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.

Me gusta la mision

We are teaching this really cool couple. I was talking about them in last weeks email but they are progressing really good. We taught them about the law of chastity and they want to get married. They got to church early on Sunday, like 20 minutes before us and they loved it. I went over to talk to them after sacrament meeting and Alexander said, ¨Esta es la iglesia verdadera.¨ This is the true church. I said,¨Amen.¨ The spirit testifies to people that have the desire to learn.

We are teaching this other really funny kid named Francisco. He talked to missionaries 2 years ago but didn't get baptized because they left and I guess missionaries just haven't talked to him since then. We put a baptismal date with him and he came to church on Sunday. He is a super funny kid and goofs off a lot.

We played basketball in this little arena here. It was cool. Ill send some pictures sometime.

We had interviews with Presidente Cowan. We talked about one of our investigators and about me going home. I started getting really sad because I only have 2 more months to be a missionary and help other people to change their lives and be happier. 

Some things have happened this week that have just made me realize how much better my life is when I keep the commandments. Sometimes its hard to be a missionary and keep all of the commandments but really its a lot harder to not live the Gospel and not have a strong relationship with God in your life. If you are reading this and are not satisfied with your life or how you feel I invite you to do something right now to get closer to God. The Gospel has blessed me so much. I feel good.

I love you all. Im only sending 9 more of these emails. The church is true.

WAWAWA

Hello world,

I'm still here in La Republica Dominicana and I love it!

Everything is going good over here. We were able to see some miracles here this week.

We have to talk to 130 new people every week and give them an opportunity to learn more about the gospel. Sometimes its hard to do because Salcedo is pretty small and we have to find time in between appointments to find people but its going really good. We are working hard to do it and it seems like contact numbers 125 to 130 are always good. We have found some really good people late at night when we are tired.

We found this couple that seems pretty good. We just shared something small with them the first visit. They had lots of good questions so we left them with 2 pamphlets to answer their questions. When we went back Alexander told us that he felt something different and that he read the whole folleto. He felt the spirit and noticed the difference from just reading a little. AWESOME!

On Saturday we were on our way to an appointment and we contacted this house. We talked to this kid and he said that he's never been to a church but his dad wants him to go. Turns out his dad got baptized in our church and he loves it. We went to their house in the morning to go with him and he was sleeping. We were yelling into the house for so long and his dad finally came to the door and said that he would try to send him. Then 5 minutes before sacrament meeting he got to church!!! It was awesome.

We were playing dominos in our house the other day. I don't know if anybody knows how to play but me and elder durham were loosing 114 to 419 and we were going to 500. We made an epic comeback. SOMO´ LO´ MA´ DURO´

WAWAWA por el mundo entero!

We play basketball all the time. I love it.

I've gotten used to the heat and humidity so I don't talk about it anymore but look at my shirt haha.

I bought a suit to take home!

otro milagro

This week was super good.

We got this SUPER good reference from some members. Her name is Nancy and she has an 11 year old son named Jordany. She went to church the first time in 2000 and has been so many times, but has just been afraid to get baptized but now she has decided she's ready. We went over to her house and talked to her and she basically just told us that she is ready now. Miracles. She came to church on Sunday and has a baptismal date for the 11th!

We met this guy named El Guerrero Negro. He told us he is a singer and he gave us a cd of his music. Haha

We played basketball for 3 and a half hours today. I'm so tired.

I've seen myself change a lot in the last 20 months. Sometimes when people used to be rude to us I would get mad at them, but now I don't even think anything about it. I feel like I have a lot more peace in my life. The Atonement of Jesus Christ changes lives.

Paola bought us ice cream. God bless her. She is going to make us food today too!

This is me and my milk.

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 SOON UTAH!

Hello everybody!!!

So... I have some GREAT NEWS! So I'm sure you all have heard a lot about mission calls and the rumors about the length of a mission being changed. I've heard a lot about it too and a lot of rumors, but this week we had interviews with our mission president. We had a normal interview and at the end he asked me if I had any questions. I asked him what he had heard about that and I can't say everything that he told me. But he talked about a lot of things that he has heard and long story short... there is a 95% chance that I will see you all in 3 weeks!

But, other than that we saw some really awesome things happen this week. We taught this one lady last week and it was alright. We went back this week and we read 2 Nefi 31 with here and it was great.

We also found this other family and they are super good too. We sat down and started talking to this guy and he had a lot of questions and he said that he is willing to listen to us and give our church a chance. We taught him the Restoration and after he said that we answered a lot of his questions and he is very excited for us to come back.

Other good news... we played basketball today.

Pictures,

Missionaries from San Francisco, Elder Mieses, my trainer goes home this transfer

Brandon

Some people that we are teaching

There is a cemetery behind our house. It's scary.

Happy April Fools day! I'm still coming home in August. hahhhhahhaha

I met a gringo this week

Something really cool happened last that week that I forgot to write about. But we were in splits and this guy stopped on a motorcycle to talk to us. He said that he found an old Book of Mormon in the street and he started to read it. He talked about Nefi and Lehi and he read Joseph Smith's testimony too. He said that he knew it was a book of God. It helped strengthen my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I was super happy to find him even though I won't be able to teach him.

We play basketball at the church every once in a while and it's awesome. I love basketball.

I bought an awesome shirt today. I'll send a picture of it next week. 

The CRAZIEST thing happened this week. But there is this inactive family here and we went to visit. But this guy is a gringo 100 percent and he is from Virginia. He used to be a member of the church, but not anymore. His wife is a member too, but she's Dominican. We went to his house on Sunday and he died on Tuesday. Wow it was really sad. But nobody speaks English so they had us go to the hospital and I had to call this guy's son to tell him what happened. It was really sad. A few other things happened during the week with this family and I feel like we were really able to help and she said that we were the answer to some of her prayers. I feel like it was a good ministering opportunity for me and I feel like I'll have more opportunities to help them even after my mission.

The church is true. Going on a mission is the best decision I've ever made. Jesus is our Savior and He lives. 

The Lord's Hand

Happy Thanksgiving! It was a great Thanksgiving. I ate a meat lovers pizza and I loved it. We got together with some other missionaries. It was fun. Nobody really cares about Thanksgiving here though. Oh well.

The Hermanas had a baptism. The dude who was going to do it had to work so I did it! Woooh! Her name is Maria Isabel. She has a strong testimony and I was happy that I got to do it.

We saw a car hit a moped pretty hard. The ambulance came but she was ok.

This super drunk guy in a colmado at 9 at night got like 6 inches away from my name tag to read it. He asked where I was from. I said Utah to mess with him because I didn't think he would know, then this guy who can barely think started talking about Karl Malone and John Stockton. I was very impressed.

We went and played basketball in Maimon today. When we left, I prayed that we God would put somebody in our path that we could share the Gospel with. When we were on the guagua to Maimon, it was basically empty and I was like well... that prayer wasn't answered but then we got to the basketball court there. We were playing with these kids that live around there. We played for a long time and after I was just shooting around with this kid. His name is Jorge and hadn't ever talked to missionaries before. He was really cool and I hope the missionaries over there can teach him a bunch. I felt like he was an answer to my prayer and I felt happy about it.

On Sunday, we left with this member to go to Los Arroces. We hadn't ever left with him before so we were waiting at a different place at a different time to catch the guagua than usual. This dude comes up to us and asks if we are Mormons. Then he said that he found an old Libro De Mormon and he read about a prophet named Alma and it made an impression on him. He said that he never knew that Christ visited the people in the Americas. It was SO COOL and I felt so blessed. The only bad part is that he lives in the area of the Hermanas. We are just out here finding Golden investigators for everybody else while the people in our own area act like some copper investigators sometimes. Pero... El Señor obrara! (idk how to put an accent on the A)

Pictures!

Thanksgiving Dinner!

Bautismo de Maria Isabel

What would I do if they didn't send me to a country that loves basketball???

Worst Hurricane Ever

The worst hurricane ever passed through here this week. Not worst as in bad, but everybody just made a big deal of it and it only rained for a few minutes. oh well.

We went on exchanges (it took me a whole minute to remember that word in English), but Elder Kyle took me to the coolest wall of all time. I was so happy. Look at the picture. I have no idea how that got there haha.

Deurin and Marlen, my converts, had their baby! She came like 3 months early and is super tiny but she is doing good. They are the best family of all time. I feel so blessed to have met them.

Transfers are on Wednesday and I am out of here! I love Puerto Plata so much and I have enjoyed my mission and had a lot of success here. But also I'm happy to be leaving because I've knocked on every single door in this area. Not really, but this area is small and I'm ready for a change. I wouldn't change the experiences I've had and the people I've met here in Puerto Plata for anything else in the world. I love being a missionary!

Pictures,

VIVA LOS UTAH JAZZ YESSSSSS!!!!!

There is an abandoned basketball court in our area. super cool

I burned an old shirt in the house for my year. My shirt has a samuri on it. 

2.5

This week was one of the hardest, but also one of the best weeks of my mission. 

A lot of stuff happened the first few days of the week and it was terrible, but it finished so good.

These kids in this neighborhood that we are always in were putting up this 8 foot basketball hoop and asked us to help. I started playing and got super sweaty, but I dunked a bunch of times and everybody went crazy. It was so fun. I felt like such a baller.

Deurin and Marlen got baptized! We found them like 3 months ago contacting and they had a lot of questions at first. They asked if we celebrated birthdays and donated blood, but got more comfortable when they realized that were not jdubs haha. They are both 26 and Marlen is pregnant with their first child. I baptized Deurin and Elder Maltez came to the baptism and baptized Marlen. She's pregnant so I don't know if it counts as 2 or 2.5 baptisms. The spirit was so strong and when we were changing in the bathroom, Deurin told me that he was feeling something that he had never felt before. I'm so happy for them and their family and I have no doubt that they will stay strong in the church. I feel so blessed to be here in Puerto Plata and to have been able to meet so many good people.

The church is true. Jesus lives and loves us.

Elder Eliason

Pictures,

Me haha
Angelitos
All of us!

the mission is hard

This week was crazy.

They took my new missionary away from me. It was super sad.

My new companion is Elder Baldiris from Columbia. We really don't have anything at all in common but he met Shakira one time so that is super cool. All I can say is that I'm going to learn a lot of patience these next 6 weeks.

When Elder Maltez was saying bye to everybody we went to Deurin and Marlen's house. They are the couple that we have been working with for a while. They said they had something for us and gave my comp a bracelet and they gave me a tie. They are the best people in the whole world. Their baptism is going to be on Saturday. I feel so blessed to be in this area and to have met them.

We were playing basketball today against Dominicans. We won three games in a row and during the fourth this kid hit me so hard in the face. I hate playing basketball with Dominicans.

Pictures,

Me trying to get into the picture before the timer went off.

Me and Elder Maltez's last picture.

One of the people that we are teaching had this massive English Spanish dictionary. I asked him if I could have it. He said yes. It has all the words in the world in it!

It's a Nicaraguan!

So this week my new companion came and he is from Nicaragua. I'm training him and so far things are going good. He already knows a lot of stuff so I don't have to teach him that much haha. When I started my mission I didn't know anything. hahaha. He just turned 18 and almost everybody we talk to says he looks really young so I kind of feel bad for him, but he is doing good.

This week we were about to teach this lesson with one of our investigators and he got in a big fight with rocks and boards and ripped shirts so we left. But he came to church on Sunday so it's all good.

Today we were playing basketball in the big arena place again. We were playing 5 on 5 and it was 18 to 18. The guy defending me was talking to me and said he was going to take the ball from me then I pulled up from the 3 and ended the game. I tried not to stare him down because I'm a missionary but I'm not that strong.

We met Rudy from Buffalo, New York. I taught the whole lesson in English. He is like a 60 year old black guy and super cool.

There is this minimarket by our house and these two white guys always sit outside it. Their names are Mike and Mike. One if from Massachusates and the other is from England.

We went to one of our investigators houses and this white guy was there who I guess is her husband. He said he just got off the plane from England then our investigator starts speaking perfect English to me. It was so weird.

On Sunday, like 10 white girls came to our church building. I talked to them and it was super weird. I've been here for so long.

Anyways it was a good week. Thanks for writing me everybody that does!

A picture of me and my companion.

Milagros

Woah! This week was so awesome.

First, we got this reference from a member last week and we went this week and this guy is so cool. His name is Elpidio and he is so prepared. The first time we taught him we were basically just listening to him talk and he started asking us what he has to do to be a member of our church. He takes care of this ancient lady that is 88. He asked us to give her a blessing. We went into the room and I thought she was almost dead. We gave her a blessing and in two days when we went back he said she is doing a lot better. She ate solid food for the first time in a long time and was talking too. The Priesthood is real. We have already taught him 3 times and he is so ready!

We went to teach Mariano the Word of Wisdom and he was super drunk so we decided another day would be better. haha

We played basketball 2 times this week. All the kids in the street respect me because I can play basketball.

We went to the Teleferico today which is basically like the tram that goes up the big mountain here. We saw a lot of gringos and I felt really uncomfortable around them. It is super cool. I'm defintely coming back here to visit.

Pictures,

Me holding up a giant statue of our Savior with only one hand.

Me preaching repentance to all of Puerto Plata.

Coolest picture of me ever taken???

I'm out of here

Woah! Hey everybody. This week was pretty good.

We went with this couple named Luis and Jana this week. They are pretty cool and Jana is definitely prepared. They go to some Evangelico church, idk how to say that in English, but their pastor told them not to get tricked by us and he got mad and ripped up their Book of Mormon... but we went back and told them they need to pray because it doesn't matter what humans tell them, it only matters what God tells them. So hopefully we go back before I leave this area and you guys can hear the rest of the story.

On Sunday, we had Paulino and Juan de Jesus and one of the members from that family come to church again and that made me really happy. They are doing really good and I can see them progressing and the gospel is really going to bless their lives.

Today we played basketball again and I love it so much. I hate the way that the Dominicans play but it doesn't really matter. The mission president called us today and he said that my companion is going to train so that means that I am leaving the area. I don't know where I'm going though yet. I'm sad to leave all the people here but my companion and his new companion will have a lot of baptisms.

Pictures

The giant catholic church here

Some super cool member kids

The zone of Santiago Este

8 months...

If my mission was a pie with three pieces I only have 2 left. That went by really fast but I still have a lot left.

Not a lot of cool stuff happened this week but it was still good.

First off, we always play basketball on this minihoop and I never lose. So that is good.

We have been working with this part member family for so long. We found them one of my first weeks here and we go to their house a lot. But there are a lot of them and they have friends too. But I was sitting in sacrament meeting and they walked in! Four of them came and they are all learning a lot and I am happy for them. Its kind of sad and also funny, but the 4 that aren't members came and the 3 that are members didn't but I'm still happy.

I didn't take any cool pictures this week so these are old. The first is what our view looks like. The second is of a crazy dude that went out in the street with a speaker and microphone to tell us we need to repent. I took the picture from our window so we didn't even have to leave to listen to him!

I love you all. The church is true!

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.