Mission Training Center Missionaries Sing

This past Monday at our family home evening with the other senior missionary couples, we had a pot luck to send off our past temple president (the Harris's) and his first counselor (the Bowcuts). They have been wonderful to work with. The Harris's are from Portland Oregon and are returning to take the place as a sealer in the Portland Oregon Temple while the brother who was a sealer at the Portland Temple is coming here to be the temple president. They are changing places.

We were blessed to have a group of elders from the CCM(Mission Training Center), which is directly above our apartment in our building, come and sing to us. I have included a video clip of their performance. We love being close to the missionaries. When we go to bed at night, we can hear them singing above us. We feel like we are hearing angels! This past week a new group arrived. There are about 16 from North America and about 10 Haitian missionaries. I love to be with the missionaries in the temple and feel of their power. We met the first Haitian general authority (area Seventy) this past Friday at the institute. His name is Elder Piernó (sp) and is only 37 years old. He has already served as a stake president. He is the coordinator of Seminaries and Institutes in Haiti.

Many activities and even a visit from my beautiful sister, Joy and her husband, Lane. We are standing in front of the house of the son of Christopher Columbus. It is a huge stone building which is remarkable given the time period and crude tools used for construction. We also spent some time visiting the old fortress that was built at the mouth of the river to protect the city. It was later turned into a prison. The many prisoners that died there were just thrown into the river which runs next to it. It was humbling to walk through such a place. The picture of the gate is the original entrance into the city from the river. It was built in the early 1500's.

They also spent 4 days in an all inclusive resort on our favorite beach about an hour from Santo Domingo. We joined them for one night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Activities

What a great time we have. Sherrie is amazing and continues to bless the people here. She has started to spend time learning French so she can speak with the members that are here from Haiti. I have included one photo of a beautiful family who met each other here at the temple a number of years ago and have 3 adorable children.

Other photos are of our outing with the other senior couples and of our 100% dinner. Last week we had a dinner for all of the student in the institute program not only in our building but throughout the stakes and had about 95 people there. Sherrie came up with the idea to help motivate the kids  to attend institute and it has been very successful. She underestimated how motivated the kids here are for food rewards. She thought initially we could get all of them in our apartment. Not so!

The other photos are of our trip to a cocoa processing plant and a pottery factory. Cocoa is a big business here with the beans from the DR reaching mostly buyers in Europe. The good German chocolate comes from the DR. The Dr is the biggest producer of organic cocoa in the world. They call it organic of course because of not pesticides or artificial fertilizers. I asked about the diseases and pests and they said that the biggest problem they have is with the rats that infest the fields and climb the trees and eat into a pod and bite a bean and spit it out. I asked how they control the rats and they said snakes. So there you have it. Nothing to worry about! Makes your chocolate taste even  better knowing what people have to do to pick it. We are drinking freshly made hot cocoa. It was very good but very different from what we traditionally have. One photo is of some wooden bins where they ferment the cocoa beans after they are harvested. The grower has up to 6 hours to get his beans to the processor or he will loose them. The fermentation process is what gives the cocoa beans their distinctive chocolate flavor. The longer the process, the more rich the chocolate flavor. They are then dried and bagged. Each bag sells for about $200 US dollars. One photo is of our guide with a cocoa pod open. The beans are inside surrounded by a white fruit. It is quite tasty but the farmers grind the whole thing up after separating the seeds and use it as fertilizer.






We also visited a small fabrication facility of authentic Tiano Indian pottery. The Tianos are the indigenous people that were on the island when Columbus arrived. It was very interesting and very warm. I respect so much the difficulty the workers have sitting in the heat for 10 hours a day trimming and making the individual pieces of pottery. The pieces are sold throughout the country. We took advantage of the chance and bought some souvenirs.

The kids were back to school this past week so things were rocking. Our class starts this Wednesday but so far we only have 4 signed up. Probably due to the fact that is only for engaged or married students.

Another week in paradise!

Last Institute Class

Hermana Finlayson has already published a previous posting of her experiences and our last institute class. I thought I would add a few pictures as well.

About mid semester one of the institute students suggested that we have a class at the temple since the subject of the class was Preparing for Eternal Marriage. We thought that was a great idea so had our last class on the temple lawn in front of the temple. Since we live on the temple grounds it was very convenient for us but for some of the kids, they had to walk a ways in a very hot sun with a high humidity. Over 30 students came.

We had the temple president come and speak with them about the blessings of the temple. When I looked over at the parking lot, I recognized one of the stake presidents sitting in his car and invited him to also come and speak to the youth about the promises. He did a wonderful job. Sherrie had spent a great deal of time and effort writing over 50 individual notes to all of the students who had registered for our class and we gave them to those that were there. Many commented how much it meant to them to have the notes.

It also seemed fitting to have refreshments so Sherrie also made a wedding cake that we shared with the youth after the class. She did a beautiful job and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

It was so hard to say good-by to this class. They have been a remarkable group and we have learned so much from them. They have great insight and a wonderful faith in the Lord. They will always be in our memory and prayers.

Baseball

This past Monday I went with some of the other senior missionaries to a baseball academy owned by the San Diego Padres here in the DR. I am sitting next to Elder Crowder who is a retired teacher who taught at Ricks College for 20 years and coached football there. The facility was beautiful and quite new. They took good care of us. We were able to watch the first game of a double header between the Padre farm team here and the Denver Rockies farm team.

Many major league clubs have farm teams here.  I am told about 15% of the players in major league baseball come from the DR. It is the national sport here. Denver won but it was a close game with one HR by the Padres. The setting was beautiful with the Caribbean Ocean in the background of the picture of the ball field.

Before the games, we were taken on a tour of the facilities and then after the game were taken to the cafeteria and treated to lunch which happened to be hot dogs. It was a fun day and the price was right, free!

"Look to the temple"

Reed has been so great to keep up our blog but I wanted to share a special experience that I had last Sat.   I was feeling a little stressed out because of  a bunch of things coming all at once so got up at 6:00 to walk around the temple.  On my first lap I saw a little guy about 2 1/2 ' tall and kind of chunky running up an incline towards the temple as fast as his little legs would go and his arms pumping.  When we met up he looked at me and then at the temple and exclaimed with a huge smile and eyes shining,  "Mira al templo!!" (Look at the temple)  As I walked on, at first I just thought, what an adorable little boy, but as I kept thinking about him, the Spirit whispered to me that that is exactly what I needed to do.  There is no more important message to anyone than "Look to the temple!" and remember the teachings received in the Lord's Holy House and the covenants made with Him there.  That is what this life is all about.  I am so grateful for this message from Heavenly Father.  Then on Wed. evening we had our last class of Preparing for an Eternal Marriage on the lawn in front of the temple.  Looking into the faces of those valiant young adults I was overwhelmed with such a love for them and a desire that they would each know the true joy of being sealed in the temple for eternity and keeping their covenants.  I am growing to love my eternal companion more and more on this mission!

Celebrations and Service Project

We have come to love the flowers here and especially the Flamboyant tree. The picture is of the flowers that adorn the canopy of this beautiful majestic tree that spreads a wide canopy creating an ideal shade tree along with being incredibly beautiful. It is also called the Flame tree due to its fire red blooms that cover the tree. 

 We found out that they also have the 4th of July here as well. They also have a 5th and a 6th. So on Monday for the family home evening for all of the senior missionary couples, one of the couples organized a barbecue and pot luck. I love pot luck dinners! The food was delicious. Sherrie again used her creative talents to create a bean dip in the form of an american flag.

Fun and busy times. Sherrie loves to provide baby showers for the sisters. One of the secretaries in the institute office is expecting and Sherrie put on a baby shower for her. She and her husband and the others in the office were there. She made her wonderful rolls and a casserole as well as a cake with cute little baby booties made out of marshmallows and icing. They loved it.

We had a full house in our institute class this week with about 39 kids. We have felt good about the attendance since summer tends to have a lower turn out. Our class is entitled Preparing for an Eternal Marriage. We have made some comments about having a girlfriend or boyfriend by the end of class or their money back which may have something to do with the attendance!







Institute activities have been great! This last Saturday they loaded up two big school buses of about 120 kids and took them to the church camp about 1 1/2 hours away. Unfortunately, the buses got lost, we got lost following the buses and it took closer to 2 1/2 hours to get there. It was hot and the kids did not have any air conditioning on the buses. The missionary caretakers of the camp had a number of projects set up for the kids and many of them got right into the work.

After about an hour, it was time for lunch. Sister Finlayson and I cooked the hot dogs and as you can see, the kids are always anxious to get some Sherries cooking. She made cakes for all of them as well. I saw this had and had to have it! It is great shade but tough to keep on your head in a breeze!

After lunch, all loaded back into the buses and headed for the river for swimming. The kids loved the water and because it was so warm, they appreciated being able to cool off.

They were tough kids. The river site appeared to be on the site of a lot of old concrete work with rebar sticking out of pieces of concrete with a lot of rocks. No sandy beaches. They all seemed to have a good time and even took advantage of the water to soap up for a quick bath.

Parties, Books and Baby Showers

Last weekend was another party and dance at the institute. There was a group of institute youth here visiting the temple from Puerto Rico so they had a dance to welcome them. There were only 16 of them but there were about 300 youth at the dance. They love to dance and everyone seemed to have a good time. Hermana Finlayson has a following of young women that just love her!

We had a wonderful time on Monday traveling to the northern part of the city and visiting a school for the handicapped. Wendy had sent some books with Matt and Vanessa when they came to see us from Books for a Better World to donate  and we took them to the school to deliver them. We were fortunate that another missionary couple was going to visit the school the same day and knew where it was so we followed them.

The kids were so well behaved and so cute. They loved the books and were so happy to have their pictures taken. They were of varying degrees and types of handicaps. It was impressive how they took care of each other and seemed to be so happy.

We had an interesting surprise on our way to the school. As we were driving down one of the streets we came across a swimming pool in the street with just enough room for a car to go around. If you think about it, why not! All of the street isn't used at the same time so why not use part of it to place a swimming pool.

The kids loved having their picture taken. There was not a lot of water in the pool but on a hot day, 18 inches of water can make for great fun!

Sherrie loves to give showers for sisters who are getting married or having babies. She is planning a baby shower for one of the sisters that works at the temple and at the missionary training center. She enlisted some of the girls at the institute to help make little baby buggies and spent the afternoon on Saturday making a diaper motorcycle for the baby shower. It was very clever and turned out cute.