Hey, everyone, just got back from the beach, super hot, but it was fun. Got a ton of stuff to talk about, sorry for all of you who aren't fans of long emails, I promise you don't wanna miss this one though. With that being said, let's get into this week.
Wednesday:
Transfers happened, left the house super early to San Geronimo (area in between South and capital) to do transfers.
When we got there, we had a short devotional about how important having a good relationship with your comp is. Then they pulled up a wheel with a bunch of our names on it, and when it landed on someone's name, they came up front and they announced where they're going and who their comp is. I was actually the second person to get to go up, which was hype. They called my area, La Colonia, Azua. When I heard I was going to Azua, I was terrified because that's the hottest area in the mission, and it's August, the hottest month of the year.
I met my new comp, Elder Macdonald, and said goodbye to Elder Winkle, wished him luck with the area, and got on the bus to the "land of fire." On the way, he told me a little about the area, its huge, and has a super good branch, tons of super strong members, including a lot of youth. Very different from my area, in all the best ways.
We got back to the Azua Chapel (where we have zone conference, and where we stopped earlier that morning), and then went right around the corner to the house. It's a 6-man house, and definitely not as good as the last one I was in. A lot bigger, but a little messier. In the house was the zone leaders Elder Scott and Elder Walker, and also Elder Bueno and Elder Fernández, who were in my district in Barahona for a bit, good to see him again.
The rest of the day we spent resting at home because Elder Macdonald was sick. Then at 9:00, the power goes out, no water, no light, pitch black, no fans, 90 degrees. Then it starts pouring rain, then smoke starts filling the house because apparently the neighbors like burning their trash sometimes. Great first day.
Thursday:
Today we did weekly planning, and I was able to kinda get to know a lot of the people were teaching and sorted them all in my notes according to where they live and how long we've been teaching them. The area we work is actually split into four areas, La Colonia the main part, north of that is Buenos Aires, south of that is Quisqueya, where all the rich people and their mansions are. Then, a long drive away is two more neighborhood towns, Las Charcas and Estebania. We don't go to those last two very often, as it costs 300 pesos there and back, 600 in total, so we only go every other Sunday.
After learning all that, we start the 30-minute walk to our area, it's a long walk, but I'll get used to it. Besides, we're in the process of getting a house inside of our area that's down the street from the church. We ended up not spending that much time prossing, because it starts storming rain again. Luckily, we're close to the chapel, so we go there to wait out the rain.
As we were pulling up to the chapel, a bunch of kids were playing basketball outside in the rain, and I got to meet some of them, including Rodalfi, the kid getting baptized this Saturday. He has a phone call with the zone leader and does his baptismal interview at the church. I'm pretty excited to meet the rest of the youth.
We go back to the house, and get there at 9, and the power is out again. No light, no water, nothing, second night in a row. I'm starting to think I brought the Barahona rain curse with me.
Friday:
We wake up and the power still hasn't come back. We end up going to the church to do morning studies and to charge our phones, then we have district council, which was fun.
Today ended up being the first full day of work in my new area, and it was good. It rained yet again. Luckily, we were in people's houses most of the time. We had a member come out with us for basically the whole day, Danilo, the secretary, super cool dude, about to serve a mission. We had this one lesson with a guy named Enmanuel, super super cool kid, probably the smartest kid I've taught in my mission so far. I got to teach him the first vision and the lesson overall was great. He was super engaged. I hope I can be here for his baptism.
I also got to meet the kid are baptizing this Saturday, Rodalfi, and his family. That was fun, they're all great people, and a strong family, too. Every lesson I had today got me more and more excited to work more here, but I was also really stressed by the end of the day because of how big the area is and how many people I need to keep on track. Elder Macdonald, I noticed, is an amazing companion though, super funny, super chill, and has really good empathy and respect. He told me I'll be fine, and we'll work hard to get me situated.
Saturday:
Today was fun, we had the baptism of Rodalfi, who's a beast. I had more time today to meet some more of the youth, and they're pretty cool. Later that night, as we were walking back home, me and Elder Macdonald talked about setting goals to help me be more active in regard to getting to know people. I would say personally I've definitely gotten down the teaching part of missionary work and finding new people, or walking up to random people saying, "Hey, we're the missionaries would you like to hear our message?" doesn't really scare me anymore, so that's not hard. The hard part for me is simply talking to people as people. I, as well as Macdonald, feel like that's the next step for my personal progression here on the mission. I'll keep y'all updated on that. I'm truthfully excited to work more with Macdonald, he's very knowledgeable, super friendly, Tongan/Texan pride guy (what's a better mix?).
And Sunday was pretty straightforward. Went to church, met a lot more people- super cool people. There was a moment that I thought was super funny today. We passed by this metal basketball hoop that was connected to a window, and it was DROOPING. It is literally hot enough here that it is melting metal! Absolutely unheard of. Later in the day we took a drive to Las Charcas to teach a member family over there, then took a taxi back home. We actually have "our guy" who is a taxi driver who we call whenever we need a taxi. His name is Yunior (Junior), and he also is a rapper. We listened to some of his songs on the drive to Las Charcas and they're not bad. I'll try to get a good pic with him just so when he gets famous I'll have a pic with a famous guy, ya tu sabes.
Wow, super long and scary email. Hope it was a good read, I try my best. Right now, as I'm typing this, I have hope for the future of working in this area, and a little stress too. This area is filled with a lot of people that are way smarter than my last area, meaning when I teach and work here, I actually have to try. Simply saying, "God loves you" is'nt enough here (not that that's the only thing we were saying in my last area but just as an example). I'll let y'all know when I feel like I've finally settled. Thanks for all the support and love, I'll keep praying for y'all. Hablamos!
I must go -Elder Barlow
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