Transfers Again!

Bon Tardi!

It's been another pretty crazy week.  We had transfers, and then I had support payments to do, so there was quite a bit of work this week, but I'm doing good, just grateful that it's something that I like to do.
Elder Delarosa got a new companion.  His name is Elder Marte.  He is a good missionary, he's a way nice guy.  He is being trained by Elder Delarosa and then next transfer he will go solo and I will train someone probably and then they'll be the next companionship in the office (Elder Marte and whoever I train). 

Thanks so much for helping me out with my scholarship stuff and getting registered at ASU!  That has been a huge help for me!

So, Elder Irizarry is a new missionary that we have here, I can't remember if I told you yet, but he got in on Monday night, and he is from Gilbert, he went to Highland High!  He graduated in the same year as Matt Olsen I think.  He said that he actually used to hang out all the time with Matt and Zach Smith and Logan Williams before the mission.  That was sweet!  I got to be here when he first got here from the airport, and so I got to meet him right when he got into the field!  He knows a lot of people that I know actually, it's pretty crazy the people that we know in common.  He knows Aly Weech too!  Pretty crazy, haha.  I think he graduated like two years after I did.  His name is Jake Irizarry.  They are in what was the Highland Stake from what I understand.  Was there a recent stake split over there?

Things are going good here, we've got two people that have baptismal dates here.  One is a lady named Alma.  She is a lady that has been attending Church and investigating for about 2 years, but we just came into contact with her because she recently moved.  She lives now in the Gazcue boundaries.  She was actually going to Church in the neighboring ward called Villa Francisca, but the Assistants were able to give her to us as a reference.  She is probably the most ready investigator I have ever met.   She knows all kinds of stuff about the Gospel.  We can for the most part ask her questions about the Gospel and the Church and she can answer us without us explaining anything.  It has been a huge blessing from the Lord to be able to teach her.  I guess she hasn't been baptized yet because she wasn't married to her husband, but just recently within the last little while they got married!!!  What a blessing!  Wow, that is such a blessing.   She has a baptismal date for the 12 of May.

We are teaching another man whose name is Juan Carlos.  He is a good guy, he is actually a family member of a couple who have been investigating the Church for like more than 2 years I think.  Their names are Ulda and Domingo, and they aren't married, and she has problems with her papers, so they are waiting for that, but Juan Carlos is just living with them, so he can get baptized.  He is a good guy, and he really wants to follow the Lord.  His baptismal date is for the 26th of May.  The Lord is really blessing us.  We are seeing success!

I am so grateful for the Lord's Plan for me.  I have to come to see that as long as we put our trust in the Lord and keep moving our feet forward, the Lord will help us overcome whatever problem we may have.  I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ and for His infinite love.

I love you all!

Elder DeSpain

Still Alive and Kickin!

Hey, I'm doing good, still alive and kickin, just been busy all week. We finally got to take from about 3 PM yesterday (Friday) until the end of the day and take a p-day, it was really nice. I'm am sorry to be so late, this is the only chance that I have had to write. I have been doing good, just really busy. I have to try to get everything into order for the audit, and I had to take care of support payments and do a million other things this week it seemed like. And it was transfers also.  Just been really busy, but I'm doing my best, and I know that the Lord knows that, even if it doesn't feel all that accomplishing sometimes. I have to try to think about all that I am doing and all of the things that I am accomplishing instead of what didn't get done.

I hope that Dad can enjoy his training.

Tell Bob (a.k.a. Scott) great job on his football, those are sweet pics that you send me.

Tell Leah to hang in there, she must be excited to be done.  (Leah graduates in about a month!)

Tell Todd good luck with his performances in the plays, and hope that the best comes out of his tryout that he had with the band.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder DeSpain

P.S.  We got a new missionary in this week named Jake Iziarry or something like that, and he hung out with Matt Olsen like every day before his mission.  Small world, ha ha!

Doing good . . . just the busiest I've ever been, I think!

Bon nochi di Santo Domingo

I am doing good here in Santo Domingo, just still busy. This last week, I just couldn't quite get out of the office at 3 PM. There are just so many things that are beyond my control that happen that prevent me from doing that. I have a lot of things to do, especially with the transfer coming up. I tried my best to put things aside and get out, but we still couldn't quite get out like we had planned. But I think that President understands that it will still be crazy for a few weeks. Elder Delarosa had a weird rash of some sort show up on his leg this week too, which limited him on what he could do. Elder Jenson is doing good, I'm actually here with him right now. He is just about to be back to normal I think. He is still staying at President's house, but he has a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and hopefully there they will give him the 2 thumbs up to go and he will be good to start getting back into the normal swing of things.

Today was quite busy. There was a problem in Salt Lake and the support payments for the missionaries didn't come on time, so some missionaries didn't have money and we had to do some problem solving. But, the Lord helped us work everything out.

The transfer is coming up next week, so that means that we will be busy getting ready for it this week. We will be opening one house, and there's some thing going on with the transfers down in the islands that I have been working with as well. It's going to be a pretty sweet transfer.

Wow, Grandma saw Sis. Ward? That's cool, haha, she has written to a couple of people here and told them that she saw Grandma Joy at her homecoming.

Elder Delarosa will be training in this next transfer, and we will be a threesome. If it ends up that way, then it really looks like I will finish in the office, I would love that!

Sorry to be short, but everything here is good, I'm doing good, just still struggling to get to a point where I can finish enough work to be out of the office at 3 PM or 4 PM or whatever it may be so that we can also work in our area, but I hope that the Lord understands. I'm doing good, just the busiest I've ever been in my life I think!  I love you all, keep up the good work!

Love,

Elder DeSpain

Finally, A Real Letter!

Bon tardi!

We are still pretty busy here in the office, but things are good.

 

To answer Dad's question, the hurricane season starts right now in April and goes until November.

Elder Jenson is better and out of the hospital. He is in the office today, working like normal. He is a good guy, he's had a great attitude through this all. Today we had our office meeting, and we've had to do several errands, but I'm finally at the computer and taking a couple minutes to write home. It's been a pretty crazy month or so, but it's been a great experience and it was enjoyable while we were at it.

This week was kind of interesting, we got rear ended two times in two days. I was driving both times, haha, but luckily neither of them was my fault. The first one was during the afternoon last Monday. We were trying to drive to Quizno's to get some lunch, and we were coming up at a stoplight, but there was a small shopping center on the right hand side before the stoplight, and the car in front of us started slowing down pretty fast to turn into the parking lot, and so we had to slow down, and as we were slowing down, a lady hit us from behind while she was texting on her cell phone. But we were completely fine. I've had worse effects after slowing down too fast in the truck. We took the lady's information and then followed her to her work, she showed us a new place to eat-she works there, haha.

Then, the next day, we went to switch out Elder Green for Elder Delarosa to stay with Elder Jenson at the hospital. We left from there and tried to head towards the supermarket because I still needed to buy some things for a guy that was coming the next day to wash the cars at the office. While we were on our way, we were stopped at a stoplight, first in line. We were parked next to a trash truck, and I was looking over at the trash truck while we were waiting there, and then, all of sudden, a motorcycle came zooming by and something hit the back of our car, then, before I could put everything together, a car came shooting between us and the trash truck, and it hit our front end too, then the car that hit us followed the motorcycle, through the red light and the intersection and then they made a gigantic u-turn and headed back the other way, and the car almost ran over the motorcycle, and hit like 5 other cars while following the motorcycle until the car couldn't go anymore. We decided to go over and talk to the people in the car, we were going to need their information anyway to fill out the Church's accident report. When we got over there, I called President to tell him that we had been in an accident, and then when I got finished with the call and started talking to Elder Delarosa, it turns out that that car had been sitting like a car or two behind us in the line at the stoplight, and they had been robbed by the two guys that were on the motorcycle. The people in the car were a man and his mother-in-law or something of that sort, and the two guys had pulled up beside them on the motorcycle and I think that one of them must have pointed a gun at the lady that was riding shotgun because they were driving with their windows down. So she gave them her purse, and they took off on the motorcycle.  Then the guy driving the car took off after them, and it didn't matter to him who he hit or took out while he was in the process from what I could see. Luckily no one was hurt, and we took down his information and took off again. I wasn't in any way even slightly hurt in any of the accidents, I walked away completely unscathed from both accidents, and the cars left with only minor damage. We will get them repaired soon, but the damage doesn't prevent us from using them and driving them at all.

(We asked Jeff to tell us about the office he works in in the mornings.)  The Office here is pretty nice. It's actually right next to the stake center here in Santo Domingo. It's on the same property. We have a front waiting area and a place for the senior couple to work, and then we have an office where me and Elder Delarosa work, then there is an office in the back for the assistants, and then there is an office for President. There is also a kitchen, and then there is a back door and also a deposit room next to the back door. It's really nice. We don't have a conference room, but that's fine because we have all of our big meetings at the stake center next to the office.

 

Here Holy Friday is a big holiday, so most things close down for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This holiday is like bigger than Christmas for them here. We went out to San Pedro Saturday, we had to take some bed bases around. We went to Quisqueya again to take them a bed frame and pick up the contract for the missionaries house out there.   

Things should be getting more and more back to normal here, but transfers are coming up, so that means that we will be busy again pretty soon.  I'm doing great, this transfer has been busy, but it's been really fun too, it's such a blessing to have an assignment and a calling that I love so much.  The Lord has blessed me greater than I ever deserved!  It's been great to see how the Lord can strengthen me according to my challenge. I love you all!

Elder DeSpain

Crazy Few Weeks!

Things have been extra crazy for Jeff the past few weeks.  One of the Assistants to the President, Elder Jensen has been in the hospital for more than a week recovering from pneumonia.  The week prior to being admitted to the hospital he was struggling with sickness and had to stay at President Hernandez' house.  This meant that either the other AP (Elder Green) or one of the office elders (Elder DeLaRosa or Jeff) have been taking turns staying with Elder Jensen for about three weeks.  Jeff loves Elder Jensen and has enjoyed his time staying with him.  We have been praying for Elder Jensen and his family at home.  This situation means that the remaining two missionaries have been trying to take care of the responsibilities of both the APs and the Office Elders for the past three weeks.  Because of this Jeff was not able to write a normal letter last week and it doesn't look like we will be getting one again this week.  We have received a couple of one liners each week.  Because of the situation he is allowed to send something short when he can work that out.  I have tried to compile those below.

Sent on 3/27/12:  I'm doing good, we've just been really busy, but that's the way that I like it.  Elder Jensen has been admitted into the hospital so we are taking turns to be with him.  I think that he will be fine, it's just that the pneumonia has not gotten better which explains why he wasn't feeling as good this past weekend so that's why they admitted him to the hospital for a few days, but I'm sure he will be fine.  I will write when I get time.  Thanks so much and I love you.

Sent on 4/2/12:  Hey! I´m alive and well, just still very busy. Elder Jenson is doing a lot better, he should hopefully be getting out in the next two days or so.  I will write when I can. I´m doing really good. We didn´t get to see as much of conference as I had thought, we had two other missionaries go to the hospital over the weekend, but they both didn´t have to stay the night, so we´re all good there. I love you!

Sent on 4/4/12:  Hey, I´m still alive and kickin', today was crazy, but Elder Jenson got out of the hospital!  I´m doing great, loving it, just tired. I love you!

Love,
Elder DeSpain