Mormon Fanboys

October 8, 2012

At this time last year I was trying to survive my first few weeks in the DR with my trainer as I struggled to understand why anyone could ever learn to speak Spanish.  I've come a long way since then...well not geographically.  I'm still stuck on this island, but I can at least order my own food and find a bathroom now.  I'm now well into the "bers" (Septem-, Octo-, Novem-, Decem-) and Christmas is beckoning me

General Conference was this past weekend and this time we six American missionaries got to watch it in English in a separate room.  I really should have taken a picture of us all huddled in that small room, each with a bag full of snacks and listening with baited breath for who would speak next.  We reacted like avid sports fans when an apostle would lay down the law or a profound, quotable phrase presented itself.  I'm pretty sure the amount of "OOOOhhhs!" and fist bumps edged on irreverent when Elder Holland spoke.  We are the nerdiest Mormon fanboys on this side of the island

Transfer calls came once again and I will be staying with Elder Adams for another transfer here in Cristo Rey.  That will make a whopping 5 months working together.  Good thing we get along.  This cycle we want to refocus our efforts on references.  We contact day in and day out and have hardly anything to show for it.  If we work with the members and less-actives we can not only strengthen the members but also find stronger investigators.  Well, that's the plan anyways.  Currently we are working on getting Roman a job so he will feel more comfortable paying the expensive marriage fee.  This last weekend we fasted with him and we hope that he will see blessings from his faith.  

We have various other families that are having even more trouble getting married and their progression is hitting a wall.  We're going to have to dig into our shallow reservoirs of patience to see them through, but it's worth the wait and the struggle.  The church was restored.  We have a prophet.  There is a plan.  The Book of Mormon is true.  Christ does live and his Father does know us.  The gospel is the way.  He is the light.  We are His children and His sheep.  This is my simple testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Blue Skies and Sunshine

September 17, 2012

9 weeks in Cristo Rey.  The heat is starting to pick up again and I'm beginning to believe that the whole "rainy season" thing is a complete lie.  We haven't had rain in weeks and it seems as though clouds are only ever seen on the horizon.  You look into the sky and all you get is a face full of blue sky and sunshine.  Luckily we haven´t had to spend too much time in the streets lately since we have found plenty of people who invite us into there homes and let us take up couch space.

In the last few weeks Elder Adams and I have been blessed to find a slew of interested and interesting investigators, the majority of which are families:

The Berroa Family and The Sosa Family are our two main families at the moment.  We have worked with them since I arrived here in Cristo Rey and they both have enough interest to get baptized.  Salvation isn't cheap however and each person has their respective stumbling blocks.  The Sosa family are attending church and have received all of the lessons, but they are not married.  At the moment they don't have a stable financial situation and have decided to postpone their marriage until they can get back on their feet.  The Berroas, on the other hand, are married, but they unfortunately work and study full time and have ridiculously crammed schedules.  They have a hard time getting to church and an even harder time meeting with us.  These families will one day be baptized, it just might take a little longer than we want it to.

Through contacting we have also found the Bautista Family.  From the first contact we new they were something special.  Our first visit with this young couple went great and the second had us itching to fill up the baptismal font.  The husband works throughout the day so his wife would read the pamphlets and then tell her husband about them.  She had also found a PDF version of the Book of Mormon online and read a few chapters before we even explained it to her.  After reading she only had two questions: who is that Joseph Smith guy and what is the Book of Mormon?  They even wanted us to share our experiences on receiving answers through prayer.  They seem almost too good to be true....

Families are great, but a strong priesthood holder can be great too.  That's why Elder Adams and I are excited to teach our new investigator Cesar.  He is a short, stocky, middle aged man who knows perfect English and lives alone.  The first time we met with him he told us immediately that we wouldn't be able to convert him and that he was not a religious man.  We weren't about to let him kick us back out into the hot streets without a fight so we very sternly explained to him that we are only messengers, not assassins.  We invite, not convert.  He listened to our message and by the next lesson he had read and was asking great questions.  He shows positive signs of progressing and has been praying every day.  The only catch?  He's basically a drug lord.  Well, we're pretty sure he is.  He's never told us directly, but the gangster posse that hangs out in front of his house every day, the collections of high-end beer bottles lying around the house, his four cell phones he takes out before we share with him, and his triple gated, padlocked entryway is a pretty big giveaway.  How we ever even contacted this man is beyond me.  He told us that he is very interested in our message but feared that he would not be able to convert because of his addiction to "the skirt and the drink", as he puts it.  We beg to differ.

When we aren't burning out our retinas contacting in the streets, we are usually found teaching English, planning ward activities, or trying to get less-actives to come back to church.  It's slow and steady, but at least we're making progress here in Cristo Rey. 

Like A Hurricane

August 27, 2012

One transfer in Cristo Rey.  Six weeks in the big city with Elder Adams.  Transfer calls came and we will both be staying here together for another Six weeks.  That means another month and a half of cooking American food and communicating in English.  I'm counting my blessings. 

Last Saturday we were able to baptize one our investigators named Minerva.  She has been investigating the church for almost a year now and was essentially a member already.  We just had to convince her that getting baptized isn't as scary as she thought it was and she took the plunge.  It was a very emotional day for her and many of her strong member friends attended.  She will be a fantastic addition to our already strong ward.  Besides Minerva we are already working with two other families who are investigating the church.  We are currently planning the wedding for one of them and we hope that they will be able to get baptized this transfer. 

On the subject of being immersed in water, Hurricane Issac decided to stop in for a visit this last week and brought with it an entire ocean of rain.  We were stuck in the house for two days as water and wind pounded the Dominican Republic.  At one point we ventured outside and found an entire street that had been flooded by the rain.  We trudged through the streets and helped a few of our neighbors move furniture and other valuables as water rushed into their houses.  As disastrous as the scene appeared, the natives were relatively unshaken and were constantly referring to the rain as a blessing.  Quite the humbling experience.  Luckily the rain has now subsided and we can get back to work again.  6 more weeks in Cristo Rey with Elder Adams and the entire city will be under water...the waters of baptism that is!  I crack myself up.

Of Families and Fritos

July 30, 2012

Having completed a full year as a missionary, we celebrated how any true American would: by eating things and burning things.  As per mission tradition I burned a shirt that had been taking up space in my suitcase for a long time.  I also made a delicious (if I might say so myself) frito pizza.  Not the healthiest choice of foods, but when you put four American boys in a house together you can´t expect too many vegetables to get eaten.  Year 2, begin.

This week was relatively uneventful besides for the progress of the ridiculously golden family we have been teaching.  The Berroa Family is comprised of the husband and his wife and their two kids, one girl (7) and one boy (12).  They have been extremely interested in our church and have been reading all of the material we leave with them.  Earlier this week we passed by to say hi and they told us that they had been investigating our church on the Internet.  Needless to say, a lot of doubts had surfaced.  My companion and I were slightly nervous that they would stop progressing and so we rigorously prepared to answer all of their questions.  When we finally taught them again we emphasized the importance of prayer and of testimonies received through the Holy Ghost before we tackled their doctrinal questions.  We then began explaining to them the various doctrinal principles that they had misunderstood while researching on the Internet.  My companion and I found that we were actually over-answering their questions.  Almost as quickly as we answered their questions their doubts melted away and they were once again eager to learn more.  At one point the husband actually asked us if it was possible for families to be together after death.  I wish someone would have taken a picture of my face when he asked that.  The wife gave the closing prayer and (despite the fact that she was praying to Jesus) she began to cry while doing so.  The Lord does indeed prepare those who we teach.  That fact is readily prevalent in almost every strong investigator we find and is obvious as we discuss the restored gospel with the Berroa Family.

Besides them we are also working with a man named Roman who is taking the lessons very well and seems to be enjoying church.  He told us that his wife had been trying to get them legally married for years now so we can only assume that she will love our message too.  We also set a baptismal date with a woman named Minerva who has been a dry member for over a year.  She converted from Catholicism and is nervous to get baptized for fear of the oppression she might receive from her friends and family.  We hope that she will push through and get baptized.  Cristo Rey seems to be full of people ready to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ...that or they just can't get enough of our dark American eyes. 

Cristo Rey (Christ the King)

 July 23, 2012

One year.  I have had so much time and yet I still feel as though I am running out.  So many people, places, and experiences have come and gone in these few short months that I constantly feel as though I am looking over my shoulder.  Let me try to recap some of my last few weeks.

These last few weeks in Yaguate have been interesting to say the least.  As far as the missionary work goes, not much has changed.  Elder Domine and I worked hard to bring the less-active members back and we were relatively successful in doing so.  While the attendance in church wasn't anything spectacular, I do feel as though the members were beginning to understand their duties and responsibilities in the church.  Yaguate must have known that I was soon to leave though because it took a few last strikes at me before I could get out.  A few weeks into the transfer when I was with Elder Domine the water stopped coming to our house.  We can usually last a week without water if we are careful but this drought lasted for 13 days.  13 days without water really pushed our survival skills, but we learned that we are more tribal than we thought we were.  Let's just say bucket showers turned into half-bucket showers and shaving became an every other day thing.  Then, only a few weeks ago, we passed by a member who was sick and had requested a blessing, which I gave.  A week later I began to break out in what looked like mosquito bites.  Turns out the member had chicken pox.  I have never had chicken pox.  I quite literally took upon myself her infirmities, which resulted in our companionship remaining in the house for 9 days in order to prevent a chicken pox epidemic from wiping out Yaguate.  Eventually we were able to leave but only in time for me to say goodbye to some members and head off to my new area.  Nice try Yaguate.

I am now stationed in Cristo Rey, a city deep in the capital of Santo Domingo.  You might say that I am now in the concrete jungle.  Just to give you an idea, I haven't seen a single dirt road, plantain tree, or machete wielding Haitian in a week.  We also have one of the few houses in the mission with 24 hour light and water.  I am officially a spoiled man.  "Let them eat cake" is a popular phrase heard in our third story loft occupied by four American missionaries.  Papa John's is getting a lot of business to say the least.  As far as the missionary work goes, it goes.  We have more investigators than I have fingers and our ward is pushing 100 in attendance.  We contact, we teach, we walk, we eat food; I feel like a real missionary.  Among our many investigators is a new family who are already Mormon but they just don't know it yet.  As we sat down with them and their 2 children they listened attentively and asked such great questions we were almost laughing.  The husband once asked us if praying had to be an individual thing.  We can hardly even get long time members to pray with their families. This married - ahem MARRIED - couple are both reading and we hope will be praying to receive their own answers. 

The change in living conditions has definitely sent me into another mini-culture shock.  I miss the spontaneity of jungle life, but I am sure the big city has new and wonderful experiences waiting for me as well.  The city is new, but the church is still true.

We Few, We Happy Few...

June 18, 2012

Week 13 in Yaguate.  Transfers have torn my previous companion from me and I am now privileged to work with Elder Domine.   Elder Domine is from Tonga and is only 6 weeks younger than me in the mission. He lives in Los Angeles, speaks perfect English, loves Lord of the Rings, and enjoys reading...needless to say, we get along very well. 

These last few weeks we have been focusing very heavily on less-actives, as always.  We have spent a lot of time helping them set goals and realize their duty as members.  It is slow work and we very often don't see results, but little by little they are progressing.  With the less-actives we have decided to focus on helping them to read scriptures, pray, and go to church.  Essentially bring them right back to the primary principles.  We are doing the same with the strong members but we also push them to get involved in the mission work by providing references and doing home teaching.  

Elder Domine and I have decided to focus on 5 less-actives in particular:

The Garcia Family is comprised of three sisters and their mother who all live under the same roof.  They all have relatively strong testimonies but are struggling to attend church on a consistent basis.  We believe that they will be an asset to the Relief Society here if we re-animate them to get involved in the work.

Rosaura is a 16 year old girl who is the only member in her family.  She was once a strong member but with time fell away from the church.  When we visited with her she immediately told us that she would return to church and has begun to read in the scriptures once again.  

Marilexis has a similar story to Rosaura as she is young and the only member in her family.  She has also shown a desire to re-activate but is rather sluggish in doing so.  With time and patience she will return to activity.

Omar and Bairum are two young boys who have recently lost focus due to the distractions of summer vacation.  We don't plan on letting them relax for too long.  If we have to drag them to church in their underwear then so be it.  It's about time the missionaries didn't pass the sacrament.  

Katarin and Henry were baptized around 1 year ago and slipped into inactivity.  Katarin is 18 and Henry is 14 which would make them a great addition to the youth program here.  Katarin was eager to return again but Henry absolutely refused to return.  After some discussion we learned that church bored him and that he saw little value in spending time there.  With some work we finally got him to open up and he has decided to return to church.

This last Sunday we had a total of 30 people in church, 10 more than last week.  Both Katarin and Henry came along with 2 of the Garcia Family sisters.  My companion and I gave talks and we hope to have an even greater attendance next week.  Working with less-actives is an amazing opportunity, though often difficult.  We recognize that those attending often don't have strong testimonies, but we also trust that the spirit will one day infiltrate their hearts and help them to understand the blessings that come from faithful activity in the church.  

Whenever we aren't dragging children to church activities or sternly reminded priesthood holders of their neglected duties, we are usually found pounding down giant mangos or lying around the house waiting for the electricity to come back.  The renowned Caribbean heat has returned and is just as relentless as I remember it being.  We have now memorized every point in Yaguate that provides shade on our commonly used routes and freezing cold bucket showers are more than welcome at the end of the day.  As difficult as life is, I have really grown to love this area and the wonderful people who live here.  Our Basic Unity is, yes, basic but I have come to recognize it as a strong foundation for what will be.  The church in Yaguate may be basic, but the people are very much unified.

Like A Fire Is Burning

May 7, 2012

Two months have passed since I first began working in Yaguate and they have finally begun to burn the sugar cane.  Every day we walk for hours along fields packed with bushy, green crops that conceal thick stalks of syrupy sugar cane.  In order to harvest them they first burn the entire field to remove the large fronds and then collect the leftover sugar cane which is apparently impervious to the fire.  No one worries about uncontrollable fires here because the tropical plants are so green it's actually a challenge to try and burn them at all.  Sugar cane is first peeled and then can be eaten by biting off large chunks, sucking out the sugary juice, and then spitting out the dry, stringy remains.  It's not an elegant experience nor a snack that would be approved by any sane dentist, but it tastes great and is probably the closest you will ever get to feeling like a vampire.  

While I would love to report that our basic community is on fire, the truth is that the work is slow.  We have wonderful projections and a promising future in store for this basic community, but we have to take things step by step.  We have no investigators despite having contacted the majority of the city now so we still place the majority of our focus on the hundreds of less-actives in our area.  Working with less-actives is slow work.  Getting them to come back to church is more difficult than just whipping out pictures of fire and brimstone, we have had to be patient with them and have utilized various different approaches to try and convince them to come back into the fold.  Sometimes it works, usually it doesn't.    Our main method of coercion is service and the primary type of service we do here involves machetes.   A "lawn mower" here in the Dominican Republic is defined as any individual who can breathe,  crouch for long periods of time, and wield a long, dull blade.  The missionaries fit that definition perfectly so we spend many of our morning hours hacking away at the overgrowth in the yards of our members.  Luckily we are usually rewarded with fruit that grows abundantly in their yards and we will very often walk home with bags full of mangos, cherries, or plantains.  At one members house we were awarded with a fat guanabana, which looks just about as deadly as it sounds but tastes great.  The guanabana shell is covered in deceivingly soft spines and has a mushy, white interior that tastes slightly sour.  As dignified as I know missionaries are supposed to be, I've never felt so tribal in my entire life eating that fruit like a savage.

In the good news category, The Reyes Family has become surprisingly active in the last few weeks.  One Sunday we had all six of the Reyes kids walking with us to church along with Bairum and another youth in the ward.  We got a few heads to turn as we herded that group of kids down to what the members refer to as our "House of Prayer."  I still am not sure how I feel about the fact that the youth that day almost matched the number of adults that were in attendance.  In order to keep them animated to attend we have also been having youth activities involving games, movies, and a review of the principles in the Strength for Youth pamphlets.  We have been considering putting up a sign outside the church that says "Mormon Daycare."   

Besides the youth movement we have sparked here in Yaguate, our other efforts are not making any significant visual impact.  We support the strong members and serve the weak ones but working with hearts is a long-term operation.  Every less-active has their respective issue to overcome or resolve and unburying dormant testimonies is a shovel by shovel process.  While they often don't seem to understand the importance of what we are trying to do in their lives or have their priorities in the same order as we would have them be, we continue visiting with them and serving them so that one day, when they need what we have to offer them, we can give it to them.  Because "we look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" and everyone, one day, has to wake up from their temporal slumber.  We just hope to be the first ones that they see when they do.