The mission is cool.

I say that every week is good but this week was REALLY good.

We are teaching this lady named Paola. We taught her a few times and read the Book of Mormon but then we could never get together with her to share. We were walking Saturday morning and she pulls up in her car. She said that she wanted us to come by. We went over in the night and she wasn't there but we came back later and had the lesson of my mission with her. She told us that she had been reading El Libro de Mormon and that she had been wanting us to come over. We taught her about the Restoration of Jesus' church. The spirit was so strong and there were some tears. YES! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted. I know that the Gospel will bless her life. She is awesome!

We are teaching this other lady named Angelina. She told is super good and wants to change her life, but she told us she was coming to church 3 times and didn't. We were going to leave her if she didn't come this Sunday. But she did! She has lots of potential to be baptized. She is awesome too!

We are finding a bunch of good people who need the gospel in their lives. We are teaching a lot of new teenagers that I like teaching because they remind me of myself and I know the Gospel will help them to have better lives.

We played basketball today!

Living in a house of 4 is still really fun. We do a lot of wrestling.

My trainer is going home this week. I learned a lot of things from that big black Dominican man. 

Pictures,

Me and Jesucristo!

Elder Vallejos dropped the iron and it stopped working. He took it apart. It doesnt work any better now than it did before. 

Papa Mieses

Learning how to carry heavy burdens in the mission.

See you next year

Feliz año Nuevo!

I had a pretty good week. Almost everything was closed yesterday because it was the first so that is why Im writing on a tuesday. Everybody just blasted music and drank a lot of beer new year eve but I went to bed which was a lot nicer. New years day was pday and we went to get our hair cut and I think the guy is done then he flips the chair back and starts shaving my face for me and he spoke english and was really cool. We ate at one of the only places that was open and went to the roof of the hermanas apartment building which was super cool.

We have been struggling lately to find people but also we are really lucky. We have to walk to this place at least 5 or 6 miles away to get to this neighborhood but there are good people there. We saw this old investigator in the street yesterday and asked her when she was going to let us baptize her and she said next week or something so we are lucky haha.

Everything is going pretty good and I get a new companion in a week which is nice because we really struggle to get along sometimes.

Elder Eliason

Flamboyanes Ward Christmas Party

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Buenas Dias

Hey Everybody!

Sorry I didnt write last week. We got to the place late then the power went out so I barely had any time to write.

This week had some good parts and some bad parts. My companion is still hard to get along with sometimes but Im learning a lot about patience. I dont really know what to write about so Ill just talk about some stuff that happened.

This lady that we always cook for us, her mom died and that was really sad so we went to this viewing in there house on the same day because they dont have morticioners here. It was so hot because there were so many people and also Im kindof afraid of dead people so it was nice when we left.

This guy named Joan had a baptismal date for Sunday and he bailed. This is like the third time hes done it. He has a testimony but his mom doesnt want him to get baptized. Also he lives on like an acre and a half and has a really big house and he is only 19.

This other guy named Joel is 7th day adventist and I didnt know those actually existed. He is super into the bible and acts like he wants to learn but he is obsessed with the sabbath day and why itssunday and not saturday but i dont know why its such a big deal to him.

Hermana Crane went home. And Hermana Niceler from Missouri is here now. She is pretty cool and she speaks English so thats REALLY cool too.

There was a lizard in my bathroom so I did the only reasonable thing and made him my pet. But he bit me and pooped so I threw him out the window.

Elder Mieses was teasing this kid with a baloon and the kid ran away to tell his mom so Elder Mieses ran to hide it and he ran back and when he sat down on the couch there was this giant crack! HAHAHAHA! He broke the couch and he didnt say anything about it untill the next day when the lady that lives there said look what happend and the couch is totally lopsided now! HAHAHAHAHA! I laughed so hard when he broke it. But here is a picture of him on the couch. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!

Next week I will try to send some pictures of this place. Im used to this place and I just live here and everything is normal to me.

Elder Eliason and Elder Mieses

Thanksgiving

So not a lot happened this week. We had Thanksgiving and that was really fun because our mission president said we could get together and do something as a district. We had mashed potatoes and rice and chicken so it wasnt the most Thanksgivingest Thanksgiving that I have ever had but it was still good and I always love getting to see other people that speak English. 

We didnt have any investigators show up to church on sunday which really sucked and made me kind of mad because people arent going to gain a testimony if they are lazy and they are just wasting their time and we are wasting our time if the people arent going to care.

Wednesday is the end of the transfer so that means I have been in the field the same amount of time I was in the MTC. I will be with Elder Mieses for 6 more weeks then he will leave and I will stay in Flamboyanes for another 6 weeks with somebody else. Hermana Crane is going home so that means our ward will get another Hermana on wednesday too!

Here are some pictures! 

1. Thanksgiving dinner with Hermana Lynch in the background. 

2. Me and Elder Mieses and Hermana Crane. 

3. My friends.

TERRIBLE NEWS

HELLO AMERICA!

The beginning of this week wasnt very good but the ending was! 

Right after we finished emailing last week we went out into this crazy storm and there was so much water and it was almost up to my knees in some places. We only got to write for 45 minutes last time and I wasnt happy about that then we basically walked into the ocean. 

I went on exchanges with an Elder from utah this week and it was so nice because i got to get away from my companion for a little while. Sometimes he bugs me so bad but I learn a lot from him in different ways than you would think.

Elder Cook from the quorum of the 12 came and spoke to us which was really cool. He gave a really good talk and an even better testimony. He helped change my outlook on a lot of things and he helped me to have a more positive attitude. And I got to shake his hand!

So there are two things of bad news. Number one, there was this dog we saw in the road that got obliterated. I wont give details. Second, THERE WAS A TARANTULA IN OUR HOUSE! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. We got back at night and I was going to get a bowl of frosted flakes and I saw it on the wall. And it was so scary and big and ugly. I yelled for my companion and he wouldnt kill it because ¨he says its a creation of god. So i couldnt go into the kitchen and I started yelling at him to kill it and eventually he flame threw it with the bug spray. And it was terrifying. But it was the biggest spider and terrifying.

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

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