5/31/2012

Talk about tender mercies!  Over a week ago I lost my good camera.  We have looked everywhere, asked everyone we know and generally just been sick about loosing it.  Finally I thought this certainly was not an important thing to pray about but could 't help talking to Heavenly Father about it anyway. So yesterday I just decided to search thoroughly through everything in the house one more time.  I had moved everything by my dresser numerous times but thought I would try there one more time.  So I moved he computer box, the umbrella, the purse - took a broom and swept under the dresser, nightstand, and bed.  Heartsick I walked over and glanced down one last time in the area I had cleaned and there was this thing that looked like my camera.  You know how something is just too good to be true and you just know it isn't going to be there when you look again..  I just knew it was a mirage because I wanted so badly to find it.  But no, when I got closer and reached down to pick it up - it really was my camera.  How it got there I just figure was a miracle!
  We still have no air conditioner and it has been a hot, humid day.  It's sad to get out of the shower and feel the same as you did when you got in!  Spent the morning studying and preparing for our music lesson with the returned missionaries.  Trying to do a lesson plan with my spur of the moment husband was a challenge!  He really should have been a teacher.  We picked up five of the keyboards and some music training books from the distribution center here to use for the lessons and to check out to the sister missionaries who are teaching people here how to lead the singing and play the piano.  These are all engraved with numbers and the area information so hopefully we can keep better track of them.
   Louis called today to talk to Scott.  We miss him here and he still does not have a job.
Scott taught the Spanish class today.  At the temple there were so many in session there were barely enough seats.  In the time we have been here and attended the temple 30+ times there has never been so many people there.  A young American girl came in and sat by me.  She looked about 22 so I was surprised to find that she has five children and her husband works for the US Embassy here about 1 block from where we live. 

5/30/2012

Wow!  It is much quieter here since the big election campaigns have ended. However, just down the street is a big military training center and a government building that they exploded some kind of fireworks from that shook our cement building and was absolutely deafening!  We couldn't imagine what was happening as we watched people come out of their houses and try to what was going on.
After about 10 minutes it stopped and all was quiet.  The next day the guard told us that was just the government celebrating something so at least next time we won't think we're being bombed.
  We got to go to the temple last night with two other couples in our session.  It seems so strange because there were always more people in the Ogden temple sessions.  It is such a peaceful experience here because there never seems to be anyone scurrying and hurrying around. I'll bet these people have many less stress related illnesses because they just don't stress about anything. 
   On a poster in a stake building we visited they had a poster up announcing an "Especially for Youth" program.  I have never seen dress standards where a good part of the dress code was related to what kind of shoes they could wear.  So fitting for this country though! Guess they don't want to deal with broken ankles and the like from these 5" heeled shoes...
  Today we went to LaRamona that was about a two hour drive for a zone training meeting.  The McDermids, the psych doctors, went with us to do their presentation on how to live with and like your companion.  It was great information for Scott and I as well.  We told them they could ride with us if they gave us free counseling on the way home!
   The drive was beautiful when we got out of the city the roadside was covered with green trees, shrubs, vines, etc.  Of course the gate was locked so we had to wait for someone to unlock it.  I thought no one was coming because there were no cars then realized that all of the missionaries came by public transportation because they don't have cars. We had decided to use "I Am A Child of God " in our presentation.  I was all nervous because I was playing it and hadn't played on the organ/piano combo.  So I get up there to play and it has a screen that tells you how to set it up - in Spanish of course.  Since I didn't understand the instructions I found a piano button and pushed it.  So I start playing the introduction and some jazzy music comes on so it didn't even resemble "I Am a Child of God".  Scott is looking at me like I've gone crazy and I had no idea what to do.  Every button I pushed just made it worse.  Finally I recognized the elder that had played the prelude and motioned to him to come and help me. I was so frazzled that when he got up there I just moved off the seat and begged him to play because he obviously had figured it out before.  What a great way to start my music career here....  oh well...  I should have taken my keyboard! We stayed to help the mission president's wife with lunch  for the missionaries - it reminded me of Scott's singles ward parties. We love the East Mission President and his wife - they are awesome.  They have such love and concern for these missionaries.
  Got an email today from Sister Whitaker in Puerto Rico who wants to start teaching music there.  That will be such a help to us!  Also heard from my brother in Arizona that he knows the couple coming to replace them Snows here.  That will be fun for us to get to know them and here their report on the Hatch family there. 

5/28/2012

   Memorial day back home!  We miss not being there for the big Rees family party but with some luck we can skype.  We are feeling blessed to be here in the Dominican Republic after hearing that the Gaileys are going to the Congo.  No wonder when they called to tell us they had our call the man said "You will love this call !"  It gets more beautiful here every day.  There are these trees that branch out like an umbrella and are just getting leaves and reddish flowers all over them. In some of the streets they branch out over the road and meet in the middle so it's like driving down this beautiful flowered path. They are called Flamboyant Trees.  They have many varieties of flowering trees and tons of flowering bushes.
  I have been thinking how much I appreciate my parents and Scott's parents, how much we love and miss them.  Memorial Day as I grew up was a day that relatives from all over would come to visit the graves in Randolph then come down to our house to visit and eat.  Mom was an excellent cook and would always have food to feed them.

5/28/2012

   Memorial Day back home!  We miss not being there for the big Rees family party but with some luck we can skype.  We are feeling blessed to be here in the Dominican Republic after hearing that the Gaileys are going to the Congo.  No wonder when they called to tell us they had our call the man said "You will love this call !"  It gets more beautiful here every day.  There are these trees that branch out like an umbrella and are just getting leaves and reddish flowers all over them. In some of the streets they branch out over the road and meet in the middle so it's like driving down this beautiful flowered path.  They have many varieties of flowering trees and tons of flowering bushes.
  I have been thinking how much I appreciate my parents and Scott's parents, how much we love and miss them.  Memorial Day as I grew up was a day that relatives from all over would come to visit the graves in Randolph then come down to our house to visit and eat.  Mom was an excellent cook and would always have food to feed them.
   Went to the Piantini Ward on Sunday.  Left feeling blessed to have understood much of what was going on!  It was Mother's Day here yesterday so the spirit with all of the speakers was tender and strong.  What a priviledge it is to be a mother even though we may fall so far short of being the mothers we want to be.
  We had a meeting last night out of town and when we got there they had canceled it because of Mother's Day but had  forgotten to call.  It was a pretty drive anyway!  We stopped a the Yturaldies to pick up a list for Price Mart for the big picnic tonight with all of the senior couples.  We have 60 hamburger patties to do before we go.  The hambuger here is basically tasteless clumps of ground beef from starving cows - at least we hope it is from starving cows!
  Our air conditioner is not working so it could be miserable but there is a fairly cool breeze blowing through our apartment so hoping it gets fixed while the sun is still behind a cloud.
  We had a great Family Home Evening.  Sis. Yturralde had asked someone from every country represented in our group to sing their national anthem.  There were French, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Iranian, Canadian, and American anthems sung without accompaniment and they were very touching.  As we listened to the Star Spangled Banner I couldn't help but think how different America was during that time than it is today.  We have come so far in many technlogical advances but as a society we have  fallen along way from what the people at that time were and hoped we would be. 
 

5/26/2012

   It's a breezy, beautiful night in Santo Domingo!   I can see why people come here to vacation. Our Saturdays are like the rest of the week days because I am always telling myself I can't waste the Lord's time and we all know how Scott feels about idleness.  We did have to shop this morning.  Tomorrow is Mother's Day here so the parking lot and the store were full!  It is good to finally know our way around the big National (grocery store) we go to.  Found some more chicken gizzards - was so excited because they told us last week they weren't going to carry them anymore!  We went out to pick up the printer we had left for an estimate to fix and sure enough - it was more to fix it than it was worth! 
  It takes so long to get anywhere.  People in the city used to say they couldn't live in Morgan because there were no stores and what we knew all along is that it takes less time to drive from Morgan to a store in Ogden than it does to deal with all of the traffic in the city.  It can take 1/2 an hour to drive two miles here.  AND you had better be riding in the front or you are absolutely positive you won't make it home alive.
  The Eickbushes called and said they having dinner at Costello's de Adan across the street from us.  We had just eaten but went to visit with them.  There are probably 8 people who work there and they all look like thugs.  Now I'm not judging, but the truth is there isn't one light countenance among the lot of them.  I still think it's a drug friendly place.  The food, however, is excellent! The Eickbushes ordered an appetizer that was fries topped with bacon, sour cream and cheese.  It was very good.
I met some of our neighbors today that Scott has met early in the mornings when he jogs.  One is a Japanese guy and his wife from Toronto, the other is a black woman who has two boys here visiting her.  The man and the black woman work for the United Nations and have been assigned here. The woman is a Baptist minister and her sons are going to school in Kentucky and are just here visiting.
The refreshing thing is they speak English - at least some..  The boys know no Spanish so they looked fairly bored by the whole experience ( as teenagers do). 

5/25/2012

  How grateful I am not to be just flying into the Dominican Republic!  Having three months behind us is really nice.  We spent the day studying and making phone calls and reading over our music teaching books.  They are getting so much easier for me to understand - what a blessing..
  Scott usually goes out around 6:00 am to jog but didn't go this morning so when we went out tonight for a walk William (a guard for the apartments) came over and in his animated way asked where Scott had  been - he hadn't seen him all day.  Scott usually stops by to talk to them a couple times a day.  He is such a nice guy.  He told Scott yesterday that he and Alta Gracia both send their kids to Mormon churches on Sunday even though they are not Mormons. These two work every Sunday and just barely make enough to take care of their families.  We think it is because the church has such nice buildings that they think their kids will be safe there. 
   Went for a walk tonight and crossed the street to see what the new furniture store is.  Couldn't get in there but the copy store door was open so we went in.  A young man was there that had spent 3 months in the US working at a KFC and knew quite a bit of English.  When I said his country was beautiful he asked if I was from England because that is how they said beautiful - don't know who he has been listening to!!  A very nice young man who knew about the Mormons and said he even knew some of their bible - Nephi, Moroni, Mormon, Alma.  Shocking!  Some of the members of our church don't really know the books in the Book of Mormon. We are constantly surprised at how much these people know about the Mormons.
  We walked down the street to look at  a beautiful park across from us and found it is a memorial to Bolivar who is one of their early heroes.  There are sections that are not in view until you get into the different areas and we soon found that a few young couples thought there was more privacy there than there really was.  The flowering shrubs were amazing. 

 We had passed a banana tree yesterday that I wanted to see so walked down to where it was.  It was fun to see how they grow and the  flowering bulb at the bottom of the clumps of bananas.

5/24/2012

   Just three months ago we were having our last dinner with our family before leaving very early the next morning for the airport.  It hardly seems real - now we're in that lost stage of in between where it seems strange not to be home and feels equally as strange to be living here.  Kind of like writing Spanish and English and not knowing how to spell because you get the two mixed up.
   Ottosons were here for breakfast before catching their ride to the airport to take them to Sweden.  A 20 hour trip with three little girls! I hope all goes well for them - they remind me so much of our families at home.  They are planning to come see us when they get to Utah - we may be dead by then!
Kathryn hadn't been able to get their sheets and towels washed so I went over to wash for her - they even have a normal washer and .... a dryer.  It took me a few minutes to figure out how to set a washer that actually works by itself and a real clothes dryer. The problem with letting your clothes air dry, as we do, is there is so much humidity in the air you can't tell if they are dry or not because they always feel a bit damp.  The funny thing is their landlord's daughter, named Elizabeth, was coming to get their key from me. Snows rent from her parents, the Lees, and for some reason I have always thought they were Caucasian.  Scott called me out when Elizabeth came - and she was Dominican.  It's funny how you get your mind set in one direction and have to reset things.  Anyway I won't make that mistake again. I'm sure we will have the chance to meet the Lees.
   We had an early meeting with another couple of zones today.  This time Scott decided he would translate for me. Talk about unnerving!  Trying to keep a thought going while he interprets is a stretch for me!  We have one more zone conference to go to next week for the East Mission.
  After our Spanish class today we stopped to talk to one of the teachers at the CCM who wants to take piano lessons.  There were two other guys working in the office that want to take lessons also.  So we'll have a chance to get some lesson plans ready and learn how to teach the church's program.
Working with these young men feels so familiar -
  Went to the temple after the meeting. A group of people had come to the temple in a rented bus and were outside having refreshments out of someone's car trunk.  I love seeing the culture here - how the people interact with each other. They certainly have no personal space issues.  I have never seen so many people crowd into seats, booths, taxis, buses, - everywhere!