Lighthouses talk

'Nuf' said

To cry or laugh?

We arrived at this house to do an interview an discovered the "pet" chicken, tied to a post with a string around its neck, was dead.  The children didn't notice it until we pointed it out and suddenly the 10 year old boy started wailing as if his heart would break.  They only paid 5 pesos for the chicken (alive).  The mom had planned to eat it anyway, but the 10 year old didn't know that.

These awesome elders are completing a family!  Mom Dad and all three kids were baptized.

How to be a missionary

Two of our zone leaders were asked to share a little about missionary work when the member opened his call.  The secret, they all agreed, is love the people, love the country, love the work and you'll never be homesick

Noche de Hogar

We were invited to our first Family Home Evening where a member was going to open his mission call.  It turned out he was called the same mission where Mikan served, Brazil Salvador Sur speaking Portuguese

Exceeding Faith

This tiny branch had only 4 members coming to sacrament at the beginning of last month.  The elders worked like crazy to re-activate and bring new people to church.  Last week there were 29 people at church!

A peaceful resting place

This cemetery was built into the side of a hill.  It was one of the prettiest cemeteries we've seen, with natural plants and flowers growing everywhere.

Urgency to baptize

The zone leaders in San Pedro had an activity to help their zone recognize the importance of baptism without delay

Standing behind the promise

Each member of our wonderful Leadership Counsel signed their name to their zone's promise for the month.  The promise is the sum of the number of people each  companionship feels the Lord has prepared in their own area.  Each zone leader brings their zone's promise to Consejo de Lideres and we then know what the promise is for the whole mission.

Peace and Quiet

Usually when we teach on a patios it is right on the street and cars, motorcycles, and trucks blast by creating all kinds of noise and distractions.  This patio was in back of the house, although shared by many houses that surrounded it, it was cool, quiet and a great place to teach.  The little girl in the photo is the younger sister of the person the hermanas are teaching.

A Balancing Act

The zone leaders created an activity to help the missionaries in their zone learn how to keep all their balls (people they are teaching) in the air.  When they have too many people to teach themselves, they solicit the help of the members, and they go out with the members.  That way they can teach twice as fast.

All for Nothing

All those pallets are for the Oktoberfest celebration this weekend.  The event will take place in the park across the street from our casa.  So much work, booth after booth built, painted and decorated just to sell millions of different brands of alcohol.

Super Prepared

These faithful hermanas baptized two members of this family this weekend, and will baptize the others soon.  Note the furniture covered in plastic.  It's not new.  It stays that way!

Fun to give

I've decided I like the welfare system here in the DR.  Those who are handicapped and can't work, actually work really hard.  They walk in the streets all day every day and come up to the window of your car while waiting at lights (always long, long lights) and you put money in their cup.  The thing that I really like is seeing their gratitude.  It doesn't matter how much you give, a little or a lot, they are grateful.  Even when we choose to give granola bars or food, they are happy.  One day I gave a little boy a bag of M & M 's and you would think he won the lottery.  I've never seen such a big smile.  I hope he comes back!

Fill the font

The zone leaders find lots of ways to animate their missionaries.  This day they had a relay that included filling the font one cup of water at a time.

In the garden

This stained glass is in one of the chapels of a really old cathedral here in Santo Domingo.  I was impressed that the subject was the Savior in the garden of Gethsemane.  So often the stained glass pictures the Savior with the cross.

9 baptisms

New leadership

Elder Gavarett, of the Area Presidency arrived in the country last week and he came to our mission to do a mission tour this week.  He emphasized how effective family history work is to retain new converts.

20-5=15 more missionaries!!

Such potencial

We passed this abandoned monastery the other day. It was so beautiful we wanted to restore it.

Paying it forward

One of our marvelous zone leaders was a member for a year before he came on his mission. He carries the photo of the missionaries who baptized him to share with his converts.

Baseball team comes to check out church

Talk about referrals!  We had a member bring his entire baseball team to church on Sunday.  They had to have the "Gospel Principles" class in the chapel instead of a classroom.  You gotta love the Dominicans!!

Look carefully

This is the luggage of a missionary just leaving on her mission.  President Smith is in charge of the district so when a missionary wants to go on a mission from the district he fulfills the role of the stake president.  We were marveling at how little these people have and how willing they are to give their all to The Lord.

It's a rule??

We have a rule in our mission that missionaries carry a Book of Mormon all the time so people will more easily recognize that they represent the church.  I wonder if we should count carrying the book on your head?  This elder has been teaching to many people from Haiti!

Gathering Israrl

In zone conference this week our assistants talked about gathering Israel in every lesson.  They taught the missionaries how to invite "conectados" (people nearby) to join in the lessons so we can teach more people at once and be more efficient.

Strong Hermanas

The hermana on the right had her appendix out as well as many other health problems.  We kept asking her if she wanted to go home.  She said, "No!  I had a blessing before my mission that said I would complete my mission, and I'm going to complete my mission!"  And she did.  She says the priesthood blessings she received did far more to help her heal that the doctors did.

Here comes the storm!

One of those tropical storms in the Caribbean hit us today.  We were assigned to speak at a stake conference and we thought nobody would come.  The Dominicans really don't like rain.  Their houses flood and many of the streets turn into unpassable rivers.  But the stake center was full.  Our missionaries arrived soaked to the bone, as did some members.  Even the investigators came, and expressed how blessed they felt for being there!

New recruits

We bumped into some of our up-coming missionaries today.  They were headed out to do service and they recognize us.  They will be coming to our mission next transfer after they finish their time in the CCM.  We will receive 20 new missionaries next transfer and only 7 go home!

The next bishop

Our missionaries just baptized this amazing man, Junior, along with his wife and three of his four children.  He knew the moment he read it that the Book of Mormon was the word of God.  His wife took a little longer to receive her testimony, but will be baptized this weekend.  Their youngest child will be baptized when she turns eight.

Keeping our promise

Each zone finds a way to demonstrate their faith in the goal for the month. They set their goals prayerfully so they can call it a promise 

Animated Zone

Lá zona restauradores found a way to act out a scripture where the lamanites fought like dragons. The elders loved it

Waiting for the prophet

Our marvelous missionaries stood for an hour in place waiting for the prophet to arrive and take photos with them. They said it was totally worth it!

The biggest surprise so far!!

The prophet is coming to our mission!  We only found out last week!  Everyone is scrambling to be ready.  The gardners worked through a rainstorm 

Another fruit for Eve

The temple at night

For the first time in 14 months we went to the temple gardens at night.  President had to do an interview with someone there. We wish we could do so every night. It is so peaceful.

It's a good thing we only have three cars for the whole mission!

To each his own

Consecrated members

The branch presidents wife in one of the branches told me today she really wanted to attend the baptisms of all the new converts. However they don’t have a baptismal font in their building and the new converts have to travel across town to be baptized. She prayed about it and received the impression she needed to wash bottles. She could earn just enough money washing bottles to pay for the bus ride to the baptism.  Then she said “why else would I need more money?”

Elder Bednar on revelation

In the seminary for new mission presidents Elder Bednar taught that we might not always know we are receiving revelation until later.  This past week we felt impressed in the weekly letter to remind the missionaries to speak with everybody.  

That week two of our elders were trying very hard to get a birth certificate for a woman who wanted to get married (so she could get baptized.)  Her name appeared in three different ways in different government documents and the officials told her it would be practically impossible to get her birth certificate and if they could it would take months.

The elders were discourage but when they entered the elevator to leave the building, they remembered the words from the weekly letter that said to talk to everybody.  They started talking to a man in the elevator, who asked why they were there.  They told him their dilemma and he said he knew how to fix it.  They followed him to his office and right then and there he gave them the documents they needed so this woman could get married and baptized.  They knew it was a blessing because they were obedient to the counsel reiterated in Presidents' letter.

Object lesson

The box of m n ms was wrapped heavily in packing tape.  The question was, “how much do you want it?  And what are you willing to do to get it?”

Honored guests

This is the choir from stake conference today in the stake los restauradores.  This member insisted she take photos with us and her friends.  Only later I found out she was in charge of public relations, her friends were pastors from another church, and the photo was for the paper!