6 Month Mark! And New Years in the DR.

(Emailed to Friends)
What a week it's been.  Here we go.

Monday.  We had a FHE.  It was really fun.  At one point I tried to scoot back in the chair I was in and the front legs just completely gave out on me.  Pretty embarrassing since it was in front of like 10 people and Elder Romero was dying laughter.  I felt bad I had broken their chair.  It was already broken before though I guess.  We had some investigators at that and had a great message and played Mafia after.  Really fun.

Tuesday.  Morning was normal.  Not too much happened.  In the afternoon we did intercambios.  I was with Elder Pawn directing my area.  I was really nervous, but really really enjoyed it.  Way fun.  I taught a lot more evenly with him.  We're less assertive, so it was easy to teach with him.  Hard to do with Elder Romero and I know Elder Pawn has problems with it as well with Elder Decker.  We also challenged Lisa's Dad (She's a RC) to baptism and he accepted.  Kind of nuts, but really cool.  I don't know if he fully understood it though.

Wednesday.  Finished intercambios with Elder Pawn in the morning.  It went well.  Then we had to be in the house by 6 because Dominicans are crazy.  We had a lot of time to kill because of that.  We had a crazy awesome lesson with Ady right before that though.  She came to the English class one time and we finally were able to visit her.  She started crying during the lesson.  She said one time we passed her in the street and she was thinking about us right then.  And when we showed up that day she was thinking about God.  It was really awesome.  Then when we showed her the BOFM, she said she remembers some of the pictures in it from when she was a kid.  Turns out her parents are members!  What? Crazy!  They've been inactive for a very long time though.  She said like she felt like a load had been taken off her that day.  Really incredible.  I said the closing prayer in English (because she knows a ton of English and asked for me to do it like that) and she was crying after that too.  Really amazing.  Truly the Lord has prepared her to receive the gospel.  Then at the house we tossed a football around with some kid in the street, chilled, and went to bed at like 10.  Quite the New Year's Eve!

Thursday.  That morning we couldn't leave until 3, so we slept in for a while.  Just really relaxed.  Normal lessons that night.

Friday.  6 month mark!  Insane how fast time has moved.  We had a district meeting.  After we were eating at La Sirena and I saw Elder Davis and Brady there!  Way awesome.  They're from my group in the MTC.  Cool to talk to them for a while on my 6 month mark.  Not quite sure what they were doing there, but it was awesome.  Their house sounds like it's not the most obedient and their Spanish isn't so hot from what I've heard.  The Lord has really blessed me and I'm thankful for it.  Normal lessons after that.

Saturday.  Normal morning.  That afternoon we went to the temple with Nicolas's family.  We taught them about Eternal Marriage.  His woman (they aren't married) said someday she wants to go inside to see the rest of it.  We went into the waiting room with them and watched a short video about the restoration.  It was really awesome.  I know they felt the Spirit which is really really good.  The peace there was really just amazing like always in the temple.  Their 4 year old daughter, Melony, who is usually super crazy and loud, was quiet in there too.  Small Miracle.  Then we had the English class after and a quick other lesson.

Sunday.  4 investigators in church.  Freisy (15 year old daughter of Nicolas's family), Mon, and Robin and his wife.  3 of them were new people which was really awesome.  Good lesson after.  I participated in them well which doesn't always happen.  It's not that I don’t' like to talk, or can't, Elder Romero just talks a lot.  A little frustrating sometimes.

Today.  Super lazy day.  Just chilled in the house all day.  The other elders went to play basketball, but Elder Romero didn't want to go so we stayed in the house.  We played last week, so it was a fair(ish) tradeoff.  Really didn’t' do anything at all today.

Few other thoughts from the week.

Quick DR culture thing.  About every 4 or 5 houses there's some type of store.  Either a cormado (mini supermarket with free delivery), a salon, bank, or paperleria (sells paper and pencils and such).  So basically you can buy anything really close to your house.  Really cool, but kind of weird.  The cormados are usually cranking music at full blast too.  Crazy crazy stuff.

I've been slowing trying to adjust to picante, or hot sauce.  I can take up to quite a bit of it now.  Nothing like the Mexicans though. They are crazy about their hot sauce.

Bout it for this week!  Hope you all have a great new year!  Love ya tons!
Love, Elder Easton Potokar.

(Emailed to Family)
I got the letters.  They were awesome.  Thank you thank you!  I really really enjoyed them.  Sorry I forget to mention it, it came with all the birthday letters.

Dilone family is alright.  Nicolas doesn't want to be married is what it comes down to.  I talked about them more in the general email.

Splits went well.  I really enjoyed teaching with Elder Pawn.  I've got another I get to lead in our area with Elder Stephens that I'm really nervous about as well!  Something about being in charge makes me really nervous.  Elder Stephens is in my district.  He's from Utah.  I think I've sent a few pictures home of him.  He's the oldest person in our district mission wise.  Has about a year. I have the skills, it's just really nerve wracking.  I tried not to think about having to talk to everyone and it seemed to flow a lot better because of that.  Elder Stephens knows a lot for tomorrow so I'm not too worried about it.

Lots of cool experiences like those things this week were really awesome.  I enjoyed them.

Investigators are doing well.  Nicolas's wife is really progressing.  A few others are as well.  Baptisms are slated for the 24th, but we'll see if that'll happen.  They haven't come to church much, but are basically dry Mormons.  I don't know if the bishop will like it though. We'll see.  It’d be depressing to not have any baptisms in 2 transfers. They're ready, it's just really fast.  Really they should be done later, but we want to have some baptisms this transfer.

I have a lesson with Ady tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.  Hopefully she's actually read some of the BOFM we've given her.

We just slept through New Year’s. Really lame. Elder Anderson told me there was some fireworks and I'm sure lots of drinking. Similar to Christmas. Other Elders said there wasn't anything in their area. Elder Harsh told me if he's not kissing a girl he's not staying up that late haha. He's a goofy kid sometimes.

I think this week will be pretty normal.  Not much is really happening.  Just working.  Elder Romero is starting to go insane.  He's a workaholic now.  He only studies when we're in the house (sometimes while eating), and is never satisfied with how much work we do.  Reminds me of my wish for perfection before.

I've definitely been blessed with the language.  I just have to be careful not to be prideful about it.  Sometimes I can make words up and they're right.  Like just by patterns of other words I know.  I thought that, but Romero mentioned it in a lesson and I think it's the Lords' help now.  He truly is helping me in the language A TON.  Elder Decker tells me often that I know a ton too which is really cool.  I am also very blessed to have tons of people here willing to listen.  Very very very blessed.

(Who sets up splits for you? ) Romero likes doing a ton of them.  AS DL he can choose when we do them.  He's planned for at least one or two weekly.  It's really cool to see how others do things, it's just nerve wracking when you're not used to leading your area haha.  I think I'll like them more and more as time goes on.

(Whose door is the snowman door? ) That would be Lisa's door.  They're summer vacation is in the winter in Latino countries so they have a lot of time off.  She got bored and did that.

(What did you cook your marshmallows over?) Cooked them over the stove.  It worked OK.  We did make legit s’mores and it was excellent.  Still have tons more.




The lights are across the street from the temple at that park I've talked about a few times.  Really pretty.  It's called park of the lights translated.  Really pretty.

The streaky light and all those pictures are of the full moon.  The moon was WAY bright that night, but my camera couldn't quite handle it.  Some of them turned out really cool though.

I think that's about all I have!  I believe most of it’s in my general email.  Hope I don't have to retype, but I think I will.

Love you tons!  Miss you millions.
Love, Elder Easton Potokar.