Welcome to the DR!!

I am here! The DR is really different than anything I have experienced yet in my life. But it is so awesome here!!

Let's start with the work! Cuz that's the really cool part. We found 18 people this week. The people here are just ready to learn! We invited two people to get baptized. Both of their stories are awesome!

One said yes. After our phone call with him, we celebrated, then Hermana Fernández told me that the date we had set probably wasn't gonna be the actual day he gets baptized. Because in the Dominican Republic, there are a whole lot of people addicted to coffee or alcohol or living with someone they're not married to. And God has commanded us to live His commandments before we make covenants with Him.

So we went to teach him the Word of Wisdom (God's law of health) last night, and the whole time he nodding along like, "yeah, this makes sense." Then we asked him to live it and he said, "Hermanas, I already am." He used to be a coffee and an alcohol drinker, then he figured out the blessings of living the Word of Wisdom ON HIS OWN a few years ago and quit. God prepared him! God is preparing people everywhere and it's so cool!

The other person said yes, but wouldn't set a date. Hopefully she will commit to work towards a certain date this week when we talk with her again. We suggested a date after she said yes, and she was like, "I don't know, that's really soon." And then I testified straight from the heart that the most important thing is that she gains a testimony. Until then the baptism can wait. And when I said that, it was without a doubt that she will gain a testimony. This church is true and she wants to find truth. So she will. It may take time for her to build her testimony, but if an honest seeker of truth investigates the gospel, the Holy Ghost will tell them EVERY SINGLE TIME that this church is true. 

That was a big moment for me because I have always been scared to promise things like that because what if they don't feel anything? But I am learning a lot about faith. My comp has taught me to pray for faith to baptize every day and it's making a huge difference!

Also, gues what? The Spirit can direct you even when you have no idea what is going on. (Gift of tongues includes the language the Spirit speaks.) People speak Spanish here. Very fast Spanish. It's really hard to understand. I understand more every day but if we're talking to a person who talks faster than average, I sometimes understand a very low percentage of the conversation. And there is always extra noise, often loud Spanish rap music, so it's hard to concentrate. In one such situation, we talked to a lady and taught her most of the Restoration. Then my comp didn't invite her to church. That day was Saturday, and we invited literally everyone we talked to that day to come to church. As we walked away, the Spirit made me ask why she didn't invite her to church. My comp said that she had said she had a baby when she was a teenager, and not a single person in her church ever came and visited her, so she's kind of turned against churches. Whoa, I had not caught any of that. We decided to pray, so we did, and we both felt like we should go back and invite her. So we did, and she said she couldn't this week because she'll be traveling, but that she's totally up for going with us! That was cool.

Every day around 2pm, we leave the house. We walk around and visit lots of friends and find new friends along the way. We have so many lessons every single day. If someone's not home, we just visit a person who lives near them or find a new person to talk to. We have backup plans for our backup plans. If all else fails, we do the last resort: eating dinner. I think ate dinner one time last week. We're just too busy for it. Lunches are huge though, so it's fine.

I tried chinola this week. Passionfruit. It's huge here. Everyone makes drinks out of it. There's straight chinola, which I tried first and LOVED. It's amazing. There's also chinola mixed with every fruit you con think of. And also other random stuff. One of our friends gave us chinola con avena (chinola with oats). I thought I heard wrong when she said the name. But it was actually delicious!

I'm going to try at least one new fruit every week. Going to the store today was so fun. The produce aisle is filled with stuff I have never seen before. I asked Hermana Fernández the name of everything. I don't remember any of it. 😜

Speaking of Hermana Fernández! She is my comp and she is AMAZING!! I love her so much. She's hilarious and I'm learning so much from her! She's a native Dominican. One of the first things she said to me was that we're both from the mata of our country. That's a slang word for tree. Utah is the "mata de los misioneros" because all the missionaries are from Utah. Santo Domingo (the capital) is where all the Dominican missionaries are from.

Don't worry though, she also speaks English. I just get to teach her fun slang like "that's a rip" when I say something she doesn't understand.

Driving here is like life size Mario kart. It's kinda scary. Fortunately we don't drive ourselves, but we find ourselves in carritos públicos and gua guas (public transportation), and I usually feel like I'm about to die.

Also we don't drink the water here! We use filtered water to drink, cook, and brush our teeth with. I drink like five water bottles full of water every day.

I love all of you! I don't remember what free time is anymore because we are so busy here! I wish I could write more, but I gotta go!

Hermana Cazier 

Pics

1. I don't know what all of these fruits are

2. Us

3. Lagartija

4. CHINOLA!

5. right after I got to the DR! 

* June wasn't able to contact us, her parents, when she arrived in the DR, so the mission office was kind enough to send us an email and a few extra pictures. It looks like she was well taken care of and there were lots of newbies like her.