Week of Challenges

Two of our sisters were robbed. (Last week two of our elders were robbed.) The hermanas called and I thought they said their phone was rompio and we drove an hour to bring them a new cell phone but I didn't bring a SIM card 😩😩. The pains of not knowing Spanish 😩😩😩!

We have some really tough sisters. Other sisters went without water in their casa for 3 days before they called Presidente and asked if they could bathe in the baptismal font at the church. 😂😂

About the cell phone: Presidente says it's a good thing we didn't accidentally bring them a new refrigerator:)

Faithful Missionaries

We have such faithful missionaries!

Yesterday two of our hermanas had an appointment to teach a man and they needed a member present.  However, the member they had scheduled failed them.  They were prompted to visit a grandmother in the branch and ask her to accompany them.  They passed by her house, and she was watching four of her grandchildren. But, she said yes, she would be happy to accompany them.

So the grandmother and the four grandchildren left in the pouring rain to teach this investigator.  The spirit was strong in the discussion and the man committed to being baptized.  Never, never, never give up!

A Visa Waiter, the Santos, and the CCM

On Thursday we picked up a new missionary at a the CCM who was a visa waiter from the West mission.  President and Sister Santos from the West mission brought him to the CCM and we had them all over for lunch.

They Santos are wonderful!  We got to be friends during the Mission President's Conference and it is so nice to feel like we have colleagues nearby.

This painting at the CCM really touched me.  It is the epitome of the work here in the DR.  The youth are truly chosen.  They are joining the church before they become spotted with grievous sin and they will marry in the church and raise righteous families.  They are so valiant!

When we were waiting at the CCM bookstore, one of our missionaries made friends with this little baby.  She was so enchanted with those white snow-white fingers that when the elder took his hand away she began to cry.  He let her play with his fingers some more and she was just fine.

Dancing in the Streets

Yesterday Presidente had to to do a special interview for a baptism. While I was waiting with two of the office elders, we made good use of our time.   I learned a version of jump rope that was super fun.  The girls taught me their game while the elders taught the gospel.

Of course, I tuckered out pretty quickly and joined the elders who were making contacts.  It was so much fun!  

True Brothers

Our first farewell dinner: how can eight elders eat two pans of lasagna, two dozen rolls, and an entire batch of chocolate chip cookies?!



Nothing bonds us like serving together with all our heart, mind, might, and strength.

Our First Transfers!

Transfers are such a big deal to the missionaries. We are so grateful for the guidance of the spirit. We had one missionary with health problems and we moved them to a missionary who had EMT training and we didn't even know it!

Scripture Power

Studying the scriptures takes on a whole new meaning when you are desperately searching for answers to help people you love dearly.  We feel like physicians, scouring the PDR for the perfect medication, or combination thereof.  We know the book, but need just the right prescription.  It's such a blessing that the answers are here!

Alma 24:14

I was scouring lds.org and found a testimony from Elder Holland that will convince anyone that Latter-day Saints believe in Jesus Christ.  I wept as I listened to it and it was in Spanish!  I guess that's what people experience when they tell me they can feel the spirit even if they don't completely understand my words.

PBJ: Our Gourmet Lunch Today

Cosmo and His Family

Branch in Santa Fe

After I spoke in sacrament meeting they still asked me to pray on RS and to read. I would have thought they would be tired of guessing what I was saying!

I sat next to the sister on the moto in RS. She made me grateful for our car!

We felt like Frosty the Snowman on a sunny day during church. The building (a casa) didn't have air and the fans didn't work. Even the Dominicsns were pulling out fans and fanning themselves 

The government turns off the electricity at random times every day which means the fans won't work. Neither can you flush a toilet because the pumps require power. The church has generators but the power was being used for the computer and I guess that was more important???

The Motive for Our Obedience

We both spoke at zone conference about the motive for our obedience. We felt heavily guided by the Lord. Afterwards, I got to teach Pilates to the Hermanas.

Noche Blanca in Alimirante

All the Graduates

The finest missionaries ever. I'd let them teach my closest friends.

More Goodbyes

The tall sister has given me so much. She encourages me with the language and tells me that the sisters love me. One day I was about to begin a presentation in zone conference and I was nervous and she flashed me a big smile. I felt so much love for the missionaries in that moment, I forgot my fear and started to teach.

Goodbye Already

Today we went to the temple with missionaries going home in the next two weeks. This sweet sister is special to me. When we first arrived I was sitting alone in a meeting while Presidente went around greeting people and she sat next to me and have me a hug.

Comida Typical

We hosted four couples in our home last night, two stake presidents and their wives and Presidente's two counselor's and their wives.  My wonderful housekeeper made the meal.  I asked her to make a "comida typical" which included tons of white rice, a green salad, baked chicken, beans flavored with al kinds of things including pumpkin and a potato salad that included raisins, carrots and eggs.

My housekeeper is named Milagra and she is truly a miracle.  She is happy, fun and we get along great.  She rattles on and on in her Dominican Spanish and I catch about half of it.  We went to the store together to buy the food for this meal and got totally lost.  Finally we pulled out the GPS and siri kept telling us to go down one way streets.  We laughed and laughed.

We will host stake presidents for the next two weeks so I can send photos of them.  When they talk to us they speak slowly and we can understand.  When they talk to each other, it's like they have switched languages.

Tender Mercies

Tender Mercies

I am finding God works in a series of small miracles.  I can’t tell you how many times we have been lost (literally in the streets) and suddenly find our way.  We were supposed to pick up one of Presidente’s counselor’s on the side of a busy highway and we accidentally exited the highway.  When we finally returned we looked up and there he was.  We were driving in the dark one night looking for a hotel and suddenly I looked up from my phone, where I was trying to make the GPS work, and the first thing I saw was this tiny sign for the hotel.  This work is hard enough, I think The Lord knows we don’t need additional complications like getting lost.

Powerful Insights

I have already felt the guidance of the Lord in the things I say and teach.  We just finished three days of zone conferences.  I had prepared several talks for this occasion.  The first one was on miracles.  The second one was about the Spirit.  They were darn good talks.  However, I woke up early one morning and felt prompted to give an entirely different talk and the outline was right in front of my eyes.  I ended up speaking about The Faith to be obedient even though we don’t always know the why.  For some reason this was the message The Lord wanted the missionaries to hear.

I learned something as I was preparing the talk.  I was gathering stories from the scriptures where people had acted on faith, without knowing why they were obedient:  Adam, Naaman, the Israelites and the Serpent on a stick.  As I was studying I realized that the greatest act of faith ever, was exercised by Our Savior in the Garden of Gesthsamne.  I believe Christ asked, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” because he didn’t fully understand the incredible power of what he was doing.  He may not have known that without his sacrifice all mankind was doomed.  Christ completed the Atonement because he was obedient to the Father.  He trusted that the Father understood completely the reason he must complete this agonizing task.  The most important event in the history of the world was an act of faith performed by a loving son who was being obedient to his father.

Inviting the Sprit

The first day of zone conferences I was sitting on the stand, but I wasn’t really feeling the Spirit, and it concerned me.  I knew I could not teach a word without the Spirit so I paused, and pondered and prayed and a thought came to me:

You need to bear your testimony before you jump into your address.  “Of course” I thought to myself, and I pondered what I would say and the Spirit filled my soul and I felt confident.

The next thing I know Presidente is teaching the missionaries how to invite the Spirit when they work with members and he tells them, “Before you begin a discussion, bear you testimony,” he said.  “Don’t wait until the end, like we usually do.  Do it at the beginning so the Spirit will be there throughout the discussion.”

“Hey, that was my thought first,” I thought to myself.  But in reality, we must have both received the same inspiration at the same time, and he was the first one on the agenda.  When I got up and bore my testimony, the missionaries may have thought I was doing it because Presidente had just instructed us to do.  But in reality, I was already going to do it because the Spirit had instructed me to do so.

Zone Conference

We both spoke at zone conference about the motives for our obedience.  We felt heavily guided by the Lord.  Afterwards, I got to teach Pilates to the Hermanas!

After zone conference, we had  to sit for a picture with all the different zones. We thought a photo of the photographers would be more fun than a photo of the zones.

Our First Noche Blancha

Our first noche Blanca, a night where all the missionaries in the zone do their baptisms together. It's so cool! The older, shorter lady in the center front was baptized by her neighbor -- a tall man about her age. The elderly man was baptized by his new bishop. Many of the guests at the baptism were investigators scheduled for baptism next week. Wish we could attend them all!

Oh, also, they had a camera in the baptismal room broadcasting the baptisms to the chapel, so everybody who didn't fit in front of the font could still see. Presidente spoke, and I said a few words.

Quisqueya

We attended a tiny branch today called Quisqueya. The baptismal font is in the back yard, and the member there was baptized 10 months ago. The branch President commutes to Punta Cana to work with the tourists and returns every other week. The missionaries literally run everything.