Monday, August 3, 2009
A miracle happened at 4:30 this morning. I woke up to use the restroom and as I laid back down to sleep the spirit whispered to me “the hearing aids did not fall out of your pocket”. I was rather surprised by the revelation but I knew they were gone for good and I tried to go back to sleep. Then the spirit whispered to me “retrace your steps”. I argued with the spirit that I had already retraced my steps a dozen times on Saturday. We even re-hiked the trail and found nothing. At some spots we crawled on our hands and knees looking for the tiny devices. Besides I didn’t want to think about it now because the mental exercise would wake me up so much that I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep and I would lose an hour of sleep.
Then a second time the spirit whispered “retrace your steps”. I remained motionless on my pillow and argued with the prompting again, I don’t want to lose 2 hours of sleep. A third time the voice came into my head, “the hearing aids did not fall out of your shirt pocket, retrace your steps”. Well that was enough! I finally decided that I wasn’t going to win this argument and I began to retrace where I was, what was I doing and completely rethink the problem.
I don’t know how much time went by as I lay there thinking but it was long enough that I was wide awake. Then, all of a sudden, thoughts raced through my mind. I wasn’t wearing the white shirt I was wearing the blue shirt. The hearing aids were in the blue shirt picket that I took off so I could put my swimming suit on. I took it on and off a couple of times at the pool side. Back in our room I took it off and hung it over the shower curtain bar. Later I wadded it up the put it in the dirty close bag. Yesterday evening Pam washed all of the clothes.
Still lying motionless in my bed I contemplated the very remote possibility that the hearing aids hadn’t fallen out of the pocket. Could they still be in the pocket after a wash load? I thought to myself, I’ll go to sleep now and check the pocket in the morning. It seemed forever as I lay there but I couldn’t stand the suspense anymore. I got up and went to the line in the laundry room were the wash was hanging. I reached into the shirt pocket and there they were. My two lost hearing aids were found. I raced back into the bedroom and woke Pam up to tell her the good news. She was so excited she couldn’t go back to sleep. We both lost 2 hours of sleep!
The hearing aids are not cheap. They cost $1000.00 each at Costco. I was sick for the next day contemplating the cost of their replacement. This morning when I prepared to leave for the office I took them out of their drying/warming tray put new batteries in both and tried them on. The right side worked but the left side didn’t. I will be able to send the one in for repair. This will sure be cheaper than replacing both of them.
Well we thought we were going to get a full day of work in at the office learning more of our duties but we found out at 9:00am that we were supposed to be at the “La Paz” chapel here in Santo Domingo for an all city conference of the mission. The La Paz chapel is the only air conditioned chapel in the whole Dominican Republic.
At the conference there were about 90 or so of the Elders and the sisters of the mission. There are another 80 or 90 in “El Campo” that were not here. We found out that their conference will be tomorrow morning at 9:00am. Our presence is required at that conference too. Training will be put off again!
At the meeting Elder & Sister Larsen were bid “buen viaje” and they bore their testimonies. Next Sister Johnson and I were given the “bien venida” and we also bore our testimony and introduced ourselves to all of the Elders and Sisters. Pam (I mean Sister Johnson) did a very good job with her testimony in Spanish. As she introduced herself and told everyone a little about us she would use as much Spanish as she new and then fill in with English when she didn’t know the right words to say. She did a very good job. She really is trying very hard to learn the language.
After the meeting, everyone was treated to Chinese takeout Dominican style. The office elders, Bates & Ovilles picked up 95 individual carry out dinners from “Pica Pollo”. We eat there last week and it is very good.
As a farewell dinner for the Larsen’s the President and his wife invited all of us out to Dinner at “Tony Roma’s Famous BBQ”. It’s not for from the Mission Home and it is exactly like the Tony Roma’s back home. The only difference is the menu is bi-lingual. I had a half rack of BBQ ribs with French Fries. Mmm Goood!
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