Elder Matt Smith: Matthew In Cotui

Week 1

Que lo que familia? So yeah I didn't get to email last week that was a huge bummer because we are out in the campo and it takes a while to get to from Santiago. We left and went to the mission house last Tuesday where we went out and did splits with the elders around the area and we got to have pizza, and had our interviews and meetings. My P day is usually Wednesday but we have a zone conference so it is today instead. I hope everything is going great back home, and I hope that no hurricanes are getting y’all. I am serving in Cotui right now and I live in a house with 3 natives for Santo Domingo so it is tough at times. My companions name is Elder De la Cruz and he knows pretty good English which is nice, and the others are learning English as well. My Dad is a vacano(stud) and it is last transfer so I am killing him, and so he is a great teacher and is very spiritual. I am not going to lie the living conditions are killer, no a/c, power half of the time and water for a couple of hours in the morning, so I am always wet from sweat which is gross because I can't take a bath when I want. The living conditions are not important though, they actually help because the people are humbled and are ready to be taught which I like, like the poor Zoramites in Alma 32 I think or so. It was really hard to adjust cultures just like that, and I was super home sick because I didn't get to email at all. None of the others really feel what a change it is for me, and I’m just figuring things out on my own because they just don’t know that I don't know how to do anything here. The bucket showers are great though, nothing like a cold bucket of water to wake you up in the morning. I think someone at some level saw that I was struggling with the culture quite a bit, because usually you have another American to help you out but I didn't have that. So last night and today I did an intercambio with the zone leader to help I think adjust me to the culture and teaching. The people here really don't speak Spanish, they speak Dominican which is really hard to follow sometimes. I can usually understand what is going on when people are speaking though. My dad makes me teach quite a bit even when I nod my head he makes me force my way through it which helps me learn. It is really easy to teach lessons here and the people here are great! Church is definitely a lot different here, I will just say that. So of course it was my first Sunday here and they made me give a ten minute talk which went mas o menos I think. When I read what I had written, it was hard to pronounce and a lot slower. I could feel the spirit come when I put down my notes and just start speaking from my mind, and that is when I didn't stutter and started to catch peoples teaching. The ward members are great and we pay 3000 pesos a transfer for our food to be cooked for lunch everyday. The culture here is killing me in some aspects such as they eat a small breakfast and dinner and a huge lunch which is really hard for me to get adjusted to. But good news we were able to be in Santiago today and I found Dr. Pepper! So I loaded up and I had McDonald's for lunch and it was like a feast. There are just a lot of things about the culture here that are extremely different for us but I am not going to go into it. I am being humbled everyday, and I am learning patience more than ever. There are just some things back home I just don't think I will ever complain about again. I know when I am teaching with the spirit and when I am trying to use my knowledge and logic but that is not the way that you can truly convert people. Logic a lot of the time just leads into arguments, which just brings in the spirit of contention. So my companion and I are blanketing the area, so it is kind of a maze as we try to make our way through the town. Soda is way cheap here, I can by a 20 oz Pepsi for 40 cents which is nice during the day because my throat gets sore from speaking Spanish all day and we don’t have any cold water at home. I love the guys in my house and it is fun to learn there culture, but it is hard when we are talking and they are talking about there culture and I have no idea about what they are talking about. Last night I stayed up till 1 with an American elder because I needed to learn how the transitioned and it was fun to talk about things in America in English for once. So it says to be in bed by 10:30 but that is not possible with all of the planning and stuff going on. So I am pretty tired most of the time but it is for a good cause, 6:30 comes really early. When it rains here it rains hard and for along time which is fun to sit and watch and have some cool air come through. Its funny when people listen to American music here and they do all the time, when the Branch President picked us up he had California Girls playing the whole ride and it was just funny to see a 40 year old guy listening to this song by himself.

I started writing this letter in Santiago but now I am continuing in Cotui.
Tomorrow’s going to be tough because we have to get up at 4 30 for a zone conference with President Anderson because we live so far out. I am glad everything is going great at home and that Jacob’s team is doing well, just continue to work and you will be fine. Let the game come to you and don’t try to dominate the game, continue to work hard and show up the guys above you. You have tons of talent and ability and use it to be a leader to others throughout the year. Yeah girls, sounds that everything is going good so continue to work hard. Have fun at HC no matter if you have a date or not, and enjoy your senior year, and Makenzie the DR is way different especially with the cops they just carry shotguns and if you try to steal something you get blown to pieces. I will work on that postcard next P day we just had a 1 trip to Santiago for the transfer today so next week I will try to get that to you. You better be good at Spanish so when I get home we can speak some Spanish.

I hope that all is going well at home, work, school, and sports and I am praying for you everyday, and hope that I am working hard enough so that y’all can receive the blessings of my work. The internet here is really slow so I will try to send some pics every time, so I don’t know how that will work. These are my roommates, companion, and mission president. I have a lot more I will have to send some more.

Yeah, if you get some garments get some Large, crew drilux and some M drilux bottoms por favor. Also, could you a photo album with photos of our family from the vacations and of our family that would be great.

It sounds like BYU isn’t doing to hot then I guess, I was getting some pretty detailed reports from some elders in our zone, I guess like half our zone checks ESPN on their P days so hopefully I don’t get drawn into the trap, if you could also tell me how Texas is doing that would be greatly appreciated. Its funny when we go eat lunch sometimes they will have football on the TV so I got to watch a part of the Colts Giants game and I saw Peyton throw a nice pass to Dallas Clark for a score, so I don’t know if that was this week or what but I think it was this season.

But yeah I am enjoying the mission now, the first days were way rough but I have a great companion to help me out. He is a native from Montecristi and he is planning to go to BYU in the winter so hopefully he gets in. He is really intelligent and has much knowledge I can learn from. He is a convert and the only member in his family, but he enjoys this gospel so much and teaches incredible. It makes me afraid to teach sometimes because how well he does it. When I did the switch with the American I felt much more comfortable because I can understand and he teaches in such a more simplistic way. I am learning so much everyday and it is incredible. We have some really good investigators, but for the most part we are meeting people because we are new to the area. I hate doing contacts but it is something we got to do to find people to teach. We have a keyboard in our house so I can work on my piano skills quite a bit, I had to play a lot in the MTC in Santo Domingo because I was one of few people that knew how to play. My companion is pretty good at it to so he is the ward pianist, I hope I don’t have to play in sacrament meeting I hate playing in front of people.

I will give more info next Wednesday. I love y’all a lot and have a great week.

Con amor, Su Elder Smith

Week 2:

So I guess my email didn’t send last time because it was too big, and I am really sorry about that. I wish that it did and it sucks because I don’t have anything today. But yeah I got two dearelders from Jacob and a dearelder from your sister Becky mom. So I will get on later today, I really want to talk to y’all and it sucks I just don’t get much news out here out in the country about what’s going on back home especially because I am the only American in my house. I hope all is going well at home.

But from last Wednesday, we had a Zone conference with President Lee and Anderson about how the spirit works and how we can invite the spirit by asking inspired questions that allows the Spirit to work. They are incredible teachers, and people. They are super spiritual, and it is cool to have guidance from them constantly. It was great, the spirit works in the mind and then in your heart and then in your soul. But it was great even though it was like 6 hours long, so if you think church is long try sitting for 6 hours. But there was an elder in the CCM that had TB, so I had to get tested for TB again so I got another needle stuck in me which I was not to happy with especially how he didn’t stick it in all the way the first time so he had to it again. Oh well, so I don’t have it so that’s the good news.

This week has been so much better than the first week, I can somewhat understand people unless they start going off in Dominican then I just look like a deer in the headlights. I have had a couple of dreams in Spanish this week so Spanish is really starting to kick in, and my companion Elder de La Cruz makes me teach and just stares at me until I say something which is good because it forces me to teach and the next time I teach it is so much easier. At first I had fear of talking and contacting, but now I am excited for it because I can see how much my Spanish has improved and I enjoy using it. My companion is great though some times he is tired because he is on his last transfer. But the thing that makes me learn the most is that twice a week my companion does an exchange because he is the DL so I have to teach a lot of the lessons because I am the elder in charge. President Lee asked me to read the Libro de Mormon aloud and that if I did this my Spanish would become so much better. I have only read 100 out of the 650 pages and I can tell that my Spanish has dramatically increased. I can speak pretty fluently when we are teaching for the most part but out on the street I’m lost. When I need to say something, usually the words come to mind, I can testify that the gift of tongues is real! I can speak to the people in my house with ease most of the time. I have had other elders ask me at the zone conference how long I have been out and when I said a week they were surprised and thought I had been out for 3 transfers or so. Spanish is going pretty well and the investigators can understand me pretty much all the time which is a goal accomplished for me for now. I have learned more in two weeks here than I did in the MTC.

This week was somewhat successful for the most part, we had some of our investigators come to church, and we have a good number progressing which is fun to watch. You can tell that they are changing just in the lessons, by the answers and questions they have for us. This week we found a less active named Melvin and we got him to come to church, and I am playing basketball with him later today so I am excited for that. I love this area teaching wise just because the people are so ready, and we will have people get mad at us when we miss an appointment that we have with them. The area might be different from what I am used to but, I would rather be able to teach than have A/C and water. I enjoy teaching, now I get excited to teach and can't wait for my turn when my companion is speaking. And it is getting a lot easier to teach because I can somewhat understand their answers, and I can carry on a somewhat lengthy conversation. But it is hard sometimes, I am probably the most tired in my life but I am the happiest I have ever been in my life. You can find happiness no matter what situation you are in.

But more about my companion, he is way smart. He joined the church when he was 20 and started his mission when he was 25 so he is 27 now, so I finally got it out of him. He wants to go to BYU this winter and has the English too. Its funny he told me that he has 2 businesses, and for the first 6 months of his mission he was running them on his P day, which shows how smart he was and is good at making decisions, but he realized he shouldn't be doing that and is one of the most spiritual people that I know and is a great help and comfort when I get discouraged. He is just a great guy and we get along well even though he doesn't like sports, which was a little difficult for me at first. He knows the scriptures from front to back and he teaches me so much.

But yeah I hope to get on later and hear from y’all, it sucks being this far from y’all and not being be able to talk to y’all whenever I want, but I know I am where I should be. I am being more and more humbled everyday and it is for my benefit.

Remember to study the scriptures constantly and pray both day and night. This is something that is really important, and I can't express the importance of it in words. There is so much to learn, and I wish I had more than the couple of hours a day I have to study them. I wish I could just read them all day, but I have to go out and teach. Sometimes it feels like I am learning the gospel all over again when I am studying it in Spanish. I have a lot of vocabulary to learn that it is insane.

But yeah the funny part of the week is we were walking down a street yesterday and these Dominican girls where yelling at my companion and I in Spanish of course, so I have no idea what’s going on, so my companion turned to me and said they wanted my body, so I was just like I am good in Spanish and continued on.

Have a great week!

Love Elder Smith