Paradise!
Why I love Kristen!
The MTC Cafeteria (1st Floor) and Gym (AKA the Parking Lot)and our Classroom
My Desk and Bedroom and Hallway (All on the 4th floor)
Sooo, last Friday we were supposed to go contacting at the university, but of course the students were still striking. (pretty normal apparently. Burning tires, picketing, etc etc.) So we couldn't go there. Instead we went to a park about 20 min. walking away. They gave us a stack of pamphlets and turned us loose. It was incredible. So much fun. We have the worst spanish, but people here are soooo nice. They are all Christian and totally willing to take a few minutes to listen to a couple of gringo girls in broken Spanish try to bear a testimony about Him and His gospel and then refer them to the number on the back where they can get ahold of missionaries who actually speak Spanish. Everyone was so nice and would compliment our Spanish and always took a pamphlet and talked with us. I love these people!!
There are a few things I'll have to get used to though. Like the fact that they are so super touchy here. Everyone just touches your hair, your face, grabs your arm, rubs your back. (The women, I mean, of course) It is wild. I have to be careful not to freak out and jump away.
They're also super blunt. They say anything they think. They will refer to you as skinny (or fat or short or tall) if they don't know your name. Literally, "Venga flaca!" (Come here skinny!) It's kinda bad because I've found that I'm more blunt when I'm speaking in Spanish. If I want to tell my comps that they need to do something, or that they shouldn't do something, or anything that would require some tact in english, I just say it in spanish instead. Because that's what the natives are like! Also, they've all begun to refer to me as "la modelo". All my teachers (who are all natives) refer to me as that to everyone. The missionaries out right now see our teachers pretty frequently, and ask about who's coming out. My teachers told them about me, and so now all the sisters are waiting for "the model" missionary Hna Peck, to come out. My district all thinks that's hilariously funny, and jumped on board that wagon. I am going to get such a big head! But don't worry, because whenever the Lord needs me to be humble, He just sends a native to come chat with me in Spanish.
Fun fact: DR is the 3rd poorest country in the western hemisphere apparently.
Another fun fact: It's my half birthday on Saturday!!
Peanut butter. The cupboards here are stocked, but I don't know if it's just here to accomodate the Norte Americanos. Dinner is super tiny here, because lunch is their big meal, so all of us North Americans file into the kitchen afterward, break out the peanut butter, and make PBJ's. It's my favorite thing to do. I love it. My second favorite food here is the banana bread, and after that is my staple breakfast, which is super runny cinnamon-y oatmeal mixed with raisin bran or fruit loops. I really honestly love it so much. I wake up every morning craving my oatmeal. I don't know what I'm going to do without it when I leave on the 26th.
The elders here are gettting much better. The other day they went on splits with "real" missionaries out into my mission (they're eventually going to Puerto Rico). They talked with me about it afterward. Apparently where they were is extremely, extremely impoverished. They saw all sorts of things we wouldn't believe in the United States. It's going to be super hard, but I'm excited to get out there. And there's going to be no more of this keeping the sisters in the nicest areas, because there are just too many sisters coming out. We'll probably be training after our 1st or second transfer. After we leave, there are 20 more coming to the MTC to our mission. And after that, the MTC is getting a group of 43 sisters at once. They'll start using more floors then. It's crazy. We really are the very very beginning of this wave. We were here when there were only 30 of us!
Funny story for the week: Some in my district were teaching a lesson to a pretend investigator, pretending to be a single mother of 4. They were teaching about the atonement and gave her this scripture to read out loud, telling her that this would help her to recognize her sins. The scripture they meant to give was 2 cor 7:9-10, but they opened up to 1 Cor 7:9-10. Please look them up. One talks about having godly sorrow, the other says that men and women need to be married or else they will burn, and the same for if a woman leaves her husband. The investigator started dying laughing, and the missionaries didn't know what was wrong because they didn't understand what it was saying in spanish, they had their scriptures open to the right English scripture. We all died laughing.
We teach lessons every day. We have 3 pretend investigators. They're people that work here, and they all play as converts from their own missions. Most of them are converts themselves, and they are all so amazing. I love all of my teachers here. And I love President and Hermana Freestone. They really are like our prertend mom and dad out here. Hermana Freestone always gives us a good-night hug, and sometimes makes cookies for us. She also sews our clothes if they rip. They are wonderful people.
Love you all,
Hna Peck
Why I love Kristen!
The MTC Cafeteria (1st Floor) and Gym (AKA the Parking Lot)and our Classroom
My Desk and Bedroom and Hallway (All on the 4th floor)
Sooo, last Friday we were supposed to go contacting at the university, but of course the students were still striking. (pretty normal apparently. Burning tires, picketing, etc etc.) So we couldn't go there. Instead we went to a park about 20 min. walking away. They gave us a stack of pamphlets and turned us loose. It was incredible. So much fun. We have the worst spanish, but people here are soooo nice. They are all Christian and totally willing to take a few minutes to listen to a couple of gringo girls in broken Spanish try to bear a testimony about Him and His gospel and then refer them to the number on the back where they can get ahold of missionaries who actually speak Spanish. Everyone was so nice and would compliment our Spanish and always took a pamphlet and talked with us. I love these people!!
There are a few things I'll have to get used to though. Like the fact that they are so super touchy here. Everyone just touches your hair, your face, grabs your arm, rubs your back. (The women, I mean, of course) It is wild. I have to be careful not to freak out and jump away.
They're also super blunt. They say anything they think. They will refer to you as skinny (or fat or short or tall) if they don't know your name. Literally, "Venga flaca!" (Come here skinny!) It's kinda bad because I've found that I'm more blunt when I'm speaking in Spanish. If I want to tell my comps that they need to do something, or that they shouldn't do something, or anything that would require some tact in english, I just say it in spanish instead. Because that's what the natives are like! Also, they've all begun to refer to me as "la modelo". All my teachers (who are all natives) refer to me as that to everyone. The missionaries out right now see our teachers pretty frequently, and ask about who's coming out. My teachers told them about me, and so now all the sisters are waiting for "the model" missionary Hna Peck, to come out. My district all thinks that's hilariously funny, and jumped on board that wagon. I am going to get such a big head! But don't worry, because whenever the Lord needs me to be humble, He just sends a native to come chat with me in Spanish.
Fun fact: DR is the 3rd poorest country in the western hemisphere apparently.
Another fun fact: It's my half birthday on Saturday!!
Peanut butter. The cupboards here are stocked, but I don't know if it's just here to accomodate the Norte Americanos. Dinner is super tiny here, because lunch is their big meal, so all of us North Americans file into the kitchen afterward, break out the peanut butter, and make PBJ's. It's my favorite thing to do. I love it. My second favorite food here is the banana bread, and after that is my staple breakfast, which is super runny cinnamon-y oatmeal mixed with raisin bran or fruit loops. I really honestly love it so much. I wake up every morning craving my oatmeal. I don't know what I'm going to do without it when I leave on the 26th.
The elders here are gettting much better. The other day they went on splits with "real" missionaries out into my mission (they're eventually going to Puerto Rico). They talked with me about it afterward. Apparently where they were is extremely, extremely impoverished. They saw all sorts of things we wouldn't believe in the United States. It's going to be super hard, but I'm excited to get out there. And there's going to be no more of this keeping the sisters in the nicest areas, because there are just too many sisters coming out. We'll probably be training after our 1st or second transfer. After we leave, there are 20 more coming to the MTC to our mission. And after that, the MTC is getting a group of 43 sisters at once. They'll start using more floors then. It's crazy. We really are the very very beginning of this wave. We were here when there were only 30 of us!
Funny story for the week: Some in my district were teaching a lesson to a pretend investigator, pretending to be a single mother of 4. They were teaching about the atonement and gave her this scripture to read out loud, telling her that this would help her to recognize her sins. The scripture they meant to give was 2 cor 7:9-10, but they opened up to 1 Cor 7:9-10. Please look them up. One talks about having godly sorrow, the other says that men and women need to be married or else they will burn, and the same for if a woman leaves her husband. The investigator started dying laughing, and the missionaries didn't know what was wrong because they didn't understand what it was saying in spanish, they had their scriptures open to the right English scripture. We all died laughing.
We teach lessons every day. We have 3 pretend investigators. They're people that work here, and they all play as converts from their own missions. Most of them are converts themselves, and they are all so amazing. I love all of my teachers here. And I love President and Hermana Freestone. They really are like our prertend mom and dad out here. Hermana Freestone always gives us a good-night hug, and sometimes makes cookies for us. She also sews our clothes if they rip. They are wonderful people.
Love you all,
Hna Peck
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