Sent on August 12, 2010
How is it going guys? The Dominican Republic is awesome and I am doing well for the most part. The food is great (rice and beans for every meal), but I guess my stomach is not used to the micro organisms in the food so I have had a stomach sickness for the past two days that I am getting over right now and should be good after tonight. A couple of the other elders got it to, so I got a free sprite out of it though. The Island is beautiful, but people like to just leave there trash on the ground as we found out while we were cleaning the university for service today. The people here are awesome, and are really nice. Every time a member that is in the building or at the temple sees my name tag I get asked if I am related to Joseph Smith, I get asked about 10 times a day no joke. That is the first thing the Haitians asked with the little English they know. Pesos are way sweet and there are like 36 pesos to the dollar. I made my first purchase with the peso on the way back from the university, I bought a 20 oz coke for 20 pesos( little over 50 cents) so it was a good deal. On Tuesday we had the President of the Caribbean area 70, President Viñas, came for our devotional and he was a powerful speaker that showed a good ways to use the scriptures. That is way sick that Elder Bednar is coming for stake conference, so y’all will get to see an apostle before me, lucky. I love it here though the temple is 30 seconds from our building and you can go walk around after meals, and you can see the ocean from there. We got to go to the temple today, but luckily they did it in English this time, next time I think they are going to do Spanish. I have the same companion as I did in Provo thank goodness, but this time I am the senior companion. I like our district much better in Provo. Here there are 4 people who don't act like they care that much, and then are 2 roommates that are over the top on everything, and are always telling us what to do while Elder Miller and I just chill in the middle. Yesterday Miller and I taught a ten minute mini lesson in Spanish and our teachers said we did really well, but we had an advantage because we have been working with each other for 4 weeks already. I’m working on getting used to the humidity again. I think I lose 5 pounds at gym everyday from sweating so much. The other day we had some natives that just got through going through the temple and they played some ball with us. They were a little shorter but they could play, and it was a great practice to work on Spanish. The first full day we were here I was talking with a 12 year old but I only made it a minute before he looked back at me with a blank stare, so I have gotten a little better since then. I love the people here! Our teachers know English kind of, but they usually speak Spanish. They are a little lazy sometimes and sometimes they get on facebook or just sleep in class right in front of us. Dominican Spanish is super fast and they just blend words together so it is hard to know what they are saying a lot of the time, so you have to listen closely. I’m nervous but excited for tomorrow because we go to the University to hand out pamphlets and work on Spanish. Other districts that have done it came back, and they said they had no idea what was going on. I did get dear elders from mom and Brittney so I do get them pretty quick still.
Brittney for your talk seminary as prepared me so much for my mission! Getting up early everyday and studying the gospel is what you do here, and it is a great preparation in high school for the mission. Seminary helps in daily life because it helps start your day on a spiritual note, and gets you ready to take on the world throughout the day. The purpose of a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ. And you can't help others come unto Christ if you haven't done it first yourself. Seminary helps you learn the doctrines and the Gospel of Christ that you need to have knowledge of to share with others. Having the knowledge I have from seminary has helped me so much while I teach. The more you know the gospel the easier it is to simplify it for the investigator which is hard to do a lot of the time. Hope that helps
I would like if y’all could do me a couple of favors for the next dear elder/ email: Can you change my address on facebook to where I am now, Also can you get on my facebook and look for a friend named Johnny Ott and see if it has where he is going on his mission yet. Also can you get Andrew Wilkes’s email and address for me from sister Wilkes. Also you can send me my memory card if you want, I probably won’t send any more of the cards home from risk of losing them, but I think I can email them when I am out on my mission. If you could do this that would be great!
It was great to talk to y’all last week and I hope all is well. I'm sorry mom but there won't be many pictures from the CCM (MTC). The first rule they said when we got here was no picture taking except for like the last day or something, so you can call him up and change that if you want, just kidding. I love y’all a lot and think about y’all in my prayers.
Elder Smith
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