Another Week Gone By

Hey Family!
     
The party sounded awesome!  I especially liked the pictures of all you guys!  I also miss the family food.  We have some good cooks - not gonna lie.  So Matt told me that Jared Bishop is engaged and that Donelle Porter is already married!!!  If either of you are out there reading this, write me real quick!  Dear Elder is quick and easy as you both already know.  Weird . . .
     
Anyways, my new companion is really cool.  We are getting along very well, and have a lot in common.  More than my other companions at least.  His name is Elder Sloan, from North Carolina.  He has a little over a year in the mission, so it's cool having someone a "little" closer to me in mission time.  I hit 5 months tomorrow!  This transfer I should hit 6 months too I think.  Wow, time flies.
     
So I thought we were drying up a little with investigators - but we have 8 people and 2 in-actives we have been working with - so all is going great!  Not quite sure if we will be able to hit the 6 baptism mark, but we will try.  No, I didn't see any of my mission friends at the President's house again.  Only about 6 companionships were there.  I do feel a little isolated up here, but I know that I will miss this place when I leave.  The Capitol is so hot and loud and smells terrible.  So Travis is gone now I'm assuming?  I hope he has a good time at the MTC.  That place was awesome.  I could have stayed there forever!
     
So, I don't have too much exciting stuff going on as of right now.  We taught a lesson in a house shared by two families last night and one of the other people in the tiny house was beating her little son.  It was really hard to teach . . . made me appreciate my family a little bit more.  Heck, made me appreciate my country!  They don't have laws against that kind of stuff here - not that they should have to . . .
     
So sorry about this letter.  I kind of feel like I'm just rambling on.  I should have pre-mediated this a little bit better.  I'm fighting through the new "missionary mindset" people tend to have about me because when I first came here, I couldn't speak that well.  Now I pretty much don't have any problems with the language . . . except for an occasional subjunctive mistake - but not bad.  Ya, I'm sorry about the lameness of this letter.  I really don't have much to say for some reason.  I'll make sure that I write a super good one next week.  I love you all - have a good week and I'll talk to you soon!


Love, Elder McBride

Testimony from a Handwritten Letter

     I testify that Elder Bednar is an Apostle and true disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I am as sure of that as the sun will rise.  Since I have been in the Dominican Republic, I have been spoken to by the apostles Elder Bednar and Elder Ballard, - and the Seventies Elder Costa, Elder Vinas, Elder Hinckley, and Elder Anderson.  I want more than anything to emulate the goodness  of these men.  They are men of God - of that I'm sure.  I know that this church is true.  I know it now.  There is not one doubt in my mind.  I know our Savior knows and loves us.  I know our family will be together forever and I now realize how blessed I am to have a family like ours.  I love you all!

Love, Elder McBride

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi Everybody!
  
Wow, it sounds like you had a really busy week mom!  Glad you had fun having a bunch of crazy college kids at your house this weekend.  I'm glad you and Ryan liked your birthday letters.  I figured it was the least I could do for birthdays, since I can't do much.  So, I found out that for every package I receive, they take the cost for shipping from Florida to here out of my mission fund account.  So that's why I've been kind of low on money.  I didn't get your package in time for Valentine's Day.  Hopefully I'll get it next week though.  I think it usually takes 3 to 4 weeks for a package to get to me.
  
So I'm just gonna get down to business really quick here.  Last night was the night that we receive calls for transfers!  It's always really exciting - puts some spice into the week.  Anyways - I'm staying here in Monte Plata again . . . I'm not gonna lie, I was really hoping to get out for reasons I will now explain.

1)  After more than three months here, only two people in the town call me by my name.  Everyone has trouble saying McBride - so now, they just gave up and I fell like it makes a barrier between me and the members.

2)  Monte Plata is a really small place.  I'm getting a little claustrophobic.  When this transfer is done, I will have spent 25 percent of my mission here.

3)  Sometimes I feel like the area is dying around me and there is nothing I can do about it.  I'm working m hardest, but our numbers are falling fast.  I'm hoping for three baptisms this transfer instead of 10.

4)  There are MAJOR problems with the branch here.  It is barely functioning.
  
But, I will perservere hasta el fin.  In my mind I thought it was time for a transfer, but obviously the Lord didn't feel the same.  So, It's time to re-sync my will with the Lord's and get working again.  My new companion is named Elder Sloan.  The only thing I know about his is that he is American and some gangsters gave him a concussion and stole all his stuff a few transfers ago because he resisted.  Elder Vargas is going to be a Zone Leader in capitol with my trainer!  That was kind of weird to find out.  Transfers officially are on Tuesday, so I will write more about my new companion next week.
  
Yesterday I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting here.  The branch president wouldn't give me a topic, so I spoke about patience.  The people here get angry really fast for dumb reasons sometimes, so I figured it would be a good topic.  Seemed to go well . . .
  
So today, I'm going to the President's house again for lunch!  I'm pretty pumped for that.  Sister Antivillo is a pretty good cook.  Plus their house is a super nice penthouse downtown with air conditioning!  Yes - for all you who ask.  It is ridiculously hot and sweaty here . . . always.
  
So I would talk about my investigators now, but we are a little lacking on those right now.  OH! But I found out that Julio (the old guy I baptized) was not 65, but actually 78!  Ya, pretty nuts - he's old enough to be my grandpa!
  
Oh, shout out to Gilbert 3rd Ward!  I received my Christmas package yesterday - and yes, that hot sauce is my favorite!  Good job Alex, I've used it on everything I've eaten since.  So that's all for now.  Wish me luck starting anew here in Monte Plata!


Love, Elder McBride

The bedroom

The bathroom

Kitchen

Our dryer :)

Hello

Dear Family,

    
First of all I need to explain about the e-mail situation.  The computers are ancient, and the internet is slower than dial up.  It usually takes about 5 minutes to load up the starting page, another five to get to my e-mail account, another five to log in, more than five to read my e-mails.  If I split up and send a little at a time like you suggested, then I would be able to write about half of what I do every week - and considering that the power has failed only twice so far while I am writing, it is worth it to me to write as much as I can when I can.   So I am sorry about 2 weeks ago when you didn't hear from me.  I had written a long letter.  Tell Aunt Sussie I had a big long schpeel about how good her carmellos were and tell her thanks for the package for me.  I think I also talked about President Greer and talked about Aunt Oleta passing away.  Since I don't have much time mom, I sent a letter yesterday - more details about the Elder Bednar conference we had.
  
 ENTONCES!  The week has been really good.  Elder Vargas and I are pretty frito (out of money).  He has 0 pesos left, and I am really low too.  I already reimbursed myself for the marriage, so I'm not planning on taking more money out of the account til next transfer because I don't want to go through the whole mission relying on you guys to feed me money when the mission president gives us as much as he thinks we need.  Plus, it's kind of exciting!  I bought a bag of chips this week and found 100 pesos in it as a promotion and we went nuts!  It was definitely a blessing.  I know you might not agree with my stance on this one parents, but I promise you if we are starving then I'll draw money out.
    
So this week we had 4 baptisms!  Julio, Magali and their son Morro (Jose Manuel is his real name) and a daughter of a member named Xiomara.  The baptisms were good - always stressful, but it feels so good when they go to Sunday the day after and get confirmed.  Like a sigh of relief.  Oh haha, so at Xiomara's baptism on Wednesday, everything was set and ready to go, but the president wasn't showing up so I called him (Elder Vargas was on transfers, so I was the senior companion) and he said he couldn't come because his stomach hurt . . . so, I had to try to find a member of the branch presidency to show up so she could be baptized and no one would answer.  I was stressin' out big time, needless to say, and I was starting to feel like I was getting sick (foreshadowing)after like a half hour of searching, I got a hold of the second counselor Charliemon, and he came.  The baptism ended up turning out all right, no worries, but I go home, planned, and then puked my guts out.  I felt a lot better after.  I'm still not quite sure if it was something I ate, or just the day, but in the end, I probably need to learn how to handle the stress of a mission a little better - (not throwing it up).

Sorry it's kind of dark.  Julio, Magalli and their son Morro (Jose Manuel)

Xiomara and her mom Christina

Mom, I'm glad to hear your birthday was good!  Did you not get your birthday letter yet?  Sorry it's late, but it is coming.  I sent it like a week and a half ago.  One for Fonzie too, and I sent one for Emily yesterday, but I sent it to BYU, so she won't get it until after because she'll be at home.  That's crazy about Callen getting engaged!  He'll be sort of family - that's awesome!  I write Greg through mail, so it takes awhile and I haven't heard from Matt for a while.  Sometimes we forward our family e-mails to each other.

The main room of the house.  I'll send house pics through the weeks

I love you and miss you!

Elder McBride

I'm Still Here!

Dear Family and Friends,

     Sorry to hear that the last e-mail didn't go through.  I wrote a huge long e-mail, then the power went off, so then I wrote a few sentences, but I was in a bad mood because my whole e-mail was erased - so in the end, I'm glad in a way it didn't get sent, because it didn't have a lot of information, but it did have a lot of attitude . . . I feel kind of bad for it now.

     So, now to summarize two weeks!  I have enough trouble doing just one!  So last week Elder Bednar came and talked with all the missionaries which was an amazing experience!  He was such an amazing speaker - so filled with the Spirit that, like Nephi in (3 Nephi) - we couldn't not believe his words.  At the end, we all got to shake his and his wife's hands (oh, and Elder Costa of the Presidency of the 70 was here too) and look into their eyes.  Just that was enough to tell me he was a man of God.  An apostle and special witness of Jesus Christ.  He specifically told us to not let our mom's put the stuff that he taught on blogs, so sorry mom.

Me and Elder Vargas lookin' good before Elder Bednar conference!

     Also, yesterday, we had District conference.  President and Hermana Antivillo cam down and spoke to us along with his two mission counselors.  The other 4 towns in our district/zone (we are not enough districts to really be a zone) came and it was awesome!  We had over 100 people there, and us in Monte Plata had 9 investigators and the President's talk was awesome!  It really felt like that's how a church meeting should be.  Also, we had interviews with the president on Thursday.  He is such an awesome guy - I wish you could meet him Mom and Dad.  I'm really lucky to have him as my mission president.  On Sunday, Hermana Antivillo came up to me and told me that President had his eye on me - so keep being obedient and stay away from girls haha.  

     This week we should have 5 baptisms!  We are finishing off a part-member family and oh! last week we married a couple!  Totally forgot that!  It was awesome!  I was one of the witnesses and some lawyer lady married them after weeks of paying the government to find their birth certificates.  They are dirt poor, so I paid for all they couldn't (that's why I've been drawing a bunch of money out of my home account, thanks :) and don't worry, that's not breaking the rules - I checked.  After the wedding, me and Elder Vargas took them to a restaurant in town and we all bought cake - because what is a wedding without cake right!  I took some cheesy wedding photos of them to make proud my American heritage and we printed some off in the capital to give to them to remember the day! 

The couple and one kid should be baptized this Saturday as well.  Oh, I think you asked about Sonia last week mom.  She is all right and she found her two kids over in Haiti and brought them back!  They don't speak Spanish, but I know a little Creole and they love it when we go over!

     So the mission is going great!  It is really filled with a lot more ups and downs than I expected it to be.  It can be really hard and at times depressing.  But . . . it is all sooo worth it.  I know this church is true with all my heart.

Love to you all,

Elder McBride