January 20, 2014 - Hey Fam Bam!

Hey family!

So this week there was a lot more service and translating. We didn´t have a full day of work until Saturday which was kind of hard. We need to contact a lot of our investigators to see what is what now but no biggy. It is still all good! I am happy to be with E. Valencia and we are enjoying it. I have started to teach him English in the nights just by speaking it to him. He wants to learn and has a lot of knowledge of it. He can understand a lot but has fear to talk so I am working on it with him. I am also teaching him how to play basketball because we have the church across the street and keys to get the hoop out. We are starting to play every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. It is fun.

So I got letters from Dad with the pictures! Thank you so much for that! I gave them to the respective people and Edward´s family loved them! He was so excited to have it and said he needs to get a frame to put it up. I was happy to hear that! I also got the Christmas letter from Grandma and Grandpa! That was a great one and I was happy to get it. I also received a letter from Aunt Theo which was super amazing! She is such a great Aunt!

This week we also went to the Capital. E Valencia had an appointment there. I also received my package this week! Thank you Mom and Dad! It was perfect and I am so grateful for that. All of the stuff I needed or will need in the future. The Utah cups were a great idea and a lot of handkerchiefs so I can try to deal with this heat here. Thank you for that! I am also grateful for the Thai sauce! It brings back good memories and especially a good flavor! Thanks for the Family History stories Mom I will try to start reading them. I read the one in the manila folder that was two pages about Grandpa´s family. That is a great story but a little crazy all that they went through. Wow! I gave one cup to E. Valencia to convert him as a Utah fan! Thank you again for the package!

So the week like I said was a little difficult but we had 3 investigators in Sacrament meeting. We are working with Edward´s mom to see what is what and how we can help. She has a lot of things on her plate but we will keep trying with her. We also had a lot of less actives at church which was nice. All of the members here keep saying that we work a lot. It is a very nice compliment. The Pres. of the Branch talks about that a lot as well. I think he really appreciates all that we are working on to help this Branch grow.

So today has been a great P day! Maybe the best yet for me! It was because we got up early and now all my clothes are washed. (We hauled buckets from the church to wash our clothes like normal still. It´s good exercise.) I like clean clothes and the house is as clean as we can get it in the time we have. Today I got to play soccer! Wahoo it has been a while and it was way fun. We played our Zone San Pedro vs La Romana another zone that is near by. I enjoyed it so much. I am pretty out of shape but I am in shape compared to most of the missionaries. I like that. We played a lot and I got sun burned even with sun screen on. The sun here in the DR is super strong! I scored 3 goals today as well! It is very disorganized but fun to play. Nothing like my RHFC team but I enjoy it. Soccer is still my passion!

After that we got Esquimas which is like an Otter pop. There are vendors all over that just walk around selling it. The flavors are so good and way better than otter pops. It is 5 pesos for one so it isn´t too bad. Then we went to Coque (hamburger place) with the AP´s. Right now there are 3 because they are training one and the other leaves in Feb. That was great because it was just us 5. We got to know them a little better and they are all great guys! One of them, E. Monroy from Guatemala is way good at soccer. He played at the highest level in Futsal in Guatemala but he sacrificed it all for the mission for now. He has a great story and it is way inspiring to me. I enjoyed getting to know the AP´s a lot. E. Rivera is leaving and is from Honduras. He is super nice and always shows a lot of love to the Elders. The new elder is E. Sima from Mexico. He is way cool too and getting trained right now. It was way fun.

Word of the Week is bulto which means side bag here in the DR. There is another word for it in normal Spanish but I can´t remember it. I have also learned a lot of body parts and some medical terms because of translating.

Congrats Dad on the free Pitpass for a race! That is so sweet! Awesome that Mom gave a talk! I like this idea of Bishop Mortimer´s. That is so cool! If you can, will you send a copy of Mom´s talk to me? Pretty please?

Awesome sports updates from everyone! I am glad the Utes are doing so well! That makes me happy! If you can send a pocket protector that would be great! I use a piece of plastic to protect my shirts right now. Thanks for the email mom! I love you all!

It takes us about an hour to get to the capital then we walk for 20 minutes to the CCM or take a little taxi. It is so tiring to go but it is part of it all. Traveling isn´t easy.

Well that is all for now. The time is all gone! See yá'll later! or talk to you later. I think that was everything! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Chez Green