6/11/18 pics

Dear Ya'll,

Pictures and short stories because I didn't think this email through this week. Good emails take time and planning! 

1- This is the Monument of Heroes of the Restoration. 

It's like the eiffel tower of Santiago.

2- Statues of Heroes all around it 

3- I told you I cut my hair

4- There are stray dogs on my street. I was here when this one was born. He was a cute and tiny little puppy. I named him Socrates and I call him Socks. (Don't actually pet him. That's gross) 

5- New Trio. Hermana Pollard, Sanchez and Hermana Clegg. Cool thing- 

In case you haven't noticed, I love the Sun  it's kinda my thing ya know? Well, Hermana Clegg has a thing too. She always says "XOXO, Hermana Clegg " with a little star! How cute, right? Well, when Hermana Sanchez got here, we asked her if she like the Sun, Moon, or the Stars. AND SHE CHOSE THE MOON!!   #PerfectCompanionship. #Goals #I'mTheBest.JK

With Stuff and Sunshine,

Hermana Pollard 

6/4/18 Hairy underpants?

Dear Ya´ll

Hermana Clegg and I have made some revolutionary changes this week.

1- I cut off all of my hair!

It was hot and I was impulsive

2- PANTS

To protect us from mosquitos and feel empowered 'feminist screech´

3- New Comp!

Bad things are happening in Nicaragua and all of the missionaries are being moved out. 10 of them came to my mission. Hermana Clegg and I are going to be in a Trio with one of them!! I´m so excited!! She´s going to arrive any minute, so I´ll tell ya´ll about her next week. 

y, ya.

hair and pants 

...hairy legs under pants

goals

With Love and Sunshine,

Hermana Pollard 

5/21/18 Developing Talents

Dear Ya'll

Don't volunteer to do something unless you actually know how to do it.

May 19 - Happy Birthday to my niece Braelyn,

and the baby of one of the families we're teaching. So on Saturday they had a little party for her, and we were invited! Whoo!! Free Cake! There were a lot of kids running around and playing. The mom, Francisca, said they wanted somebody to do Face-Painting, but couldn't find anybody that knew how. 

So I said "Yo puedo."

Yeah..I told them I could do it. Now, I've never actually painted anybody's face before unless you count my own makeup, but even then, I'm not good at my own makeup and I haven't worn a lot of makeup lately. Yet I volunteered to paint the faces of all these kiddos. 

Most of 'em wanted to be clowns.... why..? So I slapped a little white on the cheeks and red on the nose and called it good. It was actually kinda bad, but they kept lining up and asking to be clowns! They also requested butterflies, rainbows, and (my favorite) a Lion! I feel kinda bad because I didn't do a really good job, but they kids loved it. 

So actually, do volunteer to do everything even if you don't know how. Develop your talents, try something new! 

-here are the pictures of the kiddos-

I love you all so much! Please send me a little email about the talents you're developing and how you're bettering your lives! 

With skills and sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀

5/7/18 TOLLING CHICKENS AND BAPTISM

Dear Ya'll

Is it okay to troll chickens? But what if they deserve it? What if they wake two tired sister missionaries up every day at 4 in the morning? The chickens stand outside our window and scream in the morning. Our apt is on the 2nd floor, and there's a tree by the bedroom window. Everynight, 3 fat white chickens (whom we named Stanley, Stephanie, and Steven) sit on the branch of the tree. So we grab the branch of the tree and shake them around a bit to ruffle their fethers and troll them. Everytime we even walk past some chickens, Hermana Clegg starts sprinting away from me. She hates them.

Sorry Sienna. 

Baptism!

Francisca and Robinson had their baptism on Saturday!

Hermana Clegg and I get all pretty and go fill up the font and then have a few lessons and such. When we come back to check on the font it is a sickly green muddy color. I hiked up my skirt and waddled into the font to drain it and start over. I actually almost fell in, hehe.

Okay, I'm running out of time. Dang it, this story won't be as detailed anymore.

The baptism was supposed to start and 6. Many members came and we were all ready to start. But Francisca and Robinson never came. I feel like a bride left at the alter.

Francisca got caught up with something for work several hours away and couldn't make it in time. It was disappointing, but we'll just work for this Saturday. Satan will be working really hard against us. 

Agh! No time, but insert spiritual thought here. About being better and not being discouraged and I know the church is true and such. 

With Hope and Sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀

4/30/18 CURDLED MILK

Dear Ya'll,

Ya know when you're laughing to hard that you "die" or maybe you're so scared ya die. But "dying" is too boring. Hermana Clegg likes to say expired, like curdled milk. So this week we had a couple of curdled milk moments-

The Office Elder called and said President had a reference for us. This guy is very close to President, don't mess it up, contact him soon and call President back to report how it went. I felt a bit like curdled milk, no pressure right?

So we move all of our other appointments and spend a few hours trying to find where this guy lives. When we finally find the right house, we have a great lesson talking about the Restoration. He excepted a baptismal date so easily. It was great! We called President and start talking about it, and he tells us it wasn't his reference. It was a random guy that the Stake President met in the store one day. Stake Pres told Mission Pres and yeah. Just a normal reference, not VIP for President. However, he is a son of God. Heavenly Father thinks he's VIP and it was very important that we found him :)

Zone Conference!

It was amazing. Usually before Zone Conference, President tells everybody to prepare a talk about a chapter in Preach My Gospel. And then at the Conference we have a bit of a Hunger Games moment to decide who will actually give their talk. Curdled Milk moment when President called on me, out of hundreds of missionaries. Extra curdled because I hadn't actually written a talk! I winged it like a peanut and it went really well. 

My Comp's Milk gets curdled.

Lil Hermana Clegg has been here for like, 2 minutes, and Bishop asked her to speak on Sunday. She was a lil curdled. She was freaked out, but it went well. She just google translated her farewell talk and picked out stuff she could use in a non-farewell setting. She did a very good job, even though few people understood her.

My Comp gets Curdled Milk

This story is actually a lil gross. While we were in a Ruta (those lil taxi cars filled up like a clown car) somebody threw up on Hermana Clegg. He was a toddler, so we had literal curdled milk. Grody

Okay, these are more stories this week. Have fun!

With Milk and Sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀

4/23/18 LOTS OF PICS

Dear Ya´ll

LooK at this-

- My lil comp from Arizona bought a ´lil succulent to feel more homey

- We make banana pancakes every sunday night and watch church-movies (Hna Kennerley and I had a similar tradition....until we got sick from the junk food we ate)

- I had exchanges with hermana Lynch. We had a lot of fun taking goofy pictures

- Pretty view of mountains, downtown, a street, and flowery tree

- The snake soup from last weeks email

- We went to the zoo. Look at the english translation for this ¨toro cebu¨ thing. If that´s not confusing enough, in the cage was a llama. 

- A monkey at the zoo

- A couple of monkies at a zoo (us)

- I saw some of my friends from my MTC Group!!! That was so fun. They speak Spanish now...? When did that happen???

With pictures and sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀

 

4/16/18 Snake Soup

Dear Ya'll,

Okay, so. I'm an aunt!!! Well, I already was an aunt. But now I'm an aunt again! My beautiful sister Joslyn gave birth to another beautiful baby girl yesterday ❤❤❤ I'm so happy for her! 

This week a little lizard got into our house. He's chill. After spending 15 minutes trying to shoo him out, we just accepted it and named him Filip. And then later in the day we were just casually talking about Filip to one of our neighbors. But we don't know to say lizard. So we described the little guy to our neighbor and she told us the word was "culebra." Okay cool. Filip the culebra. But then she kept going on about how dangerous he was. And that we needed to get him out of the house immediatly. wow. okay, I just thought it was a little lizard, but I'll trust you Ramona. She told us to tell our landlady, Pina, so she could help take him out. So we go to Pina's house, and there are a bunch of big dudes hanging out there. A little akwardly we interupt and tell them we have a culebra in our house. Pina's mouth drops and everyone begins freaking out. They all rush up to our apartment to kill Filip. And as a let them in the door, I thought to myself ...."Either I don't understand how dangerous a lizard is, or they're overreacting, ....or culebra means something else...." So I grab my dictionary and found out that lizard is lagartija. As I explain this to them, everyone begins laughing their heads off. They see Filip scurry across the wall and laugh and laugh all the way out the door and downstairs. Culebra means snake. A couple minutes later, Pina returns with a bowl of Pity Soup. Because she pities us. But that's okay, now we have soup! It was good. 

I haven't seen Filip lately. Maybe he left too. 

This week I've been so impressed by children. The children are the best here. We're teaching a lot of families, and the children and youth are so much more willing than the parents. For example, one mom is hesitant about everything, but her 11 year old firmly bore her testimony that she knew what we taught is true. And she said she was definitly going to church on sunday, no matter what her mom did. Another young man we're teaching, age 13, went to church yesterday without his family. Another adorable 11 year old girl loves to go to church and hear our lessons. We taught her plan of salvation the other day and after we bore our testimonies at the end of the lesson, she wanted to bear hers. She told us "I know with all of my heart and all of my soul that you are going to the Celestial Kingdom. I know that Heavenly Father is proud of you! I know that what you teach me is true because I feel the Spirit so strongly whenever you're here and it's like all of my troubles go away and the moment you leave they all come back." This little girl is one of my favorites, she could get baptized this week, but we want to keep working with her family. They just need to be ye like the little children. Like Christ taught. Suffer the little children to come unto me, for as such is the Kingdom of God. I know this is true, the children are so humbley willing to learn, faithfully trusting, and happily following. If you're at a trialing time in your life, perhaps Heavenly Father is trying to teach you to be more humble, more faithful, and more happy. Trust Him and His plan!

With snakes and sunshine,

Hermana Pollard☀  

4/9/18 12 Weeks Doing Their part

Dear Ya´ll,

My new companion is Hermana Clegg!! An adorable gringita from Gilbert Arizona. She´s a ball of energy and we have a lot of fun. 

On Friday we had a meeting for all of the Greenies and their trainers. Hermana Castillo was reading the ¨12 weeks¨ training booklet with us. And stopped where it said ¨your goal is to help your companion to be the kind of missionary that, if called upon, could train a new missionary when they finish their 12 weeks of training.¨ And then she called attention to the fact that I was one such missionary. Shout out to my awesome trainer Hermana Kennerley for achieving her goal! 

And then President spoke to all of the trainers. And he began telling a story about 2 sister missionaries he spoke to recently. He talked about one of their investigators that received a strong testimony that everything was true. He knew the church was true, he knew what he needed to do. But he decided he wasn´t going to get baptized and join the church. He tried to justify his actions by denying his testimony. The sister missionaries were naturally upset. And then President explained that they weren´t failures. Not at all. They did their part. They brought the message to his heart. The Holy Ghost put it in his heart. But he put it out. There was nothing more for them to do. We respect agency. A successful missionary is not counted by the number of baptisms. A successful missionary does their part. All of their heart, might, mind, and strength. President explained that these 2 sisters were great missionaries. They did their part.

I was silently crying during this little talk. The Holy Ghost testified to me that my Heavenly Father was proud of me. He knew I did everything I could. I did my part.

President Castillo was talking about Hermana Kennerley and I, and the Pastor we were teaching.

I know the church is true. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. But in order to be saved, we have to do our part. We have to try with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength to be the best people we can be.

With love and sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀

4/2/18 Easter, Sweet Beans, Geneology Missionary style

Dear Ya'll,

Happy Easter!! Aww, I loved this Easter soo much!

So it's not just Easter, it is Holy Week. So this week I've been studying about the Atonement, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. I loved it! And then General Conference was the perfect way to end the Holy Week! Please tell me your favorite part of General Conference, and if you didn't see it, go watch!

What's Easter like in the Dominican Republic. A little different. There aren't many traditions. There's no school, no work, a lot of people go to the beach. And, most importantly, eat beans. Sweet Beans. "Habichuelas con Dulce." If you ask anybody "What are you doing for the Holy Week?" They say "Going to Grandma's to eat Sweet Beans" or "We're going to make Sweet Beans." So, my comp and I ate a LOT of Sweet Beans this week, because almost every house we went to would give us a cup. It's like a smoothie...made out of beans. Well, some people make it like a smoothie. Others make it like pudding. Sometimes it's hot, sometimes cold. Lumpy or smooth. It's just liquified beans with lots of sugar and cinnamon. Also with chunks of sweet potato. At first it was interestingly weird, but good. Then I was sick of it, but my the end of the week I was used to it and liked it. I prefer cold and smooth. We went to a frozen yogurt place today, and they even had a Sweet Bean flavor.

Also, we have transfers this week! I'm definitly getting a new compantion because Hermana Kennerley is going home 😢 So I'm also staying in Hato Mayor 😄 I love my area so much. I'll meet my companion on Wednesday, fresh from the MTC!

I just finished my first 12 weeks (2 transfers) of training! Whoo!
So your trainer is your "Mom" (in my case, she was Mum, because she's from NZ) And then your comp after your trainer is your Step Mom.

But I don't get a Step Mom.

I'm pregnant.

I'll meet my daughter at transfers this Wednesday.

I'm soo excited and kinda stressed. Advice?

With Sweet Beans and Sunshine,
Hermana Pollard ☀

3/26/18 Wonders of Wonders Miracles of Miracles

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles-
God took a Daniel once again,
Stood by his and side and- miracle of miracles-
Walked him through the lions den!

Okay, so it wasn´t a lions den. But Vicious Dogs! 3 of them in one day. Well, the first one was an adorable little puppy. While we were waiting outside a member´s house, a puppy kept biting at the end of my dress. He was sooo cute. 

And then later we were walking down a street, and a wild, big, angry dog started charging us, growling and barking like a lion. And my companion, my ¨mom¨ of the mission,  who´s supposed to teach me and protect me, grabbed me by the bag and threw me in front of this dog!!! Luckily, he was on a chain, that yanked him back right before he bit my leg off. My companion apologized and said she just ¨panicked¨ sph

And then later, this same day, we approach an investigator´s house. She had a vicious mean dog tied up in front too. We manage to run past him so we could knock at the door. But nobody was home, and now we´re cornered by the door. I distract the dog while my companion runs back. And then I try to run around him, but he bites the end of my dress and tore a little bit of it! But we got away fine.

Miracle of miracles

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles-
I was afraid that God would frown,
But like he did so long ago, at Jericho,
God just made a wall fall down!

One of our investigators lives in an apartment surrounded by a wall. We have no idea how to get in this wall normally. The gate is always locked and there´s no bell or buzzer. But we´ve managed to visit this woman about 6 times by means of miracles. The very first time, we check the car gate- closed and locked. We walk down a little bit and check the other gate- closed and locked. On our way back, we see the car gate wide open. No cars and come in nor out. It was nothing less than a miracle. We go inside and have a wonderful lesson. It has been like this every single time we visit this woman. The gate would miracuoulsy open, or somebody would forget to lock it, or a car would be leaving at just the exact time we were arriving. Never once have we had to turn away because we didn´t know how to get it. God has always provided a way. He knows this woman needs the gospel, and he´s not letting a simple wall stop her.

When Moses softened Pharaoh's heart, that was a miracle.
When God made the waters of the red sea part, that was a miracle too!
But of all God's miracles large and small,
The most miraculous one of all
Is that out of a worthless lump of clay,
God has made a man today.

Um...I´m not sure if I have a miracle for this part of the song...

The Spirit softens people´s hearts all the time!! Whoo

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles-
God took a tailor by the hand
Turned him around and- miracle of miracles- Led him to the promised land!

Um...It´s a miracle we don´t get lost. Our area is 3 times as big as most (Because it used to be 3 areas, now it´s just ours). There have been many times when we start to get lost, but then turn around and find we are where we´re supposed to be! 

When David slew Goliath (yes!), that was a miracle.
When God gave us manna in the wilderness, that was a miracle too.

We kinda started running out of money this week because we´ve been buying more snacks and such. So the other day we were thinking about how we can convince a member to feed us. We decided to buy something from a little place down the road. And he gave us free beans! Aww. And then suddenly our neighbor came by with lunch! She´s not a member or interested in the lessons, but just thought we would like some food (always). So manna in the wilderness. Whoo

But of all God's miracles large and small,
The most miraculous one of all
Is the one I thought could never be:
God has given you to me.

You there, reading my email. Yes. I love you. It´s a miracle that I have you in my life. I love you so much.

I like this song, I sing it a lot when little miracles happen

And miracles happen everyday

With wonder and sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀

3/3/18 If she weighs as much as duck she is a witch!

Dear Ya'll,

I'm going to keep this weeks email short and simple.

A couple of weeks ago, mom sent me a package of valentine stuff. Including some marshmellow Peeps. I think peeps are gross, and they just sat in the fridge for a while before we had the brilliant idea:

S'mores

smores from peeps!! What?? They were sooo good.

Did I even send pictures from the baptism??

I'm gonna do that now just in case

Okay, there were really good stuff this week, but I'm just going to share a funny story.

So we're teaching our cute young couple (the ones that are getting married soon) and I just notice a bit of garlic tied to a string above the door. We ask them about it, and she just casually says "oh, there's a witch that lives on this street, and last week she came and cursed the baby. So the garlic keeps her away." and we're just like.... ok..... so...ok. And we just sort of ignore that.

And then later that week we contact this old kinda crazy looking woman named Babara. And the first lesson was kinda weird because she wasn't really paying attention. We're just like "oh well." When we try to go back for a follow up appointement, she was never home. So we started to say her name more and more dramatically each time, like "Baahbarahh!!!" Because we could never find her. And then the next week we were on the street again and noticed her light on and decided to follow up and see if she was actually interested in another lesson. We knock on her door and she yells "Who is it??"

so I say "The Missionaries!!"

She doesn't respond. Maybe she didn't here me?

"The missionaries!!"

-still nothing-

"The Sisters!"

-nope

"The gringas!"

-silence

"the blondes!"

-

"Your neighbors!"
-

"Your friends!"
-

"The Mormons!"

-

"BAAAHHH BAAHH RAHH!!"

during this whole exchange, my companion is dying of laughter, and trying so hard to hold her laughter in, especially when I said Babara. I was laughing pretty hard too

But babara still doesn't answer the door.

Okay guys, be smarter than this. Don't pretend you're not home after you already say "who is it?"

My companion goes over to the window (invasion of privacy?) and can see her in the kitchen! Babara quickly ducks and tries to hide behind the table! She keeps peeking her head up and then ducking down again, like.... we can see you..? So I say "we know you're there! If you don't want to talk to us, just say so!" She still hid. Oh well. It was kinda funny.

But then a few days later we run into her on the street and she's totally friendly and open and pretends like she never hid. We put a date for another lesson. And when we go, she was there and didn't hide and opened the door and everything. But then she didn't pay attention at all in the lesson again and rambled about crazy stuff. So we're like "...okay bye.." She gave us the hibie-jibies (how do you spell that?)

And then when we left, I said "Maybe she's the witch that lives on this street." interesting.

That night, I had a dream that Hermana Kennerley and I were walking down the street, and I tripped (this happens in real life a lot). Hermana Kennerley doesn't notice and keeps walking. As I'm trying to get up, suddenly Babara is standing over me and she curses me!!! I dunno, maybe it wasn't a curse. It was in a Spanish, and I didn't understand it.

With Magic and Sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀