Today was a very full and busy day. It started off with an emergency run over to Centro de Servicio to give Hna. Grace Montera a passport for a Sister Missionary who is waiting to go to Puerto Rico. Her Visa is finally ready Hna. Maria Jimenez from Santiago, DR. will finally be going to her assigned mission in San Juan, Puerto Rico, she has been here waiting for her Visa since June.
While I was at Centro de Servicio I got a phone call from Bro. Conner Ruggio. He and his companions were stranded at the Avis rent-a-car office. I gave them a ride back to the mission home because they were not allowed to rent a car. It turns out that no rental car company will rent to a driver under the age of 25. For the rest of their week in the DR they will have to take Taxi’s and buses everywhere they want to go!
Back at the mission office Hna. Johnson left to go shopping for the last minute items to put the finishing touches on preparations for the visit this afternoon of the Area President, Elder Viñas. We went to “The Pastry” shop and bought lots of baked sweets. They really looked really good; you should never go shopping at a place like that right before lunch. We also picked up 40 loaves of “Conference Bread” while we were there. It is tradition to serve the missionaries “Conference Bread” for lunch after these large Multi-Zone conferences. We will be buying a lot of “Conference Bread” over the next 4 days as President Viñas is holding a conference a day until Friday all over the mission.
Pres. Viñas’ visit has been fraught with a lot of worry and anticipation. The official agenda described his visit to the mission office as an “Interview” with the office Elders and the Senior couple. It isn’t everyday that you are interviewed by a General Authority! Well, our fears were for naught. Elder Viñas didn’t interview anyone. He held a mission office staff meeting and invited all of the Zone Leaders from this morning’s conference to come as well. The meeting lasted an hour and a half. The purpose was to introduce the new teaching program the church is implementing starting this fall. It was a very good meeting and we were much more relaxed than we than we had anticipated.
This evening we were in for a surprise for FHE with the other Seniors at the “Casa”. Elder Bowcut was in charge and he showed an hour long video of a fireside given by a convert named Mario Facione. Bro. Facione told his life story and his conversion to the restored gospel. His life before being introduced to the gospel was very interesting to say the least. The DVD is entitled: “From Mafia to Mormon” and the book can be purchased at Deseret Books! The movie was made in 2009. I had never heard of it before but… Wow… what a life story!
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