Elder Cade Mooney: What's up! From Frio Ocoa!

Hello Family!!!

This week was another incredible one! Although, I have to admit, I've seen my breath more than once this week. Ha. Unexpected.

On Monday night, we left from emailing all of you and went over to Milagros’ house. We had an AWESOME Noche de Hogar with them. We talked about the statement “you are never alone.” It was cool to have all members and missionaries there. We all had something to contribute; from Job, to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail and everything in between. It was inspiring. I would suggest you all read D&C 122:9, and then Helaman 5:12. We are truly never alone. Christ has suffered EVERYTHING for us. He knows exactly how we feel, and exactly what we are going through. He is the best friend anyone could ask for. He is our ROCK, and if we rely on Him, we will never fall.

Our intercambio with Ivan and Huesker 1/8/13

On Tuesday, we had an awesome intercambio with Ivan (my recent convert from a couple months back), and Huesker (other recent convert/Ivan’s best friend). We had them come sleep at our house on Monday night, and then we woke up on Tuesday morning at 6:30 a.m., ran them through Ab Ripper X from P90X, fed them pancakes, and then we split off into companionships and studied. I was with Ivan. We had one of the coolest study sessions I’ve had thus far. We talked about our purpose as missionaries, and we tied it in to some of the questions he had about Lehi’s dream. Our job is to INVITE others to come eat of the fruit of the tree, not force the issue. Also, we invite them by helping them with basic gospel principles (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Reception of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End) and then we watch them learn, grow and progress in both their physical and their spiritual lives.

After lunch, we went out and had some awesome lessons, and conveniently, about 85% of them were on the Gospel of Jesus Christ: Just what we studied. :) God is good. Also, seeing that my comp and I split up for the day, and were able to cover twice the area for a FULL day… We got some of the best numbers (not that they matter) that I’ve had in my whole mission. Lol. Nailed it. Then we finished off the night with some Ice Cream, and a short discussion on what we learned. :)

Wednesday was semi normal. We had our first District Meeting with Elder Mendosa as our DL… It went well. We had some good discussions about our investigators, and I learned a lot. Although, like I learned in my previous intercambios with Mendosa, he’s a little overbearing, and SO number driven… So we will see what this transfer has to bring… Maybe a humility/patience lesson for Elder Mooney? Lol

Thursday was bomb town. It was my turn to cook, and as the Dominicans say… I passed myself. Lol. I made fried Chicken, then covered it in hot sauce mixed with brown sugar (JCW’s style mild wing sauce), and cooked up some garlic, cilantro mashed potatoes, and some deep fried, green bananas. SO good. Lol. Obviously stated with all the humility in the world… ha.

Then, on top of our over-full bellies, we had an awesome lesson with Gregorina (our investigator that I contacted while she was drunk that one night), and turns out, she has completely stopped drinking! She is reading EVERYTHING we leave with her, and yesterday was her second time in church already! She is awesome!

And if that wasn’t enough, we finally sat down with Cristian (the daddy of Rosanna’s baby), and Rosanna (our 17 year old investigator with the kid that we’ve been teaching for a while now, but are waiting on baptism 'til we can get things figured out with her “husband”/baby's daddy). It was a great lesson, and I think with the right amount of effort on our part, as well as Rosanna and Cristian’s part, they will be married, baptized and well on their way towards eternal family status.

Friday just got awesomer… (I don’t think awesomer is even a word… but it happened). After our morning routine we went over to Milagros' house and did service, i.e. swept all the leaves up off her patio, scrubbed the rugs, swept and mopped the whole house, cleaned the bathroom, dusted, and then cooked her lunch while she sipped juice on the couch. Ha. Jk. She helped us, and supervised. But it still rocked for everyone involved.

Then that night, we went over to our other missionary mom Nermis’ house, and taught Miacol. He is a 17 year old kid that is trying to get signed as a catcher (pro baseball player) right now. We met him on Christmas Eve, and have been trying to find a time to meet. Welp, we found it, and it was incredible. The Spirit was SO strong! (I realize I use that phrase a lot, but I really don’t know how else to describe it). We had a discussion about our role as missionaries in his conversion, and we talked about the things he will have to do and change as he is converted. We focused on prayer, and the need of a confirmation from the Spirit of God that all the things we teach are true. Then, both my companion and I had the overwhelming prompting to invite Hermana Nermis to share her conversion story. It was perfect. She talked about the hard time she was going through, and the very fervent prayer she offered in search of the truth, and then the almost immediate answer of a knock at the door from two young Americans in white shirts and ties. She followed it up with an undeniable testimony of the power of prayer, and the knowledge of the truthfulness of this Gospel. I know Miacol felt something, and I have high hopes for him as he starts this not-even-slightly-easy conversion process.

Saturday, was all normal, EXCEPT: We ran into a group of white people…. Non-missionary white people. Lol. They were a youth group (plus leaders) from Toronto Canada here to build a house for a family, and serve in a local orphanage. Ha. It was SO bizarre to see people so white. I realize their houses are buried in snow right now, and they haven’t seen the sun in months, but still. They were like paper compared to the average, caramel colored Dominican… Ha. White people are so weird. It was so strange talking to them and trying to explain what we do as missionaries, IN ENGLISH. It was like the opposite of the culture shock I experienced when I first got here. Ha. I hope you are all not as weird as the Canadians were… Or maybe I’m the weird one… The mixed breed American/Dominican.

Yesterday was chill: normal day at church and a solid bunch of lessons in the afternoon. Then last night, after we came home and changed, we hitch hiked up to Sábana Larga, made fritos with avocado dip for dinner, then slept on the concrete floor so we could get up SUPER early and go on an adventure this morning.

Today, we left the Sábana Larga house at 6 a.m., met up with an Hermana in their ward, and then hitch hiked the hour and a half ride up to Rancho Arriba. It is currently a closed area (about a stones through away from the Santiago Mission border), that we’ve heard whisperings of being opened soon. So, we went to check it out, and along with our exploring of the area, we hiked to a near by waterfall/bathing pool. Lol. I wont lie… Standing next to a tropical lagoon and not being able to swim in it is about the worst thing one can experience. But it was awesome just the same.

After we came down from the blue lagoon, we went to a pepper farm (where a guy we contacted this morning works) and got a tour from Andrés, our new friend from Rancho Arriba. I had no idea how much science and work went into growing bell peppers. Ha. I would still NEVER choose agriculture as a career, but it was interesting.

Then we hitch hiked our way back down, and now I’m here, again out of time. We have to go to Nermis’ house to teach Miacol, and we still haven’t showered… ha.

I love and miss you all! I know this church is true! Keep the faith!

Love,

Elder Cade Mooney

My comp and I have been exalted. 1/9/13

All the free fruit we get from investigators. As you can see, Ocoa is full of avocado farms. 1/12/13

A giant moth in our house 1/8/13

Our neighborhood drunken goat... lol. all the people in the street give it alcohol 'til it passes out...
then it wakes up and they do it again. So sad, but SO hilarious. 1/9/13