First Baptisms

Saludo! Como estan mi familia! 

As you can tell from those first two lines, I am basically fluent now! And still living that Dominican missionary lifestyle! First off, I want to thank everyone for the dear elders and emails. Its incredible how much love you can feel through words on a piece of paper or computer screen. In the letters that I have received so far, you guys had a couple of questions for me. So I want to answer those first.

DR is amazing! It is literally everything I have dreamt of! Its crazy walking the streets everyday and saying hello to all of these people that look just like your family. All the Dominicans in my area (Fantino) are crazy nice and are always saying Hi to us and inviting us in to talk about Jesus Christ and share a message. Its basically like a Dominican cummings georgia, times two on that crazy nice scale.

Fantino is very country compared to all of the oher areas in santiago. So my companion and I do a lot of walking on dirt roads, through random trails and over hot oxen doodoo. There are tons of oxen, dogs, chickens and horses that roam the streets and do what they want.

Physically it is always hot and humid and nobody has air conditioning. I get a great exercise everyday and I am now the proud owner of an amazing farmers tan and watch tan. I also have been eating tons of rice, beans, mangu, platanoes maduro, chicken and sancocho. Everything is really cheap; it is only 25 cents (american) for one large platano, so you know I've been doing work on that! 

Spiritually, it has been amazing! It's crazy how great I feel every night after knowing that I have worked my best to serve, invite, teach and testify of the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone that I meet! My companion and I have been having success here in Fantino and we were able to baptize an amazing family this past saturday. The hardest thing for me here in Fantino is being away from my family in the U.S. It's basically impossible for me to talk, read about or hear songs or testimonies about families without crying. I love my Family so much! But it is more than worth it to help other families enjoy the eternal happiness and blessings that come from the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't have any more time but I am loving D.R with all my heart and I feel comfortable about my spanish. I pray for each of you every night and I know how much the Lord loves each of you! 

Hope to hear from you soon!

Siempre con amor,

Elder Rincon 

DR Lifestyle

This first week has been crazy! I bonded with my dominican brother-companion, I walked everywhere, and I taught a bunch of people (one of them, who I found out after, is my cousin!) I went to sleep every night exhausted, listening to merengue blasting from the houses and stores around my apartment. I also met the local members and had an amazing sunday sacrament meeting. 

Literally there are so many experiences that I want to share with my family, but i know that there is just not enough time (so you all probably just have to serve a mission in DR to understand lol).

Here are the best experiences:
Each day I contact with my companion (Elder Montes de Oca from Santo Domingo) at least two hours a day. Which is basically just talking with people about the gospel while sitting on their porch together. Talking to people is really cool because everyone invites us in and wants to listen to a message about Jesus Christ. Everyone believes that Jesus Christ is everything to them, but a lot of poeple don't go to church and don't like to pray...it's a weird combo but I can feel everyones love for the Savior. One family that we have have been teaching is pretty special! Familia Ortiz; they have great faith and a yearning for the gospel of Jesus Christ! All four of their children have a baptism this saturday, but the parents are not able to until they get married. I am really excited for their baptism, because I know how special and sacred baptism is and how much they will be blessed for taking this great leap of faith. I love this family because they're loud, big and love to talk about the gospel, a lot like my family. All of their little kids (and the kids here in fantino) try to speak english with me and I teach them funny words. It's pretty fun because they're better than most of the adults. I'll keep you updated on this family next time and I should have pictures of the baptism.

So the ward here is pretty small with about 40 active members and 30 inactive members. A big part of the missionary work here is visiting the non active members and sharing spiritual messages with them or just seeing what we can do to serve them. For example; last saturday my companion and I and two other members sang two songs in sacrament meeting and this week I have a talk. This past sunday was a great fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was so strong and I was able to share my testimony with my new ward family. The combination of their strong testimonies and my singing of families can be together forever overwhelmed me with happiness and love. It's so crazy to finally mix my loud and amazing dominican culture with my spiritual beliefs.

I know that there is going to be a lot of success in this area if I continue to work hard with my companion.  

Some of the funniest things about DR is that everyone wears clothes, hats, and food that have english words on it but nobody knows how to speak english or what the words mean. There are a lot of bootleg things here. The other day I saw a Miami Heat hat with a MLB baseball sticker on the front of it...I started laughing but when I explained it to my companion in spanish, it wasn't funny. Oh yeah, I have only spoke spanish in the past week and I'm starting to find my dominican flow. 
Another funny thing is that my companion loves to sing english songs but kind of butchers them with his thick dominican accent. I have been teaching him english everyday and he is improving every day; this also helps me because he is able to sympathize with me when I don't understand spanish words because he only understands about 20 english words. 

Another really cool experience was going to cotui last monday for my district meeting. Being in cotui was a dream come true and meeting tons of people who know my cousin Nelly Almanzar was crazy! Apparently she now knows that I am serving about ten minutes away from where she lives! I have her number and I am going to call her tonight so we can get together. Literally I feel like everyone is related to me and a lot of them actually are. Like a cousin of mine who I have been visting. I found out that she was my cousin about two times after we visited with her family. She is not a member, but her sister in law is and she has a lot of active member friends. We'll all just have to wait and see what happens with my new found cousin Carmen! 

I love my country and the people here. I am livin my culture errday with platanos, loud merengue music and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in spanish with everyone I meet. I love my mission and I love Fantino! I love my family and I pray for each of you often! I miss each of you so much and it is really hard to be seperated from each of you, but I know that the Lord will bless each of you as I continue to give my all to serving him and his children. The Lord has entrusted me with a small portion of his earthly kingdom here in DR and I am doing all that I can to build it up with love. I know that am servant of my savior Jesus Christ and I have been given the oppurtunity to give back all that I have been blessed with to his children here in Fantino. It so easy to love the families here because the Lord has given my family so much love.

Hope to hear from all of you soon! 

But until then, NOS VEMOS!

siempre con amor, 
Elder Rincon

p-s I forgot my camera cord but Ill hopefully be sending tons of pictures soon!

Los Dos Primeros Dias!

Wow! I cant believe I am emailing everyone from DR!

I don't have much time but it literally seems like so much has happened since we were all crying on the phone in the Miami airport. First off, I am safe and I am loving my country. It was unreal to go onto the plane and look around to only see my family; literally everyone looked like me. It was amazing to see so many dominicans and I couldn't stop smiling because I was positive that I was sitting behind Imani, Omari, Titi Kenia, Papito etc. 

Once i got into Santiago with my district group, I was picked up by the Mission President and other missionaries. I then proceeded to, per Titi Kenia's request, take a huge breath in and smelled my ancestors. We smell great. I was then taken to the mission home and I got to see the city a little bit on the drive. It looks like a mixture of miami houses and new york people aka. craziness in the streets.

There is so much more that I want to tell you but i don't want to be late to my meeting! 

When I had my first meeting with my mission president he told me that he believed I would definitely have the opportunity to serve in Cotui, which is so crazy and exciting! When we all received our new companions and areas I was called to serve in Fantino; this is where I am now. Fantino is really close to Cotui and far from the city of Santiago.

I couldn't believe it. I am literally living a dream come true.

Today I took a 3 hour bus ride to Fantino and went straight through Cotui. I have pictures. It´s been the craziest couple of days of my life. I don't have enough time to upload pictures but I want to tell you a little more about my experience so far. I have loved every second. I went contacting my first day and my spanish was more or less on point. It's crazy to talk to my people in my country. Everyone is humble and willing to talk about religion, God and Christ. It was a lot of fun meeting, talking and sharing my testimony with random family members that I met in the street.

Also, I have never seen so much poverty in my entire life. It is hard to see my people in this kind of poverty because I love them so much. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ will help them gain true happiness, receive crazy blessings and have the holy spirit with them always. It has blessed my life tremendously and I know that is the reason why I am here. I am in my home country because I have been extremely blessed in my life and it is my duty to God to do all that i can to share my greatest blessing, the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, with everyone who is ready to listen with their hearts. I know I am doing the work of the Lord.

Before I go I wanted to tell you that my companion is Dominican from Santo Domingo. We are already becoming good friends and my spanish is growing by leaps and bounds everyday because it is all I am speaking.

Please pray for the members in this country. In Fantino there are only forty members but I know that with the help of the Lord and hard work on my part, I will be able to be a tool in the Lords hands to grow his kingdom upon this earth.

I love everyone here and I love all of my family so much.
I miss each of you so much, but I will be home soon enough.

The Lord has a special plan for me here and I am just starting to figure it out. 

Los Amos Siempre,

Elder Rincon

P.S. My Prep days are now on Wednesdays! and I will have pictures next week :)

Jose's First Blessing

Hey Everyone! 

2 days left in the MTC! It has gone by so fast! I am so excited to finally be leaving for D.R.! Thanks for all of the of the packages! I have received all of the workout clothes, power bars, suitcase,debit card and doterra oils. I feel everyones love and prayers! It felt like christmas errday this week. Also this week I was able to host new missionaries, finish all of my big meetings (meetings about the mission field), went to the temple and had powerful spiritual experiences with my district and zone. Here are some of those spiritual experiences. So you can have a lil taste of the spirit I have been feeling on my mission. 

So this last week of my zones stay here in the MTC has been really exciting! There is a lot of emotion that goes into preparing to be a missionary in another country and for most of the missionaries in my zone they are going to Argentina. All of the Argentina missionaries were told in their missionary call that they would be reassigned for a couple of months, so because of this, all of them were anxious to find out their reassignments. about four days ago, unexpectedly, all of the Argentina missionaries received their flight itinerary and were going crazy. All of the missionaries going to Argentina (I know at least 40 personally ,but their are a couple hundred in the MTC) received tourist visas and would not be reassigned. Literally everyone was crying, jumping, praying and some were even crying as they jumped and prayed. It was a miracle for them. Well their is one sister in my district who is going to Spain Madrid mission and was the only sister missionary in our zone going to to Spain who has not received her visa yet. I could tell that she was worried and also troubled by visa issues and other missionary worries. The morning after all the Argentina missionaries had received their visas, she asked me if I would give her a priesthood blessing of comfort. I told her that I would love to and we made a plan for later on in the afternoon during our personal study time. The entire morning I prayed for the spirit to be with us in this blessing. I prayed that I may be used to as instrument in the Lord's hand to be able to express to her what the Lord wants her to know and most importantly feel. I have never given a blessing a comfort to someone outside of my family before so I was a little nervous ,but I knew that the Lord trust's me and I had faith in the priesthood power of God. When it came time to give sister Reyes a blessing, a powerful spirit entered the room and we were all (four missionaries) able to feel a special peace . Honestly, I do not remember what I said or what I expressed, But I can distinctly remember how I felt and the tears of joy and comfort that I saw on sister Reyes face. I know that the Lord used me as his instrument to express to her what the Lord needed her to hear. It was amazing. The power of the priesthood is so real and I was able to witness the power and comfort it can have on one of His beloved children. I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to be worthy of and exercise His priesthood. I know that it is one of the key tools that God uses to build up his kingdom. I know I am only one of thousands of workers in the Lord's army ,but It brings me so much joy to do my little part.   

Do you want to know why people say serving a mission is the one of the most rewarding things you can ever do? it is because you are constantly (24/7) giving your life to the Lord. Everything I do as a representative of Jesus Christ is to build the kingdom of God upon the earth. I have not even left the MTC yet and I have already experienced the blessings of this work. It is a miracle to me how when lose yourself through helping others, you actually find yourself. It doesn't really make sense untill you do it. I know this to be true and I know that Jesus Christ is at the Head of this work. I love Him and I know how much he loves all of us. I love all of you and I pray you for you all daily. Next letter I send will be from D.R! Yeah, I know! It's going to be hard living on a tropical island, eating all of my favorite foods, but someone has to do it.

IMPORTANT: I will be in the Miami airport from 6:40 to 8:40 august 26th so I will be calling family on the pay phone (with a phone card thing) at that time. I don't know everyones number by memory so please send me a dear elder with your phone number if you want a call. I hope I can talk to all of you so you need to be ready to pick up the phone. Hope to hear your voice soon through that payphone.

Love, 

Elder Rincon

Special Devotional: August 16th Letter

Hey everyone! 

I have been in the MTC for 31 days now! My mission is already flying by! Only 634 days left of being a full time missionary. How is everyone doing? Whats new? I love your letters and they help strengthen me when I need it the most. I had another great week! I truly am living my dream as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day saints! Some news from me, I received my travel plans (for D.R) today, I just got back from the Provo temple (this morning) and my Spanish is improving every day. Also I went to a devotional (Live) by Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the twelve Apostles. All of these experiences were amazing and have each strengthened my testimony of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

Also I received my travel plans. Did I mention that I received my travel plans for D.R.? Well i did! Here's the basic Info:

On August 26th, I leave Provo at 3:30 a.m and head to SLC airport. I leave SLC airport at 7:10am and arrive at the ATL,GA airport at 12:47pm (Flight 2218). Then I leave ATL at 1:40pm to Miami,FL at 3:45 pm (Flight 1951). Then I leave Miami at 6:40 pm to Santiago D.R at 8:40 pm."gee I wonder what I could do for my layover in ATL in Miami " ;) ;) Anyways I'm crazy excited to finally be in D.R. and eat platanos all day every day! 

Other really exciting news is that this past Tuesday I was able to attend a fireside here at the MTC were Richard G Scott addressed us. Here are some of the thoughts and notes that I took from the devotional: "Which was also the first ever live broadcast between all the MTC'S around the World" (15)

- to reach a goal never before attained, you must do things never before done.

- Do not rush your prayer's with God. Prayer is a privilege. We should take time to express our deepest gratitude and concerns with Him. Then we need to wait for his answer to our prayer. You cant rush an effective prayer.

- Ask God, in our prayers, "What he wants for us", this allows us to reach our full potentials as children of God.

- There are many languages that I will need to learn in my Life! Spanish is just one of them. As a disciple and follower of Christ, I am working on learning the language of His spirit, language of charity, language of humility and the language of continual love towards his children.  

I love being a missionary! I love being in the MTC, yet I am so excited to finally go back to the motherland! I know that our Lord has a special plan for all of us. I know that for these next two years, mine will be to sacrifice my all to build his kingdom upon the Earth. I pray for all of you daily and I know that our Savior loves each of you so much because I feel that love everyday. I pray that we may all be instruments in the Lords Orchestra. (I know that the last sentence was really profound, but I do that sometimes)  I love all you so much and hope to hear from each of you soon! 

Love,

Elder Rincon

P.S. Jose was sure to hashtag the photos for us...what a goofball!

#missionpics #spirit #model #mountains #elder #platanos

Visa Arrival!

Hey everyone! 

I have officially been in the provo MTC for 3 weeks and 1 day! I have loved all of it! The days are long and the weeks are short! This week I finally received my visa! This was shweet cause their was a group of 25 elders waiting for their visas (all in the same mission and all suppose to be going to the D.R MTC), but unfortunately they want us to finish out our MTC time in Provo. This was expected, but I was hoping to get a head start on that farmers tan and Platanos! Although this MTC is not in D.R, I know the Lord has a plan for all of us and I love this MTC as well. I feel my Saviors love here daily and it is preparing me for D.R.

 

Some of the events that have occurred in my Life since last email:

 

- We have lost about 15 missionaries in our zone of 40 missionaries and have gained about 10 other new ones. It's really cool when you say goodbye to fellow missionaries in your Zone. We all get together, right before10:30 at night and yell/sing/scream as loud as we can the church hymn " till we meet again" ( in spanish). It's always powerful when you get a large gathering of people together (for a great cause) and sing. (even if nobody actually knows what their singing, which seems to be the case most of the time, cause everyone is mispronouncing words). Ill attach a video of this, so you can experience it with me.

 

- Also, my spanish continues to improve daily. Everything I do inside the classroom ( which I'm in for about 10 hours a day is in spanish). We sing in spanish, learn spanish in spanish, study our scriptures in spanish, practice missionary scenarios in spanish, breathe in spanish and occasionally i even dance in spanish. The Lord is blessing me with many gifts including faith, diligence, and the strength to give my all to Him, who has given me all. Without the Lord I would not be where I am with the language now. I feel a lot more comfortable speaking spanish and my flow has become more fluid. I'm definitely not at the level were i want to be yet, but I know that day will come soon when i'll be able to freestyle in spanish ( of course a gospel freestyle) and not even realize that i'm not speaking english!

 

- One principle that I have learned this week is the importance of "doing"." We teach, to learn". When we practice whatever it is that we are trying to get better at, we learn how to become better at it. I know that the more that I practice speaking spanish, teaching by/with the spirit of god and doing all that i can to grow closer to God, i am becoming a greater missionary. I know that God loves us so much and is always looking for ways to bless our lives. I know that he wants us to be so happy, so he gives us trials, challenges and commandments, to make us stronger and bless our lives. His gospel has blessed my life tremendously and I am beyond excited to be able to invite others to come unto it through Jesus Christ. I know he has blessed me with family and friends to lift me up and help me grow closer to him. I love all of you and love hearing from you! Your letters have been great and have truly allowed me to feel like i'm back home with all of you. Hope to hear from everyone soon, " dearelder.com" is the best way to reach me, and i have a new mail box number unit # 164.

 

Love, 

Elder Rincon

 

Birthday in the MTC

Hi family!

How is everyone? I miss all of you a lot! I am so thankful for your dear elders and letters! Iv'e realized how truly special each letter/email is and how impossible it is for me to not be overjoyed with love when I read them! This week has been amazing! I have started every single journal entry, so far, with " another great day"! I truly love being a full time representative of Jesus Christ. It makes me so happy and has allowed me to constantly be under the guidance of the Lords Spirit. Some of my experiences from this week: Sunday, it was my first sabbath day with my new zone. Each Sunday you have to write a talk about a new topic, and then after sacrament, our branch president calls on two people randomly to give their talks. whether they have written one or not. I have not been called upon yet, but i know that it will happen eventually. Some of the thoughts and impressions that I was able to feel this Sunday were:
- Revelation is communication with God though the Holy Spirit. God knows us each individually and we are all different. Because of this, we all feel the spirit testifying to us differently. I just always happen to have a piece of dust in my eye when the spirit is testifying to me of truth.
- Salvation is not a cheap experience! If we are to be true disciples of Christ, we must each be going through our own Gethsemane's (figuratively). Salvation was never easy! Missionary work will never be either. It has to be difficult!
IT WAS MY 19TH B-DAY! Thanks for all of the thoughts, letters, package and emails! it was basically like any other day in the MTC except I was wished a bunch of Happy Birthdays. Also my zone surprised me by calling me into a room where they ambushed me, while screaming to me Happy Birthday! Unfortunately there was no icing to shmear on my face, BUT the song was sung out of tune and pitch, so it reminded me a lot of home and kept that tradition going strong. It was a little different having my 19th B-DAY in the MTC , but i enjoyed every second of it and it was special to me! Although i cant wait to have my 21st B-day with all of my family and friends gett'n crazy off that malta and platanos!

Also the rest of this week has been great! I'm working hard to study language, become a greater servant of the lord, and become more like my savior Jesus Christ! the days are long and then nights are too short! One of the blessings that have helped me to become a greater missionary is the spirit. The Holy spirit has allowed me to learn the language at a fast pace, understand/ know what the lord needs me to express to his children, and stay happy through the love I receive daily.  My Spanish improves daily and i am able teach full 40 minute lessons with all of my investigators. ( Investigators are basically teachers who pose as investigators they have taught on their own mission in Spanish speaking countries) all of the lessons are in Spanish. It truly helps you learn the language when you give full lessons to investigators in that language! I am becoming more comfortable with the language of my people everyday! I cant wait to re learn everything I have been taught once i get into the mission field!

Here one of the great experience I had with my companion this week: we were preparing for one of investigators Pedro, but we were struggling to know what the Lord needed him to know and what we could share with him that could bring him closer to Christ. We went into a quiet room, prayed together out loud, and then pondered for a couple of minutes after the prayer. After 5 minutes of pondering in our minds, we each received the same exact revelation of what we needed to teach Pedro.  Our prayer was answered immediately and we were able to better understand what we needed to share with our investigator Pedro. This was just one of the many spiritually strengthening experiences I have had this week.

I know that the lord answers our prayers when we have faith and humble ourselves before him. I know that we can learn the truth of all things through prayer to our Heavenly Father and then listening for his answer, that will come to us in our mind and hearts. I know that I am truly participating in the work of the Lord. I know that the Book of Mormon, as well as the bible our testaments of Jesus Christ, his prophets/apostles and contain the fullness of His Gospel. I know these scriptures to be true. I know that Gospel of Jesus Christ, makes me so happy and makes me want to share my happiness and truth with all i encounter. I testify of these things and know that they are true, because God has testified to me, through the Holy Spirit that they are true! I cannot deny the overwhelming feeling that i have felt when i feel the Holy spirit in my heart and mind. I love my family sooooooo much and i pray for them all hourly. I know that this work (missionary work) is very important and I know it will bring blessings to my family and all of the families that accept it's message.

Love Always,

Elder Rincon