Feb 25th- A Week For The Books

here's something I didn't really realize fully until today. I'm on an island. Like, me. Elder Tate.Water. Super crazy. I only realized this today when I sank my teeth into the first mango of the harvest, and the other elder in the house who's from honduras honestly didn't believe that there are no good mangoes back in good ole utah.

Islands > Earth trapped Utah

Yeah, anyway kinda like all of you; I have a very limited time to write EVERYTHING that went down this week. I say week for the books, because honestly it was nothing short of its title. Hewe go.

Had a baptism this week. Yes, you read right. A baptism. I wrote a lengthly story in my journal you can all read later. But long story short. 11 year old Daurys had cold feet, Other elders were buscando for him and I ending up baptizing his sister and one of the other elders' investigators.. A day, that doesn't make sense when you right like I just told you. But believe me, there was no other way. But nonetheless SUPER AWESOME. 

Other news: By the middle of this April, I will have completed 6 months in Hato Mayor. Didn't get transferred. Really, nobody did. So, I'm sticking with Bodily a little while longer. He's a cool cat, but honestly I was feeling a move. In campo I was born, and its lookin like in campo I will go.

Another noticia: BEACH BABY. Ahhhhhh. Spent the whole day in sand, sweat, and cold drinks. Sooo SO awesome to get to smell that salty breath of life once more. Ahh... and you know how when you leave, your hair is left in a way that only the beach knows how to do. Yeah. Theres few things on this earth that compare. But man, I'm tellin you you've never seen tempation until you're beachside with a missionary plaque on. I almost fell. Bodily and I were contemplating practicing our baptizing, and maybe when we finished, we would also practice pulling the plug. Seeing that this have given us obvious trouble in the past.

Yeah, so thats the week in a nutshell. Feel like I'm just copying all you fools, but ¨sorry for the short letter¨ haha. Love you guys so much, it's makin me crazy

Les Quiero Mucho Locos!!!!

Elder Tate

Feb 17th- Valentines Love

Hey,

 

You already know. Valentines without women.. nothing better. But, we did have a splendid week. And I got to wear my heart socks again. Whoop whoop

I really should have brought my planner with me, I had some things I wanted to put down.

So, this week we had some awesome, and some not awesome go down. First I'll declare the awesome: While summing up tithing with our smaller investigators (Daurys and Sorangy), we were also sharing with their friend Manuela who's nine. After we taught the lesson we wanted to have a review, OF EVERYTHINGH we had taught. So we had a little game, and mentioned that the winner gets chocolate. So here we are, with Sorangy who knows everything, her brother Daurys who knows his stuff but is rather shy, and Manuela who is 8, and for my knowledge never shared with the missionaries, Okay. So we start playing, and we give the first two to Daurys because we didn't want him to feel left our or anything. And then boom there goes Manuela answering a bunch of questions. It's nuts!! She picked up ALL I'm serious, all of the material for the baptismal interview. In about twenty minutes of review with the other two. So, we have an appointment to share with her family and start preparing her for baptism. (we aleady have her mothers permission too, ABSOLUTELY AWESOME). Also we had the intrevista for our 3 fechas this past saturday. Clearly, Daurys passed, and Sorangy too. But what stinks is Vilme, our investigator of gold. Called us the morning of his interview and made it very clear that he did not have time for the interview, and that he was too busy to get baptized now. So... Vilme is no longer an investigator of ours. I just don't get it. I think Satan's tweaking with his mind thoughts. It's not like him at all. So.. Yup two baptisms this week, and we'll see if we can get our other 3 fechas to attend too. That'd be awesome. A lot of work, walking and progress this week. I like that.

Last week of this transfer, I don't want to make predictions, but I'm feeling a transfer. We'll have to see, I'm looking forward to the week. We have a lot planned, and with the 2 baptisms, we have a lot of work to do. But, yeah. I had some cool stories and cool stuff to say, but I can't think of what they were. I'll fill ya in later I guess. 

Cuidense Mucho

Love all the wonderful Emails

Elder Tate

 

 

Feb 10th-- It's Alright to be a Redneck!

Como saba!!!!!!!!

Theres never a day goes by when I'm not just blown away of what I see in this fascinating place I call home. But this week I just saw the incredible. I witnessed my first Cock-Fight. At first I thought some kids might have been fighting or something like that because people were formed in a cirlce yelling and swearing. But, no. It was two, heathy-bred, bloody young roosters, street fighting dominican style. Kind of sad to say now that I'm writing it, but it was seriously awesome.

This week teaching-wise, was intense. Getting our three Fechas all ready for their interview this saturday was pretty nerve-racking. We're teaching two very young, very new to the gospel 8 and 11 year olds. I'm feeling like they are close to ready. They're keeping their commitments and retaining the lessons. We're also teaching an older fellow named Vilme. He's the Hatian of 65 who works almost all the time, so teaching comes with a challenge. I'm hoping we can drop by this week and teach the last lesson in time for his interview. We were worried about this guy because he believes 100 percent what we're teaching but he only repeats the exact things we say right after we say them. So.. sometimes we feel he's not understanding it for sure. But I'm hoping that all goes well with those 3. They really are ready for baptism, just need a little more teaching is all.

It really is a lot of fun teaching little kids though. A lot easier than adults, and thats no lie. You just make everything a big story! We taught the little dudes the plan of salvation using a tshirt (representing a body and all that). And normoally, that is the hardest lesson to teach people, and they were understanding it to a t. It's fun teaching big, and using your hands to draw pictures while you teach. Also, mostly because they are so ready to learn. Anyway. Kids are fun.

Also put down another fecha for the 8 of march for a young mother named Yahaira. She is a school teacher and reads EVERYTHING WE LEAVE WITH HER. I really like her. She understands and is ready to learn. She lacks papers for marraige, but she has the desire to be baptized, so I have high hopes for her.

Not alot else has changed this week. Didn't get to go to the beach this week, hato mayor still doesn't have any beaches.

Played some phase ten with the other elders today..

Coello (my old comp) got transferred unexpectedly, so now we have Elder Carter (also from honduras). And he's neat.

It makes my day to read about the spiritual/missionary experiences that you guys are having. It really isn't as hard as it seems. Just open your mouse and say what the spirit gives you.

Love you guys, have a delightful week

Elder Tate

Feb 3rd--Beachside!!

Gotta make this light speed quick

Yeah. So TODAY we went to Sabana de la Mar. Where, we played an extremely righteous match of volleyball and then soccer, BEACHSIDE. Sounds peachy, and it really was a lot of fun, but this beach was the pits. Honestly the dirtiest beach I've ever been to.. Had black waves, the DIRTIEST water I've ever seen, covered with rocks, and then we played on this grazzy area. I mean WHERES THE SAND?? But still, lotta fun. Fun to have a day to kick it with the district. ha, kick it with the district, that sounds like it could be a movie or something. 

But we did get back super late, due to problems with our bus, haha. They were waiting at the Testigos de Jehovah (Jehovah wittness) church. Not ours. Is my prophecy correct?? Our churches look the exact same!!

A lot of progress this week with our 3 investigators with the fechas. Just now, we returned from a lesson with Sorangy (who's nine) and Dowrys (who's 11) and we taught the plan of salvation. It was my first time teaching it to kids, so we had some fun with it. We brought one of my t-shirts to explain the purpose of having a body. The shirt because when we put on the shirt just like when our spirit enters our body, we have the freedom to move the shirt any way and any direction we choose. And, with a lot of teaching BIG, like with our hands and stuff, we were able to get through the whole lesson. It was actually pretty cool to see them learn so much. But, them two will for sure be baptized. And our other pal, Vilme, (the hatian) is understanding a lot. We saw him at church again and he is still motivated and ready to learn more.

Oh yeah, we moved al the baptismal dates to the 22 becase our district leader can't make that many visits to interview our baptisms and the baptism of the other elderes in our area. 

I found myself reading a lot out of the Book of Mormon this week. I read all through  2 Nefi and am half way through Mosiah. Its cool to have the desire to just KEEP reading. I love the feelings I get when I read this sacred book. I also set my own little cool goal to finish the BOM in spanich by my birthday. Got a ways to go, but it's a goal I intend to complete. 

As with all of us, we have struggles, man. Sometimes they just punch us right in the face. For me, I sometimes question, "Why does is this so hard, even when I'm trying my best?" But we know these are for OUR benefit, and OUR good. I know if we cling, honestly just CLING to what we know to be true, we cannot be lead astray. 

If we continue fighting for this great cause, we will not be lead astray. 

Mosiah 20:11

Love Love Love

Elder Tate

Jan 27th-- Still Sweating

Last night, I had this dream. In it, our assistant to the president was driving us around downtown Santo Domingo.. All of a sudden, he pulls into COSTO. Later, I found myself scanning the cereal isle and picked up the biggest bag of Waffle Crisp I had ever seen and held it in my hands. This was the happiest discovery of my life and I wanted to share the news with all my friends. Later in that same dream, I remember I was swimming at this glorious beach with buckets of Koolaids and Cactus Coolers on ice ready to be CONSUMED.. The next thing I remember, I'm awake lying in my bed, with my mouth watering, and realizing that I miss my American food. 

Ah....

This week was surpirisingly very eventful. I have an intercambio with Elder Pierre once more in El Seybo. Wayyy up in the mountains. I love it up there, everyone is always so humble and ready to head what we have to share. Then on friday we took the 2 hour gua gua to the capital for a meeting for Bodily's training, and there was PIZZA. And this time I was ready this time. Last time I left my Cholula at home. Ah.. SO GOOD. Work wise, I was a somewhat slow week. Because I was gone for what seemed like half the week, we didn't get as many lessons in as usual. But something extremely uncommon happened yesterday at church..

So we arrived and were sitting in our first class (preisthood), and I saw a fellow I had not seen before sitting in the corner. Shook his hand and all that as found out his name was Vilme. Nothing that out of the ordinary. Then I got sitting with him during third hour which is sacrament. Realized he really likes to sing, and loves to read along with the speakers in the scriptures. I thought ''cool, he likes church''. So we get talking, find out he lives solo, from Haiti, and has really no family in the area. So I ask if it'd be alright if we swing by later to get to know him a little more and share a small message. Much later, while at his house, we find out that he has had a Book of Mormon for the past four years from some sister missionaries who found him in La Romana. And over the years, he has visited many churches and has decided that he wants to be baptized in this church because it's the only one he feels peace in.

So.. We put a fecha. We put the goal for the 15th of Feb for his baptism! Whooo! And more, we hadd two other young kids (9 and 11) who said they wanted to be baptized as well. We are going to work with all of them as much as we can. The younger two have the fecha for the 8th of Feb. But it's just really exciting to put 3 dates down for these happy people to be baptized. 

But for all those cold and shivering at home. Here's a thought I heard from a conference talk this week. I believe it was Elder Andersen. He said: Often times we become sad and start feeling sorry for ourselves because we forget our eternal Identity and Purpose. We as all literal sons and daughter of a God up above who have infinite love and power. If we stop and really think about that, it should definitely change the way we look at things. I know none of us are perfect in this world, but we are loved by one who is. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but keep that in your thoughts when you feel insignificant or not up to par. Love you guys more than you know. I'm grateful for your continued support as many of our friends and family are out serving the Lord on missions. 

Va con Dios!

Isaiah 40:31

Elder Tate

Jan 20th-- Eating Popcorn

Had a thought this week.

You know how that burger place chadders completely copied in-n-out. And for that reason, in-n-out throws another restaurant down in every city that chadders does and all that? You know what I'm talking about? So it finally clicked this week. Los Testigos de Jehovah (Jevovah's witnesses) do the exact same thing. They've got missionaries here that go door to door, they have church activites and meetings the exact same hour as us.. They even have the same looking plaque on the front part of their church. Like seriously, I had to take a double take to make sure it wasn't us. I feel that they're just following our lead. Except the whole our church is actually the one that's true.. Haha just a thought I had this week.

Week one in my new area! I feel like I need a disclaimer for this..

So, the dude who was training the kid I'm now training, left us 0, I'm serious, ZERO progressing investigators. They solely worked with their two baptisms, visited members and all that, then they'd call it a day. 

So.... As you could probably guess, we worked a lot with contacting this week. And really, just got to know the area a little better. Met tons of new people, and we'll be visiting them later this week. I also found out that we have a seriously SUPER BIG MEGA HUGE GIGANTIC proselyting area. Theres piles of people who live off the grid in this campaso area called the ''China'' because all the streets are named after fruits! Pretty cool actually. But it's just about and hour walk each way, so we have to plan around that looong journey. Fun times. But I'm feeling like things are shaping up.

It's fun taking the reigns on teaching. I{m feeling really comfortable now teaching in spanish. Bodily's coming along, he's got a great attitude for the work, and his spanish is progressing pretty well, it all just comes with time. But it's cool to read back to the days of the CCM and listen to me whine about how harrrrrd spanish is. HA! And that was only a short 4 months past.

Today we (FINALLY) had Parque al Este. It's been cancelled for the first two transfers I've been here. And both times we had already paid our passage and were in a gua gua on our way there... Irritating.

Was super great. Played soccer pretty much all day, and downed 9 (a new personal record) Skimice, (which is the best thing that ever happened to popsicles...), and finished off with ''drumroll please..'' McDonalds BABY!!! It's amazing how much differently I look at the Macdonalds now that I'm here out on the mission. I just died when I put my harbeñero classic/McChicken/cheesburger/PILE of fries ALL IN ONE burger in my mouth. Honestly, I miss the convienece of having my Wendys and other fast food.

 But MAN, these fools know how to play soccer, I mean WOW! I was blown away. I was one of the 3 americans who played. Honestly one of the best days I've had here 

Found out who our new mission pres is! He's african.. served in the San Juan Puerto Rico Mission. Name's Ahmad S. Corbitt. That's pretty much all I know.

Got a hair cut

I can't move my legs enough to stand up

Que mas....

Have another exchange wayyy up yonder in the mountains with Elder Pierre (the dude from Haiti) in El Seybo tomorrow. Woo hoo

Eating popcorn.

Lovin the Mish

Aight. Well keep me updated with all your lives. You all are super neat people and you all are honestly in my thoughts. Always remember to be that super happy kid that smiles all the time. It helps make peoples days.

Nos Vemos

Elder Tate!

Jan 13th-- President's Been Getting Some Crazy Revelation Cause....

So we get this thing called Apoyo every fifteen days.. It's our money for food, water, all that. Because I have not been as thifty as I usually am.... I've been fed this past week by nothing more than Avena, and Banana Pancakes. I'm realizing I have not been eating up to my full potential. These pancakes are DELICIOUS. Just take your oats, (oh yeah, avena means oats), your two mini smashed bananas, pancake dust, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and a little tad of salt. 

They are legendary.

A lot has happened this week that's worth mentioning..

Went on an intercambio for TWO days in Seybo this week. Wayy up in the mountains and more campo than Hato Mayor. It was absolutely interesting. It's like a mini-Haiti. Everyone there is tri-lingual(creole, french and spanish), stinky, super interested, and Hatian. I was on the split with a dude who is from Port au prince which is a nicer city in Haiti. This dude, is rediculous. He knows 3 languages perfectly and can talk with me in english, about as well as I can to him in spanish. Super neat. 

None of our investigators made it church this week. It's hard to have your investigators progressing so much, and then have them miss church. But everyone always has agency. We didn't put a fecha for Elizabeth, she was in the capital for most of the week taking tests or something like that. But we did teach Martyre again and he is for sure gonna get baptized, just with time. Really, all our investigators are progressing, they're just not really keeping commitments like they should. We'll keep praying, I'm not losing hope. 

Other than that, I've actually got some killer news...

More about that later. I'm happy that Utah is still getting dumped on. But I would appreciate it if you all could just keep me out of the loop on all the latest snow updates. It's my first winter ever without seeing snow, and I'm dying. I was actually starting to get a little sick, and I swear its because my body is used to wearing a coat by now and wants to know whats going on. Some nights I dream that I'm back on the mountain, with the pals.. So HA! I've got snow over here too!

It's unbelievable.. so transfer's up. A lot of changes. Elder Bodily's companion goes to the captial. He's the new Elder from Hyrum Utah. And the rest of us stay. BUT, heres the ringer. Molina was Bodily's trainer, and with him gone, I guess President's been getting some crazy revelation cause, I'm going to finish his training! I won't be in my area anymore, I'll be in his area, Hato Mayor B, just a little bit further down from the church. So all that work with investigators these past two transfers is now in the hands of Coello. Just picture it, me..  Elder Tate, a trainer. CRAZY. 

I'm still not fluid with the language as much as I'd like to be, but I have faith that the Lord will continue to guide us in this work. Just like how Joseph Smith, a young man of 14, felt unqualified, uneducated, and unprepared, he put his trust in the Lord. I know the reason Joseph was chosen to have such an important calling is because he was humble. Says in Alma 32:23 that the Lord chooses the weak thing of the world to confound the wise. I can honestly say, I believe that. Counting on your prayers this transfer!

Just found out last night too, that my good ol pal Elder Pedersen is training the companion Bodily had in the CCM in oeste. Small world. 

Pasan Bueana Semana!

Elder Tate