FINALLY!

So I have been going absolutely crazy this last week - knowing that Taylor was feeling really sick right when he got to the Dominican Republic. I have checked my e-mail way too many times a day every day (thinking that maybe TODAY was his P-Day and I would get an e-mail from him). I had just about given up and started thinking that maybe he was gonna have to write regular letters in the DR MTC - when, late this afternoon I got the e-mail! Woohoo - now I can rest easy knowing he is okay and happy! I know . . . I'm being a silly mom - I just can't help it though. :)

Hello From the DR! So I'm here! I'll just start with a play-by-play arrival:

I went to bed at 1:00 on Wednesday night, and got up at 2:00 and I wasn’t feeling very well. Wonder why? Anyways, made it to the airport, slept for two hours on the plane to Dallas. Then there was a two hour plane ride to Florida where I sat by a nice old lady from Peru and her Niña who was going to live with her for six weeks. It was really my first time ever speaking to someone who only spoke Spanish, which was pretty fun. We talked for about 20 minutes about church and stuff and then I crashed...talk about missionary work eh? Haha just kidding!

Anyways then a two-hour flight to the DR where I sat by a man named Raque (sp?) who was playing for the Diamondbacks this past season and I swore I've seen him before! We talked for quite a while about church and stuff and he thinks I'm completely insane for leaving my family for two years and living in another country haha but he was cool! He said he wanted to give me free seats to some of his games here and gave me his number and stuff, but I said I don’t think I'll be able to go to any games, but maybe I could come by sometime and share a message when I'm good at Spanish - so he said ok! I have his number, and when I get out of here I'll see if he is in my mission.

So, we got off the plane and these 4 Dominican guys came and grabbed ALL of our suitcases. That’s right - all. There were probably around 60 suitcases total and we were kinda freakin’ out a little. But, they said to follow them so we did and pretty much walked straight out of the airport and they loaded all out stuff onto this sketchy rickety old bus. Coolest bus ride of my life hands down! It was such a new experience and being able to watch the city go by was really cool.

Me and Elder Clayton on the bus

So we get to the MTC, and no one’s here....so I wander around and go up stairs and bumped into the MTC President! He's a way nice guy. So he and his wife took us downstairs and fed us and stuff. I went to bed feeling terrible and woke up and decided to just tough it out. I took my temperature the next day after I got to send that short email home and it was in the 103's. No fun. So I popped some Advil and kept going. I've learned that there is no time to get behind because you can't get caught back up. End of intro.

So we got new Compañero's here! Fun stuff. My new companion’s name is Elder Rich. es de Park City, Utah. He's genuinely a nice guy and trying to be a good missionary. I like him.

Language: So, somehow I got put in a class of geniuses... I think it came from a teacher recommendation, but most of my new District was in the Intermediate Spanish in Provo except for the three of us, who were just good for our class. Spanish all the sudden got soooo hard. It's intimidating with pretty much everyone better than me, and my teacher Hermana Parra doesn’t remember to speak slow sometimes and Holy Cow!!! I've heard some Castallano before, but this almost puts what I've heard to shame! They go sooooo fast. AND they only finish about 30 percent of their words. They drop off all of the "s" in words and sheesh. That’s all. But the teachers are all fun and good. If anything, they seem like they're having fun when they speak if that makes sense. Oh, and when any of the teachers get any good at English, they kind of talk like Jamaican's. It's pretty funny - Jamaican with a Spanish accent. The language can be really frustrating just not knowing as many words as anyone else, but when I teach lessons (yes, I do that in Spanish now) my mouth is totally filled every time. I started spewing out words that I'm not even sure exist, but apparently they do!

So, I had my first experience contacting! Yes, I left the confines of these walls! Oh yeah, we're basically like 50 yards from the temple and can see it from a window in our room which is pretty cool. ANYWAYS, we went to the Univeridad. yes THE univeridad. the only college in the country so, there's about 120,000 students - needless to say a big place. About 10 by 6 city blocks. So it went surprisingly well! Our very first contact was a member though haha, He just got back from Institute. But, I handed out about 6 pamphlets on the 1st lesson, and hopefully a few were generally interested. I had to do most of the talking, but it's all good. It really feels like I was just tossed to the sharks sometimes. Only the other Elders speak English and all the lessons, assignments, all that you say is in Spanish - so it can get pretty tough. But anyways, contacting was pretty fun. Oh! and this girl was calling out “Elder” so I went over there and she kept calling me beautiful and moving closer, so I just kind of left. Haha it was pretty weird, but I'm ok - still here anyways haha!

The food is food - and that’s about it. Beans, rice with beef and chicken everyday for lunch (the biggest meal of the day) and just something boring for dinner. A lot of bread - but it's natural at least! That's a plus right?

Anyways, it has been really nice to get a change, and I really like it here. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining too much. I hope Joey and Travis are getting ready. You don't realize how good it is for you until you get out here. It's absolutely amazing seeing the Lord's hand from the front row. I wrote that letter for the Priest Quorum and it will be sent tomorrow. I love it here and I love all of you too!

Elder McBride

Ps - my new pouch mail address is:

Elder Taylor McBride

Dominican Republic MTC

P.O. Box 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

If you do this on dearelder before noon on Thursday (it sends from Salt Lake the next Tuesday) then it will be sent in the pouch and you don't have to worry about all the regulations and such. Dearelder does it for you.

Pss - If you could update that on Facebook Sis, that would be much appreciated. Gracias