Elder Ryan Bird

Hey Mom,
Well, my emails are usually long because I typically reply to everything that you say, and I say whatever comes to mind. Then after all that, I write whatever little I can remember from my previous week. I guess in the end, you benefit. So I'm glad to hear that you enjoy what I wrote home to you guys.

A few comments came to mind when you mentioned that hurricane season is coming and that I should be strictly obedient to all instructions. I can definitely tell you that I know that its coming seeing the amount of rain that I've had this past week. I've uploaded a photo that I took during a pouring rain that we had last week. I think that in order to comprehend what's going on, one would have to see the movies that I took. Although, I may not be able to get those loaded onto the website due to slow internet here, and right now I'm focusing on photos getting backed up. Then, as to exact obedience, it wouldn't surprise me if our leaders didn't tell us that we were in the middle of a hurricane. I've had to ask Elder Baré a time or two if we were. Although we didn't have extreme winds, we've had extreme rain. So Elder Baré said that we aren't in any hurricanes...yet. But when those instructions come, I'll be sure to obey if it concerns my safety.

Sounds like Michael McPhie's wedding was quite a story. I remember baby sitting kids for Alisha's wedding, but I don't remember anything other than that. I do have to say that that day of babysitting was actually quite fun. But we didn't have quite the ratio of kids to babysitters as you guys had. I'm just glad to hear that there weren't any casualties. You'll have to let me know if there are any big outside renovations of the San Diego Temple. I want to recognize it when I get back. They're not changing the look of it are they? They're just...repairing?

Feel free to let me know how girls' camp goes for you and Kara when the time comes. When you say that it might be hard for me to believe that girls' camp is a spiritual experience, I'm sure that you refer to the fact that I haven't experienced a camp that is spiritual. I was aware of some of the things that go on at girls' camp, but I have to say that I'll take the scout camps I had over girls' camp. Those were definitely some excellent times. And I'm quite surprised to hear about the number of families moving out of our ward. I'm sad to hear that the 3 families that you mentioned are moving, especially the Cottrells. KJ is awesome, I'm glad I had the chance to get to know him while they were down here.

Might I make a note here while its on my mind and as a perfect transition from replying to your email, to reporting last week. I'm just about finishing up loading my photos from Los Angeles onto the website that dad showed me (minus the photos of the giant spider we had in our apartment, I'll refrain from uploading it unless you ask me to upload them). For everyone who wishes to see my photos, they are found here:

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/5051043/1/Mission%20Photos?h=3c87f4

Might I note that I currently don't have all of my photos uploaded, they're just in the process.

Well, one quick note that I made, a relatively unimportant note/story, but I know at least one person in this world will love it. After going to internet last week we went to a member's house for family home evening/dinner. We helped prepare this dinner in which I was giving the assignment to prepare the bread. The thing is, I learned the technique on how to cut bread from one of my cousins, either Dax or Brandt. So, they're teaching me in how to properly and cleanly cut a bagel has not died in vain. This also shows that the little things we learn add up later.

Last week being transfers we only had one change within our district. One elder left and a new elder, Elder Mendez, came. In first seeing Elder Mendez I thought, "Great...another latino." I feared that once again I'd spend a transfer without any english. I ask him where he's from and he says "Mexico." I did notice that he looked different from a dominican, but I'm not one to judge where a latino is by the way he looks. Having asked which part I found it odd that he said "The Pueblo" but I figured that it was just some place in Mexico that I hadn't heard of or it was just a mexican term. I then noticed that he would say a few english phrases, which is quite normal among the latinos, but I noticed that he didn't have an accent. Again, thinking the "from Mexico" deal. So I thought that he just had been taught good english in Mexico. Later that Tuesday night, I ask Elder Baré where Elder Mendez was from to clarify the "Pueblo, Mexico" deal. He says, "Oh, he's from Phoenix, AZ. His parents are natural born mexicans, but he's American." Turns out that he was pulling my leg. The next time I saw Elder Mendez he came up to me and said, "So, Elder Bird, did you know that I speak english?" I thought it was a funny story. He's a cool guy. It's a bummer that our district consists of 2 2-man homes, and 1 4-man house. But its all good, we'll still see each other at least twice a week.

I mentioned before that we had a ton of rain this last week. In our trip last week to "La Serena" (the grocery store) an 18-wheeler blew its horn at us and pulled over as we were walking in the rain. Turned out that it was a member who decided to give us a ride for the last 150 yards or so that we were going. I got to experience for the first tim (I think) going in an 18-wheeler. It felt awesome being much bigger than any other car that comes your way.

Well, that sums up my cultural report, the other stuff I share will have a rather different theme. Last Thursday we had our zone meeting for the transfer and we sang a hymn that has a pretty cool verse that I like. It reads/is translated:

173 El fin se acerca (the end comes)
v. 3
Oh, why is the hate of the world important to you?
When God shelters you, you have the truth,
and he promises you eternal life if you're always faithful,
Listen to him, if you're always faithful, listen to him.

*translation poorly provided by, Elder Bird and Google translator to get a better idea on how to translate some phrases, note, I don't think this hymn is in english

This was just a verse that I thought was inspiring. We are sometimes ridiculed for the things we believe, but why is it important if we have the truth and we're faithful? Now, I'm not saying that we should be stuck-up with this thinking, I just see it as words of comfort (especially to a missionary like me who sees many things first hand). I just think to move on and if what I say doesn't matter to that specific person, just forget it and move on.

Yesterday, Sunday, was quite an eventful day. During Elder's quorum during church, the teacher decided to pull an impromptu "have the missionaries sing a hymn for us." He gave scriptural references to everyone to share with the class and decided to have the missionaries sing. What's funny is that he gave us the assignment and THEN asked us if it was a song that we knew. Elder Baré didn't recognize it at first, but I recognized it as "Have I done any good in the world today?" It was an interesting experience. Kevin certainly knows how great my tone is....compared to someone who's deaf.

Later we were invited to a special ward meeting that spoke about an activity that the ward is going to have. I'm not entirely sure what this activity is seeing as how it was planned before I got here, so most of the meeting made no sense to me whatsoever. But afterwards there was choir practice for an upcoming conference that will take place. We were asked by the bishop if we could help sing in this choir. We showed up to practice and I ended up being the pianist for the practice. I'd have to say it was a great experience for me. I certainly miss the piano. One thing that I double checked with Elder Baré was that I won't be playing in the conference, I just did for practice. We'll see what the bishop here has in store for me.

Now, the rest of my letter will come from an interesting experience that happened last night. Last night we went to a member's house and she had some questions for us about something that she read. She said that she found some "Mormon beliefs" on www.lds.org and that she was strongly opposed to these or had never heard of these. First, I thought it was weird cause 1) the church didn't believe in the things she opposed, 2) she said that it was on the church's homepage, where the church does not post doctrine. Elder Baré and I were able to conclude that she went to an anti-mormon website. Turns out that she was just crazy and ended up seeing an anti-mormon video on Youtube which is completely contradictory to the source of what she told us. Here is what I have to say to everyone, specifically my friends who do not share my faith, most anti-mormon things that you find on the internet is GARBAGE and mostly lies. The things that I have seen on anti-mormon critiques are either, lies, misunderstandings, twisted truths, or truths that they just don't believe to be true. If you want to know what the mormon church believes, ask a mormon, not an evangelist who did a "report" and doesn't cite where he got this information. For all we know, he didn't even ask a member of the church, let alone an authorized representative of the church. I know that my friends know me well enough to see through some things that I just won't believe in, I just feel sorry for the poor people who now believe what this person has said and probably will never hear mormon missionaries. If anyone wants to know what the mormons believe...ask. I may have been a little shy before the mission to talk about it, but I welcomed questions from anyone. Do not hesitate to ask...I don't want my friends fooled by an incredible lie.

One thing came to mind yesterday which is a quote/talk from Jeffrey R. Holland. I can't remember if it was a recent general conference or a talk that he gave in the MTC and only missionaries have access to these videos. But, he spoke about the Book of Mormon and how it has stood for just under 200 years without having been disproved. He spoke on how there are many attacks on the book of mormon and that they are absolutely "pathetic." At first thinking, one might think that a statement such as this is a little bit harsh. But, after having seen some anti-mormon documents, these works are just pathetic. They're acts to try and disprove what they can't disprove. There is only one way to do such a thing....lie, trick, and twist words to sound convincing. Last night I told Elder Baré that I hadn't felt so angered by something in such a long time.

One comment that came up in our visit was that I heard this member say something about someone needing to "defend his name." During this point of time I knew that she was talking about either Joseph Smith or God. Turns out that she was talking about Joseph Smith, so I thought that he can't defend his name because he's not alive to defend his name. But it made me think about why God doesn't "defend his name." Two things answer this question. First, we have our agency, our will to act freely and God will not stop us from choosing one way or another. Second, God is not prideful. Defending one's name in my opinion an act of pride. If someone hits you you want to hit back out of pride. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the phrase said by Christ himself to "turn him the other" (other cheek, I can't figure out how to do brackets on this keyboard).

Anyway, this has been my email for the week. It sounds like things are going great back home and I hope it continues that way. I love you all and hope the best and nothing less for all of you.

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
These are from my interview that I had about 2 weeks ago.

Love,
-Elder Bird

This is my delicious root beer =D

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
Thanks for the email. I love it as always. Well, first things first. I'll mention that this week is transfers which means two things. First, it means that I'm currently using a new agenda, so all of my notes are left in the house cause I'm forgetful. Two, what happened for transfers. In all reality...our entire zone is practically going to be the same. Elder Baré and I are staying here in Los Angeles. Elder Baré believes that I'm going to "kill him off" because he has only 2 transfers left in the mission. That'll be interesting. This'll mean that at the end of this transfer Elder Baré will be the missionary with whom I'll have spent the most time with (the first right now being my trainer Elder George, I was with him for a transfer and a half, which is 9 weeks). I've also been wanting to mention that this day marks that I've now spent more time in areas other than Neyba. I had 3 transfers in Neyba, 2 transfers in Ocoa, 1 transfer in Los Angeles, and am now starting my next transfer. Its a nutty world we live in.

Anyway, if I remember correctly, Jared couldn't use his Root Beer extract as a result of a mission rule specifically for his mission. So, he gave it to me to use. Might I say that the root beer was most excellent and I hope to send pictures today of it.

I heard from Dad that Kara spoke on Missionary Work, is that true? I'm glad to hear that her talk went well and that she received many compliments. It sounds like it just runs in the family. Back when I was a youth I received compliments from other youth that they enjoyed listening to me give talks cause I had a kind of energy that made it easier to listen than to.....do something else quite common in church meetings (zzzzz).

What kind of business does Grant Collard have? I assume then that its in Provo. Cause it doesn't sound like Michael was rushed off to college but rather to go work for Grant. It also sounds like Jared is having the same job luck that I had last summer. I never realized that finding a job was so hard until last summer. When I applied to pizza hut in high school, I guess I got really lucky that I was given the job. Luckily for pizza hut, I was considered one of the best workers at the time.

You had some experience with Dutch Oven Cooking, eh? Did you talk to President Ellsworth about it? Back when he was our bishop he made some excellent dutch oven cobblers. If I remember correctly it was a cherry cobbler. Doesn't dad also have some experience? I'm trying to remember all of this from my days as a boy scout. Anyway, glad to hear that the majority turned out great. Its not my preference of cooking, but I have no problem whatsoever being the recipient of dutch oven cooking.

Well, I'm trying to remember the interesting things that happened this past week. We have been having quite a bit of rain here in Santo Domingo. Last week we had a day when it just started pouring buckets and buckets of rain. We were soaked pretty fast. Luckily, all of our books in our backpacks are safe. Since then the rain has been on and off, but equally strong at times. We've also been having a lot of thunderstorms.

Last week our family who was going to get baptized went to have their parents married, but once again ran into problems. Apparently the government printed the birth certificate of the father with his last names switched, so he has to go all the way to Ocoa to get it fixed. He is doing that today. Hopefully we can get things settled this week. This is a great family and I'm sad to hear that all these problems (which are not their fault) are happening to them.

As I mentioned, Elder Baré and I are staying here in Los Angeles and we are looking forward to this upcoming transfer. There's not much that I remember from last week seeing as how the routine is always the same and we haven't had any activities in our zone lately. We're still working on getting our investigators to progress, which practically means we're still working on trying to get them to read what we give them. Things have been good and I hope continue to do so.

Anyway, glad to hear from you and will get back to you next week. Sorry about the short letter this week, but hope that I'll be able to make it up to you next week. Take care and love you all!

Love,
-Elder Bird
PS. To the recipients of my promise of last week: I have the letters written but I don't know if I'll see my zone leaders this week to get letters sent this week. I did my part and will still try to get them sent this week, but it may not happen like I promised. I was thinking one of us would get transferred and we'd have to go somewhere where I'd see someone who would be able to send letters for me.

Hey Dad,
Kara graduated already??? Wow....I guess I shouldn't be surprised seeing as how its the 14th today. I can't believe that she's going to High School pretty soon. I'm really excited for her. Not to mention that she gets to start SEMINARY =D I have to ask...how's the transportation going to work for her? Carpool? Or are you going to get stuck with the burden? lol....I guess you haven't had to think about this problem since Chris. Since then you and mom have had one of the kids to drive one right after the other.

So Kelsey Petersen had her senior recital. I'm glad to hear that it went well. Although I'm not sure that I would want to play 9 pieces straight. Does she have plans for college?

Thinking about the Park City Marathon, eh? Feel free to let me know how your plans for that go. I certainly look forward to getting back to running when I get back. As you know already, I'd love to run another Ragnar Relay and eventually end up running halves and full marathons with you, Chris, and/or Blake. During the ragnar relay I received quite the confidence from Chris saying that a half marathon is typically easier than what I ran. Although the distance is roughly the same I had some pretty ¨fun¨ hills to work with. I'd have to say that the Ragnar is one of my greatest feats that I've done so far, I ended with 14ish miles seeing as how I ran 2 extra miles.

Let me know how the talks go this sunday, both Kara's and Michael's. One thing I failed to mention in my big email to mom, I gave a talk this past Sunday. This was my first assigned topic talk that I've had the entire mission. But I guess that's cause we were asked to give a talk in a ward rather than a branch where we typically do not speak in church. I gave a talk on ¨The Spirit members can feel in Missionary Work.¨ Although I can't say that it was spankin' awesome like my last talk in Ocoa, but we were complemented by the bishop for our excellent talks. I'd have to say this topic was a little difficult, but if I just changed ¨spirit¨ to ¨joy¨ it became a much easier topic to find scriptures and other references. But I did a little of both. It was good.

Anyway, that's all I got for now with regards to the mission. I was going to send mom 2 pictures, but I ran into virus problems again. Luckily, it is now my USB that is affected rather than my camera memory. So, I'll have to try and fix my USB but I'll still have my other photos safe. This is why I don't like using public computers here in the DR. Hardly any of the computers have virus protection and ALL of the computers have viruses on them.

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
Sounds like a lot happened this past week. Might I mention that I'll
return home and not recognize my own house since its been repainted.
As long as it doesn't get remodeled, I probably won't need a tour
guide when I return ;)

I guess it isn't a surprise that you've had a lot of visitors in
church lately...summer has come. Might I take this opportunity to
congratulate all graduating seniors. It was only yesterday when I
graduated =D Summer is the time for everyone to go to San Diego =D
With the exception of full-time missionaries. But all is
well...that'll happen, next summer. I can't believe that I hit 10
months this past week. Time went by fast and continues to do so. Might
I also say that I'm surprised to hear the announcement that Michael
Collard is getting home already. I remember back when he left. Has
Matthew Young completed his mission, or is he still in Italy? Before I
know it, it'll be my turn. Man...I love hearing updates on everything =D

Well, it appears that I have quite a few things to report for this
week. So we'll see how long I can make one letter. Last week there
were two things that I failed to share, so I'd love to share those
first before sharing this week's update. Two weeks ago I read in Elder
James E. Talmage's "Jesus the Christ" book an interesting article that
I absolutely love. It was basically a topic of "Happiness vs.
Passion." It basically talked about how one lasts while the other
lasts for the moment. I hope all of you can tell which is which xD. It
was just a cool article that spoke about how we sometimes make
decisions for the "Now" when we don't take into consideration the
longer term consequences or blessings.

Also, two Saturdays ago Elder Baré and I were at a member's house and
were able to answer some questions she had about the temple. We
committed her to go eventually and relieved her of most of her fears
and doubts that she had. I've certainly heard some weird things that
people say about going to the temple, but there's one thing that I
keep in mind when I hear these things. The temple is a place for the
work of the Lord and is a place of happiness. If someone says
something that doesn't fit these requirements, its quite likely that
it isn't true. Not to mention after having been through the temple I
can confirm that statement even more. But, I felt great having helped
a member with a fear that she may not have ever conquered (might I
add, that I'm not sure if she's completely conquered it seeing as how
she still hasn't gone, but we're working on it =D).

Last week I mentioned that we had a baptism planned for last Saturday,
however, I mentioned that there could have been problems with
scheduling a time for a marriage. That problem came to pass, so we
moved the baptism this week and I believe the marriage will happen
today or at least before Friday. I just know that they're at least
getting most of their official documents if not all today. I learned
something quite coincidental about this family. Before last week I
knew that the father of this family was from Sabana Larga which is 3
miles north of Ocoa (the place Elder Rogerio and I walked to and died
when we returned). I did recognize their last name as "Peguero" as the
same name as someone (whom I will reveal shortly) in Ocoa, but I
didn't put the ends together. Turns out that I finally asked if they
were family of my baptism Dari Peguero and it turns out that they are.
I didn't ask the relation, but they know her and I'll have the
opportunity to participate in the baptism of this family again. It's a
small world, eh?

We had a very interesting experience that could have been fatal to our
way of living. Last Thursday night I went to the roof of our complex
to go wash shirts only to find that one of our neighbor's dogs chewed
through our power cords. I was rather displeased with this and had
another reason to be completely annoyed with this dog. However, Elder
Baré was able to fix it and I was able to have clean shirts for my
interview with President last Friday. Luckily, we didn't have to wait
to have the office send us a new washing machine...for now.

Last Friday was quite an eventful day. We had our interviews and I
received a handful of things. I received a few letters from my best
friends in the whole world which I absolutely loved. And I'll get to
responding to them when I can (either this week or the next, I promise
they'll be sent next Tuesday on the day of transfers). Included in
these letters were pages 1 and 2 of a letter where I received page 3 a
couple weeks ago. I'd have to say that was quite funny. The Pouch
system....

We received the issue of the Liahona that has last General
Conference's talks. So now I'll be able to know what was said and not
to mention I'll be able to read all of the conferences seeing as how
in Ocoa I was only allowed to view 2 or 3 of the total 5. So I'm
looking forward to the things I'll find there.

This same Friday I had a fun missionary exchange with an Elder
Mercedes who has 6 months in the mission. Something interesting is
that although I live in a two man house, our district composes of 4 or
8 (I'm not sure cause we have 8 people in our district meetings)
missionaries. So we had an exchange with the Elders who live not too
far from where we live. We've determined that this missionary exchange
has to be one of the worst ones ever recorded in history. We got a
phone call from Elder Baré and Elder Garcia telling us to go to the
house (Elder Baré chose not to bring a key since he wouldn't be
sleeping in Los Angeles that night). Not knowing why, we went to the
house to see that Elder Baré tore his pants pretty badly and needed to
change. Later, Elder Mercedes and I finished for the night and decided
to visit the church to see how an activity went. There were many kids
running around and one of them decides to jump and hold onto my
backpack....*RIP*. I now have a huge hole in my backpack that I'm
wondering if there's a way to fix it. I could do the same thing Jared
did with his school backpack in High School....Duct Tape =D The
solution to everything. While sleeping, we got a call at 2:00 in the
morning from the other missionaries. I later learned that they called
in an emergency needed a phone number for a taxi to take Elder Baré to
the hospital. Turns out that he had an unpleasant experience. Having
lived in Neyba, I've learned that Moths are the stupidest creatures to
live in this earth. Turns out, Elder Baré was trying to swat a moth
away in the middle of the night and it ends up flying in his ear and
gets stuck. In the end, Elder Baré got it taken care of in the
hospital and is only annoyed with what happened.

Yesterday we had a ton of thunder. I noticed during the afternoon that
there was thunder, but no rain (the rain came last night). We were in
our house and we hear an extremely LOUD one and then the power goes
out. At this point, I was thinking that we lost power for the next
couple days cause I really thought that a power pole was struck and
fell. Turns out that one of the lightning rod's on the church was
struck and that the electric company just chose to turn off the power
for the entire area. Power came shortly afterward, but it was just an
odd experience.

Last night I made something special to celebrate my 10 months. I
finally pulled through with making Jared's Root Beer with the
concentrate that he gave me. I have to say that after following
directions, it turned out much better than my attempt in Ocoa. I look
forward to my next "celebration" with this stuff =D

Finally, this morning Elder Baré and I met two other Elders who were
visiting our area (I believe they're in our zone, I don't know our
zone very well). I spoke with an Elder Gomez and asked where he was
from. He responded, "South Jordan." I don't know if this is the elder
that Alisha has been telling me about, but I've met an elder from her
area. It was quite the coincidence that we've finally met after all
this time. He has 10 months in the mission, hope that helps with
identifying if its the same one.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. Always glad to hear great news from
home and hope that things continue to go well. Miss you all, love you
all, and hope you all have a great summer!

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey mom,
I can't see these photos right now cause of the useless internet and computers that we're using. But, if they're the same photos that I think they are, they're photos of Elder Baré and I just hanging around the house. This is to give you an idea of what Elder Baré looks like, and to hopefully show that I look the same =D

Love,
-Elder Bird

Hey Mom,
I don't think that words can describe the joy that comes to my heart when I hear that Makenzie and Joseph still remember who I am...not to mention Joseph. I'm glad to hear that I still have some kind of impact in my niece and nephew's life.

You got to see the Welch family? Sweetness! I can't believe that Parker will be graduating this year, I still remember when their family moved to San Diego and now they're all growing up. Sounds like Preston is doing the same things he did when I left. Although he was working at a movie theater when I left. He was going to an IT school, but I'm not quite sure how IT schools work. Are they 4 year schools like universities? Or do you just take classes as you like?

Well, sounds like things are going well back home. As always, I'm not quite sure what exactly happened this past week. So we'll just take a peek at my notes...

Ah, I've got just a few things from this past week. Something funny that happened last P-day (I could have written about this last week, but I forgot to), Elder Baré and I went to go get our money for the month seeing as how last week was the first week of the month. So, I go first to get some money and the ATM tells me to input something that is divisible by 100. Might I mention that the ATMs here usually dispense 100, sometimes 200, 500, and 1000 peso bills. Our accounts have a limit of extracting $4000 in one go, so I enter $3900 in order to receive 3 $1000, 1 $500, and 4 $400 so that I can have some useable money to use in local colmados/stores that usually don't have change for $500. Turns out...this ATM gives me my entire request in $100 bills. So...to help with my image as a poor missionary, here I am, 1) an american, 2) dressed in a white shirt and tie in hot climate, 3) in a grocery store (here it is commonly known that the upper class shop at grocery stores), and 4) I've got a HUGE wad of cash. Some guy behind me in line says, "Whoa! ¡Que RICO!" I can't say that I blame him, 39 bills of anything can make anyone look rich. This was just a funny story that happened. I keep telling people that I'm not a rich american...but things happen that just say otherwise xD

Speaking of which, one thing that is kind of funny. Many people believe that Elder Baré is american (many people also believed the same for Elder Batista in Ocoa). Here's the thing, people will just come up to me and start speaking English, which bothers the HECK out of me because I sometimes have to ask Elder Baré if they're not speaking spanish. After reading this sentence, it can probably tell you how well these people can speak English. I understand people wanting to practice their english with me, but I can tell if someone can say more than just "Hey YOU! My Friend! How are you?" *with horrible latino accent that sometimes cannot be understood*. Anyway, some people walk up to Elder Baré and start speaking to him in English. Sometimes if he doesn't understand what they said in Spanish, other people will horribly translate into English. It drives him crazy. It's kind of funny.

I'm trying to remember when it was. Elder Baré and I went to a house for an appointment. Some guy down the street started yelling something to us. I was literally convinced that he was speaking Italian because I couldn't understand it as spanish, nor english. I keep saying "What? What are you saying?" He then finally says something understandable, "Are you stupid? I said, 'its the same house'" First off, 1) If I'm a native english speaker and I can't understand what is being said, is it the fault of the listener or the speaker? 2) What in the world does "its the same house mean?", 3) He didn't have to be offensive. This was certainly a time when I had to restrain myself from also being offensive. I promise, I didn't say anything negative to him, as much as I wanted to xD This is just a fun story to show how irritated I become when random people just speak english to me trying to make it seem like they speak english too. I've met people who've lived in the US (namely New York) for 14+ years and can't speak a lick of english to me. It's quite interesting to me.

I'm debating with myself if I want to give the details on this note. I'll just say the following. I've mentioned that the DR has a major trash problem. Trash is just thrown wherever and remains there...indefinitely. I'll just say, in a big trash pile near our house (and the church) some butcher decided to throw his trash out. I'll leave the other details out unless they are asked for. I will say that the smell finally died down (at least to a tolerable level).

Last Saturday we had a fun experience. We received a call in the morning to tell Elder Baré (who is the district leader) that he needs to do a baptismal interview for a baptism in "La Yuca" (an area in our district that's within Santo Domingo). Here were some problems that Elder Baré and I had to make this story a little more exciting. 1) President wants us to do interviews on Fridays to avoid certain problems, but we get a call saturday morning saying that it has to be done, 2) If they called a day or two in advance we wouldn't have minded, 3) Elder Baré called President to see if the zone leaders couldn't have done the interviews because 4) we had two "important appointments" as Elder Baré said that very morning. Turns out, President just told us to do it, although I kind of have to agree with Elder Baré that the zone leaders could have just done it since they live in the same house as the two missionaries with the baptism. But, to show that our experience is worth it and that I'm not writing this story to make me look like a complaining brat, there were some fun stories from this experience. First, we take a "guagua" to go to La Yuca. We ended up passing our stop, so we take the route back. We ended up getting off at the wrong gas station (our actual get-off point was a gas station that the other Elders told Elder Baré) and walked from that one to the correct one. Then we walked to their chapel. Elder Baré then went through with the interview and I had the chance to play on a REAL PIANO! The last time I played the piano (excluding keyboards) was in the MTC here in Santo Domingo and before that was probably back when I was home last summer. Wow...almost 1 year. I can definitely say that I missed the piano. I'm glad to see that my piano abilities haven't diminished completely.

Anyway, to show that this story wasn't a burden, we went to the two people/appointments that we missed and just made another time to visit. So no harm was done.

This morning Elder Baré and I made a visit to...I'm not quite sure what its called, but we went to place an appointment for two of our investigators to get married in a "civil building" of some kind. This week we have planned to baptize 3 members of a family (we're working on the 4th to complete the family, but the daughter isn't too fond of listening, although she isn't a brat either). We ran into some problems while we were there. Turns out that they don't perform marriages on Fridays or Saturdays (at least not this week) and to my surprise, considering the number of people who AREN'T married, Thursday was completely full. So, this week we'll be focusing on getting the parents married so that we can have them baptized. I remember hearing Jared telling me stories of when he was in Colombia and was able to get a few couples married. I can definitely say...I don't know how Elder Baré did it, but he did. I don't know why people don't want to marry...especially since in this country its not too hard. The hard part is getting motivation. We actually have 3 sets of couples that we're trying to get married, we've finally got 3 of the 4 with motivation (at least some kind of interest)...I'm not sure if I want to describe the 4th. We talked to them about marriage and the wife wants to. I'll just say that the husband set a new "low" for men over 40 years old. I'll just say that he first wants to marry with "someone" (I won't say who, this is what sets the "low standard") so that this person can go to Spain, divorce, and then marry with his wife. Its just an interesting situation.

One thing interesting about the wife of this last couple that I mentioned. If you've seen "The Other Side of Heaven" there is a man that has some kind of disease called something like "elephantiasis" and his legs look like they were made for an elephant. This investigator has this for one of her legs. We've been seeing some progress in her leg as she's been taking some medicine. Its a pretty gnarly infection though. I hope it continues to progress.

Anyway, that's all I got for now. I'm glad to hear that things are going well back home. And as usual, I wish the best for ALL of you! =D

Love,
-Elder Bird