10/22/2012

Well I need to be serious with you all. It´s been the hardest transfer of my short mission life. Mostly because of my companion. I know that the Lord see´s it fit to try His children and there are days when I feel a little bit brave and I ask for more trials in my life to be able to grow more. And well does the Lord hear the prayers of his children. 

Elder Paredes and I, short and sweet, are very different. He´s a great person just raised very differently than I was. He recognizes his faults and its been hard for me to recognize mine, because I´m so focused on just accepting him for who he is and trying to bare it all. We just dont feel any unity when we teach because he teaches very differently than I was taught. We had exchanges on friday and when he came back on saturday I just felt such a tension between us. Before we went out to work he said that he needed to talk to me. So I sat down at the desk and he told me he couldn't take it anymore. He said, "what do you what me do to? What do I need to change? " And I just looked at him. What am I supposed to say? I felt like he wanted me to pull out a magic button that at promblem solver written on top. All I could think of was trying to be the missionaries that Preach My Gospel tell us to be and be obedient. I feel like I´m always walking on thin ice with him and I feel like I never know what to do. So his solution was to start letting me make all of the decisions. Its been a really hard couple of days on top of the diffuclt transfer that passed and the one we´re in right now. And all of you who know me well enough know that I´m not so great at handling difficult situations. The best hope I have is that all of this will make me stronger and that I´m learning a lot. I guess? I understand that the Lord asks us to sacrifice everything for Him but I do ask myself, "is there at times unecessary sacrifice in our lives?" I know that this is where I need to be. 

But no worries, not all is lost. There is always hope. I´ve done the best I can to try to understand how can I find happiness in spite of it all. We got to go to the temple and unfortunately I wasn´t able to leave as happy as I wanted to. And only the Lord knows why. But I was able to learn something. I was able to learn that we can find the a fullness of joy when we complete with our purpose. And as I thought more about it, I thought, "well, what other time in my life am I going to have a more defined purpose?!?" For those of you missionaries, "inivite people to come unto Christ by helping them..."  you know the rest. I feel bad for those of you out in the lone and weary world where its less easy to understand your true purpose. Also looking for help I was reading in the May General Conference Liahona and I came across the President Uchtdorfs talk in priesthood session. I learned there that especially as missionaries we can find happiness as we look back on the day and realize which moments we were used as instruments in the Lords hands. There are answers in the scriptures of the ancient times and modern day. 

Now, on to investigators. Even though Elder Paredes and I are having some problemitas we have been able to find some investigators. We found a man named Gil Abreu and he's such a great man. He´s had a really humbling year. His family left him and went to the US. He lost his leg in a weird accident when he stepped on glass from a light bulb. The leg got infected and the doctors had to take the leg. He was also a Subdirector of Agriculture for the southern region of the DR. Which is a pretty big deal. Unfortunately his party lost in the presidential elections and because of his leg he wasn't going to be able to keep up with his projects that he had. Now he is looking to join a church. He feels a great need to join a church because he knows how much God has helped him in his life. He´s honestly such an example to us. Because he´s not depressed nor hateful for what has happened. He feels good and he shows it. We just hope that he can get his answer soon because he´s receiving a few other churches at his house. The battle of souls is real. Pray for him. 

I´m out of time but please pray for these people as well. Eridania, Natalia, Cesarina. They are a family a mom and her two girls. Isamar, who is a girl of 14 years and Nicaruaris. And please please please pray for my companion and I. We want to fix things, we just dont know how. I love you all, hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Pemberton

P.S. If you could send some emails or letters or anything I could really use the strength. I don´t mean to sound needy I know you all do so much for me. But If you have time that would be great.

Pictures 10/15/2012

10/8/2012

Mis queridos amigos y familiares,

I´m here starting on my 6th transfer in the mission field. This transfer has gone by so, so fast. We found out last night that Elder Paredes and I will being sticking it out for another one. So lets home that we can grow a lot more in this coming transfer and see what happens.

This week has been a week of a lot of traveling. On tuesday we went to an area about an hour away called Padre Las Casas for our district meeting. After which i was supposed to go on exchanges with the zone leaders but my stomach was just killing me. Note taken: just be obedient and dont eat in members houses cuz its very likely that you´ll end up with diarrhea. Yeah its been a rough week and a half BUT what ever it was has left my dehydrated body and now I´m back to eating the good stuff again. But due to me not feeling well I didnt go on the exchange and me and my comp went back to our area to work.

Wednesday we came into town to Azua to have interviews with the President. It was a good time to spend with the other missionaries as we waited and then I was also able to have a good interview with the President. With that and general conference I was able to receive a lot of good advice on how to keep my excitement up even in tough times.

Then on thursday we took the hour drive BACK to PLC so that my comp could give a baptism interview as he is the District Leader. 

On friday we went to Azua again which is a 15 minute ride on the highway in the back of a truck (hey you got to do what you got to do) so its not tooo bad. We had our end of the transfer party with the senior couple, The Browns. They really are great I love being able to spend time with them whenever we get the chance. But our zone went over to their apartment for lunch and guess what we ate!!!! Hawaiian Haystacks!!!!! AH I was so very happy to eat a meal from home. If you don´t know what they are ask my mom Ana she makes them quite well! But please don´t get me wrong I love rice and beans. It was nice to be able to hang out with our zone in a calm environment and share stories and such. 

Then came general conference. I learned from Elder Stott that he doesnt take notes during the conference. And he´s got a point because the talks come out in about a month and we can read them again there. What he taught me to do is to write down the things that the Spirit tells you. What a different conference. It went by so fast but I truly received plenty of inspiration from heaven that I hope I will be able to put into effect very soon in my mission. 

As for the revelatory news of the age change of the missionaries my heart soars to know that truly we are blessed to be part of the true church and that Christ, and not a man, directs it. As we heard about the sister missionaries my mind went directly to my good friend Jessica Van Alfen who I hope received an answer to her prayers with this news. She will make an excellent missionary. This will be such an excellent development in missionary work and I know that the time is close to the end for the Lord is calling more and more of His children to serve Him and to spread the "Good News" so that the world can be prepared for our Lords second coming.

I was definitely filled with the Spirit as I brought questions to conference and received direct answers to those questions by the messangers of our Heavenly Father. Just another way that He shows that He loves us His children. 

My companion and I are excited to be together again. We´re struggling a little bit in teaching with power and unity in our lesssons. I hope that we can humble oursleves and find an answer quick so that we can help more and more people. And at the same time enjoy more and more our mission.

Last night while we were waiting for the transfer call I opened up some letters. I have never felt so strong a spirit from a letter as when I read a dearelder I received from Kiffyn Smith. She´s currently in China right now teaching english. She tells me that she is not allowed to share her testimony at all and that being in a different country and culture has been hard for her, but at the same time she´s loving it. I am grateful for her example in missionary work by example, by service, and by love. Also quite a while ago just so you know kels I sent you a letter and well I said I didnt get yours. I recieved the letter the week after I wrote it. Just so ya know.

Well my dear family and friends I hope you all know how much I truly love you all. I know that I am here on my mission for a reason and that I am learning so much. I hope you all enjoyed general conference and were able to receive peace counsel and feel the love of your Father in Heaven like I was able to. I know this church is true. I know that Heavenly Father is always with us and always knows what we are going through and what we need. We need to remember that we need to humble oursleves by always praying to Him and realizing that we need Him much more than we let on to (Mosiah 4:11). I truly love being a missionary even though its been hard I know I´m being prepared for so much in this short two years. Please pray for the work over here. Pray for miracles in the lives of our investigators and that their hearts may be opened. We will be eternally grateful for those prayers. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Pemberton

Aye Que Trunky

So if your not sure what the word trunky I'll explain. Its the missionary term for homesick haha. It means you want to pack up your bags and go home. And I have had very few moments like that. Which is a very large blessing of my heavenly father. But one of those few moments happened this week. We went to go pick up a member from her house to help us teach our lessons and while we were waiting for her to finish getting ready there were some peope in her house watching the first harry potter. Now you all know me and you know that Jesse and I dressed up as death-eaters to go to the final movie. BUT just seeing it wasnt what made me trunky. I was fine while Dumbledore was talking to Harry and then the sad transitional music started playing and I lossed it. Haha I was almost at the point of tears but I was able to hold it in. I was just reminded of the great times that me and my family spent on our big couch sitting and watching movies with our big bucket of homemade popcorn. Oh those are great memories. But I'm here in the mission and making a whole bunch of new ones that I hope one day in a few years will make me trunky to come back to the DR. 

As far as other news here in good ol' Sabana Yegua lets start with investgators. Wednesday was a bit of a sad day. We went to go see Carmen and well long story short she left to the capital to work the very next day. Meaning she'll come back every other 15 which just doesnt really work when one is trying to learn from missionaries. But she has a book of mormon and there are missionaries where she is now so we hope and pray the Lord will give her the opportunity to come closer to Him there as well. We were able to put a baptismal date with a new investigator named Nicauris. She's about 24 and is really smart. She came to church this sunday and we hope that she will continue to progress. As far as any others well... we're working on it. Its not as easy to find true progressing investigators here and at times it gets a little frustrating but all is in the hands in the Lord and all we need to do is do our best to become instruments in His hands.

Elder Paredes and I are doing awesome. We have our times that we bash but such is the life of two people being together for 24\7. He's the baby in his family of only two and his sister was already out of the house for all of his high school if I'm not mistaken. And me well I'm just simply not that fun to joke around with haha, I'm working on my sense of humor. He told me that in every relationship one needs personal time. Now our goal is trying to be able to do that with out getting mad at each other to be able to have personal time.

My little bit of advice for you all this week would be this: so often do we forget to pray in any moment. As missionaries we pray a WHOLE LOT. I've truly learned to love to pray even though its been a bit hard these past weeks- its quite easy for a tired missionary to maybe dose off in his persoanl prayers. But do we pray to help us understand what to do for the little things or the things that don't seem to be spiritual? I know that our Heavenly Father loves us very much and I know that like any loving parent He will help with anything. Whats important to you is important to Him.

Well I'm going to send some pictures now. We went to a really cool annual world wide service project called "the cleaning of beaches and coast." It was way fun to be on the beach so no I didnt break any rules by going to the beach I was actually doing service!

I love you all so much its been such a great 8 months serving my Lord and I know that I'm going to continue to have great experiences. Please keep sending letters and emails they really give me strength I love to hear about life back in the states and with my family and friends. I was sad to hear about my Cougs losing to the Utes but dont worry theyre just waiting to get really good for when I get home sdo I can enjoy the games again ;) Remember that the Lord loves us and that all we need to do is do our best and He will pick up the rest of our slack. Talk to you all in a week!

Love,

Elder Pemberton

9/10/2012

My dear family and friends,

Hello! How's everyone doing? I´ve had another great week here in Sabana Yegua. Working hard and having a blast.

If I havent told you all before I love the fruit here! Its fantiastic. The best part is there´s so much of it and many different varieties. One of my favorites is called la kanepa or limoncillo. My little siblings know what they are and if maddy remembers well we absolutely LOVED them when we took our trip to the Virgin Islands. Now as much as I love las kanepas they have a very very horrible side affect: they STAIN very badly. And if you wanted to know the stain actually has a really... interesting... chemical reaction with clorox. So on one of my very nice white shirt I´ve got a very nice brown stain. Haha oh well such is life right?

We also had an interesting day at church... I tell you all what, life is completely different in branches. I think I noticed the most when they weren´t singing the hymns right. Elder Paredes and I just looked at each other saying with our eyes,'' wait a minute.. thats not how this hymn goes.'' Finally in the last song I leaned over to my comp and said, ''Well if you can´t beat em join em.'' So I started singing how they do and I guess you could call it hymns with a little dominican caribe flow. 

We also have one progressing investigator named Carmen. Shes around 35ish and really likes learning about God and going to church. The problem is that she has to get married and her ''husband'' doesnt want anything to do with religion or marriage. So simply put, we´ve hit a bit of a road block with her. We had a lesson planned to talk with her and her husband about it on Friday. That morning Elder Paredes and I planned a really good lesson plan to help her husband understand the importance of keeping the commandments of God. But very, very sadly as we showed up she wasnt there so we stayed to wait for her and she showed up with a huge beer bottle in hand and slightly drunk with her sister behind her. We could tell they were drunk because they were laughing at everything we were saying. My comp was really sad because they had already taught her the Word of Wisdom and it was hard for him to see her like that. It was a little sad for me too I just have a lot less time with Carmen, but we´re doing all we can to work with her. She also did not come to church yesterday so we were a little sad and were praying hard that she was not losing her excitement about the church. So we passed by yesterday to see how she was. It turned out to be her Birthday! But the reason she didnt go was because there was no water for her to be able to get ready. 

Many members didnt go for the same reason. Those of you with 24-7 power and water be very very grateful ;)

Elder Paredes and I sang her happy birthday in English it was a fun experience. Adding to the fun experience in the lesson we had with her that day I had my first really bad spanish mix up. PREPARE YOUR SELVES.  We were talking about prayer and the fact the Lord really does answer our prayers. The story of Enoc came to my head but there wasnt any light so I couldn't actually pull out the scriptures which propably would have saved me from my problem. But I described how he was hunting and he was in a place perfect for recieving revelation and having a great experience with prayer. As I started explaining more about the story I was going to say I´m not sure how the thought of repentance came to his mind but it did. I´m not sure how in spanish is ''No sé como...'' and what I said was very different. I´m not even sure how this happened but what came out of my mouth was ''No sé coño''. (That is a very bad word in Spanish) After I said it I corrected myself and It took us all a few seconds to realize what I said but Carmen and her sister were like, ''did you just say...'' we were all laughing  for a short while. Oh, the experiences of the mission. 

We were able to pull the lesson back and gave her the commitment to pray and to trust that the Lord with provide her with a path to baptism. Its not our goal at all to split up couples and we keep assuring her of that. So I ask you all my beloved family and friends to pray for Carmen. Pray so that her husbands heart can be softened and so that she can enter into the waters of baptisms and into the fold of our beloved Savior Jesus Christ. 

I truly love the mission. I love my companion. I love helping the people here in Sabana Yegua. And above else I love the Lord. This is His work and I testify of that. I hope we can all try to trust in the Lord and do the best to comply to His will this week and not our own. I love you all as well. Have a great week and I hope to hear from you soon.

Que se me cuiden mi queridos amigos y familiares,

Elder Pemberton

Pictures 9/3/2012

9/3/21012

Hey familia!!! We´re having a really good time in Sabana Yegua of Azua. My new comp is Elder Paredes and we really get along really well. I´ve been loving getting to know my companion and just love talking about how things are going in our life and what is on our mind and stuff like that. Its been a good week so far. The work is a little different out in the campo than back in the capital. I felt like in the capital it was work work work get as many lessons in as possible try and to help as many people as possible in the day. And while that was great and I liked it because I knew all of my investigators and I was willing to work hard for them I´m enjoying the different feel of the campo. No papá no hay tantas mata en dondequier que triste no? To explain my area a bit it extends about maybe a mile and a half along the main highway that runs through the province of Azua. And Sabana Yegua is truly a town its got organized streets and houses along those streets and everything. The people here are definitely less iliterate so that makes it a little bit hard and generally most of the young adults that would be interested in our message go to the capital to study. Yesterday in Church was a pretty good sunday. Its my first time being in a branch but we have a really good branch. The members are young in the gospel but a lot of them have really great spirits and truly just want to serve our Lord. I was able to go up and bear my testimony being fast and testimony meeting and I wa glad to see the 50 or so people all smiling and what they thought was going to be a fluent dominican speaker. haha I still fool everyone I meet. We havent found any progressing investigators since I´ve been here this week so I still feel like I´m not super close to the ones Elder Paredes and his comp had before but then again its only a week. The people are really great and knowing me I just love everyone so easily and these people are really easy to love. We have a few of the youth in our ward that leave with us ALL DAY LONG! And I thought I was doing a lot leaving with the missionaries in TX every now and then. 
Well my dear family and friends, life is just good. I´ve got a great companion. A wonderful branch that Iñm excited to support in these coming weeks and I know that Lord will continue to prepare the people. No worries I´m still working hard and doing all I can to help the people. Sorry if theres not any super cool stories this week but it was more of an introduction to the campo for me. I think this week being more organized after P'day and knowing the people a little bit more we´ll be able to have some really great experiences. I love the mission. Its been such a learning experience and my testimony has grown so much. There is no doubt in my mind that the Church is true. Its true. I can assure you that it is. 

I love you all so much and know that I have been protected and strengthened through your prayers and thoughts for me. Please keep them coming. I need them. My investigators need the and the branch needs them. Also congrats to Austin Jones on his Mission Call to Ireland!!!! I know I´m late and he´s already in the MTC by now but snail mail is... well.. just that slow. haha love you all have a great week.

Elder Pemberton.