Pavo Real

Well kids, what a week this has been! wow oh wow its been a slow one! but the story of the week, we baptized Jesus!! finally! haha, this guy is awesome. his entire family are members, and his daughter just got back from the mission. at first (like, 4 transfers ago) he wanted nothing to do with the church, and he didn't want to listen, and little by little he started to accept it and now he has a super strong testimony. it was a great baptism. then next week we should have a baptism of a lady named barbina, and her grandson. so we will see how that will go through. 

 

I really love this area. so much. my comp is psycho and well, he is reallllly moody and has to have things his way all the time, and keeps trying to blame me when he sleeps in....lame. i dunno, but he will leave next transfer. haha. we get along and teach pretty good together, but he just is kinda prideful, but no worries! but the other two guys in my house are awesome, elder Horton who was in my other zone with me for 2 transfers, and then his kid elder Evans, who is amazing as well. just some serious good times here man! and i have been fed or given food almost every single day here! and, guess what? I'm 21 now!! i didn't even remember it was my birthday until like noon on the 25th hahaha. we made a cake and it was super good, and it was pretty much guess work since we don't have real ovens, just pretend ones haha. but other than that it was just another day, nothing really special at all. then like 3 days later elder Horton hit one year in the mish! so we burned some stuff and stayed up way to late talking. good times. 

 

I have some bad news, i forgot my camera cable and we are about an 30 min drive from the house....so, i will have to sent like 654654 pictures next week haha, i have some good ones too hahah I'm  really mad that i forgot it! aye aye aye. 

 

-Elder MacArthur

 

note to the title. pavo, in Spanish, means turkey. pavo real, is a peacock. so in Spanish, a peacock is just a "real turkey"....i didn't know other turkeys were fake...haha.

Haz lo Justo!

aye, ok. first off, lets just say that the Internet center I'm in blows. so this will have alot of typos...

but, lemme say, i LOVE this new area. they members are awesome.  i have been fed or given food everyday of being here! love it. I'm sooo much happier now that I'm in this area. so a few points. i now live in a 4 man house, with elder horton, whom i love, he was in my old zone for a few transfers. and with his kid, elder evans. he surely is a greenie, but he is great.  love them both. my comp is good, and yes, i am indeed senior companion and his step dad.  i like him and we get along, but he is really casual in alot of things , like in the lessons and such.  not a fan of that but ill work with him. the house NEVER has water, so we have to hook a hose up to the church and fill up 2 huge tanks every 2 days and take bucket showers, but in all honesty the bucket shower is actually really nice! haha. there are a BILLION mosquitoes in my house. the stake center is SUPER nice here, its the nicest chapel in all the Caribbean area!  I'm with 2 other guys from my group in this zone, one is already fluent  (really , he is) and the other is a bit better than me. but i love them both. this is going to be a really lame email because this computer is honestly

 

so  ya. i love you gu ys, never forget my love for all of you. ill write more about my area and stuff next week. and send pics, this computer cant. 

 

also, random, but i fully gained my testimony of fasting yesterday. we were teaching a good investigator about it. and i started talking about callum, and how the family  had a fast for him. and that after the fast, everyone felt really good and had peace in their hearts, and the second i said that, the spirit hit me hard, and i just started bawling. i knew at that moment, that that fast had a huge impact on callum and how well he did, with they faith of all our family, and i could barely even finish testifying.  really guys, i know i joke alot and like informality  in my life, but i know this gospel is true. i know it with all my heart. always remember it. 

anyways, ill talk to you next week!

 

Elder MacArthur

Off to Pedro Brand!

so, to start off, i had a nice good list of everything i was going to talk about written down in my agenda. but, alas, that agenda is now packed up and off in our chapel...so, next week kids. i now have a new agenda for the new transfer haha. which i will be spending, POR FIN, in a new area! finally I'm leaving my first area!! I'm heading off to Pedro Brand, and area in the capital, with another Dominican comp. so that will be good and help with Spanish! his name is elder Mora, and no, i don't know anything about him. no one does. but, rumor has it that i will be his step dad, or to say, i will be his 2nd companion. super. not so ready for that haha. but we will see. rumors are often false. any who, I'm so stoked! supposedly the house is decent with water and light most the time and that its right across from the chapel (finally, as much as i have loved my 30 min walk to the chapel! man) and that there are alot of rats. meaning, I'm going to buy a machete to hunt rats. ive been wanting a machete, now i have an excuse to buy one haha. and also i have heard that that area has a ton of success so that is super good. my area is kinda sad right now, my comp wants to recontact moscu...aye. glad i wont be here!

Other than that this week has not been super exciting. oh, one good story. so we have a really legit family that we are working with, they have a ton of interest. but the only problem is that the dad goes to school on Sunday. but yesterday, we had a special conference via satellite to the Carib area at the stake center. he called, got outta school, and came. and he LOVED it. so that's really awesome. sad that i wont be able to see how they do for a while. but, such is the mission! Well, until next week kids, sorry this is lame, i don't have my old agenda!!
'Elder MacArthur

Also Danny, since you know Spanish. some girl said she died for 23 hours and when and saw heaven and hell, it it was suuuper strange. talking about how you cant repent after this life, and that inferno was full of demonios with lances and stuff. it was WEIRD.
you can watch it on YouTube, its in 5 different parts. this is what i deal with here, everyone is this same religion, Evangelical Pentecostal. aye. search for it, her name is angelica zambrano, muerte 23 horas or something like that.
also for a good laugh, a video they sell here in this country search on YouTube
"los mormones y sus doctrinas falsas" or something similar. its 2 guys with a PowerPoint thing. man its good stuff.

and sorry, no pics today. my camera cables are all packed up. ill send a bunch next week. bye!

Man it is hot, milk was a bad choice!

Hey kids! how fares life? i hope it is just dandy for all y'all! so, my stories for the week. in all honesty, this was probably the least productive week of my entire mission. we worked hard, but nothing happened. no one came to church, well, we had one girl at church. but all our real good progressing investigators couldn't. and then, we found out, that the 2 different couples that we are teaching, we thought that they were both married, (which is weird, because NO ONE IS MARRIED. honestly. no one) and of course, they are not. so, that's a bummer. one couple we should get married in a few weeks, the other couple, they wont talk about it but for some reason they cant or wont get married for like another year, but we are gonna try and help them. they both are pretty stoked about the church, and want to be baptized, but they have to be married first. so we will see how that goes. but, i dunno if i will know for a long time, i will be peacing out of here next week! por fin!

Sunday we get the transfer call, and Tuesday is the actual transfer. man, i do like this area, but only because I'm now really good Friends with a bunch of the members, but man. i need a new area. almost 6 months in my first area is way too long! haha. but, we are finally starting to find good investigators here, so its sad that i will leave once things finally start to pick up! but hey, life goes on eh?

So, the last 4 days have been super hot. not just me being a sissy hot, but even the Dominicans and my companion are whining, its been super hot and SUPER humid, like humid enough that some of my ties are starting to mold...boooo. not a fan of that haha. but i don't really have anymore stories...hum. i will finish this email off with a joke.

whats brown and sticky??

a stick!!!
note--when translated into Spanish, this is not a good joke. makes no sense...

one more, thanks to Danny.
¿cual animal es el mas aborrido?
un pescado!
¿porque?
porque siempre hace la misma cosa, NADA!!! jajajajajaja!

in translation, what animal is the most boring? a fish! why? because it always does the same thing, NOTHING/SWIMS!! (nothing and the conjugated verb for swim are the same, nada. haha. funny.

ok, love you, bye!!

New Years pictures

So first off, i am officially on day 3 of my BLACK YEAR!! the entire year in the mission that i wont see the family! all of 2011 is my black year. crazy. oh, and i was in 2011 3 hours earlier than most you haha. just saying.  so ya.

Any who, how are things there in the 801? i hear its pretty cold! that's really awesome, im super jealous.
so i have a few short stories. first off, during contacting a few days ago, we contacted into an evangelical lady (of course, hay millions of them) and she YELLED at us. because she was saved, because she was also a missionary and she has had revelations that she was saved and that the evangelicals were true, and that we were wasting our time talking to her, and that there we other people that we should talk to. it was super crazy. it probably doesn't sound too crazy, but she was going off. it was weird. next, in the internet center that i am in, there are like 4 people in the little stall next to me. and they are like leaning on my and kicking my chair, on even tried to push my chair to the side while i was sitting on it so they could all gather around, meaning they were trying to push my out of my own little stall. sooo, ya, not fun. but, oh well, such is life here! haha.

So, new years! nothing really spectacular. we had to be in the house at like 7 on the  31st because people are sooo drunk and crazy that its dangerous for us. so we got in early, made a AMAZING dinner. ill send pics, and then played some go fish, i studied a bit, then went to bed at about 1245. so we live on the 2nd story of our house, and the people below had a HUGE party, had 6 of the huge speakers, like ones from a concert, and were playing crazy bachata music until like 4 am. SUPER loud. it was crazy! man. so didn't really sleep that night! and then Sunday, i was really crabby. we had, once again, a super long meeting with the bishop, about things that have nothing to do with us. about 30 min was about missionaries, which was a good meeting, then the last hour and a half was about the phone at the ward. now, this was during the last 2 hours of church, and we had 2 investigators there for the first time that we have been trying to get to come to church for around 2 months. we couldn't go to the classes with them, cuz the bishop made us stay in the meeting. about the phone. i love our bishop, he is a great guy, but he truly has the gift of tongues, as in he can talk for unreal amounts of time about really simple things. but when its about the phone in the ward, which we aren't even allowed to use, and we have a  mission phone, i dunno why we needed to be there. it was really inconvenient, and because of it i honestly doubt those investigators will come back, they were a little lost and didn't really know what to do. so, well see.  so that's about my week story! love you guys! and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Elder MacArthur

I just realized i often talk about just the crappy things that have happened, haha. so i probably sound always crabby and depressed. not so. ill make sure to throw in more happiness next time,haha.
ok love you buhbye

NEW YEARS FOOOOD!! so good.

chicken foot?

I'm awesome, just admit it.

cant read the watch, but its at like 12 and 3 seconds, in 2011!