My Last Email

Well, my mission is over. It has been incredible! I have changed so much and my testimony has grown so strong. 

This week was good. I was fasting and praying really hard for Jay to get baptized this week. She was sick during the week so she had to work on Sunday so she couldn't get baptized but I feel fine. She will probably get baptized this Saturday. I feel at peace about it.

Even though Jay didn't get baptized this other lady named Ina did. She is from the other area but we are in a tripanionship right now so I had a baptism this week haha. Her daughters have been members forever and she just didn't want to change from being catholic. The other day she just decided to get baptized and threw away all her catholic paintings and stuff. I got to do her baptismal interview and it was really cool. The baptism was really good and Jay got to go watch and she liked it. 

My mission has changed my life. I have loved being a missionary and wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I have seen many miracles in my 2 years here. I know that God is real and that He knows us. He sent His son, Jesucristo, to die for us. I love God and I love Jesus. I have been so blessed being a missionary. There are so many things that I have in my heart but I can't share them all. Ill talk more about it in Utah. I cant believe that my time here is up. Its very sad. I don't want to go but it will be good to be back. The Book of Mormon is SO true. Its the best book in the world. I read it everyday and will continue to read it everyday until I die. I love Spanish. Amo a la Republica Dominicana. Amo a mi Salvador. En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

I'll show you all my pictures when I get home. These are from this week.

Some strange fruit called pitajaya or something like that PEET-AH-HI-AH

These are the young single adults of SALCEDO! I love them all. I will miss Salcedo.

Ardiente, Caliente

This week has been hot! Fevers, and fires in the street, and investigators making moves.

I got super sick this week. We went out to teach for a while, but I felt bad so we went home for an hour. We had some important appointments in the afternoon so I left with a fever of 102.1. Caliente! Then the first one wasn't even there so we taught the second person we had. I still felt sick, but I contacted this dude and he tells us that he hasn't ever been baptized and that he has been thinking about it lately and that he wants to get baptized. KHAN!

We have been teaching Jay for a while and she is doing really good. She has a baptismal date for Saturday but if she drinks she can't get baptized. Her whole family always drinks and we know that its hard for her. She disappeared for a few days and we got really nervous and I had a dream that she drank. But we found her on Sunday and had just been sick. And she told us that she hasn't drunken!

On Monday there was a riot in the whole Cibao (the north part of the country). They made us stay in our house the whole entire day. It was the first day of my mission in the field that I didn't go out to preach. I read a lot of the Book of Mormon though and updated the area book and cleaned the house so it was good. 

On our street they were burning some tires haha. There was a lot of smoke. It was cool. The whole day we could hear gunshots from all around Salcedo. 

I love the mission. The gospel is true. It makes me happy.

VIVA LA REPUBLICA DOMINICANA

stitches

This week was awesome!

First off, there are 4 elders in our house and so its not always super calm. My companion got his eyebrow split open at 10 at night so we had to go out into the world after 9 30. It was so weird. We went to this clinic by our house and they gave him 3 stitches. HAHA! It was awesome.

We are teaching a lot of awesome people right now. Jay went to church again. We were teaching her and Francisco walked in. He hadn't shared with us for a long time but Jay told him to sit down and basically begged him to go to church with her the next day and he went! She does more missionary work than lots of the members here haha. She has a baptismal date for the 17th, my last Saturday in the mission. Pray for her. She has the desire but she struggles a little with the word of wisdom so any prayers that are offered in her sake will be greatly appreciated. 

We found this 17 year old girl a while ago but she lives half the time in a far away city that's also part of our area. She came to Salcedo for the weekend and we talked to her. She went to church on Sunday! Wooooh! She really needs the gospel in her life. On Sunday afternoon we went over to her house to teach her and her mom. I asked her what her favorite part about church was and her mom said, ¨los acompañantes¨ Uhhhh. At least she went to church haha.

I love the mission. I have decided to stay here forever.

The church is true and the gospel blesses lives. Keep the commandments and you will be happier.

We are friends with the guy that manages this place and he gave us the keys this morning to go play. It was so fun.

que chevere

This week we had a zone conference in La Vega. It was my last zone conference ever! Me and a few other missionaries gave our last testimonies because we are going home at the end of this transfer. I can't believe that it so close.

We are teaching this really awesome Hatian family. The moms name is Enise and she is super prepared. She doesn't speak Spanish super good but she always tells us that she wants to change her life. She went to church alone on Sunday with her 1 year old daughter. She is a great example to me and she has a lot of faith. Whenever we decide to change and repent the Lord will accept us. Its up to us!

Also Jay went to church on Sunday. She is my favorite person that we are teaching. She is awesome! We were teaching her in her house and we got her sister to come listen. We were reading 3 Nefi 11 where Jesus comes to visit the Nefitas and her sister thought that it was really interesting. Jay invited her sister to church and told her that she was going to be baptized. GO JAY!

I like the mission. I don't want to go home but also I do. I'm going to miss this country a lot. The church is true. 

These are the only pictures I took so you guys can look at some other missionaries.

pelota

Francisco didn't go to church on Sunday which was a real bummer, but his aunt did. We had taught her a few times and she is really cool and she talks A LOT. They both told us that they were going to church on Saturday night and on Sunday morning she comes walking in alone without Francisco. She said he didn't get to her house on time so she left him haha. But it was testimony meeting on Sunday and halfway through the meeting she just gets up and starts walking to the front hahaa. I got SUPER nervous because I didn't know what was going to happen but she said that she felt a lot of peace and she thanked everybody for their testimonies. She is the MVP! It was awesome! After she told some people that she wasn't a member, but that she would be.

On Sunday we went back to some people that I was teaching like 3 months ago because we have talked to entire neighborhoods and I don't know where to go to find new good people. It was actually really good and all 4 of them said that they would go to church. 

One of those people was this guy that read the bible 2 whole times but went to Santo Domingo to work for a while. But we read Moroni 8 with him and he said that he learned some new things about baptism. The Book of Mormon is true and we need it to understand the bible.

Today we went to San Francisco and played baseball. Soy Dominicano.