December 15, 2015

 I will be able to Skype on Christmas Day and will probably have to use the computer at the church.  We still haven´t seen either of those investigators so they might just be gone forever, but we have about 3 references that we are going to receive this week and they are all families so that should be really good.  P day today was pretty sick!  We went to Jarabacoa up in the mountains a little bit and hiked to this sweet waterfall in the jungle. It reminded me a lot of Hawaii, except the water was kinda gross haha,  but was really fun and  was pretty cool.  If the water wasn´t gross it would have been more of a temptation to cliff jump in haha.  We have transfers on the 12 of December and most likely Elder Tucker is going to leave and I will stay here. It is a little bit intimidating to think that in 10 days I will be the comp who has to know the area and everything haha there is a slight chance that I will leave, but I doubt it.  Last night we had dinner at a members house and everyone wanted me to sing some Christmas songs in English.  While I was singing, I was reminded of Grandpa LaVell and all his awesome songs he is always singing.  I couldn't stop smiling and laughing, man that made me miss home and the family a lot for a minute there.  Tell all the family that I love them. I hope you guys enjoy the winter and enjoy this week!

Elder Mifflin

New Pics

Week 14

This Sunday was easily the worst day of my mission so far!  None of our investigators came to church and then a bunch of our lessons fell thru during the day. That couple and another one of our investigators haven´t answered any of our calls or come to the lessons we had set with them, so we probably won't be having a baptism anytime soon. It is all good though, we have been able to find some new people and hopefully we can have some success.  Our Thanksgiving dinner today turned out pretty well. We bought 30 pounds of potatoes and 18 pounds of turkey and also 32 rolls.  It took like 3 hours to cook and mash all the potatoes but it was a success!  I think that was my first meal since being in the CCM that I ate till I literally could not eat more food.  Have fun at the cabin for Thanksgiving.  Love you all!  

Elder Garrett Mifflin

Week 13

As for the marriage and baptism of our couple that was ready to get baptized, it won´t be happening anytime soon. The couple went to go get the papers that they needed to get married, and rats had eaten the husbands papers. In a goverment building of records, rats had eaten a bunch of the papers and there are no other copies and no digital copies of the forms either!! The things that can happen in the DR! It could take up to 10 months before they can get married now, so that’s a bummer! We also have a guy named Hipolito that is going to get baptized the 28 of November. He has been to church 4 times in a row and is super committed to progressing. He is 70 something years old and a really cool guy. We also have an investigator named Nelson who has a date for the 5th of December, he is a really cool guy and we are homies with him. He had a lot of trouble in his life due to drugs and such but he is really turning his life around and changing a lot. I think his date will hold and he will get baptized, he is an awesome guy. Other than that not too much happened this week. It went by really quick. Today for p day we played baseball. I am really bad haha but it was pretty fun. Since we have so many Americans in our zone we are all going to make a big Thanksgiving dinner next p day. That should be pretty fun if it works out. It still won’t be anything like Thanksgiving with the family though. The mish is going by pretty fast and even though I still have a lot of struggles, I am improving everyday and enjoying it. I love you guys so much and miss you. Good luck with everything and enjoy this week!
Elder Mifflin

Week 12

Well.... this was quite the interesting week. Probably the best place to start is with our phone. Elder Tucker accidentally washed it with his pants the other day, so we put it in rice after and gave it some sun treatments and it kind of started working again but not very well, kinda off and on. Then from there things went pretty normal for a couple days. A couple crazy flash flood type storms, lots of lessons, lots of mosquitos, lots of walking. Then Sunday rolled around and let me tell ya I am never going to forget this Sunday!  To start, we had a district conference in Primavera and had 5 investigators attend which was awesome. One of them is this way cool guy that is progressing a lot, and it  was his first time at church. I looked over at him about half way through a hymn and he was crying.  After he said he loved it and felt the spirit really strong there and he wants to go to church every Sunday for the rest of his life now.  After the meeting we had our couple get their baptismal interviews and we helped them to plan their wedding and baptism day. Then we walked 30 minutes home, ate lunch, left for the day, and had some good lessons.  So up to this point it was a pretty good Sunday right?  It was indeed, but from there things went wacko. So we got home around 9: 30 and on Sunday nights we are suppose to report our numbers, but our phone stopped working earlier that day so we couldn't report our numbers. Our zone leaders knew that our phone was barely working and it was too late to leave to try and call them with another phone so we figured that it wasn't a big deal if we didn't report our numbers. So we planned to call them tomorrow, ate some food, and went to bed just like normal around 10: 45 pm.  At 1: 30 am I wake up to the sound of someone banging on our door.  I walk over to the door and look through the little crack in it and see white shirts and ties, its the zone leaders!   Then I hear Elder Walker´s voice outside, one of the AP´s. So I freaked out a little bit and ran over and shook Elder Tucker awake and we opened the door. There were the AP´s,  two members from our ward, and PRESIDENT CASTILLO!  I never thought I would be seeing the mission president trying to break down my door at 1: 30 in the morning, but I did!   So anyway,  they run in and are losing it (where have you guys been?!?!......what were you doing?!?!?!) They told us that they had called the police, all of our investigators, and the area seventy. They thought we had been kidnapped.  So we had to assure them of our innocence, that we had been there the whole time sleeping and our phone just wasn't working.  Then they left after about 15 minutes.... it was so crazy!  I was so shocked I couldn't fall back to sleep for about 3 hours.  I also didn't know if they had called our families and so I was a little freaked out because I know that my mom would have lost her marbles if she was told I was missing.  So how did all this come to be? We ended up finding out the next day that the hermanas in our area were told by the district leaders we hadn't called in. So the hermanas called a member to go to our house around 11 to check on us. He must have not knocked hard enough because we didn't wake up. So he told the hermanas nobody was home..... and they freaked. One of them called the mission president crying and told him she thought that we had been mugged or kidnapped, so that is why he ended up coming!   Well, thats my story, sorry that was a really long email but I needed to give you guys all of the details. Other than that life is good.  I am only 9 days away from the 100 day mark which is kinda crazy.   Our couple is going to get married and baptized next weekend so that’s awesome too!  So yeah that is my life right now, working hard to improve my abilities as a missionary and also my Spanish. I am hoping to have 5 baptisms before Christmas and things are looking good for that to be a reality.  I miss you guys a lot and I hope that everything is well.

Elder Mifflin

Week 11

We get a solid afternoon rainstorm about 2-3 times a week.  For P day Santiago last week we went to this big monument in the city (I will send some pics) then after we went on intercambios. I was with an Elder from Honduras named Elder Merlo, then I woke up at 4 am and we had a 4 hour bus ride to Santo Domingo. We had to do a bunch of stuff there for our legal papers and we also needed to do some medical stuff.   While doing that I found out I have lost about 10 pounds since I left the CCM!   Also we didn´t have running water in our house for about 5 days or gas to cook for about 2 days.  Now we have both again though so that is really nice!  For Halloween we made some Jack o lanterns out of watermelons because there aren´t any pumpkins here. It actually worked really well. We have a new family of 4 that we are teaching and they are really cool. They are the first family that me and my companion have met together.  As my Spanish improves so does my relationship with the people. The last few days have gone really well and been fun. It is kind of crazy that I am done with my second transfer already.  I love you Momma and all of the family. I think about you guys everyday and hope that everything is going well for everyone. Dont forget to be weird or be afraid!

Elder Mifflin

Week 10

Things are going pretty good right now!  We are having some financial issues with the one familia, so we had to move their baptismal date back to Nov 14, so hopefully that can work out for them . Our other investigators with baptismal dates are  over a month away so we still have lots to help them with. Yeah we have district meetings every week but our district is only my companionship and 1 companionship of sisters. We have zone meetings every two weeks. Most of our P days we don’t do much haha.  One day we went and hiked up the river,  2 weeks ago we went to a Catholic Cathedral where Christopher Columbus built a cross and last week we just played basketball with our zone leaders. Today is our P-Day Santiago so we are in Santiago haha,  we just hung out at the office for a while, which is super nice, then we went to a Pricesmart for lunch.  It made me want to go shopping at Costco with you momma haha.  We got some pizza and it was really good and American tasting.  Tomorrow we have to go down to Santo Domingo for our visas,  so tonight we are sleeping at the Presidents house.   That will be the first time I have been there since the first day in the field. Also, I forgot to tell you there was a crazy rainstorm this week and we got stuck at a menos activos house for like an hour and after it stopped raining the streets were totally flooded with about 6 inches of water.  I didn’t have my camera unfortunately but we had to take our shoes off, roll our pants up, and walk through the river/street barefoot!   Fun fact, we woke up this morning and had a bunch of maggots in our kitchen so that was pretty gross, but don't worry I went ham and killed them all....prettymuch. Anyway, a mission is quite the learning and growing experience.  It is kinda hard to be patient sometimes with my own progress, but I am trying to be more patient, work hard and trust in the help of God. I have already seen and felt His influence and help a lot during my mission.  It is going by pretty fast, 11 weeks today and only 91 left!  Hopefully I can get better at Spanish before those 91 weeks run out haha.  I'm glad to hear that everything is going well with the family. I love you a lot Momma and all the rest of the family too!  Make sure to tell all of the extended family that I love them too!  I forgot my camera cord so I can't send pictures again, but I will next week!

Elder Mifflin

photos

Week 9

 I did get some good pics but unfortunately the good internet center was too crowded and we had to go to this one, so I can’t send any pics from this computer today,  but I will next week!   So far things are looking pretty good for the couple to get baptized on the 31st. Including them we have 6 investigators with baptismal dates. Out of the 6 I think we can realistically have at least 4 but we need to work with them a lot. One of them is named Rudy and he is way cool. I have been able to do a lot of the teaching with him and he does have a real desire to improve his life and testimony but it is kinda hard to teach sometimes.  Time means nothing here in the DR, it is all laid back island style!

I was able to improve my diet a lot this week.   I bought apples, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, canned corn, and canned green beans. The quality of the fruit isn’t the best, but at least its fruit haha.   Anyway things here have been good,  we have been able to stay pretty busy and make  progress with some of our investigators.  I hope all is going well over there for you.   I love you very much!

Elder Mifflin