11/30/2012

  So today we went back to the grocery store and when we parked Scott saw the security guard.  He wanted to talk to him about the tire incident the other day.  So as it turns out it is not unusual for that kind of thing to happen.  He smiled and said it happens all the time.  Great!  We were parked in front of a cement wall so our "guardian angel"  probably pulled up beside us, opened his door so no one could see him and cut the brake / let the air out of the tire.  When Scott took the tire to be fixed they could not find a thing wrong with it and when he told them what had happened they all told him he had been duped! The security guard said if it happens again call someone else to come and help you then he doesn't get the business.  But when you don't know anyone else to call to come fix your tire or fix the brake line you are more apt to let him do it anyway.  So what can you do?!
  We picked up some turkey burger today - it is really good!  I have never seen it at home.
   The power had been off today for most of the afternoon.  I wonder if they will ever have dependable power in this country.  Everything in the fridge gets warm but to date the freezer has kept things frozen.
    This isn't a normal night for us to go to the temple but we had a meeting out of town on Wednesday so decided to go tonight.  Have never seen so many people at the temple.  They had to divide the group into two sessions. We saw lots of new people working there that we don't usually see.  The Leavitts were over our session though - just love those two.  What a privilege it is to be so close to a temple!
    One think I love about this country is you see Christmas scenes all over the city.  There is no one throwing a fit because someone happens to mention Christ. It makes you realize how much our country has changed.  When good is called evil and evil is called good we are in trouble.  Thank heavens we have the gospel to guide us.

11/29/2012 Institute Choir?

   We left at 9:00 this morning for the Institute to get set up for the Choir class.  Just so happens, as it always does here, that four young women and one guy showed up.  The guy wasn't the one there Tuesday and two of the girls were new.  Tom wasn't feeling well today so he didn't come.  So Scott took over and tried teaching them how to sing.  I thought he did a pretty good job for someone who has never even sang in a church choir!  He feels good about having more to do.  These students are delightful.

These are the Mahons who also come to help with the class - since they are the ones who volunteered us!
   After Institute we drove home, had lunch and drove back to the Casa for our 2:30 class.  They were all there today!  Then at 4:00 we had Elder Hammon's Spanish class and were going to have ours at 5:00 but decided since there were few there that we should plan the refreshments for Monday's Family Home Evening instead.  That was a nice change...  Sister Merino was telling us about being called to be Mission President in Honduros.  It was hilarious! They are the mental health people for not only the entire Carribean Area but also Central America so they spend alot of time on the phone counseling missionaries.
   We came home to no power again.  It must have been off all afternoon because the food in the fridge was warm.
    I have been trying to get this picture for the last couple of weeks because it is so funny.  Here we live just through the block from some kind of barracks for the presidential guards.  They run by every other morning or so to keep in shape.  We soon realized there were two groups:  an older group and a younger group.  Every time the older group runs by they are followed by an ambulance with it's lights flashing - in anticipation of being needed.  I missed most of the men but here is the ambulance:

11/28/2012

Just got home from a hair-raising trip to the outskirts of the city to meet with a music leader and her Bishop.  Those guardian angels must work overtime here!  As we squeeze between two cars with less than and inch to spare on either side I am amazed to come out unscathed.  Scott must have great depth perception because I just know he is going to scrape up the side of the car trying to get through the streets but he doesn't.  We got lost on our way out to the Los Angelos barrio but we still made it there just as the sister and her Bishop arrived.  Thank heavens our GPS worked because we drove through some areas you could not believe they would build a church in - but they did.  The church building once again was the bright spot of the area. 
   I spent the day organizing and printing off more information to give to the ward music people.  Most of it is in the church handbook but they don't see it for some reason.  Scott went to the Casa to pick up his phone that Alexis had been working on. Apparently there is something wrong with the SIM card. Surprising that it isn't smashed in the parking lot as I know that is what Scott would like to do with the phone! Oh how I appreciate having working cell phones at home.

11/27/2012

Interesting day.....  It began this morning when we got to the Institute to figure out the choir class.  The Mahons came but Tom Bourke (?) was late coming.  I want to get a picture of him next time.  He has traveled and lived all over but is originally from Ireland.  There were three girls that came to sing in the choir and when he started working with them it was amazing how within an  hour he had those girls pretty much singing in tune with the piano.  He brought some kind of a flute that he played to show them where the notes were to sing, transposed on the piano as he realized they couldn't sing soprano.  He is such a gifted musician and actually a great teacher too. .Of course he has taught music for well over twenty years  He is what you think of when you hear the "music specialist" term.  Who knows what we are!!!  He was baptized over the weekend and is so animated about the gospel it is heartwarming.  He should do one of those "I'm a Mormon" spots because he can't say enough about how the church has changed his life.  Mitt Romney was the focus of his investigating the church.  It will be great to work with him and learn from him.  The kids came up after class and said they want to learn how to play the piano - some of them have been trying to teach themselves.  So guess that will give us another class to teach which is great.
   On our way home we stopped at the grocery store.  When we started the car and drove down the parking lot hill Scott realized we had a flat tire.  We pulled into a parking place and sure enough - the right front tire was flat as can be!  We had just got out to look at the tire when a beater car pulled up next to us and this "mechanic" looking guy got out and said he had seen us pull out of the parking space and saw the tire was flat and knew we were in trouble. Then he proceeded to take of the tire.  Found a leaking brake fluid drum along with the flat.  The amazing thing was he seemed to have all of the tools and things he needed in his car.  Except he had to go get a new piece for the brake drum.  So we were feeling like the most blessed people in the DR or wondering if the whole thing was a set up. Still don't know but are so grateful we weren't in the middle of traffic on the freeway or city streets when the tire went flat.  We would never have known where to go or how to get to the place he bought the part.  He left his cedula card (Dominican ID card) with Scott so we would know he was legal and trustworthy.  It was just insane that he happened to be right there with everything he needed to fix our car just as we realized the tire was flat.
  Sister Lee and Naomi came for piano lessons.  We left to do two sessions at the temple.  Both sessions were very small with two women and two men (including us!) and the next three men and three women.

11/25/2012

 Was to tired last night to blog so have a tiny bit of catching up to do.  Saturday is pretty much a study and lesson day for us.  Did get a few loads of washing and some cooking done also.  Washing here takes constant attention as the only thing it does automatically is spin around.  Other than that you have to turn on the water to fill the wash tub, pull the clothes apart from the knot they get in  so they will get some what clean, drain the tub, fill it up again to rinse, rinse the clothes by hand, drain the tub, put the clothes in the spinner, set spin timer then when done get them out and find places to hang them to dry.  So you have to be right there! Then you hope it is not so humid that they won't dry.  But other than that I am grateful to not be scrubbing clothes on a rock in the street as we have seen others do. 
   We went out to Hainamosa for lessons to find a ward activity in the room we have lessons in and the tables we normally use filled with homemade crafts.  They certainly were having fun!  We found some tables and went back to the Relief Society room and actually had a good lesson.  Maybe we should teach in the smaller room all of the time.  Elder Esplin was there.  He really thought he would be transferred but wasn't - I personally am glad he is still there.  He's doing an awesome job there.  They have another baptism next week so I will see him again when I play for the baptism.  Jose, one of our music students and the Young Men's president in his ward was the bouncer guarding the door because all of the neighborhood kids come in to play and get refreshments whether they are LDS or not.  They swarm in the courtyard to play basketball, baseball, and just have room to run around.  The naked man was between the two sides of the road - I can't imagine why someone hasn't either turned him into the police or found him some clothes!  He was there yesterday when we passed there too but you would think no one ever noticed he is totally (almost) naked.  He does have some  kind of a thing tied around his waist but no lower than that.  BIZARRE!

  Sunday morning we left to pick up the kids at 8:30.  We keep wondering if we are doing the right thing by taking them without their parents but once we get them in the car we realize they need the affection and attention we give them.  Perhaps they will remember as they grow older something that will make them want to change the way they are living.  Maybe not....When we got there a neighbor/extended family member was ready to come with us but Alta Gracia's kids weren't there.
Oglidia came out with the kids to tell us they hadn't had water for 11 days and they might be getting a little today.  Sure enough, as we came back there was water running down the little channel they have on one side of the street and the kids were throwing it at each other with buckets while others were trying to catch what they could and were washing off the street.  On one side of the street, which is barely wide enough for one car, there was a three foot wide and deep hole where they were trying to fix the pipe.  Needless to say, it was a  pretty harrowing drive for me - not Scott- he loves driving in scary places!

Carlos, Gregory, Maria AltaGracia, Alta Gracia Maria, Eliana, Cati

   On the way they were working on this building  - Scott says it was a Latin American cement pump.

On the ground level they mixed the cement by hand then with a shovel they threw it up to the next level of the scaffolding (?), then those men would do the same thing up to the next level, then those on top would take their shovels and throw if over to where the man on top was standing and he would put it inside to make the floor for another level.  And we think it is hard work when we have cement poured and we just have to help smooth it out!
 We dropped the kids off at home and drove back to our apartment to get some lunch and the books and table we usually put in the back seat but have to leave at home so the kids will have somewhere to sit.  Grabbed them and left for San Crystolbol.  It is such a pretty drive there.

Both sides of the road are covered by trees and climbing vines.  They even have mountains up here!!

This was the  Canastica Ward's first day with the keyboards and you would have thought someone had given them a million dollars.  They were grinning from ear to ear! It was such fun to see their excitement.  This is a big class though, we need to round up three or four more tecladas. (Notice all of the men)



It seemed that we barely got everything set up and it was time to take them all down and head out to Oriental.  They made our high counselor, who had been so good to help us, a bishop so we're on our own.  We did decide to have a recital to give the students something to work for so we'll see how that goes..... Sarah,one of my favorite students who speaks English, was very sick with the flu today.  She came anyway which probably wasn't the best choice.  I volunteered my husband to take her home but her parents were both at the church.  She wanted to stay where her mother was because "she just felt better being where she was".  I thought that was sweet coming from an 18 year old or any age for that matter.

11/23/2012

  Black Friday was peaceful in our apartment!  I spent the day studying and working on the music program. It has been such a cool day here - probably in the low eighties but it feels cool compared to what it usually is. We haven't even used the air conditioner.
  They posted the lottery winners across the street in the tienda which has brought about a flurry of activity with people checking their numbers.  Still no dominos 24/7!  Got to love that...
   We are coming up on the nine month mark.  That is half of our mission and we still have so much to do!  What a learning opportunity this has been. 

11/22/2012 Thanksgiving

  I must be one of the most blessed women on earth! To have an amazing husband that is such a great example to me and takes such good care of me over in this foreign land, to have been able to be a mother on this earth to ten terrific kids with ten great son and daughter in laws, to have twenty nine super grandchildren - and to know if we didn't have the gospel in our lives, none of these things would be lasting.  To have wonderful friends that are such great examples to me of how I should live my life is such a blessing.  We had six of our best senior missionary friends to dinner today for Thanksgiving.  How blessed we have been on this mission to live and work among such good people.

Elder Leavitt and Elder Despain

Despains, Yturraldies and Sister Leavitt

Sister Leavitt and Sister Despain

Elder Yturralde lecturing Scott

Sister Despain and Sister Yturraldie

The Leavitts, the Yturraldies, and the Despains are wonderful friends!  We all pledged not to long for home but to enjoy the day - and we did...  And once again I realize that if it weren't for the gospel we would never have gotten to know these people.   Elder Yturralde and Scott are so funny.  They constantly give each other a bad time-in the picture above Elder Yturralde was lecturing Scott on the art of doing dishes!  The Leavitts and the Despains are temple missionaries so they live in the Casa.  Of course the Yturraldes keep us company in this never dull apartment complex. 
   I am so grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of LatterDay Saints.  It is the tie that can bind us all together eternally if we choose to live it's principles.