29 February 2016 - Boca Chica (Santo Domingo)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which Dad shared that my uncle Scott is getting remarried; another uncle Cory and his wife Melissa blessed their baby daughter, and all four of their kids' names start with G; Mom and Dad went to the Provo City Center Temple open house, which temple will be dedicated this month; Emily and I will be listing our house to sell this week; Ian is dating responsibly, though also plentifully; and somebody named Seth was in a show my parents saw. Oh, and my Dad sent a summary of a bunch of information on the Atonement he's been studying recently.)

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!! That email just like blew my mind dad! Scotts getting married, Cori and Melissa had another kid whose name also miraculously starts with g, the new temple, Daves moving, Ian is dating responsibly, and You saw Seth! Wow! So much info my brains gonna blow. haha Thats super great dad! And thanks for the stuff about the atonement. Ill make sure and slip it into my study when I get the chance. Love you Dad! Thanks for your prayers!

(General e-mail)

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY/Carnival!!!!!!! Here at least. The 27th of february is probably one of the sketchiest holidays of the year in the republic, especially in the capitol and especialy close to the beach. (thats where we live) Everybody and their mom, their dog and there 2nd uncles first roomate buy gallons of beer and head to the beach to get waaaaaasted. Then, if your out late enough, you might get attacked by people dressed up in palm leaves with creepy wooden masks on. Never have I heard so many completely inappropriate cat calls nor wished that I had horse blinders as I did Saturday night. Also, we were supposed to have a double baptism on saturday but we baptize....on the beach. And where are all the crazy drunkards? on the beach. So that got cancelled. We rescheduled it for sunday...in our neighbors swimming pool because the beach party continues through sunday. Then there was no water in the pool, SO we reschuled it for next saturday. Oh well. The rest of the week was pretty lame. Ive had a pretty deep chested cough and congested lungs (kind of like the beginning of my senor year if yall can remember back that far) for like a month now and Thursday everything went to pieces. After planning we left the house and visited a less active who lives pretty far from our house. By the time we got there I was feelin pretty bad. i half slept through the lesson and afterward we went straight home. I collapsed into bed where my temperature shot up to 102 and slept for a few hours in a pool of sweat. I burnt out the fever, but my body was pretty wrecked and we didnt leave the next day either. That was probably the worst part. Even though I was exhausted, I couldnt sleep, so my comp and I just sat around, studying, playing dominoes or cards and just terribly bored. Doin better now though. Still a little sick, but our Mission Mom stopped by to give me something that should clear up my chest congestion, so hopefully all will be well very soon. And thats that for now. Love you all! Hope you have a great week!

This is pretty much what we eat every day.

22 February 2016 - Boca Chica (Santo Domingo)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which he shared how fun it was to take me, Emily, Kathryn, and Christine to the shooting range.)

Wow Pops! Thats awesome! Its a little hard to imagine Kathryn and Christine shooting guns. Theyre gettin so old! So the new area is great! We have about 11 baptismal dates, 2 of which are this week. Im not a big fan of being in the capitol again, the Campo is better, but oh well. Ill say more about the area in the big letter, but I am still District Leader. Youre week sounded great! Give my love to the fam, etc etc. Love you!!

(General e-mail)

Alright! What a week! First off, Im still District leader, my area is awesome and today we went to the beach.

Details! So we have 11 baptismal dates right now, alot of which are new. First off, Perla and Luis Mario are getting baptized this Saturday in the Ocean! Perla was a problem for the missionaries in the past, but thanks to a fervent prayer from her mother and the guiding power of the Spirit, she now wants to be baptized! Luis Mario is one of Perlas best friends and hes excited to be baptized with her. When we invited Perla to be baptized, one of her other friends, Yilbert, was there, and he told us he wanted us to visit his family! Even before we visited he asked his dad if he could be baptized! The visit was great and Yilbert came to church on sunday. Now his little brother wants to be baptized too! The parents are super supportive even though theyre not very interested. The amazing thing is that Yilbert is only 11 years old, but he gets up super early to come to church, he reads the pamphlets and he asked us for a Book of Mormon before we had even mentioned it! He is amazing!

My area is a bit more ghetto than my last and the streets are a bit sketchy at night. Also, its HUGE! Its an area meant for 6 missionaries, but theres just me and my comp. There used to be six, but they went through a bad time when all of the missionaries were suuuuuuuuper tig (teeg, or disobedient). They all had girlfriends and did lots of bad stuff. The ward lost alot of good people. But now, we can see the Hand of the Lord making up for it! Wow the blessings! Weve had more than one person stop us on the street and ask us to visit them because they have friends or family who are members. Its amazing! Theres only so much I can put in one letter, but The Lord is blessing us with alot of success. This is His work, and I love it! Love you all!!

8 February 2016 - Villa Hermosa (La Romana)

(General e-mail)

Transfers! Despite many prayers from several members and investigators, The Lord has decided to send me to Boca Chica in Las Americas. My new companion will be Elder Johnson who just barely finished his training. An American!! woo!!!!! We will still talk lots of Spanish though. Also, apparently my new area is gorgeous and Ill have the chance to baptize in the Ocean!!!

Alright, the week! Two things that were pretty awesome. The Evangelical, Claudia, came to church! At least for an hour, because she had commitments in her church and had to leave. She said it was great though. We also had a powerful lesson with her abou the plan of salvation, Priesthood authority and baptism. She was rather troubled and confused to think that her pastor didnt have the authority to baptize her, but we assured her of the truth and invited her to pray and continue reading in the Book of Mormon.

Second: So we contacted an old investigator and during the lesson she related an experience she had with us.

She lost contact with the missionaries because of her work and transfers, but a day or two before we called her, she had a dream (very common here. Everyone has dreams). In her dream, she was sitting on her couch when she heard the missionaries through the window. They were praying fervently and she knew it was for her.  When she woke up, she felt a deep desire to find the missionaries again. A little bit later, we called! Man The Spirit is awesome! Now she has a baptismal date for our White Night, the 27th! That also happens to be independence day here, so thats pretty swell. Freed from sin! BOOM! The only down is that I might not be there to see it. President doesnt always give permission to go back. Well see what happens though. Now the people with baptismal dates include: Claudia, Oneida, Nicouri, and Hector. I love you all, and thanks for your love and support!

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which he mentioned reviewing languages he knew like French and Italian, learning Spanish, sending Christian the new Spanish Edition of the Bible and other standard works, etc.)

Wow, Dad! How cool! Im thinkin of starting to learn a little Italian here on the mish, kind of like Kolten did. Ive got a Spanish to Italian dictionary with a little grammar section in the back. Not sure how much thatll help, but its a start! Thanks for your prayers, especially for the shmucks (how do you spell that?). They need it.

Theres a new Spanish Edition??? SWEET! Yes, thatll be swell thank you! I understand shipping difficulties. Dont worry about it. I get it when I get it. Just thanks so much! Also, Sister (I almost wrote Hermana. haha) Giddings says that shes using a special missionary shipping company thats alot cheaper. Maybe talk to her to see if thatd be better and/or safer.

So fun fact and another, light hearted, special request. So my new area is apparently gorgeous and has several beaches. As a result, in several parts there are alot of touristy type places. I was talking with my zone leader who was there for several transfers and he said that there is a (supposedly) Authentic Italian pizza restaurant there. We all know which pizza is the best pizza and that my stomach yearns for such finery, so when the time comes, perhaps for a holiday or similair celebration, I would like to use my card to purchase a nice, steamy, hot and hopefully not too cheesey, pizza. Would that be alright with you? Im asking because I know its your money not mine and I dont want to go throwing it away on something thats not an emergency. But...Italian Pizza....mmmmm. Anyway, Love you dad! Thats a cool insight/thought about John and Revelations! Did you in Spanish its called Apocolipsis? Its from a Greek word that means revelation. Thats where we get the word Apocolypse! Also, Apparently Zarahemla was identified as a city in Guatemala by Joseph Smith....so...thats interesting. I would love to take some time when I get back and just study a bit about BoM Geography. Love you Batbo!!!!
P.S. Were growing beards together when I get back. Its filling in quite nicely.

(Editor's note: Joseph Smith did NOT identify a city in Guatemala as being Zarahemla. In fact, in a revelation given in Doctrine and Covenants 125:3, the Lord himself identified the city across from Nauvoo, near where Montrose is today, as the site of Zarahemla. The articles in the Times and Seasons, which many attribute to Joseph Smith, that identify Central America as the land of the Nephites were written by Benjamin Winchester. You can read more about this here: The Smoking Gun)

1 February 2016 - Villa Hermosa (La Romana)

(General e-mail from last week, while Mom and Dad were on a cruise...)

Big letter super fast! Tomasa got baptized! Pictures next week! Almost all of our other shmucks didnt come to church. thpt. We did manage to put a date with a super Evangelical young woman, and that was pretty awesome. She wants so badly to know the will of the Lord in her life. Oh! And she accepted the invitation to be baptized...thinking that we didnt have the Bible. She was so focused and wanted to know so badly if our church was true, that she was willing to leave the bible and her old church behind. We cleared that up and she was suuuuper relieved to hear that we love the Bible just as much as she does.

We realized on Sunday that none of our people with dates have been to church yet....so...thats a little discomforting. Were planning on talking with them more about the Sabbath.

We found an old investigator who was overjoyed to see us, well see how that goes. Other than that, normal week. Love you all have a great one.

(Quick note to Dad. I think that last word is supposed to be "Babbo", which is Italian for "Daddy".)

Also, Dad. Still awaiting that Bible! Also, Id like to make a special request. It would be super awesome to have 17 Miracles, Ephraims rescue, The Churches new Bible Videos, and just about anyother Church movie that you can get you hands on. Ive found that Dominicans in general are much more visual learners, like children. Videos and presentations are much more effective. So if you could send what you can (please with language options!) I would be immensley grateful! I love you Batbo!!

(Response to Dad's e-mail talking about false doctrines preached by other Christian religions that the Book of Mormon, or "Bom", helps to clarify. No idea who "them" refers to.)

AH! Happy birthday them! Love you too Dad! Yes I am quite familiar with all of that Apostasy and with alot of those scriptures. Whats funny is that the Bible itself also explains quite clearly alot of those things. If only people could understand that and actually read the thing! Sigh. But yes! Bom is the bomb!

So I started Revelations this week. I read it closely with DyC 77 and various other books of scripture. It makes SO much more sense. Im not sure what other people pull out of there, but wow! Its great! The Jehovas witnesses believe that only 144000 people will get into heaven because of what it says about the people who are sealed on their foreheads. It also mentions salvation for the animals, which is directly against what the Evangelicals teach. Thank goodness for Modern revelations and the JS translation. wow! Love you dad!