Elder Matt Smith: Thanksgiving in Mao, Dominican Republic

Hey guys, I hoped y’all had a good Thanksgiving. It looked like it from the photos from Disneyland and the dinner. We had a good Thanksgiving, we had a ton of turkey and mashed potatoes so we ate really well. It was a normal day for the most part other than what we ate for lunch. We had our p day today in Santiago and it was a fun day. We didn’t do much but when we went to the mission home almost all of my old comps and many of my good friends in the mission were there so it was fun to talk with them and chill with them for the day. Elder Montepeque had to get an ingrown toenail taken out at the mission home, and Elder Reyes was there with his comp so it was cool. Today I got to hang out a bit with my trainer and his wife and was weird seeing him outside of the mission. He has a lot on his hands right now, he has a great job, and was just called as Bishop in his ward, and his wife is now pregnant so it looks like I will have a little bro or sis before I leave the mission. We got Papa Johns for lunch so it was good to have some American pizza.

This past week has been really busy with being district leader and having to travel a lot and having to do exchanges with the missionaries in my district. It was cool to be on an exchange with Elder Jimenez who was my old comp out in Sabaneta and work with him and the families that they have. I walked in front of Wandy Rodriguez’s house, he lives out in Santiago. When we were passing by his house, the member with us asked me if I knew who he was and was like yeah he is on my team. So he lives out here in the off season. Our area is keeping us busy and especially my legs moving. We are continuing to work hard with the families that we have and other investigators that we have. It looks like we are going to have to start working on trying to marry people which will be a pain but we can do it. I am hoping that this transfer we will have 2 baptisms and the next transfer we should have quite a few. There are a lot of people that have needs and we have to teach them to help themselves out to overcome their weaknesses.

But yeah we are now into the Christmas hymns, here in the DR they start playing Christmas hymns in the middle of October so I am still working on getting the rhythms down on all of the songs. The mornings and nights are really nice here now, I actually wake up cold here in the mornings. I love sleeping with my big blanket with the fan it feels great with the cooler weather. My comp has been a little sick this past week but now he is feeling a lot better. That’s funny that Coach Miller was reffing Makenzie’s game, that must have been a joke. But hey I hope y’all have an awesome week! Love y’all a ton!

Love, Elder Smith