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