New Area!

Sorry I didn't write last week. I didn't have a lot of time, but...the last two weeks have been crazy.

Transfers were this week and so I left my first area Flamboyanes. There are so many cool people there and it was really sad saying goodbye to all of them.

I got transferred to La Espanola which is to the north east of

Santiago. Me and Elder Alba from Utah both got moved here and so we are both new here. There haven't been missionaries here since December so there is a lot of work to do. The area is super big because there should be 4 Elders here but it is just us two. We live with other Elders super far away from where we always are because some not so good stuff happened in the old house and it was expensive. I live with Elder Guajardo who was my companion in the MTC and Elder Hooker from Trinidad and Tobago. We all speak English so I'm not getting a lot of practice in Spanish haha. 

This area is super cool and there are a lot of hills and a giant river and some big cliffs. The members are super cool and we have already found a lot of people that are ready for the Gospel. Everything is going pretty good right now and I'm excited to be here in a new area with so much work to do! It is pretty fun.

The first picture is of me and Elder Cortez, Hermana Estofanero and Hermana Niceler.

The second is a picture of Alejandro. He is super cool. He got baptized right before I got to my first area and he is super funny and old. He is really good at dominos and he got kind of emotional when I went to say goodbye. I love him.

The third is me on a cliff in this neighborhood. It is super cool. I love this place!

This place is NUTZ

Hey

This week went by super fast but also super crazy. Just so everybody knows a little more about where I live, here is what happened this week...

At 4 AM we heard a crash in our house and one of the windows was broken. There are bars on the windows, but still somebody was there. We called the zone leaders and they called the cops and they didn't find anything. But there were like 7 cops in our house at 4:45 in the morning.

We were teaching a guy in a colmado and these 2 dudes started beating each other up. They stopped and one ran away and the other came back yelling with a machete, but nothing happened.

We walked past a cock fighting ring slash stadium.

We almost saw 2 big dogs kill each other in a fight.

But something really good happened. We didn't have anything to do and we felt like we should go to this one house that we contacted a long time ago. We shared with the whole family and it was super good. They have a lot of questions and are super prepared. I'm super excited for them!

Also we went to Wendy's in Santiago!

I love you all. The church is true!

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.

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.

"That's not the language they taught me in the MTC"

HEY!

Today is my 2 month mark! I feel like its so crazy that its already been two months but also I feel like I have been here for my entire life and I will be here for the rest of my life. 

The language is coming but also its so hard. I can understand slow spanish really good but the problem is that dominicans dont pronounce anything and they speak super fast so some people I can understand ok and some people I have no idea what they are saying. Sometimes its really hard to not be able to communicate because I came on a mission to talk to people not follow around my companion. But I have learned so much in the last two months its crazy!

I saw some crazy stuff this week. There are so many stray dogs that when one dies nobody is going to bury it so there was this giant dog on this street we always walk on and it smells so bad and Im not going to describe how it looks. I saw SIX people on a moped. I realized this place we walk by everyday is a washing machine repair shop so I thought that was funny. Also everybody has up Christmas decorations and yesterday i saw a doormat that said "Let it snow" but my dominican companion has never seen snow and its hot and humid everyday haha.

I will try to send pictures next week but its really slow right now and I dont have enough time. Thanks for all your emails and sorry if I didnt respond.

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