another week's email!

July 24, 2014

Hola!

well this week has still been great! time goes by really weird here. sometimes i feel like its flying (like how i am already half way through my time in el CCM) but sometimes it feels like forever (the days are muy largo). i got your letter! the one megan sent and then the one from nonny and poppy. apparently its rare to get mail brought to the CCM if its sent to the mission home but someone must have brought it here which was great! please tell nonny and poppy thank you for me. i loved hearing from them. i cried when i read it. 

so my emails are probably just going to be random stories and thoughts, sorry.

a few days ago after lunch we went to the classroom and elder kinikini(an elder in my district) was playing the piano while elder paulino (one of the native elders) was rapping to the piano. he went on for about 20 minutes straight making up this rap about teaching the gospel and being missionaries and the elders ties. it was in spanish so i got most of it but not all. it was crazy though! 2o minutes straight!

apparently here they tell jokes about spainards like we tell blonde jokes. its also hilarious to see hermano nunez impersonate a spain accent. you know how we add an O to the end of a word if we dont know it in spanish? well apparently they add an -ation to the end if they are trying to say a word in english that they dont know. weird huh? another thing hermano nunez always says... "santa vaca" which means literally, holy cow but its not a saying they use here. he just likes how we say it in english so he started using it in spanish.

we went contacting at the university on friday and oh mi madre, it was awesome! the people are so friendly and patient with you when you dont know the language. we gave away 7 pamphlets and 1 book of mormon over the space of and hour and a half and we had some good conversations with some people. i cant wait to go again tomorrow! and then next week we go on splits with the actual missionaries! scary...but im so excited!

elder cornish who is a member of the area presidency gave a devotional on tuesday and it was really good. he knows so much about the gospel. this one was about asking ourselves if the lord can trust us, because we can always trust him! it was good. the devotional this morning was so good too. pretty much everthing is so good here.

hermana olsen and i have figured out that all the celebrity look alikes like here. theres an elder that everyone calls justin beiber then there are workers that look like usher and bruno mars and another elder that looks like clark kent. we think its so funny!

we had "mangu" this week. its plantains made like mashed potatoes. its interesting but i think ill get used to it.

words of the week:

well this week has still been great! time goes by really weird here. sometimes i feel like its flying (like how i am already half way through my time in el CCM) but sometimes it feels like forever (the days are muy largo). i got your letter! the one megan sent and then the one from nonny and poppy. apparently its rare to get mail brought to the CCM if its sent to the mission home but someone must have brought it here which was great! please tell nonny and poppy thank you for me. i loved hearing from them. i cried when i read it. 

so my emails are probably just going to be random stories and thoughts, sorry.

a few days ago after lunch we went to the classroom and elder kinikini(an elder in my district) was playing the piano while elder paulino (one of the native elders) was rapping to the piano. he went on for about 20 minutes straight making up this rap about teaching the gospel and being missionaries and the elders ties. it was in spanish so i got most of it but not all. it was crazy though! 2o minutes straight!

apparently here they tell jokes about spainards like we tell blonde jokes. its also hilarious to see hermano nunez impersonate a spain accent. you know how we add an O to the end of a word if we dont know it in spanish? well apparently they add an -ation to the end if they are trying to say a word in english that they dont know. weird huh? another thing hermano nunez always says... "santa vaca" which means literally, holy cow but its not a saying they use here. he just likes how we say it in english so he started using it in spanish.

we went contacting at the university on friday and oh mi madre, it was awesome! the people are so friendly and patient with you when you dont know the language. we gave away 7 pamphlets and 1 book of mormon over the space of and hour and a half and we had some good conversations with some people. i cant wait to go again tomorrow! and then next week we go on splits with the actual missionaries! scary...but im so excited!

elder cornish who is a member of the area presidency gave a devotional on tuesday and it was really good. he knows so much about the gospel. this one was about asking ourselves if the lord can trust us, because we can always trust him! it was good. the devotional this morning was so good too. pretty much everthing is so good here.

hermana olsen and i have figured out that all the celebrity look alikes like here. theres an elder that everyone calls justin beiber then there are workers that look like usher and bruno mars and another elder that looks like clark kent. we think its so funny!

we had "mangu" this week. its plantains made like mashed potatoes. its interesting but i think ill get used to it.

words of the week:

-guineo= thats what the call bananas here but only in the DR apparently

-benga= bring it on. weve been using that one when we find out about the foot long centipedes and spiders as big as your hand and no hot water or running water at all or electricity that we'll be dealing with out in the field

- adivienen que??= guess what. our teachers use that one a lot

- obispo= bishop

the weather here is hot and humid as i thought but the humidity doesnt bother me too bad. its like instant moisturizer or at least thats what we say to make it seem better. hermana olsen and i bought nilla wafers at the store a few weeks ago and they dont get stale. instead they get soft. its weird.

well i have had a great time here and am learning so much about the gospel and spanish. one thing i might ask for you to do is pray that i can receive the gift of tongues in order to share this wonderful message with others. also, the book, our search for happiness is great and i recommend it to everyone.

well i love you all!

love,

hermana allen