Letter on Arrival Day at the Mission Home . . .

We received a letter and photos in the mail today (October 4, 2013) that Garrett wrote the day he arrived at the Mission Home in Santo Domingo (September 10, 2013)! We hope all letters don't take three weeks to come through the mail, but it was so awesome to hear more details of what his experiences are like in the Dominican Republic. While we are ever thankful for email technology allowing us to communicate each week, the joy of receiving a letter in the mailbox is very exciting. (Wish I would have been able to capture Dylan's face when we stopped at the mailbox and he saw there was a letter from the Dominican Republic ~ It was absolutely PRICELESS!)

My "Arrival" photo at the Mission Home of the
Dominican Republic Santo Domingo West Mission

Dear Family,

I am on my way! I am currently sitting in the chapel, and am about to find out where my first area will be, and who my companion is! I am so excited to serve the Lord. I had an interview with President Rodriguez this morning, and it went well. He knows a lot more English than he did before, so that was cool, but I spoke only in Spanish. That is a big goal of mine, is to use Spanish as often as possible. My ultimate goal is to be 100% fluent by Christmas, meaning that I speak Spanish as well as I can speak English. It is a lofty goal, but I know if I work hard, I can do it!

In other news, I have received a new filter bottle from the Church, so I have two now! They say you could put orange juice in it, and it would filter out pure water, so I will definitely need to try that! It is the same bottle that Aunt Kelly sells in her shop, so that was cool to find out.

The church here is very nice. The building I mean. They have nice tile floors, and the foyers are open-air foyers. They have slats that close when it rains, but it is kind of cool. It echoes very well. There is no carpet (alfombra) here, and I guess that is a fairly common occurrence here. No one has carpet, which will make push ups interesting, but I can't wait!

P-Day is on MONDAY here, so we have missed it this week :(. I will have access to email every week, though, via an internet cafe. There are many of those here! So that will be good. We also email the President every week to let him know that we are still alive!

I have received my debit card. We are given about 3800 pesos every two weeks. We are required to pay utilities, but we will be reimbursed. Depending on the area, we might not have utilities to pay, with no electricity, water, or heat, etc. I will know all the details about that later.

Elder Garrett McEwan with President and Sister Rodriguez,
who are native to the Dominican Republic

Good news, there are people (Missionaries) here who have access to workout equipment! I am excited to be able to work out. I just had my weight and blood pressure checked here in the chapel. My BP was 126/80, and my weight was 205. This is good, because I want to stay the same!

I hope all of you are doing well! Let me know how school, football, work, church, and driving are going!

I love you all so MUCH!

Elder Garrett McEwan