Transfer Time Again!

Bon tardi/nochi,

This was another busy but successful week here in Santo Domingo.  We were busy all week in preparations for transfers which are tonight and tomorrow.  That means that I will probably not be sleeping much tonight, but it's all good, transfers are really fun.  The support payments from The Church didn't come on time so there are a lot of people calling me about that plus this transfer is a little bit interesting, because all of the American missionaries had to  stay back at the MTC in Provo for their whole nine weeks of training. They never got to come down the CCM (MTC) in the Dominican Republic, the CCM was too full!  So now all of those missionaries, which are about 15 or so I think, are flying straight from Salt Lake to Santo Domingo today, and then they are going to go straight into the mission, without ever being in the CCM.  Haha, pretty crazy.  I think that there must overall be more missionaries coming into the Caribbean area, because I think that the CCM is probably designed to accommodate anywhere from 60-80 missionaries, but there were so many missionaries coming that they couldn't all fit in the CCM, so that means that there was a large group of missionaries coming into the area.  We are going to have a fairly large number of missionaries coming into the mission this transfer, I think that there are like 23!  There aren't many missionaries who are leaving, so that means that the overall number of missionaries in the mission is going up, which means that new areas are being opened.  But really that just means that they are splitting some areas into two separate areas now, or are taking some areas which contained two areas before and making them into two separate areas again, and that is where we come in.  Elder Delarosa, my companion, is the one who has to do most of the setting up and talking with the landlords, but I help with the moves and when we have to go out and buy the things for the new houses.  So it was a fun week.

We got to go to two different campos this week!  One was Monte Plata (look it up on Googlemaps).  That was a pretty sweet trip.  We went directly north through a place called Villa Mella, then we went up through the countryside for a ways and the road turned east and eventually got to Monte Plata.  It's way up on the border of the mission.  That was pretty cool.  We got to go there to pay the branch president there because he paid for the hospital bills of an elder who is serving there.  Then we helped the Elders get the medicine that the sick Elder needed, and then we headed back a different way towards Santo Domingo.  We went down a brand new road called the Carratera Nueva, which I think basically means new freeway.  It was awesome, a super nice road, and we were just flying until we came up to a toll.  All we had was 2 American Dollars, we had spent all of our other physical cash getting the elder the medicine that he needed.  I still had those two dollars from the last time I flew, but the toll cost more than the two dollars, so all I could do was offer up a silent prayer to Heavenly Father and ask Him please to help everything work out, and overall, I felt that everything would work out.  We went up to the window, and they said that we couldn't go through with 2 American Dollars, so they told us to back up and park in a parking lot close by.  Then, a guard there came over and talked to us, and he said that he was going to work something out.  So, then we talked with one of the head guys that works there, and he pretty much said that we weren't going to be able to make it through with that little money. So, the guard went back and talked with the man at the toll window, but while he did, the head guy pulled out 200 pesos (which is about 5 bucks more or less, and the toll was 161 pesos) and said, here take this.  He paid the toll for us!  I felt really bad, and it was a little embarrassing, but the Lord provided us with a way to get through the toll, and He answered my prayer.  We were ready to turn around and go back to Monte Plata and go all the way back around to Santo Domingo the other way, but the Lord provided us with a way to get through, and we got to Santo Domingo in about 15 minutes.  I truly think that it was the Lord's Image that helped us get through.  We had told the guard that we were missionaries, and that we had spent all of the money on the medicine and hospital bills for the other missionaries, and later the guard told that to the boss, and later that boss gave us the toll money.  Truly the missionary badge and missionary attire helped us get through that toll.  It is a simple experience, but nonetheless true and proof that Heavenly Father does answer our prayers.

We got to go to Los Llanos again too to move the things into the house and get the contract from the lawyer there, and I think that we will get to go back one more time too.  I love it out there!  We also got to eat at Paco's Tacos again in San Pedro, a Mexican food place, and what a blessing it was for me!  I attached a picture of me and Elder Delarosa outside of it.  It was good!

Oh, before I forget, you are also going to see a charge on my debit card for like 70 bucks or something, more than 50 bucks, I pulled out money to have a Bishop in the Santiago Mission make me some sweet new scripture covers for my English scriptures.  They are going to have the Aruban Flag on one, and the Dominican Republic flag on the other one.  They should be sweet!

Wow, Scott, you had a great game buddy!  I never had a game like that in any of the sports that I have played.  Four interceptions buddy, I can't believe that I didn't get to see it!  Man, but you are doing great man, two touchdowns as well!  You got a pick-six bud!  That's so fantastic!  I can't wait to get to see you play again!  (Scott had his best football game yet - four interceptions and two touchdowns, so we shared that with Jeff!)

Things are going good in the area.  We are teaching some new people, and one lady, named Jessica came to church for the first time yesterday.  She is doing great and we will hopefully be able to help her progress pretty fast.  Jeremias actually moved out of town for a while because he got work in a different town, but that's alright, things like that happen.

Sorry, I've got to go!  I love you all so much and am so grateful for your example in my life.  Love you!

Love,

Elder DeSpain

P.S.- Pictures of the campo and of Paco’s Tacos (He sent four new pictures.  They will be on the blog tonight!  There is a fun one of Jeff and his companion outside of Paco's Taco's!)