Food, Food, and more food for Christmas

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas yesterday!  

Not much to report this week.  The missionary work is always a little hard during Christmas time, but we have spent a lot of time with members and their families.

Something fun on our way to the mission home for the Christmas celebration was that as a zone we all sang Christmas Songs in the metro!  It was fun to spread the holiday spirit.  A lot of people just stared at us but others joined in!  

We ate a lot of food this week, probably more than in my entire life!

We had our branch Christmas dinner, then we had our Mission Christmas Lunch, then we had our Christmas Eve dinner, (well 2 because we were invited to 2 houses), and then Christmas Lunch again!

Typical Christmas dinner

I am telling you lots and lots of food here.  Their Christmas is like our Thanksgiving.  But it was nice to be with other families and celebrate this Christmas Season!  It is a beautiful time to reflect on our Savior, Jesus Christ and His life!

Well I will attach a couple of pictures and I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Steed

Christmas Picture

Have a very Merry Christmas

One of my favorite places in Yamasa, pictures do not do it justice

Hello everyone,

First off I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas this Sunday!

Not much has happened this week.  During christmas the missionary work is a little harder because a lot of people are gone and with their families, but we continue to contact and visit our investigators and visit members.

One fun experience this week was we went contacting and a lady gave us what they call naranja dulce.  So orange candy.  Well it was pretty terrible.  It is orange peel that is softened and in this gel thing.  She gave us so much of it, and sadly I had to gag it down.  I guess it is a really popular thing here, I felt bad but I did eat it all because it is nice that people give us stuff but I hope to not have to eat it again.  Haha!

This is a nicer home here, a lot of
people paint their homes bright colors

This past week was my 3 month mark in the mission- CRAZY!!  Time is flying.  Only 15 months left in the mission.  We have a lot of work to do here in Yamasa and continue to work hard!

Thanks for all your love and support!  Have a wonderful Christmas Day!

Love, 

Hermana Steed

A lot of homes here are just left undone, so this is common.

Beginning of Transfer 2

Nothing much to report this week.  But it was the beginning of my second transfer with my new companion Hermana Chamu.  She is from la Estado de Mexico, Mexico.  She is 22 years old and is the only child in her family.  She attended the university for 3 years previous to the mission and is studying law.  She does understand some English she just has a hard time speaking it.  So pretty much we are helping each other out!  It is difficult at times, but we get by!

Hermana Chamu and I

Right now we are trying to find more investigators, so we have been asking for references and contacting quite a bit.  So lots of good things to come.  We did contact someone yesterday that his friend from the capital gave him a Book of Mormon so we are going to start teaching him!

This week we had a stake activity where we sang and watched Church Christmas videos and we also got permission to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  It was really good, well what I could understand anyway!  Haha.

But things are good here and I love the Christmas season, even if I do not have the snow.  The Christmas season is a wonderful time to feel peace and reflect on our Saviors life!  Some of my favorite scriptures on peace are: John 14:26-27 and John 16:33.  I encourage you to read them!

Well I hope you all have a great week and continue to have a wonderful Christmas season!  Love you all!

Best wishes, 

Hermana Steed

This morning when we were about to leave we saw this large spider with her baby sack thing (I do not know what that is called), but anyway my companion had to make it leave with this stick and I ran into the house screaming because it almost came into the house!  I do not like spiders and spiders are large here!  Haha fun times! 

Transfer 1 and December already?

Avocados in the Dominican Republic
are huge and quite tasty!

Well I have completed my first transfer in the mission field.  We found out Saturday night what the transfers were.  I will be staying in Yamasa and my mission mom will be transfered to Hainamosa Campo.  So I will be getting a new companion tomorrow!  Her name is Hermana Chamu and she is from Mexico, and yes you are right, she speaks no English!

I am very nervous and I know that it will be hard the first couple of weeks, but I know I can do it and I know I need it for my spanish to improve.  But I do know that the Lord has confidence in me and I know I can do it with His help, so here we go!  No more english!

This week was great!  The Garcia Family finally came to church so they are starting to progress and the baptism of the kids should be sometime this month, but we are just working with them, but also being patient with the Lords timing.

Recent convert kids, Jorky and Jorkailes

We also had our mission tour with Elder Zivic from the Quorum of the Seventy.  It was really great he talked to us about how we should not just focus on baptisms but also retention, reactivation, and church attendence.  So we are really going to work on that because right now the branch here in Yamasa is struggling with that.
We drank a lot of fruit juice this week.  We keep having people just give us juice and it has been wonderful.  The juices here are amazing, they have so many different fruits here.  One of my favorite juices is chinola.  I have no idea how to explain it so sorry!

So as I have said before there are chickens every where here.  They just wander the streets, and yes people do kill them and eat them, but the other day I saw a guy driving and in one of his hands he was holding a chicken.  I just love these people.  When we go contacting and we talk to people there are always chickens and roosters just wandering into peoples houses.  It is really fun!

Family of Lesandra and Yorddan

Anyway a great week in the mission!  I hope you are all enjoying the snow and the Christmas season!  I am here enjoying the sun and rain and wonderful extreme humidity!  I wish you all the best!

Love,
Hermana Steed