The Hood

Quiero Que everyone!! I can't believe that I have been in the DR for one week. This place is straight bonkers. First things first my trainer is Elder Fuhriman and he is so dope. He has been here for 5 months and on the mission for 11 months. He was assigned to Missouri before coming here but he is dope. My area is called Pueblo Nuevo and it is in Santiago Sur (south) and yeah it is pretty sketchy.

To describe how sketchy it is my Companion told me he was shocked to see that President would put white kids here let alone put a new white kid here haha. My comp was robbed here like a week before I got here so we have to be really careful about where we are and what not. Honestly the first few days here were pretty scary and I was feeling a little like I can't do this. But then Elder Fuhriman showed me a video about faith and having no fear. It was exactly what I needed and now I walk through these streets like I own the place. Even though that would be impossible because I don't even speak the language haha.

Besides the fact that we are serving in the hood this place is awesome. I have become real humble after this first week here. We live in an apartment with 2 rooms and a super small kitchen. We don't have a shower that works so we get the amazing opportunity to shower out of a bucket with Ice cold water. Honestly isn't that bad. The water also turns off when it rains and it rains a lot. So when we have water we have to fill up these massive buckets with water and then pump it through a filter if we want to drink it. We don't have AC but we do have fans and they are amazing, unless the power goes out which happened yesterday and it was so hot lol.

As far as the work goes it is going! We have 3-4 people we are seriously teaching right now and making progress.Yesterday was a little disappointing because only 1 of them came to church. One of the girls we are teaching is 14 and she is named Sharlin. She is so cool! She has been to church 2 times so she has met all the requirements for baptism but has told us there is something inside her that is scary about being baptized. I had a really cool conversation with her the other night while my companion was doing baptismal interviews with others because he is the DL. She used google translate a lot because I don't understand a lick of Spanish haha. She asked me about leaving my family and said how hard that probably was. I explained that leaving my family was so hard and that I miss them so much but I am here because I know this gospel is true and that it will make other families happier. She was shocked to hear that all of my siblings have served and that we all do it for 2 years.

We are like celebrities here to the kids. They all want to touch us and be our friend because we are white haha. Last week was super hard because it is hard for me to connect with the kids because I don't understand them at all and so I can't really connect.

One cool thing last week was playing baseball with a stick and bottle caps with the kids. They were shocked that I could hit to bottle cap haha. Low key was hitting bombs and they just wanted to keep pitching to me but we had to go work.

The Email rule. It is a rule in our mission that the only way we can talk to friends is through email and it has to be in a group chat. So if you want to talk to me shoot me a email but make sure to include someone else in the email as well.

I wanna end this email with a spiritual thought. Last week was really really hard. I don't understand the language. I miss my Best friends and family like crazy, and this place is sketchy. But I know I can do this because the Lord is watching over me and all missionaries. My comp shared a really cool scripture last night with me as I was expressing my fears and doubts to him. It is in D&C 121:7 "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;" This hit me hard. Even though this is the hardest thing I have ever done I know it will get better. I love you guys so much and miss you all dearly. The Lord is on our side and will bless us if we follow him with our whole hearts. This church is so true and I know that as we read to Book of Mormon sincerely and pray about it it will be made known to us the truth. I can't wait for another week of growth in the DR.

Love,

Elder Wilde