Thursday, July 29, 2010



Today our two office elders, Elder Thorup and Elder Ortiz, returned from their two day trip to the South. On Wednesday they met up with the AP’s from the South in Vicente Noble. They traded companions and headed out to do “House Inspections” all over the South. Elder Thorup took AP Elder Jimenez to the Zones of Barahona and Neyba. Elder Ortiz went with AP Elder Almonte to do inspections in the Zones of Azua and San Juan. They reported today that they did inspections of every single house/apartment the mission rents in the South. It was a huge job but they got it all done. They worked from 8:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night. This is the first real house/apartment inspection the mission has done since Hna. Johnson and I have been here.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

This is one of the months were “Traslados” (Transfers) and the end of the month hit very close together. Translados is only 3 days after the end of the month. It means a lot of extra work for the mission office staff, especially Hna. Johnson . She not only has all of the end of month financial work to do but she also has a ton of Traslado material to prepare. She mentioned to me today that it reminds her of preparing for a holiday at the flower shop back in Mesa.

My duties in the office are easier than Hna. Johnsons, even though they are also tied to the preparation for Traslados. One of my duties is to field all of the Spanish speaking phone calls that missionaries make to the office. I get a lot of calls. For the past week most of the calls are asking when “Apoyo” (Missionary support money) would be in their credit card accounts. All of the missionaries know that Apoyo isn’t supposed to hit their accounts until the first day of the month. But they still phone to ask if it will arrive early, hoping against hope that it will be early. Well, this month is one of those months that by accident it does arrive early. In fact the good news is that it hit their account late today. There are a lot of starving missionaries out there that are really happy.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

While Hna. slaved away in the office all morning preparing for “Traslados” (Transfers) next week, I was on the road running errands, buying vases, meeting with Pres. Almonte and repairing Hna. Johnson’s camera.

It was a very successful trip for me. I found all of the vases and supplies we didn’t get last night. I also found some very inexpensive cameras for some Elders that have lost or broken theirs. The Elders our in the “Campo” (Country) so they don’t have a chance to come to the capital and nothing is available for them out where they are serving.

On a whim I went by the camera repair shop to see if Hna. Johnson’s camera is repairable. I shattered the viewing screen a month ago when I dropped it. I was really surprised when the repairman told me he could have the screen replaced in 15 minutes! I was even more surprised by how cheap it was, only $2500.00DRPesos ($69.00USD). To buy a replacement camera would have been three or four times more expensive. I am very pleased that Hna. Johnson has her nice camera back.




A family from Duvergé came by the office today to pick up a check. They are our good friends, Alexis & Dehika and two of their daughters. Alexis had a doctor’s appointment and exam here in the capital, for the last week he hasn’t been feeling well. We had a brief but nice visit with them.



This evening we went over to Lorna & Michael Francom’s apartment, they live a few blocks away from the Temple. The Franco’s are the Area Humanitarian Missionaries. They are going home to Preston Idaho in a week after serving for two years. We had a nice long visit with them. They told us about some of the projects that they’ve been working on, some of the people from all walks of life they work with and the miracles they’ve experienced every day. I thought to myself what a wonderful job they’ve done and what a great service they’ve preformed.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Today I was off early to do the errands I didn’t do last Friday during Jared & Tere’s visit. I went to the Aduana (Customs) and picked up 4 packages for missionaries in our mission. Next I went to “Centro de Servicio” (Central Services for the Caribbean Area) to drop off reports to Dayanara, Hna. Johnson’s financial contact with the Area.




While I talked to Dayanara she told me about her flooding experience last Friday morning during the same storm Hna. Johnson & I were stuck in for 5 hours. Dayanara was stuck on the “27 de Febrero” for 2 hours in 2 feet of flood water. Also the lower parking lot at Centro de Servicio was flooded and some of the Caribbean Area vehicle fleet was submerged in 3 feet of standing water. Last Friday’s storm was a really big one.




This evening after work Hna. Johnson and I went to two different “La Serena” department stores. Hna. Johnson was looking for blue vases for 15 centerpieces she’s been asked to make for a banquet the Area Public Relations Missionaries are putting on. We found some very nice brandy snifters that will work nicely. We didn’t find enough, we are still short three but I will go out looking for more tomorrow.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

This morning was Branch Conference in the Los Arroyos branch we attend each Sunday. This morning the Stake Presidency attended our block of meetings as well as many other stake leaders and auxiliary heads. Plus we had a very good attendance of our own branch members. Hno. Pierson Joseph, Branch secretary said that we had 127 in attendance at Sacrament meeting. I’ve never seen the chapel so full before. It was a very good meeting too. The Branch Pres. and the Stake Presidency all spoke.

Normally I attend Sunday School while Hna. Johnson is in the Primary Nursery. But today when I went to Sunday School attendance was so good there were no seats left. I ended up helping Hna. Johnson in the nursery for the hour until Priesthood meeting started. It was really fun too. The kids really love Hna. Johnson.



The Primary President, Hna. Vicioso, told me that her 2 year old daughter cried last week because Hna. Johnson wasn’t in the nursery. She kept crying and asking “Where is Hna. Johnson”. Ya, the nursery children love Hna. Johnson.

This morning on our way to attend our Sunday services at the Los Arroyos branch we had a very close call on the road. At the round-about at the “Plaza de la Bandera” we were stopped at a red light in the right hand lane. When the light turned green we started into the intersection when Hna. Johnson saw a car attempt to run the red light. He was coming very fast right at Hna. Johnson’ door. She screamed, he slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop without hitting us. Hna. Johnson was very mad at the other driver; she pounded on the car door window and shook her fist at him. It was a very close call.

In the Dominican Republic there are the usual colors of the rainbow but they have a new and different color that most other countries don’t have. I call the new color “Dominican Green”. To most of us it looks a lot like the red in a traffic light, but it’s not, it’s “Dominican Green”. You’d be surprised how many times a day I come to a stop at a red traffic light but cars just keep on going through as if the light were green. Well, it is green, “Dominican Green” that is.

Every morning before Hna. Johnson and I leave our apartment we kneel in prayer. Among other things we ask our Heavenly Father to protect us and watch over us during our travels. This morning after the close call with the speeding car I recognized another one of Heavenly Father’s “Tender Mercies” as he kept us safe from harm on the way to church. It was a small miracle but a miracle none the less that we weren’t in a serious traffic accident today.

Saturday, July 24, 2010 (One Year in the DR)

Today marks our one year anniversary since we arrived in the Dominican Republic. A year ago today we spent the whole day traveling to airports, waiting at airports, flying between airports, searching airplanes for my lost wallet and finally meeting the Almonte’s then spending the night in their home. From then on we have been a wonderful thrill ride. We love our mission and we love the people we serve with.

I remember very well how my mission to Mexico 40 years ago was such a life changing event in my life. I know that this mission for Hna. Johnson and I will change us forever too. What a wonderful and beautiful thing it is to serve the Lord and his children on a full time mission. We love it. However time is passing much too quickly. It is hard to believe that we have less than 6 months of our mission left.

Today is our P-day so Hna. Johnson and I spent the day cleaning our apartment and recuperating from our 7 day vacation with Jared and Tere. Well, it may take more than a day to recuperate. We were on the go so much and got to bed so late every night it may take several days just to catch up on our sleep.
We did sleep in this morning so that was a good start.

Friday, July 23, 2010

We were up at 3:45AM to have Jared and Tere at the airport my 5:00 for their flight to Miami. It was raining cats and dogs all the way there. We made it without difficulty in spite of the wet roads. We said our goodbyes to the kids. It was an emotional time for us. We really enjoyed our time with them and it was hard to say goodbye. There are tentative plans by Nathan & Valerie to come the DR in January at the end of our mission. So now we have something to look forward to again.




It was really raining hard when we left the airport. By the time we reached the “Autopista” (Freeway) Las Americas it looked like a hurricane had hit us! As we traveled back toward the city the water in the road got deeper and deeper. There were hundreds of cars on the “Autopista” and we were all slowed down to a crawl as the water level in the road got up to the doors. The water was about a foot and a half deep when our engine stalled. The freeway was now a lake with a parking lot worth of cars stalled in it.




I phoned for a tow truck but we sat in our Honda Odyssey Minivan for 3 hours waiting for rescue. All of that time I had the car in neutral and as each huge truck or bus would go past us the wall of water from their front bumper would push us further down the road toward dry asphalt. We were only about 50 yards short of our goal when two highway workers walked up in rain gear and pushed us by hand the rest of the way out of the water.




We were finally rescued but it took us 5 hours to get back to capital and back to work. This ordeal was another first for Hna. Johnson and I here in the Dominican Republic. But it all turned out OK in the end, we were towed back to Centro de Servicio where we turned in the Odyssey and got our old Toyota Corolla back. After lunch we were back to work in the mission office. It was a great week of vacation for us. We really enjoyed the visit of our son Jared and his wife Tere.