Since I was so rushed last week, here are some things I forgot:

• The CCM is tiny! It isn't even a whole building, just the fourth floor of one! The rest of the building is used for people who are visiting the temple since it's the only one in the Caribbean.
• Last week, Elder Gonzalez spoke a little about each mission being represented in the CCM and when he got to Trinidad, he talked about how there is only 1 stake there. Then he looked right at me when he said "You can change that." So cool!
• I realized I didn't send any pictures of me last week...oops! I'll send some today. I can only send 4 per email so I might have to send a separate email.

I've adjusted really well to the CCM and a missionary schedule. I love always having something to do. I can definitely understand and speak more Spanish than when I got here. My companions and I try to have at least one conversation daily with people we see around the CCM or temple grounds. Recently we made friends with Juan Carlos who is working on the temple landscape. We practice our Spanish with him and he practices English back to us. It's not hard at all to talk to people here because we say hi to everyone and everyone loves the hermanas, so as soon as we say hi they start asking us questions like where we're from and where we'll serve. We've learned that Dominicans LOVE to talk. They could seriously have a conversation with us for hours, but unfortunately we can usually only talk for about 15 minutes. But it's great to meet the people that work around the CCM and temple and it's great practice for the field. We also talk to the hermanas next door every night, and they only speak Spanish. But they'll come into our room and we're able to have really good conversations with them and tell stories (sometimes there's a bit of charades too) about back home or things that happened during the day. It's so fun and amazing to realize how far I've come with the language in just 2 weeks. The gift of tongues is real!

Yesterday for physical activity, a bunch of us played a huge game of volleyball. We played elders versus hermanas and it was so fun! Some of the elders get really competitive and everyone has to remind them we are all missionaries ("Somos misioneros!") and it's just a fun game. We were also supposed to do some service in the park across the street yesterday by raking up leaves, but after we got there, we realized no one had any rakes, shovels, bags, or a trailer to them on! So the teachers that were with us just let us explore some cool caves. The park used to be a zoo in the 80s so it's fun to walk around in what used to be the animal exhibits and explore. But that kind of last minute schedule changing is very typical of the DR CCM... you never know what's next! Today we got to go to some historic sites in the city! We saw the house of the son of Christopher Columbus and 2 cathedrals (1 of which was the first cathedral in all of the Americas!). They were beautiful, I'll attache some pictures. We get the funniest looks when we're walking through the city because there's just a ton of young men in white shirts and ties with nametags coming down the street (and a couple of hermanas). It's pretty funny to see everyone turn and stare.

Sunday was my first (and maybe only?) fast Sunday in the CCM. It was awesome! Testimony meeting was super spiritual. Sunday's are one of my favorite days because we get a devotional from Presidente Gulbrandsen, we watch a worldwide MTC broadcast, and we also watch some kind of Gospel movie (this week it was "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration"). This week's devotional was from Elder Holland and it was amazing. He focused on Alma 26 and how we will work harder as missionaries than on anything else. He also pointed out that Joseph Smith spent 10 years focused on the Book of Mormon (getting the plates, translating them, printing it, etc.) and only 14 years on restoring everything else in the Gospel. How important the Book of Mormon is! The more I read it, the more I love it! I challenge you all to read it because I know it can bring so much happiness in your life. You don't even have to start at the beginning, start reading some of your favorite chapters. Some of my favorites include Enos, 3 Nephi 11, 2 Nephi 2, Mosiah 2-4, Alma 18, Helaman 5, and Moroni 7 (and always read and follow Moroni 10:3-5!). I know that if you read it, whether you are LDS or not, the Lord will bless you so much, more than you can imagine! There is a really cool video we watched about a study some BYU students did where they asked random people on the streets to read a page of the Book of Mormon and highlight all the references to God and Jesus Christ that they could find. The results and people's reactions were amazing! I'm not sure what the video is called, but I hope you can find it and watch it! (maybe on the BYU website? Or Google "BYU page of the Book of Mormon study"? I'm not sure.) I know the Book of Mormon is true and I am so blessed to have it in my life!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Davidson

P.S. Hno. Rodriguez told us a hilarious joke this week: Cuál es la diferencia entre una novia de un misionero y una pera? ........ Una es pera y la otra no espera! (pera= pear, espera= wait) Jajaja!

P.P.S. Fun fact about the DR: They have people riding around on motorcycles that are taxis and you can hop on the back and they'll take you where you want to go! So cool!

Wearing our bright Caribbean colors!

Hermana Rich and I studying while Hermana Davis played the piano

El CCM

El mar❤