Saturday, October 3, 2009 - GENERAL CONFERENCE

Today is General Conference, what a great day for missionaries in the field, well… at least Senior Couples. Our mission president has a rule; Saturday is for proselyting, even general conference Saturday, so our missionaries are not allowed to watch the Saturday morning nor afternoon sessions. But for Hna. Johnson and I it was wonderful. We’ve been looking forward to General Conference for months now. The brethren and Sisters that spoke are truly inspired to give us the messages we need in our time and they do it so very well. Hna Johnson and I are so very blessed to be here, blessed to be serving now and blessed to listen to instruction from our church leaders.

This morning’s session of conference didn’t start until noon, Dominican Republic time. We watched conference at the home of the Temple President, Pres. Donald & Sister Diane Harris. They get the direct feed from SLC through the big dish on top of the MTC. So it’s the exact same as watching conference at a stake center. Pres. & Sis. Harris open their home to all Senior couples to watch conference. There are over a dozen Senior Couples that have apartments in the accommodation center at the temple. Many of them also have cable TV and watch conference on the BYU TV channel. So there were only about 6 or 7 other couples at the Harris’ home this morning.

Between sessions we pulled our ice chest out of the car and took it into the dining hall of the MTC to have our “picnic”. To our surprise all of the missionaries at the MTC came pouring in to eat lunch too. So guess what? Hna. Johnson and I got to dine with Pres. Tom & Sis. Susan Hendricks, President of the Santo Domingo Mission Training Center! What a special spirit there is in the MTC dining with 75 plus missionaries and their President. It was another very special moment for us on our mission.

Saturday, October 3, 2009 - GENERAL CONFERENCE

This eveni ng I returned again to the Accommodation Center to watch the General Priesthood session of conference at the Harris’ home. Tonight I had the fortune of sitting next to a young man named Sam Andersen, son of President Wilford Anderson, second counselor in the Caribbean Area Presidency. When I told him I was from Mesa Arizona he said, “You are from Mesa! Then you are my newest best friend!” Sam is 16, is a Junior at an American high school here in Santo Domingo. He is 6’2” and is on the high school volleyball team. That makes him, my newest best friend! We had a nice visit together before and after conference.

Both Hna. Johnson and I had our “melancholy” moments today. Hna. Johnson misses her family back in Arizona. She especially misses them around General Conference time. But she had her spirits lifted up as she got to attend the conference broadcast with other English speaking couples. They were a great support to her as she deals with a little bit of homesickness.

I too, miss my family very much. I especially miss the tradition of attending the Priesthood session of conference with my sons. Maybe that is why I enjoyed talking to Sam Andersen so much. In a way he took the place of my own sons whom I have attended conference with for so many years.

Friday, October 2, 2009

We finished the day by delivering the “Ropa” order to the temple so the staff could prepare the clothing for the Elders and Sisters that will be attending a session next Tuesday morning. While there we also dropped off mail to the “CCM” (MTC) that gets delivered to our mission too early. The Elders and Sisters are still in their two months of language training at the “CCM”. While we were their re ran into two set of our Elders escorting their investigators around the temple grounds. Our Elders and Sisters take full advantage of the Temple and the grounds. They are very fortunate to have the Temple within our own mission. It is truly a blessing for them and their investigators.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Today was another very busy day in the Mission Office. First we got word that the assistant to the president out in “El Campo”, Elder Albers, will be leaving for home in Conroe, Texas two weeks earlier than originally planned. He was scheduled to go home on November 24th but now he will be leaving on the 10th of November. Something like this requires a lot of special work and processing by Hna. Johnson. For example his airline tickets are already purchased. Hna. Johnson had to place a call to SLC to start the process of changing everything. It is quite a process. But it’s OK. We love our missionaries and work very hard to make everything go smoothly for them, especially in their last few months. Our job is to keep them focused on the work and minimize any disruption in their service as missionaries.

Next the President informed us that there would be an emergency transfer that would require moving about a dozen Elders, completely closing one of their apartments and finding a new apartment; all this to be done by tomorrow. Just when Hna Johnson and I were thinking we were getting all of our work done, a moment like this reminds us that there is never a dull moment in the office.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

At noon Hna. Johnson and I usually walk to our apartment for lunch. Today the tropical flowers growing beside the street were too tempting so I picked a hand full for Hna. Johnson. She likes to arrange them in several vases we have in the apartment. Fresh flowers really liven up our apartment and the office.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

This afternoon we received an e-mail from some of friends we made when we were in the MTC in Provo. We all gave each other our contact information and then Bro. & Sister Craven set up a website called “youngatheartatmtc.shutterfly.com” so we could all keep in touch. Over the past 3 months we’ve been kept up today with many of our new friends. Today’s e-mail was from Elder and Sister DaBell who are serving in Samoa, the site of the tsunami yesterday. They are fine but they are really working hard moving missionaries and cleaning up damage from the tsunami. The pictures are amazing.

It really makes us think how vulnerable we all are to nature and how very little control we have over the elements. Here in the Dominican Republic we are only a mile and a half from the coast. I doubt a tsunami wave could reach us where we live or work. But if one hit here without warning like the one in Samoa, there would be billions in damage and maybe tens of thousands dead. Even in paradise we need a 72 hour emergency kit.

This afternoon I turned on my laptop and got a pleasant surprise. Valerie was on line so I called her with the webcam. Hna. Johnson and I got to talk to Sammy, Lizzy and Rachel for a while. Next we called Wendy’s house and talked to Leann and Catherine. Joseph was at school so we missed him. It was great to talk to them and see them all again. The webcam is wonderful.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Last week Hna. Johnson bought more apples than we needed and asked Elder Jimenez in the office if he liked apple pie. Well he lit up like a roman candle, he loves apple pie. So this morning Hna. brought in a big dish of apple cobbler, fresh and hot for the Elders in the office. It was a huge hit because it was soooo gooood! Next time she will bake a real apple pie if she can find a pie tin in one of the stores. We hunted all week for one and had no luck. But who needs a pie tin anyway; her apple cobbler is as good as apple pie anyway.