March 29, 2012
Hello all,
It is a beautiful day here in the D.R. just like everyday here.
seriously I've not had a single day that I've looked or walked outside
and not said "today is a nice day" whether it's raining or there's not a
cloud in the sky it's always nice. Rain here is fun. It rained last
Thursday like crazy. We went to the botanical garden here in Santo
Domingo which was really cool I took a bunch of pictures. They have the
biggest tree I've ever seen in my life there. It was really beautiful
and we were able to get out of the white walls of the MTC and see a
little bit of the city. We also drove past the Dominican equivalent of
the white house and the national bank. Pretty cool.
Our service at the university continues. We go every Monday to do
service and pick up garbage which is a futile effort because there is
garbage EVERYWHERE. This past Monday we were walking back from the
university and Elder Relf was wearing a blue shirt and a dominican man
across the street yelled at him "hey blue boy why don't you pick up that
garbage!?" Maybe you had to be there it was pretty funny.
Last Friday we went contacting at the university (yes I know this
is very scatterbrained and I'm jumping around a lot but I'm typing like
the wind! Gotta hurry) we went contacting and took pamphlets about the
restoration and a Book of Mormon to hand out. The first person we talked
to actually walked up to us and asked us what we were doing there and
said he wanted to visit our church and had some time on Sunday and he
even spoke in English! Kinda weird but exciting. we gave him a pamphlet
with a phone number for the missions on it and we both thought it was a
successful contact. We talked to several others but there are two that
stuck out in my mind: one young woman we talked to was very interested
and said she didn't know how to pray so we taught her and she prayed
with us. It was cool. The other is this other woman we talked to who was
very interested and Elder Relf basically gave the first lesson to her
and the Book of Mormon we had with us. It was really cool, I'm excited
to go again tomorrow.
We continue to teach our investigators and try to learn Spanish and
the teachers just keep promising us that it'll come with time and
practice but it's still hard. Our investigator José said that he has
been baptized and that he believes that his pastor has the authority to
baptize and perform miracles. We were really stumped on this for a long
time because we essentially needed to tell him he's wrong and that his
baptism isn't valid and that his pastor doesn't have the authority. We
explained that miracles are wrought by faith using scriptures and that
the authority to act in God's name can only be given by God. We tried
our best to explain and eventually got to the point where we said: we
have done our best to answer your question and resolve your concern but
we aren't perfect teachers but the spirit is and you can know for
yourself by the power of the spirit whether or not what we say is true
and he said he felt different. He said he was having a feeling he's
never had before. we told him it was the spirit and that he should
remember this feeling and that through baptism he can have this feeling
all the time and that one place where he can feel the spirit more is at
church and he committed to come to church on Sunday. It was very
powerful and God answered our prayers.
It's been a good week and I've been struggling with the language
and I know I need to keep working and trust in God. I want to have faith
and I ask God to "help thou mine unbelief"
Elder Relf is a morning person and is always happy which is a blessing because I seriously need someone like that in my life.
The MTC is very small here: one 4 story building and we reside on
the 4th floor I think all other floors are used for members who have
traveled across the Caribbean to come to the temple. There are 8 people
in my district: me, Elder Relf(sandy utah), Elder Midgley (morgan,
utah), Elder Isaksen (oslo, norway) Elder Larsen(bentonville, arkansas),
Elder Jewkes(taylorsville, utah) Elder Shimamoto (hilo,hawaii) and
Elder Montgomery (fort worth, texas). I am still the only one here in
the MTC that is going to Santiago but I'm sure that will change next
week when all the Latinos come: there are approximately 40 Latinos
coming to the MTC so we're going to get a lot of practice with Spanish.
The Haitians also leave next week into the campo (mission field) in
Haiti. If you look up the temple on google earth there is a building
with a pool on the roof which is across the parking lot from the MTC.
The MTC is the long building just above the temple on the map.
It sounds like everyone is doing well and everyone is healthy happy
and working hard. It's good to hear Taft is alright and that he is more
comfortable with his part is this Gaston or footloose? Break a leg and
have fun.
Claire how did you like the festival of colors? pretty crazy and
fun huh? did you get any of the indian food there? it's sooooo good. Was
it Lori who went with you and Nikelle. Lori is super cool.
Noah Lacrosse?! where did that come from? don't get me wrong I
totally support it and think it's awesome. I always wanted to play
lacrosse. You can use my stick if it's the right size and it's what you
need. Just remember not to become discouraged if you're not very good at
first and never compare yourself to others. Do your best and work hard
to be the best you can be in everything. Have fun and be sure to score
one for me and send me some pictures.
I will be on the watch for the package thank you. I'm very excited
to receive real mail in the D.R.! I think I'll get a letter from Nikelle
soon too so that will be good.
I think of all of you often and am surprisingly not homesick. I do
miss you but it's healthy and normal to miss your family i think. I
haven't had any homesickness thus far but the mission is young so we'll
see......
I'm working hard to honor my God in all I do and to be diligent and faithful in all things I pray for you often
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