December 30, 2013 - Water, Water!

Hi Family!

As you can read from the Subject Line I finally have water in the house! Wahoo! Only 11 weeks without it but hey we have it now! Boo ya! It is pretty awesome to have it though the water isn`t the cleanest it is much better than not having it! I am very grateful to have it! That is for sure! I am happy to have a real shower with a decent (not like the one at home) shower head. Sometimes sand or dirt comes out when you are showering but you just wipe it off haha. The only thing that is lacking now is warm water! I wish but I don`t think that will ever be something I have here. No worries though! The power is all working as well now too! Wahoo

So the only problem with having water now is that our toilet leaks, and it is kind of a lot. So that is the down side but there is a drain in the bathroom so it just goes to that. The floor is always wet but we have a shower and a toilet that mostly works!

It was so great to talk to everyone and I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I am sending Season Greetings to everyone and especially a Happy New Year!

Saturday I had my first baptism! It was for a 9 year old boy Edward. It was awesome! My first baptism in Spanish and I actually got to do the prayer and everything. We planned it all and it went smoothly! I sent pictures to Mom so you can all see it! He was confirmed in sacrament meeting yesterday by the President of the Branch. I took a lot of pictures.

After the baptism we stopped by a tower in our area that lights up during the Christmas season and took some quick pictures and then we went and visited Edward. I gave him a tie and he loved it! He wore it to church yesterday as I tied it for him on Saturday night. It looked great. I also gave him a picture of our family and of myself and a card so he can remember that great day. I gave him my information as well for after the mission. It was truly an amazing experience!

As for our other investigators we are still seeing how it is going to go. Not many of them come to church and that is always hard! But we are working with Edward`s mom Alexandra who is coming to church. She bore her testimony at the baptism and said the Church was true! So cool. Now we just need to start the lessons! We are working with other people and are hoping they will start making steps to learn more and show their desire.

So my training is almost up! This is my 11th week of the 12 week training program they have here in the mission field! It has gone by really fast. Transfers are the 14 of January! I can`t believe how fast time is going. So this week I get to plan and choose where we contact and everything. That is part of the training. Week 11 the new missionary plans and decides everything and does his best to carry the load in all of the lessons as well. So that is what I am doing as of right now! Wish me luck this week but my comp is great and has taught me a lot so I feel pretty ready!

We have been doing Family Nights with less active members to help them come to Church and those have been working well. There is always work to be done!

So I got Danny and Patrice`s Christmas card! Thank you so much! It was great and really made me smile!

I hope Aunt Theo is doing well and enjoyed my letters. I hope you all enjoyed my Christmas gift, sorry it wasn`t something bigger but it is the thought that counts right!?

So Word of the Week is killao which means angry or mad. I told you that guapo here also means that but killao is more slang. It is crazy how different the Spanish here is. I know Am, Damian and JJ all noticed that the vocabulary and accent isn`t the same but it is good! I am working on learning normal Spanish and Dominican Spanish. That is my goal as of now!

That surprises me that Damian had never been to a buffet! I am craving one of those right now but I don`t think they have them here sadly haha. Oh well!

The water bottle is a Green Gatorade Bottle with an orange lid that is a squeeze top. They have them at Sports Authority and are about 5 dollars. I will work on a picture of it but you can ask the people at the store!

On the bug spray no problem and thank you. If you can find a mini size as well that would be great so I can always have one with me in my bag!

I am glad the whole family could be together for Christmas. It was great to talk to everyone! I enjoyed it a lot and didn`t really cry but got teary eyed at the end there!

My comp goes to the capital for meetings and such like that. Nothing special. Where we go the water is not very clean but I know there are places that are clean! Glad the Sub for Santa was a success!

We have to be in the house at the latest of 9:30 but they want us there by 9. They do celebrate New Years here so this week might not be super productive as well. We will see how it all goes! We will be trying to work just as normal!

They said that packages are now 100 pesos per pound. The important part is per pound. So 11 pounds times 100 pesos is how much it costs to receive the first one and 9 times 100 pesos is how much the second one was. It is a little expensive but not too bad.

Well I think that is all for now. I hope I wrote all that you guys wanted! I love all your emails thank you so much! Talk to you next week and Happy New Year! Light a firework or two for me and make some noise as I will be sleeping!

Love you all!

Elder Chez Green