December 27, 2012
Dear Family,
With all of
it´s differences and the slight lack of Christmas decorations and carols this
Christmas has been truly remarkable. On Christmas Eve I carried a small red
stocking filled with rubber ducks and other little toys and homemade caramel
popcorn balls over my shoulder as if I were Santa Clause. As we walked the
streets looking for inactive members I gave ducks and popcorn to little kids
and some adults. Something that I find weird here is that they don´t say merry
Christmas...but as I handed out my goodies I always was sure to say ¨Feliz
Navidad.¨ There was one experience that happened that I will likely never
forget: We went to go give Christmas Presents to and investigator family and as
we handed out little rubber ducks to each child and their mom there were two
little black kids, a little boy and his older sister, standing outside the
outer gate of the house peering into the house seeing the smiles and the joy of
the other kids with their new toys. As I saw them I instantly sttod up, walked
the gate and handed them each a duck and said ¨Feliz Navidad.¨ As I entered
into the very small house again to sit back down I looked back to see a very
big smile on the face of the little girl. She was so cute and so very pleased with
her new little duck, that smile was a manifestation of what I like to call true
happiness. The happiness that really matters and that fills your whole heart
and your whole soul and radiates from your body filling each person that is
near you. There were many other sweet moments as we gave popcorn balls to a
homeless woman and her daughter who were begging for money, some little kids in
the street, and many members.
Here in the
D.R. the really big party is Christmas eve or ¨Noche Buena¨ as they call it.
They cook enough food for an army and go to town. We went and ate lots and lots
of food: rice, beans, chicken, pork, bread, potato salad, vegetables, yuca,
platano, cookies, sparkling cider........the list goes on and on. Needless to
stay we were stuffed and about ready to burst which was a bad idea because we
had committed to go eat at another members house as well...we went and could
only drink juice and even that was a stretch. All in all it was a great night.
Christmas
day we got up and I opened Nikelle´s Christmas package that she sent to me that
I´ve been saving to open for 3 weeks (now that´s what I call self control or as
Elder Chalas likes to call it- ¨la paz interior¨) in it I found 2 bags of
pretzel m and m´s, a ton of tootsie rolls, a homemade stocking that looks like
a shirt and slacks with a clip on tie, and the cd for the forgotten carols. I
also had saved the gift that was the book ¨the forgotten carols because I
wanted to have at least one present to open on Christmas day. I started to read
¨the forgotten Carols¨ to Elder Chalas using the cd in the appropriate places
to hear the music. He can understand nearly everything he hears in english so
he can understand the story with a little bit of clarification in a few spots.
Later after talking with the family on skype I learned that the sd card they
sent me had the forgotten carols music on it along with my mom and dad reading
the book trading off reading chapters as if it were an audio book. I also
discovered the other Christmas music on the card which I am very grateful for,
really wish I would have thought to check that before...
Later that
night we took the gingerbread house kit that the family sent me to Rosi´s house
(she´s the same one we visited the day before to give them ducks and it was at
her house I gave the 2 ducks to the little black kids) We built the house with
them and had a pretty good time. Those little kids did a pretty good job! We
took lots of pictures and had a lot of fun. When we got home I wanted to finish
reading the forgotten carols but Elder Chalas was really tired, I read to him
until he fell asleep and then I finish the story reading it to myself. I´ll
finish reading it to him today.
Today was p
day santiago and it really wasn´t worth it for me....I´m really sweaty and
tired because we had to travel so far to get there and we didn´t really do
anything other than print pictures and I didn´t print very many. In my opinion,
p day santiago isn´t worth the time or the money if you live as far away as we
do...But life is good and I am happy.
It´s been a
different Christmas but it has opened my eyes to my purpose as a missionary:
The focus on Christ is not nearly as prominent here as it is back home, most
people just seem to be happy that they aren´t working for a few days which
makes it even more important for me as a representative of Christ to do all I
can to bring HIS spirit into their lives so that they can feel his love and
know he lives. This is what I have always tried to do but I realize it´s
importance even more now that so many people have not acknowledged or
remembered the savior at this time of year. Through serving and carrying that
spirit of love, hope and happiness to the people here I have felt it so much
more in my life and I know that MY Redeemer lives.
Elder
Robinson
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