School Starting

Hello Family!

Wow, I can hardly believe how fast August is going by. I realized that I have officially been here in the Dominican Republic for over a year (yes, I realize this is a very late realization) as I read from what I wrote in my journal  from over a year ago. All of the schools started this week and already it feels weird to see all the kids walking to school with backpacks. Maybe because it always seems like summer here to me, but I feel like this summer passed by very quickly. 

This week was a pretty calm week. We had a meeting with President and Hermana Cowan and Hermana Alvarado and I tried to put in practice what we learned and we saw lots of blessings from it. One of my favorite lessons this week was with R and his wife, R M. We went to teach R and we felt we should teach him again about the Book of Mormon and during the lesson his wife came to join in with us in the lesson. She goes to another church and hasn't wanted to participate in the lessons, but she came and afterwards told us that she learned a lot and felt something beautiful while we talked with them. It showed me that our Heavenly Father can prepare the hearts of those we teach and that we never know who is needs to hear more about our message. 

We also got to meet a few amazing people this week, one of whom was R, who recently moved to Santiago and has a little boy with heart problems. We were walking by her house and felt we needed to knock on her door; when we did she offered us in without even asking who we were and then said that she hasd been praying for help. She is a young mom and her husband lives outside the country and has been feeling lonely, but is very smart and very open to learn. She told us a little of shat she's been through as the mom of a child with health issues and we were able to explain a little bit about why we have challenges in this life. 

Hermana Alvarado and I are still working hard and are enjoying our time together, I still can't believe we've had almost two months together. I imagine this week will be a little crazy as school starts, but I hope you all have a great week adn that i can hear from you soon! I love you guys!

Hermana Schriever

Some beautiful views from our area, and a ruta ride with my district ( a ruta is the normal public transportation here, normally they fit six people (not including the driver) in the car- kind of exciting).