New Area

Hola!

Well here I am..  I landed in Los Alcarrizos in Pedro Brand!! I like it a lot but I did not like the change that I had... because I really liked my old area, my companion and the other set of missionaries that I lived with. But now I am in a house with all Americans. My new companion is Elder Hope.. he is pretty cool he walks really fast like I mean really fast.  I don’t really like to walk fast so sometimes he leaves me behind because I like to walk at a good pace not 100 mph... ha But I guess that I am starting to get use to it and starting to keep up with him. Because our area is 45 mins away from the house and in the sun I’m tired when we get there, I’ll need to try and slow him down.. ha My house gets a little awkward at times because I like to make some jokes and  joke around to add some humor.  I made a joke that was pretty funny (I thought) but nobody laughed or even smiled. So either the joke was really dumb or these people are just way to serious and don’t like to have some fun... haha but they are starting to warm up to my sense of humor. I guess we will see how the next week goes.. I suggested that we should run across the roofs one night and see how far we can go just on roofs and they all looked at me like I was an idiot and said is that illegal? I said well I guess it might be but if people can walk down the streets shooting their guns and not get into trouble I don’t think jumping on the roofs to see how far we can go is any worse than that.. ha But I guess that was a no from them and didn’t sound very fun to them.. ha The house that I live in is a lot bigger than the one in Manoguyabo.. but it doesn’t have 24 hour light and water.. I take that back it does have 24 hour water but it trickles out of the shower.  Here the lights are on a schedule when we get power right now it comes on from 11 pm through 8 am and then it comes back during lunch time from 1 pm through 6 pm. I don’t know what the other schedule it but will find out as I think the schedule changes next week.   My new area is “campoish” but still in the city we are on the out skirts of the city.. but considered in the “campo”.. ha 

I met a lot of great families that our in our branch. There is one that is so cool la familia Cross and they are like the parents for the missionaries and love to take care of them. I don’t know if it’s because they wanted it to happen to their girls when they go on missions. Two of their girls are leaving on missions in the beginning of February.. which is way cool!! I really want to grow close to that family because they feed us whenever we go over there, but most of allI want to help their other kids go on missions. I also met a family that is as great as the Cross family, La familia Martinez, the dad loves to go out with the missionaries he bears his testimony every time which is more like a talk... ha it’s like a 15 minute testimony. We aren’t going to stop him because he must feel the spirit strongly.. ha he gives us a ride back to our house at night which is super nice because by the time we get to his house we are like 55 mins away from our house.

The church is a little building on the second floor, it is not a ward yet it’s still a branch because there are not enough families and members yet to make a ward but there are a lot of primary kids!! haha thats forsure. We have a lot of investigators and families that show up to church and are really close to baptism but they need to get married first.. the biggest problem in this country the marriage!!! ha but we are working through that and getting close with a couple of investigators!

I’m on a strict schedule with the computer because the other missionaries need their time.  I love everyone and miss you all.  Talk next week. 

Love,

Elder Medrano

New Years

¡Hola! 

 I am a little late e-mailing because as a zone we went down to what is called a “play down here” (baseball field). We played baseball as a zone and it was so much fun to get back on the dirt!! I really do miss playing when I am standing on the baseball field but then right when I step off I am just fine it’s so weird that it works like that... I definitely wish that I could be playing high school, I know they are practicing this time of year and hitting in the cages!! I sure wish I could play again... I have been really thinking about what I want to do in college and in my life lately.  I don’t know why I have forgotten about home and now just going with the flow of the mission. It has crossed my mind of coming back down here and train with the Dominicans and working hard and going to College here. I have lived down here for two years already with out any electronics I think I can do it for a little bit longer with electronics to talk to home 24/7. I think it would be a lot of fun coming down here to train for baseball because we always see them running or working out we never see them in the streets I swear they live in the Play or in the GYM working out. But that is a year and half away so we will see where my thoughts are after that.

The New Year’s dinner was alright... We had our Bishops wife bring us dinner.. haha The pie my companion made was really good it was an oreo pie with chocolate pudding in the center of it.. It was a good taste from America!! Ohhh and the neighbors loved our dinner we made for them!! They were really surprised that we could cook so dang good!! haha they called us Dominicanos haha yep I guess I am Dominican now but speak gringo Spanish.. ha We cooked rice with coconut chicken, pasta salad, and natural juice balls of Yuka. But it was pretty good!! I will cook it when I get home, but after a couple of months that is.. ha 

Our investigators are doing well. We haven’t seen our really good investigators for a while because they are in the campo visiting their family. But they are all coming back this week so it will be good to get in touch with them again and she how they are doing and how much of the gospel that have kept with them while they have been away.. 

We have been working really hard to find new investigators that we can start teaching and we have found some really good prospects! We have one area that we are waiting to contact that we believe is going to be the Mormon Bomb!!! We really think that this street has a lot of potential to be baptized but we are waiting until the Holidays are over so we can get back to normal and everyone is at home and at work again! Today is the last Holiday Dia de los Reyes so everyone will be out partying because it is the last holiday until April really. After today we think it will start to pick back up with our investigators and finding new people. We are really excited for the Mormon Bomb street that we have been waiting for at least two weeks to contact. We contacted the first couple of houses on the street, but of course they all said that they were busy because it’s the holidays, but they said to come back. We told them that we would pass by again after the holidays are over.. We really are excited about that area.. 

We finally got one of our inactive members back to church. We have been working hard to get her to come back to church and she finally did yesterday and she is way chill! She left the church because she read some things on the internet about the church and she had some problems with some of the girls in the ward. But she came back and she looked really happy!! We were trying to get her to go bear her testimony but she wouldn’t do it. But she is so nice and seems like she loves to be back we have another cita with her tomorrow so we will see how she felt being back. Keep your fingers crossed and Pray hard!! 

That’s all that has happened this past week. Nothing to exciting just been working like a missionary of course! :) Oh and yesterday while we were fasting we were fasting from English too... ha yeah what an experience. It was pretty quiet between my companion and I.. ha but it was fun. Thank everyone for the love and support!! 

Love,

Elder Medrano

The dinner that we cooked for our neighbors and now they call us Dominicanos! 

The signs of walking way too much..

This is my companion swinging the bat at the field today

The picture with the Hermana is my mom in the mission because when you get come into the mission field you get a dad which is your trainer and then your mom is the oldest missionary girl in your zone that your born into... ha so she is called my "mom". 

The Gospel Changes Lives

Everything has been going really well here!! I am still loving every minute of it trust me I am. My Spanish is getting better still getting over the scared part and that comes with time. I am talking more and more because I understand about everything they say. But sometimes they throw me for a loop because they say it a different way than I have heard it before so then I sometimes give the wrong answer.. ha but all is well. It’s getting better trust me. :) 

Yes I did get your package with the pictures in them and the movies thank you so much!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE PICTURES!!!!!!!! I probably look at them every night before I go to bed for some reason.. ha if you want with the next package you can put more pictures... :) ha 

Well what has happened in my week this week. My letter is a bit later today because we had a Christmas Conference with the Capital missionaries. It was originally supposed to be with the whole mission but President got an email from the First Presidency that we are spending to much money as a mission so we had to fix some things. That’s what he said but I think that email was for all the missions in the world. Because there is no way that we could be spending too much money because you can get from one side to the other side of the country for less then 500 pesos and that is only like 10 dollars. So we had the conference with the Capital missionaries instead of the whole mission. I saw a lot of my friends that I was in the CCM with and so that was cool and it was a lot of fun! President asked if all the zones could do a 5 minute skit for the other zones to make it fun and we did one that was really interesting and we came up with songs from like Tarzan sound play, it was about Samuel trying to convert the wicked Nephites back to the true church. It was really fun and well put together. Our Zone Leader went all out with it and made it probably the best one there. I hate to brag but it was the best one there.. ha 

 Our investigator update...

I am just going to talk about one today because she has been the best one we had this week and we have had many experience with her that have been pretty cool. We have been having really strong lessons with her lately and been inviting in the spirit every time. But we were at her house on Saturday and we started off singing and saying the prayer like we always do and then we ask her about her day and week. She told us a story, I’ll do my best because it is not fresh in my mind. I don’t have my journal with me (yes I am writing in my journal). I am going to kind of briefly touch on her past. She has a Special Needs daughter that is hers and her ex husband. They did not get a long very well because I will admit she is kind of a fighter and seems like she likes to argue (that’s what I can see in her but I am not exactly sure). She takes care of her daughter and buys her everything and her ex husband comes over every once in a while to give her money but they always get into a fight about it and it never ends well. Anyway, she was telling us that for the past week she has been having dreams about asking her ex-husband for forgiveness. She has been having these dreams for the past week and she always put it to the side. Then she had it again the next night. Her ex-husband came over to her house Friday night to give her some money for their daughter. So she thought about the dreams that she has been having. When he came over, she respected everything that he did and stayed really calm.  Then she asked for some money so she can buy new clothes for her daughter for the new year. He quickly said that everything you buy for her I want a receipt back from you telling me what you bought her. She said in the past she would have quickly blown up because he has never asked for a receipt from her for 9 years and now he is asking for one. But she stayed really calm and said that he can just keep the money and buy the clothes for her so she doesn’t have to deal with it. Shortly before he left she asked for forgiveness from all the things that she has done to him and from all the arguments they had in the past. I wish I could tell you the rest of the story but that’s where she stopped with the story.

 I LOVE the mission because it is so wonderful to see people change right in front of your eyes and help them through everything and answer all the questions they have to offer! It is a wonderful opportunity and I think that every should go on a mission to see the Gospel change people lives forever and make miracles happen! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and it can change lives like it has changed this 28-year-old woman with a handicapped daughter. I have witnessed it first hand and it is true. We started to teach her 5 weeks ago and our first lesson she didn’t really pay attention and was like almost disgracing the Church. She always looked like she was stressed and worried about something, never really took it into her heart, and would never really do the commitments that we gave her. Since like 2 weeks ago she has been doing the commitments and doing her nightly prayers with her daughter. We can see the difference in her. You look into her eyes and see that they are just peaceful now and stress free and loves her life and loves her daughter even more than she has!! It is just amazing to see the gospel change someone’s life!! I ask you guys at home to let the gospel do the same thing to you, think more about Jesus Christ and let his spirit in where ever you are and it will bless you and change your life. I know it can change your life nobody is perfect and everyone can use a little more gospel. Read the scriptures every day even if it’s just a couple of versus. He respects you and loves you so much!! He wants the best for all of us! He wants us to receive his gospel and endure to the end and we will receive eternal life¨ 2 Nefi 31:20 (sorry if its not exactly correct its translated from Spanish Book of Mormon) Heavenly Father is always with you he is your companion your BEST companion in life. He is always listening to your prayers. It might seem like he is not but I know for a fact that he is listening to your prayers!!! I love you guys and miss you guys so much!!! 

Te Quiero,

Elder Medrano

This kid is a missionary in the making he goes out with us from 2 tell 9.. every single week.. 

This is my Zone.. Ken and Zac yes that is Elder Gabler.. ha 

DR Thanksgiving and Moving

Yes I was homesick over Thanksgiving but all the holidays I’m homesick even if we don’t celebrate them here – there are plenty of missionaries from the states that we don’t forget the holidays.  I just think I have one more to go and then I will almost be done with my mission J

The temperature here doesn’t change much it is always around 85 degrees just the humidity changes.  I can’t really complain about the temp but I really do like the cold and skiing!!! It is going to drive me crazy to know it is snowing and I’m not up there on that slope!!! 

We do have two baptisms scheduled this week but we don’t know if it will happen because they have to get married first and they have been planning it for a while but they don’t have the money.  We don’t have any new investigators, it isn’t that we haven’t tried but contacting is just terrible here because nobody is ever home. It is light until about 9 at night and they are usually out on the street or out in the backyard.  They know the people that knock on the door are usually missionaries because others just usually walk in.  When there is a knock they won’t come to the door.  We are trying really hard to find new investigators but we aren’t having any luck.

This past week we moved one of our investigators out of their house into another one and they had a lot of stuff that was in their tiny house, more than I think they could fit in a smaller house. But it took from 9 in the morning tell 2 in the afternoon.  It took 2 truckloads to move all of their stuff to the other house. Two truckloads may not seem a lot but you should have seen how small the house was they are moving into.  People here love to keep everything – nothing gets thrown away.  It was only myself, my companion and another member that helped.  I have got to say Dominicans are some of the most relaxed people and nicest people at the same time.  They bought us a lot of water and Gatorade because we were sweating so bad carrying their stuff up and down stairs. This happened on a Saturday before Fast Sunday.  We start our fast after lunch on Saturday and go through Sunday lunch ohhhh man I was dead tired and hungry after we moved them... we finally got back home showered as quickly as we could and hit the streets again but in dress clothes this time. ha Ohhhhhh man that was the most tiring day I have had on the mission so far.  But we kept energized knowing that Monday was P-day and that’s what all the missionaries look forward too. ha But all is good now and they loved us so much because we helped with the move.  They told us they would do anything for us if we ever needed something just to give them a call.

Thanksgiving was great we had Pic a pollo which is just chicken and rice but they cook it a different way. So my Thanksgiving dinner was some chicken, rice and a little bit of mashed potato’s. haha so nothing like the states.. at least I got to eat.  We made it fun because they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here.

It was transfers this past week, I remained with the same companion.  Actually the whole Zone remained the same, there were only two new missionaries added to our Zone because there are missionaries that are going home. I am still in the same ward and same house and have the same investigators. I was so glad because I LOVE my ward and the members as well as my companion.  I was really worried that I was going to be asked to train this transfer, I was glad it didn’t happen because I am still not to comfortable with Spanish as I would like to be but it is coming a long and hopefully by this next transfer I can have it down.

Tell everyone hi and that I love them – talk to you next week.

Love

Elder Medrano