December 12, 2022 THE HOPEFULLY NOT SO BORING ADVENTURES OF ELDER WILLIAMSON CHAPTER VIII

hey, what's up? how's it going? uhhh.. idk if there's really been that much this week honestly.. didn't go to the doctor or anything.. haven't been robbed yet, which probably won't happen in the area i'm in anyways.. we had a lesson that i thought was pretty cool tho, with a jehovahs witness couple from haiti, and it was cool for a couple of reasons.. first of all, i understood everything that they were saying, because they speak much better spanish than the dominicans do, orrr more clearly at least, less slurring, they don't drop letters or whole syllables, and they don't talk so fast.. so i'm at the point where i understand about half of what's being said, with someone who speaks clearly, but that was the first time i've been able to understand just eVerything that was going on.. it was also cool tho, because i got to kinda a little bit got to take the lead a little bit on that lesson a littttle bit, because my comp i could tell was just a little bit... mmn idk what the right word for it is.. buttt.. basically he just looked like he wanted to leave the whole time.. and basically what was happening, was we kept trying to start a prayer so we could get into the lesson, but then this guy would say something like "before we pray i just have a few questions" annnd then he would continue to try to convert us to become jehovas witnesses.. it didn't work obviously, but on a completely unrelated note, i'm actually a jehovas witness now, sooo.. haha just kidding... buttt anyways he just kept talking and talking, and sharing scriptures, and he just looked so pleased with himself, and i'm just kinda following along with my own scriptures, and smiling and nodding and stuff, and my comp just looks very disgruntled, and then i got prompted to say something, buttt this guy just kept talking and talking, so i just sat there and smiled and nodded... annnd eventually my comp just kinda goes like "ok sooo weeee.. uhh.. we gotta gooo..." so he sets up another lesson, and then stands up to leave, and i had to be like "uhh wait a second" which was pretty awkward.. so anyways my comp just kinda rolls his eyes and sits back down, annnd then i just tried my best to explain that there are a million ways to interpret the bible, and that's why there are so many churches that disagree, but that's why we have the book of mormon, to help clarify, and to give additional knowledge, annnd then i just bore my testimony and gave them a book of mormon and asked them to read.. cuz they can't argue with my tEstimony.. so anyways, hopefully they read and pray about it, buttt one of the things we are suppose to report at the end of the week, is all of the homes where we felt the spirit, and that was definitely one of those homes, because you could tell they genuinely want to know the truth.. and it's crazy how differently the teaching goes when the spirit is there, like when there's a tv going on the the background, and they aren't really paying attention, and they keep getting distracted by things, it's harder to teach.. like i can't think of the words to say, my spanish just bAsically flies out the window, and it just generally doesn't go as well.. hmm what else... i cut a members hair, and he didn't like it very much, buttt it was my first time trying to cut that kind of hair.. i had cut my comps hair, so they thought i would be able to cut the members hair just as well buttt, dominican hair is very different from straight bAsically gringo hair.. (my comp is from argentina.. bUttt he's super white, like whiter than i am, cuz his dad is german, and apparently they're super white, sooo everyone thinks he's american).. buttt i'm sure this member will get over it, i was showing him a picture of my family (who btw has somehow obtained a strange voodoo doll of me, and is taking it everywhere with them (which is why i was showing him the picture, cuz it's super weird) buttt he zoomed in on my sister, and asked how old she is and all that.. and then he had me take a picture of him to send to her, sooo that'll be interesting.. i mean they aRe the same age at least.. annnd he's already calling me cuñado (brother in law) soooo... mmm.. we did exchanges with the ZLs buttt it wasn't actually me and my comp, just the DL and his comp sooo... oOoh one lady gave us a pretty big dinner, which was just rice, and then these things that i think might be called wondulees? that can't be the right spelling, buttt they're just green lentils that grow in a pod like a pea, but everyone eats them here.. and then she made some fried bananas, but not the sweet kind? they kinda just taste like a potato buttt with less flavor (annnd in case you've never eaten a potato they kinda taste like oxygen with some dirt sprinkled on there).. but anyways it was just a heaping mountain of food basically, and i really wasn't that hungry, but i'm not about to not finish my plate, so i'm just shoveling it down, and then she brings out soda, and she gets these fancy looking glass goblets or something (i'm not really sure what a goblet is, but it seems like a fancy enough word).. but anyways i wasn't really planning on drinking any of the coke because i was already going to be cutting it close with just the food, but then she just grabs the bottle and fills up the possible goblet, and then proceeds to STARE INTO MY SOUL with a look that said "yahhh.. mhmmm.. just see what happens if you don't drink it!".. so anyways i'm shoveling in this food, and it's getting harder to swallow, and so i'm trying to use the coke to force more of it down, and then i just feel my entire stomach convulse, but i manage to keep it in, and i just look over at my comp like "ahhh! this is nOt good" and he just looks at me like "wHaTtTtT?" and i look down at his plate which is basically licked clean, and then i look back to mine and i just have a couple more bites.. and i just took a deep breath, and thought "pshhh i can do this, this is easy".. false.. it was not easy.. buttt i did manage to finish it without throwing up.. mmm what else.. one of the days we walked to the.. jungle? except this jungle has a floor of all garbage, and it has random farm animals just scattered about.. cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, annnd ofc, the wild dogs.. annnnd then last night it was like 10:15, me and my comp were getting ready to go to bed, annnd we heard what sounded like a a car running over something metal, so we looked out the window, and sure enough a car had hit a motorcyclist, and had gone up on top of the motercycle.. there was a ton of yelling and screaming, and after a couple minutes the car who had hit the guy just sped off, (probably was in shock of what had just happened, and at this point it was unclear if the guy on the bike was alive or not) buttt as we kept watching people were saying he was alive, and he got sped off in a truck i hope to the hospital.. sooo i really hope that guy is ok, buttt i really have no idea :(.. sooo sorry to end on a dark note, buttt that's what i was thinking about basically all night last night... also, ig we also found out that someone forgot to get the unlimited plan on the water, sooo we're out.. it's been fun just drinking ketchup and vinegar tho.. maybe we'll get water again at some point, we'll see anyways, love you guys, have a good week, annnd... mosiah 3:19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.