Week 11 in the D.R.

Week 11 in the D.R.

 We made it back to the Dominican Republic on Saturday, August 3. We are now settled in and doing our missionary work. A summary of our week is attached.

August 2, Friday, and August 3, Saturday

            Jody, Jill and Indie drove Joy and I to the Salt Lake City airport.  We said our goodbyes and boarded our plane for New York City. The plane left at 12 midnight and flew four hours to JFK airport. We changed planes in New York and flew to Santo Domingo. We landed at 12 noon and the Ruckers were there to meet us. They helped us with our bags and then drove into the city. We had a late lunch at Johnny Rockets and then the Ruckers took us to the office to get our car. We then drove back to our apartment. We spent the balance of the day putting our things away and doing a little grocery shopping. We retired early.

August 4, Sunday

            We walked over to the Gascue Ward with the Haws to attend church. It was Fast Sunday and we heard many of the local saints bare their testimonies. Elder Martinez of the Area Authority Seventy was in attendance. We were invited over to the Dunfords for dinner. We had a great meal with them and then returned to our apartment.

August 5, Monday

            We spent most of the day getting our computers to work and getting oriented to our surroundings. Many of the employees came by and welcomed us back to the office. We returned home early and walked over to the Clinica Abreu to see if we could get a refund on the deposit they required for Joy’s hospitalization. To our surprise they wrote us a check for 80,000 pesos or $2,000. We were pleasantly surprised by their quick response. We then went to family home evening at Sister Hyde’s apartment in the Casa. We also had a chance to talk to our friends the Wegeners and many other missionary couples.

August 6, Tuesday

            We spent the day in the office. We were told that food was coming to the Bishop’s Storehouse and that on Thursday there would be an inventory taken of the food in the storehouse.  We left the office early to cash our refund check. We went to the bank but they would not cash it because it was made out to Elder Crismon. We returned to the Clinic and they said they would reissue the check on Wednesday. We walked home and found that the Bishop’s Storehouse was full of food. In fact they had added eight new items to the storehouse and now we had 21 items.

August 7, Wednesday

            We started the day off doing a quick inventory of the items in the Bishop’s Storehouse. We spent about one hour on the project and then drove to the office. Joy prepared some bills for payment and I spent the day reviewing projects. We left early again and stopped at the Clinica Abreu to pick up our check. After waiting one half hour, they gave us our check and we went next door to the bank to cash the check. After a little wait, they cashed our check and then Joy and I walked three blocks home with 80,000 pesos in my pocket.  We ate dinner and then tried to watch a movie on Netflix but it was raining hard and we lost internet connection. We played cards and went to bed.

August 8, Thursday

               We got an early start on the day. We went down to the storehouse and completed a quick inventory of the food. At 9 am the Reyes came with a group from the office to do an official inventory. So Joy and I went to the office to get ready to fill the kitchen kits.



Joy inventorying the food in the Bishop’s Warehouse

We went to lunch with the Dunfords and Ruckers and then returned to office. We spent the balance of the day packing kitchen kits. We packed 140 kits and then called it a day. We returned home exhausted.

August 9, Friday

            We went to work again filling kitchen kits. We finishing packing the final items in the 140 kits and then filled 60 more. By early afternoon, we had completed the packing of 200 kitchen kits. We still had enough items left to pack 50 more so we made arrangements to do that on Monday morning. We returned home, and got ready to go to the temple with the Haws. We arrived at the temple and found that they had removed our clothing from our locker. By the time we found our clothing it was too late to go on a session so Joy and I did some initiatories. We then went to dinner with the Haws. We arrived home about 9 pm.

 

Haws, Ruckers, Dunfords, and Crismons filling kitchen kits

 

 



 

Finished product, 200 kitchen kits

 

August 10, Saturday

            We got up at our usual time and decided to go walking in the park by the Temple. We enjoyed walking around the park and we surprised at the amount of work they had done on the park. They had put in new roads, exercise equipment, and planted several gardens. The park was beautiful. We drove over to McDonalds and had breakfast and then drove to Price Smart to purchase some grocery items. We then went shopping at La Sirena and Plaza Lama. We drove around the park by our office and then had lunch at Taco Bell. We returned home after lunch and spent a quiet afternoon and evening at our apartment while it rained.