Week 63 : Mission Brain Block (June 29, 2015)

Hola todos!

This week was good.  Kind of slow, but ehe :P  I feel like there is nothing big to report.  This email might be a little scattered.

Jose is awesome!!!  He is now the YM Presidente and doing an awesome job.  The other day he expressed to us some frustrations about his calling and how he didn´t thing he would be able to do it, but after giving him a giant pep talk and a few uplifting scriptures, he was feeling much better.  I honestly love him soooo much!! ha and he always jokes about going to utah to visit! Which would be the best!!!! :D Ha but he is awesome and I wish you could all meet him :)

This past while I have been having the biggest case of mission brain block.  I didn´t think it was a real thing, but let me tell ya.. It aint no joke.  I seriously spent a whole week trying to think of one of my friend´s name.  I FINALLY figured it out, who knows how.  To save myself some shame, I will not say who it was haha!  And then last night it was even worse... I forgot my own cousin´s name... :(  I was so ashamed. :(  But this time it only took me 20 minutes haha.  :P

So we had this very interesting lessons the other day.  We taught these two ladies the Restauracion and just as I finished telling the first vision, she butted in with a question: ¨Do you guys believe in manifestations of the Holy Ghost?¨ ¨yes ma´am.¨ ¨Well, whenever I hear the word of God I feel the Spirit, but listening to you guys talk I feel nothing.   Your words are empty.¨  Then she went off saying how could we say that there where only 12 apostles and that each of us can feel the power of God and what not... I was completely shocked!  Dominicans usually aren´t that rude.  But all is well, I only shed a few tears... ;) ha it was just suprising is all.

Now its time for another You know you´re in the DR when...

1) During a sunday school lesson the teacher tells everyone, ¨Give a man a sin, feed him for a meal.  Teach a man to sin, feed him for life.¨ (Sin=pecado  Fish=Pescado). Bahaha this country doesn´t know where to put their S´s.  I love it :]

2) Everyone and their dog start and end their conversations with ¨Dios le bendiga.¨ (God bless you).

That´s all for this week. Love you all

Love, Hermana Perry

Week 62 : Darlennys Baptized!!! (June 22, 2015)

Hola!

This week was good.  Kind of slow, but good.  It did, however, have a great ending.  One of our investigators Darlennys got baptized!! :)  It has been a long journey with her.  Some Elders found her a little over a year ago and started teaching her, but she didn´t have a desire really to learn or to keep the commandments.  So they dropped her.  When I had about a week in this area, she found us and told us that she was ready to be taught again by the missionaries.  When we started to teach her it was hard because she wouldn´t pay attention.  We would all sit in her front galary and she would sit next to the open door where she could see the TV.  Many times during the lessons we would have to call her attention back to the topic.  One time during the prayer even I caught her watching Americas Next top Model through squity eyes and the cracks between her fingers haha!! But eventually she gain her own testimony and would turn the TV off when we got there and close the shutters so she couldn´t be distracted from what ever was going on inside.  She was so happy to be baptized this saturday :)  I love her to death!!

Nothing else that eventful happened.  :P  But we did see something really interesting on the streets haha.  You know you´re in the DR when there is a little guagua (small truck) selling hens on the street with the announcement, ¨Matar, pelar, y llevar a su hogar.¨ (Kill, pluck, and take home).  Haha!! Funny, but gross... They also had a little pot over fire just incase you wanted it cooked ;P  haha!  I love this country :)

Sorry it´s short this week. Love you all

Love, Hermana Perry

Darlenny  

Hermana Jones, Darlenny, and Hermana Perry

After our District water fight today :)

 The view from the top of the roof in our area.  Most of what can be seen is the other ward that shares our building.  The church is on the left.  My house is behind the trees the right of the church

Dominican Spanish at its best ;)  It should say ¨No hay mal que por bien no venga¨  haha

  Another view of the church from a building in the other ward.  These pictures don´t do it justice at all.

 A view of my ward (the Elders´ area)

Week : Miracles & Casts (June 15, 2015)

Hola mi gente!!

This week was good.  I feel like we saw a lot of miracles.  Some more noticable, but other dressed up as a frustratingly slow day.  But there were definitely miracels.

One miracle happened monday night heading home for the day.  We ran into Heidy and she asked if we had seen Melvin.  We said that we hadn´t and she began to laugh and took us to where he was.  We found him with both arms in casts.  He began to tell us what had happened.  It turns out that on saturday night he was out drinking.  He says he wasn´t drunk, but I´m pretty sure he was because he then told us that he was preaching the word of God to all of his drinking buddies haha!! Even had his Bible and Book of Mormon hahaha :]  After preaching to his buddies, he decided that he didn´t want to go home because his wife (heidy) would be mad at him so he decided to go to church.  But it was 6 in the morning by that point and the church gate was locked.  So he to the bright idea to jump the fence and stay in the church until it started.  But instead of landing nicely like I would imagine he thought he would, he landed on his arms breaking one and badly injuring the other.  He then had no way to climb back over so he waited there until 8 when the bishop of the other ward that meets in our building came and opened it haha!  So that is why he didn´t come to church, because he was in the hospital.  Haha we had a good laugh.  He told us that he wouldn´t ever drink again.  That promise didn´t last long because we found him the next night so drunk that he could hardly form sentances.  It was sad to see him that way, but I think his little injury will be a turning point.  Yesterday we passed by his house before church and he said he wasn´t coming because things were bad between him and Heidy (who was working at the time).  He had his kids all dress and ready to send across the street to church.  We somehow convinced him to come for an hour.  5 minutes before sacrament meeting started he arrived.  He ended up staying the whole 3 hours :)  It was a huge miracle.

This week was extremely slow compared to what we are used to.  We didn´t hardly as many lessons as we did the week before, but it in itself was a miracle.  It helped me focus on the people we are teaching and really feel a love for them that I have never felt before.  One of my biggest struggles on the mission has been my emotions.  When my dad passed away I learned how to be numb to emotions, but on a happy face and not let things get to me.  I thought that was best.  What I have found out here is that it´s not for the best.  I wasn´t sad for my investigators when I should have been sad.  Nor was I as happy as I had hoped to be when they felt the spirit or came to church for the first time.  For a while now I have been praying to have a love for these people and the work that I will feel happy and sad with them and for them.  This week was an answer to my prayers.  I felt a love for these people that I have never felt before.  We had 5 investigators and 2 less actives in church yesterday and for 5 of them, it was their first time.  As we sang the sacrament hymn surrounded by the people I have taught and grown with, I felt probably just a fraction of the love that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for them.  That was a miracle.

I love my mission more than I can express.  I still have good days and bad days.  Some times I just want to pull the sheet over my head and not get out of bed, but every day is worth the struggle.  I love these people and this country.  I couldn´t be more happy to serve in the Dominincan Republic :)

I love you all so much.

Love, Hermana Perry

Week : 61 Miracles & Emotions (June 15)

Hola mi gente!!

This week was good.  I feel like we saw a lot of miracles.  Some more noticable, but other dressed up as a frustratingly slow day.  But there were definitely miracels.

One miracle happened monday night heading home for the day.  We ran into Heidy and she asked if we had seen Melvin.  We said that we hadn´t and she began to laugh and took us to where he was.  We found him with both arms in casts.  He began to tell us what had happened.  It turns out that on saturday night he was out drinking.  He says he wasn´t drunk, but I´m pretty sure he was because he then told us that he was preaching the word of God to all of his drinking buddies haha!! Even had his Bible and Book of Mormon hahaha :]  After preaching to his buddies, he decided that he didn´t want to go home because his wife (heidy) would be mad at him so he decided to go to church.  But it was 6 in the morning by that point and the church gate was locked.  So he to the bright idea to jump the fence and stay in the church until it started.  But instead of landing nicely like I would imagine he thought he would, he landed on his arms breaking one and badly injuring the other.  He then had no way to climb back over so he waited there until 8 when the bishop of the other ward that meets in our building came and opened it haha!  So that is why he didn´t come to church, because he was in the hospital.  Haha we had a good laugh.  He told us that he wouldn´t ever drink again.  That promise didn´t last long because we found him the next night so drunk that he could hardly form sentances.  It was sad to see him that way, but I think his little injury will be a turning point.  Yesterday we passed by his house before church and he said he wasn´t coming because things were bad between him and Heidy (who was working at the time).  He had his kids all dress and ready to send across the street to church.  We somehow convinced him to come for an hour.  5 minutes before sacrament meeting started he arrived.  He ended up staying the whole 3 hours :)  It was a huge miracle.

This week was extremely slow compared to what we are used to.  We didn´t hardly as many lessons as we did the week before, but it in itself was a miracle.  It helped me focus on the people we are teaching and really feel a love for them that I have never felt before.  One of my biggest struggles on the mission has been my emotions.  When my dad passed away I learned how to be numb to emotions, but on a happy face and not let things get to me.  I thought that was best.  What I have found out here is that it´s not for the best.  I wasn´t sad for my investigators when I should have been sad.  Nor was I as happy as I had hoped to be when they felt the spirit or came to church for the first time.  For a while now I have been praying to have a love for these people and the work that I will feel happy and sad with them and for them.  This week was an answer to my prayers.  I felt a love for these people that I have never felt before.  We had 5 investigators and 2 less actives in church yesterday and for 5 of them, it was their first time.  As we sang the sacrament hymn surrounded by the people I have taught and grown with, I felt probably just a fraction of the love that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for them.  That was a miracle.

I love my mission more than I can express.  I still have good days and bad days.  Some times I just want to pull the sheet over my head and not get out of bed, but every day is worth the struggle.  I love these people and this country.  I couldn´t be more happy to serve in the Dominincan Republic :)

I love you all so much.

Love, Hermana Perry

Week 60 : Talking In Jiberish!!! (June 8, 2015)

Hola.

This week was really good.  We had a lot of success.  My mind is sort of scattered so I don´t really remember the details of anything :P  But it was good.  We found some really cool new invesitgators which is awesome.  I feel like this country goes through epidemics of illnesses.  Every other month it is something different.  This month everyone and their dogs--even the strays--have chicken pox.  No joke.  That and lice... :S 

The most eventful thing that I can think of right now is that our less active who just became a new mother came to church and her brother-in-law blessed her sweet new daughter.  She was beeming the whole day :)  I´m so excited for her to reactive in the gospel.  This church really is the best thing in our entire life.

My scatter brainedness is due the following: Hna Jones and I the other day got the brilliant idea to try to read the entire Book of Mormon in one whole Pday.  We planned it all out, even did a little mathematical equation to figure out the time we would need.  Accourding to our calculations, it we would only need 10 hours to read the entire thing.  We were seriously pumped!!  In our diligence to finish on time, we got up at 6 and began reading.  We read nonstop (almost literally without interuptions--the longest pause no more that 5 seconds to make a quite comment, no joke) for 10 hours and 35 minutes.  To our dismay we only made it to Alma 6.  Somewhere in our pre-algebra equations we made a huge misjudgement haha.  We made it almost half way in more than the time we thought it would take the read the whole thing.  My eyes are so wacked haha.  But it was so fun!!  I feel like I learned things about that book that I never have before.  I´m just bumbed that we didn´t finish.

Something funny that happened this week:  We were walking in one direction, my comp and I, and we realized that we might have to go the other direction so we stopped on the sidewalk to discuss the fastest route to our desitnation.  We just happened to stop by this lady selling clothes on the street and this other dude who was sitting with her and oddly enough has a very creepy plastic hand.  We were talking for a moment, then suddenly we here the man start to jabber off.  We look over and he had turned to the lady and began to talk in jiberish as if to innitate us talking in english.  Without hesitation the lady responded with nonsence.  Haha we stopped and watched them for a moment as they went off and then we just burst into laughter!!!  Dang it was funny :]

Bueno, thats all for this week.  Love you bye

Love, Hermana Perry

Week 59 : New Y/M President? (June 1, 2015)

Hola todos :)

This week was kind of slow :P But all is well.  Something cool that happened is that Jose was just called as the YM President in the ward!! I couldn`t thnk of  better calling for him :]  He is really excited as well.

One day this week we were just walking to a cita and this kid and his friend stopped us and started talking to us.  We talked for a while, one of the kids pointed out his house, then they went on their way.  Once they left we thought we should go visit one day so we wrote in a time to go see them.  So then yesterday we went and found the kid´s house, Juan Luis.  We sat down with him and his grandma, Maria, and the first thing she asked was, ¨Are you here to preach about Jose Smith?¨ It turns out she is less active!! She was baptized forever ago and went less active almost immediately after being baptized.  After talking for a while with her we turned our attention to Juan Luis and started to get to know him more.  We explained a little about our message and he is seriously golden!  He was sitting on the edge of his chair the entire time.  We gave him a little book about the restauration and he got so excited to read it.  He even offered to say the closing prayer.  We then set a return cita for next friday and 2:15 and probably like 10 times he said, ¨you´re going to come pack, right? because I´ll be here waiting.  Friday at 2:15, right?  Because I´ll be waiting for you.¨  He is so ready for this gospel. :)

So transfers are this week... And I´m staying in La Yuca!!!! I´m sooo excited!! I thought I would leave, but after pleading with President on a few occations, he let me stay Ü  This will be my 4th transfer in the area, meaning it will the longest I´ve stayed in a area before.  It also means I get another 1 1/2 with mi hija!! :)  I´m pumped!!

Love you all :)

Love, Hermana Perry

Week : 58 Last week of the transfers...fingers crossed (May 25,2015)

This week was just rocking.  We did a lot of work and it was awesome.  We had a total of 43 lessons this week and I don't know how.  But the people behind that number are what make it special.  I definitly saw some changes in the work.  One thing that we have started doing is sharing the whole message of the restauration in the first visit.  We used to just touch on it lightly or just talk about how God gave us profets, but President asked us to get to "the meat" of our message sooner.  It has made a world of difference.  There is a different spirit as we teach the first vision.  It really helps us find who is prepared to hear this message.  We have gotten rejected  a few more times, but oh well.  Thus goes the mish ;P 

One of our less actives had a baby on tuesday!! Her baby is so tiny and soo cute :)  She is only 18 and lives alone, so I'm sure that has got to be rough.  When we were first teaching her I didn't think we were going to get anywhere with her, but the friday before she had her baby we just went and rubbed her feet and helped her relax.  Her attitude to us completely changed.  She even came to church on Sunday without us even inviting her, 3 days before giving birth.  Also, when she prays, her testimony shows.  She is awesome.

One of our investigators, Melida, is trying to quit smoking. We taught her Word of Wisdom the other day with a member who used to smoke 5 packs a day...  Thats 100 cigeretts!!  He helped her a lot to give her animo to quit.  We went back yesterday and she had written down her goals in the folleto that we left her:  "I won't smoke.  I won't drink beer.  I won't drink coffe.  If I am temped I will fast, go to church, read the scriptures, and pray.  I will exercise everyday even if it is just one hour."  Haha she is so cute ;)  And she says she hasn't broken the WofW since we last taught her on like tuesday!!

So today me and mi hija are just chillin a Presidente's house :)  He let me come over and play my uke.  Happy day!  haha I feel so powerful sitting here in Hna Nuckols office ;)

Last week of the transfer... crossing my fingers that I say here for another.. :I

Love you all.

Love, Hermana Perry

After a long P-day, I got to go and play my uku at Mission Home

empanadas