Elder David y Hna. Pam Johnson

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Saturday is supposed to our preparation day. But we had little time to prepare anything. I started the day with Elder Bates and Ovalles at 7:30 as we had appointments all morning with potential duanos (landlords) for Elders that need to move and need new apartments. None of the apartments we looked at were very good. But maybe with some work on our part, electrical, plumbing, paint, etc. they could be acceptable.

One of the sets of elders that want to move say they want to because they only have one faucet in the apartment that works. It’s the bathroom sink. With it they fill a bucket and carry water to the kitchen sink to wash dishes. With the same bucket they shower and also use it to flush the toilet. There is an open sewer that runs by their bedroom window that stinks so much they can’t sleep. There apartment is overrun with cockroaches and rats. Upon hearing all of this, Elder Bates who is in charge of all of the apartments for all the Elders said, I don’t think there is a problem, this apartment is not worse than all the other Elders apartments in the city! Then he smiled and said maybe we can do something to help these elders out. “We’ll buy you a cat, at least you won’t have rats and cockroaches anymore!

The reason I’m going with Elder Bates to evaluate all of the houses is that this will be my job in the future. I hope I can negotiate half as good as him. He drives a hard bargain and always gets the landlords to give the church discounts, etc. He’s a very good barterer.

We didn’t get back to the mission office until noon, just in time to get the call from President Almonte that Pam and I will be leaving in 3 hours for Azua, about a 2 hour drive. We will spend the night in the house/office the president rents there and Sunday morning drive another 2 hours to Nayba to attend church at 9:00am. Then we will drive on another hour further to attend with the members in Duverge at 4:00pm. The president told me that I will be Branch President in Nayba and the pseudo-president in Duverge. Pam and I will be making this trip every Saturday and Sunday from now on. I think my weekends are going to be very busy in the future.