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The little road is
called El Caminio de los Haitianos.
Cuz only Haitians live there. Lots of tin huts. 7/22/13
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On Monday night after sending off my last email, we walked El camino de los Hatianos out to the Clase Family's house. Hermana Clase cooked us some rice and beans with meatballs and fried Platano Maduro on the side. YUM! Then we had a family home evening about Obedience. Thanks to my devoted Grandma Mooney I have LOADS of scriptures and quotes about obedience, so the message was pretty easy to put together. :) Thanks Grandma!
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| Cool views in my area 7/22/13 |
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Hamburgers and platano
frito. YUM. 7/23/13
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Tuesday I made Hamburgers and Fritos for lunch. ha.
Our first appointment was with Karen (the former Jehovah's witness that I told you about last week)... We had a good discussion, and then she told us that she respected our opinions, but that from sharing with us she's realized that she was in the true church when she was a Jehovah's Witness... That was hard to hear... I really thought she was sincere in her desire to learn more. I think she's a great person, and according to her she is happy, so I suppose I should be happy for her too. She's smart, and she's trying to be open, so I'm sure she'll let the missionaries in next time they come around. :) Maybe the next Elders will know how to help her better.
Wednesday we had some surprises... We walked over to the church for our district meeting, but when we got there the Zone Leaders called us and told us to come home. Elder and Sister Clawson came to inspect our house... Ha. Wasn't expecting that! But it's ok, cuz we had just super cleaned it on Monday. The only problem was that there was old pee in the toilet... I think I mentioned that we flush our toilet with a bucket, and seeing that water is scarce, unless there's a bigger issue (if you catch my drift) we just leave it unflushed with the lid down to conserve water... ha. So I ran up the stairs lickity split and flushed the toilet before they made through the front door. ha. They ended up complementing us on how clean our toilet was (thanks for teaching me to clean a bathroom dad! My skills still hold true in the DR!), and then gave us a talk about how keeping a clean house helps keep the Spirit with us! I AGREE!!!! Cleanliness is next to Godliness! Let's all be hygienic!
After they left, the Zone Leaders told us we were doing an exchange with them, so Elder Meroño went with Elder Maldonado (his trainer... the mission is a small world. Let me tell ya.) and I stayed in our area with Elder Pittí. It was a good day. Elder Pittí is from Panama (where Steve Clarke is serving right now), so I asked him what it's like down there. Apparently it's a lot like the DR. Maybe I'll have to visit that place some day. :) Also, I learned a lot from him. He is full of good quotes and cool scriptures. He was very forward and open in his teaching, I was impressed with his testimony and the ease in which he shared it. In our lesson with Edward and Sandra in the evening we talked about Charity. Elder Pittí quoted CS Lewis, and William Shakespeare. ha. It was powerful. We helped them understand that we can show our love towards others and towards God through service. Then invited them to name 5 things they would do to serve each other this week! I have a pretty strong testimony about service. Being with the same person 24/7 (no matter how cool they are) gets tough sometimes... But as long as I keep the spirit of service in my heart, and think about my companion's comfort over my own, my life is lots smoother. :)
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| Our district/house with the new toys we got from
the office! What the heck do you do with a Microwave?!?! 7/25/13 |
Thursday we got another surprise... The APs stopped by in the morning and dropped off a new blender, a waffle iron, and a microwave!!!! What the what?!?! I guess Hermana Rodriguez has been requesting new appliances for all the mission houses for like 2 years, and they're finally here!!! Ha. Surprisingly enough... We don't actually know what to do with them... ha. My companion and I made waffles for lunch, and it took us like an hour... lol. We felt like cavemen huddled around recently-discovered technology. haha. We laughed.
Friday after weekly planning, I made baked mac and cheese while simultaneously doing a load of laundry. Yup. I'm honing my mormon-housewife skills. ha. NBD.
In the evening, we had great lesson with Edward and Sandra. They are still reading the Charity verses from Moroni 7 and praying together every night! They said that they have noticed a difference in the way they treat and love each other. :) Scripture power!
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| Edward, Sandra and Juan Pablo 7/29/2013 |
Saturday was UNREAL!!! So, remember how I told you last week that Oliva (from my first area) was getting baptized??? Well guess who got to go...? THIS GUY!!! Plus, Elder Meroño had a family in Los Girasoles (his last area) that was getting baptized and had asked him to be there. So we got President's permission to go to both baptisms. It worked out PERFECTLY!! The baptism in los Girasoles was at 4, and Oliva's was at 6. So we were able to go and spend some time with Elder Meroño's old ward, and then had the rest of the evening to see all my loved ones in Independencia! It was a happy, happy day! I miss those people lots and lots and lots. It was SO good to see them all again! Oliva squealed when I walked in. haha. Also, before hand, I had called Elder Pemberton (my trainer), and he was able to attend as well. :) :) It was SO great to be there!! We found her over a year ago! Two inexperienced, American kids... By some miracle Oliva understood us, and was able to feel the truthfulness of our message through the Holy Ghost. She spent a year battling against Satan, and finally made it though! She's the newest member of the Independencia ward, and she's SO happy! She's going to change lives!
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| Elder Pemberton, Oliva, Hermano and Hermana Bort, and me 7/27/13 |
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| The First Elders that found Oliva, and the Sisters that finally baptized her. Over a year later. |
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| Me with Carlos (the kid that said "I feel full where I didn't know there was an emptiness.") |
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| Elder Meroño's baptism in los Girasoles. |
Yesterday was also great. :) I had a feeling that I would be leaving this transfer call, so I said most of my goodbyes at church, and took some pictures with the people I love. Then had a SOLID day in the field. I gave it my all, and tried my best to help everyone we met with understand their purpose here on this earth. We met with a family that we've been seeing for a couple weeks now, and talked about the Atonement. IT WAS AWESOME! We asked the kids how their mom reacted when they came in the house with muddy shoes right after she had cleaned it... ha. The response was obvious. Then we told them that Heavenly Father's house is just like their mom's house, cept it's clean ALL the time! And we can't go into His house if our shoes are all muddy! But it's ok, because Christ has offered His shoe shining services. We just have to accept Him, and let Him do His job. If we obey His commandments, and keep our shoes clean, we'll be welcomed into the house of our Father after we're all done playing in the mud. ha. The kids were really into the lesson, and the Spirit was really strong. :) I love my job. :)
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Me, Soani, Braulio,
and Ani. Last day with them at church. 7/28/13
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| Me with Sandro and Alexander |
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Bishop
Colon and I
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| My companion and I |
In the evening I had my last visit with my Montero Family. We talked about picking good friends, and about being good friends. I told them that they didn't realize it now, but that they've been blessed with so many siblings cuz God wanted them to have lots of best friends. :) Families are the bestest best friends! We all need to be good friends, and keep ourselves ready and worthy to lift our friends when they fall. We do that through obedience! We finished off our lesson with a family prayer and some hugs... and some tears... :( I'm gonna miss them a lot.
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| My beloved Montero Family 7/29/2013 |
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| My companion and I with Santos, Nana, Violeta, Roller, Estefany, and the baby |
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| Amparo 7/29/2013 |
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| Ani, Rafael, Jefery, and Adalin 7/29/2013 |
I'm headed out to the south. My new Zone is called Barahona, and I will be serving as Zone Leader with Elder Mendoza. He was my district leader in Ocoa, so we already know each other and have a good idea of how we work. He's from Nicaragua, and he's tall like me! His nick name is La Maquina, because he works like a machine! I'm excited to learn all that I can from him, and also to brush up on my Spanish. :) It'll be an adventure! :)
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| My life in suitcases 7/29/2013 |
Anyway. We're gonna go have the best last day together, and kick off the rest of our missions.
I love you all. I hope all is well! I love being a missionary!!!
Love,
Elder Cade Mooney
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My lizard friend. I'm
gonna miss him the most. He would always hang out
with me while I did my
laundry on the back patio. 7/23/13
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