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"