Weeks 20 and 21 in the D.R.

Weeks 20 and 21 in the DR

Oct. 6, Sunday

            I had the stomach flu during the night and was up most of the night. Joy and I did manage to watch general conference in our apartment. We had scheduled to have lunch with the Haws but had to cancel due to the stomach flu. We did enjoy listening to the general conference talks. We Skyped our children in the evening. We had a good Sabbath insight of the stomach flu.

Oct. 7, Monday

            We went into the office at our usual time. We went home early and prepared for our Spanish lesson at 4:30 in the MTC. After our lesson, we listened to two sets of missionaries practice their Spanish. We attended family home evening at the apartment of Elder and Sister Casanova from Puerto Rico. We shared our favorite conference talks.

Oct 8, Tuesday

            We went into the office and attended the morning devotional. We spent the day organizing a proposed seminar for the humanitarian missionaries in the Caribbean. The seminar won’t be held until March, but we needed to put together a proposed seminar so that Julio our boss could get approval for the meeting in next year’s budget.

Oct. 11, Friday

            We stayed home to receive the food for the storehouse. When it hadn’t arrived by 9 am, I emailed Darwin, our buyer, to see when the food was to arrive. He said it wouldn’t be coming until Monday. About one hour later, a truck pulled up and delivered 680 bag of rice. It took until noon for them to unload the truck. We stayed home and then went to the temple with the Haws. We did some family names of Sister Haws and then went to dinner at a very great Chinese Restaurant. We had a good visit with the Haws. We returned home and watched the movie, The Eagle.

Oct. 12, Saturday

            We walked over to the park by us that they are refurbishing. They were installing exercise equipment and a children’s playground. They were also replanting the flower gardens and fixing up a wading pond. The guard told us they were to finish the project in November. We were excited to have a park close by were we can walk and exercise.  We went shopping at La Sirena, a Walmart type store. They had their artificial Christmas trees on sale so we bought one. In the Dominican Republic they start selling Christmas items the 1^st of Oct. Christmas is a big holiday here. Both the 24^th and 25^th of December are holidays.

 

Oct 13, Sunday

            We attended church at the Piantini Ward. It was fast Sunday and many of the saints bore their testimonies. The most touching was a young deacon that told of the recent death of his father. Most of the people in the congregation had wet eyes after he concluded his testimony. Sister Antivilo gave our Sunday School lesson. We ate lunch and then took a stroll down the Malecon.  We took a few pictures of the ocean and then returned to our apartment where we spent the rest of the day.

The coast two blocks from our apartment

Oct. 14, Monday

            We were awakened by the morning rain. We got dressed and then waited until 10 am for the food to arrive. I called and was told they couldn’t deliver the food due to the rain so once again the food didn’t come. We went into the office and spent the day preparing the payroll for some part time employees in Haiti. In the evening we had the missionaries practice their lessons on us. This was the last week that the four elders would be in the MTC. We took pictures of Elders Jessop, Wassum, Van Katwyk, and Elmer and wished them well on their missions. In the evening we were to have a movie for FHE. They forgot to tell me I was to show the movie so I hadn’t brought my computer with me.  So we tried using two other different computers and we couldn’t get them to work. So after one hour, the Bairs invited anyone that wanted to see the movie to go to their apartment. Joy and I decided to head home instead of watching the movie.

Oct. 16, Wednesday

            We went into the office and after one hour in the office we were told the food would arrive in an hour at the storehouse. We went home and three hours later all the food was finally delivered and stacked into the storehouse. In the afternoon we met with Elder and Sister Cullimore from Salt Lake, the Reyes, service missionaries in the DR, and the Haws. We had a meeting about humanitarian services in the DR. We then had dinner prepared by Joy and Sister Haws. We had a good evening together.

Men carrying 125 lbs of sugar on their heads

Meeting with the Cullimores, Reyes, and Haws

Oct. 17, Thursday

            We went into the office to check the satellite phones. I spent most of the morning trying to test three telephones. After a couple of hours, I finally got through on one of the telephones. I had to be outside to test the telephones so it was hot and humid. You could only be outside for one half hour before you were so hot and sweaty. In the evening we had dinner with the Cullimores and the Haws at the Chinese Restaurant.  We had a good visit with both couples.  

 

Oct. 18, Friday              

            We picked the Cullimores up at the hotel and took them into the office to meet with Julio. Julio had been in Cuba most of the week and returned the night before. We met for an hour and one half and then Joy and I took the Cullimores to the airport. We returned to the office after having lunch at Taco Bell. I was able to get one more call through to Salt Lake on the satellite phone. We returned home early and then attended the temple. On our session at 5 pm were four general authorities and their spouses, (ie) Elders and Sisters, Anderson, Civic, Cornish, and Martinez. The temple president, Larry Bair was the session coordinator. We returned home tired after a full day. 

Oct. 19, Saturday

            We got up at our usual time and drove over to the Iberoamerica Park by the temple to go walking. We met up with the McIntoshs, a senior missionary couple from Kansas. We walked around the park with them and had a good visit. We returned home and went shopping in the Colonial Zone. In the evening we attended the farewell party for the temple president, President and Sister Bair. The temple workers had a special farewell meeting for them. Our neighbors the Haw sang a duet of “Vaya con Dios” for them. They had light refreshments after the meeting, so Joy and I went out into parking lot and sat in the back of the Haw’s pickup and ate our food with Alicia from our office.  We returned home after a full day.

Tail gate party after the Bair’s Farewell, Joy, Jim and Alicia

 

Week 19 in the D.R.

Week 19 in the D.R.

Sep. 30, Monday

            We started a new week in the office. We caught up on the various projects that needed our assistance. We spent most of the morning communicating with the Birds in St. Vincent and the Beechers in Guyana. At 2 pm we picked up the Dispains at the Casa and drove them to San Cristobal to the doll factory. The Despains are temple missionaries and do not have a car. They are going home on Wednesday and had asked us to take them to the doll factory to pick up some items they had ordered. While in San Cristobal, Joy bought some small doll pins for our granddaughters and I purchased a Taino wooden statue. We returned in time to meet with our missionaries and to attend family home evening. Our FHE was a sing along with the Despains. We had a great evening singing along with senior missionaries.

Joy and Sister Dispain at the Doll Factory in San Cristobal

Oct. 3, Thursday

            We spent the morning in the office. Our boss, Julio was out of the office and we had cleaned up the projects on our desks so we went over to the Mirador Park that is located just north of the office. The park is some two miles long and one half mile wide and has 10 caves on the property and several running paths and a small lake with paddle boats. We walked around the park and took several pictures. We visited the monument of the dedication of the Dominican Republic for the preaching of the gospel by elder Ballard. We returned home and had a quiet evening.

Small lake and restaurant in Mirador Park

Oct. 4, Friday

            We spent the morning in the office and in the afternoon a company was asked to fumigate the Bishop’s Storehouse for bugs. I decided I did not want to take a chance of having an asthma attack because of the spray, so we packed our suitcase and drove out to Juan Dolio Beach where we spent the afternoon and evening. We walked along the beach and then went to dinner at a restaurant a block from the beach. We returned our room and had a quiet night playing cards.

Juan Dolio Beach

Juan Dolio from the top of our hotel

Oct. 5, Saturday

            We got up early, ate breakfast and then went down to the beach to go swimming. The water was perfect for swimming. We returned to the hotel and sat in the hot tub on the tenth floor that had a beautiful view of the ocean. We returned to our room and drove back to our apartment to catch the first session of conference at 12 noon. We watched the first session and second session in our apartment and then the Haws, Dunfords, and we had dinner. The men then went to the Priesthood session of the conference at the MTC. There were over 40 young Elders in attendance.  It was inspiring to be with such a fine group of young priesthood holders.  I returned home after a long good day at 10:30 pm.   

 

Birthday Week in the D.R.

Birthday Week in the DR

Sep. 23, Monday

            We went into work at the usual time. After work we went to the MTC for Spanish Class. Elder Haws has started over with basic Spanish. Joy was doing well with the new concepts. We had two training sessions with the young missionaries and then attended Family Home Evening where Elder Johnson present a book review on The Apostasy written by Elder Todd Callister.  I was wished happy birthday by the senior missionaries and got to wear the funny little hat while they sang happy birthday.

Jim, Elder Malan, and Sister Despain

Sep. 24, Tuesday

            It was a holiday in the Dominican Republic so we had the day off. We spent the day shopping at Price Smart and Plaza Lama. We returned home and got ready to attend the temple. On holidays, the temple is open more hours. Joy and I attended the 3 pm session with many of the young missionaries.  After the session, we returned home and had a quiet evening watching our miniseries, The Pillars of Earth.

Sep. 26, Thursday

            The Ruckers and we went to lunch at Chef Pepper for my birthday lunch. We had to about 15 minutes to be seated and then we finally were served our food. The Philly cheese and chicken sandwich was great. We returned to the office and then in the evening, the Ruckers had dinner for us. The Dunfords, and the Haws also came and we had a delightful evening.  It was still two days until my birthday and I had already had celebrated my birthday three times.

Sep. 27, Friday

            We worked half day and left after lunch to go to Las Terrenas for the weekend. We had reserved a room at the Casa de Mar Neptunia for two nights. We left at 2 pm and drove along the Las Americas highway. We missed our turnoff and had to drive back to Santo Domingo to turn around. We finally got turned around and found the right road to Las Terrenas. We went through three toll booths that cost a total of 855 pesos or $20 in tolls. We arrived in Las Terranas and after one hour we found our motel. The room was clean and pleasant but did not have air conditioning. The evening was warm so we took a walk on the beautiful beach about a block from our room. We watched the last episode of the Pillar of Earth on our tablet.

Joy at our motel in Las Terrenas

Sep. 28, Saturday

            Happy birthday. After celebrating my birthday for a week, I finally get to put my 67^th year behind me and start my 68^th year. We got up and went swimming in the ocean. We returned to our room and had breakfast at the motel. We decided to drive over to Samana on the southern portion of the peninsula to check out the area. We drove through some of the most beautiful country. We stopped and had a softdrink in Samana and then drove back to Las Terrenas and went swimming again. We went back to our room and changed clothes and went to dinner at the food court located on the beach. The evening was beautiful and the food was good. We were the only ones in the restaurant due to the early hour we were eating. We returned to the motel in the evening and finished watching the final episode of The Pillars of the Earth.

Beautiful Las Terrenas Beach

Jim’s birthday dinner on the beach in Las Terrenas

Sep. 29, Sunday

            We got up early and walked along the beach. We returned to our room and changed into our Sunday clothes. We had breakfast at the motel and then packed up our things. We left at 8:03 am with the intent of going to church in Nagua. We took a wrong road and ended up by Samana again. By the time we found the road to Nagua it was too late to go to church. We drove home through some of the most beautiful scenery on earth. We arrived home early afternoon. In the evening we had been invited to a get-to-know-you party at the Antivilo’s apartment. There were ten couples that had a chance to get better acquainted. We had refreshments and then returned home. Our children Skyped us for an hour and then wished me a happy birthday.

Our motel room