Week 8

Conference was really good and I learned a lot. It also has helped me a lot over the last couple of days already. I think it was Jeffrey R Holland who talked about mothers and I thought about you the whole time. Just like he described mothers in his talk you really have been such a loving, caring, and helpful person to me in my life.  So as far as my area it is really dead, besides our 1 couple none of our investigadores estan progresando, pero despues este vamos a enseñar una leccion con una familia nueva. yo espero que podemos guardar esa familia y que ellos pueden progresar (i know i was probably supposed to use subjunctive but I´m not gonna work on that till later) People always bail on our appointments and we have to contact a lot.  Also the couple who have a baptismal date for Oct 31 need to get married first but they don’t have much money,  and the husband has a  job where he can only work Saturday and Sunday. To get baptized they have to attend church together every Sunday between now and their date.  We need a miracle with this family. I really hope things can work out because they are super ready and are doing their best to live all the commandments.  Hopefully we can also find some new people this week.  The Spanish goes up and down,  some days I am pretty good and can understand most of what is said, and other days I get nothing haha, but the amount I can understand is growing all the time.  I can say pretty much everything I want but I still need to work on my grammar a lot. I have learned to make some great rice and beans haha but honestly my diet has been kind of unhealthy.  I’m going to try and stretch out my apoyo this week and buy healthier food. I love you guys and miss you, but I am getting better and not being distracted by thinking about the awesome stuff we have and all the things we would always do together haha.  Good luck with everything this week.

Elder Mifflin

Week 7

The first week has been pretty good. The language is hard to understand and people make fun of me a lot haha but no growth can occur outside of the comfort zone so I know its good.  The area is pretty cool and I have already become fully accustomed to living in a poor place. In reality it isn't all that bad,  but I have it a lot better here than most of the people that actually live here. I am studying Spanish everyday and trying to get better with that.   It is coming slowly,  but I just need to be patient. Today for P day we went and explored part of the jungle and river. It was sad because it is super polluted everywhere here,  but still cool. Being a missionary here definitely strengthens my testimony that God blesses missionaries. Lets be real, I should totally be way sick already from the things I have been around,  but I´m sound as a pound. Don't be worried about me momma, life is good. Although I miss our fridge at home and the good diet I had before the mish. The members are really nice and we have a couple that is getting baptized on the 31st,  so I´m excited for that.  By the way the other day just for fun I did some math and figure I have about 57,541,800 seconds of my mission left. I´ll end on that note and try to use them all well. I love you and the rest of the family and miss you guys a lot!

Elder Mifflin

Week 6

My life is crazy. haha I´m glad to be out of the mtc but at the same time miss it so much already.  Coming here has definitely shown me how much of a softy I am. I am in the La Vega zone in an area called Coniña. It is pretty poor but seems cool so far. These keyboards are weird and the computer is in spanish so it is telling me everyword is misspelled so just know i´m not going to capitalize anything and some stuff might be spelled wrong. My trainer aka my dad is named Elder Tucker. He is from Idaho and has been out for about 13 months. he seems pretty cool so far and he speaks english and spanish well so thats a plus. It is going to be hard for me for at least a few weeks. I learned a lot in the mtc but right now it feels like I know nothing useful haha but I know I just need to keep studying and get some practice. It is super hot here!!  It was about a 2:30 drive to the presidents house in santiago and then 50 minutes here. I’ve got a lot to learn over the next few weeks but I´m not too worried I just need to be patient. I have only been here for 6 weeks and for the rest of my life I will be so much more grateful for all that we have. It is truly insane to compare the things we have.  The second time we went on splits in santo domingo I was in the favelas and the families I taught each had 3-5 people living in a tin and concrete house as big as 1/2 of my bedroom at home. It is crazy, but they are awesome!  Love you all very much and be happy always!

Elder Mifflin 

Week 5

Splits were pretty crazy this week!  I went with a kid from Honduras named Elder Soriano. He has been out for 21 months and so was a really good missionary but barely spoke any English haha.  It was hard to communicate at first but got better throughout the day. So, lets just say you would not have liked being were I was haha!   The area I was in looked like the favelas in Rio De Janerio. Basically just concrete shells of buildings all built on top of each other. The streets here also remind me of Mario Kart.  There are no rules whatsoever and everyone goes ham!  There was also a lot of garbage and litter everywhere so that was kinda sad for me being nature boy. We had to ride in a tiny little taxi and we managed to fit 7 people in there, so it was nice and comfortable!  I had some street food at the end which I’m sure you don't appreciate haha but don’t worry I made sure that it was good first. I had a chicken and cheese empanada. It was so good!  I leave on Tuesday morning at 6:30 am to go into the field and my P days will be on Wednesday now.  I'm really excited to finally get out into the field, it’s definitely going to be hard for the first while but I think I will be able to learn quickly.   Conference is coming up soon and I might not be able to watch it in English, so I have some homework for you and the fam. I want you guys to all pick your favorite talk from the weekend and send me the basic gist of it and all that. I also want to give you guys the homework of reading the Book of Mormon every single day.   Read at least like 5 pages and always have a scripture marker with you when you read.  It is crazy how much you can learn from that book!  I have definitely learned a lot of new things from it over the last 5 weeks here.  I have been totally healthy and awesome. I miss you guys and love you all a lot. I hope all is well for you!

Elder Mifflin

Week 4

   We went to the University nearby this week to do contacting. It was really hot but it was pretty good practice. We were able to give out a few Books of Mormon and talk to some people about the church.  I still have a lot of room for improvement with the language and my teaching skills but I am making good progress.  We are going on splits tomorrow with the field missionaries, which I'm really excited for. I've heard splits are kinda crazy but it should be a good learning experience. I'm about to learn the real meaning of sweat haha The MTC is getting to be pretty boring and I am really excited to finally be out in the field. I love you all and hope that you are all doing well.  I miss you all a lot and am looking forward to seeing you again. It's weird to think I've been gone for 4 weeks already but that means we only have 100 weeks left till we can see each other!

Elder Mifflin