Hello!!!

How are you all?? its been so long since we have talked!! haha, any who, it was super awesome to talk to you all this on Christmas! sadly no talking to Raquel, and no email...BUT, baby steps, baby steps. she has an excuse, since her baby is at home!! soo cute. man. i cant wait to meet him! he will be HUGE when i finally get to see him!!  well i talked on Christmas so this will be a super short email, ill go ahead and send some pics now. but just say that Sunday was crazy. super quiet in the morning. SUPER quiet (except the usual dogs barking and insects.) but everyone drank themselves half to death and so no one was out on Sunday! it was strange. and then today we went to one of the many houses of the infamous Trujillo, and it was crazy. just a huge gutted building. ill send pics now...
love you guys!! talk to you in 2011!! (which, by the way is my black year! the year i go without seeing the fam! crazy!)
'Elder MacArthur!!

our investigator, victor. we ate dinner on Christmas eve with him!

Christmas morning presents!

uh, a little worried about the watch getting stolen?? hahaha

where trujillo kept some cars

house! its huge

back of house

pretty sure this was his room, its super beat up and worn down, but still beautiful.

up down panorama of his room

sitting in some crazy huge office room or something, with manuel and mijaris, both baptisms of mine

on the top of the house

looking at the country on the roof

panorama of the DR

me in back of the house

I'm cool. trail leading away from the house

hi world!

never a shortage of food here in the DR!!

note the headlamp, its SO handy!! because finding a mouse is really hard to do in candle light....haha

 This week was super strange. first off, i will start with Tuesday. we had our district meeting, headed off to a pica pollo, ate some food, and as we were leaving, i thought, man, i really have to poop. we aren't allowed to use any bathroom except mission home bathrooms, so we headed to the zone leaders house which is super close. we were almost there, and i was about to soil my pants, when my companion thought that it would be a superb time to sent a fax. booooo. so there we are, waiting to the fax to go through, and well, lets just say i didn't make it. its super degrading to poop your pants, just so you know. didn't go out to work that day, i was super sick. but all is well and good! in this mission, you are a greenie until you have left your first area (still in my first), you mission dad has died (Jones has a transfer and a half left) and you have crapped you pants. (check! December 14th). so that's cool i got it outta the way!

this, is a tinaco. the water is stored here, so we always have it. city water is pumped into here and this goes to our house, most are black. this is clear, so all the things in the water get sunshine and can grow.

this is the water that i get the pleasure to shower in everyday.

we have 2 tinacos, the last 2 pics are looking inside the top of them

Haha. not much else to talk about, I'm putting a list together of things to talk about with you  guys, and you guys do the same thing. write some stuff down you wanna know and talk about! oh, and if mom ever finds some super cool fabric, i would love like 1 3/4 yards of it....people make pants here super cheap, so ya. just if you happen across some you could send it as a goodie package. also, one of our zone leaders, elder yeip, leaves this transfer, and lives in Ogden. I'm sending my memory cards with him to mail there, its much safer haha. so you should get those by February. just FYI. I'm sending a 4 gig and 1 gig home, packed to the brim of photos.  yay! anywho, MERRY CHRISTMAS! I'm soooooooooo stoked to talk to you guys on Saturday! i love you and have a good week! ill send you a few pics now
love you!
elder bubby MacArthur

our baptism on Saturday. the boy is our baptism, the girl the zone leaders. his name is mijaris. a bit of a hooligan, but a good kid!!

group pic with a bunch of people from the ward

dad asked how i did wash, so here is our washer, and our nice clean water!! no, it doesn't really clean clothes. just kinda gets em wet....

Another week in San Cristobal!

OK man this week. so ill start out with a bit of excitement. so last night we had to be in the house by 8. why? well, ill tell you:

Our favorite colmado that we always go to, its closer to our house than shop-n-go. so at that colmado, there was a kid that worked there. Saturday night he was shot by a bunch of hooligan kids and killed about 100 yards from our house. so, the family of that kid was kinda out for revenge, so it wasn't the best time to be out in the night. so ya, this country is pretty cool....

Not much else, haha. we started working in a new barrio, again. sigh. this one is about a 40 min walk from our house. and like 50 from the chapel. so, don't really know how i feel about it but my companion is sure it what we have to do, so we'll see. its a cool area, not as many dirt roads and less evangelical people, but its harder to contact since its so far away. the mission goal is 140 contacts every week, and this week we only had 97....ouch. but we did have many more member present lessons this week so that was good. we didn't have a baptism, but we should have one next week. the same kid i talked about last week that the bishop would not talk to. he still hasn't talked with his family, but the kid is ready and prepared, and the bishop does not have the authority or keys to postpone one of our baptisms, so its going down on Saturday, finally! we have been teaching him for 6 weeks!

We also contacted a guy named Ivan. he is like....a contact that you read about in the ensign. we have only had 2 lessons with him, but he is adult "ya! Melchizedek priesthood!!" and is super smart, has sooo much animo and interest. during our contact he asked if he could have a book of Mormon. once he is baptized (he has a fecha for the 8th of enero) he will no doubt be a leader later on in life. he is incredible. so ill keep you updated on that

What else....oh, last night we watched a video about Christmas, joy to the world, with motab and stuff to an investigator...in English!!! it was great. haha, they didn't have the remote for the DVD and so we could not put it in Spanish, so i tried, and failed, to translate it. but it was still good, motab and Christmas will bring the spirit anywhere!

Man, it is still hard to believe its December. even the members here have been talking about how hot it has been the last like 3 days. wowie, yesterday was super toasty! even at nights lately its been hotter! aye aye aye. but I'm doing a bit better at accepting that i have to be here for another transfer. and Spanish is till awful, but I'm doing a bit better. i still cant understand much, but its a bit better now. not good by any means, i still cant really have a conversation, i...man. I'm going to sent my memory card home with one of the missionaries here next transfer, with a video of some of the Spanish here. its insane. its way different than Mexico Spanish....

So ya, that's my week! And Raquel and Brigham, you and Callum are in my prayers!! i have been praying for all three of you more than anyone for the last month, and i will continue to keep you in my prayers. i know that everything will be ok, just trust in the Lord and have faith and everything will be ok, i promise! i know the Lord will bless all my family for being out here and that everything will be fine! i love you guys soooo much, and you guys officially have a good excuse for not writing me this week! LOVE YOU!
elder bubby

hello world!

burning a tie for 6 months!!

Ok, so i feel really bad, so i made a list of things to write about this week, but its now a new transfer, so i have a new agenda, my other, with the list, is a 30 min walk to the house away, so, another time ill give you some details. anywho, so transfers are tomorrow and low and behold I'm spending a forth of my mission in my first area. booooo.  this area, well, about 99 outta 100 are evangelical and they are the only people in this country that will NOT listen, and the members here are cool, but are worthless for the missionaries. wont give references, wont leave with us or anything. and the ward mission leader doesn't do anything and makes us come to like 2 hour meetings that just waste our time. 

my study room! its kinda chrismasy!

 I really wanna leave. so bad. i wont lie, I'm running out of animo here, in this area. just working so hard and nothing coming of it. mostly the fact that the ward is not super stoked with us because people are going inactive and we haven't had many baptisms, but they wont do ANYTHING about it. they think we have to do everything, when in reality the members are 65466 times more important than the missionaries. aye. not cool. anywho, that's my little vent for now.

ya, the cutest little girl ever, second to lily of course!

 Oh, also, yesterday i had a full on break down, i told April and heather, but man. after knowing I'm staying here, and it being Christmas time without the fam and such, i kinda lost it last nigh. i didn't sleep at all, just crying all night. it wasn't super cool. Christmas is hard. aye. 

ts kinda dark, but yes, yes that is a chicken. in a tree. its actually a really common sight around here!

 But, other than that, and the fact that my Spanish is still quite worthless, I'm doing good. haha, man. this place is so weird. and its so hot. we have no investigators really, no one is progressing, cant get anyone to go to church, and the bishop wont let us baptize the 2 kids we have that are way beyond ready because there are alot of inactive kids in our area. he wants them the be baptized, but to wait until he talks to their family. he has been saying that he will "talk to them this week" for almost 2.5 months now. its ridiculous. so ya, our ward just doesn't like missionaries i guess, i dunno.
but, that's about all i have for now! talk to you later!
buh-bye!

burning a tie for 6 months!!

hello hello!

1st y 2nd, the President Almonte´s iguana!

my current zone

So, hi! how are y'all? seems like the hoods is the only one here that had a good week! if you don't know, she is officially engaged. lame i know, i haven't even met the dude. so that's cool. so, no real fun stories again this week, was super average. really jealous about the snow! i know that i say this every week, but it was a bit hotter than usual. and 2 nights ago, all the dogs in san cristobal (there is a SERIOUS stray dog problem here. sooooooooooo many dogs!) decided to have a party in our street at 2 am. and every one was barking. i was going to go down and kick them all.  man alive. soo loud.

this pic is SOOO dominican. 4 ppl on a moto, a horse cart picking up garbage. awesome.

me and elder bird. i realllly wanna be his comp later on!!

my thanksgiving, 2 tomato and cheese sandwiches and OJ. and cheese here is super pricey and rubbery with no taste, FYI,,,

 Thanksgiving was....boo. i was starving all day, like my body knew what i should have been doing that day!! ill send you a pic of what my "thanksgiving" meal was.... haha.

so, my email are really boring. I'm sorry. lets do this, if you email me ill respond to you and answer all the questions you have, and then send out a big one to the fam and everyone giving a overview of my week eh? transfers are next week and i should be leaving, so ill have more to say and i should have more Internet time (my comp is super psycho about Internet time aye aye aye) so ya. well do that. ill send pics now since i haven't sent any for awhile!"

I'm gonna hit 6 months on Thursday! crazy huh?

1 y 2, eating PACO FISH and dumplings at a members! love it.

spider! this is less than 5 min after we smashed it. those ants work fast!!

 

I want snow!

so this is the email i sent to dad, and i don't have much time so I'm just sending it to everyone as my weekly email haha

ye aye aye, you write me a legit letter, and it happens to be the week where i basically have NO time. boooo. so, we had interviews today. we have them every other transfer. so, i didn't get a p day really. i guess it was, since pretty much all day i just sat around with our zone playing dominoes and talking! but we had to be at the mission home at 8 am and we left there at about 5, and i got to the Internet center at about 540 ish. boo. pday ends at 6, but pres said it ends at 7 today, but we still have to go back to our area, so i only have like 30 min left here, and of course i don't have my camera cable with me so once again i cant send pictures. i feel really bad but hey, its life. haha. so, ill attempt to kinda respond to this haha. sounds like you week was just super!!!

I'm SO jealous of the snow, man. its hot. i love snow. the pictures with the house covered in snow with Christmas lights up....man, Christmas is going to be really hard. and thanksgiving. will be really hard. but for interviews today we had our thanksgiving-Christmas dinner-lunch. it was awesome. but not a real Thanksgiving. no, they have no idea what thanksgiving is, its 100% America haha.

The average for one area is about 3 transfers, 18 weeks. so, i should be leaving. i have taught the area to elder natera, so i should leave and he will get a new comp. i have NO idea when i will be calling. but, i think the best thing is i will just call your cell phone, and you call me back on whatever phone your at. calling cards are super pricey here and when times up, they just end. so that way you can pay for the call !! hahah your welcome.  but ill let you know.

Bummer about the utes!!! aye aye aye.
So ya. my week was nothing special. we had a baptism fall because of some weird things. basically he was visiting his real mom and she said stuff about his dad (who is an AWESOME guy) and no he doesn't want to come home, and its just not good. so we will see what happiness with that. then on Saturday, i had "I'm a little teapot" stuck in my head. allllll day. i was going crazy. i would sing everything i could think of to make it leave, and 2 min later i would be singing the teapot song again. it was terrible. man.oh, and Sunday, a member girl named daña gave my companion a boche (a....lecture? i dunno) about his unibrow hahahahahahahahahahal. it was the funniest conversation i have ever listened to haha. but ya, ill try and send a better email next week when i have time!! love you guys!!

oh, and, people pray in REALLY weird ways here. in one lesson, a guy started a prayer with "jeovah dios, padre celestial del espiritu santo" which means basically "Jehovah god, heavenly father of the holy ghost". ya. it was strange. I've had some other really awesome ones but i don't remember them now....

Elder MacArthur

Kola Real

okey dokey. this week was just super. so Monday, a week ago, we had a noche de hogar (family home evening) with some of our investigators. it was really awesome! was at the house of Marsili and her 3 girls, and her neighbor Yomadi also, we always teach them together. they are the ones that have been progressing really well and all, but don't really want to get married. so we showed them a video called "together forever" about marriage and the plan of salvation in general, gives a bunch of stories about all sorts of people in all walks of life. was really good. but alas, they still don't really want to get married (Yomadi because she doesn't want her husband to be an adulterer..... ya this country is awesome) but more on them later....

Tuesday was odd. a surprise intercambio at our district meeting, i went with one of the zls to his area, elder abreau, and we taught a few lessons, and contacted, but the best part was we had one of the coolest members with us. this bug guy named hank, super awesome. his passion is classic rock. he is absolutely in love with Kansas and guns and roses. its awesome. but he is an rm and is a great teacher and an awesome guy to talk with. at night he came to our house and i talked with him for like 2 hours about random stuff, like mission stories and all sorts of stuff, he served in the Santiago (north) mission.

Wednesday started out good! outside the zls house there is a truck that sells fresh fruit. so i had fresh pineapple cantaloupe watermelon lechosa (cant remember lechosa in English....) banana all smothered in honey for breakfast. twas awesome. nothing else really of note on Wednesday. 

Thursday was...long. really, REALLY long. i don't know why. but in my notes of things to tell you for the week, that's all i wrote for Thursday HHS. 

Friday we went to the zls area again for a baptismal interview, and while we waited we kinda explored that barrio, its really cool. i have some pics of it, but alas again I'm on the worlds crappiest computer and it wont talk with my camera, so i will have to send them next week. we then ate lunch with a member, and it was super good. chicken, rice and beans. ya! the rest of the day was standard, but it was hotter than usual, my oh my. so hot. then at night we went to canastica, the area of some of the sister missionaries for another baptismal interview and i talked with one of the sisters from up north for like an hour about this country and such, was awesome. and alas, after we were done the last buss had already passed for the night, and were a long way from home. so we got home really late after bumming our ride with all sorts of slightly sketchy transport....

Saturday, no baptisms sadly, but we ate dinner with a member. and it was one of the greatest meals ever. hahah, dumplings and Paco fish! man alive it is sooo good. and that's about it haha. 

Sunday, NONE of our investigators came to church except one. SO, not cool. we are going to have to drop some of them because they haven't come to church after like 4 weeks. booo. but that's about it for my week! hope yours were all good!

tell dad he is lame because he didn't write me and Danny sorry but i didn't have time to respond and i will next week!!

love you all!!

Why Hello There!

outside the chapel in azua, when i was special transferred. you becha that says jazz!!

So, this week. aye aye aye. crazy. so, nothing too crazy till Thursday, it started to become pretty wet and rainy, but alas we went and worked in the rain and had some good lessons. we taught a bazillion lessons this week but none of them were with a member, because the members weren't fans of going out in the rain and mud. man, moscu is like one big muddy river and lake in the rain! aye. so, right now, we are teaching 3 different families, and of course, not a single one of them is married. only one of them wants to be, her name is Yomadis. ok, none of them want to get married but Yomadis is kinda ok with the idea, and her husband has no problem with it. the other 2 don't want to be married and neither do their husbands. aye. the other 2 are Marsili and her 3 kids, and Juana and her 2 kids. but, juana we probably will drop soon. she is not so much interested in the restored gospel as she is letting anyone come into her house and talk about god and all the revelations she receives....so we will see how that goes. she is just happy to talk about religion,  what ever religion it is.

outside our house! that's field of sorts. loooots o´agua!

elder bagley...wow, what a good lookin kid! haha

Marsili and Yomadis are both progressing really well and fast, except the marriage thing. we have a noche de hogar tonight with them, and are going to show the movie "together forever" and see if they lighten up to the idea. and make some good food (best part of this country. man, food. its SOOO simple, but man I'm loving it. even if i only eat one time a day, at least I'm nice and skinny now!). they have warmed a little to the idea of marriage, but who knows. if nothing else, one of the daughters of Marsili is really interested, so we will probably put a fecha with her real soon!

moscu!!

dragonfly in moscu

Yesterday, man. i was not a happy camper! after church, at noon, we had a meeting with the bishop and other leaders in our ward. so, some background. we don't take an hour for dinner in this mish. we take 2 for lunch, and we are working the rest of the day. we do that because at lunch time everything shuts down, called "siesta" or something, meaning everyone sleeps and does nothing, so its super hard to work then. so that's from 12-2. our time. and also, Sunday we have to get our numbers together, get all the numbers from our district because my comp is district leader, call the zone leaders and give them the numbers, and it takes forever. so anywho, this meeting with the bishop started at 12 and was over at 1. meaning, we got home at 130 since its a 30 min walk to our house from the ward. we have to leave at 2. haven't eaten (why yes, it WAS a fast Sunday....happy happy Brady), haven't gotten the numbers, or anything. and to make it better, the meeting was worthless for us. it was all about keys to the church (we don't HAVE keys to the church!), and cleaning the building. and the bishop said "ok, and one tiny more thing" 12 times in the last 30 min of it. man. i was mad. and the zone leaders (they are in our ward too) were really mad, they kept getting calls for the numbers and the bishop wouldn't let us leave. which was lame because the meeting had absolutely nothing to do with us! man.

on the drive to azua

So Spanish still is awful. I'm getting waaay more confident in talking, but worse at conjugating verbs correctly, and using the correct demonstratives and all sorts of stuff. still cant understand squat. but, poco a poco it will come! 

 

again on the drive to azua

As i told mom, the hurricane here was super disappointing. for 10 min lots of rain and wind and noooo sunshine. then blue skies. then darkness. one day we couldn't leave the house on orders of the pres, but no big deal. we left anyway hahah because my comp is district leader over all the hermanas and we had to do a baptismal interview for the next day. it was super. 

 

in moscu again

Everything i have is wet. my shoulder bag i inherited from elder carter is MOLDING. ya. some of my ties are molding. with the hurricane its been sooooo miserably humid. my sheets are so wet i stick to them at night. i cant get anything to dry!! lame. 

 

ok, well that's all for now! bye!

 

Elder MacArthur

My mr potato head, lit up by the eerie candle light since we NEVER have light anymore...

Hello!

Aye aye aye, this week was so unbelievably long! OK, so again nothing really new or spectacular happened! its been really hard the last few days, not being able to ever speak English and trying to work and communicate with my companion. he is a great missionary, but the language barrier is hard. one day ill know this language! i just hope its before i come home hahahaha. so first things first,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIGHAM!!!

ya, me and elder Bagley are super hot.

OK, so we went to Haina on Saturday! to clean the beach or harbor....look it up online, haina at one point was the 3rd most polluted city in the world, and is still in the top 10 i think (haina is only like 20 min from me haha) its sooooooo dirty, as you will see in the fotos! this was for a big worldwide service project, it was cool!

So, the only exciting thing here was we had another baptism! numba 5 for me! his name is Fousto, he is 12, the little bro of one of the members. we have been working with him for a very long time, the bishop wanted to wait to baptize him, which was lame. he wanted to wait because he had 2 bros that are inactive and didn't want him to go inactive. but he has been going to church for like 6 months, his sister is super strong, his mom is not a member because her spouse doesn't want to get married (NO ONE IS MARRIED!!" AHHH but everyone has an "esposo" or "esposa" but she still goes to church and all the activities, and he has 2 other brothers on the mission, so we finally got it done!" and then we started working in a new area, villa progreso, but its super far, so were going to drop it for now. there is no transportation there, so, were going to go back and finish moscu. we have a few more new good investigators that are progressing! so that's good! finally, we have had the same ones for ever! but ya, that's about it.

the fam of fousto

me fousto and elder natera

2nd, me and elder christiansen are really cool!!

So, Halloween, i was stuck in the house of a crazy evangelical dude because it was flooding outside pretty much, ranting about the bible being the only word of god and how its perfect and we dont need more, and us trying to explain the book of Mormon to him, and how there were people in the Americas that needed the word of god too....it was super duper fun!
any who, that's my week!

also, i see there is a pretty good looking hurricane coming my way! super!
also, check out "el doctorado" by tony dize. awesome
also, Christmas, i wasn't pictures and mtn dew. thanks much

elder bubby!!

the rest are in haina