Letter from Rhys - Week #1 - The Spirit, Language and CCM Shenanigans!

Que lo Que from the tropical land of Republika Dominicana!

Que lo que ( kay lo kay) is slang for what’s up peeps! P-day is here and nothing is more exciting than going to the temple and then doing nothing for 6 hours! This is the end of week one and soooooo much has already happened. So Far, I've learned more Spanish in the last week than I had German in two months. My brain is no longer in a state of solid or liquid matter at this point and I’ve desperately needed a recharge day.

Our apartment’s room number is 420. It's funny because were always high with the spirit of God and like a fire... It's burning 😎. The 1st 4 days have felt like an eternity since all we do is sit on our butts and study!  Now, I can’t say I’m not used to sitting on my natural cushion for long periods of time, but the change of activities had really slowed down the passage of time. Within 2 days my mind had already reached the mental break down point, but lo and behold a miracle in my life. I discovered the legendary book filled with amazing things.

Things called CCM Spanish phrases and vocabulary!!!!!!!!! I use this book every day as my companion Elder Welch, the juice man, and I prepare our lessons for our mock investigator, Concepción. Teaching is very difficult for me due to my 4 YEARS IN GERMAN!!!!!!!! In this process I discovered a new language. GERSPANGLISH! All the time, I’m basically speaking German, Spanish and English all at the same time and cycling through 3 different accents mid-sentence!

The Elders in my district have come to appreciate and love my company. My brain has been piling up jokes for years and now I can use them on fresh ears! I’ve had to filter out quite a few of them, considering they’re not mission appropriate. Along with the jokes, the CCM is filled with loads of shenanigans.  It ranges from harmless pranks to turning classrooms/ apartments into gas chambers! By gas chambers I mean highly concentrated flatulence from all parties. The food here is amazing, but a byproduct of it just happens to be really bad and smelly gas! 

Within our apartment there’s a door that connects us to our next door neighbors. Late Sunday night, one of them starts beating on our door trying to get our attention. With it being so late and going through what seemed like 12 hours of church and Sunday school, we didn’t want to talk to anyone. So as an alternative, we sent Elder Chu to talk to them for us. I placed Elder Chu by the door and allowed him to speak. The Elders in the rooms next door freaked out and started poking underneath the door with a piece of loose trim.

I saw this opportunity, and wrote a couple notes on my Pokeball sticky notes. I then proceeded to send them via Trim Mail! Elder Chu said things along the lines of "Faith in Christ can bring peace and happiness" or " I’m Elder Chu, the Best missionary in the CCM!" All of these were written in Spanish, BTW. They wrote responses back as well but none of that was really noteworthy. They basically questioned why there was a stuffed Pikachu in our apartment.

Another event involving the famous Elder Chu came on Tuesday. Elder Chu has become well known as far as his existence goes in the CCM. My district demanded that I bring Elder Chu with me to class, so I did. I brought him down and proceeded to introduce  him to my district. Though little did I know they were planning something. One of our instructors, Maestro Jimenez, is always messing with the A/C in our class room and so we placed Elder Chu in front of it to guard it. It took him at least 8 -10 min to realized that Elder Chu was watching....... Throughout the class, we continued to move Elder Chu around in different locations while he wasn’t paying attention. Each time, Jimenez would get creeped out and probably thought that Pikachu was possessed.

During our physical activity every day, we play mostly basketball and volleyball, but it’s most fun when we get to play FOOTBALL( soccer, not that lame American stuff). There's no more to report at this time but I will be sure to keep you updated! I love you and miss you all so much.

WEEKLY WORD OF WISDOM 

There’s no better way to build your faith in Christ than to Focus on God in all that you do. Just like The Brother of Jared (Ether Chapters 1-4).

Going Forth with the Vision of Christ,

Elder Rhys Wheeler.

P.S.

Mom..... Typos please!!!!!!! 😁