January 6, 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL. To celebrate, we girls went on the roof and drank eggnog, ate chips and painted our nails. We stayed up til midnight that night and chitchatted like girls do. GNO all the way.

 The area is pretty much dead. :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) Those are all forced smiles. Yayyy and stuff. We did a lot of contacting. People either told us that they didnt have time "ever", they were less-active and didnt want anything to do with the church, or they'd tell us to come by later and they werent there. The problem with this town is that it's so small, so everyone and their dog knows who we are, and they don't really have the desire to change their party lifestyle. Our investigator who was supposed to get baptized on Saturday didn't show up to church yesterday, so we have to change her date back a week. That was such a bummer. You wanna know why she didn't show up? Because it rained. Of course. Of course she didn't show. Because if she had walked outside, her hair would've gotten uncurly, and then she'd have to go to the salon again :) She showed up to church 8 times in a row, but now yesterday. Haha awww man. 

I'm always being watched. Being an American in the DR is weird enough, but being a blonde american missionary just tops everything. I am definitely the minority, haha. During my 2nd transfer, my mom-in-the-mission and I were walking down the street, and this girl stopped us and told us how people like us because we're always laughing. Then she called herself our #1 fan. It just goes to show that people notice you, even if you think they don't. Even now we'll be contacting, and people will say "Oh hey Hermana Booshlay!" and I don't even know them. Gotta love these crazy people. 

As we were talking as a house, we decided that parents shouldn't be above having sitdown talks with their kids, or saying no to them. There was an apostle who said (I dont remember which one) that parents have to be annoying and be upfront. They can't be best friends and assume everything is fine. Satan works quietly through young generations, and these young generations need parents who won't only rely on church activities and church on Sunday to give their kids everything they need to stick on the right track. (DC 10:33. DC 78:10) I'm not getting upset about my own parents, I love them to death :), but it's just frustrating when parents are not upfront with their children when they need them the most. 

We went up to this pretty gnarly waterfall today as a zone. It sure was a beaut. Pics attached:

I did get one of the packages from my parents this week! Today actually :) i was beginning to think that Tom Hanks was keeping care of it on some stranded island. 

Y Bueno. Hope you all have a splendid week and I hope that I find Peanut Butter (Modern Day Manna for Missionaires) at La Sirena. Globalization Rules.

Hermana Buhrley

Hermana Deleon and I had a present to give to this elder, which was a CD full of DR music CRAP. It's the worst music ever because it's super annoying and just noise. On the front, she was like, "Put something inspirational in English!" So I did just that. Thought you'd like it, considering you're an English teacher and all :) Love you.