2/26/19 By their fruit ye shall know them.

Dear Ya'll

I can speak Spanish. I can understand other Latinos. Just not Dominicans very well. When it's a short back and forth conversion, I'm good. But when they start telling stories? I don't understand a lot. And I actually really like it, because it's funny when Bienvenido tells stories and I have no idea what's going on. I just see this old man frantically waving his arms around, he talks in different voices of the people in his story, one time he picked up a chair and put it on his head...It was relevant to the story, but I just think he looks crazy and it's more entertaining that way.

Do you know the scripture "by their fruits ye shall know them?"

I remember my dad one time doing a little rant about this. Just look at the "fruit," look at what good comes from the church. And if it's good fruit, it's a good church. The other day, Bienvenido said the same thing. Interestingly enough, Bienvenido sells fruit. So he was talking about the fruit of the church: humanitarian aid and missionary work and all these other good jazz.

And then he said what every missionary dreams of hearing their investigator say: "Yo se que esta iglesia es verdadera."

He also said he was willing to leave his congregation and get baptized without them if he needed to.

but he really doesn't want to leave them. He wants them to come with him. We're trying to start teaching more of them so they'll be prepared to get baptized soon too. He won't commit to baptismal date until he's finished reading the Book of Mormon. But we don't know how close he is tho.

In other news:

We're having a wedding!!!

So like, basically nobody in the DR is married Legally. They just call eachother husband and wife and have their lives and their kids, but they never got married. One of our investigators that was progressing so well suddenly hit this wall because her "husband" doesn't want to get married. We're not even asking him to change anything about his life or have a wedding, Just sign the paper! But he doesn't want to get married, and she's not willing to move out. So we're just kinda stuck. Hermana Kennerley says this happens all of the time. She has never successfully married a couple during her entire mission.

until now

We began teaching this one young couple Jose and Yeneldy. They're great. When we taught the lesson on Chastity, he said "so we have to get married?" and we're like "yeah..." and he said "We're gonna get married then." and then he looks at his "wife" and just has a big smile on his face, and she smiles too. They're just so in love they have no problems getting married. And they actually want a little wedding, not just sign the paper. Which is great! We can have the wedding in the chapel. They'll get married on the 9th and baptized on the 10th ❤❤❤ Hermana Kennerley and I are excited to plan this wedding! But we have no idea what we're doing. We're going to try to get as much help from the ward as we can. If you guys have any ideas or advice or suggestions, please share!!

Oh, and after 2 months of lessons with Jose and Yeneldy, they finally tell us his name isn't even Jose. It's Argenis. What the heck? How did we not know? They said we're literally the only people that call him Jose. Well...I'm glad we found out before we made the invitations.

Please send me pictures!!

All of ya'll! Of anything and everything. What's new and what not

I'll send some too!

With love and sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀

2/19/18 Be an example!

Dear Ya´ll

Happy Valentines Day!

Thank you Mom and Park City Finance for the packages ❤ We handed a lot of candy out to the kids here

Want the update on Bienvenido, my pastor? He´s so great. And he really likes me (possible more than Hermana Kennerley but don´t tell her that). The other day we were just talking about our missions and how Hermana Kennerley is going home in April. And then he´s like ¨but Sister Pollard only has a few months right? She´ll be around for a while.¨ And I said yeah, but that I could be transfered to a different area. He looked so sad!! He said ¨When she gets transferred, we´re moving there too!!¨ It made me feel so loved ❤

Remember how Bienvenido loves it when I say I´m happy? Well Friday morning we stopped buy and I told him I was sad. He almost fell out of his chair ¨No!! Polar can´t be sad!!!¨ and I explained ¨I´m sad because I´m not going to be here tonight.¨ We had a lesson with him planned for that night, but I was going on exchanges in another area. He looked so upset, and we explained it was only for a day, and that calmed him down a bit. And while I was leaving, he said ¨Hermana Pollard, don´t stay there, okay?¨ ❤❤❤ favorite investigators. I hope ya´ll have somebody that makes you feel loved. Hey, I love you!!!! 

So my exchange was good, but I really didn´t want to leave my area because we had great lessons planned. The only interesting that about my exchange is that Hermana Contreras is really scared of butterflies. And one of them got into the house. She began mercilessly spraying her bug spray everywhere. And then she threw her shoes at it, and then she began wacking it with a broom. All the while screaming her head off. Eventually, it staggered out the window. 

After the exhange, I asked Hermana Kennerley about the lesson with Bienvenido, and she said she didn´t have the chance to teach him because soon after they got there, another Pastor showed up. His ¨supervisor¨ and they went outside to talk. She couldn´t hear exactly what he said, but the SuperPastor did a lot of yelling and waving the Bible around and Bienvenido looked so sad. 

He told us he´s been receivng a lot of attacks from other Pastors in the area and 8 members of his congregation. The other 12ish members are actually interested in hearing from us, but we haven´t had the chance to teach many of them. 

We do visit Bienvendio often and just talk about the Book of Mormon. The last time we went, we read about Lehi´s dream in 1 Nephi 8. We talked about how Lehi knew the joy of the ¨tree of life¨(gospel) but no matter what he did, not all of his family would join him. We also talked about the ¨great and spacious building¨ (the world) and how they attack the saints, but we must remain true to the testimonies. Bienvenido felt a little better after that and said that he knows the Book of Mormon is true (he´s reading it from cover to cover. He´s almost done) and he knows what he needs to do.  But we still haven´t been able to set a date for baptism because he doesn´t want to leave his congregation. We´re going to try harder this week to have the time to teach more of them. 

Man, I have another great story I want to tell, but I feel like this email is long enough

I´ll just do a few short stories to end-

Bienvenida and Jorge, the ¨free baptism¨ got baptized! I wrote about them last week, so that´s fine. I have some super cute pictures but my camera is being silly right now. 

Pockets in skirts are great, until you forget that you left stuff in them

Like starbursts, that melt and get all sticky

Or your white handbook, that you accidentally wash and destroy and you have little shreds of paper on ever piece of clothing you own

Oh, speaking of white handbook (the little booklet of missionary rules). I have a story about Obedencia 

Always be obedient, because 

a) it´s a commandment

b) you get blessings

c) you´re an example

This story is about point C. Often, Hermana Kennerley and I have really great lessons at night that last til 9`20 ish. They latest we´re allowed to be out is 9´30. And many of our lessons are far away. So after the lesson, we have to run home. It´s exausting and difficult with our bags and books and such. But we run our fastest because we want to be obedient and home on time. 

And another one of our rules is that we can´t teach men alone, we must have a woman present. This rule is sometimes frustrating, especially when we want to teach Bienvenido and at the last minute our woman cancels on us. Such a case happened the other day. We go to Bienvenido´s house and see that he invited many members of the congregation for a lesson. All men. We told him we won´t be able to have the lesson right now, because we didn´t have a woman. Some of the other people began questioning the rule and why we were obeying it, saying it was fine to just teach the lesson anyway. But we knew we couldn´t possibly teach without the spirit, and we couldn´t have the spirit if we were being disobedient. And Bienvenido spoke up for us, saying that it´s good that we´re determined to follow the rules. It makes us better ¨evangelistas¨ He then testifies to his friends that he has seen us running home at night. He looks out his door and can see us running down the street, determined to be obedient, and that is something he really admires about us. And because of that example, he knows we´re good ¨evangelistas¨ 

So, remember that people are watching what you do. Whether your representing your family or your school or your church or your Savior. Be a worthy example and make their name proud. 

With love and sunshine

Hermana Pollard ☀

2/12/18 Baptize every single one!

Dear all Ya´ll

Okay, so Bienvenido, the Pastor that we´re teaching? He spoke to his congregation about us and his desire to be baptized. They told him ¨where you lead, we will follow¨ (small gilmore girl reference ❤). So that´s pretty cool, but also pretty stressful. Hermana Kennerley and I are overwhelmed with how much we have to do. Our area is so big, and we´ve been having a lot of success. Missionary work is so cool! 

We don´t go tracting (knocking door to door) and rarely ask for referels and we still find 12-20 new investigators every week. Yesterday, over 20 new people came to church! Many investigators have a date to be baptized, and we got two new investigators that are like a gift from Heaven (even though we´ve already received so many blessing). We call these new investigators our ¨free baptsim¨ because it´s a mother and a son that were staying in New York for about a month. While there, they met the missionaries, received all of the lessons, obey all of the commandments, gained a strong testimony of the book of mormon, and had a date for baptsim. But, before that date, they came back to the Dominican Republic. So the New York Sisters did all of the work, and now Hermana Kennerley and I get to have their baptism. It´s so cool, oh, and her name is Bienvenida. She´s single and wants a husband. Do you know who else is single and wants a wife? Bienvenido, our pastor. (ship ship)

So, Hermana Kennerley and I got a call from President Castillo. We had asked him if we were allowed to teach an entire congregation. He said he wants to meet Bienvenido. So we set up another lesson with Bienvenido and President came too. It was so cool to have a lesson with President! They day before, we told Bienvenido who President was and how this would be a cool opportunity for him. The time of the lesson came and Hermana Kennerley and I met President in the chapel. And then a couple of minutes later Bienvenido showed up. He was wearing dark pants, a clean white shirt, and a green tie. He looked like a member- like a missionary. President was shocked ¨this is him?? All he needs is a namet ag, and he´s a missionary!¨ (by the way, one time Bienvenido did ask us what it takes to be a missionary). During the lesson, we read the story about King Lamoni´s conversion and then all of his people too. Bienvenido loved the story, he loves the Book of Mormon and keeps talking about how the Book of Mormon and bible support each other, but he recognizes the Book of Mormon is ¨more pure.¨ President was so impressed. And Bienvenido once again expressed his desire to be baptized, but he won´t commit to a date because he doesn´t want to leave his congregation behind. He asked for our help. President promised him that we were going to baptize every single one of them. The spirit was so powerful. it wasn´t ¨we´re going to try¨¨or ¨we´ll baptize the ones that are interested¨ No. We are going to baptize every single. one. With tear filled eyes, Bienvenido expressed his gratitude. And then he and President became friends, so that´s cute. 

Happy Birthday Sienna

On Sunday, I sang in the ward choir. I actually was almost the accompanist for ward choir, but they decided my voice was more important and someone else could play. We sang ¨Yo trato de ser como Cristo.¨ and I just cried a bit. I´ve been singing this song since I was 5, but it´s still so applicable and true. I am trying to be like Jesus. 

Happy Birthday Sienna

- Hemana Pollard ☀

2-5-18 Teaching with the spirit.

Dear Ya´ll

Remember when one guy told me I had a Russian accent? Thank goodness that went away! I was talking to another man, and he started laughing. What? Do I sound Russian? No, of course not. I sound Japanese. Yes, I have a Japanese accent when I speak Spanish...? Hm, I don´t believe him, almost everyone else says I speak great. 

So, we had a really great lesson the other day. And as we were leaving, Hermana Kennerely and I were talking about how well it went. And then something happened to me that happens quite a bit in the Book of Mormon- I fell to the earth, being overpowered by the Spirit. (Alma 19) That´s what I try to tell people what happened. You could believe this story or the ´other story´ where I just tripped. It was pretty embarassing. And I got a big scar on my leg. Add this big red road rash to my chicken-pockish bug bites and you get everybody distracted by my legs. Lessons are intererupted and disturbed by them! I just keep saying ¨no miralos!! no miralos!¨

They´re starting to heal and it´s not as bad as the first few days after I tripped- I mean was overcome by the spirit. 

Missionaries always do the Watson Walk.

We got more copies of the Book of Mormon!! Remember we ran out? Yeah, we got a few more. Whew. But now we´re all out of Restoration pamphlets. Dang it. I found one in the closet that´s written in Creole (the language of Haiti). I decided bringing that was better than nothing and told my companion that I had faith we would find at least one Haitian to teach that day. And guess what? We sure did. A nice Haitian lady invited us in and we had a good lesson, but I´m not sure how much she understood. But at least she has the Creole pamphlet to explain everything. We also have a Creole Book of Mormon in the house, and we´ll bring it to our next lesson later this week. 

I made a pun!!! All by myself!! In Spanish!!!!!!! I was so proud, and I think this is the moment that I can say I´m fluent. Here´s how it happened- 

When of the members, Lillybeth, came to a lesson with us. The investigator asked where she´s from, upon learning she was Dominican, he was like ¨oh, Doesn´t she look a chinese?¨ And I said ¨un CHIN-O.    JAJAJAJA¨ Because in Spanish, ¨a bit¨ is Chin. and ¨Chinese¨ is Chino. hehehe

That akward moment when 2 Jehova Witnesses show up at the same house at the same time as 2 Mormon Missionaries. I thought it was funny. The Jehova Witnessess looked annoyed. Like, we both walked up to the gate at the same time, and they´re like ¨oh, are you going in here?¨ and we´re like ¨yeah, are you?¨ And they´re like ¨yeah¨ And we introduce ourselves and ask if they belong to a religion, and then they reveal that they´re the Jehova Witnesses and then it got a little akward like in Old Western Movies when the cowboys meet in the middle of the square and say ´this town aint the big enough for the both of us¨ And then the investigator walks outside and sees us. And who´s she gonna choose??? Us of course. The Jehova Witnessess left first, (WE WON) but then we left too because the investigator said she was Catholic and had no interest in changing (Nobody won!!). Hehe

We also had an akward moment when knocking some doors at an apartment. We knock the first door, wait a minute, and decide nobody is home. We shift a couple feet over and knock the next door. Suddenly Door Number 1 opens, so we shift back and start to introduce ourselves. But then Door Number 2 opens too!! so we stood akwardly in the middle and introduced ourselves and asked if we could set up a lesson sometime. Door 1 was interested, Door 2 wasn´t. Whoo!

Our investigator that came to church in the rain, Hairoli, is so amazing. We began teaching her little brother. And when we got to Book of Mormon, we asked Hairoli if she could explain what she remembered. And then she proceeded to explain the whole thing perfectly, even remembering Moroni´s name and that he was the son of Mormon and other little details like that. My companion and I were stunned and so impressed. I feel like missionaries picking a favorite investigator is like parents picking a favorite kid, but oh well. Hairoli is one of our favorites.

And so is Bienvenido. He´s a favorite too. Okay, I mentioned him last week. He´s a pastor of another church? We´ve had a few more lessons with him and it´s absolutely awesome. When we taught Plan of Salvation, he kept saying ¨wow...we didn´t know this..Thank you for teaching me this.¨ My companion did most of the talking in that lesson, but at the end I bore my testimony that the Plan of Salvation is also the Plan of Happiness. And I just spoke about being happy in this life and in the next life with our families. And the Spirit was so strong, and Bienvenido recognized it too. He looked at Hermana Kennerley and I and said that he could feel the Spirit when I spoke about happiness. It was so cool.

At another visit later on, he and Hermana Kennerley talked and talked and I was really struggling to understand what was happening. But then he looks at me and says ¨how are you?¨ I give a big grin and say ¨happy¨ and then he said this is something very special. That everytime he asks me, I´m just happy, even when I have no idea what´s going on. he also says I´m a good listener and don´t talk much. But honestly, I don´t have a choice. I don´t know what´s happening. 

We gave him a tour of the chapel and he was so respectful and reverent and kept saying he felt underdressed, even though we were just walking through on an empty Wednesday night.

Later in the week, we talked to him again, and he began telling us about a meeting he went to with the other Pastors in the area. He went to the meeting with his Bible and Book of Mormon in hand. They all began getting upset at him, claiming Mormons don´t believe in Christ or the Holy Ghost. And then he began defending us and the Book of Mormon. He testified that the Book of Mormon is indeed a testament of Christ. 

Hermana Kennerley are so excited for him. He gave us a little tour of his chapel too and said ¨I want to give my church to your church¨ and he mean everything. He wants to be baptized. He wants his entire congregation to come too. He want to donate the very building to our Church. He testified that he knows he doesn´t have the authority to be a Pastor and that he loves how the Book of Mormon and Bible testify of eachother. He excitedly asked us when the next baptism is. He came to church last week with his entire family and a few members of his congregation. We´re going to have a big lesson with them later this week.

President Nelson gave a talk in the last General Conference about an African tribal King who expressed if he was baptized, he would bring his whole tribe with him. This certaintly reminded us of Bienvenido, and we gave him the same response President Nelson gave the king- That conversion and salvation are individual and personal. He said he understood, but he´s their Pastor (in spanish, this also means Shpepherd), and that he felt responsible for them. He didn´t want to leave anyone behind.

I am so excited for Bienvenido and to be participating in this marvillous work and wonder.

I too testify that the Book of Mormon is a testament of Jesus Christ, and that because of it, we have addition knowledge about our Heavenly Father´s Plan of Happiness for us.

With happiness and sunshine

Hermana Pollard ☀

1-29-18 The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up!

Dear Ya´ll,

First of all, do you know how difficult it is to teach people the importance of the Book of Mormon and commit them to read it and get all excited about it and then not have one?? Like ¨I know this book can bless your life, will you read it?¨  and they say ¨Yes, I really want to¨  and then you say ¨Great....we ran out so...just wait a week¨  We don´t have any Books of Mormon. Book of Mormons...debate among yourselves. It´s so difficult. We have so many new investigators and we can only teach the first part of the restoration and then we´re like.. ¨so...¨ 

it´s difficult. We called the Elders several times and they ran out too and don´t know when we´ll get more.

Last week we took 2 routas (remember what that is, right) into the big part of town to go shopping at the nice store ´bravo.´ We bought a TON of food and as we were leaving we realized we had made a huge mistake. We forgot that we had to carry all of the food back to the routa, squish in with 5 other people, and then get out of that and carry all of the food to a different routa, squish with 5 other people, and then get out and carry all of the food to our house... We did it!! I was so proud of myself, I felt like Matt Meese in the one Studio C where he wants to carry all of the groceries in 1 trip. I had to carry most because my companion was trying to keep the eggs from breaking. But we made it home, no eggs broken and everthing fine! Next time, we´re not going to Bravo and we´re buying a lot less. We learned our lesson. 

The best advice to all of my friends on missions now or about to go on missions - (and if you´re not a missionary, apply as best you can) - Get an investigator who is a baker. and teach them in their bakery. And everytime you go, he will give you fresh, hot bread. Also, get a lot of investigators that live near the bakery, so you can pass buy multiple times a day and get more bread. Trust me, this is essencial

We went on exchanges this week! I got to go to Sister Stephens area and it was the best because her apartment has hot water!! 

Names. Okay, so we have 2 investigators that are twins right? They look exactly the same. And their names are Jr. Jose and Jose Jr. seriously. 

My favorite investigator is named Bienvenido Feliz (Welcome Happy). When we first met him, he kept talking in ¨we,¨ Like ¨if it is true, we will get bauptized.¨ And my companion and I were a little confused, and thought he probably just meant his family. But it turns out he was talking about his church! He´s a pastor of some of other church but he´s so humble and willing to learn and he´s reading and praying about the book of mormon and wants to bring his whole congregation with him! We invited him to come to church and he said ¨okay, I´ll try to bring everyone.¨  my companion and I were shocked and throughtout the week when we´d check up on him and ask if he was still planning on coming to church he said, ¨well, I´m not sure if we´ll all be able to come, but we´re in communication now and planning it. Do you think we´ll all be able to fit? There´s 26 of us.¨ My companion and I were so excited and we´re like ¨Yes they´ll fit!! I´ll sit outside if I have to!¨  We were so excited on sunday...And then it rained. And Dominicans are like Cats. They don´t like getting wet. They won´t leave their house if it´s raining. Most of the members don´t even coming to church on Sunday. So neither did Bienvenido and his congregation. Hopefully next week.

My other favorite investigator is Hairoli. We were walking in the rain a couple of weeks ago and this woman comes out of her house and yells at us to come in and get out of the rain. My companion and I don´t mind the rain, but oh well. We go inside and she offers us a nice drink and says ¨please share with me.¨ So we share the restoration and she was very receptive and excited. And all of the lessons with her after that went really well. And then on sunday, when not even most of the members come to church because of rain, she came. She woke up Sunday morning and was sick, she couldn´t even talk. And it was raining really hard. But she said ¨I can´t miss church again.¨ (she didn´t make it the first week we invited her). So she came to church. In the rain, when she was sick, she brought her little brother and her 2 toddlers too! Oh, and she lives pretty far from the church, and she´s pregnant, and, she didn´t even have an umbrella. I was so proud of her. She´s getting bauptized in a few weeks.

I was reminded of a Primary Song

1.     The wise man built his house upon the rock

The wise man built his house upon the rock,

The wise man built his house upon the rock,

And the rains came tumbling down.

2.     The rains came down and the floods came up,

The rains came down, and the floods came up,

The rains came down, and the floods came up,

And the house on the rock stood still.

3.     The foolish man built his house upon the sand

The foolish man built his house upon the sand,

The foolish man built his house upon the sand,

And the rains came tumbling down.

4.     The rains came down, and the floods came up,

The rains came down and the floods came up,

The rains came down, and the floods came up,

And the house on the sand washed away

With faith and sunshine,

Hermana Pollard ☀

1-22-18 Routas, Bug bites and the Gift of Tounges

Dear Ya´ll

Lemme explain-

My Area

Is called Hato Mayor. It´s a huge area because it used to be two. I'm kinda stressed about that. Dominicans are loud! They play music all of the time and they´re so loud it shakes their houses AND their neighbors houses too. And there's also roosters crowing and dogs barking and motorcycles revving. The first few nights were difficult to sleep, but I´m used to ignoring all of those sounds now and only waking up to the small beep of the alarm. 

We walk almost everywhere unless it´s super far or we´re late, then we take ¨routas¨ which are little cars that drive on a route, kinda like a bus but a lot smaller and they don´t have designated stops, you just flag them down like a taxi. But the routas are also really really...junky. Like, a pile of scrap metal held together with...faith? Like, not even duct tape. I actually love them because they remind me of Dad´s Jetta, and then I just get all sentimental. But they´re actually in worse condition than the jetta! And, they pack people in them like a clown car. We just sit on top of eachother with random limbs hanging out the winds. They fit 7 people in a car built for 4 or 5. It´s so fun, and a good way to contact 😉

My Companion

is awesome. She´s from New Zealand (I love you more Maddy!!)

She´s my trainer, so I call her ´mom´ (I love you more Mom!!!)

But I also call her ´hermana (sister) Kennerley, so I guess I should also say- (I love you more joslynkrissikendylsiennalilly!!!)

My language-

I can´t understand very much, but I can speak very well. Especially during lessons, Hermana Kennerley tells me my Spanish is perfect during a lesson, and I don´t even remember what I said. Many members that I meet tell me that they can tell I have the Gift of Tongues. cool! I just wish I had the gift of interpretation of tongues too, because I have no idea what anyone is saying. 

I´ve also been told I have a Russian accent...so okay

And I feel like Sienna, because I don´t know how to say my name. Dominicans can´t pronounce Pollard right, so I try to start saying it they way they like to, but it´s hard to go against 19 years of training. 

The People-

I met a woman named Rayna! And when she said that, I just made a little gasp and was about to say ¨that´s my name!¨ but I wasn´t sure if I should, because now my name is Hermana Pollard, not Rayna. But then my companion said it, so it´s fine

The other day Hermana Kennerley and I noticed we had scheduled a lesson with somebody named Kristina, but we could not remember at all who she was. We checked our addresses and area book and everything else, but couldn´t find anybody named Kristina. We prayed that we would remember, but nobody came to mind. So we made different appointments and went about our day. Well, those other appointments fell through, and then we felt prompted to visit Anerys, a young man who took a few lessons with his friend. We go over to his house, but he wasn´t home. His mom was, and we had contacted her once before and decided to have a lesson. Before hermena Kennerely said the opening prayer she said ¨okay, and your name is..Kristina¨ and in that moment we remembered. It was so cool that we were led back to her without knowing it! 

Measles? chicken pox? acne on my legs?

Nope. Bug bites

I either forgot to use my repellent one day, or it wore off, or it just plain didn´t work.

But I am covered in mosquito bites on just one part of my ankle. So I think I just missed a spot one day. I don´t have a picture, but it honestly looks like chiken pox or something because there´s so many in just one area. But it doesn´t bother me, I don´t scratch it and I´m not sick. It just looks bad and everybody thinks Hermana Kennerley is a bad mom. But you know, I´m allowed to wear pants on my mission for this exact reason- mosquitos. So I decide to wear my pants one day. But every member judged me! they kept asking Hermana Kennerley if I´m allowed to do that. Yes. Yes I am. But when I wear my pants I don´t feel like a real missionary and the members give me weird looks. Plus I honestly prefer skirts. So I´ll just remember to thoroughly put on bug spray. 

okay, that´s enough stories for this week

Tell me about what´s going on in that place!

I´ll try to send pictures

-first baptism

-companion

-movie night snacks

With happiness and sunshine

Hermana Pollard ☀