The email came to us from Elder Stimpson yesterday as this:

hey guys hows it going? Its going pretty well for me. we are now hitting  week 4 of training with my kid. he said that the time has gone by really fast. which means we are working hard. the work has been going slow not to many people progressing but we are working hard. I guess that comes when you whitewash. but besides that everything is going well. I found a short sword today I thought about buying that but I haven't come to a decision yet. finally I might be able to get a camera thought. I was not able to find one here in the capital so I included it in my email to the president and guess what happened. he called me the day after telling me his wife could help me get one through amazon. she explained how they get it here and it will be a lot more reliable than mom sending it through DHL. as well as cheaper to get it here. they charge by pound so we might only need to pay a few dollars. but the wife of the president has an account in Miami, florida. amazon will send it there and from Miami to the Dominican. but they are not allowed to open the box unless she is there to pick it up. that way they can't steal it and if it is stollen amazon will send another for free.

Chat with our Elder was sporadic yesterday due to me having to take Anna to her appointment to repair a broken part of her braces.  Elder Stimpson told me that they still are working with some with church attendance.  That is other obstacle Dominican natives face- church attendance is important part of qualifying for baptism.  They have to go to the church at least three times before they can be baptized and it often was indicator of how committed they are.  Since Elder Stimpson and Elder Bolman are whitewashing, they had to start from scratch in finding people and making contacts.  They said that ward is very wonderful and supportive in missionary efforts.

As you can note from above, because of having no camera to use, Elder Stimpson had no picture to share with us.  He is working on that.

Adjusting to the new area

Our Elder Stimpson finally shared with me on next P-Day where he is at now.  The new area is Los Alcarrizos and he and his new companion is whitewashing the area.    At the moment, he is in his fifth area and Elder Bolman became his eleventh companion.  He just is out for eight months.



Elder Stimpson and Elder Bolman are doing well.  They moved into apartment that once belonged to Assistant president and his companion.  Elder Stimpson and Elder Bolman wee working so hard to settle in.  Of course because they are whitewashing the area, they had to begin again with missionary work.

Elder Stimpson told me a funny story too.  They have the biggest church building in the entire Caribbean area.  The building have everything you need for a church.  Gym, kitchen, foyer and the entire kit.  Well, when they were in the area, they needed to go to bathroom and they decided to use church building for bathroom stop.  All missionaries have keys to church buildings for the purpose of mission work.  When they entered the building, the alarm went off.  Elder Stimpson was so frantic, made many calls.  The bishop gave him instructions in disabling and after disabling, he was able to calm down and go to the bathroom.

All church buildings have steel rails to their windows for protection.  So expect to see that in Dominican Republic.