18 December 2013

This coming Friday, the semester is over.  We were privileged to teach the following classes this past semester:  Prophets of the Church, Doctrine and Covenants, Book of Mormon, Choir, a Devotional with teachings from conference talks, and an investigator class.  On Friday, the Institute Choir is going to present a Christmas musical program.  Bonnie's choir has worked hard and she hopes they'll be ready!  It's been an uphill battle for sure.  All the Institute is invited, the local wards, and all the Missionaries can bring investigators and less actives.  We will try to find someone to record the whole program.







It is a joy to teach classes of the Scriptures.  And to get musical sound out of these Young Adults is nothing short of a miracle.



So sorry, but it was ME who took the picture of Sister P teaching and I guess my eyes were out of focus, but she is a wonderful teacher, touching the lives of many.

We have some time off after the semester ends.  We will be visiting missionaries, visiting sites, and being with some of the other senior couples, going to the temple, and preparing for the next semester.  Our director has already told us what we will be teaching:  Bonnie will teach music directing, chorus, and I will teach the four gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Doctrine and Covenants, and of course we will both be teaching a devotional again.  But all of these courses will be only eight weeks, or half the time of a normal semester.

We both are excited about the coming shortened semester, the classes we will be teaching, the opportunity of continuing to serve the Mission President, the full time missionaries and of course our journey home in a couple of months.

The other day we were down town, purchasing something and this dude came rushing up to us and said, "You need to come and see my store, across the street."  I told him we didn't have the time and were in a hurry.  He said,  "I will give you some free marijuana and a free cigar!!!"  It was tempting, but I refused.  Then he said,  "Come and get it and give it to your friends!"  Again, I had to be restrained, but did turn him down.  But free????

By the way, what is marijuana? 

13 December 2013

There have been many blessings coming from our year-long program of visiting children in the Dominican Republic to celebrate the birthdays of our grand children.  We were invited to a wedding.  I was able to baptize a young man.  We were invited to other activities coming from members who had children who had birthdays the same time  as our nietos. (grand kids!)

 Mayelin Altagracia Gonzales Aragones  is her name, that is a mouthful, but I did remember it until I said it in the baptism prayer.  Miracle.  Beyond that, I am old and forget oh, what's her name....  ;)


Well, last Saturday, I was blessed again to baptize another young girl turning eight.  We celebrated Ashley's birthday by presenting her  gifts, chocolate, and visits for her birthday.  It was a joy to do so.  When we were called to work in the Education System of the church, I really thought there would be no baptism opportunities, but I was mistaken.  I have had to borrow white baptism clothing each time.

What a joy it is to enter the waters of baptism and use my Priesthood to baptize these kids.

4 December 2013 A Visit from Missy and Jacob

Well, it's time to blog about our "excursion" with Missy and Jacob.  (Missionaries don't take vacations.)  My apologies for sending this the day after the first big snow in Utah.  It's not my intention to rub your noses in that cold, wet stuff....well...not much!




The arrival.  Oh my heart!  They looked so good.  There's 40 lbs. less of Jacob than when we left.  Nice, Jacob.  You look great!  And Missy's lost her baby Brigham weight.  You look superb as well!

 

 We took them to meet our angel friends, the Wegeners, from Sandy.

Arrival at Lifestyles Vacation (whoops...Excursion) Resort.  Couldn't wait to get our first piña colada (sin gasoline!)

Riding the shuttle...life is hard...  

 

Ooh yes, those chocolate and carmel drizzled crepes were this good!  Nice one, Missy! 

Sunset in Paradise...

Comfortable Grandpa?

Having fun...wish you were here!

We're really missionaries, we promise!

Our ocean therapy...just what the doctor ordered!

Check out that stud-muffin Jacob!

Missy and Jacob finding treasures as they snorkel.

Enjoying a little walk at Ocean World.  More of that to come in my next blog!

It really is paradise!

Don't work too hard having fun in the sun!

Jacob did work hard digging up these conchas in the sand in 3 feet of water.

These cute little guys (yes Bec, they are cute!) really do walk sideways.  I love their eyes!

To church in Puerto Plata.  A good Sabbath.

We did have to say goodbye to our Island Paradise...

 

Stark contrast...not far from the luxury resort, the reality of the poverty here hits you hard.

But the people are happy and content with their simple life.  What a beautiful setting.

On our way home...nearly collided head-on with a car passing in our lane...no where to go but into a ditch or over a big rock instead.  Destroyed the undercarriage of our car. 

While waiting for the tow truck, Miss and I took pictures of a lovely little neighborhood nearby.

Cute and yellow....very sunshiny!

All good things must come to an end...:(

The week flew by and now they fly....parting is sweet sorrow!

29 November 2013

Well, Thanksgiving came and went, and it was hard to even know it was here.  We taught our usual classes on Thursday, trying to imagine what turkey, pumkin pie, dressing, cranberry, and all that stuff tasted like.  (And my  mother's fruit cake, or was that Christmas?)

No one down here can even imagine what a BIG holiday it is in the states.  It was hard for Sister P and me to know that they had all gathered, or would today, to celebrate togetherness, and food, and play, and fun times, with all kids and grandkids.  But that is OK, we are where we are supposed to be.

Our Three-Some, the robbery, accident, and the lack of Internet is almost gone now.  We have a new computer (without the pictures and many other things), we have an alarm system put into our apartment, and a steel door, lockable, we have a loaner-car to get us around, and we fought the fight to get someone else to give us an Internet that would work so we could communicate with our family. All companies want an 18 month contract.  We just agreed to pay the penalty for ending that contract in only three months rather than 18.   But all is well now.  Thus there is no excuse for not blogging and letting everyone know what is going on.

We have our release date.  It is March 1.  During these holidays, it is hard to know we cannot be there with family, but three months is a short time, and when the time comes, it will be very, very difficult to leave these wonderful students, staff, missionaries, and this life, being a missionary couple.

21 November 2013

Sorry, there has been no blog posts for a few weeks.  I guess "busy" could be the reason, but there are others.  We continue to teach our classes, enjoying it immensely, and then....  We spent a delightful week with our daughter on the beach, enjoying the sun, the water, and the country.

Sister P will expound on that diversion, our week away.

Well, I get to blog about another "event."  We went to Puerto Plata.  About hour away, on a double lane highway, on a narrow road, much traffic, crazy Dominican drivers all over.  Well, we were coming home Sunday afternoon, driving about 50 MPH.

NOTE:  The Dominican drivers often strive to pass the slow moving vehicles, even with no space to do so and expect the oncoming traffic will get out of their way.  

We were minding our own business when one of those Dominican drivers decided to pass a slow moving vehicle, entering my lane, expecting me to do whatever was necessary to get out of his way to avoid a head-on collision.  I saw him enter my lane, coming straight for us, and I knew I had better do something, or "meet" him.  Didn't want to do that, so I quickly evaluated the side of the road.  On my right was a large ditch, which I didn't want to go into.  I had micro seconds to figure it out, so I decided I would drive as close to the ditch without going into it, trying to avoid this oncoming driver.  Then I saw TWO or THREE large boulders.

 This is what the under side of the car looked like.  That black thing was the "something" that held it all in, and now it wasn't.  There was oil all over the car, the street, the engine.  Nice huh?

Again, my choices were limited, to I decided I would try to take the least dangerous path and straddle the boulders.  I am sure it was the right decision, but wrong for the car.  We crashed up over the rocks, they broke into pieces, but before they did, they put a large hole in the oil pan, damaged the radiator, damaged the air conditioner, drained the transmission fluid, and threw oil all over everything, thus we started smoking as the oil burned on the hot engine.

I immediately pulled over.  Many locals came running over to see if all was OK.  We were, but the car probably had breathed it's last breath.  (We are still waiting to see if it is totaled or not.)  We called the President, he sent the assistants, and finally after four hours, had the car towed, and us returned to our apartment.  What a way to end a wonderful week.  But once again, Father is watching out for us.  We are car-less, depending on catching rides to the Institute, and depending on others, but we are healthy, fine and avoided something that could have been much worse.

Thanks for prayers, thoughts, and support from so many.

5 November 2013

I love my companion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning she climbed out of bed about 4:45, couldn't sleep.  When I got out about 6:15, she approached me with a huge smile on her face.  She said, "Yo estoy un idea brillante."  I started laughing so hard that I almost fell down.  As I contined to laugh, she asked why.  (It means, I am a brilliant idea.)  I explained it to her and she started to laugh also.  We needed that.  I remember many months ago that, if that would have happened she would have started to cry, lamenting the idea that she didn't remember the words correctly.  But she IS a brilliant idea, right?

Yesterday, we had a holiday, something to do with the government.  Well, no work. So we, as a staff of the institute had a BBQ, inside cause it was raining.  Of course I cooked for everyone, but that is another story.  Well, last night while I was cooking, Sister P was sitting eating her hamburger.  The husband of our secretary was being kind and took a glass of water to Sister P.  She took it and said, "Mucho Gusto" rather than "muchas gracias."  Again, I laughed and laughed.  Mucho Gusto is what you say when you meet someone, "pleased to meet you" or "much pleasure to make your acquaintance."   Once again my wonderful companion is past feeling depressed about not speaking Spanish perfectly, but enjoying being here, even with being brilliant and "gusto-ing." 

We are having a ball. 

24 October 2013

THINGS I MISS

Of course, leading the list has to be my family, kids, grand kids, of course they are all grand - and the events involving any of them.  But I have been thinking of other things:

I miss the privilege of paying tithing.  I miss filling out those slips, assigning my money to the tithing fund, knowing where my  little amount of tithing will go, knowing I can attend the temple, tithing being one of the requirements, giving it to the bishop or counselor.  That is a blessing that I have not had for over one year.

Of course with paying tithing, I also miss the privilege of paying an honest, "good" fast offering.  I know that the funds will go to those who are in need, more than I am.  I miss being involved in that effort of the church. I miss being involved with  my bishop, knowing him, giving him my support while he leads a ward.  

I miss being a part of a ward.  We are visiting wards each Sunday, thus visiting 25 differnt wards and branches throughout our mission.  Thus, we cannot be close to anyone, help, be taught by, motivated by, and enjoy the little chidren.  That is part of our mission, thus this is a blessing that we cannot have right now.

I miss home teaching.  Bishop, I have not home taught for over one year.  I have taught, but not home taught according to the teaching of our church.  I miss going into a home, getting to know and love those I visit monthly.  

I miss drivers who obey the rules, roads that don't have things sticking out of the holes in the center of the road, roads that have the man hole covers still in tact, rather than always having to avoid holes where they should be, fearing losing our car in one of them.  

I miss quiet.  Every night we have to sleep through pounding noises, dogs barking, car alarms going off, noised above us and below us, loud parties through all hours of the night, and roosters crowing all the time, day and night.  

I miss snow, cold, and the seasons, for we do not have them here.  What is that white stuff?