Date: Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:15 AM
Subject: ¡Hola Familia!
Hey guys!
This week has been pretty great!
Because there are so few missionaries here at the moment, the President and his wife take us on field trips in the afternoon on P-Day. So right after we got off the computers last week we went to the Colonial Zone, which is the original city that Bartholomew Columbus (Christopher's Brother) settled. It was the first colony to be settled in the New World. The outer wall, the cannons, the watch towers, and several of the buildings are all still in tact. One of their cathedrals has been converted into a super cool, two story museum with all the artifacts from the colony and some artifacts from the Indians that lived here before Columbus discovered the island. There are paintings, and pots, and weapons, and all kinds of other cool stuff. They have little audio devices that you can use to learn all about each exhibit. It was way sweet!! We spent like 2 and a half hours in there. Don't worry mom, I took plenty of pictures. Ha.
Then on Friday we had our normal class time in the morning, but instead of class in the afternoon we went to the University to do some contacting! It was way cool! We live like 2 blocks away from the university, so we walked down there, and our teachers gave us Restoration Pamphlets and a Book of Mormon and told us to go preach the Gospel. Ha. No big deal.
The first guy Elder Shepherd and I talked to was an Engineering major, his name was Anderson. He was super chill and we talked to him for like 20 minutes and then he had to go to class. So we walked him to class and gave him a pamphlet and the number to get in contact with other missionaries in the area.
Then we talked with a guy named Pavel. He is studying linguistics, so he wanted to practice his English with us. Ha. It was a good deal. We talked with him for about half an hour; he helped us with our Spanish and we helped him with his English. He said he knew quite a bit about our church because he had been taught by some missionaries previously, but they had had some Visa issues and they had to go back to the U.S. and I guess they just didn't get him in contact with other missionaries. He really wanted to learn more. He kept asking us when we could come over and teach him more, but we're kinda tied to the CCM at the moment so we had to give him the information to get a hold of other missionaries. It sucked! I was so mad! We told him we'd be coming back to the university this week and we'd look around for him. So we'll see what we can do tomorrow.
Then we went and talked to Annie. She was an accounting major, she seemed interested and she talked to us for a solid 20 minutes. She was super nice. And then her friend walked up, and when she saw us she did the Catholic cross symbol over her face and chest. Ha. It was funny. We explained that we weren't Catholic, that we were from the Church of Jesus Christ and that we believed in Christ just like the Catholics do, but we were a different church. We gave them a pamphlet and the numbers to get more information, and they said they'd call it.
We talked to a few other people, but they weren't really interested in talking to us, or they didn't have time.
It was a super cool experience, and a really reassuring one. Both of us didn't quite realize that we were actually capable of communicating in Spanish. Plus, the fact that we got 3 prospective investigators in just over 2 hours was really cool!
Then on Saturday we had a normal day. Just class, class and more class.
On Sunday we watched an amazing devotional by Elder Holland on being better missionaries. We had testimony meeting, and priesthood. We went for our temple walk and then came home for dinner to break our fast. After dinner we had a district meeting cuz we had some conflicts to work out (yup, there's missionary drama. What. A. Joke.) And we needed to set some goals. After our meeting we had another devotional where the Santo Domingo Temple President and Matron came and spoke to us! It was really cool! They talked to us about the temple garment, and about the importance of temple ordinances. Then they opened it up for a question and answer sort of thing at the end. It was super cool!
On Monday had class in the AM and then we went to a school for the mentally and physically disabled and volunteered. Elder Shepherd and I worked with three year old kids. They were SO funny! We played with play-dough and we fed them their snack. It was nice because they mostly just communicate with grunts. Lol. No Spanish necessary. But we talked to the employees quite a bit. Everyone we talk to is always super duper surprised when we tell them we're only 19 and we're from the United States and that we don't get to go home for 2 years. Ha. It makes sense why we do it; people straight up respect us for it and they always want to know why, or what could possibly prompt us to do something like this.
Tuesday we had a devotional with Elder Cornish (a member of the Area Presidency out here). He taught us about the Atonement and about all the things Christ did for us. It was UNREAL. He is an amazing teacher. He explained how through the Atonement we can become new creatures. "Christ doesn't want to make us a new model of the car we already are; He wants to make us a Rocketship." He explained that being changed through Christ is far more than a new paint job. We are literally turning away from the natural man, and becoming new through Christ. It was way cool.
Yesterday was another normal day. Tons of class, 3 meal times, and a smidge of gym time. Ha. Our teachers still go over to the park with us everyday so we can run. They are super cool. They're all DR natives and they're all RM's. They know the scriptures SO well, and they teach the gospel in a super clear way. They are hard core spiritual giants, but they can still goof off and have fun with us. They're way cool. We're all so grateful to have them!
This morning we got up, had a little time to email, and then headed to the Temple. We get to go to the Temple here every week, and then when we're out in the field we get to go twice a year. :) I think it's a pretty good deal. The Santo Domingo Temple is BEAUTIFUL. It's so amazing! We get to be there for 2 or 3 hours every Thursday. They let us do a session, and then we can pick another ordinance to do after that. Then we get to come back and have more time on the computers before lunch because I guess the mail system is a little iffy here, so the President wants us to communicate mostly through email.
Then after lunch we're headed to the "Botanical Gardens" which I assume are just super cool, hardcore, tropical gardens. So I'll take some pictures. ;)
I love you all. I hope everything is going well for everyone!
Love,
Elder Cade Mooney
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| We went to the place where it was declared that our church had rights to preach the gospel in this contry when the mission was opened. It had some cool pathways and some cool views, and the big "we get to teach the gospel" plaque. |
The girls stole my camera while Elder shepherd and I were teaching. They took Pictures with us teaching in the background (there's a live camera feed going while we teach so the other companionships can watch, and then we can play it back and watch it while our teachers give us feedback.)
The goofy face guy is Hemano Rodriguez, He's our favorite teacher. Ha. He and Hno Nunez. They're awesome!
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