Villa Agricola 10 - Normal

Villa Agricola 10 - The "Normal" Week

Sometimes, I feel really repetitive in my letters. So I`m not going to start off my letter with "This week was..." or "I love my mission" hahaha.   Sorry if sometimes my letters get boring it`s just hard to think about all the things that have happened and have time to write about them all in the 15 minutes I have to write this.

But a lot of things have been happening in my area lately. With the people we`re teaching, they were kind of in a dead point, or not really progressing all that well like we had hoped they would.  So Elder Maatatia and I have really been trying to work harder and depend on God more. And we have been seeing the results. Everyone we have been in contact with have been seeming to - little by little -  love this message of the Gospel of Christ a little more each day. Maireny, who we`ve been teaching for about a month and a half is finally having her baptismal interview tomorrow with our mission president. We`re really excited for her and we`re just hoping the best. Yesterday, at a lunch with her and our ward mission leader, Juan Carlos, she even brought over a friend and explained to her how this Gospel has helped her with her kids and everything and how we "arrived in her life at the time where she needed the most help". We`re going to start to teach her friend tomorrow.  The changes that Maireny has been making lately have really showed us how ready she is.

Question: "Do you guys have mangos in the US"

     Me:  "Of course we have mangos."

2 days later    *Sees GIANT mango the size of my head*

 

     "OK, we really don`t have mangos in the US."

When I was on an exchange with Elder Vega the Zone leader about three weeks ago, we saw some kids playing basketball as we were contacting in the morning. We both looked at each other and felt like we should play with them. So we took off our ties and asked them if they wanted to play. They said that they`d take it easy on us because every missionary they`ve ever played with they`ve beat. Obviously, we were offended because we aren`t just everyday missionaries when it comes to basketball hahaha. So we made them a deal. That if we won they all would come to church. But if they won, we`d buy them all a juice. They said yes and so needless to say, we both played like LeBron and Stephen Curry. We won and really didn`t think any of them would actually come to church. But one of them, Melvin, came and hasn`t stopped since. He`s 16 and one of the most prepared teenagers I`ve seen. He`s already asking about a mission, bringing friends to church, and we`re hoping to set a baptismal date with him today.

I`ve been having some truly unforgettable experiences out here and meeting friends and basically "family" I will never forget. I`ve really been coming to realize that my time in the Dominican Republic isn`t going to last forever. I only have 2/3 of my mission left to go. But I`m trying to live in the moment 

Bikes and Motorcycles: A SWEET motorcycle I saw while we were on the way to a lesson. I wish you guys could see how long the people do wheelies here for. They honestly, at 2 years old, start wheeling. I saw a kid once riding a bike around that had no front tire - and that`s no lie.

Oh and one more thing, it`s mango and hurricane season now which is SWEET. You really can`t have a bad day when you start it off with a homemade mango smoothie (see Mango photo above).

Hasta luego gringos,

Elder Graff

 

2 Timothy 1:7

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a strong mind."