitt was even there to talk about the importance of ward missionary work. I´ll talk more about investigators and stuff next week...when...you know...we actually have some. haha

My companion, Elder Solis, is awesome. He´s from Salvador and he is hilarious! Always during contacts he has the people rolling. He´s very friendly and fun, but he is a bit dead. He only has 2 transfers left which means i´ll be killing my first companion here pretty soon. He´s a hard worker, but you can tell he´s got his sights set on home. The other day, a plane was flying over and he turned to me and said, ¨Elder, how far away do you think that plane is?¨
¨I don´t know,¨ I replied, ¨Maybe 10, 20 miles.¨
He got a big grin on his face and said,¨I´d say about three months¨
He´s a goof, but really awesome. He can cook like a boss though. He´s is a convert to the church, the only one in his family, and he has alot of opposition from home.

I´d like to send pictures...but I cant reach the USB port for this computer...Ahhhhhhh....

Anyway, this place is great, the work is swell, the people are awesome and I´m lovin it! Until Next week loved ones!

OH! And, our new stake mission leader apparently knows Justin! He served in Bolivia too and he´s trying to find a picture to see if its really Elder Thompson!

5 October 2015 - Los Guaricanos (Santo Domingo)

I write you all today with a some what heavy heart. Conference was truly amazing, and many of my Investigators want to be baptized...but I´m getting transfered. I´m off to Villa Hermosa. Apparently it´s a little sketchy and the house is filthy. My comp speaks very little English and its a two person house. On top of that, we´re white washing, which means that we´re both new in the area and will be doing many, many contacts. BUT The will del Senor es mas importante.

Now for Conference. Wow. What an experience. At first, we were told that we were going to watch it in Spanish and I was totally bumbed. However, the Zone leaders asked special permission and got us all to come to the stake center to watch all of it , live, in English. Woo! But, then the generator in the stake center failed and our whole district was searching for a place to watch. We tried at a members house, but then the power went out. We sprinted to the nearest Internet center to watch it...then we didn´t have a speaker, so we sprinted back to our house and then back to the center. That was for the first session. The rest we were able to watch normally
Conference was amazing, especially because we were blessed to be able to watch it in English. I was really nervous I would have to watch it in Spanish and I know I wouldn´t have gotten nearly as much out of a Spanish session. Struggling to translate and being put to sleep by the monotone voice overs was not an encouraging prospect. As it was I was deeply touched by many of the talks. Elder Holland had me in tears like always and I was very impressed with the talks from the 70. One in particular hit me pretty hard. I don´t remember his name and I dont have my notes with me, but the part that I felt was really for me was an invitation he left. To pray and ask God "What more do I need?" or "What is keeping me from progressing?" I took that invitation and was prompted to think about my patience. It is something I definately need to work on, with companions and investigators. Everyone should take this challenge! We should be constantly seeking for oppurtunities for spiritual growth!
Other points that really stood out to me were : Keeping the Sabbath Day, The power and role of The Spirit/How we are never alone, the power and role of women, and (as always) the importance of families. These are things that our investigators and even our members, really need to understand. The role of a woman is sacred, powerful, and ,perhaps most often forgotten, equal. Not the same, but equal. I read in Jesus the Christ about how the greatest advocate for women´s rights and women in general was in fact, Jesus Christ. He sternly reminded the Pharises of the importance of women when they asked him about divorce.
The Sabbath is also a major issue in this country. Many people claim to follow the commandments, but spend our sacred day working and drinking.
The Spirit being available as a Constant Comforter is something I already stress in lessons. Depressingly often, the persons here feel alone and forgotten; stripped of possesions and forsaken by family and friends, they sit desolate in the street. Little do they know however that their Heavenly Father is waiting with crossed fingers for the oppurtunity to pour his Spirit upon them.

I am also planning on starting to PONDERIZE! If you don´t know what that is, look it up in the conference talk cus its a swell idea.
Also, 3 new apostles! Wow. That is definately a unique experience. I will be very anxious to hear from them in the future.

Well thats pretty much it! Almost all of our progressors want to get baptized, and we have a date for one of them, but I´m leavin. What terrible timing.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!!!

Lots of pictures this week! The first, this is a spider that we found on our wall. ;) Love you Jami!

Also, a random group of Hatians gave me a coconut. I drank the whole thing.

Last Zone meeting of the transfer! And we got food!

Goodbye Zone. Also, Hermanas Peacock and Oliphant are done! Theyre headin home!

I came home to 5 cockroaches in our bathroom...it was a massacre.

Look at my puppy! Its our neighbors, but she loves me more than them.

I stayed with tradition! MEXICAN!!! Woo!! It was actually pretty good if I do say so myself.