"Hmm. This week passed again just as fast as the last. Study Study Study. I am using my study times even more affectively and it pays off. I GOT MY BALLOT. I am filling it out and then the mail goes out tomorrow. That measure about the THPRD NEEDS TO GO THROUGH. Then they can fix things like the boiler that goes out every year and be able to get things up and working like the lights in our pool that have a short.
But here in my world. The Dominicanos are great! My companion and i go into one of their rooms and teach them an english hymn every night. It's awesome. But we were singing last night and i forgot the words in english. I could remember every word in spanish but the english words slipped my mind. Then last night i got a little prideful about my memorization and offered to race a dominican that just got it all memorized and stupid me. He kicked my butt!. I wasn't even half way through it and he was done. Very Humbling experience. We teach him english words and he is helping us with out spanish. I can't wait till i'm fluent. Today we are doing the Endowment in spanish. I will definitely have a headset =) oh man.
We had set up an appointment to meet with this girl at the university on monday becuase last time we left here with an english pamphlet becuase she want's to talk english with us. So we were going to meet her but she never showed up. So much prayer and this sunday is fast sunday so hopefully we can see her again on monday and answer questions and help her find the Restored Gospel. Josh- i'm sorry i keep giving you advice but I LOVE PREACH MY GOSPEL. Start going through it and studying it. The lessons especially. They are great. I love Lesson Three. Thats all... =)
What else what else. We play basketball during our gym time and we had a pretty good system down and then all the domincans and they have completely different rules. They don't take the ball back. I swear they don't know what a foul is. and the scoring team gets the ball and they don't know what traveling is either. It makes the games interesting. It's pretty fun! I also started playing ping pong. It's way fun! I'm no good yet but i enjoy playing. But non missionaries who aren't supposed to be in our gym come in and break the balls and paddles and stuff so it makes it a pain to go and then not have a ball to play with. I usually play by myself anyway. Just fold it up like forest gump and go for it.
I am almost through Our heritage. WHAT A WONDERFUL BOOK! So many Miracles happened to the Saints. Their Faith was tried many times and they still kept going. Constantly moving constantly being attacked and constantly Trying to create a temple to Worship God. There is one story that Tells of a man who was tied up, and one of the guards walked over and said if you don't denounce mormonism right now i'll shoot you. and he replied never will i eny my god. and then the man tried to shoot him but the bullet would not fire. He seemed confused becuase he said his gun had never missed a shot. He cleaned it and tried again and still it would not fire. So he Cleaned it again and put a new pack in and tried again and it would not work. So the fourth time someone else cleaned it and he went for it the 4th time and his gun backfired killing the man who was trying to shoot the mormon. Crazy! So many stories and accounts of people that gave up everything they had to obey. Watched family members be killed and everything. Amazing Faith. It makes me feel like i have life so much easier. that there is nothing that i cannot do.
Another thing. I went to the Joseph Smith website the church has and was looking and some of the Documents they have there and i was just shocked at Joseph Smiths writing ability. What a Testimony to me that he was called of God. There are a few letter he wrote to Emma in Liberty Jail. He has terrible spelling and makes so many mistakes. For a man with that little education to produce a book so profound is a miracle and we are living it! We are seeing the fruits of those Pioneers who endured more trials than we could comprehend. But as the lord works to help us and guide us we know that satan tries just as hard. We have problems and trials in our day as well Much different but they are there. What an amazing blessing to be born in our day. Into families and Diversity and all the intricate details of our day.
There were some interesting times this week. We were talked to by the President about using our study time for things that our investigators will need. Some elders got on the subject of Cain. and whether Cain is alive or dead and it got pretty bad one elder went a little too far with it. But another elder started quoting Parly P Pratts Journal entries where it talks about his run in with Cain. and then president told us that that is of no importance to us at this time nor is it really important in any time of our lives. The main chunk of the Gospel we should focus on is the Atonement and Jesus Christ. Kind of like the Quote from Thomas Edison. "You and i have 16 hours in a day in which we can do something, the difference, you spend your time doing a bunch of unrelated things i spend all of mine focused on one thing and eventually my work is bound to amount to something." (paraphrased) Our purpose for coming to the earth is to prepare to meet god. I can be focused on something that will be more involved to my purpose in life at this moment. To help other Children of God to begin their preparations
Enough on that. Studying the scriptures has such a great impact on my day. In the Knowledge Christlike Attribute in Preach my gospel it says to Study the Scriptures Every day, and also the words of the living prophets. Why did i not do that before my mission? oh boy. It gives such great peace and comfort to my soul. At the university i am having a hard time being bold. In preach my gospel it tells us we need to be bold but not overbearing. This is people's salvation and not something to just say ok i understand if they say they are catholic or something else. I am practicing sharing with them the importance of our message.
Well my email is quite long and you're probab ly bored. I'm going to the temple."Life is not easy, becuase Salvation was not a cheap experience"Jeffrey R Holland.
I love Being a missionary!
Elder Ellis"
October 23
Here is Elder Ellis' update for the week!! I only posted one picture this week that Elder sent over, but here is what he's been up to:
"This week when we went to the university we were talking to this one girl and then a few guys called uis over. so we walked over and tryed to see what was going on and they told us to tell them what we were telling her. Sure enough it was a whole baseball team just sitting around and one guy got everyone to sit down and told them to listen to us. That moment was the moment i have felt the most comfortable the whole time i have been here. I don't remember what i said but i just remember being completely comforted that something was working. Everyone was listening with a few giggling but once we were done we asked who would like to learn more from the other missionaries and we got 5-10 names and phone numbers written down.It was magnificent!
This week i didn't have as an exciting week as others. Although we did say goodbye to the Haitian elders They all left for their missions in Haiti. That was a though experience for them. We all treated them as brothers and becuase they are from haiti they haven't been blessed with the luxuries of life we have in the states. They told us of times where they mix flour dirt and water and let it bake in the sun then eat it. Wow. oh man oh man. so when we went to the store some elders got together and bought them all some shirts and other things they could take with them. I gave one elder one of my favorite ties and shared with another elder a quote from Ezra taft Benson "i have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work. If a missionary works he will get the spirit if he gets the spirit he will teach by the spirit if he teaches by the spirit he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homnesickness no worrying about families for all time talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work work work. There is no satisfactory substitute especially in missionary work" I love that! but I read a quote that i really like that says you can never experience real service until you serve someone that cannot repay you. i felt this in action this week and it was wonderful. They all called me the ....Guess Guess.....Magic man... =) it was great they were just as good as little kids to show the tricks to. One becuase they spoke french and i couldn't understand what they were saying to me and two they laugh at everything. It was great having them. and now we are into a new season with the dominican elders.
Today at Almuerzo i sat with a bunch of dominicans and they kept saying things to me but i didn't understand a single thing they said. They all started laughing and it was misreable. I can't wiat till i get the language down. Although during our meeting i could uinderstand most of what our Office worker said when he oppened the meeting and i can understand all of what our president says becuase he talks so slow and has a very american accent. Its nice to have experiences like that and then have another one to combat it at the university or i guess in the hallways now.
This week i also had the opportunity of preaching to the baseball team which i already explained. But aside from that not too much. We changed our planning methods and are now planning around our goals instead of just planning the things we want to do. I feel much mroe successful when i plan to my goals and achieve all that i plan. In the past i have rarely if ever planned out many things and hardley ever really set out goals to achieve. It make such a difference when you plan and spend your time wisely according to your plans. it is great and feels so rewarding! I planned to memorize My objective in spanish Doctrine and covenants 4 and The first vision in spanish this last week. I planned to have it done by last wednesday but didn't get it and worked and worked till i got it. I got it on saturday and passed it off and recieved my nifty bookmark. i am getting much better at studying and memorizing things. I wish i could go abck to school and retake all of my classes now. I needed desperately to study more and focus on the assignments i had. This has been a wonderful opportunity for me to learn and grow and i am so glad for it."
"This week when we went to the university we were talking to this one girl and then a few guys called uis over. so we walked over and tryed to see what was going on and they told us to tell them what we were telling her. Sure enough it was a whole baseball team just sitting around and one guy got everyone to sit down and told them to listen to us. That moment was the moment i have felt the most comfortable the whole time i have been here. I don't remember what i said but i just remember being completely comforted that something was working. Everyone was listening with a few giggling but once we were done we asked who would like to learn more from the other missionaries and we got 5-10 names and phone numbers written down.It was magnificent!
This week i didn't have as an exciting week as others. Although we did say goodbye to the Haitian elders They all left for their missions in Haiti. That was a though experience for them. We all treated them as brothers and becuase they are from haiti they haven't been blessed with the luxuries of life we have in the states. They told us of times where they mix flour dirt and water and let it bake in the sun then eat it. Wow. oh man oh man. so when we went to the store some elders got together and bought them all some shirts and other things they could take with them. I gave one elder one of my favorite ties and shared with another elder a quote from Ezra taft Benson "i have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work. If a missionary works he will get the spirit if he gets the spirit he will teach by the spirit if he teaches by the spirit he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no homnesickness no worrying about families for all time talents and interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work work work. There is no satisfactory substitute especially in missionary work" I love that! but I read a quote that i really like that says you can never experience real service until you serve someone that cannot repay you. i felt this in action this week and it was wonderful. They all called me the ....Guess Guess.....Magic man... =) it was great they were just as good as little kids to show the tricks to. One becuase they spoke french and i couldn't understand what they were saying to me and two they laugh at everything. It was great having them. and now we are into a new season with the dominican elders.
Today at Almuerzo i sat with a bunch of dominicans and they kept saying things to me but i didn't understand a single thing they said. They all started laughing and it was misreable. I can't wiat till i get the language down. Although during our meeting i could uinderstand most of what our Office worker said when he oppened the meeting and i can understand all of what our president says becuase he talks so slow and has a very american accent. Its nice to have experiences like that and then have another one to combat it at the university or i guess in the hallways now.
This week i also had the opportunity of preaching to the baseball team which i already explained. But aside from that not too much. We changed our planning methods and are now planning around our goals instead of just planning the things we want to do. I feel much mroe successful when i plan to my goals and achieve all that i plan. In the past i have rarely if ever planned out many things and hardley ever really set out goals to achieve. It make such a difference when you plan and spend your time wisely according to your plans. it is great and feels so rewarding! I planned to memorize My objective in spanish Doctrine and covenants 4 and The first vision in spanish this last week. I planned to have it done by last wednesday but didn't get it and worked and worked till i got it. I got it on saturday and passed it off and recieved my nifty bookmark. i am getting much better at studying and memorizing things. I wish i could go abck to school and retake all of my classes now. I needed desperately to study more and focus on the assignments i had. This has been a wonderful opportunity for me to learn and grow and i am so glad for it."
Oct.16
"October 16, 2008
Este semana pasado fue muy bien. It started with a big day of service on last thursday. We sweat a whole lot and all enjoyed it. Then Friday and saturday rolled around. So far friday and saturday are my least favorite days. In los estados unidos i would have something to do. It's the weekend lets do something... but in the CCM friday and saturday are just like every other day. Sundays are great however. We get nap time which feels like one of the most divine blessings we have =) and time to write letters... letters not emails.
But back into the mission. Lately we have been focusing on using scriptures effectively. Introducing a scripture and then having them read it then helping them understand it and apply it. So earlier when i Told josh to study the scriptures thats a more focused study plan for you. START NOW! learn how to do all of that. It will make your MTC experience better if you are learning a language, not to mention the amount knowledge you have before you go into the MTC.
On sunday we also got to watch Jeffrey R Holland in his Devotional at the MTC in 2000. It is magnificent. Nothing has ever given me such a strong testimony of the power a mission can have as his talk did. He speaks with power directness and Authority. What a wonderful Man. I stress the Greatness of that in hopes that you will be able to find it to watch and maybe show the young men if you feel so inspired.
one monday we went to the university again. My spanish is coming along nicely but i can't understand hardley a thing they say back. I try to translate it and then end up a few sentances behind them and then just say no entiendo (i don't understand). We had a goal of 6 Refferals and this week we realized we're talking way to much and need to bring our goal up to 10. we talked with another lady for 20 minutes. She was catholic and loved when we read out of the book of mormon becuase she knew they were inspired words. She just didn't understand why we needed another book. I recited the first vision to her in spanish (from memory) and she said Amen amen amen the whole way through but she never quiet understood. or maybe there was something i didn't understand. Probably the latter. then i realized we had taken way to much time so apologized and said we ahd to go. We said goodbye and then as we were walking up we saw a guy that said he already had a book of mormon and said that his family didn't want any of it in their house so he asked where he could get more answers so i gave him a pass along card and showed him the web site. THEN it started to Rain like a mad man. POURING... It only rained for 5 minutes and by the time it stopped we were soak to our skivveys. Completely wet. Swimming in my shoes. Then liek i said it stopped in 5 minutes. We started to walk back to the CCM and we were standing on the street corner. Cars are crazy here so we were just waiting to cross and a big bus with people hanging off every side comes driving by. Just like in a movie me and my companion Got our whole lower halfs soaked. The bus hit i big puddle and just drenched our legs. THEN we kept walking up this little hill and a little love bug was stopped. Just cranking his engine. Just would not let off the ignition. So we walked and i wanted to help and other missionaries were saying no no come on we have to go. and I would just let him sit there becuase there was no way any other drivers were going to stop. If you could see it you would know exactly why. So i ran up and asked if he needed help, he shook his head yes. So i got on the side and pushed pushed pushed. Since it was on a hill it rolled back a few feet and then some other elders started to help and we got it up the hill. It was sputting all the way up the hill then he finally got it in gear and started to go. Now we were soaking wet and hands black from all the dirt on his car. we walked the rest of the way back and then later that night my first case of Churria hit. =) only lasted for an evening thank heavens but boy was it unpleasant. We learned this neat new word becuase someone had heard it and didn't know what it was so they asked their teacher and it spread like wild fire.
Then we had a wonderful Meeting on tuesday with the Caribe area president he shook every missionaries hand and walked around as he talked wth us. It was wonderful. FYI there are about 50 missionaries here. all the guy are at the north end of the 4th floor the middle section is all classrooms and the south end is the 4 girls rooms. Next week we say goodbye to all the Haitian elders and then we have 30 Latino elders coming in. I am very excited. We will be using spanish much more and hopefully get much better at it.
on tuesday we got to go to the store the Tienda. I wanted to get some regular food that i'm a little more used to and so i did i got two cans of pringles. and sadly they are already gone. We only had an hour and so it was hard to decide what i wanted to get. i got a pretty Cool Shirt. Pretty redneck but pretty cool.
I Love being here i love being able to experience a completely different culture and completely different language. It is by no means easy work. and i mean it in all seriousness just being in the MTC has probably been one of the hardest things i have ever done in my life. To sit and study For hour after hour every day of the week is very draining physically emotionally and mentally.I love being a missionary. It's hard but it's worth it!"
Este semana pasado fue muy bien. It started with a big day of service on last thursday. We sweat a whole lot and all enjoyed it. Then Friday and saturday rolled around. So far friday and saturday are my least favorite days. In los estados unidos i would have something to do. It's the weekend lets do something... but in the CCM friday and saturday are just like every other day. Sundays are great however. We get nap time which feels like one of the most divine blessings we have =) and time to write letters... letters not emails.
But back into the mission. Lately we have been focusing on using scriptures effectively. Introducing a scripture and then having them read it then helping them understand it and apply it. So earlier when i Told josh to study the scriptures thats a more focused study plan for you. START NOW! learn how to do all of that. It will make your MTC experience better if you are learning a language, not to mention the amount knowledge you have before you go into the MTC.
On sunday we also got to watch Jeffrey R Holland in his Devotional at the MTC in 2000. It is magnificent. Nothing has ever given me such a strong testimony of the power a mission can have as his talk did. He speaks with power directness and Authority. What a wonderful Man. I stress the Greatness of that in hopes that you will be able to find it to watch and maybe show the young men if you feel so inspired.
one monday we went to the university again. My spanish is coming along nicely but i can't understand hardley a thing they say back. I try to translate it and then end up a few sentances behind them and then just say no entiendo (i don't understand). We had a goal of 6 Refferals and this week we realized we're talking way to much and need to bring our goal up to 10. we talked with another lady for 20 minutes. She was catholic and loved when we read out of the book of mormon becuase she knew they were inspired words. She just didn't understand why we needed another book. I recited the first vision to her in spanish (from memory) and she said Amen amen amen the whole way through but she never quiet understood. or maybe there was something i didn't understand. Probably the latter. then i realized we had taken way to much time so apologized and said we ahd to go. We said goodbye and then as we were walking up we saw a guy that said he already had a book of mormon and said that his family didn't want any of it in their house so he asked where he could get more answers so i gave him a pass along card and showed him the web site. THEN it started to Rain like a mad man. POURING... It only rained for 5 minutes and by the time it stopped we were soak to our skivveys. Completely wet. Swimming in my shoes. Then liek i said it stopped in 5 minutes. We started to walk back to the CCM and we were standing on the street corner. Cars are crazy here so we were just waiting to cross and a big bus with people hanging off every side comes driving by. Just like in a movie me and my companion Got our whole lower halfs soaked. The bus hit i big puddle and just drenched our legs. THEN we kept walking up this little hill and a little love bug was stopped. Just cranking his engine. Just would not let off the ignition. So we walked and i wanted to help and other missionaries were saying no no come on we have to go. and I would just let him sit there becuase there was no way any other drivers were going to stop. If you could see it you would know exactly why. So i ran up and asked if he needed help, he shook his head yes. So i got on the side and pushed pushed pushed. Since it was on a hill it rolled back a few feet and then some other elders started to help and we got it up the hill. It was sputting all the way up the hill then he finally got it in gear and started to go. Now we were soaking wet and hands black from all the dirt on his car. we walked the rest of the way back and then later that night my first case of Churria hit. =) only lasted for an evening thank heavens but boy was it unpleasant. We learned this neat new word becuase someone had heard it and didn't know what it was so they asked their teacher and it spread like wild fire.
Then we had a wonderful Meeting on tuesday with the Caribe area president he shook every missionaries hand and walked around as he talked wth us. It was wonderful. FYI there are about 50 missionaries here. all the guy are at the north end of the 4th floor the middle section is all classrooms and the south end is the 4 girls rooms. Next week we say goodbye to all the Haitian elders and then we have 30 Latino elders coming in. I am very excited. We will be using spanish much more and hopefully get much better at it.
on tuesday we got to go to the store the Tienda. I wanted to get some regular food that i'm a little more used to and so i did i got two cans of pringles. and sadly they are already gone. We only had an hour and so it was hard to decide what i wanted to get. i got a pretty Cool Shirt. Pretty redneck but pretty cool.
I Love being here i love being able to experience a completely different culture and completely different language. It is by no means easy work. and i mean it in all seriousness just being in the MTC has probably been one of the hardest things i have ever done in my life. To sit and study For hour after hour every day of the week is very draining physically emotionally and mentally.I love being a missionary. It's hard but it's worth it!"
Some e-mails:
"October 9,2008
So this week was crazy! First week in La Republica Dominica, and nosotros fuimos a la universidad. First week and my distrito went to the university. CRAZY! Ahhh we weren't ready for it at all. (this was monday) We went to the university to practice contacting. Meeting people and getting to know a little bit about them and what they believe then asking them if they would like to learn about waht we believe. Many people here are very friendly but also many people are very almost offended i guess. Becuase they say only rich people come to help them. I'm not very rich. Wow... Big thunderstorm outside right now. Crazy! but We talked with a few people and saw very little clothing. AAAHHH... got 4 refferals and the last one we talked with for 20 minutes. She talked so fast and we held on to just the little things we could. She would ask us if we understood and sometimes we would understand a few things and so we would say yes then she would ask us what we understood and we couldn't say anything back to her and so she just kept laughing at us and trying to help us. She would correct things we said. We ended up giving her a book of mormon. What an awesome experience. She wanted to know what time we had church on sunday and so we had to explain that we had church in the CCM and so we didin't know what time the church was. We went back and had our normal meals. Breakfast in the CCM or Desayuno consist of Pan (Bread) Cereal (cereal =p) and Fruit. FRESH FRUIT. FRESH BANANAS FRESH PAPAYA AND FRESH PINAPPLE. So good! Oh my word. Papaya is so soft and refreshing. But that is our breakfast EVERY DAY! then Almuerzo(Lunch) Pollo (chicken) Carne (usually Beef) Arroz (Rice 3 different kinds. yellow white and this stuff called ConCon it's like a big pancake of Burnt rice. Its crispy and pretty much just burnt. its good though. Habichuelas (Beans) then more pan (bread) and Jugo (juice mango, orange and some other flavor.) and then Cena (dinner) is a little different every night unlike breakfast and lunch. Either Tacos Fajitas pasta or whatever other american meal they want to try to copy. and That always turns out interesting. =) Same meals every day. Its great!
Then we have just been working on our spanish and conjugating verbs. That is the hardest part for me. I have an extensive vocab in spanish but don't know the grammer quite yet. and it might take a while to get to that point. i feel like i need Six weeks just relearn the gospel in spanish. The names are all different. Talking about the priesthood or sacerdocio the names for peter james and john are Pedro Santiago y Juan. AH MI MADRE! so every time you watch Napoleon Dynamite just think his name is peter in english. Woohoo!
Not too many other things happened. I will send a picture or two with some of our hatian friends. There is a big group of Hatian Missionaries here and they all speak french. It's hard to communicate but some of them know a little english and we teach each other here and there. I know that Yellow is Juon Brown is Maron White is Blan Red is Ruj and blue is blu and black is nowa. I doubt those are the right spellings but woohoo my colors in french. Now back to spanish. Other than those things we have been learning learning learning. My MTC experience was much easier and less frustrating than my CCM experience has been so far. The teacher here are much different they teach in a much different way and sometimes they try to speak english to us and its almost easier for us when they speak in spanish.
This week the presidents wife took us to the temple to do baptisms and that was so cool. We got to do it all confirm and Baptize each other. So as of yet in my mission i have baptized 5 People! Woohoo! Not even out of the CCM and i have Baptisms.
Next week we get to go to the Dominican Republic equivelant of walmart. i am excited. I have heard there are some nice ties made from people here in Republica Dominicana.
Today we went to the temple this morning and got to go through and endowment session. It was in english luckily but the last part was in spanish. a hard communication barier there. The temple is much bigger than i thought it would be and it is beautiful with palm trees and lizards everywhere. after the temple we were walking back and the water truck arrived so we helped them unload probably 55 water jugs to take up to our reserve on the 4th floor. HOLY COW!!! i got so sweaty. but it felt so good to help. After we ate our meat rice and beans then went to the Universidad to pick up trash in the parque. TONS OF TRASH!!! I WAS SHOCKED. and i have never sweat so much in my life. While we were there these guys asked me about the Hermanas. and asked if they were single. The men here seem to be interested in white women. and i replied No Lo siento. Las mujeres van 2 anos sino hombres. The women go two years without men. they all started laughing. Then as i walked by a couple the guy said Quierre Conocer. i beleive he was asking if i wanted to get to know his Girlfriend. and i said no lo siento despues de mi mision posible. No after my mission maybe. Pero Ahora nosotros Hablamos sobre Jesucristo. But now we can talk about Jesus Christ. =) again more laughing.
My time is about up. But this sums up my week. Lots of Spanish Lots of Rice Lots or Beans Lots of SWEATING. I Love IT!
I love Being a Missionary"
So this week was crazy! First week in La Republica Dominica, and nosotros fuimos a la universidad. First week and my distrito went to the university. CRAZY! Ahhh we weren't ready for it at all. (this was monday) We went to the university to practice contacting. Meeting people and getting to know a little bit about them and what they believe then asking them if they would like to learn about waht we believe. Many people here are very friendly but also many people are very almost offended i guess. Becuase they say only rich people come to help them. I'm not very rich. Wow... Big thunderstorm outside right now. Crazy! but We talked with a few people and saw very little clothing. AAAHHH... got 4 refferals and the last one we talked with for 20 minutes. She talked so fast and we held on to just the little things we could. She would ask us if we understood and sometimes we would understand a few things and so we would say yes then she would ask us what we understood and we couldn't say anything back to her and so she just kept laughing at us and trying to help us. She would correct things we said. We ended up giving her a book of mormon. What an awesome experience. She wanted to know what time we had church on sunday and so we had to explain that we had church in the CCM and so we didin't know what time the church was. We went back and had our normal meals. Breakfast in the CCM or Desayuno consist of Pan (Bread) Cereal (cereal =p) and Fruit. FRESH FRUIT. FRESH BANANAS FRESH PAPAYA AND FRESH PINAPPLE. So good! Oh my word. Papaya is so soft and refreshing. But that is our breakfast EVERY DAY! then Almuerzo(Lunch) Pollo (chicken) Carne (usually Beef) Arroz (Rice 3 different kinds. yellow white and this stuff called ConCon it's like a big pancake of Burnt rice. Its crispy and pretty much just burnt. its good though. Habichuelas (Beans) then more pan (bread) and Jugo (juice mango, orange and some other flavor.) and then Cena (dinner) is a little different every night unlike breakfast and lunch. Either Tacos Fajitas pasta or whatever other american meal they want to try to copy. and That always turns out interesting. =) Same meals every day. Its great!
Then we have just been working on our spanish and conjugating verbs. That is the hardest part for me. I have an extensive vocab in spanish but don't know the grammer quite yet. and it might take a while to get to that point. i feel like i need Six weeks just relearn the gospel in spanish. The names are all different. Talking about the priesthood or sacerdocio the names for peter james and john are Pedro Santiago y Juan. AH MI MADRE! so every time you watch Napoleon Dynamite just think his name is peter in english. Woohoo!
Not too many other things happened. I will send a picture or two with some of our hatian friends. There is a big group of Hatian Missionaries here and they all speak french. It's hard to communicate but some of them know a little english and we teach each other here and there. I know that Yellow is Juon Brown is Maron White is Blan Red is Ruj and blue is blu and black is nowa. I doubt those are the right spellings but woohoo my colors in french. Now back to spanish. Other than those things we have been learning learning learning. My MTC experience was much easier and less frustrating than my CCM experience has been so far. The teacher here are much different they teach in a much different way and sometimes they try to speak english to us and its almost easier for us when they speak in spanish.
This week the presidents wife took us to the temple to do baptisms and that was so cool. We got to do it all confirm and Baptize each other. So as of yet in my mission i have baptized 5 People! Woohoo! Not even out of the CCM and i have Baptisms.
Next week we get to go to the Dominican Republic equivelant of walmart. i am excited. I have heard there are some nice ties made from people here in Republica Dominicana.
Today we went to the temple this morning and got to go through and endowment session. It was in english luckily but the last part was in spanish. a hard communication barier there. The temple is much bigger than i thought it would be and it is beautiful with palm trees and lizards everywhere. after the temple we were walking back and the water truck arrived so we helped them unload probably 55 water jugs to take up to our reserve on the 4th floor. HOLY COW!!! i got so sweaty. but it felt so good to help. After we ate our meat rice and beans then went to the Universidad to pick up trash in the parque. TONS OF TRASH!!! I WAS SHOCKED. and i have never sweat so much in my life. While we were there these guys asked me about the Hermanas. and asked if they were single. The men here seem to be interested in white women. and i replied No Lo siento. Las mujeres van 2 anos sino hombres. The women go two years without men. they all started laughing. Then as i walked by a couple the guy said Quierre Conocer. i beleive he was asking if i wanted to get to know his Girlfriend. and i said no lo siento despues de mi mision posible. No after my mission maybe. Pero Ahora nosotros Hablamos sobre Jesucristo. But now we can talk about Jesus Christ. =) again more laughing.
My time is about up. But this sums up my week. Lots of Spanish Lots of Rice Lots or Beans Lots of SWEATING. I Love IT!
I love Being a Missionary"
Sorry!!
Sorry guys for not updating! It's mid-terms for me so I'm runnin' a little behind on things. Here is Elder Ellis' address:
Elder Ellis
Centro de Capacitacion Misional
Bolivar #825 Esq. Génesis Los Robles
Santo Domingo Republica Dominicana
Elder Ellis
Centro de Capacitacion Misional
Bolivar #825 Esq. Génesis Los Robles
Santo Domingo Republica Dominicana
New Pictures
Hey everyone! Elder Ellis sent us some pictures. Just look to the right and click on the little box that says "mission pictures"
He is in the Dominican Republic!!
Elder Ellis
CCM Dominican Republic
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City 84130-0150
"as for mail we have the pouch and it has been narrowed down to a timeline of 4 days to 4 months for letters and such to get here."
He is doing great!! He gave our family phone calls at the airports to say hello and speak in spanish. It was really cool.
CCM Dominican Republic
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City 84130-0150
"as for mail we have the pouch and it has been narrowed down to a timeline of 4 days to 4 months for letters and such to get here."
He is doing great!! He gave our family phone calls at the airports to say hello and speak in spanish. It was really cool.
One more step closer to Puerto Rico!!
Well hello everyone!! Here is a little bit from Elder Ellis:
"I started balling in class becuase i realized for the first time so far i really miss my family. I really do. I am so glad that GOD DOES HAVE A PLAN FOR US AND FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER!!! What a blessing to know that. That no matter what happens we will be able to be with each other. This week we taught on the plan of salvation and it was a very humbling experience for my companion and I. We didn't necesarily study it before our teaching appointment and were searching for scriptures left and right. We focused on spanish a little more and so i guess it was a fair trade off. My spanish is coming along better. I feel like each day i start with a wall in front of me and i cna't learn any more spanish, then i realize at the end of the night some how i made it through."
Elder Ellis is LOVING what he is doing!! As far as what his plans are, today is the last day he is in the MTC in Provo and tomorrow he is leaving for his next adventure!! As soon as I know the address I will post it so he can have letter sent to him. Thanks for all your love and support!
"I started balling in class becuase i realized for the first time so far i really miss my family. I really do. I am so glad that GOD DOES HAVE A PLAN FOR US AND FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER!!! What a blessing to know that. That no matter what happens we will be able to be with each other. This week we taught on the plan of salvation and it was a very humbling experience for my companion and I. We didn't necesarily study it before our teaching appointment and were searching for scriptures left and right. We focused on spanish a little more and so i guess it was a fair trade off. My spanish is coming along better. I feel like each day i start with a wall in front of me and i cna't learn any more spanish, then i realize at the end of the night some how i made it through."
Elder Ellis is LOVING what he is doing!! As far as what his plans are, today is the last day he is in the MTC in Provo and tomorrow he is leaving for his next adventure!! As soon as I know the address I will post it so he can have letter sent to him. Thanks for all your love and support!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)