I love how the work is so much different here than it is in the states.

Hey guys, it looks like y’all got a couple of days without a/c and power. It looks like it was a pretty legit youth conference. But yeah, y’all can take some of the rain that is here, walking 10-15 miles in the rain isn’t the funnest thing in the world. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKENZIE! It’s weird to think that you are already 15. Congratulations, it looks like dad has to teach someone else to drive, maybe you shouldn’t retire the dodge yet.

So when I talk with y’all in less than 2 weeks I should have my first 2 baptisms! Cesar is stronger than ever so we have to teach him the last little things and he will be good to go. Also Emerson is getting divorced and married this weekend so if everything goes has planned he will be baptized on the seventh as well. Also we have Enriquez that will be baptized soon as well. So one of the zone leaders was sick and they had to go to the hospital and their doctor was Enriquez and he was explaining everything in detail to the zone leaders and testifying to them which was awesome. So when we played volleyball this morning the ZLs asked us why isn’t this guy baptized. We had a sweet lesson with 4 of the strongest members in our ward and one is a doctor that is well known in the DR and helped him out a bunch. It was probably my favorite lesson I have taught on my mission.

I love how the work is so much different here than it is in the states. You would think that the Holy Week and Easter would be the best week to teach, and it was one of the worst. Everyone goes to the beach or if they stay home they are wasted out of their mind which meant there was no one to teach. But we have a guy named Flavio that will be baptized in a month or so that is a stud, when we pass by to return to our house at night you can see him inside of his house reading the book of Mormon, which is awesome.

So we are just pressing on even though we are walking out in the middle of the desert and I am getting fried. I can’t wait to Skype with y’all 11 days, that is crazy! Take care guys, and have a great week!

Elder Smith

Matthew and his BYU Sweet 16 shirt

Matthew, Elder James and Elder Kinney

Volleyball and graffiti

Matthew and Anthony, a guy from his Branch

The other companionship in his house

Elder Reyes, Matthew's companion

Scenery

We just spend the days wet either with sweat or rain so take your pick

Hey guys how is it going? And yes, I did get the package today! Thanks so much! I think I have more t shirts than I know what to do with now, but they are some sweet shirts. Brittney you got to do work at qb position and you can’t let me down. But it sounds like all is good and it is hot there to. And yeah this past week my trainer in the mission just got married and as he told me he is "sleeping comfortably" now.

This past week it has started to rain quite a bit, and it is not a good combination with the power going out. At night trying to get down the dirt roads in the dark is impossible. There are huge puddles of mud and you have to try to dodge them but I'm not really good at that.

So we just spend the days wet either with sweat or rain so take your pick. We continue to have our up and down days but for the most part they are up. Are 2 crucial investigators came to church this past week so we are going too try too have them baptized next Saturday. So we have Cesar and Emerson that are strong now, and we still are working hard with our other investigators but it is hard to have them in church. A lot of them are doctors and are on call and don’t really have a choice if they go to work on Sunday or not, and its not like we can tell them not to go because people's life are at stake. But during sacrament meeting, our apostate Elders quorum president gave the worst talk I have ever seen in sacrament. He spoke on tithing and read the bible dictionary exactly and read a scripture about the untithed being burned and how he didn’t want to be burned.

So my zone leader is Elder Van Leuven who is from our stake back home or at least used to be so it is weird having him as ZL. But yeah we are working hard and we got a legit American in the house now so the 4 man house is fun. Thanks again for the package, my other shoes just died out so they came just in time. Good luck with everything and youth conference, and have a good week!

Love, Elder Smith

They eat all of the chicken in the Dominican Republic...
fried chicken feet, with seasonings

The Work is Going Great Here

Hey how is it going? Dang, that is freakin sad that Collin was killed in a car accident. Wow that is crazy! But I am glad that y’all got the CD’s, they made it home a lot faster this time around. But it looks like dad has to start cleaning the guns again seeing as Brittney got asked to prom. Is the economy not doing very good or something that they have to lay off 500 teachers? But some good news, I didn't get transferred and neither did Elder Reyes, we are going round 3 together which never happens in this mission. I am glad that we get along well and we have an awesome transfer set up. He was in the final 2 to be the assistant to the President but just didn’t come up with it. We thought he was going to be gone for sure this transfer.

The work is going great here, we have a lot of people that are progressing and after laying out a bouchea (chewing them out) we have gotten some more support. If the branch decides to work this transfer they could get the priesthood they needed to be a ward if they do something. The list of people that could get baptized easily this transfer is: Robin and Cristina, their son Hyrum, Flabio, Emerson, Cesar, Jose Manuel, Luis Manuel and Enriquez. Emerson is getting married soon and he has all the other requirements to be baptized and we had a sweet Family Home Evening with him this past Monday night. Also Cesar is freaking awesome, and keeps telling off his super catholic wife. We had a funny lesson with them last week when she was practically condemning the Book of Mormon and telling us that we didn’t respect the Virgin Mary. So I was like hey wait a second, The Book of Mormon talks more about Mary than the Bible and showed her what was up and she shut up pretty fast which was funny. The funny part was that Cesar was just like hey honey you can't deny that. So we are trying our best to get her to read and pray without arguing but it almost seems impossible. Enrique is a stud, he is super, super smart and we started teaching him after some members gave him a triple combination and he has almost read the Book of Mormon, D and C, and the Pearl of Great Price. So he can analyze everything really fast so he has taught me things that I have never thought of before and his lessons are my favorite.

But yeah, tomorrow is another letter on the dollar bill... So I am hoping things go as planned this transfer. I think President left us here because we have revived the branch from almost nothing, although they finally changed the Elder Quorum’s President to someone who isn’t apostatizing. Hey thanks for everything guys and I hope y’all have a good week!

Also I will probably get to Skype for Mother's Day!

Love, Elder Smith

We have more citas in the night that we can handle!

Hey guys how is it going? Man was that a great General Conference we had this past week or what?  I thought for a minute that President Monson was about to announce a temple in Jerusalem, but he talked about the temple in Rome. It was awesome to see the look on the faces of our investigators that are catholic when he talked about it. But yeah it sounds like you had a hectic temple trip this past week, only another 15 months until I can go to the temple again, freak. Temples were one of the bigger themes during

General Conference. I watched conference in English for the most part, it is a lot better than a dubbed over Spanish voice.

 I have just got used to being drenched in sweat and there is nothing that I can do about it. Hinckley hall uh, it is right next to the cannon center, so you don’t have to walk too much. How could y’all go to a Final Four game with out me! Y'all have got to be kidding me. Well today we got to go look at some Indian ruins and the Santo Cerro, which is so much cooler, ay not one bit.

We had a good amount of people come to General Conference this past weekend so that was cool, and the sessions that each of them went to were perfect for them. We have some great potential next transfer and I am pretty sure I'm staying. But this week for the first time we have done some exchanges with some members with the permission of President Lee, we have more citas in a night that we can handle. We have a list of families that we are working with that are gold. We have some people that are smart and ask questions that I have never thought of and have made me think and study and sometimes I learn more from my investigators than I do on my own. It feels like we are working in a desert sometimes walking on dirt roads in the sun all day, but it is worth it!

It is good that everyone is having some fun, Dad with his flying and the kids with their sports and it is way sick that y’all got to go to the Final Four, I'm just a little jealous. Way to be sinners and skip the priesthood session :). Take care guys and Have a great week!

Elder Smith

Indian Ruins

Santo Cerro

Sharing the Gospel with the Priest

Matthew and Elder Reyes

I am happy and the people here are awesome

Hey guys how is it going? Man it is just getting hotter and hotter every day, and I am terrified for the summer to come. I am already fried and have just accepted the fact that I will always be drenched in sweat but oh well. That is a bummer for BYU that they didn’t make it further, and dang they played another overtime game with Florida. But these last couple of weeks has been awesome here and we have found some studs that are progressing fast like I have never seen before in my mission. We had some set backs with some of our key investigators so we have to delay their baptisms till the beginning of next transfer but are working hard to get one next Saturday. Also good news, I found a store with Dr. Pepper for only 25 pesos a can in our area so I can feed my addiction once again.

We are working hard with a guy named Emerson right now, and when we first started teaching him he did absolutely nothing and ditched his woman. But now he has changed and is a new man. He is going to church, praying, reading a ton and doing everything to make things right. We are getting him divorced with his ex-wife and married with his new wife in the next week if everything goes as planned. He is opening up a lot to us and really putting the Atonement into his life.

Also we have a guy named Cesar that is a stud and a half. His wife is super catholic and pretty much attacks him when ever he is reading the Book of Mormon. But this week he came to church for the first time, and was probably the best dressed there and told us he had to argue off his wife for an hour to get out of the house to come. This guy has a testimony stronger than Elder Reyes and I, and is fuerte.

We have a long list of others that are progressing including our family of gold, and now we are teaching the best friend's family of the dad and are awesome. Also we have people that are doing work with the Book of Mormon and understand everything that we teach. I now have a new record of 18 lessons with out a member effort this week with 12 new investigators. I am afraid for transfers in 2 weeks. Also we had a zone conference Friday that was pretty legit.

I am doing well, the power here has been a little iffy the past week and it sucks when I want to use my fan when we come back for lunch after the morning but oh well, I am happy and the people here are awesome and I love the culture. Take care guys, I am always praying for y’all and hope y’all have a good week!

Love,
Elder Smith

Matthew, Aronny and Elder Reyes

Aronny is a member that has been helping them

Matthew feeding his addiction 

This week has been an awesome week

Hey guys how are y’all doing? I am doing more than good, this week as been a pretty legit week.
But dang BYU is doing work, they actually one more than one game in the NCAA tourney.
It sounds like y’all had a fun vacation, and I bet the concert was sweet. Tomorrow in our area there will be a pretty big concert from one of my favorite groups Tercer Cielo so it will be crazy tomorrow night.
Dad is finally starting flying lessons that sounds tight and Jacob has 7 on 7 coming up so that will be fun.

This week has been an awesome week. It started off last Thursday with a day that we were 6/6 with citas and didn’t have to do a single contact all day which was way sick. And finally this week we had a bunch of investigators in church. Our family of gold, Robin and Kristina and their kids, finally came for the first time! Our cita with them fired Saturday night so we thought for sure, without us reminding them, they wouldn’t be there, but during the first our in Elder's Quorum they called us and asked us if we could meet them outside and we were stoked. They enjoyed church which was good. But the thing to end it off with a bang, during Sacrament Meeting, President Lee walked in with his wife. Elder Reyes and my jaws dropped. He was nearby and came by as a surprise to take care of some things. So we got to introduce our family to President Lee, which makes us look good and President Lee gave them some advice to help them out and told them he would come to their baptism. Also the guy that we were teaching that ditched his women showed up during Sacrament Meeting and wants to repent and change so we are looking at about 4 baptisms at the end of this Transfer.

I have learned that things happen on the Lord's time and not mine while working in the mission. A lot of the time we want things to happen a certain way fast, but that is not how it works. We have got to be patient and continue to work and things will work out.

So we had a big week in that, and also I had an exchange with one of the zone leaders so I had to manage the area with him and it turned out great. Also on the bad side, our Elders Quorums President is apostatizing so we have to deal with that which sucks. Also my exchange with the zone leader we contacted a house that had a bunch of wizards and witch doctors so that was pretty sketch.

Take care guys, and have a good week and luck in everything that y’all do.

Matthew has already worn one pair of shoes out!

Matthew's study buddy

Cheers

Matthew's Bracket

Matthew 24

Hey guys what is going on? I am doing well just dying out in the heat and the sun but I'm still alive. I am guessing it is spring break right now and it sounds like y’all are having fun. So BYU is a number 3 seed, hopefully they can at least make it to the sweet 16 this year, that is crazy 52 points by Jimmer, dang. I was playing a little bit like Jimmer in our zone activity today not to brag or anything. I'm getting a bracket this week from a member in our ward so I got to fill it out without any info on how this year has been. But dang Friday morning we saw what happed in Japan in an investigator's house on TV, freak dawg. Elder Reyes and I have just decided to start doing contacts using Matthew 24, maybe people will be more interested now ha-ha. But yeah I'll send the photos of my shoes next week. Does Jacob have coach Dickerson for a teacher? And no I don’t think they celebrate St. Patrick’s Day here, what day is it?

This week was a little disappointing in that we didn’t have any investigators in church and it is getting crucial if we want to have baptisms this transfer. When I entered they made the rules way strict on baptizing people because of how many less active people there are. But this week we have found some really good investigators through contacting and we continue to work with the people that we have. We found an old investigator that probably has a testimony stronger than mine that Joseph Smith is a prophet and the book of Mormon is true, but is wife is super Catholic and his wife hates it when we talk to him, so he has us come over when she isn’t there. But this week his wife came home when we were teaching him and she freaked out, and we had a huge discussion for almost 3 hours with them and the guy finally bore his testimony to his wife and than she shut up so it was funny. This week we have had some lessons turn into bible bashes unfortunately, it just ends up with Elder Reyes showing them what is up and nothing good really comes from it. Other than that we have some golden investigators that are awesome and do everything that we ask them so it is exciting to work with them. We have a blind guy that we are teaching to that has had the lessons before but wants us to teach him again, and the funny thing is, is that his last name is Smith which is rare, rare, rare in this country.

Monday night when we got back to the apartment and a huge fight busted out on the corner so we were all watching from the balcony and it got way intense. And then at 2:00 in the morning someone tried to rob the cafeteria downstairs and gun shots went off which woke us up, so we just call the corner of the street Satan’s Corner now.

How are y’all doing? So what all did y’all do for spring break? Enjoy the pool for me, take care, and have a great week!

Elder Smith

We have already seen little miracles in the doing this past week.

Hey how is it going guys, my week has been great and it is starting to heat up here. It sounds like everyone is way busy doing their thing and that is good. We are keeping busy out here and time is just flying, it seems like I haven’t been here long but at other times it feels like i have been here for an eternity. Dang it sounds like y’all have some fun stuff to do during spring break.
This past week Elder Reyes and I have decided to start using our priesthood with our investigators, and giving blessings to them when they are sick or when they need help. We have already seen little miracles in the doing this past week. We are continuing to contact and we have found some new people that seem to be pretty good. We had a question from our family of gold this past week which I was hoping I would never be asked on my mission. They have been studying the Libro de Mormon a lot, and asked the question if the Great and Abominable Church that Nephi saw is the Catholic church because they are Catholic and were like this is a little strong. My comp and I were a little timid to answer it but we went back last night and had one of my favorite lessons that I have taught with them. We spoke really open with them and of course the abominable church is not jut the Catholic Church, and explained to them why Nephi named it that. Also we have a guy that some members were teaching and gave him the triple combination and read all of the Pearl of Great Price, and parts of D&C and the Book of Mormon. So we went and taught him once and he came to church half and hour early and was participating and liked it a bunch. He is 26 and is a doctor, and he said he wanted to marry a Mormon girl, but none of them would marry him because he isn’t Mormon, so we have some luck there. Also we have our 91 year old investigator that is having some serious health problems, so we are trying to help him with his severe asthma.

This week I did an intercambio last Friday with Elder Gordon to go teach their recent convert that was in the baptism photo. So we got to teach in English because she knows perfect English, and her boyfriend lives in the states. But after the lesson she brought us brownies and it was my first time to have them on my mission and they were amazing. She apparently a huge basketball fan and follows BYU basketball so she told me Friday morning they lost, so I was kind of bummed about that.

I hope all is going good with y’all, and wish y’all a fun week and a good spring break!

Love Elder Smith

One pair of my shoes are completely done for, so if you could look up the guarantee that would be awesome.

Dominican Castle

Elder Reyes and Matthew

Member that fed them on Sunday

Relaxing after a hard days work

Matthew teaching his companion

I'm staying in La Vega for round 2

Hey guys what is going on? I’m staying in La Vega for a round 2 with Elder Reyes again, and we are going to do work this transfer if everything goes as planned. I am excited to have another transfer with him, and we will work hard. The partying finally ended Sunday with their day of Independence. This week we only had Sacrament Meeting in the morning because this week was supposed to be crazy and they had a parade passing right in front of the chapel for a couple of hours. But finally we don’t have to worry about carnaval anymore and we can work as normal on the weekends. Had a close call on Sunday on the way home from church there was a man covered in black paint and he would give u a hug if you didn’t give him 5 pesos, and I almost got covered in paint but I was glad I had a 5 peso coin in my pocket.

This week we had a funny story with an investigator, we were sitting down in his house and he didn’t want to listen to us, so he told us he had to go do something next door and left us waiting in his house for 45 minutes with no one there. So we got ditched in the dude’s house. We lost some people this week unfortunately, but we have found some amazing people this week. We have some young families and adults that are way intelligent and it is fun to teach them. This transfer for baptisms we have 4 planned right now, a man that is 91 years old, and a family that has one kid that is 9 years old so there is 3 there. We have another 2 that hopefully we can start passing by more often and speed things up a bit. So hopefully I should have my first baptisms this transfer. In the mission I have never learned so much about other people and the different religions of the world and it is fun to learn about them.

I live in a 4 man house now the other missionaries got jipped of their house because the owner wanted it back so they just put them in are house, which will be difficult. It is just a little too small for 4 people. But now I have an American which means exchanges to Burger King like we did for lunch, which was freakin amazing. A bacon cheeseburger has never tasted so good.

But that is it for me. Hope y’all are doing great and continue working. And Jacob the Dominican zone leader thinks it is cute that you write me a dear elder every week. Continue doing it! Take care y’all!

Love, Elder Smith

 Matthew and Elder Placentia burning a tie for being out 6 months.

This was new to Dale and I but Brittney seemed to know about the tradition.

 Some of the Carnaval setup

 Elder Reyes and Matthew outside the chapel with the parade passing by

The La Vega Zone



I hit a new record this week

Hey guys what is going on? I am doing great and man the transfer is almost over and it went by way fast. It sounds like everything is going great back home, and it is about time that everything is going well in sports. It sounds like Dad has a lot going on at work and it sounds like some pretty important stuff. I am glad that y’all are enjoying the letters and pictures that I have sent home. This week has been chill pretty much missionary wise, we have done a lot of walking, and have had to keep in the house Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. This past week the carnaval was so freakin crazy, there were people from all around the world. And this week will be even crazier, all of the hottest singers will be in our area singing this week: Daddy Yankee, Wisin y yandel, Shakira and others it will be crazy.

This week I learned how to cook, my comp got fed up with having to cook so he taught me how to cook rice and all kind of different types of meat. So my first day of cooking he didn’t want to cook and I didn’t know how to cook anything so I went into brainstorming mode, and figured out that I could make quesadillas, so I made cheese quesadillas for lunch and they were the bomb.

Teaching wise in our area is going alright, we have to walk a ton but it is paying off. I hit a new record this week, we got 6 references from members in one day! That is more than I got my whole time in Cotui. We are finding a lot of new people, some of other investigators weren’t panning out, so unfortunately we had to drop them. But we have some families that are just golden, they are reading and praying and understand everything that we teach and the questions they ask are way intelligent. The only problem for us is that we can not get people to church for the world this month, because of the carnaval. I definitely want to stay here for the next transfer because we have some people that have fechas for baptism, and we have some way solid people. Yesterday we had another bad experience with a member, we had a situation perfect to teach and the member started arguing with the investigator and tried to be the missionary, and Elder Reyes had to step in and stop him. He was teaching apostasy, and just made it a bad situation.

Next week is transfers so we will see what happens to me next week. I hope to stay but we will find out. Take care guys and enjoy the good weather!

Love, Elder Smith

They had a baptism in their Branch

Elder Reyes studying

Sunday dinner with members

 Another lunch with members

 Cool Car

This is for Jacob.

 Jacob drew this picture during Matthew's farewell talk.

The backpack belongs to his companion, Elder Reyes