My area is called Hato Nuevo. It's 45 minutes outside of the main city. About 30 minutes from the MTC. There is no address for our house. It's in a big old apartment thing, so we have no clue what our address is. We get all our mail and stuff from the mission office.
When we left the MTC we left at 4 in the morning to go to the mission home where I met my new companion. The traffic here is absolutely nuts. It's a "guess if its safe" type of deal, like in the Bahamas. Really sketchy but you get used to it. Anyways after I got my new companion we sat in a home for about 4 hours talking about life in the field. Then we left using a guagua (bus). Lucky us though, a guy in our ward is a guagua driver so we got our own seperate ride. The bad thing about guaguas is when they are public they fill them up as much as they can. Anyways, we got to our house and I met my two other housemates. One is from the DR and the other is from Guatemala. They only speak Spanish, which in turn has helped me learn a lot faster. I started unpacking that night and found out that half the time we don't have light or water. Yes we get it, but its rare. So when we have it, we fill up our buckets for the upcoming weeks and we iron all our shirts and stuff like that. Recently though we've had it every day which is nice. The water is still really cold, but I've gotten used to that.
No I don't live by the beach, instead I am in the mountains which reminds me of Utah so I like it a lot! In fact, I still haven't seen the ocean yet. I guess that's another P-Day opportunity. So its Christmas soon and I honestly don't feel it at all. WHERE IS THE SNOW? hahaha Actually there is one part of the DR that gets snow. That's right, snow. It doesn't stick but it snows there. That's what I've heard anyways, don't know if its true or not. haha
So with the guy from the University, I have heard from him! He emailed me last week and said he is getting taught by some missionaries and has read the entire Book of Mormon. He sounds really excited and is planning on getting baptized soon. So glad I was able to be there for him, and the Lord put me in his path. As for that other family. The mom and dad want to be baptized and have to wait. The reason why is because the husband is waiting for his visa and he can't change his marital status now or he'll have to wait longer and hes already been waiting two years. However, he finds out this month if he gets it or not. If he doesn't, then they are gonna get married and get baptized. If he does get it, he will leave and the mom will get baptized. Kind of a weird situation but you just got to roll with it.
Another thing.... I play baseball all the time down here. There's a professional baseball player in my ward so we play with him a lot. Needless to say, I am officially a baseball fan. And my favorite team? Definitely the Boston Red Sox. :) Hahaha Anyways, besides that, we have been doing a lot of tracting lately. Not a lot of investigators for us right now which is a real shame, because I really want to be able to teach this gospel!!!!! So we do a lot of tracting. Scary thing..... recently I've been shaking non stop. Like I can't stop shaking. Don't know why, but it'll pass. It's probably because I have been feeling a little sick recently, but that will pass.
My Spanish is getting better slowly. As usual I've been struggling and have been getting really down on myself, but I'll get it eventually. I know with the Lord's help I will be just fine. He has prepared me for this work. :)
There are only 4 Elders in my district, me included, and they all live in my house. And our Christmas we are going over to a families house to have a Christmas dinner. The husband is a pro baseball player. They are called the Castro's and I love them! They are so cool! I can't wait to Skype with you on Christmas!
I love you all and I have you all in my prayers. Remember, the Lord is always there with you!
Con Amor, Elder Weiss
