Hola Todos,
This week we did a couple of companionship exchanges with our Zone Leaders. It was for them to work with Elder Zapata and also mostly for me to do a couple of baptismal interviews for their investigatores. Elder Valdez came to our area, which was great because he was here before I got here and was able to see and ahare with some of the members that He knew. I went to their area to do the interviews and was with Elder Yates. It was great to share with Elder Yates for a while. He´s from my same group, or in other words started at the same time as me, and we were together for six weeks in the Dominican MTC. It was really refreshing to talk with him and see how he works. It felt a little wierd, because he´s never really lost his shy-ness with people, so a lot of times I ended up leading the lessons and discussions with poeple, but I loved the exchange, and I´m really looking forward to hearing more about their investigatores and how they´re doing. Another thing I noticed from sharing with Elder Yates is just how ready he is to go home and how much he´s looking forward to it. He talked, more than anything else, about dating and how he´s going to find the woman he´s going to marry and all the things he wants to do when he gets home. I think his spirit has already left his body and gone there, and his body just stayed here, telling me everything that was happening on the other end. All in all, I´m really glad that I haven´t gotten quite so "trunky," or homesick yet, it makes it a lot harder to focus on the work at hand.
The reminders of going hoe continued through church yesterday. The first class was about Eternal Marriage. Early on in the class the teacher asked what young men can do to help them prepare for an Eternal Marriage. The answer was obviously, "Serve a mission!" The rest of the class then consisted of conversation about how returned missionaries should get married within a few moths to a year after getting back from their missions. It sound a little evtreme, but that the way all of the sunday school lessons seem to turn here. All of the conversation continued with Elder Zapata and I sittiong there and not saying a word, just trying to go unnoticed. It was kindof humorous though. And just in case the whole few moths to a year thing is how it needs to happen, I´m gonna need everyone´s help finding "The One." Start looking for promising prospectives to start writing me ASAP! Good handwriting is not required, but a picture is, or at least a head shot. A college education would be nice too, since I don´t hove one yet, and it would be really nice to have an income better than the avereage earnings of a Staples associate until I do.
I love you guys. See you soon,
Elder Adam Russell Rich,
Republica Dominicana
