March 24, 2014 - Hi Y'all!

Hey fam bam! I hope all is going well. Here in the DR it is super hot as always and I am sweating a ton! oh well it is what it is! It was a good week but I can´t think of any super funny jokes.

W of the W is luz which means light but it is also the slang for power! We have been living over a week now without luz or power! Wahoo! The power company here is really unreliable and some how our contract got canceled. IT is a big headache and the office is working on it but I am not sure how long we will be without light! I washed my clothes by hand this week again. That is tiring stuff but it works alright! I think my clothes are clean (enough). The hard part is we can´t cook because there is no freezer or fridge that works so we can keep the meat in a healthy place. We have been eating out almost everyday and I am not a huge fan. it is good but it doesn´t fill me up as well and it is more expensive. All is well though. I am learning more DR food and I haven´t gotten sick yet! Knock on wood.

This week was the ward conference and we had a lot of people at church on Sunday. Part of the family that we are working with (Fam. Valdez) came which was sweet. They have 8 kids which is a lot I would say! They are all listening and have a good desire to keep learning! It is really fun teaching them and they are great people. The parents have their wedding planned for April 26th and we set up a tentative goal of May 3 for their baptism. I hope we can prepare them well and they will all be ready to go! We will keep working hard with them. The kids are very smart and the mom teaches them as we are teaching the whole family. It is great to see she is understanding and they have a lot of excitement about the message. I hope we can work well with them!

The other investigator we have is an 11 yr old boy named Samuel. He is doing well and is super smart. We are working with him and his mom said if she can see a change in him she will start going to church with him too and we can teach here. So in the coming weeks we are hoping to start teaching the whole family! It is an exciting time. E Turketo is learning more and more Spanish. I can see it is hard on him and he is still shy but I am trying to help him break out of the shell a little bit.

So all in all the ward conference was good and a lot of less actives showed up. I hope they keep coming and we can help strengthen the ward. That is an important part of missionary work! We had a cosecha (harvest) with the ward and missionaries on Saturday night which helped a lot! I got to go out and contact people with my good buddy E. Lara! He is an awesome Elder. We went out with him today on pday as well and did some fun stuff!

Today we went to the Duarte which just sells used clothes and stuff really, then to China town to take pictures and then we went to el Conde which is the oldest street in the Americas. It is where the colonists of Christopher Columbus settled. It is pretty cool and there are a lot of shops there. A hard rock cafe and everything. We ate at KFC which was pretty good. We saw a huge ship which was docked and checked out an old fort and just walked around taking pictures. It was super fun and 6 missionaries went. My comp, E. Jeppsen from Utah my buddy and his comp, E. Lara and his comp. It was super fun. We all ended up buying some crazy pants that were like 10 bucks so kinda expensive here but we are going to wear them for a pday activity. They are pretty funny looking and I am excited. I also bought some sunglasses for under 5 dollars because they looked too good to pass up. Some Oakley's! I don´t know why but I did. I want to buy some other stuff but little by little not all at once.

There are some cool things here in the DR we just don´t have much time and a lot of things are closed on Monday´s. There is a lot of history that passed through here! I got some coco (coconut) milk here with the meat. It is about 50 or 75 cents and always worth it for me. I enjoy it a lot. Later today we are going to get a haircut before we get back to the house! I need one because it is getting hot and my hair is long!

My comp taught me how to say my name in Maori which is the native language in NZ. Ko Chez taku ingua. Pronounce the vowels like Spanish! So there is something new for you all!

I can´t believe it is March madness that came fast! RSL seems to be doing decent too! So cool Alex got out on the field! Makes me happy! Number 21 just like me! That a boy Alex! Wearing my number! Keep playing hard buddy!

Well that seems to be all. I love you all tons! Keep smiling and working hard. Don´t forget to serve others and be an instrument in the Lord´s hands. It makes miracles happen! Love you all. Be an angel for someone else.Bye!

Love,

Elder Chez Green