20 March 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which Dad mentioned some medical seminars he's been to and suggested some alternative plans for college this fall.)

Hey dad! So thats awesome about all the seminars. Im always interested to learn new random things, but I dont think id understand it if you explained it to me. :P haha

As for school...I dont know! I thought I was certain, but now you are giving me new options i hadnt considered and Im confused. Ill give it thought and prayer this week, but we will see.

Also, as for the chat. I dont feel great about it (just to make it known and you dont think im being disobedient), but it is allowed and I only use it to check up on important things like college.

Love you Dad! If you guys as a family could do a little research into what the different schools offer, Id be very grateful (cus I dont ahve time nor permission to do it myself.) :) Love you!!

(General e-mail.)

Let me try and jot down a few notes for the week.

so...

Elder Anderson was AMAZING!! I got to shake his had as wellas those of a whole bunch of other 70s. The choir number was gorgeous and went off almost without a hitch.

Elder Anderson spoke in spanglish with some portoguese mixed in there as well.  He also speaks french!  Thought the whole thing I just kept feeling that this WAS a chosen apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Super spiritual.

The Contreras family continue being awesome, but we still havent been able to figure out their papers.

Not much news in other parts. All is well, Im out of time and will write more next week. Sorry these letters are so short!

Love you all!

13 March 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which he shared about some medical conferences he attended and asked whom Christian wants at the airport when he arrives. NOTE: "JJ" refers to "Jami and Jason".)

Lots of cool office things and medical terms I dont fully understand! Cool! Well, right off to answer you question about the Homecoming, Id MUCH rather have JJ there for my arrival. I wasnt very close with...anyone in the ward, so that really doesnt concern me. I pick Door A.

Dont worry Dad, That doesnt even make me trunky. Dave wrote me a really great letter today and Im gonna try alot harder to get focused and chartible in these last few months.

Love you dad! BA!

(General e-mail.)

Elder Anderson tomorrow!!!!! AAAAHHH!!!! EXCITEMENT!!!! Also, I get to sing in the special choir that we´re preparing! Front row seats and...we get to sing!!! For an apostle of the Lord!!!! AH!!!! Pumped.

Anyway, the week.

So it was a pretty normal week. Absolutely cruised by, but thats not abnormal. We´ve been finding ourselves doing an inordinate amount of walking as many appointments fall. Weekends here are a nightmare as everyone leaves our tiny field village and goes off to the big city to do real person things. The Contreras family are still awesome but...there´s a big problem with their marriage. We were trying to take out copies of the Birth Certificates but when we used Molly´s (the wife) ID to try, a man showed up in the system instead of her! Looks like the derpy dominican worker goofed on some numbers. So thats unfortunate. The cool part is that when we talked about it with Billy (the husband) on Sunday, he was pretty chill. He told us that he still wants to get baptized on the 18th and that he knows the Lord will do his work and provide a way to get them married and baptized. It seems he is developing an exceptional faith. :)

So apart from that we found a few new families! Of note we have a new man named Hector. We are teaching his whole family, but he stands out. We left a BoM with him to read, but then couldn´t return for like 2 weeks. We would calll him and talk and he would always tell us that he was reading and had lots of questions and the he REALLY wanted to talk to us about the BoM. When we finally went back yesterday, we finally discussed the book and he LOVED it. He accepted a baptismal date for April and seems very excited about everything we taught.

We also found several people who apparently used to go to church a bunch, but then stopped going for work and lost contact with the missionaries when transfers happened. After speaking with them, they seem very excited to come back to church and learn more! Yay blessings!

For normal life news, Ive decided Im going to apply to UVU for multiple reasons, among them many mission friends are going there, living with my Hermano Dave, and starting afresh in a new area. :)

Love you all!! Remember, God hears you and he loves you VERY much. BYE!

6 March 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which he shared that he just got back from a seminar and will be heading to another one. Also how excited he is for General Conference next month.)

Another Seminar??? My goodness. Thou art a busy man. haha That sounds super awesome though!  I am PUMPED for conference.  Itll be my last in the mission which is SUPER weird, but oh well. Time passes.

(Response to brief note sharing that it was snowing here.)

Hey pops! Thats great! I miss snow....

I didnt get in to BYU FYI. THinking of going to UVU. Opinions?

(Response to Dad's e-mail, sharing his opinion that UVU is good, and so is USU, where Christian could be with Ian.)

Yeah, Ialso thought of USU, but at UVU I could still go and live with Dave.

Ill take it to the temple on wednesday. Any personal thoughts?

(General e-mail)

Oh the Big letter.

So the week was normal as far as the work goes.  I will add a few cool stories, but the majority of these come from study and other stuff.

So, the Contreras family. SUPER awesome.  Billy the dad is helping the family alot to realize that this is the right decision.  He always shares with them what he learns from the BoM.  On wednesday we put a baptismal date with them for the 18 and also put a marriage date for the 11th.  They dont have tons of money, but we talked about the faith and all we were in agreement that if God wants them to get married on the 11th, itll happen; as long as we do our part.  It was a really awesome and spirit laiden lesson.

So apart from that, personal study experience!  One day, I was sitting, wondering what I should study.  I leafed through scriptures and liahonas, but nothing felt right.  The Lord wanted me to study something else.  I felt directed to a specific Liahona, picked it up and started to read. Soon, I found an article about when good plans go wrong, for young adults.  It talks about a group of people who all have great, solid plans for the future, but all go awry.  As I read it, I felt that the Lord was preparing me for something.  Then, today I got a letter from BYU that I wasn´t accepted. I had received a direct answer in the temple that I should attend BYU, but the article helped me to understand that The Lord had other plans. For now. ;) So! We continue with more applications.

I received multiple witnesses this very day that God loves us and know exactly what is happening in our lives.

THis week, we are going to the temple!! My last with the mission. :\  Also, the date of Elder Andersons visit comes ever closer!

I will TRY to write more next week, but time just....grr.

I Dont have alot of time left, but I love you all! and time goes by too fast so enjoy every second!

27 February 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(General e-mail)

From one holiday to another! TOday is INDEPENDANCE DAY! Couple that with Carneval and you get one of the biggest drinking days and baby booms of the year! Also we have to stay in the house today after 6. THPT.

So...this week....

Well.

Umm...

I dunno it went by pretty fast. We didnt have any baptisms this month, so that was kinda sad, but we should have quite a few in march, God willing. We are seeing more and me conflict in our branch which we are trying to resolve with little success. We will see with our branch council tomorrow.
We do have a cool story with the contreras family though! We visited them on Saturday to talk about baptism and the gift of the holy ghost and also to ask if any felt prepared to be baptized the very next day.

They didnt.

The general answer was that they loved church but were just waiting for a little push from God to help them take the decision.

The cool part comes from our follow up visit yesterday. We had an EXCELLENT District conference which they attended (PRes. Corbitt gave a great talk about marriage and sealing and stuff. He invited several recently sealed couples up on the stand with him and they bore their testimonies. Swell.) and then we passed by in the afternoon. Only Billy (the father) was home so we talked with him about what he had been reading in the BoM. We had left Alma 32 that talks about faith and the seed and Billly had started to read it. He said it really marked his heart and he pretty much testified to us that his family was wrong. That they needed to first act on their faith and THEN the would receive the answer. He said that he was going to share it with his fam before our visit today. SUPER awesome.

I dont have alot more time, but transfers also happened. THe only change is that now my comp is District leader.

Woo! Love you all! Bye!

20 February 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which he mentioned that he and Ian went to a shooting range at Red Dot in Layton.)

Cool! I wanna go to red dot...Im so out of practice. I found my self trying to remember the drills the other day and failing tragically. Well I loved the study that you gave me. Very inspiring. My normal study of the BoM also took me through Msh 15 which explains how Jesus is both the Son and the Father. It was the first time I actually understood it! It also made me think how the process of baptism is how we subject ourselves to the will of our spirit as well as our Father. Super cool. Im super tired and cant concentrate nor remember much, but it was very enlightening.. Love you Dad!

(General e-mail)

Dear gathering of people who read these letters. I am very tired and feeling pretty spacey, so I wont write too much today.

SO! This week was pretty routine except for our totally awesome temple trip on Saturday. We went up with the Contreras family and another guy name Eddy. Eddy is a pretty cool guy with lots of questions and interest, but drinks A TON! He wakes up and starts drinking. Poor soul. They all loved the temple and we had a great experience. President Corbitt met us there and explained the sealing to the family and even to a small demonstration with them. We went down to the capital in a little van and sang hymns almost the whole way. We had invited tons of members and all said that for sure they were going and then....they didnt. haha.

We were also supposed to have the baptism of Javiel and Johnathan that night...but they didnt come. The engineer boss guy of their work showed up and made them work really late. We were freaking out, running everywhere searching for them, calling their phone (out of battery) all to no avail. They also didnt show up to church on Sunday. A little discouraging, but oh well.

Today was a very relaxed Pday. My companion went down to the capital with some other missionaries to play soccer and I stayed in San Pedro with the companions and ate mexican food.

Welll.....if I think of more stuff, I will right it. Love you all!

Our family at the temple!

Dominican Plumbing. We woke up one day with water all over our house and that of our downstairs neighbor. A plumber came over and....just...destroyed everything...trying to find a small leak in one of the pipes.

13 February 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which he shared that a neighbor, Gary Quiggly, recently died of a heart attack; that Dad prepared a lesson and recommended Christian read the associated chapters--Moses 6, D&C 93, and 2 Nephi 31--and a talk by President Packer mentioned previously; and that Dad will endure a ballet with Mom for Valentine's Day.)

I dont really remember who Gary Quiggly is, but that´s still sad. Give my condolances to the family.

I will definately take some time to study those chapters! and the talk!

Good luck with the Ballet. ;) Thats one kind of art that never called my attention as much. Take me to an opera or a musical...but a ballet? Ill pass.

THanks for your love and support Dad! The Lord is pouring out many blessings on us. :)

Love you!!

(General e-mail)

Feliz Dia de Amistades todos! Feliz Dia de San Valentino!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Singles Awareness Day everybody!

Okey, now that we´ve finished our introductions, here comes the news!!

So this week was pretty swell. It wasn´t too different in regard to the work itself, but still great. We walked A LOT. My fairly newly repaired hush puppy shoes are almost breaking again. haha yeah rural areas!

So a few highlights. This week we were walkin around San Carlos, a very distant part of our area, trying to visit some folks. All of our appointments fell through, so we decided to "knock" some doors! We passed by a very large, beautifully built house and saw an older gentlemen sitting on the front porch. My companion said we had to contact "that old catholic rich guy". So, we contacted the house. The old guy just kind of looked at us weird until his wife came out to the gate. She told us that her husband wasn´t going to want to talk to us, but we were welcome to try. Shrugging we entered. The wife shouted to the man, "These foreigners want to talk to you! Theyre foreigners like you!" As we approached the man kept kind of glaring at us until we sat down and started talking. His name is Antolin. He´s italian and actually turned out to be very nice and friendly, just not a huge fan of Dominicans. His wife was ecstatic that he was willing to share with us and even though Antolin is like 80 and doesnt seem to have alot of potential, we have a return date, more just to do service. Just our company like makes their day, especially when we sing.
Sunday!!

Okay, so we had a record breaking 9 investigators in church this week! Many blessings! Our family came, as well as Javiel and Johnathan (finally). All are excited to be baptized and the family continues telling us how much they like church and the classes. We also were honored with the visit of Eddy Mathews. Eddy is very well known in his piece of quisqueya...as a drunk. He goes to bed drunk and wakes up drunk and keeps drinkin. Hes very intelligent, just very depressed. Every pamphlet we leave, he reads and has questions ready. Even though we teach him drunk, he remembers everything. We talked about the word of wisdom and he said that he doesnt really want to drink, but does to keeps his problems at bay. He has also started reading the BoM and really likes it.

He has huge potential, just has to stop drinkin. He also loved church.

It has been pretty toasty these last few days and today has been raining on and off.

So yeah...that was our week. :) Lots of prayers for the Contreras family! We´re going to the temple with them on Saturday! Super excited!

Love you all! Have a great week!!

My sons...
(I found this jacket in the trash 😁)

A...flower.

And "The Eye of Faith" (see scrip. Reference)

Pday Doodling.  I drew Ian. ;P

A FROGley family visit!

Suit material shopping.

Breakfast for lunch.

6 February 2017 - Quisqueya (San Pedro de Macoris)

(Response to Dad's e-mail, in which he talked about our trip to Texas for Addi's baptism, a boat ride in the bayou, and geo caching).

Down in the BAYOU! Yall eat sum frad gatuh?

Haha that sounds great dad! I remember when we used to go geocaching with Sammy and his dad.

That sleeping gorilla cracked me up. :P Its so weird that Addi is baptized! She is so huge! Caden and Carson as well! Quite bizarre.

Im doin alright. Im not gonna lie, I get a little trunky sometimes, but it doesnt affect my work. Its not like a longing to go home, but just thoughts of home. Usually Its just on pday or when Im sitting in bed, waiting to fall asleep, cus the rest of the day is much too busy.

All is well though! Love you dad! Have a swell week!

(General e-mail)

So this week...well....it was a week.

Nothing huge to report. A week of trabajo arduo [hard work]! So the highlight of this week is a new family we started teaching. We really started the week before, but this week was much better. They are Molly, Billy, Cresmaili, Crisbel, and Ceolis. A complete family who have a date for the 25th! Our lessons with them have been amazing and they are very prepared. The best part was the the whole family went to church on sunday and they said they really liked it! Molly (the mom) said that she when she receives her answer, she intends on diving in head first and completely immersing herself in the church. It was really cool. They are reading in the BoM as a family (yall dont know just how weird that is) and are understanding it. In our last visit with them, we were going to talk about the plan of salvation, but Molly randomly (not random) asked us a question. She expressed a doubt that one of here coworkers had brought up that the family was not forever and that all ties and relationships ended at death. We explained that an earthly judge only has authority on the earth and so that, following earthly laws, the family is a temporal thing. HOWEVER, we then proceeded to explain the blessings of the temple with priesthood authority and they LOVED it. We are planning a temple trip with them and President Corbitt for next Saturday. PUMPED!

Apart from them, nothing huge. My days are full of laughter (sometimes exasperated) thanks to my comp who is an absolute goof. :)

Also, on sunday I did my 2nd and 3rd confirmations. Its amazing to feel the Spirit truly guiding the blessing we give.

Javiel and Johnathan who were going to be baptized last month, still havent come back to church (curse you Satan!) because of work and family issues. They tell us that they are still on track to be baptized though.

A fun branch presidency story. So on sunday we were entering the tithes and offerings and one of the newer members didnt put in the slips of paper, so we didnt know if it was tithing or a fast offering. Our 2nds councilor told me to just put it in as tithing. I told him no, that we should wait till next week to ask the sister (we dont know where she lives, nor her phone number😁). Councilor number twos response was less than friendly. He obviously doesnt understand the order of the church. Haha woo primative church! Its a very interesting and great learning experience. Loving it! :D Love you all!

Have a great week!