This morning I had all of my usual “Diligencias” (Errands) to do when I received a phone call from Dehika Mendez, wife of Alexis. He is in a clinic in downtown Santo Domingo called “Centro Medico Dominicano-Cubano”. He’s been in the clinic for 5 days and isn’t improving so he’s being moved to a different hospital here in the capital. The problem is he has to find his own way there and Dehika was phoning to see if I could give them a ride by noon.
My whole day is going to be way too busy to drive Alexis and Dehika to a new hospital so I decided to run by the clinic on my way to the “Aduana” (Customs office) and pay for a taxi for them. Dehika and Alexis are our very good friends from Duvergé so I was happy to help them with the fare.
While I was at the Aduana I also mailed the mission’s mail. The Santo Domingo “Instituto Postal Dominicana” (Central Post Office) and the Aduana share the same building. Also, for the first time I mailed home a package from Hna. Johnson and I to the flower shop in Mesa for storage until we get home in January. It has become obvious to us that we are collecting far too many gifts & keepsakes and we will not be able to haul them all home in our luggage when the time comes. So we’ve decided to start now, every week or two, to ship boxes home to minimize the stress near the end of our mission.
The package I mailed home went “Regular Post”. It weighed a little over 4 pounds and cost us $450.00 DRPesos, that’s about $13.00USD. I didn’t think the price was bad at all. If I had sent it “Express Mail” it would have gotten to Arizona in only 3 days but the price would have been triple.
This evening we received a Webcam call from Nathan & Valerie who are vacationing at Michael & Lydias home in Bagdad, AZ. It was great, we talked for an hour and fifteen minutes! Nathan and Valerie leave for home tomorrow so they wanted to talk to us while they were still at the Hulse’s before they left. It was really nice to talk to the Hulse’s and all their kids. I’ve said this before but it’s really true, we love the Webcam.
Now to put the 1 hour and 15 minute Webcam call to our son and Daughter-in-law into prospective…. Today at noon while Hna. Johnson and I were home for lunch the AP’s were in the office working and answering the phone when it rang. AP, Elder Keys (from Laie, Hawaii) answered the phone and said, “Hello, Santo Domingo West mission, Elder Keys speaking”. The voice on the other end of the phone said, “Elder Keys, this is your mother, Sis. Keys!” Elder Keys said, “I can’t talk to you” and hung up the phone. Elder Keys is a very good missionary and obeys all of the mission rules. And since this wasn’t Christmas Day or Mother’s Day he hung up on his mother!
When we got back from lunch Elder Keys told us the story and said he didn’t have time to send a letter home on Monday because of transfers. He said I think I better write my mother a letter. Wow, what a contrast…. Senior couples get to phone and Webcam whenever we want and for as long as we want but the young missionaries have to hang up on their mothers!
No comments:
Post a Comment