Week 2 Letter

Kelsea’s friend/family letter -July 3, 2014

Hello everyone!

It's been another week here at the CCM! I'm really happy here, and I'm starting to feel settled. My companions are really nice, and I'm starting to feel like better friends with them. The elders in our district are a lot of fun, but sometimes we spend more time laughing than learning. We're trying to help them focus a little more. haha But they're great. They all like to sing, so we spend a lot of our time singing hymns together, and we sound pretty good! Tonight, Hermana Halling, Elder Bracken, Elder Stewart, and I are singing Abide with Me; Tis Eventide for Family Prayer. :)

On Thursdays we get to go to the temple. It's in the same parking lot as the CCM. It's so beautiful inside and we're so blessed and lucky to go. It's been really neat.

This week we got to go to the store. It was the first time we were allowed to leave the temple grounds, and it was so much fun. And so hot. We were dripping sweat by the time we got back. But it was so fun to see what the mission's actually going to be like.

So I can't remember what I told you last week, so hopefully I'm not repeating myself. There are 13 of us, and 10 are going to Puerto Rico. Two elders and I are going to Santiago. And last night, we got 25 new missionaries. 3 are Haitian sisters and they are serving in Haiti, and the rest are from the US serving in either Santo Domingo east or west. We just met them this morning so we haven't really had a chance to talk with them, but they all seem really nice.

Mom, I forgot to tell you that Sister Carroll stopped by last week and gave me the bag. It's a fanny pack. haha I died. Then I opened the bag and found a strap. Phew! She's really nice. :)

How's Grandpa Jorden doing? I didn't really hear a whole lot about what happened. Did he have to go to the hospital or anything? Does he have scars?

A few days ago, two sisters serving in the Santo Domingo East mission asked us to help them with their lesson. They were teaching a less active family, and they wanted to teach them about Lehi's Vision, so they had us blindfold the family and lead them around with a rope, we led them to the entrance to the temple, and had them hold to the railing and walk up to the temple ("iron rod"). Then they took off their blindfolds and had them look at the temple. It was a lot of fun to help the sisters, and it was a taste of what being a missionary is really going to be like. I can't wait!

A Day in the DR:

The culture here is a lot different than most Hispanic countries. The Dominican people still speak Spanish, but they are black (which in my opinion, is the best combination haha). The sport that everyone loves here is baseball, not soccer. It's been really fun to see what everything is like here. Last night, Hermano Rubio was telling us about his favorite foods, including cow tongue, pig ears, and pig lips. Bleh! I really hope I don't have to try any of that! haha :)

Well, hopefully I covered everything! Let me know if there's anything else I missed!

I love you all and I miss you lots, but I'm really happy to be here! I'm loving the language and all of the people, and I'm so glad I have the blessing of being a missionary.

Oh, a few more things I forgot!

We just got called to be the Sister Trainer Leaders. Basically it's just our job to make the new sisters feel loved and welcome. It's hard to communicate with the Haitian sisters, but we love smiling at them! haha

If I already mentioned this last week, don't put it on the blog, but I just love the teachers here. They are so inspirational. They all have such a strong desire to learn, all the time. They all speak quite a bit of Spanish, some are working on learning French, some are learning new instruments, and they are all always looking for new things to learn. It really makes me want to learn everything I can. Especially in Spanish. I really enjoy learning the language, and I feel like I learn a lot each day. A few days ago, we taught two lessons, and both time the people we taught told me that my Spanish was ready for the field! I don't quite agree, but it's really comforting to know that I'm doing well, and not falling behind. The picture I sent is of Hermano Nunez. He's not actually our teacher, but he hangs out with us a lot when we take turns teaching the investigator, and he has taught us so much about the gospel. He's also hilarious. He's actually from India, but he grew up here. We couldn't find our real teachers, but they are Hermanos Ramirez, Rodriguez, and Rubio, and their first names are all Jose. haha They're really awesome. :)