1/19/2013

    Guess I have just been carried away with the kids being here and exhausted at night so haven't even thought about blogging.  We left Wednesday morning for Punta Cana Airport where we were to pick up the kids.  We got lost a couple of times on the way but eventually got there with some time to spare.  The Airport was a surprise to me, having never traveled to a warm climate - with the open air checking bags, boarding, etc.  Didn't get a picture because we were never in a place I could get a clear picture but the food place looked just like the airport buildings so will include it.

   We stood and waited for 45 minutes for their plane to arrive in this place that was to be for waiting.  One of the Car Rental people told us just to set in their area and we could catch the kids as they came down the ramp.  But of course I was afraid  we would miss them I wouldn't go set down and Scott wouldn't if I wouldn't and so he wasn't a happy camper.  Finally I agreed to go to the building to see if we could see them there - sure enough, we could so we waited until they came out there.   I swear they must have been the last people off the plane!  And I haven't seen that many white people for ages.  A whole different crowd than we saw at the Santo Domingo Airport.  Lots more smoking!
The kids looked great!!!  It was so amazing to actually have them within touching distance.  And little Samson is such a beautiful little boy - how grateful we are to be able to see him now as a young baby.  You would never even know he was here because he rarely cries and is just such a good baby to take wherever you go.  He will change alot before we get home but we are so thankful to have gotten to love and cuddle him here.  The pictures won't come up so will have to add them when we get back to our apartment.
     So we got a van and filled it with people and our car with luggage and headed out to Punta Cana.
It was a long and miserable trip because of the road construction but after getting lost a couple of times, we finally found the Majestic Elegance Hotel/Resort.  We were blown away by the sheer size of
the resort.  It was very elegant and covered miles of ground.  It seemed like miles of swimming pools that wound through the park, and apartment building after apartment building, a block of stores, two big entertainment areas, many restaurants, etc.  The entertainment crew signed us up for a game of darts while we were sitting in the lobby.  It turned out to be a fun time - especially since I beat Scott!!
 We ate most of our meals at the buffet - which was amazing with all kinds of different foods.  Some good, others bland, and others just plain not so good.  Their presentation of the food though was amazing!  They cut flowers out of everything you can imagine. The service was amazing and you could eat anytime you wanted, anything that you wanted - which we all did and will probably be dieting for months.  Scott and I went to bed and the kids went to see a Michael Jackson show. It is now Sunday and I can't remember much of anything we have done but see a magic show, watch the girls learn how to dance one of their dances here, spend time on the beach watching all of the rich and crazy people go by and be grateful we live the lives we live.  Alcohol is like water here.  Actually it is easier to get if you want it.  The entertainment crew couldn't believe Scott and I had ten kids.  They were a gross and inappropriate bunch but one of the girls called us "her family".   It didn't take long to realize that most of the people here drank coffee and alcohol, the servants couldn't quite figure out what was wrong with us.  However there were many people who noticed our missionary name tags and commented that they knew of the Mormons and liked them or had family members who were Mormon but didn't connect the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints was the same church.  To this day I have never heard a negative comment about the church here.  Isn't that refreshing!

1/13/2013

How can five days have passed so quickly??  Probably because it has been a miserable time trying to get everything together for the Caribbean Area History for the Music Department.  It sounded fairly overwhelming at first but then I was told I needed signatures of everyone we had in pictures of any kind - which is over 100 people - then that I needed to have the names of everyone one every island that had taught over the last year - and - the names of the students they have taught along with the names of all of the students we have taught.  I just wonder who on earth is ever going to read this.  It will be fun for us to have though.  In three of our classes we are graduating students and it is sad to think we will probably never see them again.  Makes me realize how difficult it will be to leave all of our students and friends when we leave here. Anyway, I have spent much of the week working on this report because I want it to be in before the kids come in two days.  That's right   - two days.  It doesn't even seem real to me.
   Went to the temple on Tuesday then sent Scott by himself on Wednesday and Thursday so I could work on the report.  Missed the two Spanish classes also.  On Tuesday at the temple we met the Partridges from Lehi.  She is teaching music in Santiago so we wanted to see what if we could help her in any way.  They knew the Eickbushes so we all met on Wednesday and went out to lunch.  It was fun to get to know them a little.  There are just awesome people out here!!  Sister Partridge happens to a a first cousin of Craig Fishers.  That night we went with the missionaries to give a lesson to the Dennishs.  We took our teclado and played music and sang songs - kind of fun!  Reetha is a very intellegent and learned woman and has may questions about the Book of Mormon.  I hope she finds her answers and has the help of the Book of Mormon in her life.  She has two kids - one daughter that is definetly ADD!  It has been great to get to know them all.
   I'll just skip to Saturday since I can't remember Friday except for working on the report.
We had our first lesson at one of the wards out in Las Americas Stake.  Amazingly enough, Elder Esplin showed up there.  He probably thinks we are following him around here in the DR.  This was a mixed group of young and middle age people.  The middle age people are three men - which never ceases to amaze me.  I am so grateful we know more about teaching these people than we did when we came here!!  We left at 9:00 am to get there by 10:00.  Got back to home by 1:00 and printed off papers we needed for our next class out in Hainamosa that we left for at 4:00pm.  Last week at Hainamosa the power had been off most of the time we were there - me in with a baptism and Scott trying to teach a class.  So when it had flickered off for the second time I thought we were probably done for the night but it actually stayed on after that.  The new English speaking Elder there told me to come help him teach an English class  - he says next week they were teaching "Head, Shoulders,
Knees, and Toes" so I am thinking I could probably do that.  Don't have the time though!  We had to meet Brother Soriano with the teclado he had taken home to practice with so that took us half and hour longer.  Seemed like a long, long day.
    And today we got to Tres Brasos to pick up the kids and none of them were going so we hurried
back to our ward so we wouldn't miss the sacrament and got there just in time - good traffic...
It is so nice to sit in an English speaking class and actually learn something instead of getting a headache trying to understand the Spanish.  However, I am getting much better.  The sad thing is in English the thought follows the words in the sentence, in Spanish you have to hear all of the words in the sentence before you know what is being said.  Needless to say, by the time they get to the end of the sentence ,I am lost trying to remember what the words at the beginning were.  I am not going to let this time of learning Spanish be for naught!!!!  I am determined to keep learning after I get home because I have invested so much time, energy, and prayer in trying to learn it.
   Got home in time to repack for our lesson out in San Crystolbal.  We got there in record time today-  40 minutes.  We must have hit every green light on the way out of town.  This is a great group and they are learning fast.  In every group we needed to get signatures to be able to use their pictures on the website page and in the history  so I have been collecting signatures for two days now. Rushed from there  back to Santo Domingo and out to Oriental.  The kids were actually there waiting when we got there.  It was shocking!!  Three of the kids that hadn't come for two months were hiding out in a classroom and one of the mother's told on them so Scott went and found them and talked them into coming back - they were ashamed they hadn't been more faithful about coming.  So he helped them and I worked with the others.  Sarah got her mission call to London, England.  She will be a great help to them and it will be such a good experience for her.  We just love her!
  Now here we are at our apartment.  The Yturraldes have been down to thaw their hamburger and visit.  Elder Yturralde has a nasty cold.  We have so enjoyed their friendship..

1/8/2013

Here it is Tuesday night and we are waiting to skype with the kids that are coming next week.  I keep thinking it won't be long before this part of our lives seems like a dream!   Yesterday we had our usual Spanish classes.  Elder Hammon's class was hilarious as one of the sisters made up a sentence about her husband without realizing what she was saying.  Elder Hammon stood there with trying not to laugh but finally gave in and so did the rest of us.  I am so grateful to understand most of what he says in that class.  Then we had a farewell FHE for the Glaziers, the St. Hillaires and the Roberts.  So many people are leaving and you know you will probably never see them again - they have all become good friends to us.
  We spent most of the day studying then went to the 5:00 pm temple session.  Going in we met a couple here from Santiago to attend the temple for a few days.  When they ask what we do here and we told them and they looked at us like we actually were musicians - and as usual we have to tell them we certainly are not musicians and if it weren't for the Lord's help we wouldn't be able to do this job at all.  They are from Lehi and said they were meeting a couple from here who were their neighbors - come to find out it was the Eickbushes!  Sister Partridge was almost in tears after the temple session because she is so frustrated with not being able to communicate.  They have only been here four months.  We all know just how she feels and were able to tell her it gets a little better with time.  We are going to pick them up for lunch tomorrow and the Eickbushes are going with us - that will be fun!  She had taught a conducting course in the Institute in Santiago and is working with a girl who is starting a keyboard class.  It will be fun to talk to them.  I am working on the history report for last year for the area so it will be good to have that information.  She is actually a cousin of Craig Fishers.
 

1/6/2013 Sunday

      It's 8:00 and we just got home for the day.  Left around 8:00 this morning to pick up the kids for church.  Scott had called Alta Graci and asked her to have the kids ready at 8:30.  Well of course they were running on Dominican time and didn't make it to the car until after 9:00.  We had William's three kids and Alta Graci's three but no cousins today!  They want to know when they can come back to our house - they agreed that Monday would be good and Scott was shaking his finger at me "No, no, no!"  We really love these kids.  I had two on my lap - one on each leg - through most of Sacrament Meeting.  Then Katy sat beside me and kept kissing me on the cheek which her sister wiped off each time - by the time church was over the makeup on that side of my face was nonexistent.  They pat your hair and hug you until you look like a limp dishrag - and it's great.  We  are a bit exhausted after taking the kids to church!  We get home and have fifteen minutes to eat and get ready to go teach lessons 25 miles from here in San Crystobol then travel 35-40 miles back and through the city to get to Oriental for the next lesson.  Then another 20 miles to Hainamosa to give them the teclados to practice with during the week.
  Back to the morning -   It is so interesting to pull into the Tres Brasos church building (where we take the kids) and see there is only one other car there. You would think no one is there but when you walk into the building it is full of people and more trail in for the next hour.  When we picked up the kids they had gone down the street to a store and bought crackers for breakfast.  And we added to that nutritious breakfast by giving them sugar cookies I had made during the week!  Nice, huh.  We are going to have to start taking granola bars or something that will give them some nutrition.
    While you are in class or Relief Society women come by the open door and if they aren't coming in they stand in the doorway and blow kisses into the room.  I wish I could get a video because it is a "you have to be there" experience!  They express themselves many times by touching different places on their faces - by their eyes, mouth, ears, temples, etc.  I still don't know what it all means!  It is hard for me to get used to how they get up and go talk to each other or walk out and back in three or four times while the teacher is teaching.  Just a different culture than ours and fun to observe unless you are trying desperately to figure out what they are saying!
  I am so grateful to have been blessed with safety as we traveled today.  It's only 9:00 pm and I am ready for bed. 
 

1/5/2013

Behind again!  We went on Friday night with the Eickbushes to TacoBell.  They had talked about the missionaries going there and I had been craving a taco ever since.  They frequent TacoBell and Taco Time often so they knew where everyone of their restaurants in the city were.  It was actually really fun.  We went back to their place and played Five Crowns- I was the loser!  While we were there the Yturraldes dropped by to pick up something.  They had been at the temple so they sat down and visited with us.  I could not believe how quite it was in their apartment.  No horns honking, car alarms ringing, ambulance sirens blaring, guaguas polluting the air, people shouting, etc.  They had soft music playing in the background and you could actually hear it.  Made us give a thought to moving into their apartment when they leave in March.
  We haven't had power all day today so I spent some time at Yturraldes - they have a back up generator- calling Keira for her birthday.  We had to go down to the guard building to plug our printer in and print off some copies for our lessons tonight and tomorrow. 
  It was an interesting night in Hainamosa.  First of all when we got there Jonathan and his brother that we met last week were there and he informed us that his brother was going to be baptized and he wanted me to play for them.  This brother is in a baseball training camp just out of Santiago and is on a break.  He is 17 and wants to serve a mission.  We talked about how being a member of the church and living by it's standards would protect him from much of the worldliness of professional baseball.  He really has a strong testimony and it was a great experience to hear him bear his testimony even though there was much I didn't understand.  To add to the atmosphere was the fact that the power went off and on five times staying off longer each time.  One of our students, Anderson, had agreed to play the music for the baptism but we never had power for the keyboard to work.  Jonathan's brother was confirmed in the dark.  It was a strange experience for me but they all seemed to think it was a normal thing.  Most of the talks were given in the dark also.  Which just solidifies my opinion that these people really do see in the dark!!

1/2-3/2013

Typing in that 2013 certainly seems weird!  Wednesday is a blur and it was only yesterday. We did do a couple of sessions at the temple.  So many people have bad colds they should just shut down and get everyone well - hah!  What a privilege it is to be able to go and do that work.  It is some of our missionary work here.
  Today we went out to PriceMart and the Blue Mall.  We were hoping to find a cord for the teclado that was somehow lost in our travels but there wasn't a Casio store there like we had been told there was.  We did get addresses for some electronic stores from one of the guards though so maybe another day we will go looking for them.  At PriceMart I printed off pictures to take to San Crystobol.  We are putting together information for the Caribbean history and using their ward as an example of what we have been doing.  They are such a fun group - I think I have said that before about all of the other groups we teach.  It is true though.  We have really enjoyed our association with the students we have had here.
   Elder Hammon did not have his class today but Scott had his so we went to the Casa.  There are no new missionaries so our returned missionaries weren't there.  The Spanish class was good.  Just reviewing the verb conjugations is so helpful.  The Schmidts and the Haws were the only ones in town so it was a small class but very good! 
    After class we went to the temple.  The temple president and his wife, the Bairs, were in our session and invited us over to have ice cream and cake when we got out of the temple.  Of course I am trying not to eat sugar but the visiting was fun.
   Our water has been off today and when we left I asked Scott to check the bathroom taps and make sure they were turned off in case the water came back on while we were gone.  He forgot and we didn't think about it until we were at the Bairs.  We left in a hurry to see if water was running down into the apartment below us - thankfully it wasn't.  The bathroom water was on and running but thank heavens had an overflow hole because the sink does not drain well at all. It was full and running down the hole but not overflowing the sink.  Blessed once again!!
  We hadn't seen Wilton for a couple of days so asked AltaGracie where he was.  She said he had been fired because he hadn't shown up for work the day before.  That's just great.  I'm not sure if Soyla really has reasons to fire all these people we get close to or if she just does it to bug us!!
Anyway, like William., we will really miss Wilton.
 

1/1/2013

Only fifteen more days until the kids get here - I can hardly believe it.  We are on the down side of our mission - the rest will go even faster.  Soon this will just be a memory.  I have learned so many things by serving here and am so grateful for the experience of getting to know and love some of these people. We studied this morning and went to Yturraldes for New Years dinner.  She served ----chicken, rice and beans.  A typical Dominican holiday meal.  It was fun to try a local dish and was really quite good.