2 week email!

Hola mis amigos y amigas! Especially you, you gorgeous thing you. (It's up to all of thou to figure out who that was directed at.)

First off, I want to apologize for not being able to get to everyone's emails. We're only allotted a small slot of time, so I have to juggle my letters with care. (Brady, I still need you to teach me how to juggle.) Rest assured, I do READ all of them. I just can't reply sometimes. (Don't hate me too much...) ;P

Week numero dos down here in the land of the ubber friendly Dominicanos! I've totally adjusted to the change (I've always been a quick learner [except when it came to listening to Madre] ;P ), and my prior knots of emotional turbulence have totally dissolved. En serio. But in all seriousness, I had some major help from the Lord. His Spirit has been scooping spoonfuls of comfort and peace onto my emotional/spiritual/mental (and ironically not physical) burns. Like a heavenly aloe vera! Of sorts. But yeah! My adjustment rolled about rather rapidamente, and I feel totally at peace. I've drawn closer to him, and in turn been able to more effectively converse with him.

Let's see...big point of this week: WE TRAVERSED INTO THE REAL WORLD! This last Tuesday, our band of brothers (and sisters) cavorted rather gallantly over to a yonder store. We skipped and swam through the Dominican streets, waving and calling out "hola" to those we passed. And then...the moment of glory...known by the ancients simply as: "The Store". Like a flood of Priesthood wielding tie wearing happy ants, we swarmed the store in duos, searching for such relics as "The Cookie of Oreo" and "The Bottle of Carbonated Elixir". And ties. Can't forget ties. Now, the prices here are about 40 times as much as they are in America, so a mere pack of cheese crackers comes up to about $97. Of course, one must also take into consideration that the exchange rate is about a buck for 44 pesos. (I tried to bring in a male deer in hopes of getting some extra cash, but they just rambled on about how it was the "wrong kind of buck" or something weird like that. Dominicans are odd...) ;D

What else, what else...oh yeah! We kinda sorta got caught up in a mini hurricane or some nonsense like that. I didn't even notice...I just thought it was raining a lot! So gringo...so so gringo...it felt really great though; nice and warm and wet (like all rain should be).

Ah! And I've been knocking everyone's socks off with my puns/accents/voices. Especially Grampy! He's been really prevalent. I think half of the Momos here think I'm totally insane...and they'd be right! :D

Love love love and love! And all that other jiggly stuff! I kinda enjoy being pressed for time to email: it forces the Improv-er in me to go into hyperdrive (a thing I prayed for, actually); I don't have time to ponder over my words; I just let them spill like gumdrops from a really crappy container!

Adios!
-Elder Jones