Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Monday, October 27, 2014 (Celebrated HUUUMMMP DAY!!!!)

HUMP DAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!! THE BIG ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!
I am freaking out.... there is no way a year can go by so quickly.... and we did so much to do, we had little to no celebrating on Thursday, but nothing like celebrating by doing the Lords work! But seriously, prepare yourself.... This email will be big....

Tuesday bright and early in the morning we had an awesome opportunity to serve a member because she was moving to a new home! It was a church thing, just like at home. The bishop asked everyone Sunday to come, and we wanted to help.... WELL, when we got to the house, we were the only ones there. Just us, and the sister who was moving. Then one of the counselors to the bishop showed up.... and that was it. So us five carried EVERYTHING. The boxes, the fridge, the stove, and we put it into a truck that they bought for 50 dollars, which is a lot of money to these people. They had 3 workers. There job is titled "movers" and they didn't even move their own bodies, let alone any boxes. We even loaded the truck for them. So I got mad about that, but I am happy to serve. Then, we walked to the new house, like 10 minutes away, and learned that she is moving into the top floor of an apartment building....four stories up....with winding stairs. And guess what? In the DR, there is no luxury of an elevator. So that heavy stove, heavy fridge, heavy EVERYTHING we carried up so much stairs... back and forth. We were exhausted.... and once again the movers did nothing..... They just sat at the bottom drinking beer. They paid them 50 dollars, when all they did was drive for 5 minutes..... I was upset about that.... Robbers.... But I was happy to serve.

Wednesday, we were suppose to have an exchange, but our Zone Leaders weren't able to do it. SO we worked normally throughout the day. Remember that perfect family I told you about? Nicolas and Yeni? They are still awesome and are progressing super well. They always read, and always do what they say they'll do. It's kinda strange, whenever we talk to them, I just see them in white clothes... but it isn't baptismal clothes. The Lord has big plans for them, and I am grateful to see it all go down!

THE BIG YEAR MARK. THURSDAY!!!!! Wow.... It rocked.... Let me tell you why.... Elder Catmull and Elder Mortensen have an in with our new doctor of the mission, because when Elder Mortensen started the mission, he was super sick. So they got to get to know the doctor and his wife really well. They invited them to eat with them sometime, so like on Tuesday, Elder Catmull called and asked what they were doing Thursday (this day). They said they were free to go out and eat for breakfast, and they wanted to go to the BRAND NEW DENNY's that just barely opened here! The only Denny's in the DR. They told Elder Catmull to bring the whole house as well! So in the morning on Thursday, to start an amazing year mark, we all ate a Denny's breakfast with the doctor and his wife, Doctor Reagan and Sister Reagan. They told us they were paying for everything, and they wanted us to eat a lot. So I got Pumpkin Pancakes, Gingerbread French Toast, Hash Browns, Sausage, Eggs, and Chocolate milk. Let me tell you.... Denny's is now a 5 star restaurant in my eyes.... oh goodness. In total, for us 6 it was 5000 pesos, or about 120 dollars, which is a whole Apoyo (Money we receive as missionaries) for half a month, and the doctor paid for it all. He is the best. And they said they wanted to take us to Applebee's next month..... Oh man..... As for the rest of the day, it was normal! We walked and talked, and had every appointment with a member!!!! The spirit was so strong! I was on a spiritual high. But to think, a year ago this day, I couldn't even say hola correctly, and now, I speak fluent Spanish... incredible.

Friday was really basic, other than in the morning, we painted an entire patio of one of our investigators! It took two and a half hours, but it was a 70 year old man who needed the help. I loved helping him. It's been a service week! But get this, the sister we helped move in on Tuesday invited us to dinner. All it was was eggs... and juice.... so like a snack before dinner... but I was grateful either way! The only protein we get out here comes from eggs really, because rice and beans ain't cutting it!

Saturday was nuts! In the morning, some members came to our house in the morning to tell us there was a baptism in an hour that wasn't planned or announced and that we needed to get everything ready. So we jumped up and helped with a member baptism in the morning! I'll explain why it was in the morning in a second! But the baptism was great! There were some Americans that were there. An american married a Dominican, and they all speak English and they've lived in Washington their whole life, but now they live here, and they were actually the ones that built our house, so it was cool to meet them!!! They also invited us to go to their house in another area on Thanksgiving, so we can actually kinda have a thanksgiving! HALLELUJAH! hahaha Oh, but the baptism was in the morning, because it was Stake Conference weekend here, and everyone had to be at the Adult session from 5- 7 that afternoon. And boy did that session rock! Elder David Evans from the seventy came and spoke but didn't know Spanish, so him and his wife were both translated by some teachers of English. I understood both languages. :) 

Sunday we finished the Stake Conference. It was amazing. Elder Evans talked about why missionary ages have changed. He said, "its not because boys are better and get to leave early for that. I was there when they made the decision. President Monson's intent is that the boys and the girls that leave on their missions at age 18 and 19 will be able to come back home about the same time, date, and get married. He wasn't thinking about your leaving date, he was thinking about you coming home." Ya, so that freaked me out. Hahaha Didn't know that but it made sense. Oh, but get this.... Hato Nuevo is in this stake, so when all was said and done, I was able to see everyone from Hato Nuevo that I missed and loved! They all remembered me, and freaked out and how I was able to speak Spanish now! It was a good feeling, and they all welcomed me back at any time to visit! The bishop said he misses the hard work I did with my companions out there. Made me feel special! 

Today I played basketball at my church with a bunch of missionaries from our zone, and it rocked. And later tonight, we are going over to a sister's house to make pizza with her!! should be fun! A great week! Nothing better than doing lots of service for the wonderful people of the DR! :)

Now I know its been a year, so I want to tell you the changes I see in myself... Some of you say I look more grown up. I just see that I have to shave my beard every day now. Some of you say I look skinny. I just see that I walk everywhere and eat beans and rice.... Some of you say I sound more mature. I just see people laughing as I crack a joke before the lesson. In reality, on the outside, I see the same Elder Weiss. But on the inside, I am 100% new. I now know the truthfulness of the gospel. I feel God's love in my life, and I strive every day to please him. I love reading. I don't try to act like someone who I'm not. But most importantly, I understand who my perfect brother, Jesus Christ  is, and what He has done for me. His atonement has saved me, and I cherish that blessing every day. I know he suffered for me. He knows who I am. He leads His church. He has a living prophet today, who guides us. He did restore His true church with a perfect gospel through Joseph Smith, who was also a remarkable man. This gospel is true. I didn't know that before. I didn't have my spiritual eyes open, to see the plainness of that before my mission. The mission has changed me, matured me spiritually, and has been the best decision I have ever made in my life. I'd like to thank all of you that support me, for always having my back. I especially thank mom and dad, for being there throughout my life and guiding me on the right path, when I was so close to giving up, you helped me get back on my feet, and keep walking the straight and narrow path. I want to make this next year an amazing year. I will work hard, and I know the Lord will help me in my goals, because He knows me personally. I love you all, I pray for you all! I know all of you have changed in a year, but I know it is for the better. Keep turning to the Lord in all things. He knows you personally. :)

Con mucho amor, les quiero mucho!!!
Elder Weiss :)

Mother's Note:  I asked Parker about Doctor Reagan and his wife taking them to Denny's...if they were called as Missionaries who happens to be a doctor or if they were called as Doctor's to the missionaries. (I saw their mission badges in the picture).  Here is Parker's reply:

They are missionaries. Their calling is to be the doctor over this region, so the Caribbean. So yes, they are missionaries, but they can be in touch with their families and all that like 24 7.

Also...this is an excerpt from Parker's email to his Dad which is pretty cool. 

As for me? We are working really hard. This week I hit a new record of appointments in a week with my companion! We had 18 with a member, 5 others, and 10 with a recent convert or with a less active member. The one that is the record is how much we did with a member. Almost all the appointments we did this week were with a member, and it was awesome!!!! We are trying to work really hard, and our President noticed our efforts and personally congratulated us. It was awesome! other than that, life is pretty much the same!!!

My district in an amazing sunset on the top of a 20 story apartment building (so many stairs....).

DENNY'S FOR THE YEAR MARK WITH DOCTOR REAGAN!

This is one of our MTC Teachers we saw at Stake Conf.
He remembered us! And was super surprised we
could speak Spanish!

Pictures of our apartment. It's the newest and nicest one I've been in.
The Kitchen!!!!

The room of my companion and I.
 My bed of course
having the pink hello kitty. GO ME.

Better picture of my awesome bed. Go me,
and Hello Kitty! haha and the fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 That thing saves my life at night!

Our bathroom, which yes has the Avengers
 over the toilet.
 That was there when I got here.
 Don't know why.... haha but pretty sweet.

The study area.

The outside of the house.
We live on the "third floor"
or  basically the house is built
 on top of two other houses, haha.

A picture of the city of Buenos Aires, 

Some other pictures of the city.

And  look, The Church!

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Monday, October 20, 2014

This week was fantastic.... Just amazing. First off, thanks to all who are writing me. Love to read your emails. The photos you always send are great! I´ll try to send some more photos as well! Keep sending those photos though! I love photos!

As I had said before in the last email, we were planning on having a baptism this week. Well, it did happen! Frederick is now a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! It was a great service! Our Mission President and his wife came to see it, which was really cool! It was kinda funny though, when we asked Frederick throughout the week who was going to baptize him, he chose Elder Catmull to baptize and do the ordinance. Elder Catmull has never even passed by this kids house, but whatever! haha! His baptism!! So Elder Catmull baptized him! I´ll send photos! I did have a cool opportunity of leading the baptism, because our Ward Mission Leader was really sick and couldn't come. So ya, a great baptism on Saturday!

So this week has been great like I said. We worked really hard this week! Let me share some stuff that happened before the baptism... haha. We had a great opportunity this week! On Wednesday, we had a Zone Conference, and our Mission President was going to talk to us. BUT, we also found out that Elder Cornish from the seventy was there to talk to us as well! We talked a lot about our goal setting, and it really made me think about the goals that we put as missionaries. These aren't just goals as in numbers, those numbers we write down are children of God, that need our help to know the truth. But I had an amazing experience as a result of our conference this week that I would like to share! 

As we were in conference, I was soaking in all that Elder Cornish and President Nuckols were sayin, about helping in the conversion process of our investigators and setting good goals. I had to really focus on our goals as a companionship, as I noticed our goals were not up to par with the Lords standards, but during the whole process, a recurring thought kept coming into my head. Recently in our area, we received a referral from a very active member family. It was a referral of their other part of the family, that lives right next to them who has never heard the gospel from the missionaries. So with great excitement, we went over and set up our first appointment with them. This was on Tuesday, and we set up the appointment for Thursday night. The conference we had was Wednesday, so during conference, we still hadn't started the lessons with them, but they had the pamphlet of the Restoration. During the whole conference, my thought was "Give that new family a baptismal date." We got home and I talked about it with Elder Rosado, and we came to the confirmation that night, with the help of prayer, that it is what we needed to do. So on Thursday we passed by their house. The family consists of the father, Nicolas, the mother, Yeni, and their two kids, one of them being a special needs kid with autism. The Familia Camilo to put it short! They are very open to the gospel, because they live with a very active family. As we talked during our first lesson, a strong strong spirit came, and we were able to point out that spirit to this wonderful family, and they felt it as well. Then, as we asked what they were willing to do to come closer to Christ, they responded telling us they would do anything to follow our God. As we had felt previously, we gave them a baptismal date for the 27th of December, and they accepted it eagerly. The first appointment, and we were already seeing that great desire from them to know the truth. We set up our next appointment, for Sunday night, and we invited them to come to church. In the morning on Sunday, we were in a meeting at 6 30 in the morning, and the bishop said, "Elders, I have a referral for you. I feel like you should pass by Nicolas Camilo, the brother of Hermano Camilo." We happily responded telling him that we are already teaching them and they have a baptismal date. Our Bishop was shocked! Haha! As church went on, the Familia Camilo hadn´t shown up to any of the classes. Here, the classes come first, and then sacrament. As sacrament started, in walks that amazing Familia Camilo. With bright big smiles, they sat next to us, and said "There is a peace as soon as you walk in the door here." The bishop, after sacrament, called them into his office. At night as we passed by, we asked if they were willing to share why they were called into the bishops office, and they told us the bishop talked to them about marriage plans. We weren't planning on sharing about the Law of Chastity, but we decided it was what the Lord was telling us to do. We invited them to prepare to be married, and that the Lord will help them as they come to know of the truth of the gospel. They told us that they knew it is what needs to be done, and they don´t need to be convinced. They are starting their marriage papers. The Lord is truly preparing people. This family is an amazing example to me, of true disciples of Christ, who will do anything to follow our Lord´s example. As they continue to learn and grow, I have no doubt the Lord will help these people. They are prepared. I will  never be able to say that they are my converts, because they are already converted.

I love this gospel. I see people being changed every single day by the truths of the gospel. I invite everyone to do but one thing. I invite you to read the Book of Mormon, every day, and to ask God if it is true. The investigators I have do just that, and I can see the true testimony they earn from reading in the most true book on the earth. I now encourage all of you, my family and friends, to do the same, to really receive your own testimony of these truths. Its what I did, and I know of the truth of the gospel of this church because I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love it, I read it, and I will never not read it. It is a book from God. I invite you to find that out for yourself. Keep praying, keep turning to the Lord in times of hardship. I continually pray for every one of you, and I hope you are all seeing the blessings that the Lord is giving you. :)

Que Dios les bendiga,

Elder Parker Weiss :)

P.S. I can´t believe on Thursday I will be hitting my year mark.... has it really been a year????

Elder's Weiss, Mortensen, Catmull and Rosado

A little bit crazy.






Say hello to my district. The best District in the DR :)

This is us after conference with some other Elders

The Baptism of Frederick with DR West Mission President and Sister Nuckols

Talk about a giant shoe from the Puma store. It was a little to small for me, but I'll keep looking!

My lunch today, after being in the biggest mall in the DR, 6 stories tall!!!! CARL'S JR. 


There's no Halloween in the DR so look what is up at the mall!

Christmas!!!  Really?!

This is the mall. I'm on the third floor! haha It just keeps going! With palm trees and everything!

At the Metro waiting for the train.

Elder Weiss and Elder Mortensen

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Monday, October 13, 2014

PUT DOWN YOUR CELLPHONES AND READ MY EMAIL!

You read the title... put them down! unless you are using your cell phone to read this email. In that case, stop texting, and read this first. 

Hi, I am Elder Weiss, and this is my companion, (companion's name here). We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We shared a message that is focused on the gospel of Christ, that teaches His doctrine. We also testify that His true church has been restored on the earth, by a prophet Joseph Smith, and that through him, God restored all the holy keys of the priesthood back on the earth. 

You know, I would've wrote that in Spanish, but I have never done that in English. That's probably what I would have said to you if I knocked on your door right now. So guess what, you are all my contacts..... BOOM.           Just kidding. ;)

Hahah This week was great! Let me start by saying, SO MUCH HAPPENS IN ONE WEEK. It is so hard to remember every little awesome detail throughout the week, but I try to at least remember the big things! So sorry if sometimes my emails are short! I try!

This week we have worked tons with members. TONS. Every single day we work with members. On Thursday and Saturday, we had a member with us all day! It was awesome! Having a member bare their testimony is amazing. They help so much! So ya, get out there and do some mission work! I am so pumped to be able to go home, call the missionaries and preach with  them all day!!!!! But guess what, I get to do that every day, and it rules!!!

We have a baptism coming up!!! His name is Frederick. He is another kid. 14 years old, but he is awesome. He has been getting the lessons for about 10 weeks now, and his baptismal date is this Saturday. He'll be having his interview tomorrow. If all goes well, I'll be able to see a new member of the true church this week! He is way cool. He reads a lot. And he asks some great questions. I love the little guy!

We have another family that we are teaching. The mom is less active, and the kids aren't members. Her name is Ana Peña, and her kids names are Cheri and Jon. They are a great family. We laugh a lot with them and we make lots of jokes. Cheri has made mention about how we are her favorite missionaries. She likes the way we teach. Apparently we aren't robots. They say I am a little nuts, but hey, I like to joke around. But we are also very serious. We have set Cheri up with a baptism date, in December. She is 15, and she is great. We are also really trying to get Ana to go back to church. I am this close to dragging her by her feet to the church. Why? She always says she'll come, and then something always happens..... oh man. But we'll work with her. She is one of my favorite people in this area to work with! She is awesome, even at times I want to take a way a little of her agency. hahah. Still have to learn a little bit of patience I guess. Haha!!! Jon doesn't really listen to us as of right now, but we are trying to get him involved!

Another couple of awesome people, another girl named Ana, and her brother Jose Miguel. Ana is 16, and Jose Miguel is 14 or so. They are a referral from our new ward mission leader, and they are awesome. They also have a baptism date now for December. Their only problem? Going to church... Why is it so hard to go to church?? Seriously?? We can get up every day on time to be ready for school, so that we are that on time, that way, we won't get chewed out by our teachers, but why are we late, or "sluffers" for God?? I don't understand. It's Sabbath Day, not Stay home Day.....

Another awesome investigator, Edvis, 73 years old, heart bigger than a mountain, and he is just amazing! I love getting to know him. He told us he is wants to know if this church is true, so that he doesn't go jumping between churches. So he told us he is going to pray diligently to God to know if this is His true church, and if he gets the answer yes, he will leave his church, and be baptized in the true church. He wants us to come back tomorrow to find out what he received for an answer. I just love the way he thinks. You can tell he is real serious about all of our messages, because he always makes sure to put God's input in first before making a decision. Edvis rules!!!!!

We met "Santo" again! (the guy who has seizures when he says santo.) We found him on the street, and he started jerking and yelling his famous line, Santo!!!! I can't help but laugh... I am sorry. Just thought I would update you...

On Saturday, I had an exchange with Elder Catmull, and I worked in his area with him all day! Boy was it awesome! We struggled so much with the language in the CCM. It was so awesome to see how much we have grown and how much the Lord has helped us to know the spanish language. That was a fun day!

We cleaned our house amazing today, because we hear that Elder Cornish from the seventy is coming by and personally checking all missionary homes in our mission. Not that our house was real dirty or anything. We just made sure it was brighter than Elder Weiss' thinking process in the morning.... haha thinking in the morning is a true struggle.

All in all, I loved this week. As I have said, I know this gospel is true. It is amazing. I FINISHED ALMA this week!!! I am now in Helaman, but boy was Alma a great book! Anyways, love you all. Spread the gospel!!! Be a part of the work of the Lord. Every member is a missionary!!!!!!!!!!! I love you mis queridos familiares y amigos! Oro para ustedes cada día! Your challenge this week is just to send me a photo! Because I love pictures. :)

Love you all!!!!

Elder Weiss :)

Our new Ward Mission Leader, Jordi.

We took pictures after a meeting we had.

 We may be nuts...

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Monday, October 6, 2014

THIS WEEK, THAT WEEK, WEEK, WEEK, WEEK.
I am definitely not as clever as Dr. Suess. Excuse me for that horrible title attempt... But man the week was great! It all just kind of turns into one big blur though, so it is kind of hard to tell you what happened ever single day, but I will hit on the big points! But thanks to my handy dandy notebook (Blue's Clues reference, by notebook I mean agenda) I can keep a track on everything that has been happening!!!!

So we have come into the month of October.... Oh goodness, how time is going by...way too quickly it seems! Man...... can you believe in only a couple of weeks I will have been on my mission for a year? Oh goodness..... it all goes fast.... too fast.... but the week has been awesome! We have been focusing on one of our investigators a lot this week. His name is Edvis, and he is a small old man, about 64 or so, and he lives behind the church. He is an awesome person. He reads all that we assign him, and he is really funny, and he is just a really great guy. His only problem, like most, is that he isn't coming to church. So our focus with him this week has been trying to dig into him to find his testimony, so we relied on one of our greatest tools for building a testimony of the true church, The Book of Mormon. He has been reading it frequently, and it was time to find out how he felt about it. So every appointment, we always make the Book of Mormon a big deal. It finally hit home. He asked us, "I know this book is from God, but what does that mean... what is next??" We told him in order to complete his quest to know if this is the true church, he had to come to church, so what happened?? This Saturday, in walks a little old man, shuffling in his slippers, that Mom and Dad recall me saying "my moccassins". THE SAME SLIPPERS.... he has flow... but get this, he stayed and listened to that whole two sessions of conference on Saturday. And boy was the talk that Neil A. Anderson gave about Joseph Smith really hit home.... I hope. He said he really enjoyed it, so I was grateful for that. I know that the Lord was truly preparing the messages that the Apostles, Prophet, and General Authorities prepared for both me, and for some of my investigators. I also had some people in mind that as I was listening I was thinking about, and hoping they were listening. 

Let me say, I loved this conference. I took notes on every single talk! But I got to hand it to Jeffrey R. Holland and David A. Bednar. They definitely had the most impact on me. Although I did hit some other really spiritually feelings as I listened to the other talks. I wrote down some quotes I would like to share.

Chi Hong Wong during his talk asked "Do you know someone who is spiritually paralyzed, that just can't do it on there own?"

D Todd Christofferson said "Go to work, so that God has something to help you with."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf at the Saturday Morning session said "If you need to verify a gospel truth, you must first live them." He also in a later session said "Lord, is it I?" Ask that question... powerful.

Jeffrey R. Holland said "Our work is about love, NOT statistics." and when he talked about how he's never been poor, but he feels the pain in the poor's eyes. That hit home to me. 

Henry B. Eyring said "Show me counts more than Tell me."

I noticed a major theme in the talks. It seemed to me, on Saturday, all the talks had the scripture "If ye love me, keep my commandments." and on Sunday, it was about the sustaining of our leaders, and of the prophet and his importance. But all in all, what I loved is how they always brought it back to our Lord, Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. What a true blessing it is to have the blessing of having a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. I hope everyone takes the words they shared into their daily lives. I know I got a lot to do. I got a lot of praying to do! But I know what they said is true. It was a reassurance of my testimony, that we are in the true church. This is the Lords church, we sustain our leaders, and by them, we are guided on the path of God. I know this to be true, because I have received my answer from my Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost. His revelations continue, personally, and for the whole church. He lives, and His Son, Jesus Christ, lives and guides our church.

Now, the rest of the week was pretty basic. I do have a nuts story though. There is a guy we teach, called Abraham, who is a bit Evangelic.... his church is kinda strange. We started teaching him after contacting him. He is a real smart man. He is in his 50's or so, and he knows everything form the bible, but this is why this is a nuts story.... well more funny than nuts.... whenever he "feels the Holy Ghost" he gets these weird seizure things and yells "Santo!!!!" or "Holy!!!!"... When it first happened, his whole body jerked and he screamed this. It caught me so off guard, I started laughing. I wasn't trying to be rude, I just... ya... my bad! But he turned to me and said, "it looks like this brother too is feeling the spirit as we speak. SANTO!!!!" I died... I didn't talk that whole lesson. I was laughing the whole time... Then someone else showed up, from his  church, and did it too.... oh man... I lost it... but then this guy started talking to us using some strange scriptures, and then this other guy just busted out talking in some old Hebrew language, and kept saying, "You understand, right?" I look at my companion, and said "Not a word....." Then Abraham says, "He is using the gift of tongues from God." I'm sorry, that is apostasy... The gift of tongues is so that people can understand the word of God plain and clearly, not to speak a random language..... haha but ya... strange lesson... I tried not to laugh, but.... as he said it, SANTO!!!! hahahahaha :)

So ya, that was my week! A total of six of our investigators showed up to Conference, which was awesome. Three of them it was there first time, so I hope they felt the spirit as strongly as I did! Love you all, I will send pictures soon!!!

Love,

Elder Parker Weiss :)

Mother's Note:  I asked Parker to tell me more about his companion and the Elder's he's living with. I'm on a Missionary Mom page on FB and have become friends with Elder Mortensen's mom from Phoenix (as well as other mom's). I also wondered if he was able to hear the speaker's in their native tongue or if it was translated in English like it was here in UT.  Here's his response.

Well I love the Elder's in my house for starters. You can tell Elder Mortensen's mom that I love this kid!!!!! HE IS AWESOME!!!!! I want to take him home with me. The kid is so amazing. Fun guy, and just a great spirit. My time with him has always been good! Elder Catmull has been awesome since day one when we first met on the plane. He is like a father. He is 24, and he fathers me. Takes really good care of us and I love it. Elder Rosado is a great kid, always helping me with Spanish and laughing every second of the way, so I love it! As for conference, ya, when the Spanish speakers spoke, it wasn't translated. We watched conference in English in a separate room, but when the Spanish speakers came on, we all ran into the main room and heard their talks with their own voice, and it rocked. I liked how they changed it so everyone could talk in their natural tongue if they show choose. The second one who spoke in Spanish is the second counselor over the Caribbean area. Elder Hugo Martinez. I have met him. His wife talks wicked fast Spanish, but he is cool!!!

Parker also told me Elder Catmull was in the CCM (mtc) with him and was also on the flight over to the DR. Catmull is 24 and is like the Dad there, making them food and taking care of them. Parker's companion is Elder Rosado and he is Dominican and corrects them with any Spanish speaking issues.

Elder Catmull and Elder Weiss enjoying a meal


Watching General Conference in English. Spanish was in the Chapel

Elder Catmull and Elder Weiss


Elder's Mortensen, Weiss and Catmull watching General Conference




All the Elder's climbing a tree. Rosado, Weiss, Catmull & Mortensen

At a Garden

With a Turtle