Letter from Rhys - Week #6 - More Shenanigans and Hurricanes!

[Editor’s Note:  Because of the difference in P-days between the MTC (CCM) and the field, this letter, which is actually the 5^th real letter we’ve received, written at the end of week 5 is labelled Week #6.  Going forward, the letters will be numbered by what week number is BEGINNING instead of ENDING.  You have NOT MISSED A LETTER!

Rhys will actually go out into the field next Tuesday at the end of 6 weeks from when he reported to the MTC.  He will be unable to email home next week.  When he picks up the emails again the following week (on Monday), it will actually be the end of 7 weeks, but the beginning of week #8 and will be numbered as such.  Now that this is all clear as mud, I’ll leave you to enjoy the real reason you’re reading this.]

Que lo que from the tropical land of Republica Dominicana!

This week has been full of fun and excitement for almost no one! Well... that’s only partially true. 6 weeks have gone by soooooo fast!!!!! I can’t believe I leave for the field on Tuesday! This week has flown by so fast it’s hard to say what actually happened.

Entonces(so), today I will be telling a story of two pranks that were pulled in the CCM these past few days. On Monday, we were in class waiting for our opportunity to teach our mock investigator.  Elder Hutchison and our district leader Elder Horsely were off teaching each other as 1 on 1 teaching practice.  During this time they walked into my room... How?  I have no idea, but apparently the door was open.  Elder Hutchinson decided to prank our dorm and hide our ladders to the top bunks under the beds. He also took my munchies and hid those as well (I was pretty upset about that one. Who wouldn't? Munchies are amazing!!!)  Anyway, around 3:30 the next morning our alarm goes off.  Apparently Elder Hutchinson had changed our alarm as well, too. It didn’t bother me or anyone else in my room really but it was just inconvenient.

The next day, Elder Lee gets the idea that we should get them back by setting an alarm in Elder Hutchinson's and Elder Howe's Apartment.  BTW, their door doesn’t shut so anyone can get in.  So during physical time, I was down playing basketball with people and my companion with Elders Lee, Horsely, Gledhill, Gividen, and Scalise set the prank up.  However, they took it a step further. They had set SIX ALARMS to go off progressively throughout the night.  Starting at 2 am an alarm would go off every 45 minutes, giving them enough time to get back to bed and fall asleep before another went off.  They hid them in various places, too… Under beds, in suitcases, in the A/C vent.  It was pretty good!  Hide and seek with alarm clocks.

It was safe to say they didn’t get any sleep that night.  Unfortunately, they had two new missionaries as roommates who wound up as collateral damage!  I was sure to apologize later for my companion and the other members of my district, but I’m pretty sure they were fairly upset anyway and weren’t in the mood for apologies.  

Last Saturday we got to go on exchanges with the missionaries from the west mission. Being out in the field was a lot of fun.  There are a lot of very narrow alleys that people’s houses are located in and it’s just nuts! We crossed at a crosswalk on a green light! There are hardly any traffic laws and so basically any one person could (or could not) stop traffic.  I was able to ride a subway for the very first time on Saturday and it actually was fairly interesting.  Nothing special stuck out but is was just a new experience.  

The Friday before we had to get blood work taken care of for some reason before we went out in the field.  I can’t say why, but it needed to be done.  It threw me off a little when the doctor started speaking to me in English, because I had spent the last half hour trying to communicate with my temp. companion in Spanish, since that’s all he knew.  One thing’s for certain though, we had to get x-rays and the x-ray machine looked like it was made in the 70's!

As we all are most certainly aware, Hurricane Maria is headed somewhat in our direction, if it hasn’t already come and gone, but this one had no effect on our schedules nor have we had any issues with the weather.  It makes me kind of sad though, because I really want to experience a hurricane! (knocks on wood).

I've been told by a falcon carrying a scroll that people are curious to know what my schedule was like.  It starts with getting up at 6:30 am and getting reday for breakfast at 7:15.  At 7:45, we start personal study and that goes on for about an hour.  At approx. 9:00 am our class starts where we sit on our tookus' and "plan and teach" for 3.5 more hours.

Basically we do nothing but repeat the same lessons over and over with the exception of some useless grammar lesson that we actually never use.  The lessons are hard to understand, too since they have to make everything Gospel related for some stupendous reason.  After lunch at 12:30 we get a short break until 1:30.  At 1:30 we’re supposed to be doing self-guided study and planning for our lessons with our companion.  Note: This time is meant to be flex time for the missionaries to do what they need to without teacher intervention. Note 2: There's is always teacher intervention!!!! Around 3:45 we go out for an hour of physical activity! The best part of the day!  During this time we usually play basketball, volleyball, foosball, or ping pong.  Always fun stuff.  From 4:45 to 5:15 we have another break to help us get ready for dinner, take showers, relax, etc. My companion usually takes a shower during this time and I take mine at night, so there’s no conflict with time.  After dinner, we go back to class from 6:00 to 8:45 were we learn more language grammar, teach more and basically try to focus as we finish of the last stretch of our day.

At this point though, there’s really not much or too much that happens during this time so no one really focuses on what we’re supposed to do. The majority of the time, though, we spend free-style rapping about gospel topics such as Missionary work, word of wisdom, the atonement, and even the law of Chastity! Good times...😏.  At 9:00 pm we are all supposed to be in our apartments getting ready for bed and lights out by 10:30.  The beauty is we can go to bed anytime between 9:30 and 10:30.

Well, that’s all for this report back home! Because I go out into the field next week, I won’t get a p-day until week 8 so you all have to wait a little longer!  I’ll also have so much more time to email and will also be able to reply directly to some folks so keep on the lookout! 

This is Elders Wheeler and Chu Signing off!

Wait... One more thing! Elder Chu went out and played volleyball with us during last p-day which was pretty awesome. He got decked in the face too. It was Hilarious! 

Going forward with the Vision of Christ,

Elder Rhys Wheeler

P.S. My mother that smells of elderberries! Typos pretty please!