Dear Family,
Wow, it sounds like you had a crazy week! Very eventful, and kind of the complete opposite of my last week. I mean it was good and we worked super hard - but there were no baptisms and we are mainly just working on getting new investigators, so I don't really have anyone to talk about right now. We were teaching a couple. The uncle of Marin (the American member), but it turns out that he has been cheating on his future wife and so they might separate now. Also, we passed by last night and they were drunk, so it looks like we are gonna have to start searching for another family or two. That was kind of a bummer, but oh well . . . I figure we will give them another chance and see if they can change.
Pretty much the only really exciting thing that happened this week that I could think of when I was pondering on what to write is that I made tortillas! I called my old companion Elder Vargas and asked him for the recipe he used to use and I decided to try it myself. It actually ended up being surprisingly easy and I think I will keep making them often to try and perfect them. This time they turned out a little more like gordita bread from Taco Bell than tortillas - but it is a work in progress! I have just been having a desire to cook lately, which is kind of cool I guess. I always end up changing the recipes to how I like them though, so I guess most of the time I'm not cooking legit Dominican food. Don't worry though - I'll show you the legit Dominican stuff when I get home - pretty much just rice and beans!
I wrote my letter for Jeff Despain already, but the mission changed the mail policy so we only get mail 2 times a transfer, and we can only send it out twice as well.
So I read about the opening of the temple in the Gila Valley in the Liahona (June issue). Don't ask me how I got that already, because we still don't have the conference magazine yet. I am glad you guys got to see the dedication. It is also cool that the kids got to visit the Gilbert site too. We only get to go to the temple every three transfers, which works out to about every 5 months. A looooooooooong time. I got used to going every week at home and also in the MTC and now we barely ever get to go! You guys better be able to take advantage of that as much as possible!
Well, like I said, it was a pretty uneventful week. So sorry, but that's how it is. I hope that finals and the end of school all goes well!
Love, Elder McBride
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Rappers, Baptisms & Elections
Hey Everyone,
So this week has been pretty good. Nothing too out of the ordinary because I stayed in the same area with the same companion, but that was expected.
This week was the baptism of Alexis and Ramone - two more cousins of Marin - the awesome American member. He just hands us baptisms like it's nothing, and he helps them all progress and stay strong too - so he is just awesome! Alexis is 17 and a rapper. He actually writes some pretty cool stuff! Right now he is currently writing a rap about the church and his baptism and it's gonna be sweet cuz he is getting a DJ and all the hook-ups to make it awesome! We are going to record it on a CD and then give it to President Antivillo so he can put it on at a zone conference sometime ha ha! Last zone conference was some recent convert singing with his guitar - but Alexis is gonna totally put him to shame :) Alexis also has a little brother named Ramone. He is my favorite kid ever! He is 14 and tries to be just like his brother, but it is funny because his voice is still high and he's tiny, not to mention his cheeks are so big that everyone calls him chipmunk for his nickname (all Dominican's have nicknames). Anyways, their baptism story was pretty exciting and it goes a little something like this: Their baptismal date was set for the 15th of May around a month ago and everything had been looking super good. These kids were ready. We had planned that Marin would baptize Ramone and that Elder Campbell would baptize Alexis and it would all go over well. We were waiting to meet up with them at the video game center in between our houses, but after about 30 minutes of waiting they still weren't there. President Antivillo then called us and asked if it was all right if he showed up to the baptism and we were already starting to panic because they weren't there. But, of course we had to say yes, so that added a whole load to the pressure. We finally hitched a ride to their home on the back of a motorcycle to see what was going on . . . and there they were just sitting there eating rice and beans and saying, "What? We can't get baptized on an empty stomach - don't be crazy!" We took away their food and made them go get ready, but we were already running pretty late, so we found some old junker of a truck and asked the guy who owned it to take us over to the chapel in the neighboring town for a few hundred pesos. So, we all hopped in and this guy drove like a loco to get us there on time, and we were only late by 2 minutes! After all that, President Antivillo ending up not coming :) But, the baptism went really well and was awesome. Now they are baptized and confirmed members of the church and staying strong!
Yesterday was the "day of elections" and it seems to me that the people here look for any excuse possible to drink - including voting day . . . weird right? Well, it turns out that it is not a good day at all to get drunk on, because when a drunk man's politician loses, he gets really angry and there are riots, fights, shootings, and the whole shebang! Every member the whole day was telling us to go hide in our house all day - so with all of that advice, we decided to get to the fort before dark - but ya, it was a pretty exciting day! They even cancelled church in our stake until the area authorities came and fixed things, so we had sacrament meeting and that's all. I was a little upset with that. Elections should not change the ways of the Lord, but whatever, at least we had the sacrament I guess.
So today was the day when the whole mission gets together to play sports, which was great fun! Afterwards we went to the mall and I got Taco Bell again :))) soooooo good (it is nice being a little near the big city). But, I still don't understand why they put french fries in the combo meals here . . . but al in all, this is gonna be a good transfer, and we definitely got started on the right foot I think!
Mom, could you send me various cookie recipes please? I have rekindled my desired to bake! If you could get me Jenn's chocolate chip, our snickerdoodle and an oatmeal raisin recipe - that would be amazing. Have a good week!
Love, Elder McBride
So this week has been pretty good. Nothing too out of the ordinary because I stayed in the same area with the same companion, but that was expected.
This week was the baptism of Alexis and Ramone - two more cousins of Marin - the awesome American member. He just hands us baptisms like it's nothing, and he helps them all progress and stay strong too - so he is just awesome! Alexis is 17 and a rapper. He actually writes some pretty cool stuff! Right now he is currently writing a rap about the church and his baptism and it's gonna be sweet cuz he is getting a DJ and all the hook-ups to make it awesome! We are going to record it on a CD and then give it to President Antivillo so he can put it on at a zone conference sometime ha ha! Last zone conference was some recent convert singing with his guitar - but Alexis is gonna totally put him to shame :) Alexis also has a little brother named Ramone. He is my favorite kid ever! He is 14 and tries to be just like his brother, but it is funny because his voice is still high and he's tiny, not to mention his cheeks are so big that everyone calls him chipmunk for his nickname (all Dominican's have nicknames). Anyways, their baptism story was pretty exciting and it goes a little something like this: Their baptismal date was set for the 15th of May around a month ago and everything had been looking super good. These kids were ready. We had planned that Marin would baptize Ramone and that Elder Campbell would baptize Alexis and it would all go over well. We were waiting to meet up with them at the video game center in between our houses, but after about 30 minutes of waiting they still weren't there. President Antivillo then called us and asked if it was all right if he showed up to the baptism and we were already starting to panic because they weren't there. But, of course we had to say yes, so that added a whole load to the pressure. We finally hitched a ride to their home on the back of a motorcycle to see what was going on . . . and there they were just sitting there eating rice and beans and saying, "What? We can't get baptized on an empty stomach - don't be crazy!" We took away their food and made them go get ready, but we were already running pretty late, so we found some old junker of a truck and asked the guy who owned it to take us over to the chapel in the neighboring town for a few hundred pesos. So, we all hopped in and this guy drove like a loco to get us there on time, and we were only late by 2 minutes! After all that, President Antivillo ending up not coming :) But, the baptism went really well and was awesome. Now they are baptized and confirmed members of the church and staying strong!
Yesterday was the "day of elections" and it seems to me that the people here look for any excuse possible to drink - including voting day . . . weird right? Well, it turns out that it is not a good day at all to get drunk on, because when a drunk man's politician loses, he gets really angry and there are riots, fights, shootings, and the whole shebang! Every member the whole day was telling us to go hide in our house all day - so with all of that advice, we decided to get to the fort before dark - but ya, it was a pretty exciting day! They even cancelled church in our stake until the area authorities came and fixed things, so we had sacrament meeting and that's all. I was a little upset with that. Elections should not change the ways of the Lord, but whatever, at least we had the sacrament I guess.
So today was the day when the whole mission gets together to play sports, which was great fun! Afterwards we went to the mall and I got Taco Bell again :))) soooooo good (it is nice being a little near the big city). But, I still don't understand why they put french fries in the combo meals here . . . but al in all, this is gonna be a good transfer, and we definitely got started on the right foot I think!
Mom, could you send me various cookie recipes please? I have rekindled my desired to bake! If you could get me Jenn's chocolate chip, our snickerdoodle and an oatmeal raisin recipe - that would be amazing. Have a good week!
Love, Elder McBride
Another New Transfer . . .
Hello!
So, while I was talking to the family for Mother's Day - our transfer calls came in. I am staying here in the small beach town of Valiente again this transfer with my companion Elder Campbell! I am pretty pumped because we have been able to see a lot of success so far, and we already have a ton of good investigators progressing toward baptism. So, we should see a lot more success this transfer. Sorry that lately I haven't really been giving much detail on the people I have been teaching and how they are coming along and stuff. I will try to do a better job. The way things work here though is that basically everyone in the country will sit down ant talk with you. The hard part is finding the chosen ones who have been prepared and are ready to progress to baptisms. There is a big weeding process we do teaching everyone a few lessons to give them a chance, and then dropping them if they are not keeping their commitments. That is why sometimes I don't write too much detail about people - because who know if I will be teaching them next week? But I will make sure I make the letters a little more personal.
So today my companion and I got to go to the house of President Antivillo )the mission president) to eat lunch at his house for completing the mission goal of 6 baptisms a transfer. I guess there is a Papa Johns Pizza somewhere on the west side of Santo Domingo - so they got it for us and it was sooooooooo good! I never thought I would enjoy pizza so much in my life! - or air conditioning . . . ! :)
Since I got to talk to you yesterday I am going to keep this short so I can send some pictures. Have a good week everyone!
Love, Elder McBride
So, while I was talking to the family for Mother's Day - our transfer calls came in. I am staying here in the small beach town of Valiente again this transfer with my companion Elder Campbell! I am pretty pumped because we have been able to see a lot of success so far, and we already have a ton of good investigators progressing toward baptism. So, we should see a lot more success this transfer. Sorry that lately I haven't really been giving much detail on the people I have been teaching and how they are coming along and stuff. I will try to do a better job. The way things work here though is that basically everyone in the country will sit down ant talk with you. The hard part is finding the chosen ones who have been prepared and are ready to progress to baptisms. There is a big weeding process we do teaching everyone a few lessons to give them a chance, and then dropping them if they are not keeping their commitments. That is why sometimes I don't write too much detail about people - because who know if I will be teaching them next week? But I will make sure I make the letters a little more personal.
So today my companion and I got to go to the house of President Antivillo )the mission president) to eat lunch at his house for completing the mission goal of 6 baptisms a transfer. I guess there is a Papa Johns Pizza somewhere on the west side of Santo Domingo - so they got it for us and it was sooooooooo good! I never thought I would enjoy pizza so much in my life! - or air conditioning . . . ! :)
Since I got to talk to you yesterday I am going to keep this short so I can send some pictures. Have a good week everyone!
Love, Elder McBride
A huge live tarantula almost as big as my tag!
Yonathan and Marin (I don't know what he is doing with his hand!
Christian and his Mom (Christian is a waaay legit kid we baptized. He is already working on Duty to God, passing the sacrament, and he told us he wants to go out with us everyday - haha)
A huge rat on a machete that was at an investigators house
Monday, May 3, 2010
Happy May!
Hey Mom, Family & Friends!
It has been a great week - thanks for asking! We got 3 more interviews done so they can all get baptized this Saturday. Two of them are little girls named Gigi and Lauris. Yes, I know what you're thinking . . . why is Taylor baptizing little girls? Well, the thing is that 3 months ago, a few girls that had been going to church told Elder Campbell that they wanted to get baptized. He said ok as long as they go to church for 3 months in a row. Well, they have gone without fail for 3 months, and yeah, they are getting baptized now! The other baptism is Mertha, the Mom of Marin the American I told you about. She is actually Dominican, but has lived in the States for the past 30 years - so she speaks English just like a New Yorker. She is kind of our star. She knows soooo much about the Bible - enough to where there are things that we teach her - for example the 3 kingsdoms of glory - and she tells us that she already knows it and cites the scripture we were about to use to back it up! I am way pumped to see her get baptized!
You asked me about homesickness . . . it honestly has never hit me. I hope you aren't sad to hear that, because I honestly do miss you all. :) But, I am too confident of my purpose out here to ever get discouraged and want to go home or wish I was there or anything. Yeah, I miss stuff, but I would never call it homesickness.
Yes, I have contacted numberless amounts of people by knocking on doors on my mission. The thing is, I have only found legit investigators only ONE time after the hundreds of doors that I have knocked. So, if we don't seem to have anything to teach to investigators - most of the time we go to the houses of members and squeeze references out of them. We try to do our work as missionaries and TEACH, while the members do their work and FIND. That's the optimum situation at least. But knocking on doors can't always be avoided. Sometimes we have to just show the faith and do it.
You said that DR bikini girls are trying to be my Facebook friends! I honestly have no idea of who these girls may be . . . I haven't told anyone to add me or anything, so I don't know if they are members or just random girls or what. The Honda Accord DIED!!!! Dang it - I thought that baby was gonna run to the second coming! So are you gonna buy a junker for the teenagers now, or will you just have them mooch off of friends . . . :)
I can't wait for Mother's Day! I want to talk to everyone! What I would like to do is talk to each family member for a few minutes and then a free-for-all for as long as you guys want afterwards. I feel like last time I didn't really get to talk to everyone. That would be my perfect situation, so yeah, I will call between 6 pm and 7pm my time which would be 3pm to 4pm your time.
Woohoo! Jacob is going to Brazil! That is where his brother went if I'm not mistaken . . . well, maybe not that same mission - but Brazil. That is cool though. I can talk with him and Jordan when they get back, so that I can pick up Portugese and go to Mozambique for Care for Life! That's the plan at least. I really want to learn another language after Spanish. Portuguese and French preferably - then I would conquer all of North and South America, the Promised land! I already wrote down a whole list of tips to give to Jeff DeSpain, but I need to put them into letter form. The problem is that I am basically out of stamps now. I have 2 more. So, if you could send me a whole bunch that would be awesome. I can't buy stamps in this country.
Well, that is about all for now, but have a wonderful week and I will call on Sunday!!!
Love, Elder McBride
It has been a great week - thanks for asking! We got 3 more interviews done so they can all get baptized this Saturday. Two of them are little girls named Gigi and Lauris. Yes, I know what you're thinking . . . why is Taylor baptizing little girls? Well, the thing is that 3 months ago, a few girls that had been going to church told Elder Campbell that they wanted to get baptized. He said ok as long as they go to church for 3 months in a row. Well, they have gone without fail for 3 months, and yeah, they are getting baptized now! The other baptism is Mertha, the Mom of Marin the American I told you about. She is actually Dominican, but has lived in the States for the past 30 years - so she speaks English just like a New Yorker. She is kind of our star. She knows soooo much about the Bible - enough to where there are things that we teach her - for example the 3 kingsdoms of glory - and she tells us that she already knows it and cites the scripture we were about to use to back it up! I am way pumped to see her get baptized!
You asked me about homesickness . . . it honestly has never hit me. I hope you aren't sad to hear that, because I honestly do miss you all. :) But, I am too confident of my purpose out here to ever get discouraged and want to go home or wish I was there or anything. Yeah, I miss stuff, but I would never call it homesickness.
Yes, I have contacted numberless amounts of people by knocking on doors on my mission. The thing is, I have only found legit investigators only ONE time after the hundreds of doors that I have knocked. So, if we don't seem to have anything to teach to investigators - most of the time we go to the houses of members and squeeze references out of them. We try to do our work as missionaries and TEACH, while the members do their work and FIND. That's the optimum situation at least. But knocking on doors can't always be avoided. Sometimes we have to just show the faith and do it.
You said that DR bikini girls are trying to be my Facebook friends! I honestly have no idea of who these girls may be . . . I haven't told anyone to add me or anything, so I don't know if they are members or just random girls or what. The Honda Accord DIED!!!! Dang it - I thought that baby was gonna run to the second coming! So are you gonna buy a junker for the teenagers now, or will you just have them mooch off of friends . . . :)
I can't wait for Mother's Day! I want to talk to everyone! What I would like to do is talk to each family member for a few minutes and then a free-for-all for as long as you guys want afterwards. I feel like last time I didn't really get to talk to everyone. That would be my perfect situation, so yeah, I will call between 6 pm and 7pm my time which would be 3pm to 4pm your time.
Woohoo! Jacob is going to Brazil! That is where his brother went if I'm not mistaken . . . well, maybe not that same mission - but Brazil. That is cool though. I can talk with him and Jordan when they get back, so that I can pick up Portugese and go to Mozambique for Care for Life! That's the plan at least. I really want to learn another language after Spanish. Portuguese and French preferably - then I would conquer all of North and South America, the Promised land! I already wrote down a whole list of tips to give to Jeff DeSpain, but I need to put them into letter form. The problem is that I am basically out of stamps now. I have 2 more. So, if you could send me a whole bunch that would be awesome. I can't buy stamps in this country.
Well, that is about all for now, but have a wonderful week and I will call on Sunday!!!
Love, Elder McBride
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