Christmas week

Hi to you all!  We had the privilege of talking with Elder Stimpson online twice this week.  On Monday and Wednesday.  He is doing great.  Just that this week, the missionary work became a bit more laidback due to the request of their mission president.  The new rules were laid out to all missionaries, particularly during this week.  A lot of Dominicans usually celebrate this holiday with a lot of drinking and parties.  Mission president didn't want his missionaries to get into a dangerous situation on streets and nighttime.  He asked them to stay off streets and go to home at eight p.m.

Dominicans don't exchange gifts but celebrate with huge groaning plates and plates of food to eat.  After Christmas day, they usually give the food out to passerby and neighbors.  Gifts exchanging usually are done on Three Kings Day and that's on January 6th.  As in the words of Wikipedia:  Biblically, Three Kings Day commemorates the day that the three wise men, Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, visited baby Jesus after travelling across the desert for twelve days bringing him prophetic gifts. ... Here, in the Dominican Republic, there are many traditions that go along with Three Kings Day.Biblically, Three Kings Day commemorates the day that the three wise men, Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, visited baby Jesus after travelling across the desert for twelve days bringing him prophetic gifts. ... Here, in the Dominican Republic, there are many traditions that go along with Three Kings Day.

Elder Stimpson and his companion will be facing transfer day in two weeks from now and they are waiting to hear from their mission president on which day they will be having a zone conference.  Elder Stimpson also talked about soon having hump day in February.  He is very excited about that!!!

Here's an email we received from him last Monday.

hey how's it going? things are going good. things have been rolling along. we have been working with a good amount of people one was almost baptized until we found out that she wasn't really married. she told us she was but not civilly. but I think the missionaries will still try to work with her. but other than that we have some that could show some promise but it's still too early to tell.

we had a pretty eventful monday though. I bought a couple fun things for christmas like a blow up hammock, a yoga mat, and some chips mostly salt and vinegar. we at out as well at a place called jade teriyaki style. which seems like an american made restaurant but it has a dominican twist.

yesterday we ate with our land lord who lives just below us. they gave us chicharron and tostones made from ripe plantains. chicharron is a big chunk of pig fat fried and tostones are fried plantains here they call them fritos in the poorer parts.