(6/8//15) A Great Day in the Neighborhood

I´m almost at a week in the new area, and in all honestly it's felt like 3 days! I'm in Villa Liberacion in my favorite zone I've served in: Hainamosa! It's an area I've done a pair of exchanges in when I was the zone leader about a year ago, and it hasn't changed a bit! It's was more green than my last area, and I love just breathing in that clean campo freshness. It really is easy to forget that this is a really beautiful place. It's just something about walking in dirt roads, sitting in the little houses made of cast off material. And the pure simplicity of it all is really kind of enchanting.

My new companion's name is Elder Peña. He's from Barahona where the best plantaines in the DR are from. He's such a hoot! I've never actually had a dominican companion before but I'm loving it. He is about a 250 lb moreno who, when i'm with him, never seem to find a moment where theres silence. He's real talkative and very animated for the work. We're gonna get a long just fine.

It is kind of weird going in to a ward where I've met already the bigger portion of it's leaders and know a few converts (because I was the one that interviewed them), it's like I already served here or something! We meet in the stake center that is about a 35 minute walk from where we live. It really is about time this ward gets a chapel built a little more closer to home. It's a thriving ward with the biggest amount of references given per month in the mission, so that's gotta count for something. We even had a baptism on my first week being here! I just hope the time doesn't go as fast as I think it's going to.. It's hard to know that this is where is where it's all gonna finish.

BUT, we do have some real heat that been following us around, I'm starting to look like a 8 on the tan scale, and I'm looking foward to getting even darker. It was sweet though, even though it was a sprinklin rain on the way to church we had like 14 investigators show up. I don't even know all of them yet, so I just smile and tell them thanks for coming.

It was sweet, so this last sunday was fast and testimony meeting so I thought I should go and share something to introduce myself. Right before I was about to get up, a huge downpour just unleashed its wrath upon the church and I though we were gonna die. But like all storms here they come and go in like a minute and by the time church was over you could barely even tell that it had been raining. I'll see if I can't get some pictures to introduce you to my new companion and the other two I'm living with.

I love you all and really appreciate the letters!

Talk to yall soon

Elder Tate

1) baptism

2) google translate it for a laugh