September 5, 2016

Well if I could find one word to describe this week it would probably be....hot. It has been so dang hot here in Dajabon. The DR in general is way hot but it is worse here for sure, I sweat so much everyday.  I am still getting to know the area, sometimes I have no idea where we are haha but little by little I am learning all the streets and where the members and investigators live. We don´t really have very many investigators unfortunately. We are working hard on finding new people though. We do have 1 investigator who is progressing a lot. She is really cool and it has been fun to teach her. She should be getting baptized this upcoming Saturday so hopefully all goes well there. We are also working a lot with less actives. That is a huge problem here in this branch and we are kind of "sweeping" over the less actives to see if we can reactivate any of them.   In the boundaries of this branch there are about 1000 members but we only have about 40 active.  We are also visiting the members to strengthen them.  We are going to progress though little by little.  All is well and the mission is pretty normal for the moment. I love you guys a lot and as always I miss you all. Good luck with everything!

Elder Mifflin

August 29, 2016

Well I did end up getting transfered to a new area this week. I got sent to a place called Dajabon,  on the border of Haiti more or less close to the northern shore of the island. My area literally goes up to the river between the DR and Haiti so I can see another country from my area. It took about 3 hours to get out here from Santiago so I am about as far away from the rest of the missionaries as possible. Everyone has told me that it is hot as can be in Dajabon ,but so far it has rained everyday since I got here. The house here is absolutely terrible.  The electricity and water goes out a lot so that is bucket loads of fun. Speaking of buckets, when there is water, the pressure isn´t good enough for the shower to work so I have to bucket shower everynight now.  Four  missionaries live in the house,  one from Mexico, another from Argentina and my comp is from Guatemala. I am his "step dad" of the mission because he just barely finished his training with his "dad". His name is Elder Gonzalez. The area seems ok. It feels like it is a little bit dead haha so there is definitely a lot of work for me here. It is a branch so that was kinda weird to get used to again having such a small amount of people in church.  We do have some really solid investigators so I am optimistic about the future. Our area is really big again just like my last one. There are a lot of Haitians here and a good portion of them do not speak Spanish very well. I would try and learn Creole but it is the weirdest language I have ever seen so I don´t think that will happen.  I am still learning the area and getting to know the members and investigators.  I hope that all is well back home. I love you all!  Good luck with everything!

Elder Mifflin

pictures

August 10, 2016

Well another week has passed by pretty darn fast. Crazy to think that it is already August 8. This week went pretty well for me though. As always we have been working quite a bit. We have been able to find some pretty promising people and have some success with the people that we already have.  We had a baptism this weekend! She was an investigator from Rafey that I had been teaching  since I was in Rafey back in March and now she lives in my area again, so we got to keep teaching her. I was able to perform the baptism so that was cool to do that.  Sunday was also her birthday so we bought a cake for her and went over there last night and had spaghetti and cake. It has been a long time since I have had cake and it wasn´t that good haha but the spaghetti was super tasty. In other news the Bishop asked us to sing a special hymn this Sunday and requested that we wear our suits. I don´t have one but borrowed a jacket from Elder Joseph. It was the first time... and the last time that I will wear a jacket on the mission. It was so hot. It didn´t help that there wasn´t electricity in the church during sacrament meeting which means no fans or AC!  We had 6 people there again and it was the second or third time for a couple of them so that was really cool. In other news something wasn´t paid right or done correctly in the mission office and so the water company came and cut our water supply. We haven’t had running water for 5 days. It sucked haha nothing but bucket showers and dirty dishes that we couldn´t clean because it was a waste of our reserve water that we have in a tank outside. I also have a lot of dirty clothes haha but as we were leaving the house to come here they were outside of the house putting a new pipe in so we will have water when we get home. It made me feel like I was camping haha although I think camping is more comfortable.  I am not quite sure if I will be leaving or not this upcoming transfer.  If I do that means I only have 16 more days here.   Life is good and is moving along.  Also fun fact, English and Spanish are mixing into the same language in my head so when I am thinking it is about 60% English 40% Spanish.  I love you lots and tell all of the family that I love them too.  Good luck with everything.

Elder Mifflin

June 27, 2016

I am doing really well. Life is continuing on like normal here in the DR. It was a pretty regular week for me. Teaching a lot, sweating a lot, and walking a lot. We are working really hard with the investigators that we have and trying to focus on going to church since that has been so hard for us. People just are really good at coming up with excuses on sunday here haha but we are trying to overcome that issue. We have also tried working with the members more because it really is so hard to find people to teach on our own.  I have been able to keep teaching Carolina because Rafey is my area again and so that has been really cool to see her keep progressing. She just went to the temple to do baptisms the other day for the first time and got a calling in the primary.  We plan on doing a barbeque at our bishop´s house this next p day which is also the 4th of July, that should be fun.  Life is treating me well though and speeding by. It is crazy that June is basically over. Today is also my 13 month left mark. I love you and all of the family very much.  

Elder Mifflin

July 13, 2016

 Well it was really really hot this whole week. That made

 everything lots more fun. The work was pretty normal. As far as teaching

 goes everything is going fine but the part of actually getting the people

 to follow thru, not so much. The last few Sundays we have barely been able to get anyone to come to church. This Sunday we called a bunch of people early and went to look for people like normal and still only had one. We are still going forward though and doing all we can. One thing that was funny happened today. I think because it is summer now there are more white people in the touristy areas and so while my comp was shopping for stuff people kept shoving stuff in my face and trying to speak English to me. Then they would be really surprised when I started speaking Spanish and told them that I live here and have no money.  It was kinda weird having p day on Monday now.

For the picture, this is usually what the water looks like when I am going to wash clothes.... before I wash them hahaha! Well I love you lots and all the family.

 Elder Mifflin