week dos

Why hello there!

Happy Week 2 of my mission! Has it seriously only been 2 weeks? For the amount of knowledge I am learning each day, I feel like I have been here for a month. Time flies yet feels so slow too. Anyways...... I'm alive. I'm still doing well. Great actually. Shout out to the amazing Yvonne! She has kept me strong and healthy by her magical pills. This last week more than a few, but not too many, missionaries have started to get sick and have stomach aches from the adjustment of well... life in the MTC. I have diligently taken my pills and haven't gone down yet. In the mornings after breakfast, my stomach starts to ache a little bit but once I pop those all-natural, magical pills I am fantastic for the rest of the day :) so thank you! Thank you so much! (Yes mommy, I am taking my vitamins too).

Alrighty... so tomorrow we are going contacting at the University. Which means, all of us newbies are going to the College they have here (super close to the MTC) and talking to random strangers about the Gospel- which is what missionaries do. But.... we have to speak Spanish. Of course. Even with the immense knowledge I have gained in just two weeks, I am definitely not ready for this. I can understand my teachers just fine but that's because they are talking slowly and use a lot of hand gestures to make their point. And understanding Spanish is way different than speaking Spanish. It's going to be an interesting adventure. Especially since my comp can't understand Spanish, least of all speak it still. She's progressing but it takes time. Which means, I'll be doing all the "talking" (aka: smiling, nodding, and shoving a Pamphlet into their hands). haha...it'll be great.

Qué más.... Oh here are some funny things I've noticed here:

- everyone says "Ay mi madre!" (Oh my mother) here. It is equivalent to "Oh my gosh" in America. I'll admit, I have slipped into the habit. Of course I mean it in the most respectful, loving way Mom :) <3

- they also say "Entonces" all the time. Which means "So, next, anyways", etc. But we say it "Ennnnnnntonces". haha its great.

-Lately all we have for breakfast is either brownies or banana bread. Which is great buuuut... I hate repetitive foods. Which is all we have here. I mean it varies, but still the same. Like, we always have rice, beans, bread, juice, meat, and either potatoes or pasta. But they switch up the types of those things. like chicken rice, black beans, pinto beans, etc. But it's all very good still and am enjoying the time I don't have to cook for myself. Because in the field, you and your comp cook everything. You're not supposed to eat at anyone's houses because of sanitation and because they'll give you everything they have and not eat for a month.

-Not only do Dominicans speak extremely fast but they drop their "S"'s. Which is really, REALLY annoying. Everything sounds like one long stream of... I don't even know. You can't tell where one word begins and where one word ends.

Oh by the way! We got to go the store this week! It was the first time we got to leave our "Prison". Seriously, the CCM and the temple are surrounded by walls on every side and cars can only get in through a gate. Plus we're inside ALL day, except for gym time (which is an hour). It's not an unusual thing to see a missionary leaning against a window gazing longingly at the outside world. So we call it our Spiritual Prison. We love it here but any chance to go outside, especially outside the walls, calls for great excitement. I was surprised though. The store we went to was pretty much like a Wal-mart. Smaller, less selection but pretty much the same. I was able to buy snacks and other things I needed. Finally fixed my sugar craving. Hallelujah! They a treat here called Buenos. So good. They're like these little chocolate, hazelnut filled, wafer squares. I haven't seen any Reese's here though :( Anyhoo.....I think it's going to take me a little while to get used to the cashier telling my total is over 2,000 pesos. I want to do a double take but then I'm like, relax. That's only about $50 in America.

The rain storms here are freaking awesome! It just pours and pours. The electricity goes out but we have a back up generator so the lights don't stay out long. If it's raining during gym time, we all still go out anyways and play volleyball in the rain. It's fantastic. The other day when we had a big storm, with fierce winds, my comp and I went walking around the temple. There was Styrofoam and trash all over the temple grounds from the rain. My comp and I were commenting on it when we were like let's clean it up! We got some trash bags and asked for some others to join us. It was a fun service project in the pouring rain.

Wellll... time is up. I love you all! Thank you for all the emails and love! Send me more! I love reading them! I just print them out and read them later. 

Siempre,

Hna Dibble  

P.S. the Haitans left this week. So sad but I'm so excited for them! We got a new group of Latinos in who only speak Spanish. Should be fun practicing with them!