We got pictures!

Kamalei is unable to download her pictures, but one of the investigators that got baptized found me on facebook and sent me these pictures!  Yay!

There can be miracles when you believe though hope is frail, it's hard to kill

Okay, the title of the email: holy smokes. have you guessed the movie yet? or the singers? :) Anyway, that has to do with the baptisms. but first, let me get through the week. 

So sometime this past week, I was at Frankelly's house and his brother francisco and his (step)mom Yanny (pronounced Honey) were there. We had an FHE with them and after, I taught them hula. I couldn't dance, but the guys is easy to show without doing anything. So I showed them and when I tried to get a beat going, ... Francisco started beat boxing! hahahaha it was hilarious! These two young guys, trying to do hula to beat boxing! ohmygosh you should've seen Francisco's umi!! Hahahahahahahaha i couldn't show them, I could only try and explain it to them. But They both bent their knees super low and they did it!! hahaha I tried to tell them about tahitian ... that was fun. So Francisco did a little tahitian too hahahah oh mi madre it was so hilarious! But yeah. Just a little about my family here for you guys. Plus, every time we pass the house and Frankelly is outside, he always shouts "ALOHA!" to us hahaha they only live like 3 houses down, so we pass pretty frequently.

Also, I was a little sick this past week. Just a cold, but I was exhausted every day. So when we went to Frankelly's house on that day (not the same as the hula night), he made me a tea. I got my first tea, ever, in my life. He went around and picked leaves off these random (okay, dad, not random, but idk which ones) trees, and bought some halls (yes, the cough medicine), and boiled it in water. It was pretty good! And I felt a lot better after that. He's awesome :)

Okay, now for the baptisms. This was a roller coaster. So, we had the 2 baptisms on Saturday at 6pm. No one really showed up until 6pm. and then that was only 2 (one was doing the baptism and the other, his brother, was welcoming them into elders quorum). No stress, right? Slowly, one person after another showed up. excluding alex and frankelly. it didn't help that neither of them answered their phones. rewind to a couple hours earlier: I tried to look nice. didn't think i would sweat much. but that was before we went to pick up someone who lives yay far away. So we arrive at the church at 3:30 for english class, sweaty and gross, and with the 3 girls we went to pick up ... one of which has major, major ... sass. Sorry to say it. But keep that in mind. English class didn't go to good either ... Stress added up. Then after, we had to set up for the baptism ... but we didn't know we were going to really have to babysit the 3 girls. Stress. Then Alex and Frankelly don't show up. ... and then it's 6:10. and all these other young men are here who are participating in the program. 6:20. OUr ward mission leader shows up in his car, and we tell him the problem. So he goes to look for Alex. 6:40. Comes back with Alex, and me and hna Fletcher are just overjoyed! Then Johan Guzman comes (another one of my really great friends! He's a recent convert of 4 months but soooo involved in the church! Plus, he was doing the baptism for Frankelly) and I almost hug the guy cause I'm so happy to see him! Then we are just praying that Frankelly comes and we turn around, and Frankelli walks in!!! I almost cry. Seriously. So the baptisms may have started 45-50minutes late, but they happened! And we got some great pics too! Oh, and after, we gave them their leis (they had like 3 candy ones each and the fake flower ones) and they are sooo excited to see them! Especially frankelly! I showed him my pics of people in leis and when I told him that i'd give him some for his baptism, he was soooo excited! Anyway, the other young men there (mind you, these are 19-23 year old guys, members) saw the leis and were all like "so when are you going to baptize me?!" hahaha but the best part was when that happened, Frankelli and Alex opened up their candy and shared it with everyone! I was not expecting that, but that was awesome! I love those guys! Anyways, this is one of the miracles that happened that day. I lacked some hope, but I had hope. and faith. and strangly, even though I was stressed, I was at peace too, because I knew it was in the Lord's hands.

The next day, we recieved 3 new guys into our ward who were confirmed in sacrement meeting. Alex and Frankelly and another guy, Danny (who was taught by the other hermanas in our ward. There's 4 of us). It was a happy day :) Little side note, but last night, we had a stake meeting with all the leaders in the stake and wards. and we went over baptismal goals for each ward. Some wards had high high goals, but the actual number was super low. Our ward had a goal of 31 baptisms. and our actual number that we had as of right now is 24! We were the closest to our goal! I know it's not a competition, but it goes to show how blessed I am to have a ward that works so closely with the missionaries. So blessed :)

Life here in the DR is good. I'm understanding more spanish every day. Can't say I can speak it, but I'm getting the hang of it. And time flies here! The days feel like weeks, but the weeks feel like days! My comp and I are doing good. Besides having a cold, I've been good. Please pray for the other hermanas in my house though. They have some health issues, and we are hoping that one of them isn't too serious. Also, i have an interview with President Corbitt this week. I love this guy! Me and Hermana Cox were talking about him (we had splits the other day and it was me and her. She's also the sister trainging leader of our area) and we both said that we imagine that the atmosphere that surrounds him is the same that surrounded Christ. He just has so many christ-like attributes and he's so understanding and has so much knowledge! He's so great!

Anyway, that's all I have for this week. Well, it's a lot, but yeah. It's good stuff. And if there's one thing to get out of this, it's to have hope. and faith in the Lord. All of the Christ-like attributes.

Anyways, enjoy your week back at school! Good luck with everything! And good luck with your jobs! Thanks for being an amazing family! I love sharing about you guys with my investigators and contacts. Believe it or not, your pics are shared a lot :) Love you guys! And have a great week!

Love and Aloha,

Hermana Ho

Almost is Never Enough

Hola mi familia hermosa! Como estan?!

Hope all is well back home with you guys! Before I begin to tell you of the crazy adventures we had this past week, I need to address you all first. Entonces (so), here it is: 

1) Remember how the Camachos gave me postcards with their testimonies written on the back? I gave out a few of them. So if you don't mind telling them about it. I gave Auli'is to Enercy, the 13 year-old girl who is getting ready to get baptized. And I showed her the picture too. And I gave uncle Nephi's to Frankeli (i mean, Frank Kelly ... didn't find out how his name was spelled until this past week when we filled out the baptism form). Frankeli LOVED it! He kept saying " ay, muy bonito, muy bonito" (yes, really nice, really nice). Plus, he got a kick out of the picture of them that I showed him (their christmas pic with the mustaches). And when we went to visit him after that, he saw it again and freaked out all over and his family got a little jealous that he had a hawaiian postcard hahaha!! It was great!

2) Dad, you told me to tell Alex hi. So I told him that you said hi and he was like "what have you told him about me!?" I think he was kinda freaked out about what I told you about him. But ever since then (aka. since last tuesday, and we've seen him pretty much every day since), he's always been like, "Saludos kyle! (Hi kyle!)" "tell kyle hi for me!" "Tell kyle!" well, he has a hard time with your name, so it's more like kiol ... but yeah. He says Hi! So you got a bro here in the DR! hahaha

Okay, so where to begin ... oh. okay. So, i can honestly say now, that I am grateful for water. And plumbing. Or just having buckets of water. So, here in the DR, the city pumps water to all the towns like once a week and it's stored in a cistern (I think that's the word) or a well ... it's not consistent though. And so we ran out of water this past week. So ... we had to lift water from the giant well below our house. The water was from the very bottom though and so we scooped up a lot of icky stuff ... and to think that's the water we shower in. and wash our dishes with ... trying not to think about it. But I got a true Dominican experience of bringing up water from the well, DR style. We may have lost a bucket ... and had a Domincian help us fish it out ... it was kinda embarrassing cause when Hna Cox (one of the sisters that lives with me) asked her if she'd ever lost a bucket like this, she said "no this is the first time ..." small kine embarrassing ... just a little. But hey, we got water! Anyway, so I got my first bucket shower here in the DR! for about 4 days, we had to do that until my companion kinda lost it and we went to another hermana's home and showered. That was BEAUTIFUL! Now, we have water (our house owners who live downstairs filled up our well from a water truck ... yes there are water trucks that drive around all day specifically for that purpose)... but our water pump is broken. hahaha oh, well, I'm just glad we have water. And I didn't realize how much water you can save when you're desperate; for showers, washing dishes, clothes, flushing toilets... yeaaaaa. hahaha but esta bien (it's ok). I'm okay with it because I know that i'm not gonna be living like this forever ... hopefully. Let's just say that the next time we go to the temple, I'm going to enjoy using a flushing toilet ... I mean, the session too ;)

This past week we focused a LOT on Alex and Frankeli because their baptisms are this saturday at 6pm!!! Yay!! So last Monday night, we had a noche de hogar (night of house aka. FHE) at our mission leader's home and we brought Alex and his little daughter! I kept her preoccupied the whole time so Alex could participate (I didn't mind ;) plus I didn't understand all of what was being said): Then, in the middle of the lesson, I hear "Ho!" and I look down (we were on the 2nd story of a house on the balcony) and see Frankeli with his brother Wander! So they joined us and afterwards, when we were walking home, Alex wouldn't stop talking to Frankeli (Yes, he is a talker). Basically, within this past week, they've become bros (thank you, thank you, I know, me and my comp are pretty good hahahaha jk jk). But they had their intervistas (interviews) for baptism and they both passed! We went over the baptismal questions with them a lesson before their interviews and with each one, I asked at the end "Who is Jesus Christ to you?" It's not a baptismal question, but I felt as though I should ask it. Honestly, I didn't understand much of their words, but the spirit was so strong. I know they're ready. 

And i'm so excited for them! Plus, a little bonus: They attended conference together AND a convert baptism with us!!! Well, we picked up Frankeli 3 times (his house is right down the street from us) and Alex came of his free will 2 times and they sat together and when we walked home, they talked. They attended 3 sessions! Dude, I have some legit pics of all these events but this computer doesn't let me upload! So if one week, you just get pics and captions, you know. I sooooo want to show you guys! Oh well 

Okay, so conference ... I watched all except the saturday morning one in spanish. It's soooooooo hard. We sat in the spanish session with Frankeli and Alex and a couple other investigators, Maria and Ignacio (they are working on getting married so they can be baptized. The thing is, it's expensive to get married. And her birth certificate papers are in Haiti ... so it's so hard to get them! It's a trial of their faith. But they are such a cute couple! Ignacio so wants to get baptized and I'm hoping maria too. Hopefully they can get married soon! If it's in this month, I might be able to see them to the temple in a year!). So it was a rough conference for me. And it made me a little homesick. And I couldn't focus. But honestly, it was pretty cool. And how was the native speaking!?!? Us missionaries had heard rumors of this happening, but wow!! That was awesome! Oh, btw, Elder Richard G. Scott (I believe that's him) translates his own talks into spanish. It's easier to pay attention to the voice of the speaker rather than the translator. So ... I was wondering if, when you guys are done with it family, you could send me the Ensign with all the talks in it please? It doesn't matter when, just in the future. oh, and lei nets too! Cause we are making leis for the baptisms and I realize those lei nets would be really useful too. 

Oh, and the title of this email. So, if there is one thing that I've had a big boche (strict lecture kinda thing) on is that even when you think you've done enough or had enough, it's not enough. The biggest thing with me is patience. I thought I had a lot of patience coming into the mission. Nope. Nope. and Nope. hahaha I'm discovering every day that it's so not enough patience. And sometimes it's hard to have the faith that I can ever have enough patience. Patience in afflictions, patience with people, patience with understanding spanish or learning it for that fact. Another attribute I thought I did a good enough job on is people skills. But dang, i'm so awkward. Not knowing spanish doesn't help anything. Hahaha but the Lord sure has a sense of humor. And he also knows what I need or what I need to do for others. The other day during personal study, I was just reading my scriptures, and was only focusing on the story. It was about Alma addressing the poor Zoramites who were cast out of the synagogues of worship cause their clothes weren't nice enough, and he talks to them about faith and how it's like a seed. And the name that pops into my head, just randomly, is Frankeli's. So the Lord provides. I know he does. I don't know what I need and every time I think I'm doing enough or know enough about something, BAM! Boche! And then I'm humbled. Maybe the Lord just wants me to be more humble (which I thought I was pretty humble coming into this ... but I guess not lol). Moral of the story, is that in the mission and in life, don't get comfortable. It's like what my paddling coaches always said: "Don't get comfortable in your seat because someone can always take your spot. So work hard for it." I guess in life, we can't or shouldn't get comfortable with who we are. There is ALWAYS something to improve and either we know we have to improve that or the Lord will throw something our way to let us know what we need to improve on. So, what do we need to change about ourselves? 

Here in the mission it's so hard, cause i have to change so many things at once (physically, mentally emotionally, spiritually), and it's so stressful. But it's good cause I think I need it. But yeah. Don't get comfortable. I think that's the theme of the mission. And dad, thanks for sharing your contacting experience! That's so cool! I'm going to try different things to contact now hahaha maybe not the same as you, but I'll try cause I can't get comfortable :)  Plus, the word "almost" is Never, ever going to be enough. Looking back, that song talks about not being certain or sure of something. So, let's not be that. but don't be comfortable either. 

Anyway, I don't have time to email back everyone else (the power went out halfway through this email, so it was a few minutes before it came back on), but please let Bishop and Aunty Gigi know that I got their emails and love them and I will email them back sometime! Let everyone know that I love them and am grateful for the part they have played in my life, cause honestly, each and every individual I know or know of has blessed my life. 

Love you all and ttyl!!

Love, 

Hermana Ho

The Next 15 Months Behind Bars

Hola Hola!!!

On every corner, there's a little colmodo. ok, not every corner, but they are like these little stores people just open up and they have pretty much almost anything. I wouldn't suggest buying your meat from here though ... but everything is, ya! And it's owned by dominicans. But there are quite a few stores owned by Chinese, like pica pollo (fried chicken) and other random shops. But everyone knows the "chinos" as they are called. I got called a china once ... idk how that kid knew, but yeah. He's good! Haha

Did that answer your questions? If not, let me know! And dad, I would love to take pics of everything but I'm just worried to pull out my camera in certain areas. Plus, I don't think anyone would appreciate if I took a picture of their weirdly shaved legs ...

Anywho, Yeah, this week is general conference! We do get to watch it live! Woo Hoo! I'm excited! I'm hoping that they have an english room, but I doubt it. Normally, I hear that there’s a french, spanish, and english room in the stake center, but I think our ward is broadcasting it too. So we'll see how it goes. Plus, we need to bring an investigator if we want to go. And it will be live! From 12-2pm and 4-6pm with the priesthood session for men from 8-10pm. Late, but welcome to the DR where everyone stays up late! 

This past week, we had transfers and guess what? Not a greenie anymore! There are a few new people here and in the same spot that I was in a couple weeks ago with no spanish ... but, esta bien. Oh, and the title of my email. So in our house, we have a ton of windows. In all houses, in front of the windows are like these fancy bars. You can probably look up a picture, but they are on everyone’s windows. No screens, which I think would help a LOT of the problems here (like insects) but yeah, so I'll be living a year and a half behind bars hahaha.

Anyway, this week was a rollercoaster, as always. In church, hardly any of our investigators came, but we did call one guy and he woke up and came! He's from my family, the Adon family. His name is Frankeli and he's 24 and sooo funny! hahaha and he's got a baptismal date for the 11 of October! He chose it himself! And we believe he's ready. He just needs to have a strong testimony and Hermana Fletcher and I keep praying for him. He's so nervous for his baptism too! He's like "I have to get baptized in front of people? How many? 30!! And dunked in water?" he just covers his face and I try not to laugh at his reaction hahaha!!! I love the guy! 

Alex is doing great I think ... we haven't seen him for a while, it feels like, cause he's been out of town. Apparently he's got a job now, which is great, but which could also conflict with attending church. We have a visit tonight with him, so we'll see what's going on with him.  But he's great and his family is awesome too! He's got a 14year old sister, Rosio, who is just hilarious! She always says hi to us and hugs us. Then there is Brian, who's my age and one point just busted out singing Akon to us and "I believe I can fly" and I could only bust out laughing cause it was so unexpected! But that's about the extent of most of his english...the songs hahahahaha!! 

We have another investigator with a lot of potential too. Her name is Rosanna and she's in her early 20s. She comes to english class every Saturday (we teach the intermediate level, there's also beginning and advanced. and I love teaching these guys! It's only for an hour, an hour of service, but I love love love talking to these people and helping them learning english!) Also, she is diligently reading the BOM in English and Spanish, so we are trying to help her gain a testimony about it. But she loves to talk to us about so many things and I love listening and talking to her too!

Oh, and about your invitation to invite the family! Yay! I'm stoked for you guys! I think that would be a great idea! Missionaries can only do so much to try and retain new converts or investigators until they are transferred or something. But if those people have friends in the church, that makes attending easier! Fellowship them! You guys can so do it! I wish I could be there to help! keep me posted!

Emotionally, I'm doing ok. It's really rough some days. Sometimes I forget to turn out and serve others, including my companion. Sometimes I get so frustrated, especially when I can't understand the people that I love. Sometimes I get homesick. But then I have those moments when I'm sitting in a cita (appointment) with an investigator and the spirit is so strong and I remember why I'm here. Like with Alex or Frankeli, when they said they'd be baptized. It's those moments that I live for. And will missionary work ever be easy. no. and why? why why why? Because (according to Elder Holland), it was never, ever easy for the Lord. There's those days that I walk with Him in the streets and I feel like people just don't want anything to do with the gospel. Theres other times I feel (but it's not literal, just feel) like I've been spit on, ridiculed, rejected for doing the right thing. That's what happened to the Savior. As a missionary, we walk the road to Calvary like the Savior. We labor with all our might and I'm sure that Christ was happy and felt joy a lot. But the scriptures talk about Christ weeping. And it's ok to cry. But missionary work, for any person, is never, ever easy, because it was never, ever easy for the Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Dad, you can probably testify to this. This is all in reference to a devotional given to missionaries by Elder Holland. But then, let us remember how many souls He brought unto Him and His father, before His time and after, and during. The road of a missionary is hard. For me, for you, for every member and missionary there is. But after all we can do, in this life, imagine how great our joy will be when we can, in the life after, see the fruits of our labor! and even be worthy enough to stand before the Lord and say "Father, thy work is done." The work is so hard. So hard. But is it worth it? Yes. Is it worth seeing the smile on someone’s face when you share the Restoration? Yes. Or when they accept an invitation to be baptized? yes. or when you hear them get excited about having a referral for us? yes! 

So, I'm sorry this is so ... missionary talk hahaha, but I invite you guys to accept that invitation to fellowship that family! And whoever else! Perhaps they may not join the church now. Or their daughter. But maybe one of their kids will serve a mission later and have a family and his kids will have families, all in the church cause you helped out their grandpa. Who knows?

I love you guys so much! I pray for you all every day! Keep being amazing examples in all you do! I hope this week isn't too crazy for you and you all can breath and relax a little! Thank you for fulfilling your callings too, in church and in our family. I am so proud of all of you. Love you all so much!!

Aloha!

Hermana Ho

Buchata Buchata Buchata!!

Oh my gosh it's so hard to not dance here in the streets! On almost every corner, there is a colmodo (a store that a person just starts up. It's super convenient for us to buy things at!) that plays really good music throughout the day! Buchata, salsa, merengue, and sometimes you get the English tunes and if you're lucky, some country :) hahaha but yeah it's so fun! 

Anyway, I love you guys! Man, i love telling everyone about you guys and what you all are doing. Honestly, you guys are conversation starters or examples in my lessons for me :) Thank you for your examples! And ward conference! Awesome! We had ours this past saturday and sunday. Saturday, we had an open house where the ward and us invited people to come to the chapel. The members were so excited! Each auxilarary would be explaining like for 5 minutes what they do to the people and all of them had all these presentations set. Including us. And people invited others and we invited a ton of people too! And the night came ... and no one showed up expect the members. I felt soooo bad for them because they invited people and no one showed up. For us missionaries, it's disappointing, but it's a disappointment we are used to. But for the ward, ohmygosh I feel sooo bad. And we have such a great and strong ward! But the thing is, I don't know if it's the culture or if the people have short term memory here, but the culture is so relaxed and so nice that people aren't going to say no to coming to a church. But then they won't come or will forget. So ... yeah, I felt really bad for the members. So bad. But, like you guys, our Sunday was great! We had a few musical numbers (which was interesting ... only because Dominicans love singing .... but aren't necessarily the best). But everyone was so excited to have a new piano in our chapel and one of the missionaries, she played her violin with our numbers that we sang in the choir (oh yeah, I was in it. My companion played the piano). It was a great conference!

Okay, so we have 2 baptism dates! Alex, of course, is Oct 11. Please pray for him! I don't understand him half the time, but my companion says that he said that he knows this church is true and that he wants to be baptized. He has a testimony. And so much potential. And he just cracks us up all the time! hahaha We also have Enercy, who is 13 years old. But I have never seen someone her age with such faith or diligence. She attends church with some other members in the ward, but she wants to be baptized so bad! Because of a few complications, her date was pushed to the end of November, but my comp and I believe she is ready to be baptized so we're going to go with her and have her talk to the bishop about moving her date back to the middle of October (the original day it was set to). So we'll see how that goes! 

We are also trying to reactivate this one family. They're like half active ... and the one mostly active guy is preparing to go on a mission. He's working on his papers. But oh, this is my second family here! They are the Adon family, and they live 3 houses down. I love them! The mom is so sweet and kind, but she doesn't want a calling in the church and she only comes for like the 3rd hour (which is sacrement meeting, here in the DR). Her son, Frankeli, is 24 and our investigator and we had a hawaiian lesson with him. So now everytime I pass their house, i'll hear a random "Aloha!!" from him! Francisco is the one preparing for a mission, and he's so cool! He's kinda a mommy's boy, it's so cute haha but he's super cool! Me and him have a challenge going on so he reads his BOM every day:I told him I'll read the BOm with him, a chapter a day. It's my first time reading it in Spanish, so I don't understand everything (which I told him, I don't like, but for him I'd read it), and for him, he needs to be reading every day. So, a chapter a day in Spanish. Oh, and did you guys know that reading your BOM every day is a commandment? The 3 we always tell investigators are 1) read the BOM every day, 2) pray every day, twice a day, and 3) attend church. They need to be doing that in order to be baptized and they are commandments... just saying ;).  But yeah, anyway, then there is Wander, their 8 year old brother who just got baptized and is kinda going inactive cause he doesn't have the greatest examples in his life. There are also two other kids who are inactive. One of them is dating our downstairs neighbor, Gary (love the guy. He has a  beautiful singing voice and he sings to us every morning ... without really knowing it haha). But this family is my family here in Los Frailes cause I feel like I can just talk to them, even though I can't understand them or express myself well. But I love them so much! 

As for your scripture, D&C 33:7, I love! And the verse after it, verse 8. And it's important to remember that the Lord qualifes whom he calls. I like to apply that to callings too, in families and in the church. It's hard to apply that to me cause ... I don't feel very qualified sometimes, but I have to have faith. Faith that I'm here because the Lord, through his prophet, told me I need to be here. I think of home a lot. Tomorrow is transfers, but I'm staying in my area (yay!!) with my companion, but we sent home one of the sisters. She finishes her mission tomorrow! She's awesome and did NOT want to leave haha.  Her name is Hermana Hansen. But I thought  "you get to see your family though! And speak english!" It's bad to think of home, I know, but it was hard when she kept talking about it.  lol But I love her so much! She was so awesome! But then again, I have moments that I live for. Like teaching Alex and Enercy and other progressing investigators. Then there's also the swag walk men here or the guy that shaved his legs like with strips ... like on a candy cane... or my neighbors. The hot momma in her towel doing laundry outside, or her 6 year old daughter shamelessly walking in her pink panties outside, or her teenage brother walking around in his boxers. Or the women who walk around with hair curlers that are about 3-4 inches in diameter in their hair on the streets. And when I see these things, all I can say is "Oh, the DR" and just laugh cause it 's these moments and more that I live for! So if you're worried about me, don't worry! I have a LOT of entertainment here! Haha and also, great members and great investigators who are all generally concerned about me and my companion and making sure we are doing okay. 

I love the DR so much! One day, I have to take you guys around here and show you my friends and family and also the quirks here. Don't worry, the Lord is watching over me. I know it. I wish you all the best! Siblings, keep up the awesome work with school and sports! You're doing awesome! And enjoy the water for me :) well, maybe not the Ala Wai water ... but the beach and stuff. Mom and dad, keep being amazing parents. Thanks for staying strong in the gospel and for raising us kids the way you did. I see a lot of broken families here and am reminded of how blessed I am to have great parents and great siblings who love each other, who support each other, who help each other, who are strong together. Grandma and grandpa, thanks for serving your missions. I didn't realize how much that means until now. Thank you for your service and for reaching out to those who needed you. 

Love you all and have a great week!

ALOHA!

Hermana Ho

P.S. please dance for me ... cause I can't. hula, jazz, swing, hip hop whatevs. Buchata if you want too! Cause I can't. And swim for me. And sing with the radio for me. Just have fun with life! I am here, without those things, I just miss them a lot cause they are fun too.  But live in the moments and just go for it! 

Change My Ways til I Shall Be in Perfect Harmony With Thee

Hey everyone! 

The title of this email is from a song... a song that's been in my head the past couple of days that I love! Look it up! :D

Okay, so mom, we usually just say "que bien" (that's good!) or "muy bien" (very good)... idk if they say good job here ... I'm still learning the lingo, big time haha. Dad, thanks for your advice. Don't worry, the most people do in this area is call out to us, they don't get crazy; and if they did, the other people would help us out. This country is pretty great about helping others, including strangers. And the area I'm in is one of the humblest and supposedly the best in the mission! I'm so glad to hear from you guys and how the family and ward is doing! And alana! Good job! Girl, that takes guts! It's so hard for me to invite people to church at first, but with time and practice, it gets easier. The first time is the hardest :) and as for her not coming to church, don't worry. You planted the seed and now it's here job to use her agency. I've been learning that bit a lot right now. It's the same with our investigators. Every Sunday, we see and count who has come to church that's our investigators. The past couple weeks have been sour cause hardly any come. BUT yesterday, ALEX CAME TO CHURCH!!!! And a couple who's been investigating for a while! And one of our young women we've been teaching! So it wasn't nearly half our investigators, but "how great will be your joy if you bring but one soul unto me." Yups, it was a WONDERFUL!!! sunday!!! Me and Hermana Fletcher were sooooo happy!! so happy! It set off our day right :)

As for the temple, that was amazing! We got inside and we were all prepared to do a session, but then we were led into this room before the session ... all of us were confused and didn't know that room existed. I thought it was a thing they did every time the missionaries came to the temple. I didn't understand everything that was said, but someone explained to me that that room is called the Room of Silent Assembly. Only a few of the temples in the world have that room and you need special permission from the 1st Presidency of the church to use it. So we were the lucky ones that got to go in there! It was amazing!! After, we did a session and it was my first time in Spanish. Yeah, didn't understand a lot, and toward the end it was a little difficult, but I realized sooooo many more things that I hadn't noticed before! It was amazing!! oh, and I may have accidently hugged a guy ... it was an accident!! I swear! But he and his wife helped us do sealings another time when I was in the mtc and I couldn't help it when he hugged me! I think i'll be forgiven ... haha

The work here is progressing ... slowly but surely. The whitewashing part is over (thank goodness!) and I'm understanding more people and more words. I still can't communicate with some people cause they tend to cut off their words or slur them together ... Domincian style of course hahaha. But it's great! Alex is one of the best investigators so far! We had one member, Diego, come with us to an appointment and it went soo well! Alex is hilarious! and he's got a baptism date!!!! YAYAYA!!! I'm so happy! And so hopeful! We gave him Oct 11 and he said "Well, if you want to baptize me, don't you want to do it sooner? like tomorrow?" hahahaha I love the guy! Also, yesterday, we took another member, Samuel, with us to an investigators house ( a couple) and he was amazing! He brought the spirit like no other. He's been a member for 20 years, but inactive for 19, just coming back. He's trying to convert his wife too and he wishes he could've gone on a mission. But I can tell you right now, that guy has a mission and he's an amazing missionary! The way he listened to our investigators, taught and testified was amazing! If he can do it, why not the members who have been active for longer? It's so awesome here!

I read an article the other day in the liahona from this past month. I don't have the title or author, but I encourage you guys to read it. It's awesome. It has a picture of an asian officer on one of the pages. At the end of the chapter, there was a quote that stuck out to me. I don't have time to quote it, but basically it said we need to have faith to walk into the dark and know that with a few steps into the dark, the light will shine again and guide us. Basically, have faith and take that risk, take that chance. You never know who might want to hear the gospel or who needs it or has been looking for it. 

I love you guys so much! know that I pray for you guys every day! Missionary work is hard, with the tag or not, but it's possible. My companion just quoted this for me"if the church weren't true, missionaries would've destroyed it a long time ago." ... which is kinda true, no offence to anyone. haha But I love the mission. Love the peole. Love the Lord! Keep being amazing! I love you guys!

love, 

Hermana Ho