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