We had kept this day on our calendar free because our “Dueña” (landlord) told us last week that she was going to have an air conditioning unit installed in our living room window. That was great news. The summers here are stiflingly hot and humid. We really need the AC in the rest of our apartment not just in the bedrooms. But unfortunately I talked to Nieves last night and found out the installation would not happen today so Hna. Johnson and I spent the whole morning cleaning our apartment.
After lunch we headed over to the “Zona Colonial” again (See: Saturday, March 13, 2010). This time we took the tour of the 16th Century home (Museum) of Don Diego, the son of Christopher Columbus. The tour was only a hundred pesos each and that included an electronic device that hung around our necks. Through earphones we could hear a recorded message in English of every room and artifact in the building. It was very interesting and informative. It was well worth the price and enjoyable.
Next we headed over to the Temple. Like last Saturday, we pre-sorted and prepared all of the Temple clothes for the missionaries that will be attending the temple next Tuesday from the “Los Caobas” Zone here in the capital. It is very helpful to the Temple staff to have everything pre-laid out for them when so many missionaries converge on the temple at once.
When Hna. Johnson and I left the temple we experienced one of those “Tender Mercies” that Elder Bednar talked about in his General Conference talk in April 2005 Click to see talk
(See also: Monday, January 18, 2010) We accidently ran into two couples from Duvergé that had just come out of the Temple! Tuco & Yazmin and Alexis & Dehika Mendez. We had no idea they were coming to the Temple today. We were with Tuco & Yazmin when they took out their own endowments on Wednesday February 10. Alexis & Dehika have only been members of the church since last July so they were there to do Baptisms for the dead. They are really looking forward to this July when they will also be sealed as a family.
Hna. Johnson and I were ecstatic to see all four of them at the Temple today. The last two times they came to the Temple it was part of a Temple excursion put on and largely paid for by President Almonte. But this time they came all on their own with no help from us or the mission. They planned it, paid for it and pulled it off because of their own personal desire and drive to attend the Temple and feel the spirit of the Lord there. We are so delighted and pleased with the progress they have made since last summer.
And speaking of “Tender Mercies” I forgot to mention one that happened to me last Thursday when I went to the Aduana to pick up packages for the Elders. The story starts the week before when I was given the wrong package and I had to return to the Aduana and exchange it for the correct one. In the Aduana the packages are not in my possession until they are loaded into the trunk of my car. However I do get to move all of the packages from one inspector’s table to another during the process so last week I decided that for that brief moment I would look at each one of the names on the packages to make sure they are for our missionaries. So last Thursday I did just that, as I moved the packages I glanced at the names on each of the nine packages to make sure they were all for our mission.
When I got back to the mission office, Hna. Johnson and I sorted the packages. To our dismay the inspector that cuts open the packages tore off the label and packing slip of one of them. There was no indication inside or out who the package should go to. That is when the “Tender Mercy” happened. I have no short term memory. If someone tells me three names in a row, I can remember the first one, half of the second and none of the third. But the Lord’s “Tender Mercy” was upon me that afternoon. I sat down to make a list and I remembered every one of the 9 names I had seen for only a moment hours before. It was a small but very important miracle. Had it not been for the Lord’s “Tender Mercies” some Elder in the mission wouldn’t have received an important package from home. The Lord is very merciful.
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