amo a la mision

This week was super good. I learned so much.

This week somebody that we were teaching that had a baptismal date moved. Ugh. It's not the first time it's happened to me in this area. Its the fourth. But oh well.

I downloaded a talk from President Monson last week and it changed me as a person and my whole mission. He talked about seeing people as who they can become instead of who they are right now. I feel like a judge people a lot less and I feel a lot more hope talking to people. He talked about how one missionary tried to imagine every person that he talked to as who they could be as a member of the church. Ive started doing it. The first guy we talked to said that he's not about what we teach and didn't even let us tell him who we were but NO ME DESANIMO! It's helped me a lot. Everybody is a child of God and nobody is perfect. People can change. And they will change if we love them.

We had these 3 super good kids come to church on s

Sunday for the first time. Out of the 17 solid YESes that we received, 3 went. I'm doing my best haha. We have a lot of good people that have been to church, the problem is getting them to go the second time. Its kind of hard here in Bonao, but I have learned so much.

We saw a man carry a moped on top of a motorcycle. Never seen that before.

We were teaching some of our best investigators and their cousin was there. But he was super drunk. Elder Tupou was praying and then this dude says ¡BENDIGA CESAR! BLESS CESAR. It was kind of funny but after we told him that if he doesn't behave he has to leave.

Being a missionary is hard, but there is no place I would rather be. There is so much wickedness in this world, especially in la republica dominicana and especially in Bonao. But the church is still true. I know that Jesus is our Savior. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you can change! I love the Gospel! I love the DR!

I spoke to one of the 12!

This week we were walking down the street and decided to contact this one house. The guy let us in and was really nice. We talked a little about the Book of Mormon. Towards the end of the lesson, he started opening up a little and said that his house was getting foreclosed on the next day. He said that the whole morning he had been praying and that all the stuff that people say about the missionaries and church is wrong because we are good people. It was a good experience.

We got to meet an apostle this week! Elder Soares came to visit us. I got to talk to him and shake his hand too! He said como esta and I said bien y usted then he said de donde viene and I said Utah!!!!! What?! Isn't that so cool. He shared a lot of good stuff with us and I felt the spirit. He is a very humble man and I know that he really is an apostle of the Lord. 

On Sunday, everybody that said that they would come to church didn't. We were really bummed because we have a lot of good people, but if they don't go to church they don't progress as fast. Then almost at the end of the meeting we see Cheo! We had taught him a lot of times and he told us a week ago that he would go, but when we passed by his house during the week he wasn't there and he lives super far away. But he remembered! It took him a while to find the church, but he said that he was going to go every Sunday now! We are blessed.

Today we went to this river where a bunch of people go swimming. We didn't go swimming, but it was still really cool. I'll have to come back after the mission.

Pictures,

This place is super cool

DANGER!

haleluya

We had a zone conference this week. Presidente Cowan is cracking down on us. Now we can only write for one hour. We cant say bro, dope, or piña either. They did loosen up on a few things though so I can't complain.

We went with the elders from the other area so that they could meet Brian and Mariani and Johan. We taught the Plan of Salvation with four missionaries and it was alright haha. They seem really excited for their baptisms but they don't want to go to the branch that they live in (because ours is better). But we will trust in the Lord.

We found this lady a few weeks ago. Her name is Belgica and she is 28. We contacted this old dude that could barely hear and after asked him for references. I'm sure he had no idea what he was saying, but we ended up going into the alley where Belgica lives. She is AMAZING! She is just a really nice lady and easy to get along with. We taught her with the branch president and she came to church on Sunday! I said that she liked it and that she wants to come back. God bless her. I'm so happy.

Today we went on this hike to the mountains here. I was super excited because it was the first time I've ever been, but it was kind of lame. It was nice to go into nature though. I don't have any time to write anymore. I show you all pictures when I get home.

I love you all. The church is true! Cristo VIVE!

Another week in Bonao

Carlos came to church! He is so good. He has to drive so far on his moped to get there but he did it. God bless him. I feel so blessed to have found him.

We went to this Haitian families house during the week. They are super cool and live on a fish farm haha. They took their friend to church last Sunday and we went to teach her. Everything was good except for that she doesn't speak Spanish or English. I've studied a little Creole in my mission, but it was so crazy. God has blessed me with the gift of tongues. I don't even know that much, but I could like form sentences and understand some things. I'm pretty excited about learning it now so today I read in the Liv Momon An.

We have been working really hard with Johan's family so that they can all get baptized. The good news is Brian and Mariani have a baptismal date for this month! The bad news is that they moved to the other branch and other missionaries will baptize them. Also one of our very promising investigators moved to the same other branch. We might not be doing a very good job of strengthening our branch, but at least we are strengthening somebody haha. Oh well. In the future I'll know why God did that.

I've learned a lot this week about the scattering and regathering of Israel. I didn't know anything about that for so long, but it blows my mind. Israel means like true believers in Jesus Christ or something like that and we have the Book of Mormon to find those people. There's so much stuff in the Bible that says that TCOJCOLDS is the true one.

Carnaval started this week. This country is wild. If my camera worked I would send pictures.