Boca Chica 11 - The Boca Chica "Beach Boys"

SICK picture from our run this morning. Reminds me of The Life of Pi with the boat and stuff. The DR has the best sunrises by the way.

 

Hey guys, I hope you all had a great week and that everything is going good back in the US.

 

First off, I have officially been out here for a total of four months now. It really only seems like I just got here, but at the same time it feels like I´ve been here for my entire life. "Time" is a lie on the mission and I´ve learned to just try not to focus on it, and just focus on the work and everything will turn out the way it´s supposed to.

 

So we have transfers this week and we got the call last night that my companion Elder Tate is leaving for the capital and that I´m staying here in Boca Chica and Elder Buehner is also leaving for La Victoria leaving Elder Gee and I, who both have four months, to run the area. So the "Boca Chica Beach Boys" are going into retirement. I also found out that I´m getting a Latin missionary from Mexico named Elder Mendez as a new companion.  We´ll be with each other by tomorrow morning. I´ve heard really good things about him and I´m stoked to be getting a Hispanic companion.

 

One of the pics from the temple visit last week with Elder Tate and I.

 

This week went really well. Our investigator that is progressing the most right now is Maria, who I wrote about last week. She´s been going to church for about 9 weeks straight now. I still remember when we first contacted her. Just looking at her, you would´ve never guessed that she would progress. When we talked to her for the first time about two months ago, she wasn´t interested at all and we taught her for a week and a half but she wasn´t going anywhere. So we left her for about 4 days and she came to church for the first time. We were really, really surprised so we started teaching her more and more and she has now done all the things she needs to do to be baptized besides marriage. And so these past two weeks we´ve been working really hard with her husband German to try and get this process going. She told us she started on it a week and a half ago, on the papers and everything, but usually it takes a long time because of the way the DR is set up. BUT SHE GOT HALF OF THE PAPERS THREE DAYS AGO AND SHE IS LEAVING FOR SAN PEDRO TO GET THE REST TOMORROW. So as you can guess by the all caps, we´re really excited for her cause it´s possible for her to get married and baptized these upcoming 3 weeks. It´s just helped my testimony grow so much to see the changes she´s made in her life and how much she loves the Gospel now. She´s already a strong part of the Ward and we´re having the church activity at HER house on Wednesday cause she said she wanted to. She´s become family to me and Elder Tate and I are both very excited for her.

 

Elder Tate and I again. I´m gonna miss this fool.....Everyone thinks I´m from Brazil cause of my accent and my look too - which is funny 'cause I´m as white as white gets.

 

During my time here, I´ve learned a lot. I´ve already changed so much as a person. My thoughts have changed from "what I want and what I need" to "what others are lacking in their lives". I´ve learned so much patience and love for everybody I see.  I found a scripture in my studies this week that really touched me. It´s in the Bible, in First Samuel 16:7 and it might not quote it completely right 'cause I don´t exactly carry my English scriptures with me. But it reads:

 

"And Jehova responded to Samuel "Don´t look at the image and grandness of stature, because I have forbid it, because Jehova doesn´t see how men see. Men look at what is in front of their eyes, but God looks upon the heart". 

Pic with two of our other investigators named Jose and Mary. Jose is CRAZY good at guitar and they´re both from Haiti. We´re just working on marriage for them too and they can get baptized but we´ll have to see because it´s hard for Haitians to get married due to discrimination and stuff here. But they´re such an AWESOME family.

 

I have come to learn out here - where a lot of people don´t exactly look like "church going people" - that is this true. A lot of the times, the image and quality of a person is not what´s on the outside. It´s who they are on the inside.  God loves EVERYONE. Not just those people that are perfect and doing what´s righteous right now. He wants everyone to have a chance to come back and do the things that are right. I know that He loves each and every one of us no matter our circumstances and that He wants to help us. We just have to do our part.

 

I love you guys and hope you all have a great week.

From the DR,

 

Elder Graff



Boca Chica 10 - Time is Flying

The Santo Domingo temple which - in my opinion - is the most beautiful temple in the world tied with Gilbert. It looks so much better in real life, too.

 

I don't know how it's P-day again. It seems like the P-days are kind of just coming now. I don't really anticipate it all that much anymore. Before I know it, it's already Sunday night and I just think to myself where the week went.

 

But this week was AWESOME. First off, we had the temple day on Tuesday. The temple here in the Dominican Republic is beautiful. Palm trees, tropical flowers, and the weather right now is really nice. But more than just the view and outside of the temple, the visit to the temple was exactly what I needed. It was so peaceful and it was a great experience to be in the House of the Lord with all of the other missionaries in our mission. I loved it and it really motivated me this week and just helped me to stay energized and animated, because the mission is NOT EASY. I never really understood what a mission was until I got here. I mean, I always wanted to be a missionary but I never knew how much it required. What you do, the work you're accomplishing, and how ready you have to be for the challenges and hard things that will come. There are ups and downs every week. But I'm loving my time here right now.

 

As the transfer, or these six weeks, are coming to an end, my companion Elder Tate and I are working really hard and trying to help our investigators overcome their challenges and be able to recieve the blessings of baptism and this church. But we have been focusing on one investigator in particular lately.

Elder Aplanalp and I looking about as thug as missionaries can get hahaha.

 

We have a woman named Maria that we are teaching.. She's been coming to church constantly for 7 weeks in a row now. She was a contact that Elder Tate and I had at the start of our time together. The amount she's grown and progressed in our time together is crazy. She quit alcohol, we got her discs of the Book of Mormon so she can read, and just recently we helped them set a date for her marriage with her husband. Her husband isn't really interested in listening to the message, but we had an awesome lesson with both of them about 5 days ago. He said that he would support her in her decision to become a member of the Church and so they have a date to get married for the 31st of this month and hopefully soon after she can get baptized. We're really excited for her and everything she's doing.

 

I'm seeing miracles in the lives of people that we know here every single week. As my companion and I have been working and praying and fasting for everyone we're teaching, the progression they've made is dumbfounding. God's helping us out big time and I'm having a lot of experiences out here.

 

On a side note too, we went to the beach this morning for our exercise and it was LEGIT so I'm gonna' hopefully have time to send some pics of that too.

Pic from the many beaches we have down her in Boca Chica. Every P-day we either run or take a bus out to a beach for morning study. We´re one of the only areas with a beach in our area. Our president is legit enough to allow it too as long as it´s early and the beach is empty.

 

Hope everything is going good and that everyone is loving life.

Love,

Elder Graff

Boca Chica 9 - Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Boca Chica 9 - Feliz Ano Nuevo!

Picture of me with some "Kanye" which is sugar cane and a "gata de ora" or "drop of gold", which is an AMAZING mango that grows here.

Feliz ano nuevo a todos!

For me, it´s crazy that it´s already 2015. I still remember all of the stuff I did, the memories I made, and everything I went through in 2014 like it was literally yesterday. Time is really flying by and it´s crazy to think that on New Year´s Day started my "black year" here in the DR, where I won´t see the red, white and blue for an entire year. 

New Year´s for missionaries really isn´t anything special, though. We had to be back at our houses by 6:00pm because - as most of you can probably guess - things down in South America on any occasion to throw a party or drink, gets CRAZY. So we were back to the house by six, but we made sure to buy tons of "ponche and cidra" (or egg nog and cider) for the night. We really didn´t do a lot. We talked about a lot of things in the house and went to bed just like any other night but I got like zero sleep that night cause the bishop across the street was throwing a huge block party with tons of loud music and yelling and stuff. But it was still awesome.

Some of what the houses look like here. Really, really humbling to see some of the places that people call home. A lot of houses here are just tin with anything else they can find or put together.

But over these past couple days, I´ve really been thinking about this year. What I want to do with my only full year here as a missionary in the Dominican Republic. And when my companion got sick with a fever of 104.2 (and that´s no lie), when I was inside for the whole day I definitely had a ton of time to think and read the scriptures and just do everything I could not to fall asleep. And I´m starting to put together some goals for the year. I want to make this year the best year of my life, and the best year "for" my life. I don´t want to waste any time that I have while I´m down here. Just thinking about my purpose here, what I´m doing, and who I represent made me so motivated to just find as many people as I can to get to know and teach. I still want to have fun, cause if you aren´t having fun as a missionary you´re doing something wrong, but I want to be focused on why I´m here and what I´m really doing. I´m not just here to lose weight, learn a language, and chillax on the beach all day. I´m affecting people´s lives. I´m bringing something to people that they possibly haven´t ever heard before. Something that I know can bless their lives for the rest of the time they´re here on the earth and after. I´m just super glad for this year and the chance I have to be a missionary. But anyways, that´s my "motivational speech" for all of you haha.

 

Pineapple we got from a pineapple truck that goes around blasting the same thing from a microphone taped to the roof of the truck that says "Pina deliciosa, pina madura quince pesos por una pina fresca" and it just yells that over and over again till someone comes up to buy - and then they shut it off until the purchase is over and then turn it on again. It honestly gets so annoying sometimes we just buy something from them so they shut it off long enough for us to get out of the area - haha. We bought this during one of the breaks playing baseball on Pday with the Dominicans.

 

I don´t have a ton of time to write so this won´t be as long as usual full of stories and stuff. But just know, that I love you all and that I´m doing great here in the DR. I hope you guys have a great 2015 and make a ton of memories with friends and family.

Happy New Year,

Elder J. Taylor Graff

Boca Chica 8 - True meaning of Christmas

Boca Chica 8 - The True Meaning of Christmas (from December 29)

Decorations at Christmas time are sick even though they´re just bags and ribbon. Domincans get creative when decorating cause they don´t have a lot to use. These are up all over the streets as well as Christmas trees made out of soda bottles.

 

 Well, this week was full of a ton of experiences and it was an awesome seven days. I´ve really been enjoying this holiday season and this Christmas time even though it´s really the first time in my life I´ve ever been without my family on Christmas. But I really wasn´t as "trunky" or homesick as I was expecting. I mean, hanging up after an hour of Skyping the family was really hard don´t get me wrong on that. I felt like I was hanging up on them for the rest of my life. Hitting that red button with the phone on it was one of the hardest things I've done in my life up to this point. But after the Skype call and everything, it was just a normal day as a missionary. We went and visted all of our investigators and our two families that we´re working with. We made a juice called Pera Pina, which is basically pineapple with rice that´s boiled and you just put it in a blender after with sugar and honey. Some of the best tasting stuff I´ve ever had in my entire life let me tell ya'. We also were put in a "food coma" with all of the food we recieved from members and our investigators. Our entire fridge is still full with all of the food we recieved on Christmas. But, what is more important is the lessons we had the spirit we brought that helped our investigators a ton.

 

 Picture from the baptism that I never got to send!!!!! Best day of my life on the mission so far. The service was awesome. Sorry if the picture is bad quality.

 

We visited one of our investigators, Anthony, and the visit was one of the most spiritual experiences I´ve had on the mission so far. Anthony is seventeen years old. A STUD baseball player that is getting looked at by the Yankees and the Rangers and just trying to get out of the Domincan Republic like most kids by playing baseball. But anyway, we met him through one of our other investigators that we haven´t seen in a while. And our first real lesson with him was this lesson. We taught him the First Lesson, about the Restoration of  the Church, Joseph Smith, and really about our message and how its different. But when we were talking about the experience Joseph Smith had in the grove, the Spirit was SO strong. He was quiet and just seemed almost transfixed and confused on the feeling he had. But at the end of the lesson, when Elder Tate and I shared our testimonies and then sang the song "La oracion del Profeta" with him, which is also about the experience Joseph had in the grove, tears started streaming down his cheeks. He sang with us and we all just kind of sat there for a while. It was an awesome feeling. Just to see someone so tough and someone that has seen so much happen in his life in a bad situation at home, touched by this message. It really was a great experience and I´m glad that I was blessed to have it. He´s doing really well right now and we´re hoping we can meet with his family next time and get them more involved so he can have support coming to Church and everything.

 

A picture from the Christmas party we had with the Sandival Family which is one of the families that we´re working with right now. They´re awesome, and the party was fun. Started two hours late cause we´re on "Dominican time" over here but it was still legit.

I just want to say that this Christmas was the best Christmas I´ve had in my life. Not because of the gifts I recieved. Not because of the snowboarding trips, hot cocoa, hoodies, and family - even though I miss all of that. It´s because I was truly focused on the meaning of Christmas and I was serving others the best I knew how. And really, to me, that´s the point. That´s why we celebrate Christmas. To give to others. To help those that don´t have as much in any way we can. I´m grateful for the sacrifice Jesus Christ did for me. And I´m grateful for the time that we have to celebrate the birth of him and all that he did for us. I hope everyone has an AWESOME NEW YEAR. It´s crazy to think that it´s already 2015. But yeah, enjoy it and I love all of you.

 

Tgraff, I mean Elder Graff, signing out from La Republica Dominicana until Monday. Have a great week.

Elder J. Taylor Graff