April 25, 2017

el bautismo de ginito yaya

Hollllla! 

So today we went to the temple! Such a happy moment! I looove the temple! First time doing a session is Español. Goooood times haha

So this week I had a great moment. Doxy, who has said he has a testimony but doesn't feel ready for baptism told us that he is ready and has accepted the date of May 6! So yayayay! My heart was so full in that moment! I love seeing the change the gospel brings into people's lives! Missionary work is the best! 

So for this letter I'm just gonna tell ya'll about some things about the DR. I love it here but its certainly different haha

Dominican woman all have naturally curly hair. Buuuuut they all go to the salon every week and get it straightened, which is really dumb too cause none of them actually have that much money, but they alllll do it. You will rarely find a Dominican woman with curly hair, cause here curly hair is a sign of laziness and not having money. haha so pretty much that's me. Get up in the morning, shower, and let it dry all curly and frizzy.

In the DR the power goes out aaaaaallllll the time. The other day the power was out for like 5 hours and lots of stuff in our fridge went bad. But ya, it happens at least once a week.

Dominicans scrunch their noses if they didn't hear you. Like a rabbit haha. Instead of saying huh? or what? they just scrunch their nose and that's how you know they didn't hear you.

Dominicans are not on time to ANYTHING! The baptism we had the other week... our Bishopric showed up an hour late.... 

It's been rainy here all week. I've been loving it! But it turns out Dominicans are afraid of the rain. They cancel appointments if its raining. They won't go out. So that kinda sucks for us. But I've been lovin it. 

Theres a thing called the Colmado that brings you jugs of water. liquor. cheese. milk. some snack type things. haha But anyways, that's how we get our clean water--call the Colmado and a guy on his lil motorcycle brings us over water.

My new thing in the DR is this way way good pineapple drink with milk, and ya, its super good. We get it lots and lots. 

Also this week I ate the worst thing of my life. It was a member's birthday and they gave us a plate of these little sandwiches which had smashed up hot dog mixed with ketchup, mayo, and soy sauce, and it was on kinda soggy white bread. One of the grossest things I've had in my life. Worse that pigs blood on a stick in Taiwan. haha But anyways, there are some random facts for all of you! 

Oh, and I finally gave my jar of peaches away. Couldn't open it anyway.

Missions are the best! and the church is the very best! So are temples. Get out and go the temple! 

Love you all!

April 17, 2017

Holla!!

How was everyone's Easter? I spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday. It was good. Just spoke on Jesus Christ and Easter and ya!

Ginito was baptized this week! And his uncle, who is Roberto who was baptized several weeks ago was able to perform the baptism. It was awesome to see! And turns out Roberto has a girlfriend in Peru who just got baptized. Eternal marriage in a year?! I think yes!! 

So for Easter here in the DR. it's called Semana Santa "holy week" and everyone has a week off from work and school and so Piantini was dead. Literally no one around cause Piantini is rich and so they all travel to nice beaches and stuff. (thats sounds nice) haha Also we've got a really solid investigator right now named Doxy. He is Haitian and super awesome and he's got a date for may 6. I hope everyone is great! love you all so much. 

Jesus Christ lives! 

April 10, 2017

Hello people! 

What a good week. Went on transfers with Hermana Perez. Firey Latina who got in a big ole argument with some old ladies about the bible. And i was just sittin back wondering what the heck she was doing. And it was super awkward... I bought a jar of peaches this week and was super excited to eat them, and all week I have been trying to open the dang jar. And it wont open!! I even took it to our neighbor and he and his friend couldn't open it either. They were both trying at the same time and like grunting and using all their strength, but nope. Still can't eat my peaches. 

It's getting suuuper hot here. Even all the Dominicans are talking about how it's super hot. I've got a killer tan line where my watch is. 

This week Dania was baptized! I'm soo happy for her. The whole time getting her ready and stuff, she was holding my hand and my heart was just so full and I'm so happy for her. Our zone had all of our baptisms for this Saturday come together and so it ended up being this big baptismal event and it was awesome to see all these people enter the waters of baptisms. My comp and I and two other Elders threw a lil musical number together for the baptism and it was just a great evening! Life is great! The church is true! We are so lucky to know the truth. Remember Christ, especially this week. I'm jealous that you all can eat Cadbury eggs and Reese's eggs. Enjoy it. Love you all! 

April 3, 2017

Hola my dear people! 

Ahh man, watching conference made me very homesick, and seeing the little intro of the temple grounds and stuff made me miss Utah and the weather and all you people in Utah. Also, I miss being in the mountains so much. Holy moly. We walk on the busy streets all the time and all the cars just let out all this gross exhaust (is that even what it's called?) haha Anyways so ya, all I'm sayin is I miss the nice Utah mountain air.

But wasn't conference great?! It was all in Spanish for me, so I only picked up on some of it. But when Thomas S. Monson got up, I just had this wave of happiness come over me. and my eyes filled with tears and it was a very spiritual moment. Our church is so amazing! We have a prophet leading and guiding us! We have the priesthood. I love our prophet. Such a cute lil old man. And his words were so true. The Book of Mormon is sooooo important. We each need to gain our own testimony of it. We need to be reading it everyday. I certainly did not realize the importance of reading everyday before my mission, but now I do and ya, it's such an amazing gift and blessing and we need to not take it for granted! 

I had a major humbling experience this week. I've spoken a little of Manuel in my past letters. 14 year old boy who's hilarious. We have been struggling with him cause he never wants to read the scriptures. So went went into one of our lessons with him with a great lesson plan and discovered that he hadn't been reading, so we ditched the lesson we had and just read with him. We just read taking turns and when it came to his turn, the poor kid literally can't read. He has to sound out every word and it takes him a long time to get through a verse. Here I am like 2-ish months out on the mish and I'm always worried about MY language and I'm stressing about how I'm doing in Spanish, but here is Manuel. This kid who has grown up speaking Spanish but he can't even read his own language. And then I continued thinking about some of our other investigators, Dania and Rosmita, who are the two Haitian girls. (Dania is getting baptized this Saturday) but they spend their days taking care of little babies while their uncles/brothers go to work. They aren't going to school. They have almost nothing. And ya, the mission has just been an incredible humbling experience. We are all so lucky to live where we do and get an education. I have loved being able to not focus so much on myself, but on others. Service is so important and I love this 18 months that I have to help others. 

Life is good. The church is true! Watch the new Prince of Peace Easter video. It's super good! Love you all so much!