Week 6 in the D.R.

Week 6 in the D.R.

April 15, Monday

               We spent the day in the office. We are preparing for the satellite telephone test later in the week. In the afternoon we attended Spanish class, and then played investigators for two sister missionaries. We attended family home evening in the apartment of the Cuernots, a senior couple from France. The Cuernots were converted to the church by Janet Sander’s sister Lynnette Brinkerhoff. We had a great family home evening with them and President and Sister Bair, and Sister Santana.  

Jim and Joy in front of military headquarters

April 16, Tuesday

               We left at 9 am and rode with the Haws to a meeting with one of the associations that works with the handicapped. The Church is going to help them put in a kitchen in their facility. We toured the area and then drove over to the military base where we met briefly with Colonel Abreu and Major Garcia. They want the church to provide 35 hand pumps along the western border of the country. They provided a list of the communities and gave us a list of their GPS coordinates. We then drove toward Constansa stopping at a roadside restaurant for lunch. We arrived in Constansa at 3 pm and checked into our two bedroom condo at the Altocerro Hotel. The facility was very nice and the area was beautiful and cooler than the coast. We picked up Dr. Rivera and her husband, Cruz Rivera and drove about 10 miles on a bumpy dirt road to the Agua Blanca falls. The falls were beautiful. We drove back to Constansa stopping to buy strawberries. We had dinner with the Riveras. We returned to our condo and spent a peaceful night in the cool mountain air.

Joy and Dr. Vilma Rivera at Aqua Blanca Falls 

April 17, Wednesday

               We started the day off touring the local public hospital were Dr. Vilma Rivera works. The Church had donated equipment to them. We then drove over to the Church to hold a meeting with the local church members and local civic leaders. The Branch President, Americo Garcia conducted the meeting. Representatives from three city councils and other local dignitaries were present. The ADR representative presented his list of equipment needed by the association and then Elder Haws presented information on the Church’s humanitarian efforts. The branch president introduced the local missionaries and they bore their testimonies and gave out Books of Mormon. We left the meeting at the church and toured the ADR facility. We returned to the Rivera’s house and had lunch. We then loaded up two new young men that were going to the temple to prepare for their missions. The missionaries road in the back of the pickup for two hours to get to the temple. Upon our arrival at the temple, Elder Haws and I gave each missionary 1000 pesos to help them prepare for their missions. We returned home after two great days in the country.

            Two Dominican Missionaries at their home  

Our condo in Constansa

 

 April 8, Thursday

               We had a quiet day in the office. We tried to test two satellite phones but I was only able to get through to Salt Lake with one telephone. We went out into the containers and loaded about 50 water damaged hygiene kits into our car and took them home to salvage what we could. Joy washed the towels and we unpacked the toothpaste and other items and salvaged about one half of the items.

April 19, Friday

               We went into the office and tested another telephone. We worked on a couple of projects and then returned home about 2:30 pm.  We brought home another 50 kits to clean up. We then got ready for our temple shift and arrived at the temple in time for prayer meeting. Joy and I spent the first hour doing sealings. We then went into a session for the prayer circle since there were only two people on the session. Joy went to the laundry to hem a couple of dresses and I spent one hour studying the temple ordinances. I am trying to memorize the ordinances in order to perform them in Spanish. We returned home at 9:30 pm.

April 20, Saturday

               We worked on the hygiene kits for a couple of hours in the morning. We left the apartment about 11 am and drove to the Dominican Republic West Mission Home to see if we could find it. One of the sister missionaries wanted us to drop her off at the office once a week so she could help them. We drove around the large city park and then went shopping at the Plaza Lama, a large retail store. I bought a pair of shorts and a shirt and Joy bought some household items. We had lunch at the Taco Bell inside the store and then we went shopping at the Nacional Supermercado. On our way home we stopped at McDonald’s and had a sundae. 

April 21, Sunday

               We attended church today at the Gascue Ward. We met a couple from Germany, the Stemmers, who were here picking up their son. They sent him to the Dominican Republic six months ago to do some service. He is now ready to return to Germany and prepare for a mission. The Young Women’s leader asked me to come to the Young Women’s class and talk about my priesthood line of authority. Thank heavens, I had memorized it. I think my presentation went well. In the evening we walked about two miles along the ocean.