Elder Ryan Bird

Hey Mom,
Well greetings from San Juan of Ocoa (known just as Ocoa here in the mission), so you always seem to be one step ahead of me, which makes my job a little easier and helps me remember things that I'm supposed to tell you. But that is the official name and it is almost the complete opposite of Neyba. I had some pictures to send, however I can't find any USB ports on this computer. The good thing, we have multiple internet centers here in Ocoa, so I'll try and find a way to get pictures sent eventually. I'll probably check with the guy at the desk here at the end of my session if there's anything we can do for photos. We'll see.

As for Ocoa, its a nice cool place that feels about 70 degrees to me. There's a lot of clouds here and is very nice. If I return to the Dominican Republic after the mission, I'm definitely returning to Ocoa. Its actually a pretty nice place to live in. Which probably explains the diversity here. I've seen more white people here than in any other place in the mission. What's funny is that I'll point out some people as "white" and Elder Rogerio (details on him will come...if I remember to do so xD) will actually say that they're "red." I assume that just means white but still latino. But the only real white people I see are missionaries. But I've heard that there are actually a lot of north americans living here.

My companion, Elder Rogerio, is from Mexico City, Mexico. He is so much easier to understand than most of the people here. I don't have problems understanding him unless he uses words that I just don't know. So, that's something I'm quite thankful for. One thing that's really funny about him, everyone here in Ocoa thinks he's chinese. Everyone calls him "Chino!" At first, I thought he had a slight appearance of being chinese, but I still knew that he was mexican. When I get my pictures sent, maybe I can get your opinion. One thing really great about him...he loves spicy food. We've got a ton of tabasco sauce in the house with a few other sauces (including Habañero). Even better, all the Elders love spicy food. We consist of 3 americans and 1 mexican. The other two elders are Elders Muse and Eskildsen. Elder Eskildsen was in my district in the CCM in Santo Domingo. He's the one from Washington who lives in a town who is school rivals with Royal City. I talked to him this morning and brought up the Foresters and apparently he talked to his parents and they knew each other, roughly.

I still haven't gotten your package, but I am definitely grateful that you're sending measuring cups and spoons. I will be doing some cooking here in Ocoa. But I won't be doing anything that requires measuring cups for a while. My trip to Ocoa was quite costly and I'm low on money and haven't had a chance to get reimbursed yet. So, I'll be using some tricks I learned in Neyba.

I wish my zone conferences were like the one you volunteered at, with members and a variety of food. I've only had one or two zone conferences with food, and it was just store bought bread and juice. I'm glad to hear that you got to have a good experience with that. I've certainly thought about missionaries in the Carlsbad mission and how I want to leave with them when I get back.

This past week has certainly been an interesting one. It has been really long, but in a good way. Although I do hope that weeks start to speed up like Neyba. So I don't have a lot written in my agenda because I've been pretty lazy with recording stuff for this past week, but I'll try to tell things from memory. Last Wednesday we had our zone meeting in Bani (I'm in the zone of Bani). While there we took advantage of our food selections there. We ate at Burger King and it was some of the best food I've had for a while. That's one picture I got planned to send home (cause its the only one I currently have of the other Elders).

One of our investigators, Kenya, has 2 daughters that were baptized by Elder Smith (from Neyba) and we are continuing to teach her. They have a dog that had puppies a few days ago. What's funny is that I couldn't even tell that the dog was pregnant. We returned one day and found out that it had 5 puppies. I guess that the dogs are a little different (scrawny) in this country.

Twice for dinner, Elder Rogerio and I went to eat pizza. I got him to try corn as a topping and he loves it. That's something that I'm probably going to do when I get back. I'm going to have some weird food habits after the mission. They also put ketchup on their pizza. But that's probably because the dominican people love ketchup and mayonnaise with anything.

I guess I have something to confess. I made the mistake of playing the piano and showing off to the members at an activity that we had. The branch president happened to be there for a while and is trying to get me to play the piano for the branch. I made him a list of hymns that I know how to play (it was a poor list seeing as how I haven't practiced them in a while). He's probably going to try to get me to practice so that I can play in church meetings. I do have to admit that the keyboards they have in Neyba and Ocoa are pretty cool. So, I'll have to keep you updated on how that goes.

Anyway, that's all that I've got for now. I hope all is going well back home. I'm glad that you guys had a great trip visiting Chris and playing his PS3. Chris, Cam, and I certainly have some GREAT stories with Little Big Planet. But I guess you just have to have a crazy nut, such as me, who at times can be more of a burden than a help. But that's what creates awesome stories. I'm sure Cameron and Chris understand what I'm talking about xP

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
I can certainly say that 6 months ago I'd never thought I'd see the things I've seen here in Neyba. Although, there are some things I thought I would have seen but still haven't. So in the end, missions are completely unpredictable. As for being in Neyba for a long time, we got our transfer calls yesterday. Neyba is getting ¨white-washed¨ meaning that all of us are getting transferred out. I will be going to Elder Smith's first area, Ocoa. He has a lot of good things to say about it. He says that pictures will be great. If Ocoa is still like it was two months ago, it should be cold there which will be NICE!!! =D * <- star

Anyway, you certainly sound like you've been busy. Don't try and make a full-time missionary like me seem lazy compared to you. But I guess that I'll just have to learn from you. Well, the computer I was just on crashed and was told to move to another computer. So I hope that everything I had to say at that point in time was said. I certainly did think about the crazy Sundays that I had my senior year. Each week when we had the stake christmas youth music thing I had busy Sundays. Regular church meetings, ward choir, piano for the chinese branch, and then whatever music things I participated for the christmas concert (of which I was technically in 2 groups). Those were fun days.

Is it Kara's President's day/week off already? Wow...time flies. Let me know how your trip goes with Chris. A commandment for Kara, she HAS to JAM ALL NIGHT with Chris on my behalf. If she can't do that, then her best effort will be appreciated. =P

Wow....I certainly don't have a lot written from this past week. But we'll see how this email goes. Last Friday Hermana Carmen organized a Valentine's day party. What is funny is that I had no idea about the activity until we got there. I am sad to say that I don't have any pictures from it because I did not know what we were going to do. So I didn't bring my camera. But, all is well.

Saturday, we had another baptism, Liliana. She is a younger sister of one of my other baptisms, Jose. She and Jose both have a great interest in the church and are both very faithful (although it did take some work to get Liliana to show up to our lessons that we set). It feels pretty cool to have baptized siblings, it makes me feel like I made a difference in a family (rather than just a person). Their mother was quite happy at her daughter's baptism and I hope that their family progresses to be a full-member family. I hope that Jose refers his parents to the Elders who will come after we leave.

One thing of interest you will see in the photo that I sent. I didn't send a baptismal picture that has Elder Carrasco and I. Elder Carrasco received a phone call Friday night saying that he needed to go to the capital for a special meeting that had one of the general authorities of the entire Caribbean. So, he and Elder Smith didn't get to see their baptisms take place. I'm not exactly sure why Elder Smith had to leave, but he did and stayed in Barahona for some reason. Maybe one day I'll find out.

Well, that's all I have written in my agenda. This last week wasn't too eventful. But the events that happened really counted. Next email I'll be sure to let you all know how Ocoa is and bombard with pictures. Love you all!

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
I´m finally on a computer that recognizes my weird and new camera memory (new as of a transfer and a half ago). Hope you like them (I´m going to write president while sending these, then write home if that´s alright with you :) )

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
Once again thanks for the email. I tried to send photos while I wrote my letter to President this week. But I crashed one of them by plugging in my memory, moved to a different computer and somehow unplugged the video cable from this computer and had to get someone to fix it. I spent 10 minutes without doing anything and I'll probably get charged for it. Makes you wish you had computers that actually worked. But I do count my blessings of actually having good internet. I've heard stories of other places in our zone that have bad internet. In Duverge, Elder Larsen will spend three hours at internet getting about 3 emails sent (one of them being the letter to the President). Which is another reason why I want to send pictures while I'm still here in Neyba. Everyone thinks I'm going to go this next transfer (next week) including the assistants. So, we'll see what happens.

Hermana Johnson came with my package of pancake mix for 300 pesos (just under $10) which is a really great deal. She did say that she tried to look for measuring cups and couldn't find any or they were out. I can't remember, it was just yesterday when she told me xD. Not to mention, she told me in English. But, I will try and arrange to have them by the time my package arrives. If not, we'll have watery jello experiences again =D As for recipes, I'm good with anything. Here in Neyba we can practically find anything, if not we can get it from the Johnsons since they make visits to PriceMart in the capital and do deliveries if they pass through your town. Which is how I got my pancake mix. I think Elder Smith had some Cambell's soup, but I'm not sure how many varieties they have.

To answer the question about buses. Obviously, if we travel outside of Neyba, we take a bus (guagua as they call them here). You should remember the picture I sent of 16 missionaries in a privately owned guagua. But within town, we walk EVERYWHERE. But, it certainly helps with the exercise and the weight seeing as how the sun blazes everyday here in Neyba.

Richard made a visit to San Diego last week? That must've been a fun experience. In his New Testament class we got to hear a little bit about his adventures in distant lands. My favorite was when he shared about when he went to South Africa (I believe). That man certainly has got quite the job.

Anyway, this week Elder Smith and I will celebrate our 6 months. It will be this Friday and we're planning a special dinner of some kind. I wrote President about it saying that it will help keep animo (excitement) high. I also promised him that there will not be any fire or burning of any kind (to those of you who know the typical missionary traditions).

As for my adventures in the past week...Elder Carrasco and I contacted a part of Neyba that looks nothing like Neyba. It looks like your typical 3rd world country that would make a great mission story. If I can get pictures sent afterward you'll see what I mean. It looks like we're just in the middle of a tropical country. I got to eat sugar cane this last week. The day I have written down was actually my 2nd time eating it. My first time was either last week or the week before. As good as it tastes...there's a method to eating it. You can't swallow the insides of the sugar cane cause its kinda like eating wood (that's probably what we are eating, but that's the best description I can give). The only bothersome thing about eating it is all the little bits of cane that get stuck in your mouth. Not to mention that in this country, you just spit it out into the street.

Last week we had an interesting experience. Thursday night we show up to the church, at night, to open it for our english class that is taught by a less-active member (who is trying to put the class in my responsibility, but we can't really give the class, we can only help since its not our focus here). We went to unlock the gate in front of the church when some kids told us, "A Haitian was looking for you." At first I thought it was a member who was baptized about 2 months ago in the last transfer but this Haitian ended up coming 10 minutes after we opened the church. He spoke French, Creole, and English (with very little Spanish). Although, I'd say he spoke little english as well. His name is Antonio and he said that he was a member from Port-au-Prince (Leogon City I believe is where he's from, Every time I hear it it sounds like "Oregon City"). He was looking for his mother who he said was someone in the Dominican Republic, but he had no idea where. He came to us looking for help and we did everything we could for him. We bought him some food and drink and later found him a place to sleep in the fire department. He was grateful for all that we did for him and he tried to give me his Playstation and cell phone. Both of which I declined. He said that he lost his passport in his journey to Neyba. Through a long process of asking local authorities and calling the overbooked Haitian Embassy in Santo Domingo, we learned that he needed to go to Jimani to go to Santiago where we learned that his family is (those that are still alive, I'd rather not go into the details of the rest of his family, or at least what he said about them). He's currently in Jimani and we haven't heard from him since.

On Friday when we were taking Antonio around to see what we can do for him (passport-wise) we heard a call from a car, "Elders!" We looked over to see a van with 3 white people inside. They said that they were volunteers from Arizona and were helping out with the efforts in Haiti. They then asked how to get to the capital (Sto. Dom) and where to get a Mountain Dew. We gave them directions and told them good luck with the 2nd request.

Last Saturday we had another baptism. This one was quite an adventure. We got a member of the ward to agree to do the baptism, but he wasn't there when it was time to start. So, Elder Carrasco and I RAN to our apartment to grab my baptismal clothes and we ran back. That run felt so good...although it was quite difficult in church attire. At least I wasn't wearing my eccos for shoes. I felt like the most powerful man in the world running down to the apartment. Something I haven't felt in a while. So, while hot and sweaty I changed into my baptismal clothes and we started the meeting. After sitting down, I noticed the guy who was supposed to do the baptism sitting in the back corner. So, who knows what happened...Although we were joking about how nice the water would be for me. I made the joke that I'd probably stay in the water a little longer than necessary.

Yesterday I got a newsletter from the Johnson family in Allen, TX. I certainly enjoyed receiving news on how their family is doing. One comment I would love to make...the Johnson kids make me seem like such a bum when I was a teenager. I never did anything exciting. Go Johnsons! Might I also give the advice to Riley to not be a bum like me and not get my Eagle in Scouts. I was a life scout when I was 14 and didn't do anything since. So, go ALL the way! It will be worth it.

Then, one final thing (which is an exciting story from this morning). This morning I went to go take a shower just after power had come to the city. Here in the DR, you rinse first, turn off the water, soap up, shampoo your hair, then rinse again. Its to help conserve water. Well, I turned the water off...followed procedure, turned the shower on and got nothing but pressured air. Being very confusing and not very...happy, I ran out (with my towel) to get a bucket of water to finish showering. The confusing thing, we still had power but we had no water. I finished and came out of the bathroom to find that we had water pressure again. I then said to everyone...."ONLY IN NEYBA!!!!" Just a fun little story.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. I look forward to the things I'll be writing next week!

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
Well...there's certainly one thing that I've learned here on the mission. It has to do with opposition in all things. We're going to use numbers to mention a lesson I've learned so that it'll make more sense. If I have the capability of having a level 3 happiness, it means that I'm also capable of having a -3 level of happiness (or 3 of misery). Although I have a great capacity for enthusiasm...the ¨Opposition¨ knows that I'm also capable of experiencing a great un-enthusiasm. But that's what prayer and great companions are for. Don't think that these experiences happen all the time. I'm pretty enthusiastic every day.

Anyway, to hopefully brighten the mood of this week's letter, I certainly loved the input you had for this week. Your calling definitely sounds like its been keeping you busy. Let me know how your upcoming activity on the standards for dating goes. Is it going to be like a conference where there are a bunch of speakers? Or will it be like, an activity that has many sub-activities and you have a rotation? Or some other wonderful way?

I love rice a roni, just like Cam. I've certainly been thinking about those Pasta Ronis that we used to have (the cheddar shell pasta, etc). Although, I'm always open to surprises. One thing that would be excellent. I don't know if you already said that you were going to send one, but some kind of recipe book (with recipes inside would be nice =D). Of course, I probably wouldn't have asked for one 2 months ago, but times certainly change. This next Sunday Hermana Johnson will be bringing me measuring cups since I made a request for her to buy me a set (with the money I use for the mission) so that I can actually make things correctly. Last week I finished off all the food sent to me, concluding with the jello. I had to eyeball the measurements. Lets just say that the jello was rather watery, but still delicious =D

P-days aren't really too different from other days. The only real difference is the normal P-day things we get to do, such as write family. I have been doing some working out (not really though). So I don't only walk for exercise, but it certainly is the majority. I heard from another missionary that he tried asking President if he can go running. It sounds like President said no, but I've heard different things. That's definitely something that I've been wanting to do. I think I've mentioned that to dad.

Wow...I certainly do not have a lot written for what I did this past week. But we'll see how this weekly report goes. Last week I got to try a new dish. We showed up to Hermana Carmen's house last week and there was a huge bowl of some kind of meat. It looked like a bowl of meat and mushrooms, but it turns out that it was all just meat and the meat just looked like mushrooms. So, I had my hopes up but they were crushed. Mom, if you don't want to hear what exactly these things I eat are, feel free to just let me know and skip ahead. But I got to eat cow heart. It was certainly a fun experience and a different kind of meat. I'd definitely like to eat it again, just maybe not in a huge quantity. Its just a very dry meat.

I'm sure many of you know this, but I'd certainly like to add my testimony to it. But, God ANSWERS prayers. I had a question that I had prayed, a personal question that is, and it was answered I believe the following morning. I found it in the a most excellent conference talk given by President Uchtdorf. Although there are still some things left unanswered, one of the big questions was.

One fun event that happened this past Saturday. For some reason I was showing my driver's license picture to Elder Carrasco and Elder Batista. Then, Elder Carrasco says ¨Tu estás enfermo¨(You are sick). I gave him a weird look and he said (translated), ¨You are ugly. What happened to you?¨ It was rather funny. I continued to show him other pictures of myself, including my BYU ID picture where I actually was sick in the picture. He said that I looked better in my BYU photo. I thought that was a funny story. He was basically saying I looked better before the mission. I don't appear to be sick in my pictures I send home, do I? These past few days I think I've had a cold, but that shouldn't change my appearance too much. Maybe its the fact that I haven't been running, so I may have gained a little weight. Anyway....

Last week we had a baptism, Jose Mendez. He's 17 years old and was really excited to be baptized. The special thing about him, he was the first person I've baptized where I started from scratch. All my other baptisms were investigators of previous elders, but not Jose. Not to mention he is also my first male baptism. This next Saturday we have another baptism of another teenager, Raul. I'm way excited for this next week.

Well, I just have one final note. Before the mission I had the calling of the branch pianist for the Chinese Branch in our stake. Although I don't have the calling (last week it was officially given to someone else) I've been helping with the music here in Neyba. But not in a way that you would think. Elder Johnson, being the branch President, bought the hymns on CD to act as our accompaniment. So, I've been working with the stereo we have here to play the hymns during church so that we don't have to sing a cappella anymore. Just a fun little note.

Well, this last week I wrote a ton of letters and plan to get them sent this week. So, we'll see how that goes. I hope they arrive in reasonable time =D Anyway, hope all is going well back home and with everyone. I'm glad to hear from all of you and wish the best for all.

Love,
-Elder Bird