Elder David y Hna. Pam Johnson

Friday, July 31, 2009 (President Almonte’s Villa in the Mountains)

This morning we were very busy at the Mission office with our training and still not half way through learning all the procedures we need to know when we got word that we were to meet at the Mission President’s home at 2:00PM. The Larson’s and Pam and I are to accompany Pres. & Sis. Almonte to the President’s Villa in the mountains. It looks like our training will be put off for another day because, if the Mission President says you will take a vacation with him, you will take a vacation! I know, it’s a tough assignment but someone has to do it.

The Lord has certainly poured out his blessings on his people here in the Dominican Republic. A year and a half ago when President Almonte was called to be the mission president of the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo West Mission he was the first native Dominican ever called to be a mission president. In fact prior to 1978 there were no native Dominican members of the church. All of the members in the 15 plus stakes here now are all converts within the past 30 years! President & Sister Almonte have been members for only 20 years.

The church her has grown exponentially here and shown no sign of letting up. The members here love the Lord and are very faithful. In less than 20 years since missionaries were first brought in to the Dominican Republic they were blessed with their own temple. It truly is the crowning purpose of their membership in the church. The people here Love the Lord and Love their temple.

We left the Mission Home at 2:30pm for the 3 hour drive to the President’s villa. It is in the mountains about an hour drive from the town of La Vega in the interior of the island. La Vega is President and Sis. Almonte’s home town. He was Stake President here before being called to be the Mission President. He had only finished the villa 3 months before being called as Mission President. When he was called by the Brethren he was told that he should not ever return to his home town during his 3 years as mission president. He asked if he could use his villa as a retreat and a place to take the senior missionaries. He was granted permission for this. And we are very pleased he was.

The President’s Villa (he likes to call it his “cabin”) is next to a river (Rio Yaque Del Norte)in the bottom of beautiful tropical mountains at 3000ft above sea level. It is considerably cooler and less humid than down at sea level in Santo Domingo.

Shortly after arriving at the Villa, we were given a tour of the home and grounds. Then we were off on a hike across the river and through forest. We were only gone for about an hour but it was beautiful with tropical flowers and foliage of every kind.

We played Dominos & “Ginga” until almost midnight and had a lot of fun. Then we were off to our room. There are 5 guest rooms in the Villa. Each room in the villa is designed to hold a whole family. There are 2 queen size bunk beds plus a queen bed for the parent! And there is a bathroom for each room. He intended to use this Villa for his very large extended family as well as a “camp” & retreat for youth groups from his stake.