Aug 2nd, 2017 Answering Mom's Questions

Hola Mom! 
Here are the answers to your many questions:

So how are you doing? Over all pretty good! I'm not sure I've really had a moment to process everything yet cuz we are busy from 6:30 to 10:30 and then I drop into bed.

Are you in culture shock? Actually not to much. I mean Latins have their cultural quirks, (like I’m sure we do to them), like how they just watch us eat and they don't eat with us but overall it's not anything I can't handle.

Tell me more about Sister Morales? She's very sweet and nice. She hates to offend anyone. She's so nice and sweet, patient, hard working. Just all around really great. I like her a lot! She's really great. 

How old was she when she came to the states? She was 6 when they came here and they came for her dad's work.

Tell me about your Spanish?  How are you feeling?  Can you understand a lot?  Are the accents hard? I'm feeling okay. People will hear me speak and then ask how long I've been out. When I tell them just a week or so they say something along the lines of "you speak very well for only being out here a short time" I’m not sure if I’m sure exactly what that means...

So are you supposed to only speak Spanish together, even in your apartment? We usually speak Spanish during the day and then at night in the apartment she gives me a break and we speak in English.

So how is your area? The areas good. We are Never short of people to teach. There are so many less actives that some days we only teach them.

How big is it? It's about 1/2 of the Bronx so a pretty good sized area. It goes as farther South than the Yankee stadium and goes 

Is it mostly apartments? It's almost all apartments I haven't visited anyone who wasn't in an apartments.

Is it old and rundown? Some parts are and some parts are actually pretty nice.

You mentioned sirens.  Is there a lot of crime?  Is it always noisy? Not a lot of crime just a lot of car accidents cuz the drivers here are crazy! It's always noisy our apartment is almost on top of the subway so you can hear the trains going by all the time.

Does it have lots of different ethnicities-is it a predominantly Hispanic area? Lots of ethnicity. Africans, Middle Easterners and Latin people from all over central and South America. 

Are they poor?  Working class? On Welfare? There is a wide variety of wealth here. Some really poor parts and some wealthier areas. Most of the members are not to bad off though.

What does it smell like? Some places we walk by have the best smelling food and some places I have to hold my breath so I don't gag and throw up.

Do you mostly walk?  Take buses?  Mostly we walk around and take buses or trains when it's really far.

Your apartment looked clean.  It is just you and Sister Morales or do you share it with another set of sisters? Right now it's just us but normally there are another set of Spanish sisters in here with us.

Do you have AC? We do have AC so that's nice.

Is it super hot?  Humid and muggy? It's so hot and humid here all the time! I am sweating all the time. I'm just hoping I'll get used to it and not sweat so much.

How do you spend your day?  What’s your schedule like?  We get up at 6:20 exercise from 6:30-7:00 then we have an hour to get ready then we study from 8:00- 12:00 then we eat lunch and go out. We come home at 9:00 and go to sleep.

When you do contacting, what means do you use?  You mentioned tracting doors.  Do you do a lot of that? If an appointment falls through we will tract on 2-3 doors in that building but other than that we do street contacting 

How long of a train ride was it from the mission home? About 30 minutes so not too long.

Do you eat with members often? We eat with a member almost every night and some times more than that. And we will eat whatever they make for us.

What do you typically do on P-Day?  Do you get together with other missionaries? We usually have zone sports and today we were going to go to the zoo but it started raining.

What other language missionaries are in your area? Spanish and English.


I love you all lots and can't wait to hear from you. Tell the family I said hi and that I love them.

Love, Hermana Dobson 

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