First I will tackle the questions and comments: 1)That is coolio that Sister Despain read my blog about seeing Jeff. I bet he is gettin' super pumped to come out into the field next week! 2) We were only in Santo Domingo for one day. We took a bus and headed straight back. I saw Sister Antivilo this Sunday at stake conference and it was good to see her. 3) No, no apostles have come lately. 4) I stayed the night with the zone leaders. One is from Managua, Nicaragua - which is where Trevor is going, right? 5) The president of my branch that is so sick is President Rafael Rodriguez and he has been president since a year ago when the branch opened. 6) No, I can't have a bike since my area is so big. Bikes here get stolen or broken too easily so there aren't any in the entire mission. 7) You should tell Cassie to send me one of her wedding invitations! Tell her and Jeremy hi for me and congratulations :)
So this past week was quite the week. We were super busy the entire time, but hardly got any proselyting done at all! It turns out that the old secretary of the branch was paying the power bills with undeposited tithing money, so I had to work with the stake to fix all of that up. The electricity in the house went out - so I have had to try to get someone to fix that and it still isn't finished. I had to find transportation for the members to use to get to stake conference and still try to find the time to teach people.
For all of those reasons and others, President Antivilo called me last night really late and we had a long discussion about the area. He doesn't want me to have to deal with all of this stuff. He doesn't like the situation he put me in at all. He said that I am one of his hard working, high baptizing missionaries and he wants to put me somewhere I can be more effective. He wants me to be a full-time missionary - and he doesn't know if this branch is stable enough to have missionaries . . . He made sure to tell me a thousand times that none of this is my fault, but he is going to have to really decide if this is an area that can progress anywhere in the next little while. He told me that he put missionaries here because the stake president begged him to, but that he didn't really know the situation that well until he came to the La Romana Stake Conference this past week-end and talked a lot with the stake president. So . . . where I was once sure that I was going to stay over here and be able to try to help the branch - now I just don't know. It is kind of a toss up decision. I would be pretty embarrassed if my area got shut down, but I know that none of the blame is really mine. He just wants missionaries to work in a place where they can concentrate on the work and where there is priesthood leadership and support. I want to try and turn this place around. I will keep working my hardest and it will be hard to have to leave here after how badly I want to help fix it - but I will do whatever the president wants. I guess we'll see what will go down next week in transfer calls.
Well the week was good besides that I guess. Elder Martinez - a Puerto Rican Seventy came and spoke to us which was pretty cool. It was kind of a cross between a stand up comedy session and an edifying talk. Church leaders like that just inspire me! Every time I hear someone like that, I just want to be exactly like them and it really just pumps me up. President Antivilo spoke as well, and it is amazing how comfortable he looks and speaks in front of so many people. I have seen that a few times now and it really impresses me. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes pretty far in church leadership by the end of his life.
Today we went to Manatee Park finally! Wooohooo! It was actually really cool! They had a bunch of shows like a dolphin, parrot, native and horse show. They were all pretty good, even though they don't quite compare to Sea World exactly - but I wasn't expecting it to be like that either. Another part that was really cool was the variety of people that were there. We met people from England, Cananda, Poland, Russia, Brazil and pretty much every where else in the world. I am pretty sure that I was the only American over there.
Sorry I had to draw out a little more money. My watch broke so I had to go buy a new one, and I also took a little more out to support myself with. It is like we are trying to live in America on a Dominican salary in this area. I have talked with some people high up about it and they refund our traveling - but it doesn't help that much.
Well, that is pretty much it for right now. Take care and make sure you make dad's birthday good! Happy birthday dad - I already sent a letter a few weeks ago - so hopefully it will come in time. If not, I'm sorry :)
Me by a HUGE iguana!
A huge motorcycle downtown
The dolphin show at the Manatee Park
Our house/church building
The downstairs of our house where we hold our meetings.
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