Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Today the mission finished teaching a 2 day course to the departing missionaries called “Curso de Autosuficiente” which means “course on self-sufficiency”. The elders & sisters are taught basic skills for after their mission like; how to fill out a job application, how to get a job and keep it, how to make a résumé, how to study in school, how to get an education, how to apply for college and how to take advantage of the churches Perpetual Education Fund. These are wonderful young men and women and they deserve every opportunity to succeed after their missions are over. The Lord really does take care of his missionaries.
You wouldn’t think a self-sufficiency course would be necessary for highly motivated, hard working returned missionaries. However I was very surprised to find out that only 40% of our missionaries are North Americans. Over 50% are native Dominicans and most of them were raised in conditions that most Americans would consider extreme poverty and many have little or no education. They will return home to the village they (and their parents before them) grew up in with little or no prospect for improving their economic condition. That is why this course is so important.
The chapel used by the mission for its training and other conferences is the “La Paz” chapel. We like it because it is the only chapel in the capital that is completely air conditioned. An interesting side note is its design. Since land is expensive and scarce, the church had to build up for the La Paz chapel. It is three stories talk and has an elevator. The building is on stilts over the parking lot. The only other thing at ground level is the entrance to the elevator & the stair case.
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