Week 22

All is good here, so good to hear you guys are doing good, living up the holidays! haha snow

i am finishing this transfer the 29th of december, so we will see, i have been here a while, but there has been missionaries in my area for over 8 months before, and if i do stay here , i wont mind, its super awesome, its like my home, where i was born ;) in the mish...

i will be ready to skype, to the notes down and all, i will tell you around what time i should be able to on christmas next week when i write, we are trying to get into the church to do it, should be good! quick question, did you get my package? do you want me to open my gifts you sent when i skype you? or before? let me know!

really good week, miss you guys tons! dad there was a sweet christian church putting on a 3 day rock slash church reunion, they set up a huge stage thing and a bunch of speakers and they rocked out hard core, we were teaching and i was getting distracted cuz they were playing some of the christian rock songs i always listened to in my car, made me a little home sick... the DJing and the christian radio songs, but good times in all! i too remember kicking field goals and often show that pic to all the people here, they have never seen snow, so thats a good pic to show! haha

mom, wish i could be there to shovel, if you get a snow blower i will be angry when i get back, shoveling is one of our sacred tradtitions ;) cant wait to skype you guys christmas! love you tons!

so like i said, this week was awesome, some things that we did...

Temple trip for the mission, we got to go this wednesday, super awesome to be able to go, still interesting cuz everything is in spanish, but i can actually understand it now! its so cool, we got to hear from president corbitt, he is such an inspired man, love hearing him speak!

we had stake conference as well, had the presence of Elder Acosta of the 70 and he is a spiritual beast as well, he spoke  with such power, talked about the family and the home and how it is the best place to become converted, really cool talk, also Jesus got sustained to recieve the melchezidek priesthood, so cool to see that, he is so prepared, still leaves with us to preach and all!

also his wife katheryn is a great missionary, came to a lesson with us to teach the mom of recent converts Dawris Dayerin and Darlin, she is interested right now to hear from us, she has always been cool talking to us, but now we are actually teaching her, she is a member of the christian local church (which put on a sweet rock concert in our nieghborhood this week, sometimes i question why we dont rock out in the church;) haha anyways we were teaching her, and she believes everything that she heard, just believes that everyone that has enough faith in god will be saved, but she mentioned something cool, she said she always prays to god to know if she is in the right place, the right gospel, even though she has been a part of her church for a while, and thats when i testified.      I told her that as a missionary from a little town in Utah in the US i was sent here to teach people that were looking for the truth, that I believe I was sent to the DR to meet her (Chavez) and share this message with her, that this was the answer she has been waiting to hear, this is where god wants her. super powerful lesson, got a little emotional... we have another lesson with her this week, we will see how it goes, she is now praying to know if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the church that God wants her to be a part of. I know it is, because its true. the only true church on the earth.

SUPER COOL LESSON!

not too much else, we have 3 baptisms of the Family FRIAS this saturday, should be sweet, miss you all, miss the snow, miss the holidays, but i am really happy, know this is where im supposed to be :)

Here are me and my MTC buddies, ELders Beard, Allen, and Affleck, super good to see them!

all is well, talk to you guys next week!

ELDER AUGER

ps this is the concert getting set up the last night, i wanted to play those drums so bad!

 

Week 21

this week was an awesome one, we had another baptism, this kid is a stud, he is named stiven valdez, and he wants nothing more than to go to the temple and receive a calling in the deacons quorum, his baptism was awesome, elder call did the honors, he had to borrow my pants though haha. kinda sad though, his parents could get off work and school to come to his baptism, really just makes me appreciate the supportive and loving parents i have!

then we did an intercambio, or interchange, idk how to say it in english, but i went to the area of the zone leaders, and worked with elder carrillo for the day, he is stud, but has one less transfer than i do in the field, but he knows spanish and english, his parents are from mexico, but it was way cool. we had a sweet lesson, this 18 year old kid was listening to everything we taught, christs church, the apostacy, the restoration and all about joseph smith and he said he knew it was true, the i felt the spirit and invited him to be baptized........... he said he was already baptized in the catholic church and he is already saved but he liked our message and all...... man that hurts, next lesson elder carillo is gonna talk about the gift of the holy ghost and invite him to recieve that as well! haha

this sunday was great, had 12 investigators come to church and we taught 18 lessons with members this week which was just awesome! really working hard and loving it at the same time! we have 3 baptisms lined up for the 19th of decemeber, a father and his two sons, familia Frias, should be sweet!

spanish is still coming along, my accent is worse, but elder call is helping me with my grammar, so thats cool. he is a good guy, really knows his stuff, im learning tons from him!

all in all i couldnt be more blessed, this time of year its hard to be away from home, but i know that its for a good reason, the quest for souls of men, if anyone knows that song... if not look it up, its my favorite song right now on the mission!

I love you all and will be in touch next week! be safe and HLJ! ctr... hehe

ELDER AUGER OUT!

my DR grandma mary santana made us johnny cakes, we shared about the temples with her, really fun lesson! ;)

 here is the baptism of stiven valdez, kinda a crappy picture but you can still feel the spirit looking at it right??? ;)

Week 20

From Elder Auger:

So sorry I couldnt write you guys ysterday, it rained like crazy and we didnt have time because we went to a baptism in san Pedro, the area of elder call before he came here, and that took almost all day, but im safe and fine, its been a great week!

my weekly email to my mission president, thought it would be cool to share with all of you...

President Corbitt,

This week was an awesome one, the mission tour was so spiritually uplifting President Cornish was awesome to hear from, I had so many questions answered, recieved revelation for me and for some of my investigators and less actives that we are teaching right now, I really appreciate the spirit that i felt there and the spirit that has been with us since. we have been working hard here in paraiso oriental, elder Call is getting to know the area really well, we have been recieving a lot of new people to teach, and we have been working on reactivating as well, so things are going well, we will be having a baptism of Stiven Valdez this saturday, should be sweet, he is a spiritual stud, only 12 years old and the only thing he wants is a calling in the deacons quorum, so excited for that. we also have a family of 3 getting baptized the 19th of this month for the white night, which will be awesome, the are really progressing well, we are sure that will go through. 

with respect to what i am going to do differently and apply what i learned in the mission tour, i have thought about the following...

1. make our weekly and nightly planning more effective, remember that we are makeing plans of salvation for our brothers and sisters of the DR

2. continue studying personally and with our companions, we dont have too much of a problem there.

3. make sure to put my whole heart might mind and strength to the work, or be obedient with exactness, so that i can have the spirit with me, which helps us have charity for those around us, and with charity, we need not fear nor fail. 

Im already seeing changes in the way we teach, in the way i feel the spirit, and in the way our investigators are reacting to the message we share, like Elder Cornish said, miracles dont have to be seeing someone raised from the dead, but seeing someone converted in the heart. I have seen and am continuing to see miracles president, I can´t express how blessed i am to be part of this work, and experience the blessings that come from it. really has opened my eyes in a whole new way. 

I know this church is true, christ lives, and through him, we can live with our families forever, progressing spiritually in happiness and peace. 

Thank you for all you do,

Elder Auger¨

nuff said right? great week!

other things we did this week that were cool :)

celebrated momma castros birthday

had a thanksgiving feast in our district meeting, i wore a duck tye that i bought for 10 pesos, (it was a turkey for that day;)

made mangu, which is platanos mashed up like potatoes, really good

elder call and i made chicken alfredo

we also baught a huge pizza that was on sale for like 200 pesos, which is like 5 bucks!

Jesus (the recent convert and friend of mine;) cut my hair, looks pretty good i think :)

learning how to teach and understand better, really am doing well!

Thanks giving was this week and i thought a lot about what im thankful for, and it really comes down to 3 things

1. my family

2. my friends

3. and this gospel.

im grateful for so many things that root from those 3 things, and i wrote in my journal on thanksgiving like you did dad, writing all that i was thankful for. i really am so blessed, i dont know what i did to deserve such an amazing family, such amazing friends, and to be part of this amazing work and have a knowledge of this amazing gospel.

i know its true, i know im where im supposed to be, im happy, and im blessed.

i love you all, checking out from the DR

ELDER AUGER

 i wore my duck tie, imagining it was a turkey, but really miss you guys during this holiday season, but all is well!

 a sweet thanksgiving feast during our district meeting

 and a sweet haircutting from my homie jesus ;)

our big pizza we baught for dinner one night