A True White Christmas in the D.R.

Phillip had a very wonderful (and very lengthy) phone conversation with his family on Christmas Day!

He said he had a message for both of his loyal blog readers:

"As the new year begins, may we all begin anew our committment to good music, good food, our family, and the gospel of Jesus Christ!"

Of course Phillip's parents worried about the potential “homesickness” that naturally results from the Chrismas calls, but Phillip and his companion had a baptism (a Mom and Dad and 8 year old daughter) scheduled for later that evening which all agreed would be the single best remedy to any homesickness that might result from the Christmas phone call!

The following are excerpts from his email on Monday reporting on the Christmas Day baptism!

Hey my favorite Christmas family: I love you!

I´ll tell you all about the baptism. I realized I forgot to tell you the whole marriage story. [The parents of course could not get baptized until they were legally married.] It was a huge fight to get them married. After their third trip into the capital and a small miracle, they got the permission to be married.

On Wednesday, the judge was a bit lazy and said that she´d rather do the ten minute service on Monday. Anyways, the Assistants to the President´s for the south talked to the judge and convinced her to do it right then. They got married without any problems.

Later that night, I ended up doing an intercambio [missionary exchange], with Elder Messidor, one of the assistants. I actually loved the intercambio with Elder Messidor. He´s Haitian, goes home in about two weeks, and is a stud missionary. He definitely teaches like the Book of Mormon Prophets with power and authority.

But back to the baptism. They all showed up to the Church with no problems. They all had a lot of animo (excitement) to be baptized. They decided that Elder Urry would baptize the Mom and the little girl, and that I would baptize the Dad. The baptisms were great. I didn´t get the Dad fully into the water the first time, but the second time was perfect. My shirt got all wet and I forgot to bring another one, but no worries. It feels good wearing a damp shirt all night.

We went to the family´s house after the baptism to celebrate with them. When the Mom prayed at the end of the night, she was truly grateful for the feeling she felt that night. She definitely prays with her heart and she knows that she´s talking to God. Something that I can work on in my life. They all showed up to Church on time to receive the Holy Ghost, then the Dad bore his testimony.

I Love...the people...of the world!

Elder Phil

All That Matters

To read a letter from Phillip to Gretchen, go here.

Here's his letter from the week...

The big news of the week is that Confesora was baptized.  It was a great baptism.  Elder Urry did it.  We weren´t exactly sure how to do it because she doesn´t have much control of her legs, and she´s a fairly hefty lady.  He tried a few times, but her legs kept coming up.  Finally, what we ended up doing is a priest from the branch rolled up his pants and came in to the font.  He held her legs down, while Elder Urry went in with her.  No need to worry, she was immersed and the next day became a member of the Church.  She gave a great testimony in Sacrament yesterday too.  She´s not all the way there in the head, but she knows the church is true and she comes every sunday.  That´s all that matters baby!

We had some great lessons with the gangster, Amaoris.  Actually, probably the best lessons I´ve had on the mission.  We went with a woman in the ward named Marsela.  She´s my favorite in the ward.  She got baptized about 4 years ago, and always bears an awesome testimony of the Book of Mormon.  He reads and prays.  The problem is, he left out of town for about a month yesterday.  So we gave him all the pamphlets, told him to keep reading, and hopefully, after he returns we´ll get him to Church.  And the papers of Bolivar showed up this week.  He´s getting married.  He has met with the missionaries just about every day for the past 5 months, so he knows everything just as well as all the members.  Honestly, probably better than most.  So this Saturday we´re going to baptize him and his son Carlito.  I´m super excited. We´re still working on Fledida and Luis.  I doubt that Luis will be baptized now, but hopefully they get married so that Fledida can become a member.  

I had a good week.  I love you all!  -Elder LeCheminant

Always Be Enthusiastic and Get People Involved!

Familia!

How is everything going back in the estados unidos?

Wow! It´s amazing how much you miss the candied yams of Grandma Teedie when all you´ve had are rice and beans for a month!

Well, I´ll talk about how this past week was for us. Most of the days have been pretty typical for us. But I´ll give you a cap of some of the more exciting things that happened this week. We have two great new investigators. One, named Willy is a 16 year old kid. He had gone to Church like the last 5 Sundays, but no one told us about him, so he hadn´t met with the missionaries. Hopefully, we´re gonna teach him tonight.

The other guy was Amaoris. I talked to him on the street with a bunch of other guys who were playing dominoes. They all looked like thugs, so I started questioning them to give me some good Dominican slang. They were all more than willing. Dime a ver mi Pana Ful. Que lo que monstruo. Translation, talk to me friend. What´s up monster! He also wanted to work on his English so we said we´d pass by the next day. My comp figured he wouldn´t really be interested and just wanted to learn some English phrases so he let me do all the talking. I figured I had nothing to lose so I might as well be as enthusiastic about the message as possible and try to get this guy interested. I left him a pamphlet and he committed to read it. Everyone commits to read, but the most we´ve had is someone reading a couple pages from a contact visit. We passed by yesterday and he had read it twice. With some good questions about it for us!

So the lesson I learned this week is always be enthusiastic and get people involved, and don´t judge anyone by their looks. Because people are full of surprises!
Love,

Elder LeCheminant

This is the Santo Domingo Temple!

My First Baptism! Such A Great Feeling!

Wow! What a week it has been. I´ll begin on Monday after I emailed you all. We went to a “Noche de Hogar” (Family Home Evening) with a great investigator family. It was a blast! We celebrated the eighth birthday of their son and then we played “Don´t Eat Pete” with the family. The Dad gave us all t-shirts to smack the loser with when they ate “Pete”. We pummeled each other into oblivion.

The next day was Tuesday and we had the conferencia de zona with president and his wife. They are great folks. I mailed the letters to you with the memory card, and I got a whole bunch of letters. They made my day!

Wednesday, we spent some good time with the family that got baptized on Saturday, finishing up the lessons. We taught some other good lessons and had a good day.

Thursday, that day was great! We woke up early, and got on the bus going to the capital. The whole zone went to go eat at President´s house. It was a Christmas dinner…in the beginning of November! We were the first zone to do Christmas dinners which is why it was so early. We had interviews with President and just hung out. The food was to die for. I haven´t had a good home cooked meal like that, complete with lasagna, steak, etc., well since the end of August. I really like Hermana Almonte. As nice as can be!

Friday came around and we had a fairly uneventful day. We planned, contacted and got the family ready for baptism. They all passed the interview and were excited. There was also an activity in the ward that night that we helped out at, and got some investigators to attend.

Saturday came around. My first baptism! I found the note you left in my pants Mom, talking about my first baptism. The baptism was the highlight of my week. Even more so now, that´s my goal. Once a week! I baptized Madelin first, then right after her, Melen. Such a great feeling! There was a 12 year old boy named Joselito that came to the baptism that told us right after that he wanted to be baptized. I said great! We´ll start teaching him today.

Sunday, they all arrived to Church early and received the Holy Ghost. During a lesson on Sunday, I had my second favorite story of the week. We gave a woman a message about families and I tried something new and showed her the pictures of our family in the photo album you gave me. She couldn´t have cared less about the lesson, but she loved the photos. She told me that Gretchen looks like one of the Dominican Soap Opera Stars.

Have a great week. I love you all!

Elder LeCheminant

The rain in the Dominican Republic stays mainly in the plain

Familia, good to hear from you!  Always the best part of the week.  Well once again, numerous adventures this past week.  The hurricane came through.  Where I am in the D.R. it rarely rains, but that changed this week.  On Tuesday, the zls called us and said that we had to come stay a couple nights with them in Azua.  It was actually pretty fun. 

We borrowed a mattress from a member and the four of us moved three mattresses together and slept there.  That was only for one night though.  We kept on the split for the next night, and my comp and Elder De La Cruz went back to Sabana Yegua and I stayed in Azua for another day. 

We did splits that next day and I went with Elder Garcia.  My Spanish improved significantly.  Being thrown into a place where English is not possible, is something else.  I thought I did pretty well for myself.  We taught a few lessons and I had some good chats about the Book of Mormon and prayer.  That was actually a great day.  The irony is:  it didn’t rain at all that day.  As sunny as can be.  The next day, when they cleared us to go back to Sabana Yegua, is when the rain came.   We got a whole bunch of rain.  It poured on us.  My comp informed me when we work in the rain, our wives get better looking though.  (Note from ML:  I love mission folklore!) 

We were supposed to have a zone conference, but I think the rain actually was a problem in the capital.  So our zone conference got moved to tomorrow.  I’m stoked for zone conference.  Everyone says they’re really good.  And then also this week on Thursday, we’re all going to the capital for lunch with the president. 

I am going to send all letters tomorrow, so that will determine how quickly letters get back to the states.  I got a great picture with my new tailored pants.  Tailored pants, that is the only way to go.  I am going to try and remember to take a picture of our apartment.  I have a ton of pictures from the CCM, so watch out.  Some are good, others aren’t.  Just erase the blurry ones.

And p day. We played some basketball this morning, and then after we got all ready, we played some more ball in Azua with the zone.  Good times, good times.   

Sunday, was a bit rough for us this week.  Here, we have a phrase, whenever someone backs out of a commitment, they fallared us.  We had a few investigators fallar us on church with some lame commitments.  I’m pretty sure that the toughest part of missionary work is going to be to help people keep commitments. 

But the great news of the week is we have five kids getting baptized this Saturday!  They’re all great.  They’re names are Madelin, Melvin, Magelin, Melin, Miguelina.  Haha, seriously, all sound alike.  They all like me and we have fun together.  They went to church and the parents are going to be baptized too.  However, technically, the dad doesn’t exist.  He has no birth certificate, so we are working on that.  Their names are Fledida and Luis.  We set a date for another great lady last night.  Her name is Confesora.  She’s in a wheelchair and has had a rough life, but she keeps coming to church and believes with all her heart.  She can’t read, but as long as she does what she can, the lord will take care of the rest.

Other items of note:  I got a haircut this week. I’m starting to understand these people.  At least with Gospel related stuff.  My comp is a stud.  Once he saw my personality a bit, he really likes me.  One night, we had to come back at six because of the rain.  We spent the rest of the night making videos on his camera.  It was his year mark.  You guys have gotta see the video of his shirt being burned.  Alcohol burns baby!  We’re working hard and I love the ward members here.

Love Elder LeCheminant

Phillip is just a skosh taller than his mission president

Weekly Letter to the Mission President

Presidente Almonte,

Todo bien aqui en Sabana Yegua. Tengo un gran entranador con Elder Urry. Nosotros trabajamos bien juntos. Mi español esta mejorando rapidamente. Tengo Animo para nuestro conferencia de Zona en Martes. Estamos trabajando duro, y tenemos suerte porque 5 niños van a ser bautizado este sabado. Vamos a ayudar nuestros investigadores para que puedan asistir iglesia con nosotros.

Elder LeCheminant

It feels as if I´m walking through a National Geographic magazine.

November 1, 2010

Many things have transpired this past week. First day in the mission field was Tuesday. We woke up at 5 am, got out of the CCM and drove to the Santo Domingo West mission home. I got my entranador (trainer). We had a quick meeting with President and his wife. A few hours later, we got on a bus and headed out to Azua. Compo baby! My area is Azua and the specific area we´re assigned to is a small town called Sabana Yegua. We got settled into our apartment and went and visited some ward members, taught a couple lessons and called it a day. That was the first day in the mission field.

Compared to some of the other places that we´ve seen, I´m living in a palace. With that being said, I´m taking bucket showers, and flushing the toilet with a bucket. Anyways, a typical day in the field thus far has been this: 6:30 am, wake up, pray and work out. At 7 am, I hit the books, study my English scriptures for a bit, then move to Spanish study. Sidenote, I thought that I was hot stuff in the CCM with my Español, but now that I´m here, I´m singing a different tune. It´s a good thing that I´m not afraid to look like an idiot cause I´ve done it numerous times. My comp is a solid Spanish speaker and I understand a lot of what he says. But, you double his speed; add a Caribbean twang and you´ve got what these people speak. Es muy dificil para entender a ustedes. (“It´s difficult to understand you guys.”) But I´m not worried. I only have a week out here. I´ll be rolling pretty well in a few months.

Back to the schedule, after we´re done with comp study we go and do our morning activities. Then, we come back for lunch, or if we´re in Azua we hit up a comedor. We take our siesta til 2:30 pm, (where I study more Español) and after that, we do the work. Generally, we go to our appointments we set up the day before. Teach them about the Book of Mormon and the restoration and set up return appointments. At about 5 pm, we contact for an hour and make appointments for the next day. Then for the rest of the night we visit and teach our progressing investigators. That´s a pretty typical day. And it´s great! Finally, I´m doing something with my life.

Cool stuff I´ve seen. Well, I´m definitely not in Sandy, Utah anymore. It feels as if I´m walking through a National Geographic magazine. Seriously, I´m in real life Dominican Republic. I´ll give you a taste of what I´ve experienced. When we have to go into Azua we take what´s called a cambioneta ride. No joke, today, they packed 20 people into the back of a small pick-up truck while we were flying 60 down the highway. Plantain fields to your left, and palm trees and beach to your right, it really is an amazing sight. I saw a cock fight in somebody´s front yard two days ago. I saw crowds packed around a small TV watching the first game of the World Series. Imagine that street, with thousand of dirt bikes whizzing past you. Everybody here has motorcycles. I´m talking crappy, old, motorcycles. Wild, wild stuff. Anyways, I bought 5 butt ugly compo ties for 100 pesos. Little under 3 bucks.

I love the people around here. Everyone is so happy and accepting. Teaching the deacons and teachers is the best part of my day. There are 3 or 4 that hang out with us a ton. I practice my Spanish with them. I´ll end with a good spiritual experience. We were teaching a family outside at night time. (A good portion of our lessons are taught outside.) But I remember looking up and seeing more stars in the sky than I had ever seen in my life. The entire sky was lit up! The works of God are endless, and even though I´m on the other side of the world, with people who have nothing, we´re all children of God with the potential to return and live with him again, as long as we keep the commandments. All people have this opportunity. And I´m grateful to be here and share this message with the people here.

Love,
Elder LeCheminant

D.R. Hospitals & The Book of Mormon

Dear Followers of the D.R. Phil Blogosphere,

I welcome you to my humble abode; that of Santo Domingo!  I wish my 8 faithful followers well, and pray that we can navigate this mission quest together, one soul at a time.

Well, I've had my first real adventure to report on the blog.  I have seen a snippet of real life in Santo Domingo.  I have spent two nights in a downtown Third-World hospital.  On the cold dirt floor, while nurses ran around disposing of needles directly next to my pillow!  Ahhh, just kidding!  It was just like an American hospital.  I slept on the couch.  Slept great by the way, while my companion was in bed recovering from pneumonia.  Most of the doctors spoke English, and, if nothing else it made for a good journal entry.  About as exciting as MTC Mission life can get I suppose.  To pass the time, I read a lot of the Book of Mormon, both in Spanish and English.  And I gleaned some new theories from the Book of Revelation (or Apocolipsis in Spanish)! 

I still have a tough time understanding the people when they're talking quickly, but I'm getting to the point where I can read the Book of Mormon in Spanish halfway decent.  My favorite story from the hospital though relates to a nurse whose name is Norma.  I saw her first a couple days before when my comp had an appointment with the Doctor.  I started talking to her and she told me that she had seen some programs on TV about the Mormons.  Sadly, I didn't have a Libro De Mormon with me that first time, but I got here name, number and address.  Luckily though, last night, I was grabbing some water in the hallway and I ran into her again.  She was happy to see me.  I led her into the room, wrote my testimony in the Book of Mormon I gave her and then committed her to read it.  She then led my companion and me into the room where all the new babies were.  She was so happy to show us the newborns! 

I hope you all know that I'm doing great.  I'm excited about the work that I'm doing and I'm looking forward to leaving the MTC and entering the field next week.  More adventures await and I'll tell you all about them! The Church is true!

Love,

Elder LeCheminant

Welcome to D.R. Phil!

Phil is still in the Dominican Republic MTC--he's got about a week and a half left. 
From his October 14th email...
"Some way or another, even though I can't communicate too well, I've gotten all the janitors and maintenance guys to love me.  Everyone except the cooks.  You should see the look of dissapointment on their face when I say "No habichuelas hoy."  No beans today.  I don't know if I have told you guys about it yet, but the fruit here is to die for.  The pineapple here is unreal.  And mom, a couple times a week we get papaya too.  My abdominal system has never been running smoother.  On the subject of food, my big accomplishment for the past couple of weeks is this: I have  gotten used to the milk.  I came here expecting no cold cereal for the next 2 years.  After 1 week I couldn't take it anymore, so I ate a bowl of  corn flakes without slurping the milk. Now, I'm banging out 2-3 bowls of cereal every morning, downing that milk like it's nothing.  I have hope for the next 2 years."

We're like the Donny and Marie of missionaries

To the tune of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing"

Just a mission girl
Livin' in a BC world
She took the mornin' flight going to Salt Lake

Just a missionary
Goin' to the MTC
He's got just three short weeks and he's on his way

Chorus:
Siblings, waiting, heading out to serve the Lord
Their nametags gleaming in the niiiiight
All the people, waiting just to find the gospel
In two years, we'll meet again in the liiiight

Don't stop believin'
Just because you're leavin'
We'll meet again in the light

(Written by Gretchen in her last email as a missionary)