More

other things i forgot.
niña and guillermo paid tithing last week, which is really cool. they have pretty much nothing, but i´ve learned that the ones with nothing really realize how many blessings come when they obey. and like i read somewhere, they learn that instead of not being able to afford to pay tithing, they can´t afford to not pay tithing....or obey any other law of the gospel. and so it is. Guillermo (alvertina´s husband) is making progress. he went to never listening, to the second time we visited him(last week when he went to church...a little after church) saying that he felt so good that in church that he went and told his friends that he was giving up drinking, and we never taught him the wow, which means alver told him about it. and he said he didn´t come for us, and would never go for us, but becuase he felt like he should, and still feels like he should. Also, the next night, they got into an arguement and then went to bed. alver woke up at 4 and saw that he was still awake. he had been crying and praying all night. that was way cool to hear too. We baptized Franklin this last saturday, and the other two had miracle marriages, the two families that didn´t show up, called at random and said if we go now, we can get married. that was amazing. they were all baptized saturday too. well, i have to go, p day is over in 30 minutes. bye.

A Good Experience

Hey,
things are going great here. and about the top, yeah, it broke. like monday. maybe it was a sign. but, yeah, the break from 1-3 is everyday. everyday. we are supposed to take an hour for lunch, and an hour for dinner everyday. but here prime proselyting time is during dinner and lunch time isn´t at all. so they combine the two hours at lunch time. we don´t eat dinner. when we get home at 9-930, we buy empenadas or something. or sometimes people feed us, but not often. transfers are tomorrow. we already know everything. my comp is going to his first area, villa mella, as a zl. i´m getting elder merrell, who only has two transfers. so that´ll be crazy. the other two missionaries, chamberlain and vasquez are staying together. i didn´t really organize stuff to write this week like i did last week, so it´s not going to be as long. from now on i think i´m going to do that though, on sunday write down what i want to write. A couple of days this week we helped Gerald clean his yard with grass and weeds as full as a hay field. all with machetes. it was alot of fun to get out and use my arms again. it was good to get dirty again and have fun. really good. so, i don´t know if i told you, but we quit working across the pista because everyone died or got baptized, and we have a lot of good investigators over here. well, anyway, one morning we didn´t have any plans, so we were going to go contacting, and for some reason,we went to the other side of the pista, or interstate. when we got across a motoconcho, one of those guys that drive people around on their motorcylces for money, came up to us and told us that he knew someone that wanted to talk to us. usually, these people aren´t worth seeing, they just want to flirt, or argue, but of course we go anyway just to find out. well, it turns out that this guy, ramon, has been praying to see us ever since we quit working over there. he´s a inactive member, and now he smokes. but he really wants to come back (he came to church sunday). he was one of the first converts here. he served a mission 29 years ago in uruguay. and it think that the dr has only been open for 30 years, but i could be wrong. but he was still one of the first. it was amazing how everything just connected. we didn´t plan on going there, we actually planned to NOT go there ever. a random motoconcho happened to see us cross the road. we happened to turn around and talk to him. most of the time people yell at us, i don´t know why, so we don´t listen to them. the guy we went to see happened to be praying for us to come by since we decided not to go to that side about 3 weeks ago. Actually, i know that none of that just happened. it happened, but not by coincidence.


This picture was taken Stephen's second week in the field. These are the people that he and his companion baptized, Left to Right - Piter, Maycol, Yafraisi, and Achi. The other guy is Domingo, who the other two missionaries in his area baptized.

A Nice Long One! Little Kids, Dominican Baseball, and Bicycles

Things are going good here. Monday. Well, on monday we went to see if our bikes were fixed yet, they weren´t. The guy that told us that he would fix them, Charlie, was like i need money to get the stuff. i didn´t want to give him money, but my comp did it. We saw him a couple of days later at his ¨house.¨ he was wondering how we knew where he lived...and he told us several times before. We heard that he´s a drug addict and that it´s not really his house. He was deported here in ´97. Well, it turns out, we haven´t seen him since. so my comp lost 300 pesos, which he couldn´t afford to lose. Tuesday. One thing from tuesday is teaching Alvertina. I forgot last week to tell you about her 3 year old son, Hansen. He is soooo funny. He´s way out of it. He reminds me so much of landon, just dazed out. But he talks like crazy is the only thing different. All he does all day is watch cartoons where they fight, it has to be. When we were there he ran out into the room, jumped into a fighting stance. Alver noticed that his thumbnails were painted, and she asked him why he did it. He looked at his fingers, then put up his fists and yelled I painted my fingers so i could fight with more power! Yaaaaaaa. then he just took off. oh man, it was sooo funny. you would have to see him. But last week i said it seemed like her husband was holding her back, we found out that it was. He drinks, and when he drinks, he goes crazy. so she´s kind of ashamed of it and doesn´t like it at all, so we taught her the word of wisdom, and since she wants him to stop, it was perfect. She seems really interested and wants her husband to get involved too. We also committed to doing pushups and stuff every morning...it lasted a couple days. Wednesday. Wednesday I ran out of clothes, and the only time we had light for those 3-4 days was that day, which would´ve been perfect, but Elder Vasquez beat me to the washing machine. As soon as he was done, the power left. it finally came back on saturday, so i did my clothes fast. We also got some tops made for us. I couldn´t get it at all, but it clicked on saturday. Now I hardly mess up, and I can aim it well enough to get it to land in a frisbee. I can pick it up, and i can almost pararlo, or throw it and pull it back to where it lands in my hand instead of hitting the floor. it´s so fun. One of our references, Nena, told us to never come back. We were like what. she said if i don´t go to church, don´t come back, i don´t want to waste your time. that´s good that she understands that our time is valuable, but it wasn´t good hearing that. i just thought, well, that´s over. but to our surprise, she came to church.....and it was Raining Sunday, and everything shuts down when there´s rain. nobody goes out in the rain. they´re all afraid of getting the gripe...flu, sorry. We also had district meeting, and one of the sisters brought brownies. it was soooo good. Friday. Friday was interviews. At interviews i had to give the devotional, so i chose testimony, which happened to be the theme that the ap´s taught us while president Antivilo was doing interviews. It went well. Hansen and Vasquez both think that they are leaving. Chamberlain is going to stay. and i have no idea. we´ll see. i don´t like to guess anyway. i can´t believe this is the last week of the transfer already. Afterward, we had a spanish scripture chase. i came in second and my reward was a package of starburst. my comp was 1st. he got the butterfinger. oh how i wish i had the butterfinger, but the starburst were still amazing. President Antivilo saw hansen´s top, and he took it for a spin, In the church. it was crazy. he was really good too. our branch president is really good too and is begging us to make him a top. at lunch time (we have free time 1-3, everything shuts down) we played ¨dominican baseball¨. it´s so fun. we played with three people. So what you do is you have a stick, and some hard thick 5 gallon jug lids. you have the pitcher, the catcher, and the batter. it´s every man for himself. If you miss three times in a row, of course it´s an out. you get two outs. Also if the pitcher or catcher pick up the cap while it´s still moving or catch it, it´s an out. you score if the cap comes to a complete stop. you only switch on two outs, no matter how many points. i got pretty good at pitching. i had like 14 points, to 5, to 2. it was soo fun. then it started to rain...not fun, only because it equals a tooon of mud. At night, there was a huge group of kids, one had a mask on and they tried to scare us. Then we told them what we do in the states, and after, they all ran to houses and were trying to do it. that was funny. Saturday. Saturday was the finally day. Power finally came back, so i got to finally wash my clothes. i finally understood how to throw the top. i got it before, but not good. we finally did contacts, we started to run out of people. it wasn´t bad at all. I liked one family we contacted. the dad is bruno and the mom is marie. bruno paid attention the whole time, never looked away once. he seemed fairly interested, but i´m not sure. but they are never home. he drives buses and has another job. and marie sells skim ice, or popcicles. they are really good. 5 pesos. Finally the bikes were fixed. Even my gears were fixed and we didn´t even talk to manuel, the member that was going to try to fix them before about them. i´m glad that he didn´t let the charlie guy take them. It was Chamberlain´s birthday, and he got a few packages, so we finally got to eat some really good american snacks. Anyway. We went to Alvertina´s, but she wasn´t home. so we started to go somewhere else, and we were passing by pres. gonsalez´s house, and had a feeling to turn that way. but i didn´t. i did stop though, and i yelled at hanson and asked him what where we were going. he stopped, and then we looked up toward where the branch president lives, and there was alver. She was on her way to pres´s house anyway, so we had a good lesson there. another cool thing that happened is when we were at guillermo and niña´s we heard some good news. guillermo, niña wasn´t there, anyway, he told us that he ran into a guy that told him how to get papers for the kids cheaper than the way that they were going to do it. I´m so glad that whenever things like that happen to them they always recognize it as a blessing for doing what is right. Their family is soo awesome. they have 9 kids. the oldest i think is 15. they are so close, they are always together, one day we saw half of the kids walking down the street all holding hands....it was so cool. and the thing is that they are really really poor. but he has found some construction jobs. one was building a wall. he had people telling him all the time to quit. even a general told him to stop. every time he went and found the guy that told him to build it, and they all left him alone after that. and then he finished, and he couldn´t find the guy. hopefully he gets his money. but he told us it seems like someone is trying to stop him, that once he thinks he´s made it, another trial comes along. so we told him to keep going and after the trial comes the testimony and reward. ether. Sunday. sunday we had 7 investigators there, more than ever, and our two that always come (raifi and franklin) didn´t. one was one that hansen dropped along time ago. alver and her husband came. nena. morena and gerald. and glenys, another one that hansen dropped. today so far has been cool. we played some basketball. if felt good to run. well, this is already too long, so i better go.

P.S. Sorry, I got a little behind. I also just posted his emails back through October 20th, so be sure to read those when you get a chance!

Comments from Elder Sherwood, and a New Address for Envelopes and Packages

Well, no, we haven´t found a new house. We got a call a couple of days ago from the office saying that someone called them and said that they wanted to rent out a house. So we´re going to go check it out soon. It is hot and humid here. the mornings are getting a little chilly, at 78. but the days are boiling at 85. if you find shade it´s not bad at all, but the sun just burns. every degree really counts here since it doesn´t change much.

Marriage isn´t too bad. nobody is married because 1. it´s expensive. and 2. divorces are expensive. but usually people stay together, so i don´t know why they worry about divorce. Our investigators seem pretty excited about getting married, mainly because it means getting baptized, but it´s still good though. but we´ll see. the other companionship has had two weddings canceled, i hope it doesn´t happen to us. And i don´t really know what you want to know when you ask what´s different than what i expected. about here, or the work?

here is my address for 1. packages 2. not pouch = envelope. and because it´s still in the u.s. you don´t have to put stickers of Jesus on a package....if you were to send one. but pouch is still the same.

Elder Stephen Sherwood
SDQ 4102
11010 NW 30th St.
Ste 104
Miami, FL 33172-5032

Broken Bikes

Everything is going great. This week went by really fast. One day we painted a lady´s house. that was fun. Our bikes broke. Well, my gears have never worked and everytime that pedal the chain skips. Then my comps pedal fell off. So, since i have longer legs i got on his and pushed it like a scooter, and he finally realized how bad my bike really is. before he was telling me that it wasn´t that bad. So we went to get them fixed, but he couldn´t. and then randomly that day, we saw some american guy that lives here. he said that he saw them and that he could fix them. i didn´t want to trust him, but my comp did. it was going to cost us 500 pesos for everything. well, we went to pick up the bikes, and they weren´t there. hopefully they´re there, were going to check again today. Well, this past week i´ve always eaten something for breakfast other than empenadas. eggs, pancakes, oatmeal, cereal....Anyway, we went to a few birthdays this week. At one they picked the girl up, Yafraisi, and carried her around everything just yelling her name. it was funny. At another we played some really fun games. I can´t describe them on here, but they were fun. one was like signs. This week we didn´t have light at all, so all the food that hansen bought went bad, or was really close. that sucked. And the reason why i didn´t hve empenadas was that he wasn´t there all week. he had the flu. The kids are getting pretty mean here lately. they´re always cussing at us and one hit me in the head with something, i don´t know what it was, but after that, they quit. Anyway, we have some pretty good investigators. Alot of them are asking us when they can get baptized. Morena told us that she felt really good when we come, when she reads, or when she goes to church with us, and says that because of that she knows it´s true. it´s awesome. she and gerald just need to get married. Guillermo and niña have been coming to church too and are saving up to get married and pay for birth certificates. We found out that an older missionary left a huge fund for that kind of stuff (his personal money) and that we can use it to help them as long as they make a sacrifice and pay for what they can. It´s awesome. But i don´t think either family will get baptized this transfer....we´re running out of time, which is crazy. time flies. hopefully i´ll be here next transfer to see them get baptized. We also have a lady, Albertina, who feels the same was as morena, which is cool, but she hasn´t had the opportunity to come to church. She´s really interested, but i think her husband is holding her back. we met with him for the first time a few days ago. he´s really nice, and i bet if we keep teaching him they´ll do what they need to to be baptized. Franklin is one of the ones begging to be baptized. he´s about 15, and is friends with rene and velins family and has been going to
church with them for along time, but we just started teaching him. he´s really good, but his parents are interested. They don´t mind if he gets baptized, but it´s always better to baptize the family. but hopefully he will help raifi to get excited to be baptized too. We´ve still been getting references, which is really good, and they seem like they´ll be good. Albertina was one. And because of that, i still have not done a single contact yet. Oh, and i forgot the time that my comp had to go do interviews. Well, elder holyoak came out to my area, and he came out with me. at first i was really scared about the spanish and getting lost in the area (it´s huge) but everything went great....except alot of people not being home, which kind of messed up our plans. but it was fun, and was a great growing experience. well, until next time, unless i think of more to say later.

Wheelies

(Mostly in response to Mom's questions . . .)

That´s good that everyone had fun...did Spencer go? And why didn´t Natalie want to shoot? Yeah, I´m sorry that I forgot to say hey back to Cindy last week. Now that I know she reads these I´ll have to be more careful about what I write. No, but really everything really is going great. This transfer is kind of hard because we´ve had General Conference and this week is stake conference, which means that we have to travel a ways. Sometimes the church provides a bus, sometimes they don´t. And sometimes they still make people pay. And it cost around 50 pesos and person, so big families like Guillermo and Niña have (9 kids), are a huge sacrifice. Most people don´t even have the money to pay for themselves. well, they do, but they have to buy food with it. We had a few go to General Conference, but I don´t think that many will come to stake conference. And it´s really hard on our baptisms too, becuase we can´t baptize them becuase they want us to confirm them in sacrament meeting. I hope they come though. I am sure that Guillermo and Niña will get baptized next transfer, i´ll probably still be here, but my comp won´t because he´s been there for 6 months. i hope i learn the area well enough, i´m sure i will. but maybe it´ll end up different, who knows, i could leave. When we were looking at a house (i told val about it), we saw a kid riding a bike. but not just any bike. The front tire was a rim with a bar run through it and bent on the ends so it wouldn´t fall off. the seat. well the seat was a coconut smashed onto the bar that sticks up and then a bucket was stuck on it laying down sideways. It was so weird. They remind me alot of the pioneers...kind of. they make something out of nothing. They roll tires around with sticks, make tops out of water bottle caps and a nail stuck through the top, they tie sticks to random pieces of sticks and make kites, it´s so crazy. Marbles is big here too. The other day we saw a guy giving people tatooes ?. He got a motor and put a belt on it so it would spin some gears and move a piece of metal inside a hollow pen body. it was soo crazy. People do the weirdest things around here, but i´m pretty used to it now. you see kids all the time riding wheelies all the time, just for forever. I tried it once, I had the feeling that i shouldn´t, but i ignored it. well, i popped up, held it for a second, and then i just fell straight back. luckily i didn´t get hurt, but i learned a little lesson. Well, i better go.

Elder Sherwood.

Chicken Feet

(Mostly in response to my questions . . . )

I don´t have time to send pictures...the internet is slow, it cost money, and I can only send two pictures at a time on here. I might send you my card, but I´m scared it´ll get destroyed or something. I´ll need another one by Christmas though....if you can send one then, but I´ll let you know for sure later. And yes, the new fridge is Heavenly, but we didn´t get food last week because our money didn´t end up coming in. But we are going to the capital today and buying stuff. We´re going to get some ¨father and son¨ pants made soon. I think we are buying the material today. But yeah, the fridge will freeze stuff, so we had to put the setting a little lower. I haven´t tried anything crazy yet, just all sorts of fruits and juices (one tasted like oatmeal...it was weird. but then my comp told me it was oat juice, so it made sense). I´ve seen everyone sucking on chicken feet, and one of our recent converts wanted to give me one, but my comp was just like no, he doesn´t like it. She gave me some sugar cane though. It´s so weird. you bite into this stick, chew it up, and it´s the sweetest thing ever...i couldn´t very much it was so sweet. but i see kids running all around with it all the time. but yeah, i actually haven´t eaten very much beans and rice. I made pancakes yesterday and today. but we usually just eat empenadas, which are really good. We are still trying to move. we checked out a really nice house. it was amazing. it had a yard and everything. it had two power sources, which ensured power all the time, which would have been amazing. it was even in the price range (3,ooo-8,000 pesos a month). but we couldn´t get it because it was too nice and they couldn´t trust future missionaries to live there. It would´ve been sooooo nice though. Well, it´s hard for me to tell you guys about the investigators becuase i can´t remember what i´ve told you about them. But this past week has been disappointing for all our old investigators, well, most. but our new ones are doing great, going to church, and everything. but we didn´t get to go out much becuase my comp was sick for most of the week. And yeah, his dad was in the air force and they moved all around the u.s. but he likes colorado the best. he lived there the longest and all of highschool, except his senior year. that´s when they moved to utah (again). well, i´ve got to go, but i´ll get on later. bye