Snakes

This week has been good. Elder Alba left and same with Elder Guajardo so that was sad. A new Elder from Colorado is in our house now and my new companion is Elder Feliz. He is Dominican and he is a really good missionary. He knows a lot but we are pretty different. We don't talk a lot, but I live in a house with cool people.

I gave away an English Book of Mormon! I'm really happy about that. I gave it to Ajecka (the most interesting man) and so I hope he reads it. Papo is hopefully going to get baptized in two weeks and he is doing pretty good. He is going to move to Indiana eventually so we want him to have a really strong testimony so he will stay in the church forever!

We have a lot of good people here, but not a lot of them want to go to church. It takes time for somebody to become really converted so I'm trying to be patient. I've gained a very strong testimony that hard things and sacrifice make us stronger. So far I've seen myself go through a lot of trials and now I've seen my faith grow. The church is true and the Book of Mormon will help everybody with literally any trial we have. 

This is a picture of me and Elder Feliz and a guy without a shirt on skinning a snake on a tree. Love you all. Have a nice week!

Semana Santa

This week was basically spring break for the Dominican Republic. I thought I was going to see a lot more crazy stuff but there were only a few fights and it wasn't super interesting.

A long time ago we contacted this house and we went back a little while ago and taught her. We went to her house again and had a really good lesson. She started asked us if you had to be married to join the church and some other questions like that and we didn't even bring up baptism. She is super good and super prepared but she will have to get married or leave her husband if she wants to get baptized. But I have faith and Im super happy that we found her.

Ajecka (the most interesting man) is doing good. We taught him in English, it was so weird, and he translated in sign language to his wife. I don't really know what we can do for them but hopefully when they move to Indiana the missionaries will find them so he can go to an English church. Papo is doing pretty good too. Hopefully he can get baptized in the next few weeks. 

Conference was pretty good. I learned some good stuff and we are really blessed to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth.

My companion is leaving and I dont know who is coming here so Ill let you all know next week! Also Elder Hooker is going to train so there will be a new missionary in my house!

I love you all. The church is true. The Book of Mormon is also true.

P.S. Eric has always wanted a buzz hair cut, but his dad would never let him. He not only got one, he did it himself!

Chicken Fight

This week was pretty good. This week is Semana Santa and nobody works and nobody goes to school so I'm super excited for all the wild stuff we are going to see.

This week went by really fast so I don't really know what happened.

We went paint balling in Santiago and it was super fun. I'm not very good at it and got hit a bunch of times but whatever. I got to see my old district and I miss them so much.

This week we have been trying a lot harder on how we invite people to do things. We try to talk about the benefit that they will get out of it instead of just saying we want you to do this. It's been working and I'm learning a lot about people. We did it on this lady named Fatima and she always reads and prays, but we just know that she doesn't want to go to church. So we talked about the blessings and changes she has seen from reading and praying and told her we only want more blessings for her and they are waiting in the church. I felt good about it.

This is a picture of me by this river. We call it the trash river because it is full of trash and diapers and dead cats and plastic. The water is green and brown, it depends. But on the big hill is a big hill. We call it the trash hill because they put so much trash there. This area is super cool.

The other picture looks weird, but we saw two chickens fighting then another two started fighting and I had to take a picture. If you zoom in you can see two blurs and that is them.

Anyways, the church is true. I love the Dominican Republic. Have a good week everybody!

Most Interesting Man/Burger King x3

Hello world,

I am doing pretty good and this week was a good one. We went to Santiago Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and we went to Burger King every time we went. It was awesome!

We had interviews with President Castillo this week and he is a really good guy. He was really nice to me and he told me that I have definitely been blessed with the gift of tongues which made me really happy. Also he told me to tell everybody at home that he says HI!

We found maybe the most interesting man in the world this week. We went to Papo's house who has been going to church for 2 months and his step dad was there. I don't know how to start so Ill just say everything. First, Papo's mom is deaf and only speaks sign language. The step dad's name is Ajecka. He is from Indiana. He is half Cherokee and half something else. He played college basketball for Syracuse. He is a big black man. He speaks English, French, and Sign Language, but not Spanish. He married a Dominican and is going to take his new family to live in Indiana. He is hard of hearing, but still speaks good English and sounds almost exactly like Forest Gump. He talks a lot when we are there because not a lot of people understand him. He is super cool and I'm so excited to teach their family. He loves Jesus a lot. He prayed in sign language and I felt REALLY good. It doesn't matter who you are, God loves everyone of his children and wants to hear from them no matter what way. He listens to every prayer!

I called Elder Cortez a little while ago in my old area and he told me Joan is finally going to get baptized. I called him again today and Joan is lost again. Maybe one day he will get baptized.

I love you all. Here are pictures of Burger King, Enjoy!

Jello Pics from Elder Alba's Mom

I gave a haircut

Everything is going pretty good over here. I love the music here.

So one day we were walking and this guy said hi to us and we started talking to him. His name is Keni and he is 29. He is super cool and we have been teaching him a little bit. He is really nice and pretty shy. He came to church with us this Sunday and he said he felt good. He is pretty different and he needs friends so I'm really happy that we found him and he is just a really cool guy.

I don't know what the missionaries that were here before us did, but there are these two kids, Papo and Carlos, that have been going to the church for two months and hadn't talked with missionaries yet. Carlos' family is pretty cool but they are a little bit of a challenge, but I like that a lot.

It is starting to get hot here again and sometimes it is horrible. Nobody is ever home from 3 to 5 so we have a hard time finding people to teach and just walk in the hot sun forever. But also it's really cool here and I love living in a tropical climate.

I cut Elder Guajardo's hair and it looks amazing. He cut my hair and it could've been worse for his first time. The other picture is of me and a few missionaries from our zone.

The mission is going good. Sometimes its hard and I still have challenges but I feel very strongly that I am supposed to be here and that this is the best thing for me right now. I feel like my perspective on the world has gotten so much more broad. Life is hard and we all have challenges. We can choose the easy paths that bring short term happiness, but that will never take us where we want to go. If we are willing to take the harder paths and do the things we should be doing we will always be happier. Its not always easiest, but you will never regret making the right choice. This has been some of the hardest 6 months of my life and it is still hard sometimes, but I am so happy that I came to the Dominican Republic. The church is true. God is real and he loves us. Jesus loves us and we can find real lasting happiness through him and his suffering for us and our sins and trials. 

Elder Eliason

Jell-O

Hello Everybody

This week has been pretty good. We are still working hard and we have found so many people to teach. We are so blessed here in La Española and there are so many people that are ready for the gospel. 

One of our first days we contacted this one house and this guy and his wife let us in and we had a good lesson. He said that he always saw the missionaries pass and they were always ready to accept them with love, but we finally found them. He prayed and said he feels good about the church and he has been reading and said that he could try to get work of on Sunday so that he could come to church. His name is Junior and his wife is Ofelia and they are both probably 20 years old. I'm really happy for them!

We were walking on this dirt road and these guys asked us if we wanted coconuts so they cut one open for me and I drank it under a palm tree! All the people here are so nice and will just yell "God Bless You" at us when they are driving by.

We also have been making a lot of jello this week and decided that it would be a good idea if we filled the fridge. So we did. I love Jello and the Dominican Republic!

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!

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

Spanish Scriptures

This week went by super fast.

Rosa, the lady that found us, is super interested. She has so many questions and she is super humble and listens really good. The transfer ends in like 3 weeks and I think I might leave Flamboyanes which is really sad because I want to see her get baptized. 

Me and my companion are doing really good. He is super funny and I haven't been angry in so long. I feel really good and I like the mission more now. I stopped reading the scriptures in English because I can understand good enough in Spanish and need to learn more.

We had a zone conference this week and I got to see a bunch of my friends again. It has been raining so much the last few weeks and our street fills up with water up the the doorstep basically because the drainage stinks here. 

I'm doing really good. I'll write more next week. Love you all!