¡Buenas dìas!
I did it! I´ve completed one whole transfer in the field!! The first is naturally one of the hardest--you´re getting used to real mission life, which entails total immersion in the language, culture, your companion, living conditions, and reliance on the Lord. You have the least amount of knowledge and experience, but you have the most energy! You´re working so hard physically and mentally; I´m so grateful that the Lord has promised me that I will have a strong body that will be able to heal and do whatever is asked of it. If you haven´t figured it out already, my mission and particular area are extremely physically demanding. I don´t think I have ever appreciated quite this much the fact that I´ve had basically no medical problems in my life, and I´m glad I had drill team and all other physical training to prep me for this! I´ve been asked about the language a lot, so here´s Dominican Spanish 101. First of all, just because it´s not a language with a whole new alphabet like Japanese doesn´t mean that Spanish isn´t hard--it still is. Spanish in general has a million rules and a million exceptions. There are masculine and feminine forms of everything, and sentences are spoken like Yoda; it´s all backwards, like "I love you" is "You I love." The hardest parts of speaking are figuring out the order to put each word in a sentence and saying the right tense. Because of all the different tenses, the Plan of Salvation is one of the hardest lessons to teach. Most words end in a, e, o, and s--it´s very lulling, and vowels aren´t used as in many ways as English, like "world" is really hard for them to say. Like English, if you change just one letter or the way one letter is pronounced, the word totally changes. For that reason, the 3 easiest sets of words to get mixed up for me are fish & sin, marriage & tired, and pregnant & embarrassed. Now take all that information I just told you, and then imagine speaking a whole new form of that language. Seriously, Dominican Spanish is totally different--even Latinos from other countries have a hard time here. The people don´t pronounce the letter s most of the time, but then they add in random s´s wherever they feel like it. They speak ridiculously fast and often mumble, so entire sentences sound like one long word of jibberish. They use many different words than traditional Spanish--what I learned in school was Mexican, so previously learned vobac doesn´t help me a ton out here. Basically, this language is crazy. Guess what?? They just took the Elders out of our area permanently!! And our district leader only had one transfer left before going home! So now there will be just two companionships of Hermanas in Ocoa, and the rest of our district will be an hour away in Bani. So our proselyting area just got a whole lot bigger, which means more people to share the Gospel with! Yay for General Conference this past weekend! Our district totally called it--Elder Rasband is one of the new Apostles, wahoo! The last time 3 new Apostles were called in 1 General Conference was 1906. I have never truly appreciated until now the significance of having a living prophet who provides modern revelations for us from God; it really is so cool. When we teach about prophets in lessons, Hermana Dibble and I like to point out that God is unchanging and loves all of His children in all times and places of the world. If that is true, then why would God only call prophets to preach the Gospel in ancient times? So yeah, if you didn´t know, we have a prophet! Poor President Monson seemed to be struggling, and everyone looks so old, it made me feel old. I loved when Elder Bednar talked about Presidents Hinckley, Faust, and Packer and Elders Perry and Scott. What wonderful, faithful examples to us they were. I coudn´t understand every word that was said, but what stood out to me as the theme of this Conference was the Atonement. As missionaries, that´s one of the things we talk about quite a bit; it´s part of the Savior´s earthly ministry in lesson 1, the Plan of Salvation in lesson 2, and repentance is the second principle of the Gospel, which is in lesson 3. The Atonement is central to the Plan of Salvation; it is through the Savior´s atoning sacrifice and mercy that we have the ability to repent and be forgiven, and eventually, we can return to live with our Heavenly Father and Christ himself. As 1 Nephi 10:21says, ¨No unclean thing can dwell with God.¨ It is through Christ that we can be made clean, whole, and worthy to enter God´s presence. I´m so grateful for that knowledge and for all the Savior has done for us. I´m grateful for this opportunity to better know Him through studying the scriptures, specifically The Book of Mormon, which truly is another testament of Jesus Christ, and through teaching His doctrine & testifying of Him. I know that my Redeember lives! And He loves us infinitely! I love you all, and may you have the Spirit with you this week. --Hermana Randall Friends and fam,
What an insane week! I probably say that every time, but so much always happens! First off, we got chased down by a huge horde of children--these Dominicans crack me up, they love our hair and practicing English with us (they only know Hi how are you? What´s your name? What country are you from? and maybe they know some numbers and a few words). On Tuesday afternoon, we got a call from our zone leaders saying Hermana Dibble and I needed to be in the capital that night because they´re already working on my Visa stuff so I can eventually return to my native land. So we had to cancel our appointments and take a gua-gua (bus) to Santo Domingo, and we got to stay at the mission home with my mission president! Holy crow I flipped out--it was like I was back in America, and everything was so nice, they even have a piano and wood banister and dining room and a toaster and everything I haven´t seen in what feels like forever. Guys, I´m already like an awkward RM, and I´ve been in the field for a month haha. So I got to spend 20 hours with my CCM companion, Hermana Flake!!! AND 5 more missionaries from my CCM group were there, too!!! We were absolutely ecstaticto see each other, especially since some were from the East mission. Anyways, we spent all of Wednesday doing Visa stuff and getting a physical, like having my blood drawn and fun stuff like that. Get this: there was a woman on our gua-gua who was also on the same gua-gua as us on the way back, and since Hermana Dibble and I stood in a foot of space in the aisle the whole ride, this woman offered to hold H. Dibble´s bag. We contacted her, and she turned out to live in our area!! Her name is Sanei, and we taught her on Saturday--she´s awesome, we´re excited to see her progress. Since I am not even close to being fluent in Spanish, I didn´t understand the talks in Women´s Conference on Saturday, but I will read them in English in the Ensign and Liahona magazines later! Our branch had a fun dinner before the conference--we gave them food, but then we brought in long sticks with spoons taped to the end so that they had to feed to people across the table from them and build unity. It was supposed to be fun and silly, but these Dominican women are scary when they´re upset--they all kept yelling at me and I didn´t know what to do, so then we gave them forks and they calmed down. So the activity kind of backfired, but I will definitely remember it haha:) One of our investigators, Denia, did the most hilarious and awesome things this week; we´d just taught her about the Word of Wisdom, and a few days later at work, an employee offered Denia some coffee. When Denia refused, the woman said that she´d been drinking coffee her whole life and was just fine. Denia said, ¨It may not harm you in this life, but it will in the next.¨ HA way to go, girl!! She totally stood up for what she believed in, AND she´s been reading The Book of Mormon at work!! I love her dedication! So the last little while, I´ve been having a hard time feeling a love for the people and culture, and I haven´t been feeling very close to God. Weird, right? I´m on a mission and feeling the Spirit a lot, doing what I´m supposed to, and should be feeling nearer to God than any other time in my life. I know that the Spirit testifies of God, and I have been feeling His promptings, but it´s like I used to know God better. So I poured out my heart to God and sincerely told Him of my desire to know Him better and about how I want and need to love these people. I prayed specifically and fervently, and wow, PRAYER WORKS. As soon as we walked out the door that morning, I had an incredible desire to contact every single person I saw on the street and felt Heavenly Father´s presence, as if His arms were wrapped around me. I know God lives and answers prayers--He will NEVER leave us alone! And the more specific and sincere your prayers are, the better He will answer you! I don´t remember which Apostle said that, but Elder David A. Bednar said, ¨Your prayers are a condition of the heart, not a function of the words.¨ I know that if you are willing to pour your heart and mind out to God, HE WILL LISTEN. He WILL respond, even if it´s not in the way you expected it. I´m so grateful for that knowledge and for the opportunity to share that knowledge. That´s my challenge to all of you: before you go to bed tonight, sincerely pray to our Father in Heaven and offer up all your thoughts and desires. He cares, and He always will--I know that to be true. With love, Hermana Randall Hello family and friends!
Holy crow this week has gone by so fast! And it has continued to be an adventure. I had an awesome first cumplemes in the field (your birthday each month of when you entered the field--mine´s the 15th), the other Hermanas were so cute and threw a little surprise party for me, it was great. :) Here are a few more items to add to the list of things I now have a greater appreciation for: non-boxed milk, Cool Whip, Ranch dressing, powdered sugar, cheese sticks, waffle makers, ovens, toilets that you don´t have to pour the water in by hand and flush, whisks, hot water, and Clorox wipes. By the way, I´m typing on a Spanish keyboard at a very fast pace, so I apologize for my spelling! On Wednesday, we woke up at 4:30 am to head to the temple in Santo Domingo. We only get to go twice a year, and because of some not-so-smart Elders, we don´t get to go with the branch for their trips anymore. Hermana Flake, my CCM companion, was there with her zone!!! We were so happy, it was like a mini CCM reunion because one of the Elders in our district is in my zone now and was at the temple as well. Only 9 temples in the whole world have a Solemn Assembly Room, and the DR temple is one of them, it´s the only temple outside of the U.S. with one, and we got to wait in there before the endowment session. Wow, you could really feel the power of the Spirit and the sacredness of the temple. In one week, we went from having 7 investigators with baptism dates to 3--Analuisa moved to Bani unexpectedly, Santiago´s ´wife´ refused to marry him (gotta be married before baptism if you´re living together), and Chany and Julissa aren´t attending church or progressing at all. It was really sad, but I hope that one day, they will all be more prepared to hear the message of the Gospel and can commit to the saving ordinance of baptism. On the other hand, some of our less-actives have been totally stepping it up, and 7 of our investigators came to church on Sunday, wahoo! We´ve been looking for whole families to teach, and we found 2 adorable young couples with one child each, we´re really excited about them! Yesterday, we hiked up a mountain again to teach the less-actives in La Parra. My mission president said we might do a trial run and provide transportation to church for them for a few Sundays, these people need the sacrament! And to feel the Spirit! Plus, attending church is a commandment! Speaking of church, I got asked on Saturday if I could give a talk in sacrament meeting the next day. So that was stressful, but I made it through my first talk in Spanish! I spoke about the Holy Ghost, and I felt his presence--Spanish has never come out of my mouth so fast and fluidly. Sacrament meeting here is normally not terribly reverent, but the people actually listened to me, like everyone was staring and quiet, and I hope they felt the Spirit like I did. On the way back from La Parra, though, we ran into a bit of a problem--the small stream we normally cross turned into a GIANT river. The picture I´m sending shows what it used to look like, imagine if all the other dirt and rockers next to it and more land were covered with muddy, rushing water. Totally freaky, so we spent 2 hour walking around the river and up a bridge till we got home. Thank goodness we were with the ward mission leader, and we´re safe, so yay! My thought for the week is from Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of teh Twelve Apostles about what sets The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apart from other churches. He said, ´´Jesus Christ has given us 1) The fullness of the doctrine, 2) the power of the priesthood, 3) a unique testimony of Jesus Christ. It´s a LIVING church.´´ He also talked about how we have the revealed truth of our relationship with God and the Articles of Faith, especially number 1: We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. Many people believe that they are one person; they are three separate beings, but one in purpose. I´m so grateful that we have prophets and scriptures to testify of that, especially the First Vision, where Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as separate beings, and the account of Jesus´s baptism in Matthew 3:16-17 where Christ, the Holy Ghost, and God the Eternal Father are clearly three separate beings. I am so grateful for the knowledge of the restored Gospel. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a building--it´s an organization founded upon the earth by Christ himself. This is Christ´s church with His correct and proper authority and His doctrine. I will not and cannot deny the truthfulness of the restored Gospel. I love my Savoir, His sacrifice, and His message. May we all come unto Him and feel of His love. --Hermana Randall I wrote this new song about the Savior´s forgiveness and His Atonement. I know that if we reach out and seek Christ´s mercy, He will lift us up and encircle us in the arms of His love. ´Reach´ His outstretched hand Is offered to all His redeeming love Is for all who fall His grasp is firm He´ll carry you through The trials, the pain All that you do When no one understands Your pain Know that Christ is with you Every step of the way (Chorus) Hold onto Him Let Him lift you up Trust in Him He´ll unchain the cuffs Of all the sin That´s binding your heart The crushing weight He´ll release, pick up All can be Forgiven, left behind Reach out to Him And believe in Christ His loving words Comfort and beckon His relieving touch Heals and strengthens His arms are Open to us Waiting to Embrace, encompass Take that first step And run to Him He´ll catch hold of you And never be forsaken (Chorus) When the grief Is too much to handle When the suffering Is unbearable He´ll extend His Love and mercy Dry our tears And set us free (Chorus 2) Hold onto Him Let Him lift you up Trust in Him He´ll unchain the cuffs Of all the sin That´s binding your heart The crushing weight He´ll release, pick up All will be Forgiven, left behind If you reach out And hold fast to Christ Reach out to Him Hold fast to Christ Beautiful Dominican Republic Melissa's Dominican Republic MTC (CCM) District on their last day--August 22, 2015. Melissa's companions Hermana Flake and Hermana Carpio. Hermana Randall's first preparation day in the field! With her new companion Hermana Dibble (seated below Melissa) and housemates, Hermanas Perry and companion. Sept 2015
¡Hola!
Tomorrow marks 2 months of serving a mission! Wowsers, I feel old. Old because I´m old enough be a missionary and because 2 months sounds like a long time being away from home. Let me tell ya, being out here in a third-world country changes EVERYTHING, and not jsut becasue people don´t speak English. here´s a list of things I´ve taken for granted that I will forever appreciate with a new respect: Running/clean/available water, doors, paved streets, privacy, air conditioning, electricity, plumbing, stable houses, a job, trustable food, traffic laws, cars, carpet, wood and tile floors, handheld or electric mixers, the ability to sing on key (Dominicans are tone deaf), restaurant health codes, modest clothes, parents who are married, parents who take care of me and love me, Church members who fulfill their callings, Church buildings near our homes, cleanliness in general, cute/non-disease carrying dogs, clothes in general, toastsers, dishwashers, crushed ice, fences, windows, electric stoves, dryers, pianos, quiet neighborhoods, appropriate social conduct/behavior. I live in a totally differnet world, you guys. Pretty soon, America and its luxuries are going to be a dim memory. This is what I wanted, though: to go to a third-world country where I´d be humbled, speak Spanish, and not go to the Provo MTC. Being in the DR MTC definitely helped me adjust to the climate, be with teh peopel, and learn Spanish from Dominican teachers. I probably would have had a better and easier MTC experience in Provo, especially since so many of my friends were ther at teh sam etime, but heading straight out to the Domincan Republic has helped me ease into the field better. Well, it didn´t preare me for the maggot infestation problem in our house, but other than that, it did:) Hermana Dibble and I contacted an awesome 15 year old named Carla, and holy crow she is SO prepared to receive the Gospel!! She straight up asked what she needed to do to be baptized! In our second lesson with her, I invtied her to baptism, she gladly accepted, and I set teh date for October 31 (they don´t celebrate Halloween here so no worries:D). Carla came to church yesterday and has a very sincere desire to learn about he Gospel; she´s incredible! Her faith is so strong, I wish all of our investigators were like her. My spiritual thought of the week is from an MTC devotional with Elder David A. Bednar, who said, "Sin is turning away from God and to self; repentance is turning away from self to God." I didn´t realized until now just how many times the scriptures tell us to repent. I mean, WOW. We are told a million times that we will be blessed for coming unto Christ, and we see the exact results of what happens when we don´t. When teh Savior comes again, I want to be able to look Him straight in teh eye and be free of guilt and sin. I do not want to be burdened with teh pain of human error and have chosen to not use that power of teh Atonement. Christ has already paved teh way for us to reutnr to our Fath in Heaven, He has suffered for us, and He did it because He love us. I´m so grateful that we have such a wonderful brother who would do so much for us. I know that Christ is our Savior, and He lives. He WILL come again, and whe He does, I hope we are ready to meet Him. Love, Hermana Randall Greetings from La Republica Dominicana!
My second week in the field has been awesome! It definitely feels like I've been here for a month or two, and everything is just so normal about living here now; that feels really good:) My Spanish is coming along, and the people are starting to get to know me more, which is great because I need their trust! Reading The Book of Mormon has been the greatest experience ever here on my mission. Wow. I have a greater understanding and appreciation for it than ever before. I finished the book of Alma this week in El Libro de Mormon, and after earnestly reading it, how could people ever say that it's boring and has no plot?! So much happens, so much to learn from our ancestors. I'm so very grateful for the knowledge we have through the scriptures!! I will never get over how GORGEOUS Ocoa is, ay mi madre I am so blessed to be here!! I really do feel honored to be in such a wonderful place. We got to go to a beach in Bani today with our zone, and I was freaking out cuz I'm in the Caribbean for real!!! Don't worry, I didn't play in the water, I'm just a different color now haha:) We hiked for an hour up a mountain yesterday to get to a small city called La Parra where a ton of less actives live. The old branch president lives there, and he got excommunicated for using the members' tithing money to provide transportation to church, so now most of the members who live up there don't come anymore. We're encouraging them to attend church and are teaching of the people there! The branch technically has 700 members, but only 50 or 60 are actually active. It's hard, the area is great, but the branch struggles; it depends on teh missionaries a lot, so we're trying to 'wean them off of us' and give them more responsibilites. The youth are amazing, though, holy cow!! I love them so much! It really is the youth and the ward mission leader, who is 20 years old, who keep the branch going. They are so dedicated, it's wonderful:) There are even youth who make up the Young Womens presidency, not adults. The adults and nearly all of the teenagers are first generation members since the Gospel wasn't introduced to the Dominican Republic until 1978. Many of the youth don't have support from their families (concerning the Gospel), and yet, they are so faithful and really help the work move forward here in Ocoa. Young women often come on splits with Hermana Dibble and I, and they have introduced us to their nonmember friends, which means new investigators! Wahoo! Last Wednesday, I invited three investigators (Analuisa, Santiago, and Cristian) to be baptized and set dates for them! And they ALL said yes!! So now we have six investigators with baptism dates!!! I especially love Analuisa; she was a contact that my companion met right before I came here, and she is really excited about the Gospel. I have learned from teaching her how much of a refuge Christ and His Gospel are. She has a hard life, her husband hits her and she has hardly anything--her whole house is the size of one bedroom in my house back home. The message of Christ has provided so much hope and happiness for her. It will be amazing to see how her decision to accept the Gospel and be baptized will bring miracles to her life:) I know this Gospel is true!!!!! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is THE true church on the earth today, and I love getting to share that knowledge of Christ and His church with the people of Ocoa! You WILL be blessed for following Christ and having faith in Him; pray lots and lots, turn to Him in all things, and remember the promise we've been given in Alma 62:51 ''And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so that they did wax strong and prosper in the land.'' Until next week! Love, Hermana Randall To my fellow Americans of the country that I appreciate now more than ever,
What an insane week and a half it has been! Starting with the fact that I'M OFFICIALLY IN THE MISSION FIELD!!! I'm gonna back up, though--so much has happened. Judge Wallis, who is nationally recognized and on a first-name basis with President Obama, came and spoke to the MTC about enduring to the end, his conversion story, and about his work. He fixes government systems all over the world and lets really important people know he is LDS: So that was super cool. I got to play the piano arrangement I wrote of "If You Could Hie to Kolob" at a devotional with President Cornish of the Seventy--it was fantastic! An Elder in choir wrote an arrangement of "Nearer, My God, to Thee" and "Love at Home" that we taught the choir and sang for our last sacrament meeting; the Spirit was so strong, and it went so well! We got up to 17 people in the choir, I was thrilled! I went on splits in the West mission, which is my mission, and I learned so much. Also, I definitely learned that I am WHITE. The missionaries are the only Caucasians in this insane country, plus I'm tall compared to Dominican women, so lots of staring, cat-calling, etc. They love Americans here, it's hilarious. Saying goodbye to everyone in my district and in the CCM was really hard. They have become my family, and I wish more of them were going to the West mission with me. I got to bear my testimony to my district, though, and we are planning a CCM reunion when we're all done here:) On Tuesday morning, none of the alarms in our room went off, so after only two hours of sleep (packing took all night), I had 15 minutes to get ready and finish packing before being shipped off to the field. I was frazzled, to say the least; definitely freaking out and stressed, but I calmed down after I met my mission president. President Nuckols is the greatest!! Love him! We had orientation for a few hours, lunch, then I headed to my area and started proselyting right away! Hermana Megan Dibble from northern Idaho is my new companion!! She is almost six feet tall, been on her mission for a little over a year, and is so incredibly patient and kind! We work really well together, and we haven't had any problems. My area is called Ocoa, which is considered the paradise of the mission, no joke. It's a city nestled in the mountains, and it is absolutely GORGEOUS, I love it SO much!! It's not as hot or humid as it is in the capital, so halelujah! There are 4 Hermanas in my house, 202 missionaries in the West mission, 50 Hermanas total, and 6 in my district (only 2 Elders). My part of our area is really poor. I take bucket showers, there is very little water, no AC in this country period besides the CCM and temple. I have taken so much for granted during my lifetime. People in America, appreicate all you have!! My Spanish vocab is building up, I'm working hard, and the missionaries here tell me that I know more than they did when they first entered the field, so that has been comforting. I don't think I'm that great, but my confidence is building, and the more I teach, the better I get! Even if I can't understand everything people say, I try to understand their feelings, teach the doctrine I can, and invite the Spirit. I'm actually handling everything out here really well--a lot better than I thought I would! I LOVE MY AREA! This work is amazing, the Gospel is true, and Christ makes all things possible!! On my second day in the field, Wednesday, I extended the invitation to be baptized to an investigator, and she said yes! I set the date for September 26, and she came to church! 9 less actives and 5 of our investigators came, that was a record, we were so happy!! Hurricane Danny hit on Tuesday, but it didn't affect me, I don't know what happened with it. On Friday, though, it started raining, and I was just singing and having a good time as we proselyted, but then we got a red alert, a call from the zone leaders in the middle of a lesson, and we found out that Hurricane Erica was about to hit our area. It was so scary, we stayed in our house the rest of the day. So much water, huge storm, can't believe it happened. I know that at least 14 people were killed by it in the West Indies, I don't know more info than that, but know that I am alive and survived it. 2 Nephi 31:15 "He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." I can do hard things! And so can all of you! Keep an eternal perspective and rely on Christ! I have thought a lot about that this week. I can feel your prayers and love you so very much! Know that I love this Gospel with all my heart, I love the Dominican Republic, and I love my mission so much already! Hoping you all are not in a hurricane, Hermana Randall To my pals back in America,
Last week in the MTC!! Wahoo!! I'm so close to getting out in the field it's ridiculous. Time has been going by MUCH faster, holy cow, each week goes by in a blur now. A couple of things about being here: the ocean is only a mile away, the humidity is out of control and it doesn't like my hair very much, the MTC is prepping us for Dominican food, and the Dominicans are the fastest talking people on the planet. Y'all know I'm pretty darn speedy when it comes to speaking, but the Dominicans are like me but times five. It's insane. I WILL learn this language!! A lot happened this weeks, so sorry that this is long, but the mission life is just a really busy life!:) Being with all the newbie missionaries that came in last week has definitely made the oldies realize how much we've learned; it's given us a boost, and we all feel more ready to enter the field in five days:) Hermana Carpio, our new companion from Honduras, is an absolute gem. I love her to death, she is the greatest example of service--she's always asking Hermana Flake and I what she can do to help and continuously offers to iron our clothes and give us foot massages. Some man is going to be very lucky one day when he gets to have her:) Hermana Flake and I struggled a bit this week, but we always worked things out whenever there was a problem. The newbies asked what the best advice I could give them was, and I talked about communication. For some random reason, I thought about the advice that's usually referred to in marriage counseling that says, "Never go to bed angry." I made a goal to be like that with all of my companions, and it's worked out great so far:) Our district has come so far since that first day. The Elders have opened up so much, and ahh I love them! I wish that all of them were going to the West mission! On Monday, we taught our TRC couple for the last time--Hermana Flake and I teach an elderly missionary couple for Family Home Evening. They know less Spanish than us, so we just all do our best to communicate:) We watched "The Other Side of Heaven" and "Mountain of the Lord" this last week, and I can't tell you enough how much your perspective of everything is changed as a missionary. I appreciate and understand everything (about both those movies and so many other things) way better now. We went to the temple this morning after it being closed for two weeks, and it was amazing. I'm so lucky to get to attend the temple so often and to wake up to the view of it every morning:) Last Friday, we went on splits in the East mission!!! Holy crow it got me so stoked for the field, I can't wait to get out there and tell people all about the Gospel! My companion was Hermana Ho from Hawaii, and I understood a decent amount of what was said:) Our first appointment was with a woman named Marea, and when I recited Joseph Smith's words from the First Vision in Spanish to her, I felt the Spirit in a more powerful way than I ever have before. It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life, and I wanted her to know what I know of the Gospel. It was incredible, I can't wait to have more experiences like that in the field:) Elder J. Devin Cornish of the Quorum of the Seventy, who is also our area president, spoke at our devotional on Tuesday! He said that we are not allowed to embellish or detract form His word--there can be no change. This is the Lord's gospel: His church, His authority, His message, and as missionaries, we've been called of God to proclaim His message of happiness to the world. We MUST represent Christ; we have accepted the responsibility to do so, and it matters how we represent Him. Four things to do: 1. Know what Christ knows 2. Do what Christ does 3. Feel as Christ feels 4. Become as Christ is Be as Christ to the people--show compassion and love for ALL people the way Christ does. Whatever God expects you to do, He'll help you do it. I know that the Lord doesn't give us more than we can handle,and He's cheering us on; He wants us to do our best. He loves us unconditionally, and I know He's watching over us. I love this Gospel, I love our Heavenly Father, and I know that our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, lives. With love, Hermana Randall Friends and Fam,
(Upside down exclamation point)Buenos días! Thank you Randalls for your sweet notes from the reunion, and a special thank you to Aunt Suzanne for your letters! I'm so grateful for my amazing family! What a great past 2 weeks it has been! I'm feeling more ready to enter the field in less than 2 weeks, and we get to go on splits tomorrow with missionaries who are already out in the field, so that'll be awesome preparation:) I've heard some crazy stories from the older missionaries in the MTC, so I'm expecting to have a bit of an adventure:) I'm the senior companion now, and I got called to be the music chairman for the MTC!!! I'm so excited, it's more work than you'd think haha we actually do a lot with music in the MTC:) Our district has the opportunity to sing this coming Sunday, so that'll be great! We're doing an arrangement of "How Great Thou Art" that I put together; different districts get to sing each week when the choir doesn't sing. On Friday, we got to go to the university in Santo Domingo again, and it was totally different from our first visit. Instead of talking to several people for a short period of time, we talked to only a few people for a long time! Actually, the first man we met had a Book of Mormon keychain haha and was definitely Mormon:) The next person, though, was totally different--he asked to sit down and have a discussion with us, but he bashed on religion the whole time. He had read The Bible twice, but he denied the existence of God. He told Hermana Flake and I that we were being deceived, someone was becoming rich from the money we spent to be here, we're living in a land of butterflies, and we're wasting our youth, time, and energy. Strangely, I was very calm throughout his ranting, but my companion wasn't. I knew he simply wasn't ready for the Gospel yet, and so I tried to simply be his friend and congratulate him on the good things he was doing in his life. It was great practice, to say the least:) After that, we met an AWESOME guy named Mahesh who was super great and very willing to talk with us. He had great questions and helped us out a bit with our Spanish. He was interested in the Word of Wisdom and the prophet, and before we got a chance to invite him to read the Book of Mormon or anything, he asked where our church was and what time services were held!!!!!!!! Hermana Flake and I were SO happy, we couldn't believe how interested and willing he was! We gave him the number of the Santo Domingo missionaries, and we had them get in contact with Mahesh. I hope to find out what happens!!! The MTC is so not Provo haha our chapel is 3 small classrooms put together by pushing back those sliding/accordian doors they have in churches. We have around 60 missionaries in the MTC, and the actual MTC is the 4th floor of the visitors' center--the offices, bedrooms, and chapel are on one teeny floor, and there are a couple of rooms on other floors we use. So yeah, it's miniscule. Sacrament meeting consists of 4 speakers that President Romney calls up on the spot, a musical number, and a talk by a member of the MTC Presidency or one of their wives (so we all write talks on an assigned topic, but we don't know who is speaking until sacrament meeting). The topic last Sunday was the Atonement; that was great. After that on Sundays, we have Sunday School with our district, and one companionship teaches the rest of us; Hermana Flake and I taught two Sundays ago about humility. Then we have Relief Society, lunch, doctrinal class taught by President Romney, a movie (this week we watched "Legacy," which I grew up watching:D), dinner, video of a Provo MTC devotional where an apostle speaks, discussion with district about the devotional, ice cream, and then a walk around the temple with everybody:) Sundays are the absolute best day of the week!! For most other days, we have personal study after waking up by 6:30 am, companionship study, class, lunch, class, dinner, class, teach investigator, plan family prayer. Our investigators are teachers that dress up and act like investigators that they had on their missions. They are tough--they try to give us really hard situations and aren't very nice so that we'll be prepared:) When we learn Spanish, we learn grammar, and we do that basically all day long. We have to learn vocab on our own time, but it's coming along:) Hermana Flake and I have struggled a little bit this week, but whenever we have a problem, we clear it up right away. We've never had a fight or anything like that, and we're really great friends, it's just that we're not used to spending 24/7 with one person for 4 weeks straight haha:) Our district is fabulous, and we're having so much fun together! We've made a goal to only speak in Spanish during class time, and that's been helping our focus grow stronger. All the missionaries who arrived before me left this week, and that was really hard, but the newbies who came in are great!! One of them is from Viewmont and was in my AP Calc class haha his name is Kyle Higgins. We have 6 new Hermanas, and one of them is Latina, so she'll be here for 2 weeks and will head to the Santo Domingo East mission on the 25th with us; she's in a trio now with H. Flake and I, but she's in a different district, so hopefully we get to spend more time with her! (Hermana Carpio from Honduras) In the words of Elder David A. Bednar: "Nobody who feasts upon the word of Christ consistently and prays faithfully unto God will NEVER wander off the path into forbidden areas." I know that to be true, and I've learned for myself that feasting upon the words of Christ/the scriptures brings true happiness. This week, I learned to appreciate the words of the hymn "More Holiness Give Me"--go look the words up, they are amazing:) I only have 40 minutes to email, so gotta go, but thank you all for your love and support!! Love, Hermana Randall A mi familia y amigos,
Hola de el CCM! Guess what? I'm officially halfway done being at the CCM!! (you say it "say-say-emmay:D) Time really does not exist here, so it feels like we've been here forever, but I also can't believe how long I've been away from Utah! I jst pretend that I'm back at college and will see everyone soon enough, and that makes it easier:) I LOVE MY COMPANION!! Hermana Flak e is the greatest , and we get along so incredibly well--I'm very lucky:) She's been coming out of her shell more and is picking up some of my quirky voices and habits haha we have a blast together:) I'm so glad that she goes to BYU because then we can hang out lots and lots when we get back! My district continues to get closer and learn more about each other each day; theyr'e good Elders, andhalf of them are going to the West mission with Hermana Flake and I, and the others are serving in Santo Domingo East. The MTC President's wife had a great little talk with the Hermanas about how hard it was for her to serve as mission presidents in Mexico and then to leave again to serve in the DR. Her life was absolutely incredible before all this, and hearing how she endures and sought comfort from the Lord really helped me:) Investigators we practice teaching are just our teachers with wigs and a different life story, so we never get to teach real people seeking the Gospel. Last Friday, we got to go the the university in Santo Domingo and teach!! The 28 of us who came on July 15th/16th walked around campus and talked to anyone we could! We had Restoration pamphlets and 2 Books of Mormons, and we wish they'd given us more to hand out! We definitely learned that we don't know much Spanish, but everyone was SO nice! We got two people's numbers and handed out everything we had. We talked with one lady for 15 minutes and gave her a Book of Mormon, and she was really happy! Hermana Flake and I even got stopped by a man who asked us if we were preaching on campus, and HE SPOKE ENGLISH! Halelujah! His name was Callo, and he lived 5 minutes away from an LDS church but had never been inside. He said he'd call the missionaries in his area (we wrote the phone numbers on the pamphlets if they want more information) and read the pamphlet!! He said he was Christian and looking for an even better church!! The light of Christ was totally in his eyes, he is SO ready!! What a great experience:) Satan backed off this week, yay!! I've had a much easier time being here, and time is going by faster than it did that first week, so happy day! We get to listen to Vocal Point hymn arrangements in class, and it saves my life + totally brings the Spirit--they are saving my life right now, nothing besides the scriptures makes me happier:) The choir did super great!! "Come, Come, Ye Saints" will forever be a "mission song" for me now:) I'm so proud of them, and they said they want to keep singing, so I'll put something together for our last Sunday here. I love getting to work with these phenomenal missionaries and be their choir director:) We got to watch "The Testaments" on Sunday and "The Saratov Approach" today, that was fantastic! Watching and listening to everything is completely different on a mission--you're perspective is so different. I love this Gospel so much it's ridiculous!!! Why would you not want this?? Elder Claudio Zivic of the Quorum of the Seventy spoke to us at our devotional this week! He and his wife are from Argentina, and he is the first counselor in the area presidency here. They talked about a variety of subjects, everything from time management to the importance of a mission. They both talked in Spanish, but we had an English translator, so that was good:) He is a true servant of God--Elder Zivic spoke with power and conviction, and it inspired me. I want the faith he has! I've pumped out a million pages in the Book of Mormon this week, and I really loved Alma 5 when it talks about repentance, I encourage you to read it!! I've felt the Spirit so much when I read the pages of the truest book on Earth. I'm so grateful for the knowledge of the Restored Gospel that we have so readily available to us. I love my Savior, I'm relying on Him and our Father in Heaven a lot right now; through Christ, all things are made possible, I know that to be true. Thank you all for your words of encouragement and love! I'm thinking of you and can feel the power of your prayers! 2 Nephi 31:20 my favorite scripture, read it!! With love, Hermana Randall Hola mis amigos!
What a crazy week it's been! There really is no better word to describe this experience than "roller coaster;" so many highs and lows, but they're all adding up to being a memorable adventure:) First off, I started a choir for the MTC!! We didn't have one, so I asked if I could put together a choir to sing in sacrament meeting, and they let me! I wrote an arrangement of "Come, Come, Ye Saints," and 9 or 10 Elders have been coming to each rehearsal! I know that osunds super small, but it's 1/6 of the missionaries in the whole MTC haha so I call that a success:) The missionary who is in charge of music is the accompanist, I'm the conductor, and the Elders are going to sounds awesome on Sunday! Can't wait! There's an Elder from Centerville here!! His name is Darek Rojas, and he'll be serving the Santiago mission.l It's so fun having a "piece of home" here:) There is an Elder from Davis in my district and they are 3 Elders from Syracuse, so that's comforting! So much has happened with different people this week--one of our teachers got married, so we got to view her photography session outside of the temple and take pictures with her:) One of the Elders from my district suddenly got called out to the field yesterday!! He's been in Spanish Immersion for 9 years, so he knows his stuff, but it seriously came out of the blue for him to leave after only 2 weeks here. Basically, anything can happen:) 12 new missionaries moved in yesterday, and one of them was an Hermana, wahoo!! They're all Latinos, so we'll get to practice only speaking Spanish (with them) a lot! We got to leave the MTC/temple grounds for the first time this week, halelujah! We got permission to go running in the huge park that's across the street, and we got to go to a store that was like Walmart--it was my first experience being around the Dominicans, and they were awesome! We got to watch "Meet the Mormons"--it was totally different watching it as a missionary, but that made it even better! I've had a cold for most of the week, and several missionaries are getting sick as well, but since I've been working on sacrifice and service, I went running with my companion on my worst day--I know that sounds dumb, but she runs literally 50 miles at a time, so she NEEDS to run every day. I've learned that exercising with her is a way I can show my love to/for her, and it's really helped to strengthen our companionship:) Hermana Flake is AWESOME, I love her!! We have a blast together and help each other through everything, spiritually and physically. We can tell each other anything, and we've never had an argument, so everything's great on that front! It's a big blessing:) To be honest, this has been a hard, emotional week. Long story short, I've been oddly bipolar; I'll be the energizer bunny one minute and sad the next.The past few days have definitely gone by faster, but we haven't been learning as much Spanish as any of us would like, so I've been focusing on learning the doctrine and reading the Book of Mormon. Since I don't have my best friend, Laura, or dance or chocolate or anything regular like that to help me through this, I've been completely relying on Heavenly Father and reading the BOM to give me joy. Never have I enjoyed reading the scriptures so much as I have this week. 2 Nephi was especially fantastic--I've never loved it so much!! So much doctrine and awesomeness--I told Hermana Flake that I could simply read 2 Nephi and be like BAM the Church is true. Well, I can't only rely on that, there's still a lot more to know besides that...but point is, the scriptures are the most wonderful source of knowledge and joy that I know. I wish I could sit and read them all day, no joke. This experience has really made me turn to the Gospel as my #1 source of happiness:) I broke down last night and had a good, long talk with Hermana Flake. I decided to ask for a blessing from my district leader this morning, and it was amazing--all of the Elders in my district participated, and it was a very unifying, spiritual experience. My testimony of the priesthood was strengthened, and I knew that I was going to be okay. Right after that, we got to do sealings in the temple as a district, so we've been having a very Spirit-filled day. I love getting to be in the temple so often, it's been a total blessing. I'm going to miss looking at it every day so much. Through all of this, I haven't doubted the Lord or His presence in my life at all. I know that He's lifting me up, and as my district leader said in my blessing today, if I simply have faith and continue to diligently study the scriptures, I'll be alright. I know the Savior can help all of through the trials in our lives and in all we do. I've learned that if we give ourselves up completely to Him, we will be blessed continuously. I know with all my heart that Christ lives, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church on the Earth today. Thank you all for your love and support, until next week! Much love, Hermana Randall Family and Friends,
Hello!!! It's been a crazy first week here at the Dominican Rebublic MTC! I got here at 5 am on Thursday, July 16th, so out of 72 hours of being awake, I got 3 hours of sleep; Heavenly Father definitely helped me stay awake and alert:) I've been speaking and writing in Spanish so much that my English is officially terrible, so I'm sorry for all the mistakese that will come haha:) So much has happpened, but one of the most prominent things about life here as the TIME--it feels like we've lived here a month instead of a week! Iti's been so great getting to know the Hermanas and Elders; there are only 56 of us in the MTC, so we definitely get to know each other. The missionaries who were here 2 weeks before my group are headed to Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Santiago, DR. Everyone who came in the same time as me are serving in the Santo Domingo (the capital) East and West missions. They're all from the States except for 1 from Jamaica and 2 from Haiti. Wow, it's SO HUMID!! I'm getting used to that and the heat, though:) The Dominicans are the most welcoming people I have ever met, so I'm super stoked about getting into the field when I get to be with them all of the time. They appreciate any Spanish that the Gringos (Americans) can speak, and they love the Mormones (that's what they call the missionaries). I got to go inside the Santo Domingo temple for the first time today!! It's seriously only 200 feet, maybe less, away from the MTC, so I get to look right out my window each night and have that be the last thing I see before I fall asleep--incredible:) Even just walking around it during the day is amazing:) There are 166 Jamaicans here to do temple work, and since the MTC is also the temple visitors' center, they're staying with us! Because of that, the missionaries did 1 endowment session this morning, but from now on, we'll get to do sealings and more:):) I met my mission president and his wife when they stopped by! Can't wait to work with them! My MTC President is Mitt Romney's second cousin, so that's pretty neat:) President and Hermana Romney are the greatest, I love them SO much!! They're my parents here in the DR; they're with us all the time since the MTC is so small--I love that:) My companion is Hermana Jessica Flake from Nampa, ID, and apparently she was on both planes with me and the 5 Elders who flew out, but we didn't meet her until we go to New York. I was really worried at first--we're totally opposite people, but after the first 24 hours, we got along super well! She's pretty shy and quiet, but we balance each other out and work great together:) She trains for marathons and plays a bunch of sports, so she definitely motivates me to work out:) My district has 8 Elders and 2 Hermanas, including myself--Hermana Flake and I were the only new sisters, so there are 7 Hermanas in the whole MTC!! My district has a lot of fun and really gets along--halelujah!! Satan didn't work on me a whole lot in the months leading up to my mission, and that was a blessing...until he SLAMMED me this week. I'm not going to lie, this has been one of the hardest weeks of my entire life.ThankfulIy I was hardly homesick (I do love you, family), but I went through an INSANE roller coaster of emotions. I picked up the Spanish really fast the first three days--I could speak in whole sentences, and the 3.5 years of Spanish in school all came back to my remembrance. I got incredibly discouraged after that, though--I was terrified to pray out loud in Spanish, and since I don't like doing things unless I'm 100% confident about it, I didn't want to pray or go talk to investigators (in Spanish). My teachers basically only speak in Spanish, and I started to feel really incapable. My whole district has been frustrated, but we're trying to calm down and not put so much pressure on ourselves.I began to question my purpose and my reasons for serving a mission; Satan threw all the worst thoughts possible about the Church into my head, and he tried to make me get back on a plane and come home. I just prayed and prayed and tried to have an eternal perspective. I wanted to give up--it was so hard--but Hermana Romney came out the moment I needed her and talked to me about her experience as a mission president's wife and then as an MTC president's wife--that really helped. I'm so blessed to know her, I want to be just like her someday:) I asked for a blessing from President Romney (normally the District Leader would have, but we didn't have one yet), and he blessed me that I would have peace in my heart; it really helped. I've already memorized the missionary purpose, First Vision, and baptism commitment in Spanish!! I can also pray out loud and bear my testimony in Spanish and teach the first discussion about the Restoration in Spanglesh (Spanish mingled with English). We teach "investigators" (really our teachers) almost every day--it's terrifying when you can't speak all the words you want to say, but it's prepping us for sure! I know I can teach the people of the Dominican Republic with the Lord's help. I have a testimony of my Savior and El Libro de Mormon. I testify that this Gospel is true and that's it's the only true church on the earth. I love you all!! Thank you for your prayers and support! I'll send pictures next week!:) With much love, Hermana Randall |
Hermana Melissa Anne RandallDominican Republic Santo Domingo West Mission Archives
December 2016
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