Monday, August 17, 2009
This morning we drove in to the capital from Azua in about two hours. It was an uneventful drive for the most part except for the two wrong turns that only cost us a few minutes. We are learning though. At least I’m not making the same mistake twice.
Since Saturday we logged about 10+ hours on the road. Duverge is one of the furthest points away from the capital where we have missionaries.
We were back in the office and working by noon, after unpacking and grocery shopping. Missing even a half day of work in the office is costly. We’ll have to make it up somewhere else. We are coming up on a very busy 3 days in the mission. First is Tuesday September f irst, that is the day all of the missions finances are due. And there is a ton to do on that day and the day before. Second is August 31, September 1st and 2nd. These are transfer days. Not only will a lot of missionaries move and require a lot of paper shuffling but we are expecting about a dozen new Elders & Sisters to arrive plus about a dozen will leave for home. All of this activity requires a lot of bookwork by the office staff. Well, mostly by Sister Johnson. Usually transfers and end of the month accounting don’t hit on exactly the same day but this time they do and it’s going to be a killer in the office.
PAM’S E-MAIL TO THE FAMILY MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 2009
(This will give you a different prospective on some of the same subjects I've been writing about. enjoy!
Hello family,
How is it going with everyone? We are now having some tropical storms and wind and lots of humidity (nothing new). We are settling in a little more into our office assignments, it is still a little overwhelming to me. I pulled off some more missionary recommendations off tonight and we, right now that is, are getting in 25 new missionaries in Oct. Sept I only have 12 and there are not many leaving at the moment. So, the missionary pool is growing. My Sept is really going to be busy getting things up to speed with all the new ones coming.
This last weekend we received an assignment from the President. He sent us out Sat afternoon to go to two different areas. We traveled to Azua(oz-wha), which is about 2 hours from here. We stayed a night in a office/house for the southwest part of the mission. There is an open reception center next door and the party was on Sat night. The music was really playing till pretty late. Then the roosters were up and at it between 4:30 and 5:00am, so needless to say sleep really did not happen that night. We left about 6:45 am to a town called Neiba (Nay-ba). We arrived there at about 8:30am. Neiba is in a desert region of the DR. The president asked Elder Johnson if he would be the branch president and he said he wanted to call him next week. There were about 45 members there and they had a really nice church building to meet in.
Then we were off to a farther town called Duverge(doo-ver-hay). To get there we went through some marsh land and on some very interesting roads, (did I say roads??) We found the house that the missionaries were getting ready for the 4:00 meeting. We arrived there about 1:30 so after preparing the house for sacrament meeting, we went and visited 6 families. Can I just tell you that these people have practically nill and they are so happy and gracious. All but one of the families we visited came out, so there were around 40 members there. They wanted to know if we were coming every week but for right now we told them every other week (unless the president changes his mind)
We left around 6:40pm, they only have two parts in the Duverge meeting. And we got to the Azua house around 9:30pm. That was an experience because the motor bikes are still on the road but more than half do not have lights. You really have to watch the road because it often disappears. We only got lost once but it was an easy fix but we almost hit a horse, he just came out of nowhere. They really do not pen or corral their livestock very much so you see lots of livestock by the roadways. The couple we replaced had a run in with a Brahma one night and the car did not want to run after that.
We got back into town this morning and after unpacking and replenishing some food/water, we were back in the office. I think our weekends will be traveling, visiting, church services, interviews and such. Which I hope we can call every other Sundays to some of you. So this upcoming Sunday if we only go to Neiba, we should be able to. Tell Samantha though I will be calling on her birthday. It was fun to call and talk to Catherine on hers and Dan as well. You can’t believe how good it is to get an e-mail or to be able to hear you guys on the phone.
We took two elders, our trainers, out to eat on Friday, my trainer is going home in 2 weeks and it was the other elder’s birthday so we took them out. There is a Hotel on the other side of the park and across the street from us so we tried it out. It was unbelievable. It was gorgeous and the buffet was fabulous. It was a 5 star place and it was less than $15 per person. I am sure we will go back to that place.
OK family, it is your turn to write back and tell us what’s going on with you all. Please have the kids e-mail me if you want. We love you and pray for you, individually, every day. You are what makes our life worth living. Hugs and kisses to all of you and if someone would print this and take it to Wes I would greatly appreciate it.
Love, Mom y Dad
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