I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it.
I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord
hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an
instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my
joy.(Alma 29:9)
So, because of one reson or
another, I wasn’t able to email for 3 weeks. Anyways, I have now spent 2 full
weeks in the field. I am serving in an area called Villa Altagracia. We are in one
of the most northern areas of the mission. It is super pretty here and we
are in the beautiful green mountains. It’s not too humid or hot here and it
rains a lot. The members are great and always feed us and give referrals. Everyone
calls this area the promised land they say that its all down here from here. It's
also one of the biggest areas in the mission with a freeway right in the middle
of it that we need to cross. My companion is the redhead devil named Elder
Chapman. He is from Arizona and he is a great missionary from 3:30 to 9:30 (after
he takes his naps), Which I just use as extended language study because I
definitely need it. And he doesn't ever contact. He says that if I want
to contact I’ll have to do it myself. But I don’t know Spanish. But he'll see,
I’m just going to keep sucking at it until he decides to help. He only has 7 months
left and I just found out that he is 24 years old. And the fire isn’t there anymore.
But don’t worry. That’s not gonna put me down. But other than that, he is pretty
cool and easy to get along with.
OK, now time for the good part the
work. I commited these 2 sisters to baptism last week. They are 14 and 15 and
live with their grandma. I have been with them for all the lessons and they are
truly the elect. They love and read everything we give them. They where
supposed to be baptized net week but move it back to the 27th because the whole
district is gonna try to get baptisms on the same day. My goal is to have 5
baptism from our area and we have some really close but a big problem is that a
bunch of couples that we are teaching live to together but aren’t married and
they can’t get baptized until they do. And marriage is super expensive here. Well
not really, but no one has money.
It is super sad to see the living
conditions here. No one has money and they are not good with the money they
have. They always spend it on nice clothes or drugs and alcohol. Our neighbours
are the perfect example, they have no electricity, water, or anything and the
always ask us for stuff. Which is chill, but then every night the get dressed
in their really nice clothes and party and get drunk all night long. But
anyways, at least they are super nice, except the tigres, or gangsters. They
all are also really good at playing dominos here. That’s pretty much how I
spent my whole free time for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. I’ve gotten pretty
good at playing against other missionaries but I get my butt handed to me when
I play against the old guys in the streets. I have also already gotten super
sick, I’ve gotten what they call the "Double Dragon". I had to stop 6
times between the mission-wide Christmas party and my house because of diarrhea
or throw-up. It sucked.
We are so blessed because the ward
made it a goal to each give us a referral before the end of march. Right now we
are teaching 2 different families that just need to get married, a recent
contacts younger brother, a mother and daughter, the two sisters and more. But
those are the ones that are moving the most along. There are also 2 more that I
haven’t met yet because they are out of town, but I heard that they are moving
along well. My Spanish sucks, of course, but I am understanding a ton of what's
been said and I can bear my testimony and prayer in Spanish. My reading has
been getting better; I just finished the Book of Jacob in Spanish out loud. And
my reading is better than most people here. And that’s not a boast, the people
here are just super uneducated.
I am having a blast and am learning and teaching a lot. I
know the importance of my job here and I am doing everything in my power to do
the will of the Lord and become the most hardworking and obedient missionary
that I can be. And even though a lot of these other missionaries say that I’ll
lose my fire and I’ll end up sleeping in and tacking naps, but I know I won’t.
This work is too important. But don't worry I still am still trying to have fun
at the same time. Hope you all have an amazing new year.
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