Week 3: Departures and Arrivals




Buenos Tardes!

Well, folks. I've made it halfway through the MTC! Spanish is coming along better and from what the older missionaries said when they departed, the tail end is apparently a lot easier... Except for the exchanges we get (read: "have") to do with the missionaries out in the field.

We said goodbye to all the missionaries going out into the field yesterday - the north americans (and one british Elder) heading to the East and West San Domingo Missions, the Latinos serving all over and the Haitians that are headed back to Haiti, to Jamaica or the Ivory Coast. It was bittersweet as we got to be good friends with all of them (even those that don't speak much English).

This week we have two arrivals (of different kinds). We have about 50ish missionaries who will be coming mostly from North America, but also some Latinos as well. The major difference about this group compared to ours is the language. We have a few North Americans who are assigned to English speaking Caribbean missions in addition to all of the new Spanish-learners. We are so excited to be the older missionaries and we know we are going to love our new arrivals! Honestly, I'm just excited that I'm not the one who is going to be feeling overwhelmed tomorrow.

Those new missionaries are so lucky though, because President Nelson will be visiting us this weekend! Word is that he felt the prompting last Wednesday morning that he needed to visit 1) the missionaries serving in the Caribbean and 2) the members as well. We are so excited and we were told this just days after President Gulbransen told us how privilleged we were to have Elder Alonzo of the 70 here because general authorities never come... And now we have the prophet coming to give a special address to the missionaries of the DR Saturday morning. We have been joking quite a bit that President Nelson is coming just because of what President Gulbransen said! The prophet will also be addressing the members in the DR Saturday evening and he will also be visiting the missionaries and members in Puerto Rico! We are so excited!

This week I placed my first Book of Mormon! We had the opportunity to proselyte (in Spanish) at the nearby University for a 45 minute block. We had quite a few people basically run away when we approached them, but we were able to share a scripture with a sister (Marisol) who was visiting Santo Domingo for the weekend and was reading on a park bench when we approached her. We were able to get her contact information which was passed on to the sister missionaries serving in the area.

Hasta Luego!
Elder Thornton

Pictures!
1+2: We love the temple so much! On the weekends we have hundreds of Dominicans stay in the temple housing in the floors beneath us. We've got to practice our Spanish with a lot of the members while they are down in the cafeteria or outside. We get to play Futbol and Volleyball with the children that are here during our PE time and it is so much fun!
3: The "gym:" nobody uses the weights that you can see in the picture, but we also have three foosball tables and a ping-pong table, so the room is really crowded. One of the Elders ran XC in high school (and he wasn't super fast) but he's always on the treadmill. I've used the ellipticals a couple of times, but I'm definitely going to take a couple more weeks off of running so my shin splints will have some time to heal. Cross country camp (Red Castle mostly) was not kind. 

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