Lot's of Pictures from the Dominican Republic June 2013

Daviid's note: I will translate what Zoe writes in Spanish, without correcting anything. That way you can tell the progress she is making and the level that she is at. She is doing quite well, but still has a long way to go...
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Scenery

Hola! Toda esta bien aquí en La República Dominicana! (Hi! Everything is well here in the Dominican Republic.) My Spanish really has been improving, but it´s a lot easier for me to speak, than to write. But one day I will do more Spanish in my email!

I hope everything is well back in the States. Things are good here! 

I took some pictures from one of my housemate´s cameras. Here are some explanations.

This is some scenery of our area. 

 

This is some of us in a public car. Kinda sketchy, but we do what we´ve got to do. Also you can´t tell but there´s three more people in there. It´s a 5 person car. There´s public cars all over the place. It´s kinda like a mini, sketchier and cheaper version of a bus.

More scenery.  

We went to get pizza a few weeks ago. It´s was wonderful!

This is our community skirt. Everyone in our house has worn it. It´s stretchy so it´s fit a lot of people. It was my day to wear it. 

Pretty typical picture of what type of places we walk through. Except in this picture it´s abnormally tranquil. But the buildings look similar for the most part. 

Some crazy Dominican wiring

This is at the very beginning with our District. We decided to take a Dominican style picture.

Dominican´s tend to not smile in pictures. Also, it´s from a few weeks ago so I´m really white. I´m a lot tanner now. Also, it´s very unusual that we´ve had an all American District. It´s very uncommon, but the Capital tends to have more Americans rather than futher out. I think it´s because these areas tend to be safer. I´m not totally sure on that though. But we just got a new District leader and he´s from Mexico. So we finally have a Latin in our District! 

This is the front yard of our church building. It´s very pretty and green. Especially compared to the rest of our area. We live and work in a place that´s all cement. It´s nice to have grass at the church. Also, I was asked about how the church was compared to the US. Well I suppose it´s a little smaller, and it´s all tile instead of carpet, but it´s very nice and very pretty. There´s less families and more of individuals, or parts of families. We have about 125 in our ward and there´s another ward that shares our building and they probably have about the same. One fun fact is for about a week we had a guard at our church. I´m still not sure why, but he´d just chill out there and carried around a huge shotgun. He´s gone now. I´m not sure where he went.

Things are great. We had Ward Conference yesterday and worked really hard at getting people and inviting people there. We had such a good turn out! It was so exciting! Also, 2 girls came that my companion and I have been working with and now have dates to be baptized. It´s so exciting to see things grow at a fairly rapid pace and see the enthusiasm that our ward has for missionary work!

Here´s a portion of the email I sent to my Mission President this week. I know my Spanish isn´t perfect, especially my writing, but here it is.

Mi gusta el vídeo la ayer en la noche. Yo no entiendo todo, pero esta muy maravilloso porque yo se que yo tuve el don de lenguas. Yo no necesita entender todo saber que esta fue verdadera. El espíritu bendice yo y enseno me el importancia de obra misional. Esta fue un experiencia muy especial. 

(Translation: Me like the video the yesterday in the night. I do not understand everything, but it is very marvelous because I know that I had the gift of tongues. I don't need to understand everything to know that it was true. The spirit blesses I and I teach me the importance of missionary work. This was a very special experience.)

I still often have to speak very simply in Spanish, but it´s ok. That´s all that´s needed. 

Things are improving every week and it´s exciting, but there´s still so much more that can be done. I look forward to seeing how much things will grow and improve as time goes on.

Well, better go, but I´ll talk to you next week!

Hermana Safeer

"We just stood there waiting for like 4 minutes waiting for a bird to answer the door."

NOTE FROM ZOE's DAD: This picture shows the Mosquito Netting that Zoe sleeps under (the green material.)

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Things are starting to get crazy here weather wise. It´s CRAZY hot. Hotter than it ever got in Hawaii  Also, we´re coming up on rain and storm season, so we get some crazy floods. The other day my companion were walking to an appointment when it started POURING, so we hopped in a little colmado (shop) and waited for it to calm down.  The street were completely flooded and up onto the sidewalks. Everyone on the streets tried to find some place to guard themselves from the weather, except a few little boys that decide to go swimming in the water. Once it was pretty calmed down we tried to leave, but we were now on an island, as everything around us was covered in water. It was crazy. I had on crocks, but my companion took of her shoes to walk barefoot through the super gross flooded streets. It was definitely an adventure.

I´ll tell you also about a guy that we´re teaching. His name´s Cazy. He´s from Haiti and probably around 30. One of my first days being here, my comp and I were about to cross the street, but we saw this guy and his nephew (but at the time we thought it was his son) and my companion said that she felt the need to talk to him, so we waited for them to cross over and we just said hi and introduced ourselves as missionaries and that whole bit and then left on our way. About 4 weeks later my companion knocked on his door, while on exchanges with another missionary, and he remember her and said he would like to be taught about our church. Now we´re teaching him. The Lord puts you in the right places and in the path of people that he wants you to meet! Cazy is awesome and is very religious and seriously investigating our Church and does his homework. He read the Book of Mormon right along side the Bible and checks all the cross references to make sure it all adds up. He´s great and I´m excited to keep working with him!

On more funny story. Yesterday my companion and I were out inviting people to church. We´re at these appartment buildings and we knock on this door and we both hear someone say ¨Quien¨ (who is it?). Which is a very normal thing for people to say here. So of course we both say back ¨Las misioneras¨. Then we here something else, but we can´t tell what they´re saying so we just wait for them to answer the door. Then they say something again, but we can´t tell again. Then I say ¨I feel like we´re talking to a parakeet.¨ Turns out we were. We contacted a bird. We thought it was funny. We just stood there waiting for like 4 minutes waiting for a bird to answer the door.

Well that´s it for this week, but I´ll write more next week! Also, I swear my Spanish has improved a lot! Yo quiero escribir mas en español, pero esta un poco difícil para me. But my speaking is doing a lot better! One day I´ll really whip my Spanish out in an email. But no today. Also, I can´t spell in Spanish very well still. I´ll work on that.

Best wishes and I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Hermana Safeer

Zoe Teaches ALL IN SPANISH for the first time! Yahoooooo!!!

Note from David (Zoe's father): Before Zoe left for the Dominican Republic her biggest concern was the language. She knew about 10 words of Spanish! She also just finished her Sign Language Certificate at BYU Hawaii, and she has indicated in other e-mails that her 2nd language of sign language is helping her learn Spanish.

The picture is of the group that left with Zoe to go to their first assignments.
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!Hola mi familia y mi amigos!

First off thanks Ann Dale and all the other people in our ward for my package, I loved all the letters and the CD and the mascara and it was all exactly what I needed and I loved it!

Things are awesome as usual. In the house we´re getting more and more creative with food. We had mango pie empanadas the other night and they were delicious! We mostly cook by stove top, so if anybody has good stove top recipes I´d love to get some emailed or mailed to me!  But we handle ourselves well in the kitchen. Also, thanks mom cause I started eating rice in milk with cinnamon and sugar and at first my housemates thought it looked weird, but now everyone eats it everyday cause it´s delicious!

Good new, I taught a lesson to a less active lady who´s super cute and has a young family about faith this week. The really good news was I was in charge of teaching it and was incharge of taking the lead and did it ALL IN SPANISH! Yahoooo!!!! I´m still not where I hope to be with Spanish and still the worst in my house for sure, but I´m learning everyday and that´s really all I can ask for.

I was asked to share about how we find people so here it is,

Almost all the people we teach are from references. Friends of friends. Or relitaves of people. It´s the best way to start teaching. We also teach a lot of inactive members. The other way we find people is just by talking to everyone we meet. And when we´re really lucky people will recognize us as missionaries or atleast ¨people of God¨ as they´ll say and come up to ask us to share with them or teach them. We´re pretty lucky that in this area we´re pretty busy with teaching people and don´t have to worry to much about finding them.

Also, one last thing is I want to tell you about one of our investigators named Stephany. Shé´s from Haiti, but now lives here. She´s had a rough life with her family and not having much money. She´s lives in a very small home with her boyfriend (i think that´s what I should call him) and her 2 kids. She´s 22 and she has a baby and a boy who´s probably like 5. When I first went to go meet her my companion was telling me about how they´ve been teaching her for a while and already they´ve seen a huge difference in her life. She said before they started teaching she didn´t smile and was just not doing too well. But by the time I met her she was smiling and happy. However, her 5 year old son was not. He was so angry all the time. He didn´t like me to look at him or smile at him and was just so angry with everything. It´s only been 3 weeks since I´ve started working with them and now he´s so smiley all the time! He´ll play with me and smiles and laughs and whenever we see him the first thing he doesn´t is tells us to come in. It´s amazing how the gospel of Jesus Christ changes people´s life. They´re status and situations haven´t changed, and they haven´t been baptized or anything, but they´re happy! It´s amazing! And as of a few days ago the boyfriend is starting to be taught too!  This family is going to be soooo blessed and they continue to learn and grow and live the way that they´re Heavenly Father wants them too and I love it!

Well sorry I got to go!

Todas es bien!

Hermana Safeer

"I guess when you´re a missionary weird things just happen sometimes!"

(From David, Zoe's dad: Zoe seems to be settling into a routine. Remember, you can write to her directly at zoe.safeer@myldsmail.net and she will write back on Monday's.)
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!Hola Hola!

So things are good here as usual. It´s getting hotter and hotter, but I´m really starting to get the hang of things. Let me give you an outline of a typical day here,

6.30  wake up

6.35  morning devotional with all the girls in our house

         breakfast, and excercise

8       personal study

9       companion study

10     12 weeks, which is a training program for new missionaries

11     language study

12     lunch

2       leave the house

2-8    work with people or do whatever is needed for that day

8       return home and start planning for the next day

8.30   dinner

10.30 sleep

It´s a pretty good schedule I think. And actually even though that´s our normal schedule, it only happens probably half the days of the week, because we end up having meetings or something else that we need to do in the morning. But I like my study time.

Not much time to write today, again, but I´ll share a quick story.

One day this week, me and my companion are walking somewhere in this neighborhood packed with houses and this lady yells at us to come over. She´s sitting in her house with the gate in front of the door closed, but the actual door open. So we walk over and she tell us to tell her the word of God. We don´t know what she actually wants us to do, but we ask her if we can sing a song for her. She says yes, so we sing Í Am a Child of God outside of her house. People are gathering around and listening and then this guy pulls up on his motorcycle and starts yelling at us how beautiful we sound singing this primary song. He´s just yelling at us ¨Que linda!¨The whole time. My companion and I are trying super hard not to laugh, but we finish the song and share a quick scripture with her and then walked over to the group of people listening to us and invited them to church if they wanted to come. It was really weird. But hey, I guess when you´re a missionary weird things just happen sometimes! Actually, a lot of weird things happen a lot, but I just think it´s adventurous and usually we get a good laugh out of it afterwards.  

That´s was just an odd story, but things are going very well with the people that we´re working with. We have two young boys (11 and 12) getting baptized soon and they and their mom are very excited. They love church and also love all the church activities that we have in our ward. Also, they love Thomas S. Monson. They´re determined to meet him one day. I love their enthusiam!

Well sorry this was a weird email, but got to go!

Hermana Safeer

Quisqueya- Zoe's first area

From David (Zoe's Dad)- We talked to Zoe on mother's day and she sounded absolutely fantastic. She is really enjoying what she is doing and it was good to hear the sparkle in her voice.

Take a look at the e-mail she sent us this week and you'll get a good idea of what I am talking about.

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I´m sorry I don´t have a lot of time to email this week and that things got a bit of schedule, because of the P Day change. So sorry if I don´t respond to everyone this week, but I will try my best and anything I don´t get to this week I will respond to next week for sure! Also, sorry but no pictures this week. Things are a little crazy so I can´t find a way to send them yet.

But as a very quick update, I am out in the field with my new companion Hermana Peck. She´s from Logan, UT. She´s also really tall and has short hair  (I think that somebody thought it would be funny to put us together) but she´s great! I live in a house with 6 of us girls total. Oddly enough we´re all American, which is nice because my Spanish is still struggling so much, but hopefully by the time I live with Latins it will be a nice push for me to really speak in just Spanish. I don´t think I could do that quite yet!  

We live in the nicest house in the mission here. That being said, I´ve also been to the crappiest Hermana house in the mission and there´s not too big of a difference. Our house is pretty big for here and it has a hot water heater which is really why it´s the nicest. I like it!

I´m currently serving in the City. Our area has some richer areas, but also has some very poor parts. A lot of our area is very urban and I call it the hood of Santo Domingo. This area is called Quisqueya. I don´t know if you can google map it or anything. (David's note: Click on the link and you can see the map.)

The work is great! We teach a lot of different people. We teach families who want to know more about our church, but usually it´s the mom who´s more interested. It´s kind of a tricky situation here because people don´t get married. They just have kids together and live together, but it´s expensive and difficult to get legally married and often times the ¨husbands¨ don´t want to commit themselves to actually get married. I don´t really understand it, but I guess it´s just a cultural thing. 

We teach a lot of children or youth. Often times they have friends in the Church and they like to share it with each other. Or sometimes the parents are inactive or not members, but they like our church so they want their kids in it. I like teaching kids and I´m less nervous to speak Spanish to them.

Also we teach a lot of English. I was suprised by that, but I like it because I know English! We teach at the church for free for anyone who wants to come every Wendsday. Another companionship teaches every Saturday at the church. We also just go to member, or non'member houses and teach them English personally at their home if they ask us to. I´m glad we teach so much English.

Well I better wrap it up, but thanks to everyone I heard from this week and I swear I will write back! Sorry it´s just taking me a little while.

I´ll also try to tell you more about the culture and my schedule and food and things like that and hopefully I´ll have some pictures!

Hasta luego!

Hermana Safeer

Zoe gets a new look...

From David, Zoe's father: I always wondered how Zoe would take care of her long, beautiful hair while she was in the Dominican Republic. Well, she doesn't have to worry about it any more!
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                   Zoe before she cuts her hair...                           Zoe getting her hair cut...

                                                                           Reactions!

                           
                                                            Zoe's New Look

4 Days Left- I'm excited to get going!

(David's notes: Zoe sent a lot of pictures this week. I'll post some of them. Here is the first. Take a good look... it's the last time you'll see Zoe with long hair for a while!

Don't forget that you can "follow" Zoe's blog by clicking on the follow button on the right side of the page and down a little bit.

Look for Zoe's "after" picture coming soon!)

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Hola Hola!

4 days left in the MTC. Crazy!! We have training all of Monday and then we leave on Tuesday morning. I'm really excited to get going!

We've had a lot of fun experiences this week. We got to go to a HUGE book fair. Apparently they do this huge book fair every year and the Church had a Family Values booth. So we went and just walked around and told people to go to our booth. It was fun and really huge. They said over the course of the few days that it was up 300,000 people attend this book fair.

We have a lot of new missionaries and I've gotten to know some of them. One of them is from Laie, HI (the same place as BYUH) and so we got to talking. He's actually from Samoa and him and his family are converts. When he was young his dad was a Catholic Pastor. They met missionaries and his dad said he would listen to them if they could answer his questions. Long story short, his whole family is members of the Church now and he's serving a mission and is just a super happy guy! It's cool how so many people here have awesome stories.

Some other fun stuff I did this week was learn acro-yoga. One new Sister here knows how to do it, so she teaches some of us during gym time. It's really cool and I'll try to get some pictures and send it next week.

Also, don't forget I am changing locations, so send my mail to the mission home address.

EXPRESS POUCH- About 10 Days
Elder Zoe Safeer
Dominican Republic West Mission
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

OK, I know it says "Elder", but this is THE best way to address it so it gets to me.

VERY IMPORTANT: To send via express pouch, you MUST follow these directions:

1. Use ONE SHEET of paper
2. Fold paper into thirds
3. Seal with scotch tape
4. Apply US Postage and send to the address above

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INTERNATIONAL MAIL- About 10 days

Elder Zoe Safeer 

c/Hatuey #73, Urb. Los Cacicazgos

Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana

Again, I know it says "Elder" but just trust me, it's the way to go!

For letters in an envelope with pictures, etc. Regular international postage rates apply.