Thursday 11 June 2015

June 8th 2015

Hey everybody!

So just here, chilling in the DR (well, chilling isnt exactly an accurate description with the weather, more like sweating it out). Things are good though.

Well, this week was interesting. Sort of a sifting through people kind of week as a bunch of people we just have kind of dropped or missed because they werent home. We dropped two youth recently who we were really fed up with. They were just toying with us and not learning anything and who knows why they were taking the lessons with us, they just kept on demanding things and not paying attention and so, we told them how it was and left. We had been patient for at least a month with them, so that was kind of the final straw, and it looks like they wont be talking with us for a while. I have decided to never become a teacher of students in a school, Im not very good at it haha. 
Otherwise, Francisco is still at the hospital, apparently he is suppsoed to be operated today. Pray it goes well! Other people are progressing but still not married, but at least they are working on it. So far, it looks like the only hope of seeing a baptism before leaving the area will come from reactivating this one family and having their daughter be baptized. But we are still working hard on it, the ward is really supportive so I think we will come out on top here!
What else went on... well we didnt have water or light for most of the week. So lots of sitting on the porch, wondering when life will begin haha. Im a granddaddy out here in the mission, Elder Herrmann is now training a kid from Oregon, so thats cool. They be working hard, his new comp is kind of shy met him today but he'll be a sassy dominican by the end, Elder Herrmann certainly is, haha. We had an activity today playing basketball, and Herrmann and I caought up a bunch. Good times.
Been called chinese a lot lately. People are kind of racist about it actually, especially in basketball today haha. Ah well, I guess I mostly lost in basketball anyway. 
The rest is kind of fuzzy. Still a little weird to be so close to finishing the mission, weird that I recognize its the end but still cant even imagine what it will be like to be finished and someplace other than my little apartment here in the DR. Going to miss the people here in villa, super nice guys. And that one guy draws anime and stuff, we learned a bunch from him haha. 
Well, those are the adventures for now, keep the faith!

Elder Sullivan

June 1st 2015

Hey everybody,

So what to say about the week, its been good. We managed to get out more without so much rain. We even contacted and found some new people. Taught some really cool restoration lessons there in the first lesson, that was fun. Its cool how people relate better with the restoration than any other of our lessons. 

Anyway, some cool happenings. Francisco got hit by a motor, so his foot is broken. He is coming back from the capital sometime soon, but we may be rolling him to church in a wheelchair. Who knows, maybe the experience will help? For him to... I dunno... speed up getting married? Or something, either way, kind of unfortunate, we hope hes ok. Motors are dangerous things, gotta watch the street when you walk on it. Although, we all seem to walk in the middle of the street, and just dodge them when they come.

Well, other cool things, we have a lot of people coming out to church, members and non members. Its like a fiesta or something. Anyway, its cool to see everyone out there, and really lots of our investigators are progressing really well in terms of their learning, repentance and overall lives, the only problem is that so many are not married. But, if they got married, they would be baptized tomorrow haha. All we need now is a new shipment of book of mormons, and a few miracles in the paperwork/marriage department. Hopes are high!

We are having lots of fun, had some cool dinners with some people and watched the restoration movie with one investigator with food and everything. It was cool, and unique that someone actually had a functioning DVD player and TV (although, it was a super old DVD player haha). Some dog attacked me, but backed out at the last moment before actually jumping on me haha. Probably had something to do with Elder Wassum yelling at it haha. I have oficially decided also to never teach juniour high or elementary school except maybe for like piano lessons. Because kids that age are super annoying, and its super hard to teach them and basically is just this huge patience game. hey but they are fun to have around in church because they're pretty goofy haha.

Um what else? There is this cool guy named Felix that we teach who is progressing really well with the book of mormon, hes actually getting into the story and he comes to church straight from his job as a security officer, he doesnt even sleep until after, and he really likes the church, gets super into the classes. He even filled out this little self-sufficinecy thing when we did like a provident living class thing (I didnt even fill it out haha, I probably doodled during that class). Another cool youth we are teaching finally came to church, hes super quiet and stuff but he was liking the lessons and getting into the book of mormon reading super far and actually understanding the story. Too bad hes moving into the capital, but at least he progressed with us. We had some good times with him, playing dominoes and learning the gospel.

Other stuff, kids are crazy in the DR. They almost kill each other on like a daily basis. 

Good times had by all. Oh right, its transfers. Im staying here with Elder Wassum, but our district will be seeing some big changes. A guy who was in  Azua is coming in, so Ill have to talk with him about my people there. Otherwise its stay the course for now. President sent a special note to our group of missionaries, seeing as we will be taking almost a quarter out of the mission with us. He wants us to leave the legacy. So thats what we are doing.

I heard that Elder Perry passed away, a great man. Ill miss him. I guess the world is still changing, somewhere out there.

Keep the faith bretheren, never give up.

Hasta entonces,

Elder Sullivan