December 9, 2013 - Fam Bam how is it going?

Hi Family!

I hope it is all going well. I heard that my team lost! Ahhhh what a bugger. RSL what happened???? Darn that is a bummer. A shootout huh? Heart breaking details but thank you for keeping me updated Dad! I appreciate all of the information. It is sucky that SKC won the cup they were such jerks this year but oh well that`s life and we move on!

I have my same companion if I forgot to tell you that. He is my trainer so I will be with him for at least this transfer. After that we will see what happens. I have a more specific area of where my companion lives now! Ha-ha sorry it took me so long! JJ might be familiar with it. He lives in Tepetlixpa of Mexico 30 minutes from the volcano Popocatepetlh. He said it is pretty cold there where he lives which is cool.

Last week I got Lhing and Khanh`s Christmas card! Thank you so much for that I really appreciate it! The pictures are great and very detailed. I love the Christmas card a ton and your message on the back. Thank you again!

I also got the letter from Bishop Ron Mortimer for Christmas today! That was way awesome. Thank you so much for that I appreciate it a lot! It was great and Ron made me laugh a lot in it. Thank you to all of his counselors and to the ward for their best wishes. I truly appreciate it a lot!

I am loving all of these pictures that JJ and Dad and everyone have sent. I am at a better Internet cafe today and it is moving so much faster ha-ha. I love fast Internet so I can see and read more about my whole family! Thank you so much.

So we have investigators with baptismal goals! 2 of them. One is Eduard the 9 year old and the other is a 60ish year old lady. She enjoys learning about the gospel so we are hoping we can get a firm commitment out of her. We are working hard here and having fun. I am still getting along well with my comp which is very important and I am always trying to smile big. We don`t have water in our house still but we think the problem is the pump so we are going to try and track down what we need to do exactly. No biggy bucket showers are good just very cold ha-ha.

So story time.

First we were going to our Zone Meeting with 2 new missionaries to their area so we need to take a bus or guagua as always. We got on one and started going. Then he said he need gas and stopped but the pump attendant was super busy and just ignored him. So the driver just kept going and yep we ran out of gas! Wow this guy was not thinking at all ha-ha. I just had to laugh because there wasn`t much else to do. We sat there for 15 minutes as they worked to jump the car and travel for gas. It was funny and we were still actually on time ha-ha!

I also gave my first Spanish blessing to a person who was sick a couple days ago. I was nervous and didn`t really want to do just because I don`t know all the grammatical things for a Spanish blessing but it went well. I know they could understand me but I also know it wasn`t totally correct. The important part is the hearts and faith of those performing and those being blessed and I know the Lord heard my blessing and accepted it even if it wasn`t perfect. It was pretty cool though!

I also saw my first rainbow here in the DR! That was way cool and it made me smile! I have now seen a couple this week but the rain isn`t too much. The temperature is cooling down here but it is still hot and humid here. My comp says he gets cold in the nights but I am not sure how ha-ha. Cold is what it is like in Utah right now but I think I will adjust just in time to come home ha-ha (so two years if you didn`t understand)

I made spaghetti a couple days ago. We had some dry Italian seasoning so I cooked some spaghetti sauce and then combined it with meat and ate it with pasta. It was missing Parmesan cheese but it was good. I really enjoyed it and it reminded me of home and mom`s cooking a little.

Another funny story was that people tried to break into the church one night. They were breaking the concrete around the bars on the windows to get in at like 3:30 in the morning. It was super early and one of our neighbors saw and called the cops I guess. The cops and neighbors were banging on the door I guess so we could open the church but we weren`t sure what was going on so we thought it best to stay in the house. There was a big ruckus so we just stayed locked up in the house. We probably should have left but oh well. The thieves did not get in though which is good! 

Word of the Week is ladron which is thief!

So today we went to a baseball stadium in the Romanas. There are a lot of fields for baseball and also soccer so today we played soccer! It was super fun and I enjoyed it a lot. It made me smile to play soccer! I ate McDonalds after and it was okay. Just not super filling and it is super expensive. I like cooking and eating in our house better.

Awesome information on the Secret Santa family! Thank you so much for that! It is putting a huge smile on my face. It really helps put in perspective how some things are way more important than others. I would rather have a secret Santa than another RSL trophy! (though both would have been cool but that`s not the point ha-ha). Great work Mom and Dad and thank you to everyone that is going to help out! I am smiling big right now!

I can`t believe all that is going on with the Ice Roads JJ! That is crazy ha-ha.

I am hoping to see the devotional yes mom! We are trying to watch it as a Zone another day. We use our feet and legs a lot to transport us ha-ha and then little vans or guaguas and then at the capital we have big guaguas. That is about it ha-ha. My area is in one of the bigger cities of the DR so I am not out in rural no. It is fun but I am not anywhere close to the capital either.

I love you all! Thanks for all the support and prayers and especially the Secret Santa! I love all your emails sorry I don`t have more time to reply but it is up really quick again ha-ha.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Chez Green

Christmas in the DR

December 2, 2013 - My First Transfer . . .

And I am going to be in....

Primavera haha the same place as before! It is logical because I am still being trained! Missionaries usually don´t change during their training. So I get to pass 6 more weeks here wahoo! The members are awesome and the house is actually great besides not having water so I am looking forward to it!

Dad I am addressing your old email first. I am not sure how big my comp´s bike is. My talk went well! The zone leaders bought supplies to cook Mexican food which isn´t cheap and then we all pitched in so we could have it. It was delicious! My comp worked two jobs before the mission and saved a lot to pay for the mission. And cheverre muchacho means cool guy, more or less haha.

Now to this week! We traveled to the Capital twice this week which was a ton! First for an appointment with the doctor for my companion. I talked with the doctor´s wife who is very nice. She said my parents must have been great because I am doing so well and have such a great attitude even though we don´t have water in our house haha! So compliments to my parents! I love you. Thanks for raising me so well.

So in the capital we visited my old stomping grounds, the MTC haha. That is where the doctor is. We also visited the Mission Home or Offices and I had two letters waiting for me from Dad! Wahoo thank you so much! I got the pictures of the family and the wallet size of the family! I appreciate it a lot.

I bought a mini Christmas tree in the capital! It is perfect for me haha and I am sending pictures. I was looking for one for a couple weeks but they were all expensive. I found this one and bought it for 175 DR pesos with lights included! Boo ya that was a steal because others were 800 pesos without lights haha. I am way happy to have that. In the capital I also bought some simple scripture covers to protect my scriptures. I also bought the Gospel Art Book which is way awesome! I love all the pictures it has and there are over 150 I believe! It will help us teach young people like Eduard who is one of our investigators that has trouble learning. But we have a baptismal date for him! It is December 28th! All is going well so far so we are looking forward to that! It is exciting!

Thanksgiving was just another day for us haha! It was actually the day of our Zone conference which was cool. We got to spend some time together as a district and a zone. The Hermanas in our area made cookies for everyone so I guess that was special. It was very nice of them and they were delicious! That was about all that was special for Thanksgiving. I hope the food was great, the company was terrific and the football was enjoyable!

Well in the capital the second time we got permission to go to the temple! Our branch needed more priesthood holders they said to help out so we made time to go. It turned out that not many people could go so we couldn´t really help much. It was unfortunate but we did get to do confirmations in the temple. We had to get special permission to go and could only do specific things. But it was really good. I also bought some ice cream at a store called Bon. It is the brand of ice cream here in the DR. It is delicious and they have ice cream trucks all over and stores every where. It is delicious!

So the RSL game is this Saturday!! Wahoo go RSL get the Cup! I have faith. I didn´t hear many details about it haha but that´s okay!

So last night I had some BBQ! It was awesome! Presidente Jimenez who is Pres. of the branch had us over but we had appointments to go to. So they packed it up for us to go. It was so delicious and I had it with a coke! It felt like I was back in America for a little bit haha!

Mom there is a restaurant that makes hamburgers. It is not a chain which makes it taste way better and it is about 5 bucks for all of it haha. I am glad Thanksgiving was enjoyable! I am sure all the family is doing great! I am happy for them! The sleepover sounds like a huge blast! Way awesome! I love the Cheney family and I am glad I get letters from them. It is so great!

Oh Dad I passed a golf course on the way back from the Capital and thought of you haha!

Thanks for the B day list mom! That is perfect for me! I have them all written down in my planner now! The problem here is that printing costs money and I don´t want to pay haha. We have a bathroom of course. The problem was there was no water to flush but now we have water to flush but we try to use the church as much as possible because water is precious to us to bathe and wash dishes and such. Sorry for the confusion haha.

The family of 4 we are having trouble with. They aren´t really progressing. I think they believe we are friends to pass time with and they aren´t actually making commitments. That is somewhat hard. We had a new family come to church this week now we just need to work harder to get all of our investigators progressing and working towards the goals we have set for them. I think this is the way every where and it is just difficult but we will keep trying!

I hope the flight went well dad to Australia. So awesome! I want to see a rainbow here someday I hope! The interviews were actually in our stake center so it was only 20 minutes away or so. I will call the home phone for Christmas. We get an hour but my companion said it isn´t exact and that an hour and a half may be okay. I am not sure and need more information.

Words of the Week are first Panafull which means best friend. It is slang of course haha. The others are arco which means bow and flecha which is arrow!

Well that is about all. Please keep me updated on the RSL game! I want to hear all about the experience! Go RSL. I believe. I love you family a ton. Be happy, smile a lot, and notice the Lord´s hand in your life.

Talk to you next week!

 

Love,

Elder Chez Green

Ready for Christmas!

 Delicious Locrei

 Service and a machete!

Tabllero 

November 25, 2013 - Am I back in the USA!!?

Hello Fam!

The subject line is because today we ate a hamburger and french fries with a nice cold coke and it was delicious! It tasted like home to me haha. I also played a game of risk today with some elders from our zone! IT was a new version so it was much faster and way fun! I enjoyed it a lot. It only took about an hour to play with the new version and guess who won? I did hahaha! I was explaining and teaching them the game in Spanish so maybe it wasn´t super fair but hey I think I taught the rules pretty well. They were lacking strategy and that was the real problem haha

Well there has been a lot that has happened this week! haha but first to start off I am going to do the Word of the Week or W o t W for short. It is arcoiris which means rainbow! I haven´t seen one here yet but it is the word of the week because I love the word. And there is an awesome promise in JST and the references in the Triple or Bible about it. IT is the promise given to Noah in Genesis I believe. Chapter 9. First person to find the full promise wins! haha

Well first off I got a letter from Mom last Wednesday! so awesome the first one out in the field! I got the stamps in there as well thank you mom! Now I can send letters when I have time to write which isn´t a ton but I will do my best. I also got a Dear Elder from the Cheney´s! Thank you so much. IT was great and needed. Your boys are so cute! A shout out to all of my extended family, Green´s and Barlow´s! I love you all a ton. Sorry I can´t do specific shout outs but know I am thinking about all of you specifically!

So we now have a water tank that we can fill up every couple of days to get water. It isn´t running water but it is way better than before! Now we are working all the way to 9 pm and getting more lessons in which is nice. This week we had 2 investigators come to church which was a little low but one family was busy and couldn´t attend so that hurt. We are teaching a 9 year old named Edward who´s grandma is a member. He really wants to be baptized and is excited about it. The only difficulty is that he has a really hard time reading and comprehending. It is super difficult for him so we are trying to teach very simple. We want to find pictures of the lessons to help him learn so we are going to look for those if we can find them!

Oh our apartment flooded as well! haha. A member came over and thought he could help us get water in our apartment. He said there is water and we just need to fix this and that and presto. Well he tried and it didn´t work and then he left some pipes unhooked and we were in a hurry so we didn´t notice. First no water now way too much in the wrong place. But nothing got ruined which is very nice! Always a positive in everything. We were in a hurry because we had our interview with the mission president and his wife or one of his counselors. Mine was with one of his counselors but it was very enjoyable.

I finished the Book of Mormon in English ( I had started it before the mission) and now I am reading it in Spanish! wahoo I am hoping to learn Spanish even faster because of this!

We gave a lot of service this week. We traveled out to Juan Dolio this Saturday and worked from about 9 30 to 4 30. That was a lot of work. It is about 25 minutes away in car and we found out it is part of our area. I am not sure how we are going to contact or if we will out there. that is a lot of time and there really aren´t buses that go out there. We chopped a lot of branches and pulled weeds for this family that is very poor. We also planted beans and tomatoes and a lot of food for them so they can survive. It was very cool and I learned a lot about farming. I also got to try a DR dish or food. It is called Locrei I believe and it is chicken and rice but with good flavoring and such. I loved it. It was cooked by a member so we were able to eat it because we were doing service. That is one of the exceptions for eating with people. If you are serving and are confident it is sanitary and have time to eat, you can.

Oh Happy Thanksgiving to everyone as well! I won´t be celebrating that at all I don{t believe but that is okay! I usually just get fat that day and am lazy. I will miss playing Frisbee with guys in the ward though!

I still haven´t gotten Am´s large envelope yet sadly. Transfers are next week but since I am being trained I probably won´t change. I say probably because that is how it usually works but who knows. I don´t have any details on the call or anything like that yet. I believe I will just call you guys with our phone and then you need to call me back so we can talk. I am thinking that is how it will work so let me know which number I will need to call but more details later! some members have Internet access yes but I don´t think we are supposed to use their computers. Who knows though.

Sorry I don't have time to read or reply to anything else right now! I apologize. We were late getting out of the house because of my companion but that is alright. I love you tons dad. I will be sure to reply to your email next time! I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Chez Green

 First Dominican Haircut!

 The church house.

View of the ocean.

November 18, 2013 - I don´t need water to survive! Only the Gospel!

Hi Family!

I hope you like the subject line! Simple but powerful (and not really true but almost haha)

Dad I got the Thailand postcard thank you very much! Tomorrow we have interviews with my mission president so I am hoping to get any packages and or letters that have been sent! Life is good here but like I said, still no water. Maybe we will get it, maybe we will change houses or maybe I will transfer out of the area before it arrives. Who knows but I am not too worried about it. Some days we can´t shower because there is not time so we just go to the church and bath with wash clothes and what not haha. Oh the joys!

I had my first Dominican Haircut today. It was interesting and I am not too impressed but oh well. I have learned for next time to be a lot more clear haha.

My companion has a dirt bike back home! I keep forgetting to tell you guys! HE loves dirt biking. We get along really well and we like to serve each other. We are working hard in our area. I gave a talk this week on love. The love God has for all of us and how we are all brothers and sisters because we are sons and daughters of good so we need to have love for everyone. Sharing the gospel is not mandatory but if we have love we will want to share it. I also said that the best thing I have right now on my mission is my smile because I am learning Spanish and a new missionary.

I am working on a Christmas surprise for everyone and you all have to wait until Christmas for it! I hope it will be really good!

We had 5 investigators at church on Sunday which was so great! We had fasted that people would come because that is very difficult. And they did. What a miracle. I hope they keep coming and progressing. I am growing to love the people here that is for sure! Sometimes they are difficult but I a ways have love for them!

So awesome the whole family will be home for Christmas! I am so excited for that. Then I can talk to all of you with my limited time (Mom first of course!) That is great news. I hope you all have so much fun for Christmas! You can photoshop me in the pictures or make a card board cut out of me (Reminds me of the story of Am and I before she went to college. I was going to make a card board cut out of her haha. I hope she remembers)

Dad there are a lot of Porsche Cayenes here surprisingly! It is crazy.

We can listen to music here on the mission just has to be church or piano guys or things like that. I am planning on buying a little speaker that you can plug in a usb to listen to music so I can feel the spirit during down times. I am excited for the news!

Today we had a zone activity and ate Mexican food. IT was delicious. Oh I have lost a belt loop in weight but I feel great. I think it was actually what I needed or wanted to lose. I am eating and feel healthy so it is good! We wash everything because we aren´t sure what is clean and what isn´t. It is very important.

The word of the week is Atajo which means shortcut I believe. I like this one a lot. haha

My comp is an hour outside of Mexico City but he just told me Mexico City D. F. so I don´t have a town name. We have a bucket for water mom and then also water jugs for drinking water we can use for water to clean, we just have to wash them after. No outhouse. The bathroom is the church and that is about it haha. I have mastered my bladder because of soccer and all the water I had to drink then ride on a bus for an hour or more. I can handle it haha.

The family of four is very fun. A mom dad and son and daughter. The mom and daughter are the most interested. The daughter is 6 years old. We also have a 19 year older woman with a daughter that came to church. She is very nice and always has good questions. The probably in this country is always marriage. NO one gets married and they have to be married to be baptized.

20 missionaries in our zone I think and 10 in our district including 2 sisters. As of now no letters but I am hoping tomorrow I will get them! A lot are from Peru and in my district only 1 other is from the USA. We have Mexico DR and Peru for the rest. The sisters are American.

That story is incredible mom! So awesome! I love it thank you. I heard many missionaries got lost in the typhoon for a while. I hope they are all safe!

My comp gets packages from home yes. He is paying for most of his mission or all I think. Crazy but awesome! Only his mother is active in the church.

Well that is all for now. I am out of time haha sadly. It goes by too fast. I hope the job is going well Whitney. Also for JJ. Am I am praying for your pregnancy everyday and my sobrino! I pray for all of you everyday and your health and that you can feel my love and the Lord´s love for you. I love all my friends back in the States and out on my mission. Shout out to Mesa Park Ward!

From a cheverre muchacho

Love,

Elder Chez Green