Elder Cade Mooney: ¡Feliz P-Day! - Monday, January 28, 2013

Hey guys!!!

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

Street food!!!!

And those blue tents are temporary bars and or drink mixing stands.

The motorcycle I'm buying when I get home.

Talk about speaker systems.

Jewelry stand

Bar on wheels.

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!

The people gearing up for the Escojido Champion caravan 1/27

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:

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 9^th 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 23^rd 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