Great
things are happening in Bonao!
First a
funny story: Sometimes when it rains here, it is like a flash flood. The have a
terrible drainage system (and by terrible, I really mean that it doesn´t exist)
and so the streets fill up with rainwater really fast. But it´s not really
rainwater. I will refer to it as the mystery murk. The streets are full of
garbage and refuse all the time, so when it rains and the street fills up with
this murky brown liquid, it´s a mystery what you´ll find as you wade through.
Hence, mystery murk. Well a few days ago it started to pour as we walked. We
were drenched, despite our umbrellas and jackets. I had my raincoat on over my
backpack to keep the contents dry and I had my hood up. It would be pretty safe
to say that I looked like a homeless, dripping oaf. We came to a small lagoon
of mystery murk and I paused for a second, looked around for an escape route
(it was kind of like that story where they say “we can´t go over it, we can´t
go under it, we can´t go around it…we´ll have to go through it”) and seeing no
other option, I did a little hunched squat to grab my skirt, hiked it up to my
knees, and plunged into the mystery murk. My companions cracked up because
apparently it was quite comical to see a little hunchbacked woman do a little
squat and wobble her way into that filthiness. The worst part aside from
mystery objects touching you is that the murk is WARM haha. The pavement is so
hot that it heats the mystery murk right up!
I´ve tried
lots of fruits this week! I had guanabana, carambola, guava, and chinola juice!
And of course mangos and bananas. Fruit is just so tasty here!
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Mom asked
about washing clothes, so here goes: We have a washing machine. It is one big
plastic box with two compartments—one for washing and one for “drying”. We fill
up about 6 buckets of water and pour them into the washing compartment, add
some detergent, throw in the clothes, and then set it to “swirl” mode for a
good 15 minutes. After the clothes are sufficiently swirled in the soapy water,
we put them into a homemade solution of fabric softener and water so that they
smell reeeeeal nice. Then we wring them out and put a portion of them in the
drying section (too small to do all the clothes at once). We close the lid and
set the dryer to the “shake” cycle. You have to be prepared though! All the
water that´s being shaken? Shooked? Shakooked? Whatever. All the water comes
out of a hose on the side, so you have
to have a bucket ready to catch the water. Then you hang those clothes up ti
actually get all the way dry and put some more clothes for the shake cycle. Then
you mop, because invariably you´ve gotten a large quantity of water on the tile
floor. And that´s laundry!
Miracle
story: We had another person approach us and ask US to learn about the church.
God is always preparing people to receive the gospel—we just have to be willing
to testify! Nuther one miracle: we had 14 investigators and 16 less active
people come to church this Sunday. That´s almost double the active members of
the church. The room was FULL. It was incredible! We see lots of miracles every
day, but one really cool thing was during an intercambio. I wasn´t there, but
Hermana Colton went with a member to visit a different member´s wife. She has a
reputation for being really mean and rude and just having the worst attitude
ever. She often gets mad when missionaries or members try to visit her. But
Hermana Colton and the member approached her very kindly and she let them in
AND just completely opened up to them. It was totally unexpected! We hope that
she will continue to be receptive and that we can help her start coming to
church.
Dominican
thing: They are very generous people and they love it when you visit them! This
is great! EXCEPT every time when we are closing a lesson and indicating that we
need to get to our next appointment they´re always like WAIT I HAVE
REFRESHMENTS FOR YOU which is awesome. But then we´re twenty minutes late to
the next thing haha. This doesn´t happen every time because not everyone gives
you juice or soda or whatever, so you can´t even plan in advance to avoid it. I
have determined that it is the secret Dominican way of extending the visit
because they love company so much. Like in the states, someone shows up and we
offer them water. But here someone shows up and you try to keep them as loooong
as possible by luring them in with some delicious fruit nectar and galletas.
This Sunday
we went to a branch in Los Quemados which is really close to the mountains. It.
Is. Gorgeous. Check out the pictures! They have a campsite sort of thing there
and that´s where they host EFY all summer. It´s super cool! Like wilderness EFY
. Definitely beats out Provo EFY for sure!
I love you
all, and hope you have a great week.
ALSO: I have homework for you all. 1) read The
Power of Everyday Missionaries by Clayton M. Christensen and then 2) apply it
to your lives!!!! It is seriously the most powerful book members can read to
help spread the gospel! READ IT NOW!
Okay bye!
This week´s
pictures:
Last week´s
pictures:
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