What a Great Opportunity This Is For Me . . .

We were grateful to receive a letter from Elder McEwan this afternoon so that we would know where he had been transferred to. He didn't go to the "campos" but it sounds like he's pretty much loving where he is :).

March 3, 2014

Sunrise in Las Palmas, Altagracia -- BEAUTIFUL!!

Dear Family,

Me and Elder Sanchez at the ruins of Taino Prince's Palace.
The Tainos are the natives here and they were
exterminated by the Spanish.

Our District in Las Palmas -- Elder McEwan, Elder ?,
Elder Sanchez, Elder Pedersen

This has been a really cool week!!  I was transferred, as you guys all know, to a zone named Las Palmas, in the area of Altagracia.  I am with a Latin companion, specifically a Dominican, named Elder Sanchez!! He is a little bit older than me... he is 26!!  Super funny, but also so, so, so fun!!  I love having a comp that I have to speak spanish with all the time!!  My spanish has grown even more with this experience!!! I am in the nice part of the city now... by nice I mean that we have 24 hour light, 24 hour water, the chapel is like a 5 minute walk from the house, and the streets are clean!!  We never have to take public transportation which is really nice!!  The house is huge, with a large bedroom, my first bedroom in the mission!!  Also with a huge kitchen, so I am very happy with where I am living!!

Elder Pedersen and I are still living together!!  We got the transfer calls, and found out that we are both going to Altagracia, so that was cool!!  He is with a dominican as well, so that is really cool!!

Our ward is not a ward, it is a branch!!  The building is really nice, but is small.  THere are about 50 or 60 active members, but there are a ton of less actives here!!  There are enough less actives that if all of the less actives of this branch were active, we would be a stake!!  Crazy crazy crazy!!!



Me and my new friend at the Ruins :)

This branch does do some cool things, such as movie nights, basketball twice a week, baseball, softball, ward dinners, and ward family home evenings!!  Pretty cool, but they are really organized here in this branch!!  It is cool to work with leaders of the church that really want the work to grow, and are willing to put in the effort to do it!!

Archway in Plaza of Flags. Also a memorial for
the Unknown Soldier

There are also legitimate baseball fields here and basketball courts as well!!  All of them have lights, grass, mounds, and dug outs, and the basketball courts look like Venice Beach!!  Pretty sweet!!!  We have been invited to play a couple of times, but we have not had the chance to do so yet, but that is ok, we will find some time!!!

So now on to the investigators....  This is going to be a little bit short because I don´t know them well, but I will do my best!!

Beyilin... She is a woman of 22 years, and she is super cool!!  She keeps all of her commitments, and has gone to church a ton!!  The only thing is that her mother is in charge of paying for her education at the university, and accidently signed her up for a course that is on Sundays!!  She can´t stop going to the course or else her mom won´t pay for her education anymore!!  The course will finish in April, then she can continue going to church and will be baptized!!  She is really cool!!

There is a family named the Soto family, and they are a part member family.  The wife was baptized a long time ago, the hus 
band is a recent convert, and the one son is a recent convert.  They have a couple of teen agers that are not baptized, so that is a little rough!!  But we are working with them, and we will see how everything goes!!  Pretty cool family overall!!

So these are the progressing investigators, we have more, but we are going to wait on them until next week to see who is progressing!!



Beautiful lake we also visited on P-day

BUT NOW ON TO A COOL STORY AND YOU ARE NOT GOING TO WANT TO MISS THIS!!

There was a Haitian lady in church today that has been going to church for more than two years, and she is not baptized.  Her name is Dari, and she is cool, but does not speak spanish very well!!  We went for the first time to teach her, and she was talking, and told us that her boyfriend is a member, but that he doesn´t go to church.  His name is David, and he is very cool!!  He recounted the entire story of his life to us, and told us that he left the church because he was ashamed of having relations with this woman without being married!!  So he tells us all this, but that he wants to go back, he wants to marry her so that she can be baptized too!  And he also wants his son of 10 years old to be baptized!!  He is looking for a job to find money to pay for a wedding, but that has been rough for him!!  We kept talking, and he tells me that he is going to show me a picture of HIS MISSIONARY.....  He brings the picture out and tells me it was a sister missionary that he loved more than anything, and that she changed his life in the most spectacular way!!  He said that he lost her number to call her, and he cried for 3 days while he looked for it and never found it!!  He hands me the picture.... and it is SHANTELLE FICKLIN!!!  Wow!!  He was so happy that I knew her!!  He gave me his number to give to her, and asked her if she could call him!! He was ecstatic!!  So crazy to see that this could come full circle, and that what she started, I could complete with the baptism of his family!!!

WEll, that was the week!!  I love you all so much!!

Love,
Elder Garrett McEwan  :)