Week 19: Elder Waghers, new comp

12/12/16

Monday: Today was our last P'Day with Elder Nieves. In the morning we went to Blue mall. It is the nicest mall I have ever been to, to be honest. The whole city is super nice. We saw a lot of nice cars then we went home to email. We had two good appointments that night with  members then that was the end of transfer 2. 

Tuesday: Today we woke up at 5:20a to get to the transfer chapel by 6:30a. Once we got there I got my new companion and packages from home then went back to the house with  my new companion. His name is Elder Wagher from Mesa, Arizona. He has 16 months in the mission and his favorite sport is golf. He is really cool and very obedient! He is such a hard worker and I am super excited to be his companion. After we got home and dropped his bags off we went to the immigration center for 6 hours. It’s like the DMV. We then came back home and went straight to work until 9:30 P.M. Longest day of the mission so far.

Wednesday: Today was another good day on the mission. We had great study in the morning then we planned the week. Elder Waghers knows how to plan really well! He is teaching me a lot how to plan more effectively. We also cooked a good lunch for the guys then went to work. We had some very good lessons with members. A couple fell through but it allowed us to find new people. Solid day!

Thursday: Today was the longest work day of the mission. Elder Waghers had a meeting and there was a guy in the mission office waiting to go home. His name is Elder Vilediro from Belize. We had to be at the La Paz chapel at 8:30a. I left back to my area with him, which was his first area also in the mission. His last day he got to go back to his first area and see all the people! It was really cool to see the members and him say hi after 2 years pretty much. We visited people from 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. And we ate on the streets too. I met a lot of new less actives I can go visit now. It was a long day but very fun! Talked to at least a 100 people!

Friday: In the morning we had a district meeting then after we went and bought a couple groceries. I bought some apple cider then when I got home I realized it had alcohol in it. I just threw it away. One of our investigators can’t get baptized quite yet because is not quite prepared enough. That sucked to hear but as long as he gets truly converted. We also had another with another investigator with the same baptism date that we also had to push back because she doesn’t have enough times to church. After that we had some really solid lessons. Overall a good day.

Saturday: In the morning we went to Caridad’s house to do some paperwork for her baptism which is this next Saturday. She is so prepared and I cant wait! We then went and bought the food for the church activity in the evening. We came home and one of the Elder’s left his sink on and Elder Waghers and I cleaned the water up for an hour and a half because they weren’t home and weren’t going to be for a long time. That sucked but we got it done. We then only had time for a little left overs then go to work. The first appointment fell through then we went and picked up a member. The next appointment fell through but we felt prompted to go down this one alleyway and found a old investigator of some other Elders that what she said just stopped visiting her even when she went to church but then we talked with her for a while and she is pretty close to baptism to be honest. She knows it’s true and we just need to help her prepare a little more. So cool how the Lord works! We then went and taught English. We had a investigators kids show up and we got to teach them! The activity after went great. We watched “The Grinch”. Solid movie.  Another solid day on the mission! Elder Waghers is awesome too! Super hard worker and is here for 110% the right reasons.

Sunday: We had a really good day today! Caridad got her baptism interview in the morning and passed! She then went to sacrament meeting and so did two other investigators. We also had 10 less actives show up! That is a record! After church we came back here and ate lunch. We then went to work and saw a little bit of everyone. Elder Wagher then had another meeting so I was with Elder Cook again. We went to a members house and I got to give some blessing to some kids that had some really big tests that week! We also did some fire crackers and ate! Awesome time there, then went to a less actives house and after we shared with him we talked about his life when he lived in Utah! Super fun way to end the night before P'Day!

Awesome week here! It is crazy how fast the time flies! Got my third companion already! I can't wait to see what this ward looks like when I leave!

Week 18: Pictures and Preparing for Baptisms

12-5-216

Monday: We had a awesome P-Day. In the morning we went to the Dominican Republic Olympic Center to play sports. It was a multi-zone activity. It turned out really good! There is every sport you can think of there. We played a lot of soccer and basketball. I got really sunburnt, not going to lie. I had a lot of fun and got to talk to a lot of missionaries I know. After the activity Elder Nieves and I went and picked up our custom pants. They fit perfect and look really good other then the part that he used the wrong color of thread. We then went home to pick up our stuff to email. After we emailed we had a good family home evening then we called it a day.

Tuesday: Today was pretty good. We got our money today so we went and got our groceries. Whenever we do that we eat at the food court because the grocery store is in a mall. After lunch we went to our new ward mission leaders house. We had a meeting with him and taught him what he is supposed to do. After that we went to our appointments. The first three fell through... That kind of suck but we finally got into a couple houses. We got a lot of new investigators.

Wednesday: We had a really good Wednesday. We only had one appointment fall through. Caridad said in the closing prayer that she knows that it is her time to be baptized and to help her with dropping coffee. That was super cool to hear! We moved her baptism date to the 17th of December. We got a new promising investigator today also. It is the wife of a member. We got a lot of new investigators today. We went by and visited a bunch of the people I contacted a couple days earlier. Good day!

Thursday: We had a member leave with us today. We had a very good lesson with a investigator and he loves the stuff we teach. He says that it is exactly like the Bible. All the other appointments fell through. The plus was that we had a amazing, whats called her, Noche De Rancho. It's pretty much a family home evening for all members and people who want to go. We had a good solid 40 people at a members house. Really good day!

Friday: I took out the same guy from the CCM. We had a really good day! We only got to teach three lessons but it was the three people with baptism dates for the 17th. All of them said they are ready to be baptized! So cool! It has been awesome to see the changes in their lives! Tonight we found out that this transfer Nieves is leaving and I am getting a new companion here in La Fe! We have an idea of who but not sure.

Saturday: Today was alright. In the morning we did a little work around the house that was well needed. We then went to our appointments. We had a member leave with us for a while and we then went to go teach English class. That was fun, then the activity took forever to get going but then watched a Christmas video. We ended the night at a members house that just had a baby and the mom is a investigator! We found out that Nieves is leaving to another area. I am getting a new companion named Elder Wagers. Don't know much about him but he is cool I hear! Excited for a change!

Sunday: Today was long but fun! We had a strong investigator come to church. We taught a fun class to the ward missionaries. We then had a big lunch with two member families that are really awesome! After that we taught a couple people then visited all the people that Nieves wanted to say by too. We were supposed to have the Christmas devotional but the internet sucks and the equipment we have sucks so we just went home.

Another fast week here on the mish! Fun, and super excited for a change! The area is doing better and we are getting closer to the first baptisms here in a while!

 He got bit by something during the night and woke up with this shiner.  He said a dose of Benadryl did the trick.  Scary looking!

 There is 6 missionaries in one apartment and this is them at the mall grocery shopping.

Jeff's apartment roof.

Week 17: Very dirty, disrespectful, loud, mood swinging people

11-28-2016

Monday: Today was a fun P-Day. This morning we went to the Dominican Republic Olympic Center. It has every type of sport field or arena. We played soccer for a couple hours with our district. I am so out of shape already. We walk on average about 7 miles a day and that doesn't do anything for me. All the Elders where dying after 10 minutes of playing! After that though we went to the mall for lunch. We went home and got our things and changed for email. After email we just went back to the house and chilled until our appointments that night.

Tuesday: We had a solid day! Well kind of. Tuesdays are usually always good because its always full. In the morning we wanted to go and print some pictures off for our agendas (planners). We walked around for 3 hours because the first guy took an hour and he didn't even have the right paper in the end. We then went across town and my USB with the photos got blocked at the last place so I couldn't print mine off. Not going to lie, I was not a happy missionary. It's okay though, I learned from the experience. After that hassle we went to a lunch at a members then went to work. We had some good lesson today. We have a really promising new investigator. We were fed dinner too! Getting fed here is really rare. The people are too poor. We were so full today we had to drop some lessons at the end of the day because we ran out of time! Fun, learningful (I just made that word up) day! 

Wednesday: Pretty good day of missionary work! This morning I studied a lot of Spanish and made my new agenda for next transfer. Elder Nieves had a meeting and he didn't get back until 3:30 so that kind of sucked but I am getting used to it. Once we left we were late to a lot of our appointments and 4 of them fell through. We stopped by Maridania's and taught her the law of chastity. She said she knows the church is true but doesn't want to get baptized quite yet because her family is half and half with her decision. Half says "yes! Do it! It's a church! They're all good!" and the other is strong Catholics. Her date was for the 3rd of December but we are going to have to move it. We had 4 other good lessons after that to end the day!

Thursday: Thanksgiving! My favorite one is the field so far! We made homemade burgers and fritos! Fritos are like french fries that I think are better. After our lunch we went out to work! We had a member leave with us but it took her forever to get ready and the first appointment fell through so we went to Caridad's house with her. She also had a baptism date for the 3rd of December. She also knows the church is true but she still has problems with coffee. She still is drinking so we have to push her baptism a week or so. That also sucks but as long as she is truly converted, I'm fine. The baptism can wait until she is fully ready. After that we had a ward council. It actually went very good to be honest. Oh I forgot to write that the church has been robbed again and that is the 4 time in the past 2 months and also Caridad has been robbed 3 times in the past two months. Some other missionaries got robbed today. This time of year gets pretty gnarly. We have now been 3 days without power. Supposedly the guy turned it back on but it wasn't working. The reason why we didn't have power was supposedly we didn't pay rent but that was a lie. We told the guy and he said whoops sorry and he would turn it back on. It wasn't happening so Elder Nieves and I went looking around. We found a big wall of volt meter to show how much power is going in. We found that ours wasn't getting any then I look lower and found a ton of big switches. There was only one that was off so I flipped that puppy on and we got power again! The fridges where super wet and all the food went bad but we have power again now! 

Friday: Today we took the missionaries in the CCM out. I took a pretty cool guy. He is from Utah of coarse. His Spanish was so so but that is to be expected. Like always when we have splits, the citas always fall through! Out of the planned 5, 1 actually happened. That was okay because that left us a lot of time to contact. We talked with 2 really good families that I think are really going to progress. After we dropped the CCM missionaries off we went to our last appointment for the day. We get there and the neighbor said they aren't there because the wife is in labor. That's the best excuse to not have a lesson.

Saturday: Saturday was pretty good also. We went and taught a lot of less actives to remind them to come to church. After that we went to the chapel because we had English class to teach. That went really well. When I got here the class was only 1 person for my whole 1st transfer. I brought up the idea to change the time, so we did and we are now getting more and more people every time! Today, we had 20 people! After the class, we had the activity and that went really well also!

Sunday: Had a another good Sunday on the mission! We didn't have to many people show up to church today but it was still good. We finally got a new ward mission leader that I like! The old one was less active. Awkward... We are getting the ward missionaries more prepared. After church we had a very good lunch at the Bishops house. We then went to Caridads house. She hasn't gone to church enough and is still drinking coffee so she cant get baptized next week. We moved it to the 17th of December. We have 3 planned baptisms for that day and I think they are going to happen. Caridad said she is dropping coffee this instant and we told her she need to go to church every week if she wants to be baptized. She accepted and took it very well! I hope she can do it! Please pray for her! After her we walked a long was to an appointment that fell through then walked all the way back to one that fell through. That sucked but then we went to a member and she fed us dinner and we had a good talk with her. After her we went to a less actives and had a good talk with her. We updated the area book then called it a day!

This week has been one of the fastest. I would say that the thing I am learning most is how to live with very dirty, disrespectful, loud, mood swinging people. It is quite the challenge but I know it will be worth it in the long run. We had some very good lessons this week and just overall a solid week of work!

Week 16: 11-21-2016 Contacting and Kittens

Tuesday: Solid day today. We had some really good lessons! The first one was to the daughter of a very hard core Catholic and she doesn't like it when we are there. We taught the daughter when Jesus Christ established his church and how it fell when he died. After her we went and picked up a member. We had a lot of good lessons with her but the best one was with Maridania. We taught her the "Palabra de Sabiduria" or "The Word of Wisdom". She had a very good testimony of it that she could share. Of course like everyone she just has to stop tea and coffee. Solid day of missionary work.

Wednesday: Today was a alright day. We had a zone conference. Elder Marinez, a councilor of the area presidency was there. He is part of the quorum of the 70. When we got to the chapel at 8:00 A.M. there were three kittens that had gotten into the chapel. President told us to get them out so that was fun chasing them around. Back to Elder Martinez, we got to do some small group talk with him and that was really nice! He talked mainly on obedience haha! The part that made the day alright was how the conference was 8 hours... and not all the meeting where with Elder Martinez. After that we had to run an errand then we went home real quick and we didn't get home until 6:15 P.M. After that we went to 2 appointments that where actually really good and then we ended the day.

Thursday: Pretty good day today. Wasn't anything to special. In the morning we just did our planning for the week then we updated the area book. We had a really good lunch with all of the missionaries at a investigators house. She loves the missionaries and wanted to feed all 6 of us! After lunch we went out to work and had some solid basic lessons. Like I said nothing out of the norm, just a basic day of a missionary!

Friday: This morning we went to whats called "El 9". It's a very common place for travel and a lot of "gua guas" and "caritos". We met this guy who is going to make us custom tailored pants for 10 buck! He does it for all the missionaries. After that it started to rain pretty hard and we got soaking wet! When we went out to work, only two of our planned lessons happened. Luckily we had time to contact a little so we can find some new people. When we made the decision to contact, I felt the need to go down this one street. Nieves started to say "alright lets do some contacted and you choose where". Before he finished I found this family who was sitting outside and turning in to a awesome contact of a house with 10 people and they are all family! To be honest they have some serious potential! I was guided to that house by the spirit 100%. So cool to see the Lords hand this close in my life!

Saturday: Today was not to bad of a Saturday. This morning was nice because after personal study time we had time to clean the house. It's looking, "real nice" now. Elder Nieves and I made lunch and it was SUPER good! It was Dominican style spaghetti. It is super good better then Italian if you ask me.

Sunday: Today was a great Sunday! Elder Nieves and I had the opportunity to speak again in sacrament. I spoke on "opening your mouth". We had three investigators show up to church and thats pretty darn good for this area. After church we went and had a very good lunch. After lunch we went straight to work and we set most of Sunday aside for contacting. We found a lot of new people which is nice. We talked to super poor and super rich! We contacted this house and its neighbors had a dog that was barking. It was super dark and just playing around I taunted it because it was fenced off. I looked over the fence and this dog was a freaking horse!!! The biggest, gnarliest, strongest dog I have ever seen! It jumped up at us but luckily the fence was 8 feet tall. The best part was at the end of the night. We stopped by a less actives house that we haven't been able to visit that often. We sat down and just started talking. He is a return missionary and was also a teacher at the Provo MTC for 4 years and was in the bishopric. He is a very cool guy and he knows exactly what to do. The thing is that his wife isn't a member. The thing he wants most in life is her to be a member. He let it all out and she wants to take the lessons now and after they fed us and it was a AWESOME lesson! I was SO happy leaving that lesson! A amazing way to start the week!

This week flew by! Its felt like yesterday I e-mailed you guys! Our day where full 2 days in advance this week! Always a good feeling. The ward is getting better little by little. Just need to teach them how to keep doing the activities and such. 

Elder Wolfe

Week 15: New York is a lie!

Group 11-14-2016

Another week here in the DR. Living the mission to its fullest and had a pretty interesting week!

Monday: P-Day was well needed and well used today. In the morning we went to email and went to the mall again. We ate some nice American fast-food but that wasn't the best part. While we where at the mall we saw Elder Gonzalez, the area president from the quorum of the 70. I have met him before in the CCM, but we got to see him again out in public and his son too. Luckily we all had our missionary clothes on so we were all good! After we ate we went and looked at the latest Nike clothes and the Apple store then took off to home. My companion and I and the Elders from  Christo Rey 2 played a game called "Dominos". It is a very Caribbean  game and is pretty fun! It is super hard to describe so if you want to know more just Google it haha! Once 6 o'clock rolled around we went to our "Noche de Hogar" (family home evening). We walked in the hardest rain storm I have ever seen and also my companion who has been here 10 months!  In 1 minute my pants where SOAKED to the skin and it all ran into my waterproof shoes that held all the water inside! So wet from the waist down, but I had my rain jacket so the top part was fine. Super fun to be honest! The streets were flooded with water and there were rivers on the hills that were so big and just 100's of gallons of water coming down this hill! So much fun! The noche de hogar went well then we went home. Solid P-Day!

Tuesday: What a day today! The morning was good and just got things done but the work was great! First off we went to a house that I had contacted with the CCM Elder earlier. We taught her about Prophets and she had questions so we went really deep into Prophets but oh well haha! After her we went and picked up a member and went to some less actives house. They are getting better and their desire for church is stronger now! With the same member we went to one of our strongest investigator, Maridania. She is already at Mosiah 15 and we gave her a Book of Mormon a couple weeks ago! After we talked about her reading we went into the lesson. We taught "The Gospel of Jesus Christ". It went smoothly and she understood everything and the member pitched in perfectly! After that we had to drop the member back off then went to our other strongest investigator. This lesson was very cool because she received her answer while we where there. Caridad is her name and she has all the lessons and is now prepping for baptism. She wants a stronger testimony of latter-day prophets and she has problems with coffee. She is doing better with the coffee so for latter-day prophets we have been listing to conference talks of Thomas S. Monson. This has been helping a lot and we shared the one about the word of wisdom from this past conference. The cool part is how she received her answer. I recently downloaded a ton of talks and they where all random. When I played the talk at her house, I just chose a random one but it wasn't random. This talk was about how God is always there and Cardidad was in tears because it was so perfect for what she needed to hear. She has been having some problems and this talk helped her out a ton and the Spirit was SOOO strong in that room. Anyone could feel it! She said she knows the church is the church of Christ. She has been baptized into 4 other churches but never felt they were fully true and she said this one is way different and God answered her personally that it is true. It is so cool to be an instrument like this in the Lords hands! We had some more lessons after this but I am just going to stop here because that one was so amazing!

Wednesday: Today was a aright day. We had splits today and I was with Elder Cook again. I don't know why but every time we go on splits the dad-gum appointments always fall through. They were all falling through with an appointment every two hours until the evening. We went to a members house to talk with them about a less active that they are friends with. We talked with them about the less active they and a friend came in.  For the message I just taught the first part of the restoration. After that we went to another lesson with a member. It was the members little brother who just turned 8. We taught him the restoration and the Book of Mormon. The night ended off good at least. It was nice to talk with Elder Cook because he is also new and we were talking about the change. It was really nice to talk about it and how we wish we could be better missionaries because our trainers aren't the best I would say, but we are going to try to be better missionaries together. That was my Wednesday!

Thursday: Pretty rough day. This morning my companion Elder Nieves had a super long zone leader meeting and didn't end until around 4. That could have given us 2 hours before to work so I talked with another Elder about leaving to go see a couple people. He didn't want to and came up with a bunch of excuses so I waited until 5 o'clock to leave today. That is the sucky part of the day but then it got better. Well kind of, the first three appointments fell through, but that was because we were 2-3 hours late. We met up with a member and he left with us and we only had time to go see a less active with him. This less active hasn't really changed at all since I got here so I planned this lesson myself and it went very well. I got her to open up a lot. She knows her life is always better when she reads and stuff but right now she isn't obviously. It’s something more then just being lazy so we will keep working with her. After that we went to a family home evening to call it a day. Not a whole lot of work but we did what we could. It sucks how much time we lose from all our walking but you can't change that unless you buy a motorcycle... There is a KTM dealer in my area too...

Friday: We left on splits with the CCM today. I went with a Elder Abla from Utah. We had a pretty good day. To start the day off, we contacted a little bit and he legit told us to go a way in Spanish haha! That was fun and a nice reality slap to the face that you are on your mission. We went to am appointment with one of our investigators and shared with him the Plan of Salvation. I got the other Elder to talk a little Spanish at the end of the lesson. After him we went to a members house and went with her to Caridad’s house. We read a chapter with her and the other Elder shared a message. After it was time to take him back and we ended the day with a nice caramel filled churro!

Saturday: We had a solid day today! Full of service, preaching, and activities. Not much more you can ask for! To start the day off we taught 4 people english. After lunch we went and taught Dayan’s mom because Dayan had to leave. Her mom wanted to talk and the spirit was WAY strong! I was asking so many inspired question and she was agreeing and she wants to have an eternal family with her daughter Dayan. That was a really cool experience for me because I was being an instrument for God! After her we had some other great lessons then went to Caridad’s house and read a solid chapter in the Book of Mormon. After her house we went to the chapel for an activity. We had a great turn out and they had the grill going cooking hotdogs. We played a lot of basketball and ping pong and dominos (a really big game here). We had a lot of non-members and a great way to end the week.

Sunday: Another solid day to end the week. Church was good one because we had a important investigator come and I was going to speak.  But then it got rescheduled for next Sunday. After church we had a really good lunch, then we went straight to work. We gave 8 year Rodney, one of our investigators, a Book of Mormon. It was the kid one and he was SO happy! After that we picked up a member and went to a less active. We had a great experience on the way there. This guy got in my face and called us liars and criminals and that New York is a lie. He was just yelling as loud as he could just in my face! We where all laughing so hard and people around us where laughing also and it just made him more mad haha! Anyways we had a good lesson with her then Elder Nieves had a meeting so Elder Rodriguez and I left together in my area. We listened to a talk at a investigators then went to some other people to end the night.

The start of the week was pretty hard but Saturday and Sunday where great. Lots of splits and lots of meeting and not to much work because of travel. All good though because it wouldn't be a mission if we didn't have hard days. Talk to you guys next week!

Week 14 11-08-2016 Chasin' Down a Motorcycle Thief

Monday: Today was pretty good, solid P-Day. We went to the mall and bought our groceries. We had two "noche de hogar" (family home evening). We listened to a talk by Thomas S. Monson about how we need to be a light for this dark world. It’s very good talk he did in the October conference in 2015. After we went to another members house and pretty much shared the same thing.

Tuesday: Back to work again. Elder Nieves is the zone leader. Once a transfer the assistants go on splits for 24 hours with the zone leaders and today was his day. I was with Elder Cook today. He is brand new missionary who has been out in the field for 1 week. I was doing all the talking. I don't mind though because it forces me to talk so I learn more Spanish. haha! We had a member leave with us today but sadly out of the three appointments he could go to, only one actually happened. That is always the worst but at least we got one with him. After we had a lot more shut outs but that is just the life of a missionary. I am comfortable talking with anyone now though so that is awesome. We had some good lessons with less actives but a lot of lessons fell through. Oh well though, all we can do is hope for a better day tomorrow!

Wednesday: Today was ehhh. This morning I had my personal study.  Elder Nieves was still with the assistants so we didn't have companion study. We where going to have district meeting but the zone leaders (Elder Nieves and Elder Hill) were to tired.  We were going to have weekly planning but Elder Nieves “had to clean his clothes”.  He is the trainer so he knows best. After lunch I studied Spanish and got ready to go.  I was ready at three but Nieves was doing stuff until 3:30. Once we left we had a good lesson with a reference from the Bishop’s wife. We went and picked up a member way late then she came with us to a lesson to Caridad. She wants a stronger testimony of the prophet. I had the idea of putting talks on my USB. I have a speaker that you can listen to stuff on a USB's so we listened to a one of President Monson’s talks. She said it helped a lot and wants to hear more! So cool to see that! On our way to Hermana Valdez's house, a motorcycle on the side walk grabbed her purse and took off. I ran after him but my reaction was to slow and he got away. I was so surprised it happened, I didn't think fast enough haha. It had her phone and her husbands Book of Mormon from his mission so he was not happy about it. We took her all the way to her house and calmed her husband down for an hour. Elder Nieves didn't want to leave their house, so we were there for two and a half hours. We only had 2 lessons today. It was pathetic but oh well... I brought it up to Elder Nieves that night and he realized his hasn't been that great of a trainer the past 7 weeks and wants to change for the next 4 so we will see what happens. At least we are one mind now.

Thursday: Today was a great day! We had a district meeting this morning and it was actually really good aside for the fact that we had to do it outside because the other Elders forgot their keys. The thing that made the day really good is the lessons. We went and contacted for the first hour of the day and we found some really good people! We then went into another city in our area and dropped a guy I have been wanting to drop for a while. We had some spare time so we contacted a couple more houses and we found another really good house! We went to Maridania’s house. We taught a PERFECT lesson. It was the third part of the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was there and we had scriptures in the Bible and The Book of mormon and we taught clearly and it was a perfect textbook lesson! After him we went to a couple more really good lessons then called it a day! Very good busy day! Oh one last thing from today is we had someone that he didn't believe in God, just the scriptures... What a great guy!

Friday: Today we had splits with the CCM again so I took one of them out. It went well again and we had a lot of solid lessons. He couldn't speak a lick but it was alright. Everyone was SO surprised I have only been out in the field 2 months and I could speak the way I can. Makes me feel like the hard work is paying off.

Saturday: This morning we had a blood drive. It actually went really well and we got a lot of contacts and references. The stake president is really weird here and it was so funny what he said about inviting people to this blood drive. He told us to go invite people to come to the blood drive in front of the super market and he said "this is different, its not like inviting people to church, they will actually come so it's not like a waste of your time". I about lost it and it was such a confidence builder.... NOT. Oh well haha!

Sunday: Today was actually pretty good for a Sunday! We had only one investigator come to church but we had 7 less actives come. Our ward had 550 signed up and but 80 regularly come. 85 is a good Sunday but we had 90 come today haha! After church we went to a lunch and had some great food. We went to the house and took a 45 minute Sunday nap and went with a member to 3 appointments. After those appointments, we went to a dinner appointment. We went back to our lunch appointment to pick up some more food they made for us then we went to another families house and had root beer floats! Solid Sunday!

Love Elder Wolfe

Week 13 10-31-16

We worked hard this week! We had a lot of appointments and the ward is starting to do activities and I'm finally starting to see a change! Well here is my week...

Monday: Monday was a fun and crazy day. We got our zone T-shirts today so that was cool. They turned out pretty good. The picture on the back is from "South Park", a TV show. After we went to the mall and it is a nice chunk of America. Super nice, clean, and is even nicer then the malls back in the states. We always eat lunch there because it is "American" fast food. It has all the basics like Wendy's, Taco bell, McDonalds, Carls Jr., etc. After we eat we usually go look at the stores so see the latest stuff like Nike, Apple, and stores like that. We went home and chilled out for a but before our appointments. On the way home we had the craziest Gua Gua ride (a bus that runs on the grace of God, I'll try to get a picture of one sometime). So we get on and this thing was packed! I had to go sit right next to the driver. This driver was crazy! So when he picks people up he just slows down a little bit, just enough for someone to jump on, then he would shift down, drop the clutch, and it just sounds like a sludge hammer hit the bus! So funny! Then there was a ton of traffic but he would just honk his horn and then go between cars with like 1" to spare! He had no fear! He was turning super hard and people started to complain and he said to just shut up and get off if they want! It was SOOO funny when he said that, I about lost it! The light turned red and he takes my hand and puts it on the money on the dash, and told me to hold on and just hits the gas and takes the turn so fast! That thing was squealing around the corner and we get up on this Porsche and he honks at it and passes. It is the nice turbo ones and we just pass it like it is standing still! That's how fast we were going! Words can't describe that experience but it was EXACTLY like the part in Harry Potter on the two storied bus. It was so much fun! We had two appointments and they where so far apart we had to take the metro to get to the other. That is how big our area is, we have to take a 10 minute subway ride to the next appointment! After our appointments we went home and had a party because Elder Morton is going home. He was an AWESOME missionary and he helped me out a ton and I would always ask him things he wish he would of done and things he shouldn't have haha. But it is tradition to stay up really late when a missionary goes home so we where up until 2:30am eating and partying hard (as much as a missionary can like listening to hymns and stuff). Yea that was my Monday.

Tuesday: Today was transfer day so the people who are still at the house in the morning, clean house. Of course, I was home with my companion so we cleaned house. We cleaned out some areas and threw out a ton of trash, so that as good. We mopped the floor and cleaned the kitchen. We had lunch with a member so we went to that and had beans, rice and meat. That is a classic here. The wife left with us and we went to our appointments. It is always awesome when a member can teach with us because it just makes it that much better. They have a testimony they can share and a lot of them are converts so that is another bonus. After our appointments we had a youth activity. They don't do them here. I brought it up to our bishopric and I am encouraging them started weekly activities.  We had our first one this Tuesday. We had ping pong, basketball, and a movie going and we had a lot of people show up actually. I hope we can make that a regular thing. Then we came home and met the new guys in the house, Elder Cook and Elder Hill. Elder Cook is also fresh out of the CCM so he is being trained by Elder Garcia. Elder Hill is with Elder Rodriguez and he has 18 months in the mission. He is also the new zone leader. Fun house of six.

Wednesday: This morning Elder Nieves, Elder Rodriguez and I went for a run. We went to the Olympic Center here to see if we could do a zone activity there. This place has is all! Soccer, Track, Football, Tennis, Basketball, Kick Boxing, Karate, Volleyball, a pool, and of coarse Baseball. It's open to the public so we want to see if we can play soccer there. We ran on the track for a bit then headed back to the house. After we planned our week. I read the way we are supposed to do it in Preach My Gospel and watched the videos how. It was not the same as we do it, so we did it a little differently and with a lot more prayer. We have an investigator we gave a Book of Mormon to a week ago and she is now in 2 Nephi 28! So crazy! She went to church too this week. We set a baptism date with her for the 3rd of December. The other lessons were good. We went to a members house for dinner. We had some great tacos! They have a house maid that made dinner and she is from Mexico. They where so good! The family is really cool! The husband served a mission in Denver, Colorado. He said the the Mortensen's sound familiar. But yea that ended our day there!

Thursday: Thursday was a pretty good day work wise. In the morning we had a district meeting. Always nice to hear other missionaries inputs on what we could do with our investigators. Our lesson we had were great though! First off, they were all home! To start the day we went to a recent converts and checked up with her then she left to go to our lessons with us. The first one sadly was a drop lesson. We taught it pretty well and her testimony fit right in. I think he is going to start trying again. We also had another perfect lesson with a new investigator we contacted. After that we headed over to Caridad, a investigator that has all the lessons and is reading in The Book Of Mormon. She also has a baptism date for the 3rd of December. The reason we wait so long is because we have what is called a "Noche Blanca". It is when the whole zone plans baptisms for one night and we have this huge baptism night with about 20 baptism from all over the capital. Even the Mission President comes and speaks and is really cool apparently! After Caridad we went to another members for dinner. It is also the Rodriguez family but it is the parents of the other family. We went to another recent convert and talked with her and read a chapter in her Book of  Mormon. That ended our day! Full of appointments and those are always the best days!

Friday: Today wasn't the greatest day. In the morning the zone leaders and district leader has a zone meeting so they were out of the house. I was with Elder Cook, the new guy that Elder Garcia is training. He is pretty cool. We just stayed in the house and studied for an extra hour then I cooked lunch. We took a nap until the guys got back from their meeting. After that we headed out to go to our appointments for the day. Our first one fell through so we stopped by Carlos, the guy who denies Christ. He is still in denial but I shared with him a scripture in the Bible that I found that morning that says that God can't present himself before you if you don't show the slightest faith. We will see how he takes that scripture haha. I think the best thing we can do is give the guy a Book of Mormon because he loves to read and has a lot of time on his hands. After him we went to Jonathan, another investigator that wants to learn about the gospel so bad but works a TON. We finally had another lesson with him and I told him that if he wants to follow Christ it takes sacrifice but God will always provide a way. I hope he chooses Christ. After him we talked with his best friend who is also a investigator. We got really serious with him and had an awesome talk about the plan of salvation! He said that he realizes this is important because when we go to his house he feels the Spirit. Also he understands that he may have to sacrifice his job but I think he has the faith in Christ. After we went all the way to a less active that was a 30 minute walk away and she wasn't there. The life of a missionary. Then we walked 35 minutes back to the bishop's house and his wife left to go to a lesson with us. We walked 30 minutes to the appointment in another direction and she wasn't there. Sooooo we went to a member that was near by and just talked with her. We took the bishops wife back home and at that point it was 9:00pm so we just went home.

Saturday: Another rough day here on the mission. In the morning Elder Nieves had a another zone leader thing to do and the other Americans had service so I was stuck to teach English class again by myself. I had Elder Rodriguez with me but he is Dominican so he doesn't know English. Lesson wise also sucked a ton. We had 5 lessons planned and they all fell through so we went to a members house and lucky they were there. The worst part was that we had a member with us and we didn't even get to have a lesson with him. The best part of the day is we had another ward activity. A lot of people showed up and we ate food and talked. That was cool to see the ward come together! Starting to see some changes in this ward!

Sunday: Another Sunday down in La Fe (my area). Church was pretty good. We had one of our investigators come and she is the one with the baptism date. 2nd hour Elder Nieves and I taught the youth about missionary work and how they need to give us references pretty much haha. We will see how that works. After church we came home, cooked lunch and had our own time to do stuff until 3.We went to our lessons and they went really well for a Sunday. Usually we don't get into anyones houses but today we got into quite a few and had a full day. That was my Sunday to end the week!

The mission is such a blast and is hard at sometimes but it is only for a short time. I am learning so much not just about the gospel but how to deal with people, new language, new country, how to run a ward pretty much, and a never ending list. I have 3 months now and it feels like I just got here and have learned a lifetime of things!

Week 12

Another fun week on the mission! This island is a lot different then home. It is very third world but it is such an awesome experience! The weather is amazing! 80 plus degrees always! 

Wednesday was kind of sucky because Elder Nieves was sick so we didn't go out and proselyte. I wanted something to do so I convinced him to go the grocery store to get some hard core cleaning supplies for the bathroom. I cleaned that thing for two hours with this super storong acid that I had to have a full mask on and huge rubber gloves. One of the Dominican Elders saw the acid I bought and looked at me with big eyes and asked me if I wanted to die because it was so strong haha. Probably lost two years of my life but now I don't feel like I am getting dirtier when I shower. Elder Nieves and I also watched two movies; The Singles Ward and The RM. Those movies are SO funny!

Thursday morning we did a lot of study. Elder Nieves wasn't feeling great still but we went our for two lesson but then we came back because he looked terrible and the rain wasn't helping it at all. Instead I studied and watched the Preach My Gospel videos for three hours!! It kind of sucked but this area needs some help so I studied how to fix it. We have a lot of good ideas now and I hope this coming tranfer I can make a difference for this ward. There are a lot of basic things I learned that we haven't been doing. I brought them up to him and he said he used to do them but has been slacking off but I told him I want to do them agian. 

Friday was fun! We had "intercambios" with the CCM missionaries so they can practice speaking Spanish. I got to take one of them out by myself and show him what it's like. I had an Elder named Elder Gramm and he is exactly like me. He was big into motorcycles too before the mission and has two razors and stuff so that was fun. We honestly didn't talk a ton about it because we where so busy with lesson.  My Spanish is at the point that I can teach the lessons and understand almost everything. The gift of tongues is real!

Saturday sucked but one really good thing happened. I finished The Book of Mormon! My goal was to finish it in a transfer and I got it! The best part was is now I underdstand all the words and meanings. It is such a good book full of stories and wars. It is the word of God! The rest of the day sucked because all of our lessons fell through. We walk 10 plus miles and walked our entire area! The two lessons we did have was just stopping by a members because we needed a break from walking for 7 hours! We did get to remind everyone about church though so that was good.

Sunday was solid. We had a investagator come to church and she seems very intersted. We got to teach her during second hour and she really likes the teachings! We gave her a BOM last week and she is already at 2 Nephi 23!! Crazy! After church we went to the Bishops for dinner and then went to all of our lessons that day. They where all good solid lessons!

That was my week here in the DR! I am loving the mission! The happiness you feel here is way better then any worldly happiness. I love being this close to the Lord and feeling the Spirit as much as I do! I will talk to you  guys next week!

Elder Wolfe

Week 11 10-17-16

Hey guys! Almost the end of my first transfer here in the DR! Still loving it so much! The area is tough but still fun!

Monday: After email we heading to a mall for food and look around. After that we went to KTM finally! It is super nice actually and has all the 2017 bikes! That was super cool! After that we went home and chilled there until our dinner appointment with a member. We drank some fake beer that was real nice! (NOT) They said to just drink it all at one time so I did but it was nasty. Apparently its good for your body every once and while.

Tuesday: That day was a very busy day! We had time to go work in the morning and all the appointments fell through so we did some good old fashion contacting! Super fun! After that I came home and made lunch for real this time. I made some rice and salami and beans all mixed together then put in a tortilla. It was very cheap and didn’t taste to bad! After lunch we went out and we had a ton of appointments! We even had the opportunity to give three blessing!

Wednesday: We had a four week checking this day so that is when the trainers and trainees get back together and see how its going. Kind of useful and kind of not but oh well. After that we had another very busy day! We had a ton with members so thats always a good time.

Thursday: We had one of the assistants with us today and it happened to be my trainers, trainer. So grandpa in the mission world. That was awesome! We had I would say my best lesson. We contacted this guy and he was very hard hearted and didn't want to hear anything because he didn't believe there is a God. We where persistent missionaries and sweet talked him into a 5 minuet chat. The spirt was very strong and the Lord softened his heart and you could tell that he was feeling something. His hands started to shake you know when your nervous and we knew he was feeling the love so we asked him "Carlos, what are you feeling right now?" He looked down and got emotional and cried a little and didn't answer. We had some silence for like a minuet then Elder Sydel says "This is the Love of God?" and it just sent chills down you. It was awesome and we set another appointment for Saturday! Other then that we went to some more contacts and had great lessons!

Friday: We took the CCM kids out this week and I had to take a guy by myself this time! That means I have to do all the talking! Was a little nervous but it turned out great! The Lord helped me out and I understood everything! We had a lesson with a convert that wasn't really progressing and I taught him and he said he wasn't feeling the spirit. I shared a scripture that says you cant feel the spirit if you dont show your faith. He realized he hasn't read for a while and I was speaking word in Spanish I barley new through the spirit and he even got emotional! Very cool! Love those lessons!

Saturday: These days are crazy. In the morning we had a zone meeting and then we went to work. We had a youth with us and Elder Morton because his companion got transferred early. We went and reminded everyone to come to church. We also taught Carlos again from Thursday and it went good again. He cried again and I think he is going to be baptized. It is amazing to see a person go from so hard hearted and not believing in God to crying from how strong the spirit is!

Sunday: I had my first talk today at church! I was very nervous because the Spanish but it went very well. I talked about building your foundation on Christ and it lasted like 10 minutes or more and I felt like I was speaking in English! So cool! We only had 2 investigators show up and some less actives. That was disappointing but thats part of the mission. After church we ate at a members then went to all our lessons.

Monday: In the morning we went to the grocery store and stalked up! After that we ate Tacobell and then went home. After a nap we worked hard and had a ton of appointments and they where all with members. We had a family home evening at a investigators house with four different members that where all converts. We had a testimony meeting and we all shared and it was awesome! They even fed us so that was awesome!

Tuesday Morning: This morning we went to the temple. That part was great but getting there was a nightmare. The car that passes by to go that way never showed up so we stopped a random guy and gave him 250 pecos to take us there. The traffic was terrible and then he runs out of gas... he still made us pay full and then we had to walk to a metro and stake it there then walk a ton. We where way late but we got there. After then temple we headed here so that was my week! Talk top you guys next Monday!

Elder Wolfe

(Last week I asked Jeff about his schedule. He said they have a 2 hour lunch everyday as everyone in the city shuts down. His mission president encourages them to take a nap everyday. The mission president has been out 2.5 years. I told Jeff to enjoy his next 6 months as the party might be over with the new president. They don't take a dinner hour, just work on through. They have to come in at 8pm due to rough area. It gets a little crazy at night. Jeff calls it dangerous. It must be bad if HE considers it "dangerous". Stacey)

 Hey guys! It has been another fun week here in the Dominican Republic! Starting with last Monday's P-Day, it was pretty basic. We got our apoyo (support in English) which is when we get our money for the next 15 days. After I wrote you, we went to the grocery store to get food for the week. We went home as it was raining super hard all day to the point that the streets were flooded. It was also super windy, so we just stayed in the house. We didn't have time to go to KTM sadly hopefully today. In the house though, I cleaned like a mad man. It's probably the hardest part about the mission. The house is a flippin' pig pen! It is absolutely filthy. The other missionaries say that you get used to it and don't care. I don't feel like lowering my standards because the other guys are lazy. I swept, mopped and wiped stuff down for about 3 hours. It was pretty clean!

 Tuesday was a good day! It was very busy and those are the best days. The time flies by so fast when you are teaching all the time! We had 7 lessons which is very good for this area. I got to say the first vision in a lesson. It was by the grace of God I said it right. I hadn't recited it for like a month! When I said it the Spirit was so strong and I said it perfect! Very cool!

 Wednesday was a little different. Elder Nieves, my companion, is the Zone leader. The zone leaders in the house had a meeting that morning so I was on splits with another Elder. That morning I just did some laundry and cleaned the kitchen again because people can't figure out how to clean their own apparently. After we ran down a plantain truck and got some for lunch. They are like a banana but are a cross with a potato. What we do with them is make something called fritos. We peal them, cut them into little chips, deep fry them for a couple minutes, smash them thinner, then throw them back in the oil for a little longer. In the end they are like a fry, but better. You eat them with some nice salami. It's good, super unhealthy but super good. After lunch the other Elder and I went to one of his lessons. To sum up the lesson, I taught his investigator alone and he did the investigators math homework. Very odd but what fun to teach alone. After that lesson Elder Nieves got back luckly and he had your package! So glad to get my backpack and see all those pictures of home! I got pretty home sick seeing all those pictures but before I even looked at them all, I put them away and said lets go teach so I can get my mind off home haha! All the lessons went through so that was a good day over all! 

Thursday was pretty rough. A rich member fed us lunch. She has a maid that makes all the meals so that was pretty cool. Very good food! We went to our lessons and a lot of them fell through so that always sucks. Elder Nieves and I are coming up with a way to get more references from the ward members. We had a meeting with the bishopric (obispado in Spanish). That was good and they accepted it and we are starting to put it in gear now. I think its going to work great.

 Friday was pretty fun! That morning I had to get up at 5am for "immigration". It's when they take your urine, blood and x-rays for some reason. All the other missionaries from the CCM were there so I got to talk to my old companion. That was fun! When the lady took my blood right before she sticks the dag gum thing in my arm she sneezes and snorts and then jabs me before I can say anything. That was not cool... I have some congestion now. :( After we finished up there, we went to our lesson and it was a rough day, lesson wise.

 Saturday morning we wrote the callings for out new referral idea. We ate lunch and took our nap. Once we got up, we went and picked up a joven, or young men, and he went on splits with us all day. That was fun. We didn't have lessons because general conference messed our schedule up so we contacted until 6:30p. We had a ward activity that was super fun! We played soccer and basketball! It was a blast! The next day I was so sore I could hardly walk!

Yesterday was a ehh. None of our investigators showed up so that sucked. This area is really hard because no one keeps commitment. That's why its one of the top hardest areas. It was fast sunday so it was testimony meeting. At home I never bore my testimony on fast Sunday as you may know, but I said my first one yesterday. In Spanish! It went pretty well. I'm not going to lie, I was super nervous because of the whole Spanish thing. After church we didn't have a lunch appointment so we went home ate and took a good Sunday nap. After that we went to our appointments then Elder Nieves had another appointment. So I went on splits with Elder Torres and he is awesome! Taught some lessons and we saw a ton of RZR's driving around! That was pretty cool. This morning I mopped and clean the kitchen, my room, study area and the bathroom. Its real nice now!

So that was my week! Talk to you next week! Elder Wolfe

September 1, 2016

Week 4: (This has been posted out of order)

Hey guys it's the end of week 4! It was probably the slowest week so far in the CCM (MTC in spanish). I dont know why but my guess is because a new shipment of missionaries came in.

 I will first go over the spiritual experiences then the funny ones. To start off I would like to share you something president said. We had a doctrine class on obedience. The quote that I like most that he said is "Every time we are obedient, we will receive blessings". It's such a simple statement but is often over looked. We also finally got to go to the temple! It was an awesome experience but stressful because I had to do it in Spanish! Very interesting but obviously felt the spirit.

My last one that I want to share is one of our lessons with our fake investigator. It was the same day we went to the temple and we where feeling the spirit and with out even looking at my companion we switched off without skipping a beat. It was very awesome and we both felt the spirit strong!

 Now on to the funny stuff! The CCM is full of funny things but I will tell you the best ones. First one is we eat a lot of bannanas here becaues fruits that you peel are always healthy to eat here but like strawberries are not to safe. So we had a bunch of peels and my companion was in the shower to we opened the door and threw them at him over the curtain but that is just the begging. After he got out I got in and he tries to get me back but misses and he starts running but I pick it up and nailed him in the chest with a nice soggy wet banana! Awesome! Everyone in the room has been pranked and we usually will just spray them with shaving cream but one time we did protein mix and shaving cream and it was such a mess but worth it. We also did a first here at the CCM.

We threw the first party in our room and we listened to BYU Vocal point and had stoplights and silly string for some reason and some of it is still hanging from the sealing! Cause what else do you do with your time at 10:00p. 

Another first thing my companion and I did to create history here is how fast we cut aa pizza. Every Sunday we eat pizza and it was our turn to make them. We cooked 30 pizzas so we had a lot of pizzas to practice with. We got our time down to 1.6 seconds to cut a full size pizza together! We had the CCM Presidents laughing so hard! It was such a fun time!

 We also watch a church movie on P-Days and last week was called "Freetown". It is a amazing movie that I request for all you guys to watch. It is about how these missionaries in Liberia had to leave because of rebels and it showed their dedication to the church! Very nerve racking and has guns involved so always good and that means anyone in the Dairy Creek ward wants to watch it now! 

Other then that this week has just been learning more Spanish. Tomorrow we get to go on splits for the first time tomorrow so cant wait for that! See ya later guys! Elder Wolfe