this weeks email!

         

Hola!!

Well this week was great! they get faster ever time i've decided. on pdays we usually go to el templo en la mañana but its closed for 2 weeks so this morning we watched a devotional instead and then we just email and write letters and stuff like that for the rest of the day until dinner. mom, look up the dr missionary moms page. hermana olsen's mom wanted you to know about it.

so my district has decided that chickenguyna is inevitable and we are all going to get it sometime while we're here. its a disease from daytime mosqitoes but its not fatal, just not fun apparently. all the teachers have had it. they call it broken bones disease here because thats what it feels like. hopefully i wont have to experience that! the doctor for the dr missions is a little loco and in our meeting with him he pretty much said we were all probably going to die here. that wont happen though dont worry! hes just trying to scare us into following the rules, so i wont do anything dumb, promise. some other missionaries that came to the temple last week said they havent run into anything scary the whole time and one of them was almost going home so that was comforting.

we ate yuca this week. dont try it, its nasty. haha its like a potato thing but its just weird.

you'll never guess what me and hermana olsen have to do on sunday...we've been asked to sing in sacrament. in spanish. even though neither one of us sing. or speak spanish. thats going to be interesting, especially since our CCM size about doubled because we got about 16 new missionaries yesterday, all the ones who already speak spanish. needless to say, im pretty scared for sunday. i'll let you know how it goes.

almost everyday for gym time we play ultimate frisbee and it feels like im back at BYU! the other day we went contacting around the temple so theyre all members but its still scary. and im pretty sure theyre teaching me the wrong language here because dominicans DO NOT speak spanish. they speak dominican. its okay though, it will come faster once we get out there. we go to the university tomorrow to go contacting there. im so excited but also pretty nervous for that too.

the lights do go out ocassionaly but its not a big deal at the CCM because apparently they get them back the quickest in the capitol. we'll see how it is in the field. i learned something else about the CCM. people from all over come here to stay so they can go to the temple and then travel home the next day. i thought that was cool!

theres a worker here who has cycling clothes on every morning at breakfast and it reminds me of dad!

we went to the store yesterday. it was awesome to see a little more of the city. and its going to take a little bit to get used to the pecos. i bought some oreos though! they taste a little different here but theyre still oreos!

so words of the week... tocino=bacon (that ones for you Lolo), oh mi madre= oh my goodness (they say that ALL the time)

the spanish is coming along okay. i can usually understand most of whats going on but i struggle with forming my own sentences and speaking. lessons are getting easier to teach though and i can talk about most gospel topics...very slowly though.

well i love you all and i miss you of course, but thanks so much for the support!

love,

hermana allen