9 Month Mark! Solid Week. Happy Easter! GC is stellar!

(Emailed to Friends)
Solid week all-round, just with its challenges.  But hey, what would a mission be without challenges?

Monday - Decent day.  Tried to visit the crazy lady who drives me nuts again to see if we could teach her.  Showed her the Easter video, and after her saying "That's nice" she changed the topic.  Probably won't be going back there much.

Tuesday - Intercambios!  The day went OK.  Ate out at Dominoes to celebrate Elder Mokofisi’s birthday.  That cost a good chunk of money. Super good though.  Amazingly good haha. Definite lack of lessons.  Had a good lesson with the eternigator, Linabel though.  I was with Elder Rasmussen.  Great guy.  Really knows his stuff.  You can tell he has lots and lots of time in the mission.  Other than that an average day.  Lots of contacting as well.

Wednesday - Another fatal lack of lessons.  The day went OK.  Nothing really super special to report.  Just lots of lessons that fell through.

Thursday - Much better day.  District meeting went pretty good.  Nothing over the top, but it was good.  We all brought a treat to celebrate Elder Mokofisi's birthday so that was way good.  We left with an RM for our lessons.  Helped them along really nicely.  Taught Marianna Nin again.  She's a less active, who's slowly coming back.  She has tons of questions and I just really enjoy teaching her.  It's super fun.

Friday - Supposed to be a CRAZY day here.  We could only be out of the house till 6.  We had a few lessons and went to a ward party.  Played some dominoes, Parcheesi, and had tons of habiachulas con dulce.  So good.  Going to have to find a recipe for those in the future.  Came back to the house early and planned really good for the week.  The streets were super calm - we probably could've still worked, but rules are rules.  Sigh.  Oh!  And Marlye, the Haitian inactive, came to the activity with her husband!  That made me super super happy!

Saturday - Conference!  Gotta love it.  In the morning we had a few lessons and passed by a bunch of houses to invite people to conference.  Unfortunately, no one, including the members, showed up at the church to watch it in the morning!  We ended up using the internet, so I got to see it in English :)  The rest I watched in Spanish.  Then we had lunch, and watched the next session in the church.  Marianna Nin, another less active, Marlye and Ranquel, and Katherine all came.  Good session.  I couldn't hear it too well, so between that and the Spanish didn't get much out of it.  I ended up playing dolls with the little girl who was sitting in front of me haha.  Then a good lesson the bishop came with us to, and then Priesthood.  We went to the stake center for Priesthood.  There was probably like 25 to 30 men there.  So sad.  I missed Utah and the packed Stake Center.  That's alright though.  Priesthood was a fantastic session though.  The big 3 talked which was awesome.

Sunday - More conference! A few lessons in the morning, conference, lunch, and a few more in the evening.  Conference was good.  Lots more members there, but no investigators which was a bummer.  'sall good though.

Today - cleaning.  We did a little bit of exploring on a main street in our area.  I snagged a toaster for like 7 bucks.  Call that thrift shopping at its best.  I haven't had toast FOREVER, and I was kinda pathetically really excited for my toaster haha.  Did a little shopping, and then made hamburgers, fries, a mango shake, and home-made brownies for lunch.  Oof.  So good.  Brownies got a raincheck to be eaten for dinner.

'bought it for the week.  Temple in Haiti got everyone really excited here.  That's awesome.  Just on the other side of the island.  President Monson looked a lot older this time, but still did an awesome job.  Struggled to understand Elder Packer.  He looked very very old.  Also talked to an Elder on the phone today who's going home for a knee injury.  Crazy stuff.  He was super bummed about it.  So sad.

That's been the week!  Love y'all tons!
Hope you had a fantastic Easter!
Love, Elder Potokar.

(Emailed to Family)

Sounds like you had an awesome week!  I got your packages this week, and read through all the stuff about Christ on Sunday morning.  Just to give it a big impact.  It was super good.  Thank you so so much for it!  Protein powder made it.  I used it in pancakes haha.  It was super good.  I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the package a lot - I also got one from grandma P the same day so it was good.

Unfortunately, very low success this week.  Lots of people were gone to "el campo" which is basically the country to visit family.  The place was super quiet Saturday and Sunday.  Streets and everything.  Super weird.

I loved Eyring’s talk in priesthood.  Also a seventy who talked in Sunday afternoon in Spanish about eternal perspectives.  Super awesome.  Lots of talking about not using cell phones during sacrament.  Lots.  Also liked "are we the church of latter day saints or latter day hypocrites?" woof!  Lots of speakers laid it down really hard haha.  I enjoyed that.  That's how Dominicans are and I've gotten used to that a lot.

I was bummed about investigators.  Like no one came.  Separated the strong from the weak haha.  We need to find lots and lots more.  We struggle to find and retain investigators.  Maybe it's just my style of doing things, I don't know.  It's hard though.  I feel like we shuffle through people way too fast.

I watched conference, but almost all in Spanish.  Remember how my mind wandered when watching it in English?  Haha it's a lot worse when it's in Spanish.  I'll be studying the talks once they come out. I loved Presdient Eyring's in Priesthood.  Excellent.  He has a lot of emotion in his voice, and I really missed that since the translator obviously doesn't have that.  I could see him tearing up though.  I liked the Saturday morning session too.  Super awesome.  I think the thing I miss most about watching in Spanish is their voices.  Uchtdorf’s, Monson, Holland, they all have their distinct voices and emotions when they talk, and it just doesn't translate.  I'm thankful I know English so I can hear that. Please send me the sessions on a card again.  I still listen to those in the mornings every now and then.  I really enjoy those.

At the ward activity I played two games of dominoes.  The elder’s quorum president was super intense about it, and I beat him the first game.  Won all the rounds.  My partner didn't at all.  Then the next game I got absolutely killed haha. It was games pretty much for the activity.  They had hot dogs, and habiachulas con dulce as well.  Super good.

I think the person we helped most these week was Marlye.  It was so awesome she came to the activity and to a bunch of the conference sessions.  She brought her husband too.  Super super cool.  I think she was crying during one session.  She's become good friends with one of the members which is really helping her a lot.

Elder Solis is good.  He's a good guy, just more laidback than me.  Willing to just kinda hang out with people, when I want to go go go.  We were shopping today and he's a browser.  Content just to walk around and look at things.  Not necessarily a bad thing, but not really something I like haha...

Think that's about all.  Lots of pictures coming your way this week.  I filled up my first SD card too.  Started on the second one now.

That’s so crazy!  It's been a year since I got my call.  Almost a year since I graduated.  That seems like yesterday sometimes.  Time really flies.

Love you tons!
Elder Easton Potokar.