Elder David y Hna. Pam Johnson

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

This morning after Elder Bates and I did our “diligencias” (errands), I left at 10:30 to do another list of “diligencias” in the capital. My last stop was at the Santo Domingo International Airport and I didn’t get back to the Mission Office until 5:00pm.

My stop at “Centro de Servicios” to pick up a bible was interesting. “Centro de Serivcios” is the church’s “Central Service” facility for the whole Caribbean Area. The Area Presidency’s offices are there. The church has its own mail service that it runs from there. All purchasing of supplies and their distribution are handled from there. You may have heard that the church has finally finished printing the much anticipated; La Santa Biblia (The Holy Bible) with LDS footnotes, cross references and concordance. It has been a huge project lasting decades. Well, one of the missionaries, Elder Lewis, lost his bible and needed a cheap paperback copy until the new bibles come out next week. I asked for a copy at Centro de Servicio but I was told that the old bible is no longer in stock and I would have to wait until next Monday, the official release date, for the newly printed LDS bible. I told the brother in charge of the warehouse “that’s too bad; the Elder that lost his bible will just have to teach his investigators without one.” At hearing that, the brother looked at the mountain of cardboard boxes full of every kind of (paperback, hard bound, leather cover and with or without indexes) bible and said; “If it’s for an Elder I guess I can make an exception”. He pulled down one of the boxes, cut it open and handed me a brand new LDS printed bible. Elder Lewis is now the very first person in the entire Dominican Republic and maybe the whole Spanish speaking world in possession of the new bible!