Today is “General Election Day” in the Dominican Republic. The Area Presidency sent out a notice to all Ward & Branches in the country to only hold Sacrament meeting today. All other meetings of the church are canceled today. At the start of Sacrament meeting today in Los Arroyos Branch there were only 36 present. Normally our attendance is between 75 and 100.
The National Elections are a very big and important event for Dominicans. Most businesses that would normally be open on Sunday are closed. Most residents vote early and without difficulty. But the polling places around the nation become clogged with people as they just hang out in the street and party.
President Almonte has told all of the missionaries not to make appointments or proselyte after 6:00pm today. It is not only unproductive, it can be dangerous. It’s a good idea to just stay off of the streets today.
So… What a great day to have the Office Elders over for Sunday afternoon dinner! Early last week Hna. Johnson invited all 6 office Elders over for dinner. We didn’t eat until after 2:30 so the AP’s were pretty much finished gathering their phone reports from all of the Zone leaders.
Hna. Johnson asked the Elders what they would like to eat. Since she asked in English the response came from the 4 Americans, “American food!” So we had a similar meal to the one we had on Dominican Labor day, May first. Hna. Johnson served roast, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn on the cob, green beans, dinner rolls and canned peaches. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream on brownies with chocolate syrup. Hna. Johnson is a great cook and she loves to feed “her sons”. It was “Mmmm Goood!”
An interesting thing happened during and after the meal. My laptop computer was in the dining room and after 5 minutes the “Screen Saver” started its automatic random slide show of all the pictures I’ve take since arriving in the DR 10 months ago. Each picture stayed on the screen for 3 seconds and became a favorite topic of discussion among the Elders. The Elders were either in the picture or they knew the Elders and the events that were. It was a lot of fun discussing the slide show during our meal.
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