Week 5 in the field!!

Hello everyone,

 

I hope you all had a great thanksgiving!

Updates for this week include me taking my first bucket shower!  You have not lived in the Dominican Republic until you have taken a bucket shower so check that off the list!

For Thanksgiving we made brownies at our Hermana Leaders house.  The ovens here are different so we didn’t really know what temperature it was at so the brownies never got really cooked before we had to go to bed so it was kind of like brownie soup!  Yummy!

Friday we went to the temple with a couple of zones.  We woke up at 4:30 to go to the temple and it was marvelous!  It was such a fun day.  On the way back though we ran into some obstacles.  The buses back to Yamasa stop around 6:30 and we got to the bus stop around 6 and no bus came.  But then a guy came and told us to catch another bus to go a different way.  We were with some other people so we did as we were told so we could get back.  Anyway we got on this bus and traffic was so so bad and we ended up being on a bus for 3 hours instead of the usual 45 minutes, but one of the girls we were with we contacted.  Her name is Anabel and she seemed really interested so we are going to visit her tomorrow!  

We also had investigators finally come to church!  Antonio and Chamil.  They are friends and have some really good questions.  Chamil questions religion a little bit because he thinks they are to control people, but we have been focusing on agency and the blessings that come from choosing the right and he seems to really enjoy it.  They both really enjoyed church and I am really excited to see them progress.

The Garcia family did not come to church and we were devastated so we went there later that day and found out that they really didn’t have an excuse not to come so we had a lesson on the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy and partaking of the sacrament.  As of right now we have a date for the 3 kids for the middle of December.  We are hoping for this day because we have invited them to be baptized so many times, but hopefully now they understand the importance of going to church!

We also got to watch the Christmas video that the church put out as a member showed it to us.  It is AMAZING!!!  I encourage you all to watch it.  It shows how Christ lived His life and how we can do Christ like things today!  Watch it!!

The Dominican Republic is awesome sometimes interesting but awesome.  Cultural fact of the day is that people preach in all sorts of places.  People come onto the bus or the metro and just start to preach.  This morning some guy got on his roof and started preaching through a megaphone. I guess they beat us to it!  I am enjoying my mission!

Spiritual thought is read Alma 34:38.  Just because thanksgiving is over doesn’t mean we shouldn’t give thanks every day!

Love you all, 

Hermana Steed

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving this week.  I will be enjoying my rice, chicken, plantains, and avacado. It is pretty much the same right?

This week went well and of course had its ups and downs, but the work is moving forward.

We had a funny experience with Familia Garcia as they were telling us about this drink that they loved when they went to the U.S. so they gave us some and it turned out to be the powder lemonade that you mix with water!  It was so yummy and refreshing and reminded me of home.  It is funny to me that they loved it so much because they have amazing juices here that are fresh!  Haha it cracked me up!

This week was really hot and did not rain for a long time, which is unusual here, but on Saturday it finally rained and has been feeling so good the last few days.  My companion even put on a cardigan, not me though it feels perfect!

One of the amazing experiences this week was we went contacting and met a women named Lasandra we just introduced her to the gospel and then set up a time to come back a few days later.  We went back and after the lesson she told us this:  The first day you came I was feeling really sad and a lot of things had been going bad, but then you showed up and I saw 2 lights come into my life.  After you left I could not stop smiling and being happy.  I feel so happy when you are here.

Hermana Andersen and I were speechless, what a miracle!  She is so sweet.  She is 18 years old and has a son.  We are teaching here and are excited to see what the Lord has in store.  For a moment I thought I was in a dream, but it is amazing because when we went to contact we thought the street was long, but it was a short dead end, but decided to go down it anyway and see if anyone was home.  She was the last house on the street and I am glad that we kept going!  When we left she said you have to leave already?  She is so cute, my heart is just so happy when we are around her!

Anyway a great week in the mission!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,

Hermana Steed

Cows in the jungle! 

2 months in the mission!

Hello Family and Friends,

Sorry for not writing yesterday, the whole city did not have power for hours so we got permission to write today!  Thank you always for your emails.  I am doing well, this week went by really fast. I cannot believe it has already been 2 months since I left the United States.  Time has gone by quickly.  I hope all is well with everyone and that you are enjoying the beautiful life we have been given.  We are very blessed to live where we do and to have all the opportunities awaiting us.

I am starting to speak more in lessons and can now teach the

first lesson.  Yesterday I started to understand more than ever before, so I am starting to see my progress.  All in due time I will know the language.

I have been drinking more soda here than I have in years so I am trying to get used to that.  People always give us soda, sometimes I cant finish it so I give it to my companion.  There are also a lot of lizards, dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, and roosters roaming around all the time.  I have had a few dogs follow me in the streets, I get worried about rabbis but have learned to calm down.

This week we have been working with Familia Garcia, more specifically their 3 kids.  The parents have been in the U.S. but returned on Sunday so we are hoping to have their baptism in 2 weeks, but all in the Lords timing.  Their grandma just passed away and she was Catholic so they have their traditional 9 day ceremony, I am not sure what it is called, but we are hoping the family comes to church this Sunday and we are just trying to help them through this hard time.  They are an awesome family that have been prepared by the Lord.

We have been contacting a lot recently and we found a woman named Carman. She is 24 and very receptive and smart.  She always reads the pamphlets and the book of mormon inbetween our visits.  We are excited to work with her and to see what is ahead.

We had 3 less actives that we have been working with come to church this past Sunday so we were really excited about that!  The Lord cares about all his sheep, that is really what I have learned in the short 3 weeks I have been here.

Anyways,  all is well here in the Dominican Republic, yesterday we saw 4 Americans on dirt bikes that are going around the country and they happened to all be LDS.  What are the odds of that, so it was fun to talk with some Americans again, it is sort of weird speaking English so much with other people.

Be grateful for all you have and turn to the Lord when life gets hard.  The Lord is always there extending His hand.

Love,

Hermana Steed

Week 2 in the field!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

So not a ton of time today, so I will try to explain investigators quick.

First we have 3 kids, William, Wilfredo, and Wilma.  Their parents just got baptized and we are working to have them baptized in the next couple of weeks.  They are an amazing family, so sweet and ready to follow the gospel.

Anajulia is the girlfriend of the kids uncle.  People dont get married here so that is an issue we always have to address.  She is so cute and always happy.  We had a lesson and she just said I want to be baptized.  So right now we are working on her getting married and finishing the lessons.

View from our back porch

Mabel is amazing.  she has been so prepared to hear the gospel.  She understands the lessons and is reading in the Book of Mormon.  She is so sweet and we are working with her to also get married in the future because she lives with her boyfriend.

We have a couple of other investigators that arent really progressing right now but we will see what happens and I will tell you more later!

We are also working with a less active Karoley.  She is about 20 years old and hasnt been to church in 3 months, but she came yesterday!! Yay!  We are trying to work with less actives and recent converts to keep retention and support for them.

We also stop by a lot of members so that we can ask for references and keep up relationships.  On Sundays we always eat at Rosis house after church.  She is the mom of our ward mission leader. She always makes us a ton of food.  Then on Sundays we usually get another meal at a members house maybe even two.  We eat really well on Sundays I just might explode.  I dont know how I am going to loose weight here on the mission sometimes.  We are treated very well.

So the buses here they just cram us on.  What is usually a 12 passenger van we fit 21 people on. The door on the side is just cut out and wide open, but no one has fallen out yet.  Dont worry we are safe!

Laundry machine

Laundry is interesting here.  they have different machines. We fill up buckets of water and then pour them into the machine with soap.  Then we put our clothes in and it just kind of spins them around.  Then it just sits in the dirty water so pretty gross.  Then we ring them out and put them in this little spinner and it takes the rest of the water out and then we hang them on a clothes line.  Its pretty great!

All is well here in the mission.  The language is hard but it is coming.  Everyone keeps telling me I will learn fast and that for right now my spanish is good.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Love,

Hermana Steed 

Where we live. My desk is in the middle to the right