Random winter photos...

Chapter 15 of Jackson's Mission Adventures...

  it's a dark and stormy afternoon (more like overcast).. the kind of day where you can feel the tension rising and the smell of decipt in the air.. the crows are circling overhead, for they know of what is to come.. it's calm in the apartment of the missionaries of cambita.. too calm.. i sit at my desk, bored and out of all things to do.. suddenly i hear music.. chriStmas music.. it is january.. i look for the source and find that it is reverberating from within the other elders' room.. macdonald.. i glare at him with as much anger as i can muster (not much, but i try)... he ignores my look of disapproval.. i make a decision.. i search my surroundings for potential projectiles.. palmers' yoyo.. goldfarbs' keys.. a rusty machete... and then i see it.. the weapon.. perfectly balanced.. aerodynamicly sound.. small and concealable... a lime.. taken from macdonalds' own desk... i obtain it.. it is the perfect size.. i weigh it in my hand and begin my calculations.. i have to think quickly, i don't know whenever he might look next.. i take a breath thru my nose, releasing it thru from my mouth, the oxygen filling my lungs and giving me strength.. i bring back my arm and prepare to fire.. i throw the lime.. the release is exact.. the arch perfect.. i don't need to stay to watch, i know where it is going.. i return to my cards in a flash, even before the lime finds it's new home... right square in macdonalds' children... the groans of pain and laughter that follow make it totally worth it.. for the moment.. but i also know that i might regret it later on... he finally picks himself off the floor and hobbles over to where goldfarb and i are sitting.. i make sure to sit in a manner, of in which i am protected.. he tries to speak, struggling to spit out the words.. "w-w-was that yall?"... and then i realize.. he doesn't know it was me?.. innnteresting.. and in a moment of weakness i just raise my hand.. not to volunteer the truth.. but to point to the bathroom.. to point to palmer.. to begin a war...      oops...

      don't worry don't worry, i told him the truth like 10 minutes later or something (ten minutes of him being quite angry at elder palmer, and elder palmer just being thoroughly confused).. and i wasn't actually aiming for there, buttt somehow it just flew there perfectly.. annnd i'm pretty sure he's gonna get me back one of these days sooo.. now i live in constant fear.. annnd i felt bad after, so i bought him some pear nectar.. sooo maybe we're fine now.. in my defense tho, he diD blindside football tackle me in the middle of a bAsketball game on monday, so it's not like he's iNnocent or anything... 

      allllso... WE HAVE WATERRR! they finally decided to get around to fixing the pump on tuesday i think? and we're really hoping it's actually fixed for good.. bUttt having water pressure is actually sO nice! i mean having water in general is pretty cool, but being able to go turn on the water whenever you want and then.. you know.. like actual water comes out, instead of some some dust and a half a cockroack (that's never actually happened, but i wouldn't have been surprised)... buttt basically before we could only have water when the people downstairs would turn on the water so thEy could use it (cuz i guess when the normal pump broke they bought a little mini one to use in the mean time?).. but that was only in the morning from like 8ish to maybe like 12 or something? (it was different every day, so we never knew when we would have water or not) and the water pressure was barely a trickle.. sooo that meant that we all had to fit our showers into the small amount of time in between when they turn on the pump and when we have to start studying and stuff.. buttt now.. hOpefully we can just take showers and wash our dishes and clothes and hands and all that.. whenever we want!...

      we had zone conference.. that was interesting.. i didn't realize that the christmas one didn't really count, and this one was a lot different... buttt i definitely learned a lot of new stuff, found out that i would rather talk to dominicans than gringos in spanish (apparently i can understand the dominicans better somehow?) buttt basically i just spent the whole time understanding like half, but not getting any of the explanations for the role plays, and then feeling really dum when i start doing the wrong thing and then the other person is like "uhhh aCtually they want mE to start oUt as the misSionary, and thEn i haNd the iMaginary pHone to yOu and theN you chAnge from the invesTigator to the memBer, and i beCome the investigatOr..." annnd if you can make any sense of thAt sentence, then congrats, but i was just super lost... other than that it was really good tho, and we took an uber this time to avoid all the walking across freeways and stuff...

      annnd some of our investigators are progressing super well actually!.. one of them wasn't married to his "wife" and didn't want to be (but needed it for baptism) buttt they're also planning on moving to the states (louisiana for some reason) and to get their visas they have to get married.. sooo that was super funny for us.. sooo idk if we'll be able to baptize him (it depends on when he leaves) buttt maybe.. annnd we have a couple others who are actually reading and progressing, and it's super cool to see...

      we found this game called parcheez? (at a chineese store ofc) so we've been playing that a ton.. i think they have it in the states? buttt the dominicans have claimed it as their own game (as well as dominos, which is a legit national sport)... buttt if you haven't ever played, it's basically like monopoly mixed with candy land, but you can't get monopolies, the candies are plastic (definitely did nOt try to eat one), it's more annoying, annnnd it's definitely somehow rigged so that my comp always wins, but i can't figure out how... annnd at some point elder macdonald found a snake called moises (whichhh i'm sure you can tell, but that's moses in spanish) and we tried playing parcheez with him, and he still somehow ended up beat me, even tho he kept accidentally swallowing the dice while trying to roll (that's a joke, silly snakes don't know how to play parcheez)...

      thattt's all i got tho.. probably.. have a good week tho! and if you're having a bad week, thennn mAke it good.. maaake it good... love you guys!...

      ether 12: 6-7

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world.

Chapter 14 of Jackson's Mission Adventures...

  suppppp.. ok, so first of all, we went to a couple of stores in san cristóbal (the big city we're by) and my favorite stores here are called "chinese stores".. annnd they're called that, because they're literally always just random unmarked buildings filled with random chinese.. ummm.. toys? objects? items? tOtally real name brands and everything... but they're my favorite stores, because you can find the most rAndom things, with some wEird names too (because it's all either knockoffs, or just realllly wEll mAde fAkes).. and the best part, is it's all always super cheap... some of the names i've seen so far, are.. "carformers: cool deformation".. "beauty: unique style, do you want to have them".. "family wisk".. and of course, everyones' childhood favorite toy.. "you are the mam durag"... but anyways we found a super big chinese store, and we were looking all around, and there were some pretty cool things in there.. a lot of really funny things.. annnd maYbe a couple things that would make you question the good of all humanity, and will not be described in this email... but i found a spiderman watch (it's for like a 5 year old, buttt it still fits me, sooo take thAt 5 year old kids).. but i am expanding my collection of verrry cool, absolute useless, super good use of money, spiderman items.. so far i have a shirt, a backpack, a hat (that one is aLso for a 5 year old, annnd sadly doesn't fit me), a watch, annnd a waterbottle... some might say i have an addiction (the other elders in my house) but i promise, i can stop annny time i want...

      wednesday was crazy.. we had a lot of lessons planned, but like half of them fell thru.. sooo we spent a lot of time doing finding, annnd we ended up teaching 7 lessons (as well as a lOt of contacts).. nowww idk how much you other missionaries are doing (based off of what i've heard it's prObably more) but for our area, and for where we are at, that's a tOn.. when i first got here, we would have maybe 2 or 3 lessons in a day.. sooo it's really cool to be here while while the area is starting to take off... we also ended up getting rid of the line in between our area and the other elders', because they were having a little trouble trying to find people to teach, especially those who are actually interested... sooo that means that we have their area for finding now too.. sooo we've got lots of stuff to do now!...

      we did more exchanges this week, and i stayed in my area, and elder macdonald came with me.. it's actually so much fun to lead the area.. my spanish still isn't all the way there ofc, and i definitely didn't know where a couple of the people that my comp scheduled for that day live (because of the way he does things, he literally just memorizes where everyone lives and stuff, sooo i just have no idea where a couple things are) so we ended up skipping a few people... bUttt we found like 4 new people (which when i first got here our wEekly goal was to find 3 people, so our area is definitely starting to take off a lot more).. we had some fire lessons, annnd it was just really fun.. our goal this week was to find 7 new people, which my comp wasn't super sure about, buttt.. we found 11.. sooo i think 7 will a good weekly goal going forward...

      i'm slowly (and by slowly i mean at a frighteningly rapid speed) becoming more and more dominican with the food i'm eating.. i don't really like it that much to be honest, buttt it's easier to just eat the food they make here sooo.. i eat a large chunk of salami each day.. if you've never had salami, just imagine a really big log of.. ummm.. "meAt"?!? (you already knOw they just chopped up some rabid dog, or a diabetic horse, or someones' uncle brito, who drank a little too much malta morena (which by the way is a soda that they drink here, that has the flavor of unwashed dentures and the smell of a multiple times used band aid) and rolled them into one of those playdough snakes (you know what i'm talking about) and decided to name it "salami".. and it's kinda like pepperoni with less taste.. what taste is taken from the taste of pepperoni, is replaced with the taste of plastic.. annnd since it's the DR, there's rice cooked into it (literally every single person here eats rice for at least one meal a day)... when i first got here, i wasn't the biggest fan of the food.. it wasn't bad, it just wasn't the best ever either (mostly because it's just the same thing every time, so it gets pretty boring pretty fast)... and the salami, i thought didn't really taste super good.. buttt now i'm eating salami every day.. one of the days i had a sandwich with just bread, peanut butter, and cold salami.. annnd it's still not good.. but i've just given up at this point ig, and salami is the main source of my protein intake now...  

      okkk so this is kinda interesting, but this week i thiNk i found the reason to stay out here.. i mean i had reasons before, but it's been super hard to see any progress with the people we are teaching, we hadn't been having really any rEal success (that was visible to us at least, obviously we are still affecting a lot of people and we're making a difference, but it's been hard to see that).. but this week something was different.. we set a big goal, and then worked really hard to get there, and we went a little past too.. it's interesting to me, that when we're working harder, and visiting more people, and trying to talk with everyone, and doing a lot of finding, you really do "get lost in the work" this week flEw by, but it's also been a lot longer than a week since last Pday (obviously not, but that's what it feels like).. i'm kinda rambling at this point, buttt this iS basically my journal, you guys just also happen to be reading it... buttt i think that's all i got this week, have a great week, love you guys!

      2 nephi 31:20

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life

      annnd i made a link for my google photos of the entire mission, and i'm just gonna add them every week, so if anyone wants to see those, here's that..

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eBG3LdEZPyA1oQN96

      (hopefully that works) buttt i'll still put a couple in the emails too...

Chapter 13 of Jackson's Mission Adventures...

  greetings, saludo, bienvenidos, and welcome.. every week i am never sure if there will be enough interesting experiences dUrring that week to have an email that people will enjoy reading.. buttt somehow, mOst weeks i have things to talk about.. at this point tho, there is a part of me that is a little bit glad when something goes wrong, even hOpes something ridiculous or crazy will come to pass..  because then i have a good story for later.. welll this was one of those weeks.. i woke up on tuesday morning (the first morning of our week) and i knew that this weeks' email would be at leassst the slightest bit intertaining..

      sooo here we go... you know when you wake up around 4 or 5 or so, and you really have to pee, so you get up to go use the bathroom, but it turns out the bathroom already used yOu?

      leeeemme explain what i mean.. i wake up.. it's around 4:30 or so, and i have to use the bathroom.. buttt i don't wanna get out of bed.. i try to go back to sleep.. half an hour later, i decide "finnne, i'll get uppp"..

      ok... just imagine for a second, that you're sleeping, and then you wake up.. but imagine it's one of those mornings where it takes you a fAt second to wake up.. like you don't know where you are, you don't remember how you got there, you can't seem to remember your name, or who you are, or your purpose in life.. you don't even know if water is wet, or if a hot dog is a sandwich, or if a taco would beat a grilled cheese sandwich in a street fight... you know those mornings? ittt was wanna those..

      nowww lemme tell you, it's a very weird feeling to first of all.. know nothing.. like not a single thought.. and then to second of all step out of bed right into 5 or so inches of water on the floor (especially with socks on, it was an interesting experience).. it was very dark, and the first thing i thought, was "uhhh.. there a hUrricane in the night?"..

      turns out there was not.. i did that tired stumble you do when you first wake up (i have truly no idea how i didn't ever end up slipping) and i'm sloshing all around, sounding like squidward, trying to find the source of the water, and i found out that the water was all the way out into the main room (our room is a little lower and kinda slants downward as you walk in, so the fact that it was outside of our room was a bad sign) and the water was steadily creeping towards the kitchen and the other elders' room.. sooo i went into the bathroom to see if that's where the water was coming from, and it turns out the toilet was creating the flood..

      sooo basically i spent the first 2 hours or so of my morning on tuesday sloshing around, sweeping water, mopping, swimming, probably contracting all possible diseases known to man (literally toilet water).. whichhh honestly, not that bad of a way to wake up.. kinda funny to swEep water, cuz you just feel sUper stupid the whole time buttt.. hey at least we had water for a little bit right?..

      later that day tho we had zone council, which was actually pretty fun, just getting to talk to other missionaries and stuff.. and it's fr sooo nice to not still be the nEwest missionaries.. technically i'm still a greenie, buttt i'm not the greenEst at least.. annnd then after all that stuff, we went back and had some lessons.. not very many, because of the time we had, buttt qUalittty! we taught eric again (the one who's been reading and everything) and we taught the second lesson.. he had a lot of questions about it, and we taught him a little about temples too.. he's progressing a ton already, soooo we'll see where he goes!..

      we had an FHE with the ward, and eric came, and it was super good, because he was able to see a little of how the ward works, ask some questions (he has a ton, which is the bEssst) annnd hopefully he'll be coming to church on sunday..

      i'm getting pretty good at drinking/eating the hot chocolate here.. they have it a lot in the winter, and luckily the ones i've had recently have had less random chunks or whatever.. buttt they make it sooo hot, like to the point where if you even thiNk about drinking it, your tongue will just melt all over the floor.. like sometimes they put it in plastic cups, and you can watch the cup melt and warp, and i'm just waiting for one of these times when it's gonna just melt thru and i'll have another fun adventure to the dominican hospital..

      the cinderblock workouts are getting continuously more and more complicated to do (that's what i do here now) because one cinderblock isn't heavy enough to do anything with anymore (congratulations to me, i'm so strong i can lift one singular cinderblock).. sooo i've been trying different combinations of stacking cinderblocks, and random pieces of our old cement barbell (macdonald kicked it into a wall, and it shattered into many pieces).. and it's difficult, because (idk if you've tried this, buttt) it's just the tinnnniest bit uncomfy to grip multiple jagged chunks of concrete and hold them together while trying to also curl them.. sooo if anyone has any ideas of better ways to create and or obtain more.. umm... human friendly weights thennn..

      we had the opportunity to give a blessing to someone.. we did the oil and everything, and it was honestly pretty rocky in spanish, buttt i sorta figured it out.. annnd i also was petting a cat at one point, anddd.. turns out, i am indeed still allergic to them, so my eyes were swollen almost shut, buttt that made the day interesting at least.. 

      we taught the crazy people again, and this time we sOmehow got thru the whole second lesson, we had to bite and claw our way thru it, but we did it.. we had to keep it pretty simple, and just try to talk fast so they didn't have opportunities to interject and interupt.. annnd.. it kinda worked, they still jumped in quite a lot, but we eventually got it done, so that was good.. annnd i saw a little glimpse of hope that maybe they might progress? sooo we'll see what goes on with them.. 

     also, random side note, i'm not sure how emails work or anything, but i'm pretty sure i initially put everyones' emails on the wrong line or something? so now if anyone responds its like a group text? orrr it depends on if they hit respond all or something? orrrr maybe i'm just wrong altogether.. buttt i think it's pretty obvious i just have no idea what i'm doing.. i don't care enough to change it tho, so if you've all been getting like random responses and stuff.. myyyy badddd.. if not.. thennn.. nevvvermind..

      we found out woscar, our baptismal date, isn't married.. which means he can't get baptized until he's done that.. buttt we finally got to give him a lesson about families, and the importance of being sealed forever.. annnd his wife isn't usually like thEre listening and participating, but the last couple lessons she's been in the kitchen pretending not to listen, buttt i'm pretty sure she is, sooo.. it was a good lesson tho, so we'll see what goes on with them..

      i gave a talk in church, and that wasn't too bad, buttt none of our investigators showed up.. buttt that's all i have for this week, stay cool, love you guys... 

"annnd remember who you are... and eat your vegetables... and don't do drugs... and don't talk with your mouth full... and wash behind your ears... and do a good turn daily... and work hard, because time is money... and money is power... and with power comes great responsibility..."

-probably gandhi, but maybe batman 

        1 nephi 13: 36-38

 For, behold, saith the Lamb: I will manifest myself unto thy seed, that they shall write many things which I shall minister unto them, which shall be plain and precious; and after thy seed shall be destroyed, and dwindle in unbelief, and also the seed of thy brethren, behold, these things shall be hid up, to come forth unto the Gentiles, by the gift and power of the Lamb. And in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb, and my rock and my salvation. And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be.

Chapter 12 of Jackson's Mission Adventures...

 hellooooo, and welcome back to the amazing adventures of cambita, RD.. okkk.. let'sss see.. first of all, we met THE BEST INVESTIGATOR EVERRRR!.. and by that, i mean someone who is aCtually interested!..

      first of all, he's a self reference from social media, which means he refered himself, and hE was the one who kept texting us to ask when we were going to visit (usually it's the other way around, and we have to text the people a ton of times just to get a response saying "sorry i'm feeling sick today").. annnd other than that, he is someone who has been investigating different churches, and trying to find the truth for himself.. allllso, he has all the right questions, and at the end of the first lesson, we gave him a book of mormon, and gave him the book of enos to read (which is what we give everyone, but no one ever reads).. and he wanted to meet with us as soon as possible again.. so the first day was tuesday, and we could come back thursday..

      today was thursday, annnd guess what? he aCtuAllY rEAdddd! and he said he felt the spirit!.. that's the first time i've ever seen that here... orrrr ever! we read it again with him when we went today, and answered even more of his questions, and we'll be going back on tuesday again.. we're hoping he comes to church this sunday too, because he brought it up on his own, and said he wants to come.. sooo we'll have to see what happens.. hopefully we can help him continue to progress, because he would be a really great addition to the ward here!..

      also, we have another investigating family, who is just sUper hyper and the lesson never stays on topic, and we've been there probably 4 or 5 times now, but we've only gotten thru one lesson so far.. annnyways, we just know we have to be vEry prepared every time we go into their house now, and this time we were trying to give the second lesson..

      sooo we start into it, and right on cue, some guy outside says "dalisa! (the name of the crazy investigator) come help me!" sooo she went out to see what was going on, so we went too, and idk exactly what was happening (i still don't know spanish and she talks sUperrr fast).. but basically there was a hose, and it was running a bunch of water thru it, but there was a pretty big hole in the hose, which was spraying everywhere.. now you might think this is a problem, buttt they were extatic! sooo we watched her start to fill up buckets of water from this holy hose, and use them to fill up their water reserve (free water ig) and my comp is like "you need help?" and she's like "no way! you guys will get your shoes wet!"..

      sooo basically we just started arguing about how we don't care if our shoes get wet, and they're waterproof anyways, and we like helping people, and she is obviously struggling to carry the buckets, and is doing the thing that old people do where they like hold their back and hobble around (i'm allowed to say that, cuz i know old people btw (and she's like 26 or something, soooo she's fine)).. but she's still trying to not let us help, sooo i just ended up grabbing the bucket from her and saying "no no no no no, yo voy yo voy" whichhh just basically means "i'm taking over" (it actually means (no no no no no, i go i go) but sounds grammatically incorrect in english sooo.. 

      but anyways, we helped her fill up their water storage bin thingy or whatever, and then she just reallly wanted to buy us food after, so she left, and we were left alone with just the husband, who actually turns out to be super chill (meaning the wife is just the crazy one (annnnd also the 2 year old daughter who takes after her mom ig)).. buttt anyways she came back with soda, and... croutons? kinda? idk what they were, but it was basically garlic flavored cookies.. they were pretty good, buttt we only got to the first point of the lesson before all the chaos broke out, and we had to go to another lesson by the time it was all over, sooo hopefully we have better chances to teach them in the future..

      we taught our JWs again.. wElll we tried to at least, but what actually happened, is they taught uS.. sooo we now have pamphlets from them to study about the bible, annnd honestly the guy is a super great teacher.. a lot better than we are for sure.. and the thing is, they dO have a lot of truth.. they're just missing some key parts (the trinity, the priesthood, modern day revelation).. bUttt he diD promise to aCtually read the book of mormon by our next visit on sunday, sooo hopefully he does!..

      we taught the crazy lady again, annnd it was actually somehow more chaotic this time.. her husband wasn't there, but she was just talking forEver about how (now this is what i thiNk was going on, again i don't really speak spanish).. but she was talking about how someone she knows, i thiNk a sister of her husband (sooo sister in law?) has a baby that is white, with blonde hair, and green eyes (i know that part fs, cuz she kept saying "como este blanqito" (like this little white) and pointing to me.. but the babies supposed parents are both black, soooo.. but it was basically just random gossip that we had nothing to do with and didn't care to hear about, buttt it took like 45 min or more just to read one verse with her and talk about it, because she kept going to the other room, and she was like putting lotion on her feet, and showing us her new sandals she bought, and showing us how funny her 2 year old looks when she's sleeping annnnd.. you get the point..

      one of the days we were walking down a street, and we looked into one of the allies at what looked to be a 2 headed duck and or chicken? like it had one head on each side and it was laying down, and it had 4 wings, and it looked like the heads were trying to get away from each other.. after watching for a little while we realized that it was 2 ducks and or chickens, that were tied? or otherwise connected at the feet? annnd they wEre trying to get away from each other.. at first i didn't understand, but then a man promptly chopped one of the heads of the 2 headed beast off.. 

      so there was blood squirting everywhere, and both mystery birds were frEaking out, but trying to fly away (including the one who had recently become headless).. buttt it was pretty effective ig, they held each other down, and he was able to remove both heads without having to chase their bodies down after..

      we also saw some chickens with "gripe" which means the flu, buttt that's just what they call anyone or anything that is sick in any way here.. but anyways watching chickens sneeze is sOoo weird.. like you know when you sneeze and there's actually snot that comes out and it's super gross, and you promptly run to the bathroom to clean away all the snot?.. welll just imagine sneezing like that, every 5 seconds, for probably days, but you're also a chicken.. so you just sneeze, and there's snot everywhere, but you can't really do anything to get it off (because you're a chicken, and you have the IQ.. of.. welll a chicken..) and it wouldn't matter anyways because you just get snot everywhere again in 5 seconds.. it looked pretty miserable.. sooo i'm glad i'm not a dominican chicken with "gripe"..

      one of the days our gas ran out (so that's water, gas, annnd electricity, sooo now we just need to run out of air, and we can check it off the list (it's usually at different times tho, not all at once, so it's totally fine)).. anyways tho, we ran out of gas whiLe i was making brownies, and it was in like the first 5 minutes of me putting them in, so they didn't get cooked at all.. sooo i took them out and cooked them in the microwave.. orrrr i tried to at least, buttt it definitely did nothing, i just ended up with a bowl of very dark looking goop, that i put in the fridge.. buttt we got gas back by the next day, so i just made them then.. annnd they were pretty good, but we'll probably all die now from dark goop poisoning.. 

      we also met another new really good investigator! i'm not really sure why it was a lot harder to find interested people last transfer, buttt it seems to be going at least a little better now.. i hope! (annnnd we met anOther! super cool!)

      okkk, that's probably all for this week tho, love you guys, have a great week!

okkk this week is a little different.. i wanted to share my testimony soooo here goes.. 

i've heard a lot of people say "it's ok to have doubts, it's ok to not be all the way sure".. i'm not so sure about that.. i have a lOt of questions.. i have no doubts.. i've heard that the best way to learn is to teach, and i've definitely found that to be true while i've been here.. i know these things are true, and i don't have all the answers, but this is just trUe.. and a couple of months ago, i'm not sure if i would have been able to say that.. i've had my doubts before, but they don't compare to the testimony that i have come to have while being out here.. it's honestly kinda weird to be so completly sure about something, i'm usually not totally sure of a lot of things, i don't have very much knowledge, but while we are teaching, while i am studying in the book of mormon, while i'm testifying to people i've just met, in a language i'm not even close to understanding.. i just fEel that it's true.. and that's iT.. there's no other way to describe it, it's just truth.. but the thing is, iii know it's true, but you can't take my word for it.. i can show you hundreds of scriptures and talks, i can tell you all of the stories and experiences that i have, the reasons, the wAy i know this is true.. but for you to know it, to actually knOw that it's true, that's not something anyone can tell you.. that's not something anyone can show you or give you.. if you really have that desire to know what is true, that's up to you to find it for yourself.. one thing that we say in the first lesson after showing the investigator the book of mormon, is this.. moroni (a prophet in this book) has given us a promise.. a truth that he had found for himself.. that if you read, and pray, asking god with real intent to know, you can know the truth.. but that's not where it stops.. faith needs action to work.. how can you know the truth, if you don't do anything to find it? if you have any doubts, i challenge you to find those answers.. but if you can't find those answers (and there are some that we might not be able to find) then it's up to you to decide.. answer the primary questions first.. do god and jesus christ live? do they know and love you? and if so, is this their church? is this thEir truth? and once you've answered those questions, all the others pale in comparison.. because if god really does love us and know what's best for us, then everything else falls into place.. and if you don't know whAt to believe, and you truly want to know.. it's up to you.. these things are true, i have found them for myself, and i know you can too.. i'm not sure who needs to hear this, buttt sorry if it sounds preachy or cheesy or something.. in the name of jesus christ amen...

  suppp.. okkk to start the week out, i bought some shirts and a backpack (for christmas) the shirts are super cool, one of them is phineas and ferb, and the backpack is spiderman, sooo i definitely look like a 5 year old when i wear them together (with crocs and a hat too) buttt it's a vibe ig.. we started teaching some rich guy who has his own school and stuff, which is weird to find rich people that want the lessons here, but the poverty gap is enormous.. 

      annnd then on tuesday we went on an "eternal walk" trying to find some old contact that we've never met before.. we seriously just walked up a mountain for an hour or something, talked to some people up there about trying to find this guy, only to find out he doesn't even live on that mountain.. buttt at least we never have to go up there again.. it was a pretty productive day after that tho, we met a ton of new people.. we're going so far that it's not even in our area anymore, buttt ig we have permission? becuase it's still in our wArd boundary?..

      at some point i got attacked by a gang of kids, who think it's just the funniest thing to pretent to beat me up (they do it to my comp too, but he doesn't like kids, so he just says stuff like "no don't punch people, that's mean") buttt i like playing with the kids, there are a lot of times in lessons when my comp is talking to the grown ups (borrrrring) and i'll just go play volleyball with the kids there, or they'll show me how well they're doing in their game on their ipad or something (sliggghtly more fun than sitting there trying not to fall asleep while some old lady explains why all of her knee surgeries make it so she can't go to church).. 

      there's this one kid (the leader of the gang of kids) who is probably 3 or 4, he always has a binki, and he always finds us somehow, and comes to fake punch me or whatever.. but it always makes the days better, i got a little toy gun at one of the colmados, and gave it to him, and now he always asks for whatever i'm carrying at the time (usually gatorade or pear nectar (idek what it is exactly, buttt it's like pear juice but with all the pulp and stuff in it? idk, but elder macdonald showed me it, and it's super good) sooo he gets a lot of free stuff..

      i think i'm finally running out of stuff to talk about tho, at the end of this week we'll get "transfer news" and then next wednesday my first transfer will be over.. suuuuper weird, buttt we'll see what else happens this week ig..

      we did some exchanges too, that was fun.. i stayed in my area and elder palmer came with me, so i got to "lead the area" for onnne little day, that wasn't even full, because we had to be home early because of the new year and the people are crazy here.. it was super cool teaching with him tho, and it's always fun to see how other elders teach.. 

      one of the lessons.. ummm.. failed successfully.. it was with our friend woscar, someone who has been progressing really well (like aCtually reading the book of mormon, which sadly is a miracle here, and he always asks really good questions and you can tell he really wants to learn) he just hasn't been to church yet.. wellll we got into his house, and we get past all the small talk and that stuff, and then elder palmer says something like (ok, take it away).. annnd then it hits me that i haven't looked at which lesson we were giving (i had made the schedule the morning of, but my comp added some things, so i didn't know what we were teaching..

      sooo anyways we're sitting there, and i think for a second, and i'm not gonna pull out the phone and look at what was planned (which was the word of wisdom btw) so i just dove right into the 3rd lesson.. annnd for those of you who don't know what that is, it's "the gospel of jesus christ" which means it talks about faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end.. sooo we're just going with it, and it turned out to be an actually fiRe lesson, and elder palmer even challenged him to set a baptismal date!! which was the first ever time i've seen that since i've been here! sooo that was siCkkk!!..

      new years eve was crazy, we had to be home by 7:30 again, and it was just a lOttt of noise.. "dominican republic: the loudest place on earth".. it definitely sounded like we were getting bombed last night, idk whAt was making those sounds buttt they were probably more of those can-nons, annnd a lot of drunk people..

      that's pretty much all for this week tho, we had transfer news, buttt turns out nothing changed besides that elder palmer and elder macdonald swapped positions.. sooo it's literally the same.. buttt love you all, have a good week! 

 alma 62:51

Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them, that he had delivered them from death, and from bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions, and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies. And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so that they did wax strong and prosper in the land.