Johan Se Bautizo!

This week was a week of fruits. Not fruits that you eat, but the fruits of our labors! I have been here in Bonao for a long time and it's been one of my toughest areas. I've worked harder than any other area and I've seen less success than any other area. But! ... that all changed.

Johan got baptized! We have been working with him for a while and he has progressed a lot. Johan is 16 and he lives with his mom and two little siblings. He is such a good kid even though he is surrounded by a lot of hard stuff. Elder Tupou baptized him! His first baptism! The baptism was super good and everything went really well. Halfway through the baptism Johan's mom showed up who has never really shared with us, so that was a miracle! After the baptism his mom said that his two little siblings want to be baptized too! WOO! It will take a little longer but we will baptize her too. 

Transfers are in two days and I have been here for a long time so I might of had my first and last baptism in Bonao, but I'll be leaving a few more people for the missionary that replaces me to baptize.

Here are pictures from the baptism! It was a good day.

A baptism!

Last week was great!

We had a baptism! Elvis got baptized but we call him Maceko which means Maco which means frog haha. He is 14 and he is a super crazy kid. We have been with him for a while and he has changed a lot. He isn't the perfect convert, but the church is really good for him and he says that he wants to serve a mission. Rodrigo, who is a member baptized him and we are really good friends. The baptism went good and I'm super happy about it.

On Sunday, we had two of our really good investigators come to church. They are a young couple named Dewdy and Marilyn and they are married by the law! They always have good questions and always give us juice and food when we go to their house. I love them.

Things that happened this week...

1. We met an atheist, I think for the first time in my mission. He told us we are from the CIA. I told him that we aren't. But he said yes you are. We didn't end up teaching him hahaha!

2. We saw a motorcyle pulling a man in a wheelchair at like 40 miles an hour. HA

3. There's an Asian dude that just rides around our neighborhood on a minimotorcyle. I don't know where he came from. 

Pictures from the baptism!

PUERTO PLATA!

This last week has been super interesting. 

First, I got transferred to PUERTO PLATA! It was kind of sad to leave La Española because I opened that area and I made a lot of friends there. Im going to miss that area but it was good to have a change.

Right now I'm in Puerto Plata, Torre Alta with Elder Benitez from Honduras. Our area isn't very big which means less walking and there are a bunch of cool people that I have already met. We are super close to the ocean even though we can't go. I can see the ocean from my roof and it is so awesome! Also there is this giant mountain here so sometimes I feel like I'm in Utah, but I'm not. Elder Benitez is 22 and he is pretty cool. He doesn't talk too much and he is pretty humble so we have been getting along pretty good so far.

Also we had a baptism! We baptized this guy named Luis who has been with the missionaries for a long time. He is pretty big so my companion asked me if I could baptize him. It was kind of awkward but I did it and it was super good.

Something spiritual. We went to another baptism from the Elders from the other ward and we were singing hymns and I just felt really good. It makes me really happy to see people getting baptized and the songs we sing just helped me to remember that God and Jesus live and are real. In the night, I went up to our roof to wash some clothes and I was just laying there looking at the stars and the universe is just so big. I don't know how anybody could not believe in God. 

I love you all. Choose the right.

Elder Eliason

Pictures,

Me and Azulo. The most coolest Hatian kid in the world. If you don't believe me look at him.

Me and all the young men in the La Espanola ward. They are so cool.

Me and Papo and Ajecka. I baptized Papo. Ajecka is the super interesting guy that is from Indiana and doesn't speak Spanish and married a deaf woman.

Me and Elder Benitez and Luis.

Me on my roof with a big mountain behind me.

We played basketball in this mini stadium place like 2 blocks away from the beach. It was super fun.

Papo se bautizo

This week was pretty good.

Papo got baptized! and I did it! Papo is 13 and has been going to church for a long time. We had to move his date back a few times and he got pretty upset haha. We have been working with him for a long time and he finally got baptized. I have been in this area for a while and this is the first baptism that we have had. He is probably going to move to Indiana with his family so I can go visit him there.

Good news!! Today we played basketball and went to McDonald's. I really haven't been playing basketball very well for a long time but today was different. I realized that I still have it and I just need to play more. I feel good.

The mission is going good. Sometimes it is still hard but our trials make us stronger. I feel like I talk about this a lot in my emails but I know that God has a plan for us. Sometimes things are hard and our faith is tried, but they will always get better if we are righteous! I know that God is real.

Pictures:

I went on exchanges for a few hours in Santiago during this meeting and this is the house that some elders live in. It is super nice and pretty.

Me and my comp and Papo. 

100 percent free from sin Papo.

The DR is cool

I said I was going to write more this week but I don't have a lot of time again haha. The Dominican Republic is super cool and everything is going good now.

The other day we called the old investigator named Joan. We went to his house and he told us he finished the Book of Mormon completely and he is finally ready to get baptized. If everything goes good he will be baptized the 17th of this month!

This week we went contacting in this giant neighborhood and there are so many rich people here. Nobody wanted to talk to us but we got to see some gigantic houses and nice cars.

Yinelis got baptized this week! I baptized her and it was super good. She is 9 and she is super smart and has a lot of faith. We have been working with her grandma for a while but she isn't progressing a lot but I know Yinelis is going to be blessed because of it. We had to move 2 times because of this giant party called Carnaval. I don't even know what they celebrate but they just drink and do wild stuff. 

Today for P-day we went up one of the mountains here. It was super cool and we played football on the mountain. It was super fun and I miss playing sports.

Pictures, me and my comp in the back of a truck and some wild thing they built in the street for Carnaval, me and Gabriel he is really cool, Me and Yinelis!

I can't believe its already February. Almost Valentine's Day too. And if you want to send me anything like a nice letter send it here!

SDQ 8013

PO BOX 025725

Miami, FL 33102 5725

Good Week

This week I went to a surprise birthday party, watched a pig get murdered, BAPTIZED MANUALA, talked to my family, and found out I'm friends with the bishop's daughter that lives in Utah!​

 With Elder Larson, my MTC companion.

No spiders this week

Heyo!

This week was pretty good. 

We finally went to this cool track thats in our area to exercise in the morning because my companion never wants to haha. I ran like 2 miles and it was really nice to run but the next day my calves hurt so bad I could hardly walk.

We are running out of investigators so we went contacting the other day. We went to this neighborhood called Las Carolinas which we never go to and we turned down this street with one house. People dont knock here they just yell into their house. So we yelled into their house and this like 25 year old guy with tattoos and corn rows comes. So we share a scripture with him and we are about to leave and he starts talking about how he has so many trials and he wants to change. He told us that everytime he does something bad or thinks about doing something bad the missionaries come and he was really emotional. He said he would be baptized the first time we saw him and Im really happy about it. Times like this really help me because I actually feel like Im helping people and Im supposed to be here. Also Alejandro is really cool and he is a professional dancer and he has the coolest motorcycle I have ever seen and hes really funny.

Other good news. I baptized Paula! She is pretty cool and I like her family a lot and the baptism was really good.

I miss all of you and thanks for your emails.

If you want to send me anything wink wink send it to this address

SDQ 8013

PO Box 025725

Miami, FL 33102-5725

Love Elder Eliason

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

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