(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

(6/1/15) I eat some leaves, I eat some bugs, I use my hand.. to wipe my tears‏

Super great week. Just packed with moments that should have been better recorded in my journal.

Had a birthday on wednesday, got to share it with some good friends and a good Dominican supper: mashed plantaines (mangú), fried egg over yuca, and fried salami. It´s enough to make a strong man out of anyone. Then we had a cake that Francis and Jordana had bought us. It was just about the most perfect birthday you could have on a mission.

We also had an area seventy, Elder Zivic from Argentina, come and visit us this week. It was kind of wierd, but I got a call from one of the assistants on thursday (the day before he was to address us), and said he need my help to go pick up lunch for the office as they were having a meeting and could not leave. So another Elder who was the last AP arranged a quick comp exchange and with the keys to president´s car in hand we went and picked up their lunch. Could easily me the most random errand I´ve ever done, but I got to shake his hand and sit in while they ate their food.

The conference was just awesome. I have a whole bunch of notes in my agenda, but he spoke mostly of the 7 common mistakes we make as missionaries. And it was funny to see how easy it is occaisionaly to fall into the habit of making them. He spoke for a solid hour and a half which felt to me more like a 30 minute talk because of how interesting it was. Seeing that Elder Perry has passed, I could really see a lot of the current and past Carribbean area seventy taking his spot. We´ll have to see how it plays out.

With our eternal investigator Jordana, we hit another possible baptism. That was the topic in the gospel principles class and I talked with her after and she seemed more than pleased with the idea of her being baptized. We´ll go by her tonight for one last time.

Cause - Me voy!

I got the call, I´ll be heading out tomorrow morning. I´m going back to one of my old zones, to an area called Villa Liberación. I was the zone leader the last time I was there, now I´m gonna stay my last two transfers and a jr companion haha. I´m very content with the area and my new companion. he´s a 2 buck 50 lb smiley Dominican. He´ll be my first Dominican companion and I´ll be with two other Elders who were both trained from the same group as my kid, Elder Graff.

It´s absolutely nuts to think this is my last area. I´m sad to go, but after this, I´m not even sure what to think! I can´t even imagine the idea of coming home. The sound of it is absolutely absurd. I´m putting the machine into overdrive. These last 2 transfers are gonna be my finest. It´s a full on sprint to the finish. Here goes

Vayan con Dios!

Elder Tate

1) da cake

2) elder jeffers climbed our church´s mangoe tree and got me like 20 mangoes!

3) mmmm

(5/25/15) TODAY I AM WRITING IN ALL CAPS

DUE TO THE LACK OF OPERATING AND FAST COMPUTERS IN MY AREA< I GOT STUCK WITH THE ONE THAT WRITES WiTh THE LETTERS ALMOST ALL CAPITALIZED> BEAR wITH ME>

We SPENT THE DaY CLEANING< REaDING> THEN WE ThOUGHT WE"D GO OUT AND Do SoMETHiNG> so wE asked peRmissIon tO gO eAT AT WENDYS> IT WAS A LOW END WENDY"S AND THE ORANGE JUICE I GOT WAS ALMOST AS CLEAR AS WATER>> A WASTE OF MONEY< BUT WE DID RUN INTO SOME MISSIONARIES FROM THE WEST MISSION AND FOUND OUT WE"D ALL BE SEEING EACHOTHER REAL SOON BECAUSE EVERYONE THAT GOES ON A MISSION ENDS UP STUDYING IN UTAH HAHA> ITS LIKE WE WERE TALKING TO PEOPLE FROM A DIFFERENT PLANET < WE WERE BOTH SO INTERESTED IN WHAT EACH OTHERS MISSIONS WERE LIKE> ITS CRAZY SOMETIMES TO THINK OF ALL THE THINGS WE"VE GOTTA DO AS MISSIONARIES> I"M JUST SO USED TO THINKING AS ONE SOMETIMES I FORGET I USED TO BE ABLE WATCH DISNEY MOVIES AND GO PLACES WITH OUT ASKING FOR PERMISSION> HAHA I"M GONNA PROBABLY BE CALLING MY MOM ASKING FOR PERMISISON TO GO PLACES WHEN I FINISH THE MISSION> THAT"D BE FUNNY

WE HAD A GREAT ACTIVITY ON SATURDAY WHERE WE PLAYED ""MINUTE TO WIN IT"" AND NEARLY ALL THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT FRIENDS TO THE ACTIVITY MADE IT TO CHURCH THE NEXT DAY AS WELL> THATS A PLUS> WE PLAYED FUN GAMES LIKE CHANGE INTO MISISONARY CLOTHES (sorry I got too sick of it I just went and changed computers), a bunch of team centered games, and eating contests, malta morena chugs, and it was an okay turn out. We were about to divide into 5 teams of 8 or 9 so all in all it was a success!

We brought a group of rough looking 18, 19, 19 , 20, and 22 year olds with us to church. It was awsome, they filled up their own row! We were turning heads on the way to church:Just two guys in ties and a bunch of really tall real ganster looking young guys walking the streets is not seen here i'll tell you that. But they all came, most of them were sleeping through the doctorine classes, but they said they wanted to come again next week!

With our group of boys and with all that came because of the activity the day prior, we had a total of 21new young people that were in our priesthood block, and all of them were there for the first time! Wild, huh?

We're still trying hard with two or three investigators that are ready ready for a baptismal date. We're trying to be patient but it's hard when they themselves know they want to do it and don't because of family members or because of what other people say about the church. Satan is real keen i'll say that much.

Well, we'll see how this weeks goes, It's the last week for this transfer and I feel split on staying or going, so I won't guess this time. Oh, and wednesday I'll be 20. You don't do that everyday. I wish I could go out and do something daring and cool while I-m still a teeneager, but I feel I did enough stupid things before the mission to cover these two years as well hahaha.

Wish me luck! I'm gonna try and make a birthday cake. I'll send a picture.

Oh, and shout out to GRANDMA. She's gonna turn 60 on wednesday too. Love you grandma.

Elder Tate

foto 1) activity

foto 2) activity

foto 3) this fruit tastes like bread. no lie

(5/18/15) HOT

We're writing in a different internet cafe and lucky us it was the one with the rugrat 13 year olds that are bouncing around over an out-dated xbox game. My focus span is like a 2 out of 10 right now, so bear with me. 

Good week. We've gotta go to the doctor for Elder Jeffers here in a little bit, so we're gonna take off from here and take the bus to be there by 4.30. Today in the morning we went and watched a baseball game in the dique oldest baseball stadium in the DR. I'd believe it too, it was.. definitely old haha. But with our coconut waters and bag full of mangoes, all us white guys sitting up high in an empty stadium we kinda looked like a couple young baseball scouts. So that was cool.

Yesterday we left with an old geezer named  Martin. He took us to lot of less active members and a bunch of his friends to go share the gospel with them. I really wanna share some of the conversation starters he used to get us in some of the places we visited yesterday.

he said> Hey! We're here to talk about the word of Nephi, let's get some chairs and visit for a minute.

another> The adventistas talke about parables? All lies! The only true parable are these missionaries!

and the last> (this one we were already sitting down with two older women) This old grandma is far past crazy, you tell her platano (plantiane) and she's tell ya yuca! 

Those we a couple i jotted down, but it was the most interesting couple hours i've ever spent sharing the gospel. 

Before we split, I gotta tell you about this very interesting contact we did this last week. We we trying to contact a reference from one of our recent converts, but he wasn't there. So we got talking with his neighbor and I noticed his big old gallo in the back and made some small talk. After seeing that we weren't out to kill him or his family he inffvited us in and to sit down. We met his wife, Maria, and thier two small daughters. And this was just a normal contact, but lately we've starting off with more listening, and just a few ''inviter questions'' I want to call them . But the wife after a minute or two told us that she knew we were sent by God to teach them something. And her husband spoke up too and said it's been quite a while since they've made time for God in their family. We're gonna pass by tomorrow with one of the bishop's counsellors. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Love ya a real lot, just not enought to put my memory in these sketchy computers we're on right now. 

Talk to you next week!

I'm looking foward to what these last few transfers have in store for me. I've still got a lot of work to do

Elder Tate

(5/11/15) Ya lo sabe

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be, 

when we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory!!!

it was a week that ended great! I got to see all you! It's odd to see so many of you all growing up. Kristen's huge, Parker's going on a mission.. Jenn's graduating, Justin's tall enough to dunk. It freaks me out. I love it but at the same time I wish I could just steal an hour and warp myself to eat some of thsoe chicken croissants yall were eating yesterday. That sounded soo good.

But, as always, after skyping I'm walking with recharged batteries, and I'm ready to just work my buns off till I actually put that croissant in my mouth for real. 

This week was good, Just in these past few days I hurt for some of our recent converts who are going through some trials. It's almost like they needed to be baptized at this point in their life so they could rely on what they now know to get them through it. I wish I could explain it further, but for now they just need your prayers and more time to get through it.

We went out to eat on thursday. it was elder Aplanalp's birthday so we convinced the assistants to take us out to somewhere special. It's at this beach/restuarant right by the division of the west and east mission, but luck divided the mission like two blocks behind where this cool place is at. So.. Thats probably where I'm gonna be eating for my birthday too. It was a great day.

Thats about all the worthwhile news, just a lot of contacting and visiting church members to strenghten the ward and pull out some new references to visit and bring to church. 

Siempre la dicha es.. Pa Adelante!!

Have a good week, listen to some of the conference talks a second time. You're always learn something you didn't catch the first time

Cuidense

Elder Tate

1)family in orem

2)family in barcelona! 

3)pinya colada

(5/4/15) Bon To Bia!!‏

I learned that little phrase this week, it means what's up in papiamento.

Lets see waht we can do to sum up this week in a 10 minute memory recall cram sesh. They usually turn out this way so here goes--

Mercedes got batized by Elder Jeffers on Friday, and like 35 people showed up! That swhat's up. I've never seen that kind of turn out on my mission. I don't even think there was that many people at my baptism. haha. She got up and bore her testimony yesterday and started to tear up. It was good to see the change she's made. It's something you'll never get tired of seeing. 

We went to the gym with Francis today and he is just praying like mad for his wife to get on board. We did a fast with the family in hopes that Jordana would ask for her answer to baptism. Elder Jeffers and I were already fasting, but we asked if she would start the fast. She gave a wonderful prayer and asked for an answer. We reunited the next day and sharer a lot from D&C 6 where it talks about how if we ask for knowlege god will speak peace to our hearts. She understood and just fell back to that she still doesn't feel prepared. After battling and preparing and studying for weeks to help her realize her answers, we're gonna just let her be and hope she will soon make her choice. It's real sad and heartbreaking to see it go this way. Everyone comes in their own time I guess. 

We're doing pretty good on time. One more quick story..

We were accidentally contacting the other day, i think it was in the morning on saturday. And we were nothing less than guided messengers that morning. Accidentally because we were in search of a less active the bishop gave us last sunday. So there we were, climbing the stairs of a tall apartment building and once we reached the fifth floor tried knocking the door. It was obviously the wrong house because of the size of the family and the age of the woman who we saw inside. Feeling more in a rush we started to excuse the interruption and move on with our search but she friendly asked us if we were lost. We explained who we were and asekd if she had a minute for a quick message. She gladly accepted and sat us down with her and her 3 little children. We has just been instructed in zone conference how to ask heaven sent questions to get to the root of our investigators problems. As we listened to her and looked her deep in the eyes, i could perceive that something wasnt' right. I asked her: How are things between you and your husband (who was not present with us). She immediately broke down and we sat in silence for a minute. She explained that she had prayer the night prior for someone to come to help her and her family. Saying that she didn't want to continue down the path she was going, and desperately pleaded for heaven's help. And then that's when i asked the follow-up question, I asked: Do you feel like we are the one's God has sent to help you. She only continued crying and nodded with a quiet ''si''. I felt so good leaving, knowing that we were the instruments in the Lord's hands. Pray for her and her family. They're the family Garcia, and we're headed over there tomorrow with the bishop for our first lesson. I feel real good with them and hope they progress.

to finish-- We got to go to the temple the other day. It was five stars

Love yall, I hope you are studying these past conference talks. They're sweet.

AH!! What's is life!!! This week is mother day, We are gonna skype like its 1999.  Can't Wait.

Los Quiero

Elder Tate

foto 1) our zone at the temple

foto 2) mercedes

foto 3) mercedes tank angle

foto 4) our house + president

foto 5) subway today

foto 6) i can has afroo

(4/27/15) Esssss Hot!

My son, peace be unto thy soul. Thine adversities and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment, and if thou endure it well God shall exalt thee on high, thou shalt triumph over all of they foes.

I'm listening to some orchestra music and those lyrics just came on. That's about hot it was for us this week. But a great great for me. Not so much for my companion, but that's later.

We're seen a lot of miracles lately, they're really all coming just when they need them too is how I feel. Mercedes has completely kicked coffee. She says it was all because of a blessing we gave to her a few weeks ago. She swears that she had angels hand placed upon her head, and will still to this day say that's why she gave it up. And yesterday we watched the Restoration at the church with her and a few other investigators - without little kid interruptions or sudden power outages - and it was excellent. She'll interview tomorrow and'll be in the waters this friday. Be thinking of her!

We past by a contact we did a few weeks back and she took a baptismal date right then and there. Now if we can just fix a time when her crazy mother in law isn't there to tell us she's not interested I'm feeling that she can progress.

Lately we've been doing a lot of new contacts, Elder Jeffers and I, that always makes the day a lot more interesting. There are just so many of the cream of the crop nut jobs scattered across this one of a kind country. That's all I'm gonna say.

We're writing a lot earlier than normal because we're temple bound this Wednesday or maybe Friday. I just can't wait, it's the best to be in the temple. It's gonna be just that much more worth it when It's us all going to a session together. The whole family sitting in peace in the celestial room. Now that's what i'm REALLY looking foward to.

After which we'll gonna head back to the doctor to see what's the deal with my companion. He's been having some real strong pains in his chest and headaches that come and go throughout the day. They said it was bronchitis and and bad sinus infection.. But he won't take those as answers. He's gonnna need some real spiritual and mental strength more than anything to get through this. To me, i feel it's in his will power and drive to push through the pain. I know sounds rough, but we've got a lot of work here to do. We'll see if we can't get some more advice from the doctor this week.

Before we go, I just wanna say that this is all going way too quick. I want it to go slower, but the more work you put in and the more you want to make the time last - the faster it goes. And it's sad to me, you see a lot of missionaries wishing their time away, wanting to be somewhere else (time-wise, area, companion, leadership positions etc.), but this is where it's at! These are our days! I'm happy the be where I am and I know these last few are gonna be the best months of my mission.

Love you all a mountain

Elder Tate

1) sunday lunch

2) from the other day

3) this guy