8 Month Mark! 1/3 of the way there. Nuts. Good Week.

(Emailed to Friends)
It's been a solid week.  We've kind of floundered a bit work wise, but we made it through the week.  Bit of a rough one.

Monday - Basically most of our citas fell through.  Made for a rough day.  Not too bad though.

Tuesday - Lots of contacting in the morning.  This one guy called us over and started talking to us.  It was really really weird haha.  He was using "vosotros" a lot which is basically only used in Spain.  And he told us he didn't believe in God, so we were talking to him about that, and then he said he did in the end and was testing us.  Weird. We went back for our next cita, but he wasn't there.  The house he said he lived in is never opened so I wonder if he even lives there.  A few other contacts as well that were OK.  Then in the evening we had our interview with the President.  It was supposed to be at 3, but ended up being at 8.  Ouch. Wasted lots and lots of time waiting.  I love my interviews with the President though.  They're always awesome.  Get you pumped up and ready to go again.  After we squeezed in another lesson.  OK day, but I think it set us up weird for the week.

Wednesday - We met Elder Pena's family.  Dropped off a gift he had sent to them.  I played with some of the little neighbor girls while we were there.  They were cute.  In the evening we did OK.  We brought a member to the house of Maryle, the lady who doesn't want to come to church because of the racism.  She knows the church is true, but isn't giving her testimony much importance.  I worry about her.  Then we taught Ranquel and Katherine.  We brought the member again, and watched the full Restoration movie.  It was good.  I think they liked it.  The member, Hermana Mercedez, was a missionary and has a missionary son in Ecuador right now.  So she knows how to help a lot.

Thursday - District meeting was normal.  We had decent lessons in the night.  Nothing too amazing.  Juan Carlos is going to visit his mom weekly from Friday to Wednesday, so that basically means he'll never be able to come to church.  That was a huge heartbreaker.  Really about it.

Friday - A few contacts in the morning, and then we helped Eliecer, from the Family Brito, sing a song to propose to his wife.  Elder Martinez played the guitar and sang with him.  I recorded it haha.  It was good, but they need to practice more.  Then we ate at their member neighbor’s house.  In the evening we had OK lessons again.  Contacted a lady who was really interested in learning about the Plan of Salvation, so we'll see how that goes. Then we visited the Family Brito again.  Woof.  That was rough.  They were majorly fighting.  We tried to give them advice.  I had them commit to making a list and trying to serve each other this next week.  I hope it helps them.  Then we talked to this guy in the house of a member.  Friday was Independence Day here, so he went on a major rant about the DR.  It got really racist though against Haitians.  Really really racist.  Wow.  Some Dominicans really are racist.  He was like standing up and screaming.  I almost started laughing.  Haha.

Saturday - Super rough day.  We had an OK lesson with Ranquel and Katherine.  Katherine wants to come to church now, which she was really against before.  Says she doesn't see anything wrong with the church which is a huge change.  Before she said we were sinning with the BOFM and worshipping Joseph Smith, so she has come a long ways.  Then we had a few more lessons in the morning. Ate in the house, it started raining, and we had two more lessons.  Not a super productive day.

Sunday - Church was good.  We're not so hot at bringing people to church.  We received 3 references though which is awesome.  One has been coming to church for a while, Robert, and said he'll be baptized soon.  I wish all members brought people to church like that.  It would be incredible.  Robert has always played basketball at the church, but never gone inside.  Has always wanted to come, but was a little scared to go alone.  Someone invited him, and he's come the last month or so since.  And another young woman, Elina, brought a friend, gave us another reference, and reactivated her inactive mom.  Wowza.  And bore her testimony.  She's strong!  Then we had good lessons after.  Found a family.  We contacted this lady a few days ago and she just seemed OK.  Passed by for our cita, but it looked like they were having a party.  We pumped ourselves up and went back and they received us.  Her and her two daughters.  It was a pretty good lessons.  I have hope for them.

Monday - Today.  Lazy day.  Cleaned.  Went to the gym.  Not much has happened.

Other thoughts for the week:
Independence Day here was cool.  Had a mini parade things with all sorts of costumes.  Like that huge parade in "Rio", but really small.  That was really about it.

Also I'll have news about transfers for ya next week!  Wish me luck!  Logically, we shouldn’t' have any change, but I have a feeling we will.  We'll see how it goes.

I think that's about it for the week!  It's been a fun one.  Just another week in the mission.

Love you all tons!  Enjoy your week!
Elder Potokar.

(Emailed to Family)
Sounds like everything is going really well at home!  Things are slowly coming along here as well.  Slowly, but surely.  Lots of the people we were hoping to put baptism dates with this week had something happen so we couldn't.  It’s something we're going to work harder on though.  We got a reference that I think we'll be able to baptize this month.  We'll see how things go though.  He's already come to church a lot which is really the hardest part.

Hot dogs, pasta salad, and rice for dinner.

Week was good. Went by super super quick. Nothing too new with food. Elder Martinez has tried cooking chicken a few times and it's been good. He really knows how to cook well. We ate at a member’s house once this week. Never with investigators. We eat bananas occasionally.  Not a ton though.  The Dominicans put oats in their shakes too.  Makes them super filling.  We had a chocolate, banana, oats shake today.  And we had another one at a member’s house that had rice in it. And she said she does one with spaghetti, but I've never had that one yet.

Fast Sunday was good. I slept in the afternoon since I had a headache. Not too much new in that area.

Investigators are coming. We had 5 people we thought might be able to be baptized in March, and pretty much all of them dropped in one way or another. I really don't know how/when to put baptism dates. How soon, or how to push for them. Lots of other missionaries like always have dates. Something I've got to teach myself. 35 lessons this week. Rough Tuesday and Saturday put us down. I can't help but think if all members brought someone to church constantly.  If we didn't have to look for people, if we only had to teach.  The church would grow so much faster.

Also we have a training for ward members this week on Saturday.  We going to teach them how to give out a pamphlet or a BOFM and then commit them to do it and invite the person to church.  Hopefully it brings in some references. We told the counselor on Sunday we wanted to have an activity; he put a date and announced it.  It was slick.  I was super happy about it, because normally it's a pain to plan those things.  We had more priesthood this week.  Like 8, not including us or the young men.  It's coming.  They talked about how they need to active more priesthood which is awesome. We have a lot to prepare for it.  We'll be working on that for a lot of this week.

President interviews were awesome. He said he really thinks I'm excellent and up there. That I just keep improving. Always a huge confidence boost talking to him. Said he's proud of me. Said "talk to ya soon". I don't know if he just said that or if that has something to do with these transfers. We'll see how it goes.

I would be sad to leave.  I basically blanked this area.  We really only have 2 or 3 investigators still from when we started.   Martinez and I have gotten it up and rolling again.  I feel like he's going to send me a new guy, but I don't really know.  Sounds like everyone is doing well though! The new dishwasher looks good. Everything here is just plugging along.

They're nice people. (Elder Pena’s family) We met his parents and one of his sisters.  They wanted to talk to him.  They were nice.  Not too interested in our message, but good people.  Elder Pena sent something to them through the mission mail so we delivered it to them.  They were excited to get it.  I played with some of the neighbor children who may or may not be family of his.  They were really cute.  Reminded me of Lydia that made me a little homesick.

Thanks for the Jazz news as well.  Sounds like they're picking up steam. With Alec Burks back next year I think next year might be there year.

I'm talking to Matt online too and it sounds like he's doing well in Mexico.  He's seen Marcos a few times.  He's going to be training next transfer which is awesome.

I want to see pictures of Garrett's stuff he printed on the 3D printer. That can be hard to do sometimes. I'm impressed that he got it done. Especially at that age. He’s ahead of the game.

I miss the mountains a lot actually.  Someone showed me a picture with mountains in it and it made me realize the lack of them there is here.  You can't see any of them in the horizon.  It's kind of weird the more I think about it.

Elder Martinez fell asleep reading. haha

I think that's about all for this week! Let me know if you have more questions.
Love and miss you tons! Elder Easton Potokar.