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