Week 12 in the D.R.

Week 12 in the D.R.

August 11, Sunday

            We got up early and rode with the Haws out to Monte Plata Branch. We attended the three meetings and then sat through a meeting with the ward council. Elder Haws talked to the group about their chicken raising projects. After the meeting a young man approached me to see if I could help him with his tuition. He wanted 200 pesos or $5. I gave him the 200 pesos and he left happy. We drove over to see the one chicken coup that the branch had built. We took a couple of pictures and then took one of the young members back to the city with us.

Joy and the Haws in the new chicken coup

 

August 12, Monday

            We spent the morning packing 50 more kitchen kits. We had now completed packing 250 kitchen kits. We spent the balance of the day working in the office. We returned home early to eat a snack and then went to Spanish lessons at the MTC. After two hours of Spanish, we spent an hour listening to two sister missionaries from the Phillipines and two Elders from the USA. We attended FHE in the Casa where I showed the presentation Joy had made of her art and then she passed out a painting for each couple. The senior missionaries were very appreciative of Joy’s thoughtfulness. We also said goodbye to the Cuernots, Reeses and the Pichardos.

 August 13, Tuesday

             We attended the morning devotional and heard Elder Civic of the Area Presidency speak  to us.  We worked on preparing for our meeting with the humanitarian missionaries next week. We returned home early and spent the evening in our apartment.

August 14, Wednesday

            I spent the day entering the bishop’s storehouse order into the computer. There was a problem with the order of the items on the computer, so Julio rearranged the order so that it was consistent with the order forms. Joy worked on identifying all the humanitarian projects in the Caribbean for our meeting on the 20^th.         

August 15, Thursday

            We spent the day working on entering the rest of the Bishop Storehouse orders and preparing for our meeting on the 20^th August. We spent the evening helping with the Bishop’s storehouse.

 August 16, Friday

             The office was closed since it was a national holiday. It was the 150^th anniversary of the Dia de la Restuaracion. We decided to spend the day visiting local attractions. We toured the National Botanical Gardens in the morning and then had lunch at McDonalds. After lunch we toured the Faro de Colon, a monument to Christopher Columbus. His body was supposedly enshrined in the building. We returned home in the afternoon and then attended a session in the temple. We arrived home around 8 pm.

Faro de Colon

 

 

August 17, Saturday

            We met the Ruckers at the temple parking lot and then road with them to Salcedo to visit the museum dedicated to the three Mirabel sisters that were killed by Presidente Trujillo in 1960. They were protesting his almost 30 year reign as the president of the Dominican Republic, when he had them killed. Six months after their death, Trujillo was assassinated.  The museum was their childhood home and had been restored back to the 1960s. After touring the museum, we drove back to Bonao and had lunch at a fine restaurant. We then toured the art gallery dedicated to Candido Bido, the Dominican modern artist. We return in the afternoon after a very interesting and delightful day with the Ruckers.

Candido Bido Museum in Bonoa

 

Joy and Jim at Mirabel Museum in Salcedo