Que lo que

Que lo que everybody!

There are all sorts of trials during a mission. Last week I thought my companion was so awesome and perfect but now I am starting to realize that nobody is perfect. He doesnt speak English and sometimes we dont get along and I cant tell him whats going on all the time because I dont speak spanish. 

We had another baptism this week! His name is Diego and he is 11 years old. He is super energetic and he is always happy. He was super excited to get baptized and be a member of the church. Sometimes Im sad and complain but at the same time I have 3 baptisms and I havent even been here for that long haha.

So the other day we were in this ghetto part of our area and there are animals everywhere. There are horses and chickens and dogs and cats everywhere. I was watching these really cute kitties and I saw that one of them was eating something. It picked it up with its mouth and IT WAS A CHICKEN HEAD!!! AHHHHH!!! what the heck! It was really gross and the other kitties were trying to take it. That was pretty gross but kind of funny at the same time too.

I think I said this before but if it werent for the other missionaries here I think I would be the only white person within a hundred miles. But everybody just yells at me in the streets because Im white. People are also really interested in my blue eyes and some people just cant even believe it haha. Almost everyday people will just be driving by on mopeds and a girl will yell something at me. I used to ask my companion what they where saying and it would always be something about a good looking white person so I just stopped asking and sometimes its kind of annoying... But also I guess there could be worse things than girls constantly telling me that Im good looking haha!

Sorry there are no pictures this week. I will try to send a lot next week.

Also I love all of your emails and pictures so thank you!

Elder Eliason

Another picture from Mom's favorite Dominican! ;)

Pics sent to Mom from Aron, an awesome member in La Vega!

2 down, 999,998 to go

hey everybody!

     i apologize in advance for the bad spelling and punctuation but i dont have time for that right now haha. so this week we got to leave the mtc and its crazy here. we got on this bus to santiago from santo domingo and we went to the mision home which was super nice. we just played basketball all day because the president had to have an interview with everybody and there were 12 of us.

     my compainion is elder mieses and if you are wondering if he is a native you are right and if you are wondering if he only speaks a little bit of english you are also right haha. but i like him a lot and he works really hard and he is always super positive which is good because sometimes its hard to think i still have more than 22 months to go. our area is called flamboyanes in la vega and i like it a lot. its one of the nicer parts but its still pretty ghetto and there is still trash everywhere. we can see the mountains from where we are and its super cool. also there are two sister missionaries in flamboyanes and they are both american but more importantly they speak english and i can understand what they say!

     the first day i asked what we were going to do and he pulls out his planner filled with appointments so we are almost always teaching. i cant understand a lot of what they are saying and sometimes elder mieses just stops talking and looks at me and i have no idea what is going on because i cant understand what they are saying but i am getting better haha.

   so... WE HAD TWO BAPTISMS THIS WEEK! its crazy that i already have two baptisms but also i take zero credit for them because they were already going to be baptized but i was there haha. the people we baptized are named jochy and marlenys. they just got married like a week ago and they are both pretty young. first elder mieses baptized jochy then i baptized marlenys IN SPANISH. i was super happy for them. when we got out of the font elder mieses pulled the phone out of his pocket and he baptized to phone too so that was pretty funny.

     thanks for all the birthday wishes. we didnt really do anything for my birthday except in the morning i said hey its my birthday but i dont really care that much.

     INTERESTING THINGS: i saw 5 people on a moped, i caught a lizard, everybody stares and me and every once in a while somebody just yells GRINGO, we j~walk across this big street everyday, everybody rides motorcycles and they just zoom like 6 inches past you, there are so many dogs, a bunch of the roads are dirt and there is trash literally everywhere, i sweat so much and its so hot, we eat breakfast and a big lunch and i drink water for dinner when we get back to the house. 

tarantula count: 0

Your Missionary Is Here

We are pleased to inform you that your missionary has arrived at the Mission Home in Santiago. They will meet their trainer and receive their area assignment tomorrow and will write you on P-day, next Monday.

Thank you,

Elder Decker

Secretario de la Misión Santiago

This place is NUTSSS

Hello everybody from the Dominican Republic!

This week was super good and it felt like forever but also I cant believe Im emailing again.

Last Friday we got to go on splits with the REAL missionaries. It was so fun. We got on a bus and drove the the stake center. The bus driver basically just did whatever he wanted on the street because hes so big. I went with Elder Clark from Houston and he was really cool. We got on the metro here which is basically the subway and there was this guy just like yelling where everybody was waiting and he was just preaching. We got of the metro and came up to this giant street. We walked over this bridge and there were just vendors that had there stuff laid out over blankets. We took this super ghetto taxi to this neighborhood. Its windshield was smashed and the whole inside was super old and we had to squish in with these two ladys so there were 7 people in a tiny toyota corolla from probably 1995.

We were going to teach this family but the parents werent there but the kids are baptized so we read the Book of Mormon with them. There were two girls and two boys and they were pretty nice. None of the houses have doors or windows so you just go in through the gate in front and there were just chickens everywhere.

All the houses are pretty ghetto and there is trash everywhere and it was SO COOL! Everybody just stares at you because you are white but I dont know if they know I can see them staring at me and they dont say anything unless you say something first. And everybody says "Saludos" to everybody. Everybody is just chilling outside because inside its so hot. We found this less active lady and she took us back in this alley into a room which was her house and it was way hot but it was really good. I didnt say a lot but I told her that reading the Book of Mormon everyday changed my life and I felt good about it. I can understand almost everything if they talk slow but everybody here talks 100mph.

Yesterday me and two other Elders went to the "doctors office" haha. It was super old creepy but we had to go for immigration stuff. They stuck this giant needle in my arm that was like 2 inches long and was super thick so it was basically a toothpick and I got kinda sick after because I hate needles but Im ok now!

Next Tuesday we leave the MTC! Finally! We get on a bus for like 2 hours I think then Ill get a new companion and get to teach real people and Ill have to speak spanish even though I dont know how yet haha. I think that we wont be able to email for a while because pday is a different day so Im not sure when that is yet.

I miss and love all of you! Its always hot here so it makes me sad to think the leaves are changing in Utah:(

Love Elder Eliason

 

Ayo! Week 4!

Hey everybody!

I dont have a lot of time but this week has been really good. Conference was super good and I learned a lot.

We finally got to do some real missionary work and we went to this university to teach people. We talked to these two girls and they seemed a little interested and first and we talked to them for a long time. We told them about the church then they asked some questions about the church then they asked some questions about us and then they asked questions about us. One of them was born on the very same day as me. They asked if we had girlfriends and we said no because we are missionaries and then they asked if we would ever date a dominican and we didnt understand and said no so I think they got kind of offended but elder durham tried to tell them that we didnt understand the first time so that was funny. We asked for their number and they asked why and we said so we could give it to the other missionaries and they said they wanted us to come instead of the other missionaries so we are pretty sure they were more interested in us instead of the Gospel but it was pretty funny and a good learning experience.

The other day President gulbrandsen came into our classroom and told me to grab my stuff and come the other room and so now im companions with elder larson. His companion went home so they ripped me away from the TRIPANIONSHIP but elder larson is a pretty cool kid and I think we will get along pretty well.

Not as much cool stuff happened this week so sorry. I dont have any pictures either but in two weeks Ill be out of here and Ill have a lot more cool stories and actually cool pictures.

I love and miss all of you and I love your emails!

Elder Eliason