February 6, 2013
Dear Family,
Hello all,
Last Wednesday was spent rendering service to Rosi and
her family as they moved into a new house. In my opinion they should
have stayed where they were because in this new house there is not water
or electricity and there is a giant termite nest in one of the rooms
slowly eating everything wooden and when it rains the run off from the
roof enters the house due to an unfinished part...regardless of all the
set backs they needed to move and we helped. in the morning we went and
helped clean the house and in the afternoon helped move all their
belongings. The new house was only about a quarter mile away from the
old house and they are a small family with few possessions so we thought
we could do it no problem. Well after a few hours of hauling all the
stuff we regretted not trying to find others to help and not working
harder to find someone with a truck to help. We were so tired we could
only go a few feet at a time as we carried the very slippery and greasy
stove to the house. It helps to have a good sense of humor in situations
like that. I'm pretty sure I destroyed the white shirt that I was
wearing but that's okay. We helped them get settled enough to be able to
sleep in the new house and we made them dinner: rice and eggs. Since
then they have organized everything but still don't have water so they
bring gallon jugs to our house every once in a while to get water
because we always have water. They are borrowing electricity from the
neighbors with an extension cord until they can set up a contract with
the electric company which seems like it will take some time seeing as
how Rosi lost her job last week...the owner of the business she was
working for fired her because she just doesn't like Rosi...she didn't
even tell her she was fired. she just found and hired her replacement and
Rosi heard from a member that works there. Working in this country is
very different and the people don't have a lot of rights. it was unfair,
unjust and without reasonable cause.
We've been doing a fair amount of contacting this week seeing as we
have zero investigators progressing or coming to church. We are
continuing to teach Rosi but it is a slow process as she puts all the
things of her life in harmony with the gospel. We made several what I
thought were promising contacts on Friday and put appointments for
yesterday with several of them but for whatever reason all the
appointments fell through.....It is necessary that there be opposition
in all things but wow that really womps! I've been a little down lately
due to all the difficulties here in the mission and especially in Cotui.
Cotui is a small branch that needs a lot of help and to be honest it
would be hard to say that the church is even established here thus
making it hard to do missionary work or at least missionary work in the
sense of bringing new people to the gospel and baptizing. I think that
missionary work here is to establish strong leaders and help this little
branch be stronger and more faithful. It sounds a lot easier than it
really is....
Carnaval is in full swing. it's a giant party that happens every
year in February and it involves costumes and music and dancing and a lot
of other things that I don't know. I hope to learn more about it as the
festival progresses. Here in La Vega has the second biggest carnaval
celebration in the world and it is international. the number one
carnaval is in Brazil. A lot of members condemn carnaval because of all
the bad things that happen: drinking, drugs, violence.....I'm sure they
are right but I think there should be at least a few redeeming
qualities. we shall see....
Life is hot and life is sweaty. enjoy the cold weather and if you
complain about it being cold I promise to give you a good karate chop
when I get home because I would love to have a little bit of that cold
weather.
Elder Robinson
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