2/ 27/2012

    What a fun day!  It is so beautful here - colorful buildings, lots of green palm trees.  The Buttons (area secretary) have taken us in and taken us shopping, etc.  We drove around the area and wrote down phone numbers of apartments that have openings then went to see the East Mission President. He told us that he had something he would like us to do if the area presidency would let him use us so not to look for housing here.  Tomorrow we meet with Elder Anderson who is a councelor in the Area Presidency then with all three members of the Area Presidency on Wednesday.  Hopefully  when we are through with all of the meetings we will know exactly what we are doing - but I doubt it! 
    We got new phones today with instructions in Spanish - so we have no idea how to use them.  Elder Button says they are like blackberry phones-a lot of good that does us.  However Scott has decided that he is going to learn how to use the phone so maybe we can get iinstructions from the internet in English.
     Tonight we had a family home evening at the Temple President's home.  There were four couples who are new so it was an introduction for us to the many couples who work here in the Dominican.
A few of the sisters have been teaching piano and have many ideas about what the needs here are.
I feel such a sense of calmne ss - unusual for me - because I know whatever it is that we were sent here to do we will be able to do with a lot of work and the Lord's help. It must be your prayers working!
They talked about the different kinds of bites they have had here.  Very ineteresting information - not!
Ants, bedbugs,lice, etc...not to mention the deadly mosquito bites that take weeks or more to heal from.  Chlorox is essential here.  When you step in the shower it smells like a swimming pool.You do have to rinse all of your fruits and vegetables before you can eat them.  Dad is upstairs reading his spanish Book of Mormon outloud.  We can't get the internet up there so I am down in the lobby.  He's probably asleep in his bunkbed by now! He's enjoying having his own bed but I just feel lost sleeping by myself in a strange place. 
 We have to get ready for the room to be fumigated tomorrow.  I 'm not sure what that entails but they say it really stinks and you have to have every thing covered or out of the room so we'll have to find a place of refuge!
 We hope all of you are well and happy at home.  We love you so much!

We Are Here!

02/27/12  We arrived in the DR  around 12:30 am -a long day after getting no sleep for the last 24 hours!  It was wonderful to see another man in a white shirt on the plane from Miami to the DR.  He is the psychologist for the area here.  He travels back and forth taking missionaries home and treating them here.  Also on that flight was a wonderful woman who comes here to do humanitarian work.  She works with her church group to make life better for  people here - this time they are installing a well for the people to have access to water.   We hope to do humanitarian work here.

     We have not met the area president who will tell us what it is we are to do.  No one else seems to know!  Today is their national independence day so everything is closed.  We are going to look for an apartment with the Buttons. He is the executive secretary in this area and has taken good care of us because we arrived early, early Sunday morning and could not shop one Sunday so we have eaten with them  The couples here are amazing!  The temple president and his wife are the Bairs from Smithfield, Utah.  They absolutely glow!
They want us to work in the temple part time. That would be a great learning experience.
Here at the CCM (MTC) there is alot of English spoken but as soon as you walk out it changes.
    The temple here is absolutely beautiful!  We are staying right by it.  And you can look out and see the sea (which will take some getting used to by me). 
   We met the CCM president and the DR East Mission president. I think Elder Midgley is in the DR West Mission so hopefully we will get to see him.
   Not long ago there was an Elder Mecham here from Morgan who was an AP and the people here all knew and loved him and think we must be ok because he was such a great elder and he was from Morgan.
    On Sunday we went to the CCM to church, then to a fireside at night given by the East Mission president.
 Scott understood a little but I probably understood about 20 words the entire talk!
We are constantly working on our Spanish. 
Today we are going to look at apartments and see if any of the grocery stores are open.  They say there is a store like Costco here.  Everything is more expensive here than it is at home.

Will I ever figure this out??

So I have typed a page three times now and can't seem to get it posted before I erase it some strange way!  It's hard to believe this week at the MTC is almost over for us.  We have learned so much - about the spirit here, about hearing aids (everyone seems to have one), about the importance of each individual, the length of the lunchlines, and just how many black suits you can have on one campus!

Our week started on Monday morning  with leaving our family a lttle late.  We hadn't stopped for breakfast so decided to grab an EggMcMuffin from McDonalds.  We were late anyway so thought that would be the quickest - were we ever wrong!  For some reason, none that we could see, they wouldn't come to the order desk so we could order.  After 5 minutes of waiting we finally got someone's attention.  Five minutes later they came back to tell us they didn't have hash browns and could they substitute french fries - then they couldn't find the orange juice.  Honestly, for another five minutes they were running around looking for the orange juice - how hard could it be.  Finally we grabbed a cup, got a drink, our food and left.  So when we pulled out the mcmuffins they only had sausage - no egg.  This was the last straw for Scott.  He was ready to turn around and get one of the evaluation forms they had at the door.

The day only got worse as we were oriented to the week's activities and went to our room to unpack. I found extra hangers and went to get the suitcase with our clothes in and guess what - no suitcase with clothes had been loaded in our car.  Could we really use the same clothes for a week?  We called home and hoped someone would meet us  - sure enough Garret agreed to meet us in Centerville.

Tuesday was a better day.We were taught out of Preaach My Gospel all day.  At night Elder Larry Wilson spoke at a fireside.  The MTC choir sang "Peace Be Still"  It was amazing!  A very spititual ending to a day filled with learning.

To think I wondered what we would do without watching the news at night!  We are so darn tired by 9:00 p.m. we just fall into bed.
On Wednesday we added two hour spanish lessons to our agenda
.Not a good idea to do later at night for me, of course it's fine for my" always wth it" husband.

Scott has been a great help to me because the things we are doing are just what he has been doing in our ward as the ward mission leader.  It is amazing to me how he just keeps coming up with what we need to do.  I am so blessed to have him as my companion! We have spent more time together this last week than we have the whole last year - and don't worry kids - we are still speaaking...

It just hit me again today how difficut it will be tomorrow to be back with our family then have to leave for 18 months.  After being gone for a week it is much more real and very sad for both of us.
We are grateful to be able to serve but it is anything but easy.  We learned today about the cockroaches, the ants, the geckos, the mosquitoes, the importance of always having Imodium DM with you -and Pepto Bismo -and clorox to decontaminate everything!

There is a wonderful happy spirit here at the MTC of everyone working together for a common goal.  It reminds me of an ant colony with so many black suits running around - everyone busy doing their part.  I'm grateful to have had this time here but will be glad to move on.

we're here! 2/21/2012

I have never seen so many kinds of hearing aides!   I thought we were old, there are couples here who are serving their fourth missions.  They have sold their homes and everything they have to serve missions.  It is amazing to see the faith and determination these people have. In our district all three other couples are serving in the United States so we are the only ones with language classes for two hours at night. We are learning mucho.

Our First Day! 2/20/2012

Well - the 20th finally came!  We were up at 5:00 a.m. trying to get last minute bags packed.  Before 8:00 our wonderful family started filling our house  - I think they just wanted to make sure we actually left...We are coming home Friday to repack so the parting wasn't quite as bad as it could be but still leaving precious family members is tough. We were pretty scatter-brained by the time we got to the car and drove off.  Realizing that we hadn't had breakfast we stopped at McDonalds where we waited and waited to have our order taken.  Finally we ordered egg mcmuffins.  !0 minutes later we were told that they had no hash browns so they would give us fries.  10 minutes later they gave us the sack with our order in but no one could seem to find the orange juice.  10 minutes later we told them to just give us a cup and we would get a different drink.  All in all that 5 minute stop took us half an hour.  Then to add insult to injury - when we opened up the mcmuffins, they didn't have egg on them.  That was it for Scott!  We almost went back.just.to fill in the "how was our service today" questionnaire.