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.

What a week! Painted House, Progressing Investigators.

(Emailed to Friends)
Life is good.  The work is progressing.  Investigators are progressing. Things are all coming together, little by little.

Monday - Good lesson with Juan Carlos.  He said he'll read the BOFM, and couldn't come to church this week because he's been with family out of town.  I have this feeling that he could and should be a missionary.  He gets me excited about the gospel.  Really really awesome.  Also taught a couple that night.  It was good.

Tuesday - Solid working day.  We taught Sebastian again, the 15 year old contact.  More on that later.  In the evening we did splits with the bishop and the Elder's quorum president and it went well.  Not amazing, but well.  Then we taught Ranquel and Katalin.  He doesn't believe in the Bible and Elder Martinez showed him a scripture saying the bible was going to be messed up and that's why we have the BOFM.  He told us he's always turned away missionaries from other churches, but has a desire to learn more from us.  We know that was the spirit helping him.  Really cool.  His wife is really really skeptical though.  Really really.  Somebody has told her tons of bad things about the church, and she doesn't want to drop those doubts.  If it wasn't for her, I think he would've come to church.  We've just got to continue helping them out.

Wednesday - We wasted a little bit of time waiting for them to bring us a new fridge, and they never even showed up.  Taught Juan Carlos again which went well as always.  We also found out Angel is going to get married in May, but is moving first.  Which means he’ll be a baptism of other missionaries.  Not a huge deal, but kind of stinks.  I'm like 99 percent positive he'll be a baptism too.

Thursday - District and Zone meeting that went pretty well.  Taught Sebastian again, but couldn't talk to his mom.  They brought us our new fridge which is awesome.  Taught Ranquel and Katelin again.  When the guy came to bring us the fridge (he works for the mission.  The fridge wasn't new, but it works.  We had to clean it.) he told us our house needs to be painted.

Friday - They showed up to paint our house at 9.  We couldn't do our comp study and it kind of threw off our day.  We had a good lesson with Linabel though, which was awesome.  Her sister is a member, and she's given talks in church, but never was baptized.  We figured out her problem lies in that she doesn't really know this is the only true church.  That it's a really good church, but not the only true one.  I think if we help her with that she could be baptized.

Saturday - Long. Long. Long. Long day.  They came in the morning to finish up painting.  We had to clean it up from the day before.  Didn't study at all because of that.  The whole day fell apart.  It rained for a few hours too and we couldn't leave.  Only had 3 lessons.  Long, frustrating day.

Sunday -Solid day. Not tons of investigators came to church, but that's probably because Friday and Saturday were rough and we couldn't invite them too well.  Finally taught Sebastian’s mom and she has an amazing story.  She's from Haiti, and all of her family were Mormons there.  She moved here, not being baptized yet.  Some missionaries found her, helped her be accepted in the ward (there's some racism involved with Haitians here.  More than I think I realize), and baptized her and her husband.  She moved.  She tried going to a few more wards, but they treated her really badly.  Didn't include her at al.  Didn't help she went alone, and she doesn't know a ton of Spanish.  And she went inactive because of that.  We're going to activate her.  We're planning on bringing tons of members to her house, and once she's active, we should be able to help baptize her son.  It’ll take time, but we'll get them there.  Also found another solid family contacting.  A lot better day than Saturday.

Monday - Today.  Cleaned.  Started updating the area book.  It's been good.

Fun thoughts of the week:
We started going to the gym in the mornings.  Lifting weights has never been something I've done, but Elder Martinez is helping me with it.  I've been really sore.  But I want to be swoll.  Haha.  Come home spiritually and physically strong.

I've really seen the difference the spirit can make.  In Ranquel and a few other investigators.  It's incredible.  And the difference it makes when you don't have it.

The house feels brand new.  The paint was peeling before and they painted over a lot of the dirt.  Lots better.

Interview with President tomorrow.  Looking forward to it.

I believe that's about all for this week!  It's been a tough week, but lots of good things have happened.  We had 43 lessons this week too.  Pretty good for a horrible Saturday.

Love you all tons!
Elder Easton Potokar.

(Emailed to Family)
Ahh.  Sounds like you're week was awesome.  Lots of good stuff has happened.

Really awesome to hear about the prom dress things.  Sounds like a small (maybe big) miracle!  Really awesome.

Elder Martinez's favorite color is black.  An investigator actually asked us that yesterday haha.

Brito's are coming along.  We're going to help them out more and more.  They seem to be getting along better.

Sebastian, the 15 year old, is coming along.  We need to active his mom first, cuz I don’t trust him to come to church every week alone.  I included the story about his mom in the general email.

Haha we had one of our first door slams.  I said "We're missionaries from" and she said "Yes, OK" and slammed the door!  Woof!  We just laughed after haha.

We had another contact.  We were talking to her normal, and she was like "Would you like some arrozz con leche?" and we were like sure.  She gave it to us, and just left.  Haha never came back to talk to us.  Haha guess she wasn't interested. (So did you eat the arrozz con leche?) We did eat it.  And it was pretty good.  I enjoyed it haha.   I still need to learn how to do it really well.

Church was OK.  There was only 5 priesthood in the class.  For all of the priesthood.  Sheesh.  This ward has way too many women, and not enough men.  Leadership is great.  The priesthood that there is really solid.  Really good.  The ward is super supportive, we just have to ask them to help us and when they can and they're in.  Super easy to do.  We hit investigators.  One thing we've been slacking in is lessons with members, and that day helped us out a ton, since all of them during our splits were with members.  Ever zone is a different stake.  So we're in the Ozama stake now.  President Corbitt has basically said it's the best stake in the mission.  They have a goal to divide the stake.  So we'll see how it goes!  My area isn't all that big.  We can cross it all in like 30 minutes.

I love teaching people who actually have an interest.  When people ask questions and try to really understand what's happening, it's a ton better.  I can see how that'd relate with school too.  It's just a ton better, and the Spirit is always there more.  We're finding more and more people like that which I've never had before in my mission.  These are the type of people who are more likely to be baptized.

I like teaching all the lessons actually.  The Restoration is really cool because it's so unique.  Plan of Salvation is awesome to because of how little most people know about it.  I'm learning to enjoy teaching more, although Elder Martinez talks a lot more.  I need to think more on how I'm going to explain something.  I just kind of go for it, but I need to have more of a plan before.

Weird that we only have 2 more weeks in the transfers.  I feel like I'm going to leave this transfer for some reason too.  Not sure why.

Tons of Spanish still.  Of course.  I speak it easily now, but I don't know if the accent is getting better or not.  I think my R's are a lot better now.  Someone asked me if I'm from France this week so that's a new one.

The Spirit's been really good.  I think it's because we're getting along better than I have with any of my other comps.  And I feel like if we fixed a few little things it'd be even better.  Like the Lord could really bless us more than now, because he is a ton right now!

The poverty here is rough.  The part closer to the river is definitely poorer than where we live.  Where we live is pretty well off.  The houses are still pretty small, but they have everything.  Fridges, beds, ovens, etc.  It's a lot easier. There are still people living there.  (The houses by the river. The pictures are from a previous post.) That's part of the Santo Domingo zone, and Elder Martinez did intercambios there when he was in Santo Domingo.  There are tons and tons of houses.  Living conditions here are a bit better.  The houses are a little bit bigger for the most part.  I'm going to have to buy drinking water my whole mission.  Every area has to do that.  The whole country has to do that haha.  Water has the same setup, but we've never run out.  I don't think we'll ever run out.  Showers are like North Shore showers.  Just like a little stream of water, not a spray.  And it's super cold sometimes.  And I'm totally used to the laundry things. I do it every ten days or so.  And my darks and lights are offset so I do them different days.  I've got enough clothes to last for quite a while.

Bedroom while painting

Chillin while painting

Old Paint

New Paint

The painted over the painting.  It was like the first things to go.  So sad.  They painted EVERYTHING.  Everything is now blue. The apartment feels a million times cleaner now.  We had to put everything in our bedroom and then cleared out the bedroom when they painted it.  There’s missionaries names on my bed from 2000 haha.  It's pretty old.

Interviews are tomorrow.  I think it'll be in the stake center.  Definitely looking forward to it.  I love talking to him.  I don't know if inspections will ever happen.  I don't believe that they will.  I'm very glad they took care of the fridge.  It works really well now too.

I believe that's all for the week!  Love you tons.  Thank you for all the jazz news.  An Elder Richards in my zone is a huge Jazz fan too and we talk about it a ton.

Love and miss you tons too!  Have a fantastic week!
Love and miss you always!   Elder Easton Potokar.

Another Week Gone By! More Golden (maybe silver) Investigators!

(Emailed to Friends)
It's been a solid week - we've worked hard.  I'll go through it day by day.

Monday - lessons fell through, but contacted some more.  Contacted another less active which happens WAY too much. She left the church because of something a member said.  Is assisting another church, but still loves the true church.  We taught Juan Carlos again too.  After explaining what a prophet is he just kept asking and asking if there's one now.  We taught the apostasy and left him there to read the pamphlet to find his answer.  He loves to learn and to know, so that's awesome.

Tuesday - Morning was normal, nothing special.  More contacting.  We had intercambios in the afternoon.  I was with Elder Mokofisi.  Huge Tongan guy from Cali.  It was OK.  Lots of walking because lessons were falling through.  It was good though.  It was quiet.  He didn't talk much which surprised me.

Wednesday - finished up intercambios with a few more lessons.  It was good.  Not a huge deal.  Then we ate lunch as a district which was fun, and came back and went to work.  The day went well.  We taught Eliecer and his "wife" and realized he's gotten an answer to his prayers!  Really awesome and really great feeling.  We also taught Diorca and she shut us down.  Not completely.  She said she needs some time to read and pray to figure out if the BOFM is true.  A good reason.  We'll see how she is later this week.

Thursday - Zone meeting.  President Corbitt came and talked to us how the members can be another source of finding investigators.  Something I think just about nobody really uses completely.  It was really good.  He also talked about how we need to work toward having 15 to 20 progressing investigators.  We have around 6 - 8 now.  He talked about how in a year that's going to be nothing in this mission.  And I believe it.  The lesson numbers have increased and I know the progressing investigators and next baptisms will start increasing.  I look forward to that time.  Then we taught Wendy, a contact who's very open to learning, and did a little more contacting.  It went OK.  Normal.

Friday - Normal morning, with a little contacting.  In the night, normal lessons.  We taught Viviana who is another contact.  The missionaries taught her before years ago, but then just stopped.  Not sure why.  She could be a baptism though because she's really open to learning.  Then we visited Yulissa and she basically told us she was done taking the lessons.  She told us if we were a little smarter we would've given her money to help her problems and then she would've been baptized.  It clicked that she just wanted the church's money the whole time.  That one hurt a bit.

Saturday - Normal morning once again.  Not much seems to happen in the mornings.  More contacting.  In the evening we had the priesthood session of conference.  It was really good.  A seventy, Elder Dominquez, and President Corbitt both talked.  They both did awesome.  Then some citas fell through and we contacted more.

Sunday - Stake Conference.  Only had one investigator there since it was so far away.  Lots of lessons fell through again which means more contacting.  It was good though.  Nothing too special.

Today - Cleaning, haircut later, buying food, normal pday.  Fun day.

Few other thoughts for the week.
Strangest, and potentially the most amazing contact.  We started talking to this kid, probably 15 years old.  Tells us he's a member.  We start talking to him, and realize HE WAS NEVER BAPTIZED.  He's been going to another ward because he doesn't know the hours of our ward.  Told us he had a baptism date but couldn't make it and something about a river.  Thought he confused his churches.  But he has the pamphlets and a BOFM.  And knows the story of Joseph Smith.  His Mom (who doesn’t' know much Spanish.  She's Haitian) told us she'd explain things on Sunday, but the lessons fell through.  We're visiting them tomorrow.  Wish us luck!  Haha.

Also yesterday, the Family Brito are having marriage (but they aren’t' married yet...) problems.  She wasn't home so we gave him a bunch of advice.  Haha it was kind of weird.  Really weird actually.

We had 40 lessons this week.  Just not very many with members, so that's what we're going to work on this week.

Wow.  Transfers are already halfway over.  Time really flies.

I believe that's about all for this week!  Sorry it's a long one, I went a little more into detail with the investigators.

Love you all!
Elder Easton Potokar.

Elder Martinez & Elder Potokar

(Emailed to Family)
I got your package this week!  It rocked.  Way awesome.  The hole punch and the speaker and the belt are awesome!  Work perfectly.  The drive too once I can get it to work.  It really was one of my favorite packages that I've gotten. Wow! Tons of pictures.  Thank you for that.  Way awesome.

Sounds like this week was all about Ash!  Fun fun fun!  I'm glad she enjoyed her sweet sixteen. Haha Ash had a lot funner sweet sixteen than I did.  I couldn't even tell you what I did.  It wasn't as big of a deal for me.  She's all over it though. Sheesh! I feel like Garrett is going to be that way too.

Well done on the dishwasher buying.  I'm sure the kids are just as happy about that as you are!  No more having to wash dishes.

We didn't have interviews or inspections yet.   I believe they'll both probably be this week.

Pday is kind a lame. Cleaned.  Haircuts.  Shopped.  Emailed you guys.  Just about it.  Not too exciting.  Did a little laundry too to spice things up haha (Do you meet with your district on pdays like you used to?) No.  That is actually not supposed to happen much.  President said we could only do that occasionally, and that pday is for companionships.  Kind of a bummer.  We only did that a few times before.  Hopefully one of these days we'll be able to play soccer or basketball or something. Time flies way way too fast on pday. I've managed to find all the Liahonas from general conference dating all the way back to 2011, and it's nuts how much of the conference talks I remember watching at home.  Certain stories or things like that.

Also there's a picture of Christ I uploaded.  We found it in our apartment while we were cleaning.  It's pretty great.

The area is really cool.  I just about have it down.  Really close now.  I could probably lead the area if I needed to.  It's really calm though, and there's some good people here.

Favorite investigator is Juan Carlos right now.  He's really into the lessons.  There to learn.  You can show him a scripture and he'll think through the whole thing and you don’t have to explain it at all.  He gets me excited about the gospel.

Really really really awesome news.  I called Elder Romero this week.  He said Carolina and Rochelli are still active.  That they read their scriptures together every night.  That her husband is going to come back to church soon. (Her husband said that) Also Lisa is still active.  Mon is going to get baptized soon.

PAULA AND VICTOR have been coming back to church! Ahhh!  I didn’t have time to ask if he found a job or anything, but they’re coming back again!  And Elder Romero said they're prepping to enter the temple.  It'll be like a year from now, but I might be able to go inside with them!  Ahhh!  That made me so happy.  I could barely sleep that night.

Also Freisy, from the Dilone family, I believe has a baptismal date as well.  Really really really awesome.

It was a fantastic feeling.  Rather overwhelming.  A few times I've taken a step back and really seen how happy I am.  It's finally come.  I'm legitly happy a lot of the time here.

Love you tons!  Miss you tons!  Have a great week! Tell everyone there that I love them tons too!
Love, Elder Easton Potokar.

2nd Week in Los Minas! Lots of New Investigators!

(Emailed to Friends)
It’s been a solid, diligent week.  Let's go through it day by day.  Here we go.

Monday - Tried to have a FHE, but it fell through.  Decent day though.  Normal pday.

Tuesday - Hardest day of the week.  Started out with a solid morning contacting, but the evening was super rough.  We found one guy who was all into the church, asking questions, and seeing what the difference was between our church and his.  We were super excited about him.  Then we went back the next day, and he said his pastor said he can't talk to us.  Shut down.  Really hard.  We also found Anderson, a contact of Elder Martinez and Cook from before I got here.  He's really interested too, and his cousin is on a mission.  He ended up coming to church too, so we'll keep working with him.  We only had the lesson with him in the evening.  EVERYTHING fell through.  Rough day.

Wednesday - Lot more successful day.  The morning was a little rough, but we made it through it.  The evening was solid.  Good lessons.  I really enjoyed it.  We taught Yulissa, who has a 6 and 2 year old daughters.  Her two year old daughter is adorable.  I love her.  When we got up to leave, she just gave my leg a huge hug.  Just about killed me!  Haha.

Thursday - District meeting.  Our DL, Elder Lanza, is really amazing.  Knows his stuff.  Super experienced and super knowledgeable.  Someone I'm going to try to emulate as a leader.  It was a good meeting because of that.  After that, we had weekly planning, and a few decent lessons.  We're also teaching the Brito Family.  He's 20, and she's 19, and they have a 2 year old kid and work a ton.  Hopefully are going to get married in the next few months.  Really good people.  I pray we can get them to baptism eventually.  We also contacted a less active which happens way too much.

Friday - Decent day.  Not much happened.  We had a lesson with a Jehovah Witness, who basically started preaching to us.  A lot of their church makes sense - they believe in the apostasy, and have kinda correct doctrine.  But, they don't believe in living prophets.  Their church is like is Joseph Smith started a church on his own, knowing of the incorrectness of other churches, instead of asking God.  Kind of cool to know more about their beliefs now.  Then we found Juan Carlos.  He's 22 and lives with his family.  Super interested guy.  It was awesome.  He got me excited about the gospel haha.  He kind of flip out when we explained some things to him.  We'll see how he keeps coming.

Saturday - Another decent day.  Not a ton happened.  Just lessons like normal.  That's about it.  We had a lesson with a member, and turns out she’s the daughter of a family in my last area.  It was cool to talk with her about the people there.

Sunday - OK day.  6 in church.  I don't know who 4 of them are.  The members are actually working.  Lots of our investigators bailed on us.  OK lessons after.  Ward council which was normal.

Today - Cleaned. Cleaned. Cleaned.  The house is super nice now.  I'm pretty proud of myself haha.  Then we bought some food and that was the day!

Other thoughts for the week:
Stars are harder to see here.  Something I loved in my last area was while walking back to the house at night, Orion's belt was always right in front of us.

Members are awesome here.  Willing to work and help us.

I believe that's about all for the week!  Love you all tons!  Have a great week!
Elder Easton Potokar.

Pictures are from on top of a hill, looking out over the river.

(Emailed to Family)
Sounds like the whole family is doing really, really awesome.  Garrett and Ash are super successful it sounds like.  Garrett’s getting merit badges down, and that's way awesome with the FCCLA thing.  And super scary that Ash is turning 16!  Way scary.  I sent her a gift, so hopefully it makes it in time!  And have you gotten all my Christmas gifts yet?

I've settled in pretty well.  It's a really calm area.  The ward's awesome.  It's just really small, and the missionaries have already worked it over pretty well, but we're getting there.  I kinda know the area now.  I have the jist of it down.  The groove of things is down.

Elder Romero is still in Villa Mella.  I've been meaning to call him to see how everything is.  I forget my magnet name plaque, my flashlight, and my filter water bottle.  Elder Pawn sent them all to me.

We haven't visited Elder Pena’s family.  Elder Martinez has visited them and said that they weren’t very interested at all.  Maybe in the future we will though.

Church was good.  We taught some of the youth about the plan of salvation, and Elder Martinez really knows his stuff and we went pretty deep into it.  He really knows his doctrine, which is something I'm hoping I can learn from him. He knows the New Testament really, really well too.  One of my goals is to read the whole New Testament through once I finish the BOFM again.

Elder Martinez's parents are members, but his sisters aren't.  Most of the Latino missionaries are first generation members.  Nuts.  Like their parents or they are converts.

People are better off here.  The first day nobody wanted to listen to us, but it's been a lot easier since then.  We've started contacting the second stories of building or some apartment like buildings and are getting more success from that.  I don’t' think they've been as heavily contacting in the past.  Marriage is the same issue.  I think that's a country wide thing.  Most people do have firmer jobs here I believe.

We worked good this week.  34 lessons.  Hopefully more and more with members this next week.  We only had 3 lessons with members, and had a few really bad days when we could've picked it up.

Church was awesome.  The ward is really awesome.  There's a recent convert who's 11 who keeps stirring up drama with us.  Super annoying.  Other than that really really good.  Next week is stake conference, so I won’t' get to go again.  Makes it really hard to get investigators into the habit of coming to church because the stake center is a ways away.

We see Yulissa (pronounced Julissa) a lot.  She's come to church a lot and is dropping her evangelitico church little by little.  We're going to try to put a baptism date for her within the next couple of weeks.  We put a goal with her first so she can have a week or two to really study and pray about baptism first. She lives close to the river.

The other faiths are really interesting. This JW was telling us about the millennium, and actually knew quite a bit, with just a few things a little off.  Really cool, but weird.  Their church is the only one that compares to the growth of ours.

Pday was lame.  But good.  Felt good to clean really hard.  I even wiped down the walls which seemed to help a lot.  And cleaned out the tile grout.  The house just feels a lot cleaner now.  Feels good.  I figured I could be here for a very long time - another 20 weeks or so, so I figure I'd get it done well now.  Still has a few dirty parts, but I'll keep working on it little by little too.  Elder Martinez worked good too, because we have inspections this week.

I have intercambios in the area of Elder Lanza tomorrow.  I'll be with Elder Mokofisi.  He's a huge, loud, funny Tongan guy.  Kind of intimidating, but it'll be awesome.  I was worried I was going to have to be in my area, since I don't really know it that well yet, but we're good.

Cooking is good.  Elder Martinez knows how to cook a lot, so he usually cooks everything.  I still cook though, but usually basic stuff.  Oatmeal.  Pancakes.  He did really like the German pancakes.  Easy stuff like that.

One of our ZL's never talks English, even though he lives with 2 other Americans and his comp knows English.  His Spanish is really good, and Elder Decker said he talked once in English at their English class and he has an accent now.  That's something I should've done better in my area before, but no worries.  Just have to press forward. I'm going to try it.  Supposedly we talked a lot of English for Elder Romero, but we were really just talking in English.  It's not like I have a choice at the moment, but it's something I'm going to try to do.  It's something Cameron challenged me to do too. Most people understand me without problems, but some people still struggle with my accent.  I think my Spanish will just continue getting better, especially with 100 percent Spanish again.  I'm thankful for those struggles, cuz they really helped me.

Oh!  I also got your letter and one from bishop this week.  He sent me a few albums on a micro SD card.  Super cool of him.  He said Nick is going to start his mission papers. Way cool.  Do you think you could get me Cole Mason's email too? And maybe Dave Hall's? And who's still leaders of the Priests?  And the young men?  I know you told me, but I can't remember...

It's hard to get pictures of us (Easton and his comp), since it's just us in the house.  And neither of us are heavy get together and take pictures people haha.

Think that's about it.  Feel free to ask more questions as always!
Love, Elder Easton Potokar.

Transfers. Los Minas. 7 Month Mark. New Comp. Wowza!

(Emailed to Friends)
What a week it's been.  What a week, what a week.  It's been awesome, but hard.

Monday - said my goodbyes to everyone.  Got to see just about everyone I was looking for.  It was a lot harder than I expected.  Really awesome though.  I enjoyed that.  Makes me realized how much I actually do love the area.

Tuesday - Transfers.  Finished packing everything up, and left with Elder Decker at around 10 in the morning.  Our areas are like neighbors.  We're in the same zone too, Ozama, but different districts.  It was about a 30 minute car ride.  Then I got everything unpacked, and we visited some investigators and members.  This is the first time my comp has been senior comp, and I could tell he was nervous making sure he filled the time.

Wednesday - Long long long day.  We really don't have investigators.  With the exception of 3 or 4 people who are progressing, they don't really have anyone.  We contacted for 6 hours, and never really found anyone.  The area is really old from what I've heard and everyone has already talked to missionaries at one time or another.  It doesn't help we're both not very bold either.  We're going to work on it though.

Thursday - District and Zone meeting.  It was good to see Elder Decker again.  Our district is me and Elder Martinez, Elder Lanza (DL) from Honduras and his comp Elder Mokofisi from US, Elder Kirk from Utah and Elder Guigni from the DR.  They're all really loud and we're not.  We don't quite fit in with the district, but we'll get there.  We had a better day after that.  Things were a lot better.  We passed by a contacts house three times and she had her grandkids lie and tell us she wasn't there all three times haha.

Friday - Long day.  We bought food in the morning, and came back early because Elder Martinez wasn't feeling too good.  We didn't leave again.  He slept all day and had a fever.  I cleaned, studied, slept, studied, snacked, and just chilled all day.  Really really boring.  I tried to stay busy so I didn't go stir crazy.

Saturday - He wasn't feeling good in the morning either so we can home early.  Had a decent night, although lots of lessons fell.  I met some of the more solid investigators so that was good.

Sunday - We had a conference for the Caribbean in the stake center.  Elder Wilford A Anderson of the Seventy spoke (in Spanish), Sister Ocarson spoke (in English), Jeffrey R Holland spoke (started in Spanish, then said his Spanish was horrible and it was in English.  Bore his testimony in Spanish though which was awesome) and Boyd K Packer  (started in Spanish, but 90 percent in English).  Super good.  It was broadcast from Utah to all the Caribbean.  After that we walked a ton.  We worked hard, but not very smart.  Lots of lessons fell again.  That's the growing pains of trying to find investigators.

Today - Cleaned.  About it.

Other thoughts from the week -

The area is really cool.  Super calm and awesome.  More like Utah.  It reminds me of Granite Flats if any of you have seen that.  The ward is strong too and really supports the missionaries.  They have like 20 YW and 3 YM.  Weird and kind of sketchy. Sometimes I feel like I need more noise here.  Like it's way too quiet and something needs to happen.  Guess I've gotten used to the noise.  I suppose this is what it'd be like to be a missionary in the states.

Elder Martinez.  From Panama.  Good missionary.  Super quiet.  The house is kind of boring because of that, but he's starting to open up.  Very analytical and smart. His family found the church when he was 5.  Good guy, and he'll work hard with me. The whole ward, area and missionaries feel sleepy.  Like it's not quite awake.  I want to change that.

The house is nice too.  A little dirty, but not too bad.  Little by little I'm going to get it spotless.  Pretty much everything works too.  Elder Cook, who lived here before, is loaded and bought tons of stuff for the house.  There's a brand new monopoly, a huge speaker system, and tons of candy.  Pretty awesome.

One of my MTC teachers lives in our ward and we talked to him the other day.  Hermano Rodriquez, tall skinny guy.  Really awesome to see him again.

3 talks that I read this week that you guys should look up

A living testimony - Henry B Eyring
Bring Souls unto Me - L. Tom Perry
The lesson is Inside the Learner - Russell T. Osguthorpe

I believe that's about all for the week! Lots of work to be done here, so wish me luck!  Have a great week!
Love, Elder Easton Potokar.

(Emailed to Family)
Wow.  Lots happened this week!  I´m glad that the stake dance turned out so well!  Those were always terrible when I went haha.  I bet the dress up standard helped a lot.  Helped make it feel more real. It looked awesome, so I’m glad that one turned out well.

We didn't have too many roaches, but I'd occasionally see a few.  The mission just has that done every couple of months.  It was the second time that they had done it since I had been there.

It was super super hard saying goodbye.  I never expected that in a million years.  It was a good feeling though.  Weird, but good.

Hermana Baez

Starling & Angel Gomez

Chaiane Castro & Odry Galvez

Hermana Paula

The Nicolas Dilone Family

I have way too much crap!  I forget a few things too, but called and Elder Pawn said he's sending it to me through the mission mail.  I should get them this Thursday.


We only speak Spanish.  No English.  Makes me really happy.  My Spanish is going to improve A TON.  I can feel it coming.  Same exercising as before.  I don't think he exercises as much as before.  No soccer.  I've talked to him about it so we'll see if we'll do it as a district sometime.

Nothing like Vila Mella at all.  This area is very calm and safe.  I was talking to Elder Martinez about it and they could really put sisters in here.  It's not too big, and really nice.  The people are tougher, but the area is nice.  Forgot to mention there's also two parks in our area.  They're pretty cool.  Like US parks, but in the middle of a neighborhood.  And smaller.  There's tons of basketball hoops in the streets with kids playing.  Not tons of people in the park.  I'd love to go to a park on one pday.  We'll see how it goes.

It's even been cool the last couple of days.  Lots of rain and I even had goose bumps.  The coldest it's been since I've been here.  Felt great.  Not sure if it was really cold, or if I'm just used to it.  That street completely flooded.  Look at the times in the pictures too.  In two hours it was back to normal.  It's been chilly here because of that.  Well chilly-ish.  It's definitely not as hot here as in Villa Mella.

   
I definitely haven't gotten cold at night , but I've slept without the fan a few times.  It's usually not too bad at night.  One of our investigator lives on a hill close to the river.  We go up on a hill and I can see over the river and a bridge and everything.  Super cool.  It's on my bucket list to get a picture of it.

We had the Caribbean conference that I talked about in my general email.  It was really awesome.  So I still don't know all the ward yet and haven't been in the church.  Sheesh.  Wasn’t very good timing for that one. The conference was at the stake center, so I've really only walked by the ward building and almost went in one day.  It looks pretty nice.  We'll see on this Sunday I guess.

I don’t' know how close we are to other missionaries.  No idea.  I've met a good amount of the members.  There's some really awesome ones and I plan on doing the every member a missionary plan that El Eden used with them.  I think we can really use the members to help us find people to teach here.

We're struggling, but getting through it.  I have this image of what I want the area to be, and it's not to that point yet, and it frustrates me sometimes.  I've got to be patient with it. I think that’s about it.  If you have any ideas on how to find investigators let me know.   We're obviously new haha.

I've cleaned quite a bit today.  Not that it was dirty, but just definitely could've been better.  I'm going to do a deeper clean next Monday.  The fridge doesn't work so hot.  We need to call the office to fix it.  The freezer works, but not the fridge.  It's definitely a problem.

We've never refrigerated eggs here.  They sell them off the street and even in the stores they often aren't refrigerated.  I have no idea why.  The milk isn't refrigerated until it's opened either.  Super weird.

Elder Martinez knows how to cook a lot more than me, and I think he's a little wary of my cooking haha.  I’ve done German pancakes, pancakes, tried to do rice, and destroyed some grilled cheese (in a bad way haha).  It's been even cooking wise though. I plan on trying to learn a bunch from him.

An investigator here gave that to me.
I mentioned I know how to do it,
 and he gave it to me.  Pretty awesome.

Also that's awesome you guys got my Christmas letter!  I think there should be 2 or 3 more of them though haha... That's a bummer that haven't been making it there.  Really bothers me.  I think the stuff is individually wrapped inside of the envelopes.  Hopefully with names still on them.  Everyone has a two or three gifts. They are only like 2 months late! I have no idea who would've put all of those on (extra stamps).  Three nephites maybe? Mom sent me the picture of it.  Way cool.  Somebody's got my back.  It looks like it needed a ton more stamps than I put on it.  Oops! Haha.


Fun fact - I think Trevor has the same side bag I used to have from looking at his pictures.

Love and miss you millions!
Elder Easton Potokar.

Transfer Week! First Change of Areas!

Villa Mella Zone

(Emailed to Friends)
What a week it's been.  Crazy crazy.  Really hard to keep myself motivated to work, since it was pretty much assumed I was leaving.  Hard to focus in lessons and everything, but I gave it my best. I'll do a quick overview of the week.

Monday - We had an FHE, but it fell through.  We ended up teaching Mon.  We answered a lot of his questions about baptism, and he's now going to pray if the church really has the authority to baptism!  I know he'll get an answer.

Tuesday - We did a quick intercambios in the morning. I worked with Elder Decker.  We had a few lessons.  Then they were fumigating the house for cockroaches so we had to come back a bit early.  Then we had a few lessons in the evening.  We had an English class which went OK.  We taught Carolina and Rocheli about obedience as well to help them be ready for their baptismal covenants.

Wednesday - A few lessons in the morning.  We had to come back to the house early to prep our tema for Thursday's zone meeting.  We gave it on commitments.  Then we left a little late in the evening as well because we were working on it, had a meeting with the ward mission leader and taught Mon some more.  Solid day, but not fantastic.

Thursday - Zone meeting.  We gave our tema on commitments and there was a few others.  It went pretty well I thought.  Really fun.  Really cool.  Then they brought new phones for everyone in the zone!  Way awesome.  They're pretty high tech (not really, still have a number keyboard), but are a lot nicer than the older ones. In the evening we had a few lessons, and another English Class.  We asked the bishop for some info the ZL's asked for and he kind of just chewed us out.  For like an hour.  Luckily he assumes I don't know much Spanish still so he just ignored me.  Haha awesome, but it made me feel bad for my comp.

Friday - Only had a few lessons.  They ZL's called and they took the phones back.  Aww.  Probably because they had a Facebook and twitter app haha.  We spent a lot of time filling the font, getting baptismal clothes, prepping and cleaning the chapel all for the baptism.  The baptism went really well.  Everyone filed in late, but that's just how Dominican’s are.  Carolina and Rochelli Reynoso are now members of the church!  Their brother/uncle baptized them.  Really awesome.  Their Dad/Grandpa gave a talk, and the other speaker wasn't wearing a tie so the bishop wouldn't let him talk.  We also watched the video of the restoration.  Went well.  I was super super happy for them.

Saturday - Contacted in the morning.  One lady just let us in without saying anything.  I knew she was a member just looking at her.  She then pulled out a triplet, her limited use temple recommend and a bunch of Liahonas.  She was baptized about 2 years ago, and moved and stopped coming to church.  She's in contact with one of the members though so I think she'll start coming.  The evening we had a bunch of weird intercambios and waiting.  It went OK.  There was ward council, but since Elder Decker and I are leaving we just did splits through it.

Sunday - 6 people in church.  The Dilone family has now come consistently for weeks, even with us not visiting them nearly as much.  They just need to get married and would be easy members.  Then we had a few lessons and a FHE with Carolina's family.  It was fun.  Sad to tell her bye after.

And the big news.  Transfers.  I'm going to Los Minos in the zone Oriental with Elder Martinez, from Panama.  He's got one transfer more than me and this'll be his first time as Senior Comp.  Elder Pawn lived with him and said I'll be in good shape.  Elder Decker is going to be DL in another district in Osama.  Elder Romero is going to finish someone's training.  Elder Pawn is staying the same.  Elder Stephens is going to be DL now as well.  Awesome.  Should be a really good transfer.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'll be going there tomorrow morning!

Carolina & Rochelli

I think that's about all this week!  Hope you all have a fantastic week!
Elder Easton Potokar.

(Emailed to Family)
Baptisms went really well. Carolina bought little stickers to mark her scriptures with.  Super awesome.  I think if her husband comes back they won't have any problem staying active. Carolina’s husband did come to her baptism, but not to her confirmation. And the big guy who baptized them is Carolina's brother, Luis, a rm. One of the little kids is Carolina's son.  The smallest one.  The one in the blue is just a neighbor kid.

On Sunday we ate again with the patriarch and his wife.  They have a daughter and her family who live in Utah.  Close to American Fork.  He's also a temple sealer and I guess was the first one in the DR.  President Eyring ordained him.

Also on Sunday the temple president and his wife came and spoke.  President and Sister Flake.  She doesn't know a ton of Spanish, but he does.  It was excellent.  Really cool.  He talked about tons of experiences he's had in the temple.  It was way cool.  I really really enjoyed that.  They're from Arizona if I remember right.  The same city as Elder Fusselman, my MTC comp.

Ward mission leader is awesome.  Super sick.  We visited him at his police station.  He's pretty legit.  Willing to work and learn, but he does work a lot so it's hard to do much with him.

Got a few people to write in my journal.  We're basically just going to make the rounds tonight so I can say goodbye to everyone and have them right in my journal. Maybe teach a few of them.

When we found that less active lady it really hit me how I'm leaving.  It made me super sad that I might never see these people again.  Felt like leaving the MTC or leaving home again.  Hurts. I'm honestly not looking forward to tonight much.  It's going to be super hard.  Super super super hard.  I know it's going to be super rough.  I had to say by super fast to Carolina yesterday and that was hard enough.

Got most my packing done already.  Just waiting for a few things to dry.  It's going to be hard to get everything to fit.  I'm kinda worried about it actually.

Elder Pawn lived with Elder Martinez so he told me a bit about him.  We're going to be living in a two man house, on the second floor.  He's from Panama.  Likes soccer.  Likes to work out a lot, so maybe he'll be able to help me with that.  Likes to study A TON. Probably like Romero does in all his free time. That's a fire and habit I hope I can pick up from him.  It's not going to be as exciting as the house I live in right now, but should be cool.  He sounds like a good guy.  Convert since he was like 13ish I believe. I'm sure I'll be able to pick up my journal habit without problems and will study a ton harder now.  I know he doesn’t know like any English either so my Spanish should improve a ton since I'll basically NEVER be using English. I think he has had 2 transfers in Los Minos.  It'll be like how it was with me and Romero.  We'll just work hard and try to figure things out while we're going.

I'll take a cab in the morning around 10.  I got the current missionaries number and called them in Los Minos yesterday and they gave me the address and I just give that to the taxi driver and that's that. I give him the address and he takes me right there.  In theory at least. I already called the driver and I'm set. I don't know if I'm closer or farther away from the temple.  I want to say farther. Not sure if it's a country or city.  It's close to Megocentro.  Same zone.  I think it'll be in between.  Elder Pena said his family lives in my area.

I know Elder Lansa is my DL.  He was Elder Decker's DL before and he said he's an awesome guy.  Also Elder Ventura and Moncada will be in my zone.  Should be awesome.  Not too worried about who'll be in my zone.  I'm interested to know who'll be in my district though.

I also finally got both of the pairs of slacks done too so now I have 5 or 6 pairs of slacks I can use.

Another question.  Have you ever written your converts from your mission?  When we found that less active lady she told us her missionary wrote her and she acted like that letter was pure gold.  I thought that was amazing and I set a goal of sending them all one every little while.  That was the moment that really hit me that I was leaving too. Paula and Victor will be hard to reach.  To send letters to them I'd probably have to send it through the mission, and I don’t' know how they'd write back.  Probably through the mission as well.  It'd be cool to send them Christmas cards, or things like that.

Lady in the blue shirt is Carolinas mom.
  Rochelli's grandma.

That lady is Carolina's Mom.  I'm not sure why we took a picture just with her haha.  I think her Dad is in the picture with us later too.  They are both members.  I remember her Dad, Manuel Reynoso, telling me everything is going to be OK when I cried in sacrament one of my first weeks here.  Really awesome guy.  Kind of goofy, but really great guy.  I didn't understand much when he told me that, but Elder Moncada translated for me.

That's Carolina's son, and Rochelli's brother.
He sticks his head out to watch people go by.
It's on the second story and his head just fits
perfectly between them.

The older couple are some less actives we visit.
They were baptized like 20 years ago.
Really cool people.

I'll let you know how my area is next week.  Hopefully I can find another fast internet to send you pictures this fast.  I'm sure I'll have tons of pics. That's about it this week.  Please ask if you have any more questions!

Really really like that quote on change. (There is nothing so unchanging, so inevitable as change itself. We need not feel that we must forever be what we presently are. There is a tendency to think of change as the enemy. Many of us are suspect of change and will often fight and resist it before we have even discovered what the actual effects will be. When change is thought through carefully, it can produce the most rewarding and profound experiences in life. There is a constant that allows us to use change for our own good, and that constant is the revealed eternal truths of our Heavenly Father.)

Love you tons!  Pray for me cuz I'm going to need it!
Love, Elder Easton Potokar.

That tshirt is for our zone.  The back of it is that liahona emblem that Elder Pawn drew.

Temple Week!

(Emailed to Friends)
What a fantastic week it's been!  Lots of good, awesome stuff has happened.  Kind of a funky week too, but we've worked through it!

Monday - We had longer to work last pday, but it was hard to really work on pday.  Not sure why, but that's just how it worked out.  We managed to snag 4 lessons though.  We had an awesome lesson with Maricela too.  We brought another old lady from the ward over to help us out.  Hermana Inoa.  It was pouring rain, and we waiting a bit, but then she just started plowing right through it!  Made me smile.  She was hopping through puddles, the whole nine yards.  And she helped Maricela SO much.  We read Alma 32 with her.  After we bore our testimonies on the BOFM, she said "And I testify that I want to know this book is true!"  Really awesome.  I have high hopes that she'll get that testimony some day!

Tuesday - A decent day.  Rough day.  We had trouble planning for the day, so it turned out pretty hard.  I did manage to commit a lady to baptism in the morning if she receives a testimony.  A lot of times we never bring up baptism until a ton later, so I've been trying to start doing it in the first two lessons.  I felt good about that.  Her name is Margarita.  We'll see how she progresses.

Wednesday - Temple Day!  "I love to see the temple” It was Awesome!  Loved it.  Naturally.  I always get refreshed and reanimated and excited when I go to the temple.  Rededicated to being obedient and I really can see the things I can work on.    I just love it.  Then we had the English class (lame.  None of us really wanted to teach at all, we were just dead) and the first coordination missional with our ward mission leader.  He's military and really excited to work.  The first time I've seen him was the day he got called.  I guess he hasn't come to church for a year because he couldn't get off work, but now he's off of work!  He also mentioned on Sunday that he was a stake president.  Should be really awesome.

Thursday - District meeting.  Got some birthday and Christmas cards.  We had a few cool lessons in the evening.  We visited Paula and Victor.  That was awesome.  He talked about how he feels the presence of God with him at times and he just feels at peace.  We testified to him that that was the Spirit.  He also talked about how lots of people love the world more than Christ.  He's a super spiritual guy and I hope things start going better for them!

Friday - That morning we went to Santa Cruz so Elder Romero could do an interview with someone getting ready to be baptized there.  I did some contacts with Elder Pena.  Then I had intercambios with Elder Pawn in the evening.  It went OK.  We didn't have a ton of success, but had some good lessons.  We had an awesome lesson with Rocheli and Carolina, our fechas for the 23rd.  We went over the baptismal interview questions with them.  It made me so happy to see that they knew it all!  Really really awesome.

Saturday - Finished intercambios in the morning and it went alright.  Normal.  Decent afternoon as well.  We had the English class and it went better than last time.  Then we just went around inviting people to church.

Sunday - 7 people in church!  Really awesome.  Basically the same people who came from last week.  I was really happy about that again.  Then we had the interview of Rochelli and Carolina in the afternoon.  That went well.  They both passed!  The baptisms are scheduled for the 23rd at 7 o clock!  Really awesome.  Super excited for that.

Today - Normal.  We managed to milagrously get permission to go to Sambil, a huge mall.  We had Johnny Rockets there.  It was super good.  I also bought a Crispy Creme doughnut.  Really really enjoyed that!

I believe that's about all.  It was a really good week. Also next week I'll have news about transfers!  I'm pretty sure I'm changing areas, so we'll see how that goes.

Love you all tons!
Elder Easton Potokar.

(Emailed to Family)
Rochelli and Carolina are good for the 23rd now.  I'm really excited for them.  The only thing was during their interview her Dad (inactive) sent her to buy a soda for all of us right in front of the ZLs, on SUNDAY.  AND SHE DID IT. Really freaked me out.  Needless to say, we'll be teaching that soon.

I've thought a lot about Paula and Victor.  He came to church this week for the first time in like a month, so that's awesome!  Paula was too sick to come.  I fasted for them this Sunday.  Hopefully that'll help them out.

We didn't have an FHE this week.  I think we'll have a FHE tonight though which I'm really looking forward to.  English class is being changed to Tuesdays and Thursdays to give us Saturdays free to preach since those days usually everyone is home.

Nicolas opened up a little bit this week.  His whole family wrote in my journal and came to church.  I have hope for him.

I'm really really hoping Maricela will come to church this week. Members can help a ton.  Sometimes they're dead weight, and sometimes they are incredible.  The member we brought with us to Maricela’s was really good at making people feel important and that's exactly what we needed.

The family Frias hasn't come to church still since the boss at the Dad's work sold the place and a new guy owns it.  The old guy was LDS, but the new guy isn't and hasn't given him Sundays off which sucks.  And none of them are doing anything which is terrible.  They don't read anything we give them.  I don't know what to do with them.

Another cool quote from an investigator last week "We have to know where we're going to know where we came from." that's a quote we as missionaries use all the time so it knocked us back a little!  Haha.

Lots of missionaries at the temple.  3 or 4 zones.  President Corbitt  talked to us a little bit.  And we took the pictures with him.  It was really good.  They fed us pizza and after we snagged a frosty and I talked to Elder Brady for quite a while.  It felt fantastic to be able to talk to him about things.  He's doing alright.  He was in the MTC with me and was actually in the airport with me too. I did get to do the name you guys sent me which is AWESOME.  I loved that. I got the picture of us all together, but then we took off to be the first ones at the temple store so we wouldn't have to wait.  I also bought a new white tie this week for like$1.50 since my old one got stained.

I wrote in my journal once or twice this week.  I've been meaning to write down a few experiences the last few days, but haven't made it a priority.  I really need to work on that. I skinnied the tie Nicolas and his family gave me, and have been working on my new agenda this week.  And I finished reading "A Marvelous Work and Wonder" today, by Legrand Richards.  It was awesome.

Transfers are next week.  I haven't been praying for it much.  I'm good where the Lord wants me, I really would like a companion who wants to work too, but we'll see where the Lord needs me.  There are some missionaries who aren't as diligent as they should be.  Our house is really good at that and obedience right now.  It's fantastic. I was thinking of that movie (The Best Two Years) a few days ago, and how much more real everything in it is. Haha Your prayers are needed.  Thank you so much!

(Who standing between you and Romero?) That's Mon.  He's friends with tons and tons of members, has come to activities forever, and is now coming to church.  Basically the perfect investigator.  He's from Haiti.  The only thing is he's moving to Canada to work.  Crazy.  So we've hooked him up with a BOFM and Bible and hopefully he'll find the missionaries there!




I went up on the roof to relax this morning.  It felt really great to just chill for a bit.  I don't do that a ton.  And actually in one of those pictures you can see a cormada, a paperleria, and a bank.  Just to show you how that works.  And a salon looking in the other direction.

(We sent him a picture that gas was $1.79 a gallon.) That's insanely low!  I showed all the missionaries that and they all just about freaked out.

Tell all the kids well done from me for their grades, all straight A’s!  That's way way way awesome.  I'm glad to hear they are all fighting for it and doing well.  Dad told me Lydia is eating up math too which makes me insanely happy.

I like the idea of a word for the week.  I'll have to try and think of one.  It'll probably be in Spanish though.

I think that's about all.
Love and miss you always. Think of you often, just less often than before. :)
Love, Elder Easton Potokar.