Hurricane Irma Update

Saturday, 9 September 2017

Dear Parents,

Hurricane Irma has passed us and we are all fine.  The storm went farther north of us than they first predicted.  The result was that we experienced a tropical storm and not the effects of a hurricane.  We are very grateful for all of the prayers on our behalf.  All the missionaries are safe and sound and we are already back to work.

 

Queridos Padres,

Queremos comunicarles que el Huracán Irma ya pasó por la Republica Dominicana y todos nos encontramos bien. La tormenta paso hacia el norte del país como lo habían predicho. Por lo que los únicos efectos que pasaron en nuestra misión fueron lluvias y vientos. Gracias por todas sus oraciones, todos los misioneros se encuentran a salvo y ahora esta cada uno en sus áreas predicando. 

 

Queridos pais,

Queremos informá-lo de que o furacão Irma já passou pela República Dominicana e estamos todos bem. A tempestade se moveu para o norte como eles haviam predito. Portanto, os únicos efeitos que aconteceram em nossa missão foram as chuvas e os ventos. Obrigado por todas as suas orações, todos os missionários estão seguros e agora todos estão em suas áreas de pregação.

Sincerely,

President José M. Santos

Misión Santo Domingo Oeste

República Dominicana

Week 56: Hurricane Irma Prep

Jeff contacted us this week via Hangouts & answered our letters, but never got around to sending his group email.  The internet cut out.  The mission president instructed them expect a big storm, but not a direct hit from the hurricane.  They had to get 2 weeks worth of water and non-perishable food for their house.  Here is the letter to the parents from President Santos.

Dear parents and leaders,

As many of you are aware, the Caribbean is expecting a hurricane. We are taking all the precautions necessary for the safety of all of your sons and daughters.  Our area is said to not be in the red zone. As of now, we are expecting rain and stormy weather.

We had a meeting with all the mission leaders and have prepared them to execute emergency plans. We provided them with all the tools and information necessary to be prepared should the storm affect their area. We have notified all missionaries that they need to have nonperishable food and water for the duration of 2 weeks minimum. We have informed them that any extra expenses at this time will be reimbursed. Certain sets of missionaries have been relocated to safer areas to avoid the harsher areas of the storm. They will be staying with other missionaries in a more secure area. Leaders are in charge of calling their assigned missionaries every certain period of time. Bishops and Stake presidents are also aware of the situation and will be attentive to the wellbeing of the missionaries serving in their areas.

Please know that we are doing everything in our power to keep our missionaries safe. I will follow up on their safety as soon as the storm passes. We would appreciate your prayers, as usual. Your missionaries will be communicating with you on their normal preparation day.

Sincerely,

President Santos

Santo Domingo West Mission, Dominican Republic

We're just praying for everyones safety.  I imagine Jeff is thrilled for the storm.  He has a great love for Mother Nature in all her wrath & glory.  I just hope he doesn't do anything crazy.  He is a 19 year old boy who loves to be outside.

Stacey

Week 55: Virginia is Baptized! Being obedient brings many blessings!

Group August 28, 2017   

This was another great week for me. Yesterday I was so dead of energy because of working so hard during the week! It makes the weeks go by way fast also! We had a baptism this Saturday that went great. The whole family came to see and I think little by little they too will come unto Christ. That was the best part of the week to see all the family at the baptism and the Dad at church. The mission president even came to see the end of the baptism. We have been finding a lot and using the members too. It is the best way to be a missionary is through the members even though it is easier to do it solo. 

My comp is amazing with excitement to work hard so that is what we are doing. Being obedient brings many blessings! We are starting to read the Book of Mormon as a mission right now and to finish in December. That is thirteen chapters a week if you guys would like to join us.

The district is doing great and I learned some new things at a conference we had on Wednesday. I had to get up at 5:15am to get there on time and we finished working at 9:30pm at night haha! Very long day! Well I don´t have much to say to be honest. The weeks are bluring so I don’t remember much! The mission is a blast and working hard and being obedient makes it even better! 

Love 

Elder Wolfe

Week 54: Virginia's Upcoming Baptism! A lot of the times the easy choice is not always what is correct!

Group

Well a new companion, same area, new assignments and some very big news this week. It was a pretty good start to the week, working hard with my new companion from Utah. He actually got here to the country the same time I did. We are trying to find a lot of new people & also learn new ways to teach. 

We are going to have a baptism next week. Its sister Virginia who is 53 years old. She is a amazing lady that the Lord has prepared for us. She is going to help so much in building the true church of God! She wants that all of her family is baptized & has been praying for that help.  On Friday we finally got the chance to sit them all down and teach them the restoration. The following day they came to two of the activities. We have had some very good lessons lately with the spirit so strong! I really do think it is for faith and obedience. The Lord has guided us on what to say and teach and we are helping the people come unto Christ. Sister Virginia passed her baptism interview & will baptized next Saturday by me. 

It is so amazing to see people change there lives to follow Christ. When ever we have problems in life we just have to remember it is God trying to help us be better so we can live with him again. A lot of the times the easy choice is not always what is correct, but if we choose the right we will always be blessed. The email is going to be a little shorter today but better then nothing I always say! 

Elder Wolfe

Week 53: Elder Vinson, Tougher then Geocaching & Family History Work

So this week we actually got to talk to Jeff.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer & wanted to tell him via the phone rather than an email.  We contacted the mission president & he offered to have the senior couple serving in the area to help us contact him.  After his church, they invited him to their house.  Once they arrived they handed him the phone & told him to call us.  We thought he'd call after our sacrament meeting, but he called right after the taking of the sacrament.  Gratefully Ben had taken this possibility into consideration & saw the call come in.  We jumped up & went out to the car to chat with him.  He was nervous obviously, but then handled it with faith.  He asked a lot of scientific/health related questions, then as a good missionary, he had complete faith that all would work out & we'd all learn something from the experience.  He was supportive & kind.  He fasted for me  a couple weeks in a row & said he prayed continually.  He's a great son.  Love him!

This week like many has flown by! It wasn't anything super crazy but it was fun. I still don't have a companion so I have been with members all week. Recently I have received a list from the branch here of less actives. We are trying to locate them but that is hard. In this country the streets are not organized. They have names but no one knows them & I don't have a smart phone with Google Maps so it makes it tougher then geocaching. I have found a couple that have moved, died, or just don't want to listen. I found a couple people to teach but they aren't crazy good. The week passed by fast because we worked hard and it was fun being with different members all day. Some who are  preparing to leave on missions which is fun. The most helpful thing I would say I did was teach how to do family history work to some recent converts that plan on going to the temple here in September. I gave them the little booklet to fill out but for them its hard in the sense that they don't even know their parents to well. Also everyone has like two parents and 15 brothers and sisters. There isn't much to do here for fun so they find there ways.

Elder Varela which is an Elder from the other part of my area with which I live with also goes home here on Wednesday. That also means there is transfers, or change of missionaries. I will be the new district leader here in Barahona and my new companion is Elder Vinson from Utah. He is actually from my same group so he has the same time as me here in the country. The other companionship in the house is going to be the same Elder Casco but he will be training a new guy so we don't know where he is from. There has been a lot of changes in this transfer but it will be fun to see what happens. That's all I have for this week so take care and have another good week before school starts!

Elder Wolfe

Barahona, Dominican Republic

Week 52: Half Way!!

This week has been great to be honest! It all started on Tuesday! We finally found a house we could move into! It is brand new and is very very high quality! Very big house with 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms with 3 big rooms and the roof is a balcony with a view of the beach! But wait that isn{t even the best part! I left that day right after moving with a member and I had a AMAZING lesson! It was with a lady named Verginia. She is a contact from my first weeks here in Barahona and she has received her answer from God that this is the true church and that it is time for her baptism. It is planned for the 26th of August! It is super cool because the next week on the 1st and 2nd of September the branch will be going to the temple and she will be able to go! I am so happy for her and she wants all of her family to come to the truth! The true gospel of Jesus Christ is going to bless this family so much! The lesson it self went so good and she is just such an amazing lady! Tuesday was by far the best day of the week. The other days were good but they couldn{t top off Tuesday. 

I learned something very valuable that day that I already new but strengthened my testimony of. We got this new house that is very beautiful and we will be able to live VERY comfortable but the happiness that it brings is not what serving God brings. The happiness I felt in the lesson with Verginia was so much greater then receiving this new house! It is a happiness that is forever, not just for a couple months! I love this work and it is all the better that I know that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just another man changed teachings like all the other churches. If you doubt what I am saying or don{t think I am right just ask God. No one is stopping you from asking Him. Just a simple prayer will change your future and the happiness of all your kids and grand kids. You can be one of the millions that have asked and received just like the Bible says.  

It is so crazy to think that I will be home in less then a year and gives me the desire to work that much harder. The mission flys by SO fast! It has defiantly been the fastest time of my life! I am learning so much here on the mission! I have learned more in this year then I have in all the years of school I think including speaking another language fluently! I ask all of you this week to take 10 minuets to think about how you feel in preperation to see your God. Do you feel prepared or do you have the slitest doubt? If you have a doubt, please ask God to send you someone to help you or give you some guidence. He is waiting for you to ask, you just have to ask Him. I hope you all can do this invitation and have a better week then your last!

Love,

Elder Wolfe
Barahona, Dominican Republic

Week 51: Killed a Missionary Elder Francis

Well I have just finished what is called in the misión, "killing a missionary". My companion Elder Francis has finished his misión of 2 year. He had to leave 2 weeks early for the university to sign some papers and stuff. He was from Las Vegas, Nevada. For now though I am in a group of 3 missionaries. One named Elder Casco from Mexico, and the other is Elder Valera from Honduras. Elder Varela is also about to finish his misión in two weeks. I have talked with a lot of the members to help me out by leaving with me to my área. 

Well we are in the process of moving houses. We moved out of the original house to the señor couples house with hot wáter, air conditioning, and all the other bells and whistles but there was some complications. On Tuesday the sisters in my group where robbed during the night when they where sleeping. The house was all locked up so they think it was a inside job so we got kicked out of the senor couples house and they moved in. We went back to our original house and I connected the power not the most legal way but we have power again. This house just is very old and is time to movie because it has some problems that are big fixes. We have found a new new house though and the contract was signed yesterday so we will be moving into that tomorrow! Super excited for that! Very very big house!

Lessons wise this week was great. We have lots of progressing investigators now and have more people with baptism dates. We have found some golden investigators as we call them which means they are prepared by God an keep all the commitments. Transfers, or in other words, changes of missionaries is going to be crazy this time. It can be that they take out two missionaries from my branch to work the whole area or one of us trains and a new district leader and a new house. Lets see how that goes though. I have almost a year in the field coming up her on the 3^rd of August. It is crazy to think that because everyone says that the last year flys by, but for me the first one went by SUPER fast! It is so much fun out her and it is so beautiful! It is super hot but I just have to power through that. It is about 90 degrees on the average now with high humidity so that is getting me in shape for sure. I sweat SO much but with great sacrifice comes greater blessings. That is something I am learning so much her on the mission. Sacrifice and blessings. If we don´t even read the scriptures daily or pray to him, you shouldn´t expect to live with God after this life. God is very merciful, but is also very just. He cant bend his words, we must keep all of His commandments and then He can bless us with more blessing then we can receive!

Love,

Elder Wolfe

Barahona, Republica Dominicana