OCOA BOUND

Hey fam! ok, so this week was a little...hard. my and my comp have not been getting along as well. but i do have one really cool story. so, Saturday we were leaving a neighborhood and i went into a colmado to buy some water, and inside was a drunk guy. he grabbed my hand and starting rambling off about how he has a book that talks about Joseph smith and that we wants to talk to us. i was at first thinking he was crazy. i told him when we passed by his house, that he should call us then and we would talk to him when he wasn't drunk. he insisted, so i put a cita with him for Sunday evening.

 

Sunday we pass by his house, and at first he doesn't recognize us, and then finally remembers. he invites us in and we go and talk with him. we start the lesson and it actually starts really good. every time we brought out a scripture to teach a principal, he started to smile and understood exactly what we were trying to teach. the then goes in the back room and gets an old book. its an old D and C and Pearl of great price. way old, the first of the Spanish ones. that was the book he was talking about. now, even crazier. on Friday, the day before i met him, he had a feeling about that book and that he should start reading it. so he read a bit and was loving it, and then the next day we met. that lesson we had with him was one of the coolest lessons I've yet had in the misson. he is a chosen one for sure. he has so much faith and is positive that when he prays he will receive and answer that all we said was true. so amazing, really. but, i wont see him progress more, because I'm piecing outta Las Matas de Farfan! 

 

I'm going to Ocoa, its in like the middle of the county, google it and you ll see. its really green and mountain up there. in fact, its THE area that i have wanted to go to since i started the mission haha. i am really stoked. its also a 6 man house! there are 3 companionship's there. I'm going to be with Elder Adams, i lived with him my first transfer here, so that should be good! he is cool! we are really different, but i think we should get along just fine! so this letter is gonna be way lame I'm sorry but i spent all last night packing and today, and packed away my agenda with my list. ill give you all a good legit update next week, and hopefully ill have a good computer to send some pictures and such. we have to leave my area in about 2 hours and spend the night in San Juan since we cant leave here early in the morning. but i love you all and will for sure give you a good update next week!!

'Elder MacArthur

ps, anthony gets home on the 3rd!! so...ya. thats cool.

Shmoop

Hi! so this week, well, to tell the truth has been a more difficult one for me. so, Monday, after we left Internet, we went to English class with an inactive member who teaches it. it was good, i really like going to that class and helping them out. Tuesday, we set 2 new baptismal dates, there names are Yessher and Cenaida. they are awesome. Yessher is 26 and Cenaida, his mom, is like 62. but they are super amazing and have a ton of interest. Wednesday was really typical, and super duper hot. but nothing of any real note happened that day in truth. Thursday was insane. we had a TON of lessons planned and  we were running behind almost all day, and it wasn't really good, since all the people we taught had ZERO interest in what we were saying, only talking to us so that they wouldn't be rejecting the word of God. man, i feel bad for missionaries who go places where no one wants to talk to them or don't believe in God, but i assure you all when EVERYONE will talk to you just because you will be talking about God, who will be hearing but not listening, man, its suuuper frustrating! but ya, the last few lessons of the day we passed by just to put a lesson for the next day since we were out of time for the day, and far away from the house. 

 

Friday we had District Meeting, and the Zone leaders came to bring us some mail and to do an Intercambio. boo, i hate intercambios, i think they are soo inefficient. anywho, i was with Elder Vargas, he is cool. we had a alot of spare time that day, since we couldn't contact the day before and so we kinda went on an adventure in the middle of nowhere. it was cool enough, minus the super heat. then, that night we had organized a movie night with the members and investigators. Yessher and Cenaida came and it was great, we watched Legacy. Saturday, we got very little done, first we got fired by our first lesson, so we went to English class again, the teacher really wanted  to meet his Saturday afternoon class. it was awful, i remember why me and Hawks never went there, full of super flirty 13-16 year old girls. awful. we were about to leave, and out of NOWHERE the heavens burst. hard. it was raining suuuper hard. and then, it started to rain harder. come to find out that it was hailing. like, huge chunks of ice. it was insane. all the class was freaking out, i guess it is super rare for it to hail here even one time a year. then, about 20 min later it was blue sky with the sun shine out, and hotter than you can possibly imagine. aye aye aye. 

 

Later we had a few lessons and every single one fired us, we visited a few other people close by, and then had a meeting with the leadership at 6. and we learned something great in the meeting, the entire Caribbean area is now FORBIDDEN from reading from the Liahona magazine for talks in sacrament! it was a habit here now, people would get up, say "i chose my talk from the liahona of x month of x year" and then proceed to read an article, then testify for about 5 seconds about it, and leave. awful. it was so boring and awful. but from the area presidency it is now forbidden since all the missionaries were freaking out about it, it was awful. we also talked alot about improving the quality and reverence of sacrament meeting and such, its a really big problem here. so that was the first leadership meeting i have had here that we actually accomplished something. baby steps! then Sunday after church, we brought Yessher and Cenaida to the church and watched the Jose Smith, prophet of the Restoration video so they could learn more about him, they had questions after watching legacy about why there was so much persecution and why Jose smith was killed. but it was a really good lesson with them. And so ya, that was my week. Sorry this was not a great letter, once again i left my little list i had made in the house...but i love you all, have a good week!

-Elder MacArthur

¡Gallinas estan atacandome!

1y2 in the wilderness of las matass de farfan

 

 

Hi kids! ok, so I'm gonna try and write you all a better letter this week! ok, so, first off. Monday, right after we left Internet center, we went back to the house to pick up our stuff, and then go walk to the lessons we have. right before we get there, we get a call from the zone leaders, saying we have to sleep in azua that night, since we were going to the capital on Tuesday to go to the capital. azua is super far away, like, from las matas where i am, its about 2.5 hours. so, we immediately go back home to pack up our stuff, and catch a bus to San Juan, then from San Juan to azua. it was way awful. get to azua, then we have to split our entire zone into 4 houses. the house i was in was a 2 man house. we had 8 people there that night. it was awesome. then, we wake up at 5 am, and get a bus to the capital, like 2 hours and a bit. get to the temple por fin, and chill for a bit and wait for president and the APs to show up. go to the temple, which is always good, then we have to leave fast. we put way to many people in the office van, and go off to Caribe Tours (it a big bus company here) so we can get the 115 bus back to San Juan. we got there at 114. if we missed the 115 bus, the next isn't until 5. and its a 3 hour and a bit drive. and from San Juan to las matas is an hour. so if we missed it we wouldn't be home till at least 9. but, lucky there was a bus that was actually leaving at 2! so we got that one and all was good. so we got home at around 7, and we just showered and such, since we had gone 2 days without showering and nearly 10 hours of traveling.

awesome lagoon with chikitin, a cool member kid

more wilderness

Wednesday we start out the day contacting! ya! that is an excellent way to start the day....not! and we had a few lessons planned and the all fired us. lame! we had a lot of spare time after that, so we went and picked up the new pants that i had made and they are amazing, just FYI. then at night, we bought some real milk (as in, straight from cow) and my companion made an amazing sweet milk candy thing. wow. Thursday, was really, REALLY hot. like, really hot. for real. my companion made and amazing locro with ribs! mmmm soo good. we had like 16 lessons planned, we went to a few, and then it started to rain. like, Noah era type rain. lets just say, once it ended, to leave to area we were in, we had to get wet up to the knees. and we were walking on the sidewalk!! it was insane. it was only raining for like 30 or 40 min, but it rained SO much. also, there was a ton of lightning. this country is cool. especially in mountain areas like this one, we have electrical storms almost every night. just random lightning off in the distance all the time. its pretty cool. but anywho, ill try and send pics today, and if so i have some good ones! 

 

member with super cool shirt, named Coco

Friday, we had to go and visit all the people we couldn't visit on Thursday and share with them of put an appt with them for a different day. then we went to the other lessons that we had and it was another good day of nearly everyone firing us. the rest of the day we just visited a bunch of members and such. Saturday was good, it started with eating a cantaloupe sized mango, then we finally had a member to leave with us. and we taught like 10 lessons with him. it was really good, only problem was with the rain and everything, our agenda was a little messed up so we had to walk to one side of the area, and then the next lesson was on the other side, and it was like that all day. needless to say by the end of the day i was absolutely exhausted. we also ate a bunch of 10 peso bollitos, they are little things of yuca, and they are amazing! wow. anywho, now Sunday. Sunday so many random little things happened. so we go to church, and we had a record low of 44 people in church, including us 4 missionaries and little kids. it was awful. in elders class they just all argued about really unimportant doctrine. then we leave for the day, and our first lesson isn't until 430, so we decided to go and visit some members that live in Los cartones, witch is pretty far away. on the way we get stopped by a crazy drunk guy, asking us how long we have been in the service (ALOT of people think that we are military and that we are from the CIA, legitimately) and we told that it wasn't true and that we are missionaries, so he started yelling and saying "i am a chemist! i know that you are cia!" and really random stuff like that, and he kept saying he hate Americans but he wants to live with them and it was just super strange. 

 

stuck in the mud in the wilderness

 

 

So later on, at our first lesson, we are sharing with this girl and her super catholic neighbors, and her son is sitting on her lap. he is a little less than a year old i believe. now, some background. here, kids are ALWAYS naked. always. so, this naked baby is sitting on her lap, and i am in the middle of explaining how Christ established his church, and all the sudden we hear a way gross sound and the boy had just explosively pooped all over the ground. luckily it missed her, but the boy just acted like nothing happened. the neighbor lady just laughed and said "wow! without shame! (sorry, that's a bad translation...its better in Spanish "hai, sin vergüenza eh?!" ) and it was super funny. then, as they lady was cleaning it up, we hear another crazy sound. look back, and there is a chicken (also, LOTS of chickens roam the streets here) and it has a frog in its beak. yes, a frog. and it is just beating it to death against rocks and stuff. and there were a ton of other chickens around it trying to steal to frog. it was just super random and hilariously strange. then, things calm down, we finish the lesson, and it was great. it was a REALLY good lesson minus the pooping boy the the murderous gallina. then we go to one more lesson, and the go contact more. and when do you know, we contact a super crazy old lady, go to shake her hand. she grabs it strangely, kinda hunkers down, and super awkwardly kisses our hands. it was so weird. so ya, that was my week! 

 

elder hawks, my step son who just left me

Juan Antonio Moreta, my new mini misionary son! and dont worry, not getting fat again, just bad camera angle. i promise.

Oh, and not like its anything new, but it has been SUPER hot this week. man alive, and way more humid than normal. and our landlady is still crazy and so we haven't had water for 2 days. today i showered with just over 2 cups of water. yay being clean! also our light schedule has changed so we don't ever really have light at night. its so lame. and by light, i mean electricity. man. lame.

anywho, hope you all have a good week! tell dad that that kid who got called here can email me anytime and i would love to answer any of his questions. also let him know about my blog! ill try not to scare him too much :) haha.

but i love you all!

=Elder MacArthur

 

 

Stalker? Maybe so...

Wow, what a week. so, Monday, me and my comp are walking, and all the sudden i get a call, its private, and its from our investigator, Liliana. she starts to talk and express her love for me and such...ya. so, that sucked. so Tuesday we went to he house one last time, shared a bit and invited her to continue reading in the book of Mormon. so, we left, with the intention of never leaving again. then, we start getting texts from Liliana's sister and we find that she is in love with my companion. awesome. more on this later. 

 

So Wednesday we work for just a few hours, catch the last bus to San Juan, and then head down there to spend the night. i slept on the hard floor, with my book of Mormon as a pillow! ya! then early Wednesday morning we got the first bus to Azua to have zone conference with president and Elder Cornish(70, new presidency member of the Caribbean). it was super good, all about faith, but really, Really long. we were there from 8 am until 3 in the afternoon. it really so so long. but afterwords, me and my comp had to talk to president about the whole Liliana situation, and he almost special transferred us, but we told him that as of now, it wouldn't be a problem. she had called us over 10 times durning that conference...aye aye aye. 

 

Anywho, so we then go home, and because we got out there so late, we did not get back to our area until 8 at night. Friday was a normal day, just trying to get back on schedule and make up all the people we had to fire from getting back so late the day before. in the afternoon Liliana called us from a different number, and was asking why we hadn't come by, and my comp told her why, and then she just hung up. about 15 min later we get a long text message with a bunch of excuses, trying to tell us that its just a joke, and that if we don't pass by her mom will be all mad because she liked listening to us and such. then Saturday, me and my comp went to the market early to go and buy a bunch of food for the next few weeks. and on the way, guess who we ran into? you bet it was Liliana! she cornered us and started interrogating us, and we got outta there as fast as we could. sunday, she comes to church, and it was just super awkward. she then asks if she is still going to be getting baptized this coming Saturday, and we told her no. it really sucks, because she really does have a testimony and does want to be baptized but we can no longer do it. so, in a few months, when new missionaries are here they can give her a call and go and teach her. so ya. pretty much my week has been normal other than trying to deal with all this Liliana madness. 

 

Also, its been like flood raining everyday for a few hours. so, needless to say, we have AWFUL numbers. but none the less, we will be having another baptism this week if all goes good, her name is Yamilet, and she is 14, super cool. so that should be happing if all goes well!

 

Good news, were going to the temple tomorrow! so we once again have  to sleep in San Juan tonight, but I'm stoked to go to the temple again! even though round trip its over 8 hours of travel in one day...aye!

also, next p day is different, you all NEED to write me Sunday, not Monday. my p day ends at like 1 your time next week. so, ya. just be aware of that. that would be awesome.

anywho, love you all, and i will try and send pics next week, i keep getting unlucky and getting all the crappy computers that do not like to send pics, and its been awhile. so, ill try and do better with that next week. anywho, love you all!

-Elder MacArthur