June 12, 2017

Love my Haitians. I'm half blinking but just look at how cute all of them are

Also, I'm a turtle whisperer

A weird week here in the DR. So Claudia, the lady we found who we thought was super duper prepared, turned out to be kinda crazy. haha And by kinda I mean really crazy. So we thought it was super awesome she was excited to come to church, always excited to have us over for lunch and to talk with us. She always wanted us to go to the beach with her or the pool. She once threw this bikini at me so I could come to the pool with her, and we were just trying to explain to her that we aren't here to go swimming.  The other day she tried teaching us how to dance bichata, and ya. So long story short she really just wanted friends to hang out with. But she went off on me and my comp yesterday about how we are terrible friends for not inviting her to do stuff with us everyday or for not hanging out with her or for not having sleepovers at her house. And she was saying no way does she want to join a church like this if our God gives us all these rules. And then she started saying how our God is awful, and that was when i kinda started talking back. Like you can not like us and you can be mean to us. Whatever. But once you start talking bad about God because he has rules... Ya that's when I tried to kind of argue in Spanish haha, and I wasn't very good at it, but my comp was crying, so I was just trying to defend us and the church... Ya it was really weird and pretty funny looking back on it now. We left her on good terms but we won't be returning to Claudia. At least we got free food, and some free rides, and some terrible outfits from her. haha

Well that was kinda the highlight of the week! But I'm staying in Piantini for another 9 weeks. Should be good! I like it here. Just gotta watch out for our colmodo guy who brings us water. He's started saying "hola mi amor" and winking at me instead of our usual friendly encounters. But he does give us free candy so I guess there are pros to everything. lol Okay well! The church is true! love you all

June 5, 2017

HOLA!!

Wow what a great week it was! We have this awesome guy named Leonel that we are teaching, and this week we put a date for his baptism, and the thing he said was "ya, okay. I just need to get work off!" All in Spanish of course but it was super great! The other day he had this cool leather bound journal and I commented on it and said i liked it. And then he gave it to me. I kept trying to say no but he wouldn't let us leave without it haha. People are like that here. They give you sooo much! We found this lady the other day named Claudia and she let us into her home, and as we were talking about who we were, she just started crying and saying how it was a miracle we came to her. This was Saturday and then on Sunday she came to church, and after church we ate at her house and then she gave us all these clothes... clothes that definitely aren't mission appropriate but ya, I think she's gonna get baptized. I have high hopes for that woman.

The number of wedding proposals I receive just keeps going up. haha The other day we were in a carrito and I was sitting in the back and my comp in the front and the driver was talking to my comp saying "I want to marry her" pointing to me, and how my comp can leave and he will take care of me, and my comp was just explaining how we are missionaries and we can't leave each other, and he just kept saying "no its fine, you can leave. I will take care of her." Needless to say we got out of the car as soon as possible.

One of our investigators offered to get me a dog. It was hard to say no.

The work is going great here! I'm super happy and super hot all the time. I love this gospel with all my heart! It brings so much peace. Love ya'll

This old man is one of my favorite Dominicans. Can't really understand him haha but his smile says it all. Love him lots

This is one of the outfits an investigator gave us.

May 29, 2017

I have this problem where during the lessons I start imagining the investigators getting baptized and becoming a member of this church and then I have to catch up to what we are actually talking about. haha

This week was good. TRANSFERS. My new comp is Hermana Chynoweth from Castledale, Utah. Yeah, I didn't know where it was either. Ha, but she's a very sweet gal and we are workin super hard. It's fun leading out the area. We are finding lots of people with lots of potential. I come home soooo tired every night. I promise within three minutes of being in bed, I'm out.

Everyone these days have been giving us fruit. so its pretty cool, and i have been making delicious smoothies. and also I'm becoming quite the cook. ha not really, but cooking for lunch is actually really calming for me and I make me and my comp way good meals, so that's cool.

Mosquitoes are also literally the devils insect. I spray my arms and legs real good, but they have been getting my elbows and fingers sooo much. They are the worst.

The church is super true! and I love this work! and I love you all

Getting a new mission president in a couple weeks. I love them so much. I will miss them

This tree has tons of purple flowers and it always smells so good.

May 22, 2017

This is my favorite child in the world, and he always cries when I leave, so I'm his favorite too. 

The smile of a man who has the holy spirit!!!

My zone. Yay!

So we have been doing English classes the last several weeks. It's nothin but a blast! We have been getting more and more people and we open with a prayer, people get to be in the chapel, and so ya, its great! We had a power outage for THREE days this week! It's sucked really bad.  All our food went bad, we were dying of heat, and we would come home to a dark house, but all is well now. We have light and fans and a fridge again! 

Wowowow, I love this work. We were visiting with Doxy the other day, our recent convert, and wow he is so happy and he just went on and on about how thankful he was for us and how he will never forget us, and how this gospel has changed his life, and how he is so content now.  It just made me so happy to be here. People like Doxy are the reason I'm here learning a new language, away from the people i love. in a different country. I'm here to help people like him, who God has prepared, enter the waters of baptism! Ahhh just like Doxy I'm so happy and content with the life I'm living right now. It's hard, but sooooo worth it! My life is being changed and I have such a love for this gospel! wooooow!

I get a new comp tomorrow. Sister Chenith or something like that. She's from Utah. She's been out 8 months. I met her at a zone conference. I think we will be good friends and work hard, so I'm excited.

The language is feeling good. I'm pretty solid in all gospel related talk but not the best at just normal small talk and random conversations, but hopefully soon.

To answer your questions, our apartment is the nicest in the mission, I think just cause we're in the richest part of the mission. Yes, it's safe. We have some nice neighbors. We don't have air conditioning but we have ceiling fans and windows we open in the night.

We do lots of buzzing haha. Press intercoms and talk to them through that, which kinda sucks, but it's all good. We have actually been having a good amount of people let us in, so that's cool. And if we see a building with the door open... Wahoo! We sneak in and knock the doors.

te amo! hermana white

May 15, 2017

Siiiick week!! I spoke with the fam!  Happy Mother's Day Moooom! 

But that's not all! Doxy was baptized! Wooohoooo! It's amazing how the Lord prepares people and puts them in your path! It was an amazing baptism and he was just so happy! Dang the gospel is great! 

I really love it when the members make us fried platanos but it doesn't happen often so I purchased one myself and tried to make it. When members make it they always throw in sugar and cinnamon but I didn't have any of that, so I threw in what I had, vanilla and like this hazelnut flavoring. It turned out gross, but trial and error. One day I will make delicious fried platano. 

We were also on the metro the other day and there were seats so I took a seat next to this man and in the process my skirt landed on his legs and I didn't realize but my comp was across from me and she just started laughing so hard and then i saw my skirt on his legs and he was being all awkward about it too and just leaving it there and so i quickly moved it off his legs and then me and my comp just sat the rest of the metro ride trying to hold in our laughter. 

Anyyyways! I love ya'll lots! Have a great week! te amo

There are pros to being a white American in this country. Our grocery store is 10 min from our house but with groceries it's quite the trek, but lately all the bagging guys try to get in our line and then they walk the cart to our house and we just get to talk about the gospel the whole way! 

May 8, 2017

When it's a holiday and no one is out, we just take a break and swing.

Yo yo yo! How's everyone doin? The work here is going good! Finding lots of news with lots of potential. Yesterday was the baptismal interview of Doxy, our Haitian! I'm in the Dominican Republic and so far the baptisms have been of Peruvians and Haitians. We are also teaching a really great Venezuelan right now who seems to be progressing a lot. Alexander. Pray for him! 

I love the work! I'm growing so much out here. Changes are coming. New comp, new mission president. But I'm excited. At first i was feeling really stressed having to lead the area with a new comp, but all you can do is trust in God and have faith in all things. Fear is of the Devil. Faith is where it's at! Love you all so much! 

May 2, 2017

I had a really funny moment today. Here we are on the metro and this like 70 year old man starts rapping, getting real into it, dancing a little, moving his hands a lot in the way rappers do haha. I was trying really hard to hold in my laughter. I'm a missionary. Gotta be professional 'n stuff haha. But then a couple of Dominicans next to me start laughing and once they started, I started, and we all just lost it. It was a great moment of bonding with me and some fellow Dominicans. It was so funny though. 

We went to the zoo today and a parrot said hola to me. Also a monkey threw rocks at us haha and it was a good time. 

The work here is good. We're finding lots of news. I took out a new Hermana from the CCM this week and we found this great new guy. He's about 20 and bakes cakes for a living. We taught him a great lesson. Life is so fun. I love this gospel. I love being able to teach it to others!

I love you all so much. 

hermana white