This morning was a glorious morning to remember. At 10:00am Hna. Johnson and I rendezvoused with a bus full of members from Neyba and Duvergé at the Temple. Most did baptisms for the dead, only two couple did an endowment session, they were Dehika & Hector and Tuco & Yazmin. It was so wonderful to see all of our old friends again from Neyba and Duvergé. They are so full of enthusiasm and are willing to sacrifice so much to be able to come to the temple and do vicarious work for the dead. We have become very close to all of them. We really miss seeing each of them every Sunday like we did for so many months last year.
Today is a Dominican National holiday, “Corpus Christi”. That is why the members from Duvergé and Neyba planned this temple trip. They all had the day off. It was raining and very hot. There were about 10 members from Neyba and 15 from Duvergé. The Duvergé members left for Neyba at 3:30AM. The bus then picked up the rest in Neyba at 4:00AM. The bus ride to the capital was almost 6 hours. They are all really dedicated saints.
They did have some minor problems though. One problem was caused by a lack of planning. There were about a dozen members that planned to do an endowment session but expected to be interviewed by Pres. Almonte for the second signature on their Temple recommends. The problem was that no one thought to ask Pres. Almonte if he was available. He wasn’t, he was out in the South doing missionary interviews with several Zones. So, all of those members had to be switched to “limited use” recommends and do baptisms for the dead.
Hna. Johnson and I planned to do an endowment session with the members but changed our plans because there were so many at the Temple to do baptisms for the dead the Temple staff needed help. We were glad to help out. I got to do several jobs in the baptistery like confirmations, witness, and Temple recorder. It was wonderful for Hna. Johnson and I to get to help out in the baptistery. All of the Neyba and Duvergé members enjoyed their time of service in the Temple today.
One of the attendees at the baptistery was Hna. Ana Perez from Duvergé. She is the mother of a dear Hna. Mecho that passed away on the 11th of May. Hna. Perez has only been a member of the church since March. She gained a testimony of the gospel after coming to the Temple with her daughter Mecho. Even though she couldn’t go inside she loved the people there and the feelings she felt. The first two times she came to the Temple she didn’t get to go inside but just being there made her so very happy. This time she got to go inside and she did baptisms for the dead with all of the other members from Duvergé. The death of her daughter was very hard for her but now she has the gospel and understands better the plan of salvation. She was very happy to be at the Temple today.
The Temple workers tell me that National holidays in the DR are always very busy in the Temple. As long as the holiday is not on the days the temple is closed like Sunday or Monday. In fact they say they always put in a lot of extra sessions, they start earlier and end later on National holidays. Today was one of those days at the Santo Domingo Temple. It was very busy in the Temple today.
No comments:
Post a Comment