My Life as a Missionary by Elder Ryan Froude: November 18, 2013

Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Elder Froude 1,

Before I talk about my week, which was fantastic, I just wanna say that I WENT TO THE BEACH TODAY!!! AY MI MADRE! IT WAS SO PRETTY AND FUN AND GAAAHHHHH!! The beaches here are so beautiful! I went with my district to the Beach in Bavaro, which is close to Punta Cana, North, I believe. Anyway, we just walked along the shoreline and took silly pictures because we´re silly people! ^_^ For lunch, we ate grilled fish not far from the beach. It was run by this very nice Russian couple. That´s a weird thing, I wanna say really fast, there´s a LOT of Russians here! Not just in the beach, but inland too, in Pueblo Bavaro. Que Raro, how weird!

Okie dokie, now for my week! Elder Rocha and I have become contacting champs! We´ve done probably 40 contacts this week. President Tarvez, the branch president, taught us contacting techniques and now we´re getting contacts left and right! Of those 40 contacts, we met one that is particularly special. Her name is Alexandra, she´s 24 and has two kids. When we contacted with her, she started crying; she is really sensitive to the Spirit, I suppose. Since then, she has been super receptive to the Gospel! She couldn´t come to church this week because she was moving. But here´s the amazing thing; she has a job on Sundays so she wouldn´t have been able to come to church anyway, but for two citas now, she´s been reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We visited her this past Sunday to see if she needed help moving, but she was already done by the time we got there. When we invited her to come to church the next Sunday, she said she´d quit her job and find another to come to church. AAAAHHHHH!!! FAITH ALREADY!!! It was definitely one of the coolest things ever! Our next cita, we´re gonna invite her to baptism; gosh I hope she says yes!

We´re also making good progress with Sanmi too! Our last cita with her we shared our favorite scriptures in the LDM with her, and she said that she really liked what she read from it and would read more! She also expressed her desire to be a member of the church. That sounds a lot like she wants to be baptized to me! We´re gonna invite her to baptism next cita too! The Lord has been blessing us so much this week. I thank Him every night in my prayers for the people we’ve met and for the Spirit that they and we can feel. I also pray for you all you every night.

I don´t remember where it says this in D&C, I think section 100, you all are in the Lord´s hands and he will protect you and guide you. He also protects His missionaries. For those of you reading, all missionaries in the Philippines have been accounted for and are safe. He does so much for us, the most I can do to show Him how grateful I am is dedicating two years of my life to serve Him and help Him gather his lost sheep. I have never been happier with any other decision in my life! :)

Phrase of the week! This week´s phrase is ´´Que lo que contigo,`` This phrase is actually something I can´t use, not because it´s bad, but because it´s the slangiest of the slang here. XD It means ´´what´s up with you,`` but in American, it´d be translated to ´´What it do witchoo,``which is something that missionaries shouldn´t say because it isn´t formal. Although, I use it for jokes and to be funny, but not to greet someone. In that case, it´s fine. Slang here is called ´´Tiguraje,`` language of the Tigure or Tiger. If you can picture the kids in America that are all about Swag and Yolo and all that dumb stuff, that´s a Tigure, or equivalent to a tigure. Next week, I will send some pictures of the members and investigators so you can get to know them too! I miss and love you all so much! :)

-Elder Froude

P.S.

“Vamos a la Playa” is a song that we all sang all day. Look it up on YouTube. It´s Vamos a la Playa by Righeira. I know it because we watched it in my Spanish class in high school and it´s been stuck in my head all day! XD Be careful, it´s demasiado 80´s; just way too 80´s! lol!

I´m loving my companion more and more every day! It turns out that he´s a mimic too! He can do spot on Latino accents and I can do spot on accents in English; it´s like a match made in heaven! LOL!