Hey fam bam.
This week was great. Like Tony the Tiger GRRREEAAAAT. Ha. The best way I’ve found to describe it is the way I told my mom about it a few minutes ago, “I couldn't have asked for a better situation to land in as a fell from the Heaven that is Ocoa. Ha.”
My new companion, Elder Fassett, and I just picked up right where we left off. We’re both the exactly the same as we were in the MTC; same jokes, same sense of humor, same attitude about the work, etc. But… we both speak Spanish now. Haha. So we’ve been workin' hard, and havin' TONS of fun!
My new area: Los Alcarizos. We are on the outskirts of Santo Dominigo. As far as the mission is concerned, we are still part of the capital, but our area isn’t like Independencia (my first area, in the heart of the capital) at all. We have lots of streets and buildings stacked on top of each other just like in the capital, but if you walk about 15 minutes away from our house, all you can see for miles is tin roofed, huts and palm trees. I’m a fan. We get the hustle and bustle of the capital, but we also get people with chill, humble personalities and low prices on everything just like in the country. ;) I would have to label it “the best of both worlds” (Hannah’s words, not mine) ha.
We’re currently working in two different parts of our area, and we’re seeing lots of potential and success. One of the areas we’re hittin' pretty hard is right next to our church, so we’re hoping that the mere vicinity of our chapel will fight off a few of the pathetic excuses we hear from people about having to attend church every week. Haha
Our investigators: Elder Gatherum (Elder Fassett’s previous comp) left the area lookin’ pretty good. We’re currently working with a family that I fell in love with the moment I met them -- Dioni (dad), Adriana (mom), Joel (19), Leidi (15), Esperanza (12), and Adoni (8). They are AMAZING! Elder Fassett and Elder Gatherum received Joel (the older boy) as a reference from a member, who’s also their next door neighbor. After a few lessons with him, Dioni (the dad) sat down with them and stated that he had been reading all the pamphlets they were leaving with his son, and that he wanted to learn more. Haha. So they started teaching them as a family. I came in at the climax of the missionary discussion process! The had discussed a baptismal date, in the beginning of March, but hadn’t set a sure one yet, so Elder Fassett and I talked it out with them, and we decided that if they make the effort to come to church the next two weeks (yesterday, and this coming week), they’ll be more than prepared to enter the waters of baptism on the Second of March. And guess what?!?! All except Leidi came to church yesterday!!! Leidi probably won't be able to meet the goal with them, but I’m sure that with the example of her family, she won't be far behind.
Also, we’re working with another lady that Gatherum and Fassett contacted into a week or so back. Her name is Anni, and she has TONS of questions. Ha. I like people that like questions. We have some of the greatest lessons ever with her! Also, this last week, Elder Fassett and I helped her husband work on his computer, and then he sat in on a lesson with us. He also has a lot of questions! They are a great family, with three (if I remember correctly) kids, and based on the fact that they live on the same street as the church, I’m fairly certain they will progress! They came yesterday with their son Joel, and loved it. Obviously, they had A LOT of questions afterwards, but we got things all sorted out, and they are excited to go again next week!
Other than the two families, we have some other solid progressing investigators, and are finding more and more people every day that want to learn more about what we have to share!
Thus far I am loving my area, and my companion, and my investigators. Our ward is great too, so basically I’m all set for a GREEEEAAAATT transfer!
I love you all, but again I must go.
Keep the faith, and never forget that the church is true! The one and only!
Love,
Elder Cade Mooney
Saturday, February 23, 2013
God knows me all too well… - Monday, February 11, 2013
¡Hola Familia!
I hope your week was awesome, cuz mine sure as heck was!!
I cant believe how lucky I am to be a missionary!! My life is the BOMB!
On Monday, we got a call… We’re kinda like the Ghost Busters. Ha. Mama Juana, as well as Juana and Rosanna wanted blessings, and they wanted us to help them dedicate their houses. :) Oh man. The priesthood is SO great! I know that God loves each one of us more than we can imagine cuz I get to feel a sliver of that love every time I give someone a blessing! It blows my mind! There really aren’t words to describe the feelings of love and peace that the Spirit brings!
Also, cool testimony builder that my comp shared with me on our walk home: While I was voicing the blessing of Mama Juana, my companion cleared his mind and said a few sentences of the blessing, word for word, in his head just split seconds before they came out of my mouth! Priesthood blessings really do come from God! They are inspired! And I feel SO privileged to be a mouthpiece!
On Tuesday, our washing machine came!!! I am SO happy!!! I instantly started a load of wash! It is so great to be able to walk away from the wash, then come back 20 minutes later and have it clean! Plus, we can now put it in the spinner before hanging it up to dry, so our clothes only take a couple hours to dry instead of a few days!!! God is good! We are SO blessed! I watch, and often help, Dominican women washing by hand out of buckets. And they wash for entire families… I vote we all count our blessings.
Then in the evening, after my wash was done, we had an AWESOME lesson with Anairis. She is a girl we received as a reference from some of her friends, and she’s getting ready to be baptized this coming week, but hasn’t been reading the pamphlets we leave with her. So we had a serious talk about her desire to be baptized and explained the things she needs to do to achieve her goal. It was a great lesson, with an awesome spirit present. Since then, she’s been completing all her commitments, and as shown by her actions, her baptism is the most important thing to her right now!! :)
Wednesday we celebrated! Elder Meek turned 20!! Wow! So old!! Haha. We got up, and I surprised him with a box of Cookie Crisp (it’s his favorite, and he’s had his eye on it at the super market for the last couple of weeks), then left him to his package opening, and letter reading. Haha. I kept trying to talk him into opening his presents early, but he stood firm and waited til his actual birthday. So while he trunked himself out, I made a cake. Tres Leches. His other favorite. We ate it after lunch, and it was delicious!
Then we spent the day crossing rivers, scaling cliffs, and changing lives. :) I’m pretty sure God knew it was Meek’s birthday, cuz our lessons went SO well! We taught with lots of power, and the Spirit was super strong with us all day! Then we came home, and made arroz con Leche to finish off the night! Rockin' birthday! Missionary style!
Thursday was good. Just lots of good lessons. We taught a that new family I told you about last week, Angi and Penco, and we lucked out! They were both home, AND their baby girl (who is adorable, but ridiculously loud and distracting…) was SOUND asleep!!! it was awesome! We had a good restoration lesson that they understood really well, and then we finished it off with a Q and A session. I have really high hopes for them! :)
Friday, my companion received a package from his old companion. Ha. It had a tres leches cake in it. So we considered ourselves blessed, and didn’t think about the whole milk that sits out goes bad thing… It was AWFUL!!! The cake was sour. Lol. So sad. Such a waste!!
Our day of work was good. We are finding TONS of new people to teach in the Barrio San Luis. Lots of golden investigators. :) Plus we taught Juana and then Carmen! Both of them are still going strong with their Word of Wisdom goals!! Yay!
Saturday, we got up and cleaned the church, played some volleyball, and then came home and my comp made lunch while I created a masterpiece. Ha. By masterpiece I mean Tres Leches round 2.5 (the .5 is for the attempted tres leches by mail. Ha). Then tons of our lessons failed us in the afternoon… So we went exploring in our area, and had a photo shoot. Haha. My companion jokingly referred to it as Senior Pics 2013. lol. Cuz it’s about that time of year again, and our poses were a bit cheesy. ;)
Then in the evening we went over to Milagros’ and celebrated Meek’s (2/6) and Miguel’s (2/7) birthdays! :) They made the spaghetti, and we brought the cake. :) It was AMAZING! To top the cake, my comp and I found FRESH strawberries!!! It was like being back at Café Rio! Haha. SO good!
Yesterday was…. Too many emotions to type out. Haha. It started off with church, Angi and Penco came!!!! I was SO happy! And during church Angi was talking to some of the ladies about baptism, and now she wants to know when and how she can get baptized!! Sadly, she isn’t married by law to Penco yet, so we cant put a solid date, but she has the desire, and that’s all that matters!! :)
In the afternoon we finally had a lesson with Gregorina. We haven’t been able to get a hold of her this whole last week, cuz she has recently found a boyfriend, and they moved in together… BUMMER!!! But she still came to church, and she still wants to get baptized. So we talked it out, weighed some options (i.e. move back home, or get married), and then left her to think and pray on it. She still has a strong desire to live the commandments of God, and she still wants to get baptized, so we’ll keep working with her.
After some other lessons, we came home at 8:45 so our Zone Leaders could get Transfer Calls from the AP’s faster (they don’t release the transfer info until all the missionaries are in the zone are in house. Haha). We were all expecting that Meek and I would stay, and that Tuanama would leave, and Leyva would receive a new comp. Well… Tuanama’s out, as expected, but as usual, there’s a twist… I am leaving my beautiful home in Ocoa…
When I heard the news I about cried. I was getting ready to call Pres and start a Huelga (the Dominican version of a protest… Usually includes barricades and burning tires in the streets. Ha.) to make him let me stay, but God knows me too well. Just like last time I had to move, God made the Transfer JUST what I would have picked for myself if I was FORCED to leave.
I am headed to Los Alcarizos to be the new companion of… wait for it…. ELDER FASSETT!!! That’s right! My MTC companion, and long time mission best friend! I am SO pumped! I don’t know how many times this has happened in the history of missions, but I feel pretty blessed!
I am super sad that I have to leave all my loved ones here in Ocoa. And I’m really gonna miss my hot water heater… But I’m all kinds of excited to be the companion of the one and only Elder Matthew Fassett! We are gonna baptize the whole world!! Plus, more than likely, we will celebrate our one year mark together!! J So ridiculously awesome!! :)
Anyway. I will let you all know how awesome my life is next week, in my new area. :)
I really gotta go.
The church is true. I’m SURE of it!
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Cade Mooney
I hope your week was awesome, cuz mine sure as heck was!!
I cant believe how lucky I am to be a missionary!! My life is the BOMB!
On Monday, we got a call… We’re kinda like the Ghost Busters. Ha. Mama Juana, as well as Juana and Rosanna wanted blessings, and they wanted us to help them dedicate their houses. :) Oh man. The priesthood is SO great! I know that God loves each one of us more than we can imagine cuz I get to feel a sliver of that love every time I give someone a blessing! It blows my mind! There really aren’t words to describe the feelings of love and peace that the Spirit brings!
Also, cool testimony builder that my comp shared with me on our walk home: While I was voicing the blessing of Mama Juana, my companion cleared his mind and said a few sentences of the blessing, word for word, in his head just split seconds before they came out of my mouth! Priesthood blessings really do come from God! They are inspired! And I feel SO privileged to be a mouthpiece!
On Tuesday, our washing machine came!!! I am SO happy!!! I instantly started a load of wash! It is so great to be able to walk away from the wash, then come back 20 minutes later and have it clean! Plus, we can now put it in the spinner before hanging it up to dry, so our clothes only take a couple hours to dry instead of a few days!!! God is good! We are SO blessed! I watch, and often help, Dominican women washing by hand out of buckets. And they wash for entire families… I vote we all count our blessings.
Then in the evening, after my wash was done, we had an AWESOME lesson with Anairis. She is a girl we received as a reference from some of her friends, and she’s getting ready to be baptized this coming week, but hasn’t been reading the pamphlets we leave with her. So we had a serious talk about her desire to be baptized and explained the things she needs to do to achieve her goal. It was a great lesson, with an awesome spirit present. Since then, she’s been completing all her commitments, and as shown by her actions, her baptism is the most important thing to her right now!! :)
Wednesday we celebrated! Elder Meek turned 20!! Wow! So old!! Haha. We got up, and I surprised him with a box of Cookie Crisp (it’s his favorite, and he’s had his eye on it at the super market for the last couple of weeks), then left him to his package opening, and letter reading. Haha. I kept trying to talk him into opening his presents early, but he stood firm and waited til his actual birthday. So while he trunked himself out, I made a cake. Tres Leches. His other favorite. We ate it after lunch, and it was delicious!
Then we spent the day crossing rivers, scaling cliffs, and changing lives. :) I’m pretty sure God knew it was Meek’s birthday, cuz our lessons went SO well! We taught with lots of power, and the Spirit was super strong with us all day! Then we came home, and made arroz con Leche to finish off the night! Rockin' birthday! Missionary style!
Thursday was good. Just lots of good lessons. We taught a that new family I told you about last week, Angi and Penco, and we lucked out! They were both home, AND their baby girl (who is adorable, but ridiculously loud and distracting…) was SOUND asleep!!! it was awesome! We had a good restoration lesson that they understood really well, and then we finished it off with a Q and A session. I have really high hopes for them! :)
Friday, my companion received a package from his old companion. Ha. It had a tres leches cake in it. So we considered ourselves blessed, and didn’t think about the whole milk that sits out goes bad thing… It was AWFUL!!! The cake was sour. Lol. So sad. Such a waste!!
Our day of work was good. We are finding TONS of new people to teach in the Barrio San Luis. Lots of golden investigators. :) Plus we taught Juana and then Carmen! Both of them are still going strong with their Word of Wisdom goals!! Yay!
Saturday, we got up and cleaned the church, played some volleyball, and then came home and my comp made lunch while I created a masterpiece. Ha. By masterpiece I mean Tres Leches round 2.5 (the .5 is for the attempted tres leches by mail. Ha). Then tons of our lessons failed us in the afternoon… So we went exploring in our area, and had a photo shoot. Haha. My companion jokingly referred to it as Senior Pics 2013. lol. Cuz it’s about that time of year again, and our poses were a bit cheesy. ;)
Then in the evening we went over to Milagros’ and celebrated Meek’s (2/6) and Miguel’s (2/7) birthdays! :) They made the spaghetti, and we brought the cake. :) It was AMAZING! To top the cake, my comp and I found FRESH strawberries!!! It was like being back at Café Rio! Haha. SO good!
Yesterday was…. Too many emotions to type out. Haha. It started off with church, Angi and Penco came!!!! I was SO happy! And during church Angi was talking to some of the ladies about baptism, and now she wants to know when and how she can get baptized!! Sadly, she isn’t married by law to Penco yet, so we cant put a solid date, but she has the desire, and that’s all that matters!! :)
In the afternoon we finally had a lesson with Gregorina. We haven’t been able to get a hold of her this whole last week, cuz she has recently found a boyfriend, and they moved in together… BUMMER!!! But she still came to church, and she still wants to get baptized. So we talked it out, weighed some options (i.e. move back home, or get married), and then left her to think and pray on it. She still has a strong desire to live the commandments of God, and she still wants to get baptized, so we’ll keep working with her.
After some other lessons, we came home at 8:45 so our Zone Leaders could get Transfer Calls from the AP’s faster (they don’t release the transfer info until all the missionaries are in the zone are in house. Haha). We were all expecting that Meek and I would stay, and that Tuanama would leave, and Leyva would receive a new comp. Well… Tuanama’s out, as expected, but as usual, there’s a twist… I am leaving my beautiful home in Ocoa…
When I heard the news I about cried. I was getting ready to call Pres and start a Huelga (the Dominican version of a protest… Usually includes barricades and burning tires in the streets. Ha.) to make him let me stay, but God knows me too well. Just like last time I had to move, God made the Transfer JUST what I would have picked for myself if I was FORCED to leave.
I am headed to Los Alcarizos to be the new companion of… wait for it…. ELDER FASSETT!!! That’s right! My MTC companion, and long time mission best friend! I am SO pumped! I don’t know how many times this has happened in the history of missions, but I feel pretty blessed!
I am super sad that I have to leave all my loved ones here in Ocoa. And I’m really gonna miss my hot water heater… But I’m all kinds of excited to be the companion of the one and only Elder Matthew Fassett! We are gonna baptize the whole world!! Plus, more than likely, we will celebrate our one year mark together!! J So ridiculously awesome!! :)
Anyway. I will let you all know how awesome my life is next week, in my new area. :)
I really gotta go.
The church is true. I’m SURE of it!
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Cade Mooney
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Baseball, Babies, and Blessings - Monday, February 4, 2013
Hello Family!!
First off. I love you all.
Second off. I just got the news that Craig's family, and all my immediate family members above the age of 12 will be a stones throw away from me the last week in March. Hmmm. Talk about a trunky dagger to the heart. Ha. Thanks guys.
After we played a few games, we came back to the house, showered, and headed over to our weekly FHE at Milagros’ house. On the way there we got a call from our District leader telling us that a member in our area had called him requesting a blessing… So we went and got Indianna, Milagros, and Miguel to help us find her house… Even with our trusty Dominican guides, it turned out to be quite the adventure… This country struggles with their address system (hence the mail problems). On top of that, the Hermana Maria has moved three times in the last 6 months… Ha. So everyone had a different address to find her at. Ha. But, with faith and willingness to ask for directions, we found her house. Turns out, she had suffered an asthma attack that morning on her way home from Bani, and was still super wound up. We talked for a while, and then gave her a blessing. It was SO cool! The spirit was tangible in that room. EVERYONE could feel of God's love for Maria, and immediately following the blessing, her shoulders relaxed, she sat back in her chair, and just smiled. J I am SO grateful for the Priesthood! Then we shared 2 Nephi 27:23 with her and testified of the power each one of us has to work miracles through our faith.
On Tuesday afternoon we went down to part of our area to teach some investigators, and both felt impressed to go contact another part of our area instead… We ignored it… and still went to our citas. Ha. Well God wanted us contacting. So ALL of our appointments failed us… And after a little slice of humble pie, we walked back over to the other neighborhood and contacted. Haha. God knows what’s up. EVERYONE was in their houses, and they were all SUPER accepting and invited us back. Just what we needed to start our week off with a bang!
Then, in the evening we were finishing up with a lesson when Diana called us and canceled the FHE we had planned for the last hour of our night… That was unexpected… But again, God knows what’s up. We felt prompted to go back over to La Hermana Maria’s house to check and see how she was doing, and to see if we could do anything for her. We got there, and she told us we were just who she wanted to see! She has been calling and calling members of our ward to find someone to accompany her to the Capital the following morning to get a check up, and to get an inhalers. She originally had planned to have her daughter (who lives in the Capital) meet her at the clinic, but she couldn't make it work that day… Well, after a quick q&a session to find out exactly where this clinic was located in the Capital, we realized that she was headed for Independencia!!! MY OLD AREA!!! So I called Amelia Guzman up, and she had no problem being at the clinic (a short walk from her house) the next morning to go with Hna Maria! It was SO cool! What a testimony that God knows EXACTLY who needs to be where, and what needs to happen to work miracles in the lives of His children. If our FHE hadn’t’ve canceled, and if I hadn’t’ve just come from the exact ward that she was heading to, it wouldn’t have worked out NEARLY as smoothly. I know God has a plan for everyone, and I know that He works miracles to help us out through those around us. I hope and pray that we can all keep being worthy and willing to act as the miracle workers that God wants us to be.
Then we went down to El Barrio San Rafael (the one God made us go contact on Tuesday afternoon) and we found the most Golden family I have ever met!!! Their names are Penco and Angi. We contacted Penco on Tuesday and had a SUPER good feeling about him, then went back and it turns out that his wife Angi is one of the daughters of Maris (a lady we’ve been teaching) and she’s already been in on a bunch of lessons! They have all kinds of animo and want to come to church with us this coming Sunday!!
Then after church and lunch, we went down to a Landia’s (a member in our ward that just had a baby on Thursday) house and met her new baby boy! She is tired, and sore, but happy! She asked us to give her a blessing, and again, all I felt was the love God had for her. It is SO awesome to be a part of God’s great work among men!
First off. I love you all.
Second off. I just got the news that Craig's family, and all my immediate family members above the age of 12 will be a stones throw away from me the last week in March. Hmmm. Talk about a trunky dagger to the heart. Ha. Thanks guys.
Anyway. This week was solid. Tons of work, lots of success, and plenty of miracles.
On Monday night right after I hit send, we went over to the local High School, and played volleyball with a club that meets everyday at 4:30. It was AWESOME!!! We played real life 6 on 6 volleyball, and they all knew what they were doing!! It works out just right so we can go play for an hour on P-days! I am SO happy!!! They told us we are more than welcome to come back and keep playing every Monday!
After we played a few games, we came back to the house, showered, and headed over to our weekly FHE at Milagros’ house. On the way there we got a call from our District leader telling us that a member in our area had called him requesting a blessing… So we went and got Indianna, Milagros, and Miguel to help us find her house… Even with our trusty Dominican guides, it turned out to be quite the adventure… This country struggles with their address system (hence the mail problems). On top of that, the Hermana Maria has moved three times in the last 6 months… Ha. So everyone had a different address to find her at. Ha. But, with faith and willingness to ask for directions, we found her house. Turns out, she had suffered an asthma attack that morning on her way home from Bani, and was still super wound up. We talked for a while, and then gave her a blessing. It was SO cool! The spirit was tangible in that room. EVERYONE could feel of God's love for Maria, and immediately following the blessing, her shoulders relaxed, she sat back in her chair, and just smiled. J I am SO grateful for the Priesthood! Then we shared 2 Nephi 27:23 with her and testified of the power each one of us has to work miracles through our faith.
On Tuesday afternoon we went down to part of our area to teach some investigators, and both felt impressed to go contact another part of our area instead… We ignored it… and still went to our citas. Ha. Well God wanted us contacting. So ALL of our appointments failed us… And after a little slice of humble pie, we walked back over to the other neighborhood and contacted. Haha. God knows what’s up. EVERYONE was in their houses, and they were all SUPER accepting and invited us back. Just what we needed to start our week off with a bang!
Then, in the evening we were finishing up with a lesson when Diana called us and canceled the FHE we had planned for the last hour of our night… That was unexpected… But again, God knows what’s up. We felt prompted to go back over to La Hermana Maria’s house to check and see how she was doing, and to see if we could do anything for her. We got there, and she told us we were just who she wanted to see! She has been calling and calling members of our ward to find someone to accompany her to the Capital the following morning to get a check up, and to get an inhalers. She originally had planned to have her daughter (who lives in the Capital) meet her at the clinic, but she couldn't make it work that day… Well, after a quick q&a session to find out exactly where this clinic was located in the Capital, we realized that she was headed for Independencia!!! MY OLD AREA!!! So I called Amelia Guzman up, and she had no problem being at the clinic (a short walk from her house) the next morning to go with Hna Maria! It was SO cool! What a testimony that God knows EXACTLY who needs to be where, and what needs to happen to work miracles in the lives of His children. If our FHE hadn’t’ve canceled, and if I hadn’t’ve just come from the exact ward that she was heading to, it wouldn’t have worked out NEARLY as smoothly. I know God has a plan for everyone, and I know that He works miracles to help us out through those around us. I hope and pray that we can all keep being worthy and willing to act as the miracle workers that God wants us to be.
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| Tin roofs. 1/30/13 |
Wednesday we went exploring. See photo. Ha. We went down to another remote part of our area and met some super great new people! I have high hopes for both of the new neighborhoods we’re working in right now! The people are really open, and neither of them are too far away from the Chapel. :) Easy access makes people a little more willing to get up on Sunday morning for church. Haha.
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| Beautiful Ocoa. |
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| Crossing the river to get to the other part of our area. |
Then, we crossed the river, shoes off, poking our feet on rocks the whole way. Ha. Adventure status. The river crossing was part of our exploration, and it actually bore some fruit! We found an awesome short cut to get from that little barrio (San Luis) to La Barra where we were headed to work for the evening!
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| More of my incredible Area. |
In la barra we had an AWESOME lesson with Rosanna and Juana. Did I tell you all that we made Juana a no-smoking calendar, and she’s been marking off days without smoking?? Well we did! And she has gone 2 solid weeks now!! Also, Rosanna is all set for her baptism, and they are both SO pumped! The 23rd is gonna be a great day!!!
Then we taught Ivan about Family history and he basically filled out the whole form right in front of us. Ha. He lives with his grandparents (his mom's mom, and his dad’s dad… Sorta strange, but it works), so he had a fountain of Family History knowledge at his fingertips. J He is preparing to go to the temple with the ward on the 16th! I’m so pumped for him!!
On Thursday I needed a haircut, and I refused to go back to the last guy that butchered it Dominican style. So Elder Leyva and I went to a different one… and guess what?? HE USED SCISSORS TO CUT MY HAIR!!! It was SO great!!! Apparently he got a request from some random American to cut his hair with scissors a few years back, so he learned how and he’s been doing it ever since!! I will definitely be going back! Ha.
Then we went down to El Barrio San Rafael (the one God made us go contact on Tuesday afternoon) and we found the most Golden family I have ever met!!! Their names are Penco and Angi. We contacted Penco on Tuesday and had a SUPER good feeling about him, then went back and it turns out that his wife Angi is one of the daughters of Maris (a lady we’ve been teaching) and she’s already been in on a bunch of lessons! They have all kinds of animo and want to come to church with us this coming Sunday!!
On Friday I spent the morning washing by hand… and counting my blessings. We may be out a washing machine, but we are SO blessed to have a roof over our head, food to eat, and clothes to hand wash. Ha. Plus, we have a hot water heater, so everything is okay.
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| Intercambio with Paulino, and Elder Reeder (audante) 2/1/13 |
Then we had an intercamibio with Elder Mendosa, my comp got sent up to spend the day with him, and Elder Paulino came to spend it with me. Then on top of that, the ayudantes del sur (they’re like AP’s but only out here in the campo) surprised us with an intercambio! Rocking trio! Elder Reeder, Elder Paulino and I went down to San luis, and taught some awesome first lessons! Also, we met another super Golden lady named Juana. While we were contacting we stopped to talk to her, and ended up sitting down to help her shuck chick peas, and visit for a while. She is the mother of 10 kids, she and her husband (the father of all 10 kids (that’s SUPER rare in this country)) have been together for 38 years and are MARRIED by the LAW (also super rare). She used to be a catholic, but decided it’s not the true religion of God… So now she reads the Bible in her house and welcomes in all missionaries cuz she’s searching for the truth. Ha. We’re the first Mormons she’s met… Finally she’s found it! I am SO excited to watch her progress!
Saturday we finished up the intercambio with a baseball game with the youth in Sabana Larga. Fun stuff. Then in the afternoon we had a ward correlation meeting. We have a pretty solid branch, and I feel blessed to be here working alongside these leaders.
Yesterday… It rocked.
We got up early and walked down to la Barra to give Carmen a nudge to get to church. She started in with an excuse about a stomach ache, but we promised her blessings if she showed her faith and devotion to the Lord. She got up, got the kids ready and we all rode the Gua Gua up to church!! Finally!! After 6 weeks of empty promises, she came! And LOVED it! She told us last night that she wants to go EVERY single week, and that she has made a promise with herself and the Lord that she will completely stop drinking Coffee, and make sure she is 100% ready for her baptism on March 2nd! So awesome! The church is true!!
We got up early and walked down to la Barra to give Carmen a nudge to get to church. She started in with an excuse about a stomach ache, but we promised her blessings if she showed her faith and devotion to the Lord. She got up, got the kids ready and we all rode the Gua Gua up to church!! Finally!! After 6 weeks of empty promises, she came! And LOVED it! She told us last night that she wants to go EVERY single week, and that she has made a promise with herself and the Lord that she will completely stop drinking Coffee, and make sure she is 100% ready for her baptism on March 2nd! So awesome! The church is true!!
Then after church and lunch, we went down to a Landia’s (a member in our ward that just had a baby on Thursday) house and met her new baby boy! She is tired, and sore, but happy! She asked us to give her a blessing, and again, all I felt was the love God had for her. It is SO awesome to be a part of God’s great work among men!
Then this morning we got up and had a Zone activity here in Ocoa! Baseball with the members! So legit!
Anyway. I am SO out of time. We have to run down to the Barra to go give two more blessings! And then teach some people!
I love you all! Keep on keepin on!
Love,
Elder Mooney
Elder Mooney
Friday, February 1, 2013
¡Feliz P-Day! - Monday, January 28, 2013
Hey guys!!!
On Monday, right after sending my email off, we went to the park to check out Los Patronales (the biggest party in the country). It was originally a catholic holiday, devoted to the Virgin Altagracia, but Dominicans take it to a whole new level. Haha. Tons of people drinking, and smoking, and dancing; ALL KINDS of music from different parts of the park, we stood in front of a decked out speaker system mini van (see picture), and I thought for sure I was gonna fall over. Ha. It was UNREAL!!! My ENTIRE body, entrails included, was vibrating! On top of the music and the boos, there’s TONS and TONS of people selling stuff on the street! People come from all over the world (we met people from Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, and a couple other countries) to sell cool stuff. Also, the Dominican street food stands multiply by like 1000% when the Patronales are going on. SOOO good!
After our park party exploration, we went over to Milagros’ house for a Noche de Hogar. We talked about listening to the voice of the Lord, and being willing to do as He says no matter what, cuz He knows what’s best for us. We used the lost 116 pages as an example, and then just discussed the subject for a while. It was cool, and afterward Elder Leyva told me that it was an answer to his prayers. His girlfriend is on the verge of Dear Johning him, and he has been pretty beat up about it, but he said that our discussion helped him realize that it doesn’t matter what happens with her, he is a missionary, and if she isn’t the one for him, God will put the right one in his path when he gets home. He just needs to have faith. It was super cool to hear his testimony in such a personal setting, and being able to see how his testimony grew from this hard time with the GF and a well timed discussion on the will of the Lord.
On top of the Patronales, the Escojidos (one of the DR’s 5 big league baseball teams) won the Championship. They had to play a ridiculous amount of games to get 3 of the 5 teams eliminated, and then the Escojidos and the Aguilas (the two remaining teams) had to play best out of 9 games. Ha. The Escojidos shut them out, and won 5 games to 0. So as soon as the game finished (at like 11 at night, which is past my bedtime), EVERYONE in the pueblo rode around on their motors in a HUGE caravan making all kinds of noise. Ha. And they did it like 3 more times during the week! SO many hard core baseball fans! Now it’s calmed down, and everyone is gearing up for the US Major League Baseball season. Ha.
As for the missionary work:
One of the newer ones is named Carmen. She is the mom of 4 boys, 3 of which are members. So we’ve been working with her (and the rest of our investigators) to come to church. This week she was 100% set on getting to church, and NOTHING was gonna sway her (same goes for like 5 other investigators), but then the senator of this province, who’s on his way out of office, pulled one of his “lame duck session” actions, and gave all the kids in the area free toys. Great idea right?? The kids were SO happy! But he gave everyone tickets (to make sure you actually had kids, and to make sure each kid only got one) on Saturday night, then everyone had to go pick out their toys at 9 am on Sunday morning… RIGHT WHEN MY SACRAMENT MEETING STARTS!!! NO ONE was in church. Juana (Rosanna’s mom) came for the third hour, but other than that not a single one of our investigators came…
Juana and Rosanna are doing really well! We had an awesome lesson with them last night, and it turns out, that Rosanna is following the law of Chastity to a T, and Juana hasn’t smoked a cigarette in like 5 days!! We gave her some gum to use instead of cigarettes, and we are making her a count down to her baptism calendar so she can cross out everyday that she doesn’t smoke. J She can do it!! We set an ultimatum date with both of them last night for the 23rd of February. I told them that if they hold out strong, and keep preparing for this baptism, I will personally boil cauldrons of water to dump in the font so they don’t have to get dunked in cold water. Ha. I will let you know what happens.
Well, Taylor wrote a novel… Seeing that I wasn’t recently released from a restrictive index finger cast, I hope you will all be content with a normal length, normal quality letter from Elder Mooney. Ha.
This week was full of work, fun, and of course, miracles.
On Monday, right after sending my email off, we went to the park to check out Los Patronales (the biggest party in the country). It was originally a catholic holiday, devoted to the Virgin Altagracia, but Dominicans take it to a whole new level. Haha. Tons of people drinking, and smoking, and dancing; ALL KINDS of music from different parts of the park, we stood in front of a decked out speaker system mini van (see picture), and I thought for sure I was gonna fall over. Ha. It was UNREAL!!! My ENTIRE body, entrails included, was vibrating! On top of the music and the boos, there’s TONS and TONS of people selling stuff on the street! People come from all over the world (we met people from Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, and a couple other countries) to sell cool stuff. Also, the Dominican street food stands multiply by like 1000% when the Patronales are going on. SOOO good! |
| Hard core hot dogs 1/21/13 |
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| Street food!!!! |
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| And those blue tents are temporary bars and or drink mixing stands. |
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| The motorcycle I'm buying when I get home. |
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| Talk about speaker systems. |
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| Jewelry stand |
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| Bar on wheels. |
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| Free concert in the park after the party. ha. These people know what's up. |
After our park party exploration, we went over to Milagros’ house for a Noche de Hogar. We talked about listening to the voice of the Lord, and being willing to do as He says no matter what, cuz He knows what’s best for us. We used the lost 116 pages as an example, and then just discussed the subject for a while. It was cool, and afterward Elder Leyva told me that it was an answer to his prayers. His girlfriend is on the verge of Dear Johning him, and he has been pretty beat up about it, but he said that our discussion helped him realize that it doesn’t matter what happens with her, he is a missionary, and if she isn’t the one for him, God will put the right one in his path when he gets home. He just needs to have faith. It was super cool to hear his testimony in such a personal setting, and being able to see how his testimony grew from this hard time with the GF and a well timed discussion on the will of the Lord.
I hope we all realize that if we trust in the Lord, and obey His commandments with faith, we will be blessed. He will take care of us 100%. Perhaps it won't be exactly like WE planned, but it will be what’s ABSOLUTELY best for us! I know that to be true! God will never let us fall!
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| The people gearing up for the Escojido Champion caravan 1/27 |
As for the missionary work:
We’ve been working a lot lately in two separate parts of our area, and have found quite a few new investigators, on top of the solid ones we’ve been working with since my time with Logue.
One of the newer ones is named Carmen. She is the mom of 4 boys, 3 of which are members. So we’ve been working with her (and the rest of our investigators) to come to church. This week she was 100% set on getting to church, and NOTHING was gonna sway her (same goes for like 5 other investigators), but then the senator of this province, who’s on his way out of office, pulled one of his “lame duck session” actions, and gave all the kids in the area free toys. Great idea right?? The kids were SO happy! But he gave everyone tickets (to make sure you actually had kids, and to make sure each kid only got one) on Saturday night, then everyone had to go pick out their toys at 9 am on Sunday morning… RIGHT WHEN MY SACRAMENT MEETING STARTS!!! NO ONE was in church. Juana (Rosanna’s mom) came for the third hour, but other than that not a single one of our investigators came…
Apart from that bump in the road, our week was awesome as far as investigators go. Gregorina (the drunk contact) still hasn’t touched alcohol since that first night, and is still going strong preparing for her baptism on the 9th of February. She reads everything we leave with her, and always has AWESOME questions for us in our lessons with her.
Juana and Rosanna are doing really well! We had an awesome lesson with them last night, and it turns out, that Rosanna is following the law of Chastity to a T, and Juana hasn’t smoked a cigarette in like 5 days!! We gave her some gum to use instead of cigarettes, and we are making her a count down to her baptism calendar so she can cross out everyday that she doesn’t smoke. J She can do it!! We set an ultimatum date with both of them last night for the 23rd of February. I told them that if they hold out strong, and keep preparing for this baptism, I will personally boil cauldrons of water to dump in the font so they don’t have to get dunked in cold water. Ha. I will let you know what happens.
Also, yesterday was Elder Logue’s, as well as Elder Maner’s 18 month mark. So I called them up to congratulate them, and while I was at it I got an update from Elder Maner on good ol’ Independencia. Turns out, Josefa (mother of Kimberly, the one that fed us chacá, and other cool stuff) got baptized!!! Elder Alba and I contacted her over 5 months ago, and she finally took the plunge!! I was SO happy! Also, Carlos (the one that described his experience with the church as “being full where he didn’t know there was an emptiness”) is getting baptized this coming Saturday!! HOW AWESOME!!! I am SO happy for them! Josefa will be the next Relief Society Pres, and Carlos will probably go out on a mission the day he completes a year as a member of the church!
Oliva (the lady Pemberton and I contacted into oh so long ago), is still working hard on getting her papers figured out so she can get married. She goes to church on a weekly basis, usually accompanied by her 2 grandkids. She is SO faithful, and fighting against Satan’s storms SO valiantly! I know that for her faith she will be blesses, and in the Lord's time, she will receive the blessings of baptism!
Anyway. That’s all I’ve got for this week. I honestly am doing so well. I love being a missionary, and I love every part about this work. I know I’m where I need to be. I know this Church is the one and only true Church of Jesus Christ. I know that the Gospel I teach everyday, truly brings happiness. I hope you are all doing your best to be obedient, and relying on the Lord ALWAYS!
I love you all! Keep the Faith!
-Elder Cade Mooney
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| Cool pic 1/24/12 |
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| Can you spot the tree frog on the rock? It totally changes colors to camouflage itself! 1/26/13 |
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| Tree frog |
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| The four of us in our cut off jeans. ha. 1/26/13 |
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| Cool cloud pics. 1/26/13 |
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| Me with GIANT pigs. |
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