Another three weeks down here in the Dominican Republic. It's been good, we've been working really hard and making some progress.
11/28-12/4- had my birthday on Tuesday, which was a good day. We had a lot of good lessons and finished the day with a nice ice cream cake from Bon. Other than that, it was a pretty normal week with lots of finding and teaching as usual. It's crazy that it's already December. I'm really really close to hitting a year, although it doesn't feel like that at all. It feels more like it's only been 4-5 months or so.
12/5-12/11- this week was really interesting. We spent a bit of time exploring a piece of the area we call "Popi Jungle", or rich jungle, because popi means rich here for some reason. We didn't get a ton of success because the people in that area aren't extremely receptive. On Wednesday, we were coming back from Popi Jungle when this random dude drove by and said, "Hey, Elders, need a ride?" Super random but the guy looked and sounded really American and called us Elders, so I got in. I found out that this guy had been living here for the past couple years because he works at the US embassy near our area. He's, also, a member of the church and a Bishop of one of the wards here. Super cool, but I didn't get to know him or his family too well because the drive was really short. Luckily, we ended up spending p-day later that week at his house, which was complete with a second floor, air conditioning, and hot water. I was stoked to be in an American-like house again. This week, we also had Zone Conference, and it was all Christmas themed, so we had a fun musical-chairs-like activity where everyone ended up with a random gift another missionary bought. I got the best gift of all--an electric fly swatter.
12/12-12/18- this week was fun. It was Elder Orellana's last week here, and Elder Oberg's first couple of days in the country. That's right, I'm a father now. Elder Oberg is from Utah, or as the Dominicans call it, "the factory of the missionaries." He doesn't know any Spanish really at all yet and is still getting to know the lessons and missionary life in general, so I'm doing my best to keep the work progressing on my own while he catches up, like I did when I was trained. This dude is freakishly tall, by the way, at 6'8. We sure do get a lot of looks in the streets, and I feel super short for the first time in my life.
I'm excited to get to know him more, and also to learn a lot as I continue with this position I'm in. Training is exciting, stressful, and super tiring. These last couple of days I've been thanking the heavens every time I make it through another day, then wonder how I'll ever make it through the next. I'm sure I'll get used to it though, but some prayers to help us continue to progress the work here would be nice.
That's about it for now. Thank you all for your support and prayers, and I'll talk to you again soon!
I must go -Elder Barlow
