Mi Primer Bautismo!!! (más o menos)

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Ryan Mecham	2:52 PM (7 hours ago)
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

TODOS,

This Saturday we finally baptized Katy! The missionaries have been working with her and Maximo since before Elder Weinmuller got here (which was in July), so it's not really my baptism. She had been progressing but her and Maximo weren't married, which meant she couldn't be baptized. WELL.... they got married on the 15th of January and so we were able to baptize her on the 18th. The Lord really has worked miracles in their lives. She has such a strong testimony and will be an excellent aid in building the Lord's kingdom. Maximo said he could feel the Spirit during the baptism; we visited him yesterday and invited him to pray to know if the 15th of Feb. will be his fecha. We are visiting them tonight for FHE and I can't wait to here what he has to say. In the small time I have been here I have seen the Gospel change this families lives.

OH WAIT! I forgot the craziest part. Katy's baptism was a miracle in itself. The church building itself was pretty much broken on Saturday. We went there in the morning to fill the font and guess what? The church had no water! Well actually they were working on the water line because it had a leak so they turned off the pump. Eventually we were able to get the water running to the font... which was leaking. One of the workers fixed it (mostly). We were only able to fill the font half way before they had to turn off the pump to avoid structural damage caused by the leaking water line. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! We were finally ready to begin and about 15 minutes before it was supposed to start: se fue la luz! (the power went out). No worries, we are in the DR after all, this happens all the time. That is why we have a huge generator in the basement.... Which wasn't working! This literally has never happened before and nobody knew what to do. However, the bishop was determined to have the baptism that day and, with permission from the AP's, we had the congratulations celebration beforehand as we waited for the power situation to be fixed with the church. All in all: we eventually baptized Katy in a less than half full font at about 11 o'clock at night. After the trials come the blessings.

I can testify of the miracles that the Lord has given us... that he has given me... and that he gives to the sweet people here in the Dominican Republic.

Sinceramente,

Elder Mecham

¡TRASLADOS!

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Ryan Mecham	Jan 13 (7 days ago)
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

Todos queridos (y a los otros también),

This week was pretty much just a normal week. It was nice to not have so many meetings, so that we could do a little more teaching. I use the term we lightly porque, todavía, mi compañero does most of the talking. So fun story: forget all the aforementioned excitement about a lot of baptisms. As of ahora mismo, we have 2 dates. Katy is getting baptized this Saturday and I´m super excited. Yerilaisis is getting baptized on the 1st, super cool. This gospel really does change peoples lives. 

We are having transfers this week. One of the other Elders in our house is going home and he and his companion are at the office today, so our house is just the two of us. The elder going home was my great great grandfather, he traied the guy that trained the guy that trained the guy that is training me.

Sadly no crazy stories this week. Other than getting a package from my family on my birthday. Good timing, chévere de verdad.

That about does it for this weeks email time.

laters,

Elder Mecham

El año nuevo en La República Dominicana

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Ryan Mecham	Jan 6
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

Querido familia,

En este país, el año nuevo es loco. Todo la gente está gritando en los calles y siempre esta bombas y cosas muy ruidoso... este país es ruidoso. PERO, me encántalo, entonces... está bien.

For new years we had to return home early because everyone was drinking and lighting off fireworks. ¿que inteligente no? We also couldn´t leave the house till 3 New Years Day because everyone was still partying and drinking.... The funnest side effect of living in this country is that I don´t need an alarm clock. There is this Gua gua that drives by every morning at 630 and honks it´s horn all the way down the street.

Sadly no crazy new years stories....

Other fun stories: This week we ran out of water.... twice. It is totally cool though because showers are over rated and I don´t need to wear clean clothes. :) solo broma. 

My spanish is still just about where it needs to be... in that EVERY person that I talk to comments on how crappy it is. That is really just how people greet me now. Oh, how are you?... (no time for response) How´s the spanish coming? 

Loving the opportunity to serve the lord.

Elder Mecham

New Year´s FECHAS!

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Ryan Mecham	Jan 6
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

¡Feliz año nuevo mi querida familia!

I´m going to start off with the good news. We got a fecha (baptismal date) for the 1st of February for Genesis.... FINALLY! She wanted to wait till October to get baptized... OCTOBER! She thought it would be cool if her novio baptized her right before he left on his mission (????) but he hasn´t even started his papers yet. Anyways, that brings our current total up to 2 fechas. The other one is Katy´s, who is getting married to Maximo (finally) on the 15th. Maximo is ready to be baptized but he wants to wait a little bit (after Katy´s, not sure why) We still have Yerilaises who is ready to get baptized and we were only waiting for her aunt to get better so she could attend the baptism. But she is getting a lot better. We are going to try for the 25th of January. We also have Tammy who´s cousins and aunt are members and whom we have been teaching for... since before I got here. we are going to try for the 8th of February for her. So ya, in case you didn´t catch that, we are planning on having a baptism every week for the next 4 or 5 weeks. It´s going to be awesome!

I´ll finish this a little later.

Elder Mecham

Christmas In The DR!

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Ryan Mecham	12/30/13
to Ali, Amanda, ashley.mecham, Austin, Dallan, Isaac, Jake, Kess, me

Buenas!

This week was super fun but super busy. We got to eat at an investigators house for christmas eve dinner. Their names are Katy and Maximo, Katy is BASICALLY a member already, they just need to get married so they can get baptized. They have a wedding date for JAN 15 and she has a baptismal date for the 18th.    He doesn't have a baptismal date yet, but i'm sure it will happen soon. We just ate the bandera (rice, beans, meat, salad) It was super good, especially compared to what we have been eating; which is just our crappy cooking.

I gave a talk this week in sacrament meeting and everyone complimented my Spanish... which means it sucks, otherwise they wouldn't have even mentioned it, but oh well!

It was super good to talk with you on Christmas and I'm sorry for the loud music in the background. Bienvenidos a la Republica Dominicana! It is so crazy that Amanda and Justin have a house... and a dog! It's almost like  they're real adults now. :)

No baptisms yet! :(  kind of sad, but people keep postponing their dates, and the most promising investigators start avoiding us. It is still super funny to try to talk to people, because i don't understand all of what they are saying. As a result, my responses don't always make sense. for example we were doing a contact and i asked this lady if there was anything that we could do to help her. She said "no, but come on in and sit down..." I responded with "are you sure there is nothing at all we can do to help you, my companion here loves doing chores..." (running joke between my companion and I) But ya, she just looked  at me all confused and I looked at Elder Weinmuller. who explained what she had ACTUALLY said.

We had to come home early for the 24th and will have to for the 31st as well, because gues what? Dominicans love drinking and partying. and they also love yelling and being really loud. Let's just say it's not exactly safe.

The keys on this keyboard keep sticking so it is really hard to type, sorry this weeks email is a little short! I'll upload pictures one of these days i promise!                                          

Con -palabra-,

Elder Mecham