8/8/2012

  What a wonderful cool day it has been today!  Not even too much humidity.  We have had a lot of time to study today but by the time we do scripture study, exercise and breakfast and keyboard practice the morning is gone.  There is so much for me to study in Spanish that I could spent 10 hours a day every day and still not know it!  Between irregular conjugations and indirect and direct object pronouns today has been a study challenge.
  We did get the cookies to our upstairs neighbors and the Lees.  The husband upstairs wasn't home yet and Pres. Lee still was not home so we talked to the wives and had to leave to get to the 6:00 temple session.  We thought the Lees would be moving to their nice apartment that the Snows have been living in but she said they feel like they should stay here for a while.  Certainly not for safety issues I would think!  (They haven't been here through the murder upstairs and the shootings in the street) They are a lovely couple.  The wife upstairs from Nepal is such a pretty woman.  She is home alone all day and I don't know how she remains sane.  Her husband works for the United Nations here but they are transferred all over.
    We decided Thursday is such a busy day with two Spanish lessons and a music lesson that we would go to the temple on Wednesday instead so we saw a different group of senior missionary friends working there.  It is great to have them there.  It reminds me of going to the Ogden temple and having many of our Morgan friends working there. 
   If I never hear the click clack of anyone playing dominoes again it will be too soon!  The men in front of the store are at it again and it is 10:15- they are just getting started.....

8/7/2012 Terible storm! (that's Spanish for terrible)

  We had a preview today of what the scriptures call "the wrath of God".  The lightening strikes and the thunder shook the building, it was raining so hard the water was coming in through the cracks where the  windows slide open .  I have never heard noise like that.  The wind was blowing hard and whistling through the glass.  I was in the kitchen fixing lunch and got so scared (I know that is surprising) I went to find Scott in the other room.  He wasn't going to admit that it was intimidating for him too, but it was!  It lasted about an hour then settled into just rain but it was an hour that made me think about the storms you read about in the scriptures.
  I started making cookies yesterday to take to some neighbors but we went to all of our Monday activities and I didn't get them all cooked.  Finished that today and got them all on plates just in time
to go to the temple. We planned on taking them as soon as we got home but met Tati and her grandchildren in the parking lot and they came over to talk to us. Her grandson is leaving soon to go back to Spain but  her granddaughter is going to stay and live with her. The culture here is so immoral.  She so needs the church to help her make decent decisions that will bring her happiness.  Wickedness never was happiness is not just a statement here - it is the way so many of these people live.  So we still have plates of cookies sitting on the couch.  Maybe tomorrow! We have really wanted to visit with the Nepalize couple upstairs.
  Tonight at the temple there was this couple who looked to be in their mid or later 70's. They are infamous here - or so we hear - because they live on a boat and travel around to different countries doing extraction work.  They have been doing that for 10 years.  When hurricane season hits the islands they just keep moving out of the path.

8/6/2012

   Another busy day!  The Lee's (returned mission president from Santiago who is temporarily living in our building because he owns an apartment here) invited us over for Family Home Evening.  We had other plans with the senior missionaries so couldn't go but decided to make cookies and take them some before we left for classes at 3:30.  Baking in our oven is always an adventure because the bottom burns, the outsides edges overcook and the inside doesn't cook.  Other than that, it's a great little oven.  You can't put a cookie sheet in it because it won't fit.  But the cookies turned out fairly good even if grandmaed on the bottom.  Karolina and Alexis from the Area Presidency Office are so great to help us out.  They have spent hours on our phones trying to get them working and the phone company to fix the line - which is not exactly area work but we certainly appreciate them.  We took them some cookies on the way to Spanish class.  They must have hired those two because they have the biggest smiles I have ever seen.  It's just a joy to walk in that office and see their faces light up and those big smiles appear!
    Just before we left for class we heard prolonged shouting outside.  In the parking lot we walked over to the fence like cement thing to see a bunch of men waving their arms and shouting back and forth so you have to wonder if someone was murdered in the little store there.  But the guard told us that they were just excited because a Dominican had won a race and taken the gold.  That was good news!
     In Elder Hammon's Spanish class today he was teaching us direct and indirect objects in Spanish.  I do know what they are in English but in Spanish I'm lost.  Guess it will take some more intense studying!  Scott taught his Spanish class and we went upstairs in the Casa to be investigators for
the missionaries.  I took my camera but forgot to put the memory stick back in it.  There were three missionaries today.  One is 330 lbs and the other is 120 lbs.  Today there was a missionary from Trinidad who is going to Jamaica and he was 6'6"and all of 150 lbs.  Their Spanish is getting much better.  In Trinidad and Jamaica they speak English so he doesn't have to learn Spanish. It would be difficult to find three more different looking missionaries!  They are great guys though...
    Then we had FHE at the Leavitts but when we knocked and knocked on their door no one answered.  Finally Elder Button came out from a couple rooms away and told us that they had moved down the hall into McDermid's apartment last week when the McDemids left.  The Eickbushes, the Fords, the Bairs, the Hammons, the Levitts were all there.  They had a fun game of building a house and rolling dice which I will have to bring home.

  I want to include two pictures.  One is what I think is the most striking difference between here and other cities I know - the horse drawn cart next to a nice new car is a common sight.

    The other is of a woman selling things in the street.  You will see women quite often carrying things on their heads but not many men do.

8/5/2012

  These Sundays remind me of many Sundays while in the  Stake RS Presidency - meeting after meeting after meeting!  We had early morning Church.  During Sacrament Meeting the power went off and came back on about 20 times - then finally it just stayed off.  They have a generator but were afraid that would also fail so moved everyone downstairs to different rooms.  Many of the churches here have the Primary, Young Men and Women, Relief Society rooms on the bottom floor and the chapel on the top floor.  So we moved downstairs but could not use the air conditioner so it was  h-o-t.!  Those who didn't have anything to use as a fan fell asleep during the lesson.  There were two sisters from Barbaros who were visiting for a week to do temple work.  I guess that island is an English speaking one because they couldn't understand the Spanish speaking teachers but their English is a different dialect than any I have heard!
    We had a lesson at the Oriental Stake so got everything together to go there.  I'm beginning to think they should have let us rent a truck.  To haul 10 teclados, tables, teaching manuals and student manuals, and all of the other paraphernalia that goes with this job is taking up more and more space in the full trunk and the back seat.  If we get stopped and robbed sometime they will think they hit a gold mine of things they could resale.  We thought this class had mastered the conducting skills but in reviewing them found that not to be true. So instead of moving on to keyboard lessons we stayed with the conducting.  Many of the parents had brought their kids and they sat in the back and watched with big smiles on their faces.  They are so excited for their kids to have this experience. 
    The next meeting was in  San Geronimo with the stake presidency and all of the bishoprics in their stake.  They must have a huge stake because they had fifty plus people there.  It gave us the opportunity to give them all the general music plan and let them know that we can help them (?)
One of the bishops want us to speak in his ward next week.  Sad thing is I have to teach Primary in our ward so Scott will have to go alone.  Too bad, huh? Primary is preferable to me!  We were lost for much of the time trying to find the building but the Snows were already at the building and called to see where we were so they gave us some direction, and we found they were parked in front of the building and we were in back of the same building.  It's amazing how big this city is.  I don't know how Scott knows where he is going.  Now I know why I didn't go on a mission as a young woman - I'm such a wimp!  If I don't have ulcers from near miss car adventures here it will be a miracle..

                                                           Elders Mejia and Brimley

Elder Brimlely

  Got home just in time for Scott to call the missionaries so they could go up the street and teach John Paul.  Neither the missionaries or John Paul showed up last time so our hopes weren't too high for tonight. But surprise, surprise - the missionaries came and John Paul was there and they actually had a good lesson with him.  They came back up for ice cream and cookies.  We had ice cream from Wilton's birthday party and Scott bought some boxed cookies from Price Mart to give away. We have seen them quite often as they come here to give lessons and come to our Ward on Sunday.  They are the assistants to the West Mission president and they have tons of  responsibilities.  I have come to the conclusion that it is no fun to be an assistant to the president out here.   

8/4/2012 Hurricane Weather!

   It really seems like Sunday traveling to chapels all over. We worked this morning on our lessons and found that we once again had given away all of our conducting books so Scott went to the Tienda to get another book.  He came home with two but when we got ready to work on the lesson he had picked up two English books instead of Spanish books.  At least we had the CD to work with!
   It had started to rain before we left for Hainamosa but while we were there it rained so hard on the roof of the church that you couldn't even hear anyone talking.  They said one hurricane had just passed by and another was beginning.  By the time we left to come home there was so much water everywhere the streets were flooded- six or so inches on the low side of the road.  It made it difficult to drive and almost impossible to see the open manholes in the road ; plus all of the huge holes in the roads that were filled with water.  No wonder their roads are so bad! We were relieved to get home in one piece but found that we had left some windows open a few inches and there was water standing on the floors in the low spots. 
   At the meeting we met three or so missionaries who were having a baptism in the same building.  One of them came back into the room we were teaching in and asked me to come to the door.  He was a handsome young elder.  He said his aunt had told him to look the Rees' up because he is here in Santo Domingo.  His aunt is Nanette Brown!  You could see the resemblance because he has those pretty eyes that Nanette has.  It was so fun to talk to him.  He was actually the one baptizing the two investigators.  Even better is when we got home I tried to call Nanette.  Jim answered the phone and they were on their way home from San Diego where they had been for a week.  I can't believe we got ahold of them.  It was really fun to talk to Nanette and hear how her family is doing.
  Oh I forgot the best part of the meeting.  There was a sister setting by herself waiting for class to start so I went over and tried to talk to her.  Come to find out she could speak some English.  She said, "Oh you sing in the Tabernacle Choir, right? "  I didn't want to be rude but I couldn't hold back the laughter.  She said I looked so familiar to her she just knew that I sang with the Choir.  I told her that I looked familiar because, after all. we are sisters. 
   On of the best things about teaching music to these people in Hainamosa is they just break out in song - it doesn't matter what is going on.  They love music!  I absolutely love working with them.  Of course all I am doing is playing the keyboard and working the CD on the computer.  There are coordinating things on a disc that go with the lessons so that helps.  We may not know much but the church certainly puts out good aids to teach it's programs.

Elder Esplin in the Dominican Republic.  Happy to be baptizing two converts.

8/3/2012

I can't believe it is August - Fair time in Morgan.  Heard we missed two great farewells this past weekend - Tad Sargents and Swish Wiscombes.  Would love to have been to both!!
  And to think I really believed that March would never end.  Now I'm just looking at all the things we wanted to accomplish and knowing it isn't likely to happen.  If we can just get the information out to the rest of the area and encourage them to establish their programs and help them find someone to teach music in their areas it will be a miracle, the way things move here.
   Yesterday we had our 4:00 Spanish class.  I don't know why I thought learning Spanish wouldn't be that difficult.  40 some years ago when I was in high school it was easy!  I am learning paso by paso.
Wilton lets me practice with him and everything is great until he answers me back and I have no idea what he is saying...Scott teaches a 5:00 Spanish class which is very good for those of us who haven't been here that long.  At 6:30 we went over to the temple.  There were so many people in the session they had to bring in a chair and set women with the men.  I have never seen people get up and leave a session and come back like these people do.  People watching here is great.  I love the temple and the peace that is there.  We met the McDermids on the way out.  They were walking around the temple for the last time before they left for home (Canada).  It is amazing how you grow to love these people then it's time for them to go back home.  Elder McDermid is around 60 and lived with his wife as a nonmember for 30 years before he joined the Church.  He was active much of that time but not a member.  A great guy!
  Today has been a study time - shop time- getting emails off to area and stake leaders- visiting the neighbors. The neighbors are having another sing along over on their roof.  The patio where the women usually smoke and play poker tonight has three men smoking some kind of a thing that has a tube in a bowl or something and looks like a microphone you talk into but obviously has something in it that allows them to blow out copious amounts of smoke.  Doesn't really look legal!  So it's the usual Friday night noise.  But I am going to go to bed and hope to sleep anyway.
    
  

8/1/2012 Some days you just have to laugh!

  Didn't blog yesterday.  The temple opened so we went to our usual 6:00 session. It was wonderful to be there again.  The Bairs, temple president and wife, were in our session.  They are good friends and mentors!  The only problem was I had to go to the bathroom so bad I was completely miserable!!   I kept thinking I was going to have to get up and leave but knew they would have to stop the whole session and I am such a coward.  So I just sat there and prayed I would be able to make it through the session.  (In agony and pain)  Never was so happy for a session to end and just prayed I would make it to the bathroom in time.  Bet they have never seen anyone basically run from the celestial room, down the stairs and into the dressing room restroom before.  I so wanted to learn some more Spanish - oh well.  Maybe next time...
   Today looked to be such a positive day.  John Paul was to meet with the missionaries here to have a lesson.  It was Wilton's birthday so I had made a brownie cake for him and some cheerios treats for the missionaries.  Three o'clock came and neither the missionaries or John Paul were here - which certainly is not unusual for these people.  The missionaries called and said they could not make it because they were in some judges office with someone getting a divorce.  So we planned what we could teach John Paul so it would not be a waste of his time.  Well and hour went by and still no John Paul.  By 4:30 Scott decided to call him.  He had said earlier that he was going at 2:30 to pick up his paycheck.  I think he picked up his paycheck and bought some liquor because when Scott called him he said he would be here by 3:30 - that was at 5:00.  He never did show up so we'll see what he has to say when Scott sees him in the morning.
  Then we had invited Wilton to bring his wife and we would take them out to dinner tonight. He seemed quite enthusiastic about it and kept calling her to see if she was on her way.  And of course she was late. It was Wilton's birthday today so we had baked a cake and took some ice cream and cake down to the workers and sang happy birthday (in Spanish even) to him. Anyway we walked down to the guagua stop to meet her then walked over to McDonalds. It was weird from the beginning as  walked off and she lagged behind.  When we got there they didn't seem to know that we were eating there or something.  Scott thinks they just didn't know how to order.  We got the food and came back to our apartment to eat.  Well during the conversation Josie, his wife, told us that she actually was baptized into the church three years ago.  Wilton had no idea she was a Mormon.
Then she said they were just living together and had stayed together because she had gotten pregnant. Obviously she is no longer active.  The saddest part of the night, and there were quite a few sad parts, was when she showed me a picture of the baby she had last month that had died a day after he was born because he couldn't breathe.  All I could think of was the poor care she probably got because they had no money and that their beautiful little boy could have lived if he had been in the states where there are specialists to deal with respiratory problems.  They have medical care here for poor people  but it is far inferior to the care more wealthy patients get.  Anyway we had planned to show them the "Families Can Be Together Forever" video about the couple who also lost a little girl. Have to say the video is very touching to anyone who has ever been a mother but Josie was texting on her phone most of the time.  When it was over we brought out the birthday cake and ice cream and Josie proceeds to tell us that Wilton does not like her.  We thought she was kidding but when Scott looked questioningly at Wilton, he  put his hands out in a "Yes that's right but what can I do about it" gesture.  By that time I was about to burst into laughter .  She admitted they were fighting and all was far from well with them. And here we thought we could help them find some peace about losing their baby and they were hardly speaking to each other!  Don't think the video helped either...
Much of this conversation started when I asked if I could take a picture of them.  She said he wouldn't because he didn't like her but we finally got them to let us take a picture for us.

I think Wilton would like to adopt Scott as his dad.  His dad fathered 29 kids and probably doesn't even know them.  He is a nice kid - and so is she.

So we come to the end of a day that looked so special when we got up this morning and all I can do is laugh because this is just the Dominican Way of life.