It was another HUGE day for Hna. Johnson in the office. One of her tasks today, the Missionary “Apollo” (Support money) took her over 5 hours. Usually this task takes an hour or two. But today IMOS was acting up again and it was brutal! Hna. Johnson wanted to through the computer out of the window. Fortunately she didn’t because it would have been very expensive to replace. She also had to do “Reimbolsos” as well as Pay all of the “Dueños” (Landlords). She worked straight through without a lunch break and didn’t finish until after 6:00pm. Wow, she is a trooper. The Lord knew what he was doing when he called her to be the financial secretary in the mission office; she really gets the work done.
One of the reasons there was so much for Hna. Johnson to do all at once is that she has to do all of the work she would normally do in a week and get it done by the end of Wednesday. On Thursday we are heading out of town to the mission president’s cabin in Jarabacoa. In order to be ready to leave by Thursday, Hna. Johnson will be putting in overtime for the next two days.
My day was much easier. I had to go to the bank and cash one of our personal checks. Every month I go to a special bank called Vimenca Bank in down town Santo Domingo where they will take an American check made out in dollars and cash it in DR pesos at the current exchange rate, less a small exchange fee. Over the years all of the American Senior couples have come to rely on their services. And over the years the bank has come to trust LDS Seniors and they will cash all of our checks without hesitation or any waiting period. It is a great service they offer.
This evening we weren’t going to attend FHE with the other Seniors because we were going to be working so late. But the Whitakers from the East Mission called us and requested that we be there because they had a lot of material for us regarding all of the referrals from the Book Fair. So Hna. Johnson kept her “nose to the grind stone” while I went and enjoyed a wonderful pot luck dinner. (Oh the sacrifices I have to make sometimes!)
Seriously, Hna. Johnson would have loved to have gone. It was a special farewell dinner for the Alverados. Their mission is over and they will be returning to Puerto Rico, just across the channel to the south of the Dominican Republic. President Viñas (The Area President) was at the FHE and made a special presentation to the Alverados. It was a very nice FHE and I did bring a plate of food home for Hna. Johnson.
I was reading the “Church News” and discovered that Pres. & Hna. Harris will be released as Temple President and Matron in November. Their replacements will be Pres. Larry Bair and Hna. Bair. Pres. Bair was the Santo Domingo West Mission President before Pres. Almonte. Everyone in the mission is very excited about having the Bairs back in the Dominican Republic.
Last Saturday the Hna. Whitaker told me that she lived in Falen, NV for three years back in the 1970’s. I couldn’t remember at the time but I knew my mother had a cousin that lived in Falen and I even remember visiting their home once as a little boy on a family vacation.
Yesterday I finally remembered the name. My mother’s cousin was Verona Shank (through the Cox line) so tonight I asked Hna. Whitaker if she ever knew Verona. She said: “Verona was a very dear friend of mine”. She told me about a rose bush she gave Sis. Whitaker that she named “The Gordon Rose” for the baby boy the Whitakers lost. Sis. Whitaker said when their farm failed and they had to leave Falen, she was very sad to leave “The Gordon Rose” behind in the garden. But when they got in their car to leave they discovered on the back seat several cans with rooted cuttings of “The Gordon Rose” Verona had brought to them. Aunt Verona was a wonderful caring lady. Who’d have thought I would have run into someone in the Dominican Republic that knew and loved her too. It’s a very small world.
No comments:
Post a Comment