greetings... sooo i live in the DR now, that's kinda sick, i guess i should start with the flight here.. basically we left from the CCM in mexico around 8 pm on sunday last week.. we get to the airport around 9 or 10 or something idk, and one of the first things we thought of to do was to play uno with all the people who were on the flight with us coming here, we were sitting in the airport waiting for the flight and we were bored, so anyways we're playing uno, and sOmeone decided to "make it a little more interesting" and decided that whoever lost the game would have to walk up to someone and share a message with them, which is normal nOw, but none of us had done it at that point.. so anyways Elder Demille looses, and only a couple of you know who that is, but for those of you who don't, let's just say he doesn't exactly LOVE speaking spanish, he's coming along with the language really well ofc, (and i haven't seen him in a week now) but at that point i don't think he was sUper thrilled to be teaching a lesson, so we ended up playing another game to see who his comp would be, and it turned out to be Elder Lucio, from cancun, so they confidently walked over and gave some guy a lesson, and even gave him a book of mormon to read.. so that was sick
anyways we flew to the DR, got here around 6 am or so, and we were greeted by the mission president, and mrs mission president, and we drove over to their house, and the first day we just sat around and talked, took a lot of naps, annnd tried to mentally prepare for the coming days..
the next day was "training".. umm.. sort of.. i mean that's what they cAlled it at least, but it wasn't really much training, mostly just talking about some things.. probably.. i was pretty tired for most of it, bUttt at the end of the day we got to go try some contacting, which is basically just trying to talk to people on the street, getting to know them a little bit, show them that we're just regular people (and not the FBI/CIA (that's what everyone keeps saying i look like)) and then maybe telling them a little about what we believe.. that was pretty fun, but i wasn't able to talk or understand much ofc.. and then that night we found out who our trainers were going to be, and where we would be going the next day
also in case anyone is wondering, i'm actually not sick anymore, idk at what point it happened, but i was on antibiotics for a minute, and i'm finally cured
anyways, the next day was the day of traveling, we went to some church in the capital and waited for everyone to show up.. there were a ton of missionaries there, and me being super awkward and only knowing a few, felt very out of place and ofc.. awkward.. anyways at some point i got in some little truck, (shout out to Elder Vancott (cuz he sat next me on the truck, and i already mentioned Elder Demille (cotty also played some guitar and stuff))) anyways i finally met my trainer (or as they say in the mission; "my dad").. he's from argentina, and he's the only non gringo trainer, bUttt he still knows how to speak english, so he's basically a gringo anyways
then we went to the store, and i left one of my bags in the uber and still haven't gotten it back, we got what sEemed at the time like a lot of food, because we have to buy for 2 weeks because the uber ride costs so much and it's too far to walk with 74836483 groceries, bUttt now it seems like we bought like nothing, cuz our food is a bit limited.. once we got to the house i looked around, it's basically a 5 star hotel, so i'm not complaining.. we always have water (the pressure is that of a babies bottle, but that's not important) our fridge works which is sick! we have a laundry machine and there's no dryer, but i found some rope so i could hang up my clothes to dry! we get to listen to more music than just hymns, which i was very happy about after the CCM! we have mosquito nets so i'm mostly protected if i scrunch up into a ball and don't touch the edges of the net, which i'm getting better at!
we play a lot of games in the free time that we have, a lot of card games, dominos (which is really big here), and "tosos" which i don't know how to spell, oRr to play, but basically you throw circles at other circles on the ground, and then you get the circles that flip over.. and apparently all the kids play this game and are super good at it
the teaching is really cool tho, i honestly don't get much of what is being said, but i am to the point where i can say what i want to say about a topic, share scriptures, i even gave away my first book of mormon yesterday to a lady in the haitian village, which was super cool.. i just mostly need to work on understanding when the people are talking, cuz that's the biggest issue right now, is i understand almost nothing
it's super fun tho, i'm kinda constantly tired, but i'm adjusting, the freezing showers help a ton fs, buttt other than that i'm not sure, that's probably all for this email, love you guys, lemme know if you need anything, or want anything, orrrrr if you're just bored, it's fun to read stuff you guys send too
Verily, verily, I say unto you, this is my gospel; and ye know the things that ye must do in my church; for the works which ye have seen me do that shall ye also do; for that which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do
now that i'm looking at the pictures i forgot to mention we teach an english every week, i work out with cinderblocks, annnd finally i took a picture with a horse, but it got deleted somehow, soooo that's a recreation
