The new missionaries arrived last night!

The CCM emptied out on Tuesday but filled back up again on Thursday. The North Americans arrived on two separate flights, about 4:30 and 9:30pm. Thers are 45 of them, three are sisters. Our Haitian contingent flew directly to Santo Doningo (45 minute flight) and arrived about 7 pm. We greeted each group and helped get them a sandwich dinner, much of the staff had the day off. I was able to speak a little French and also had a good time with the arriving gringos, they were in the MTC in Provo with us, as they spend 3 weeks there. Now they will have 6 weeks here;  three weeks with the Haitians and the second three with the Latinos. I believe all Haitian missionaries serve in Haiti, I know all that come here do. We have 10 Elders and 2 Sisters in this group. So a round of "la bomba" and vaccinations will begin again!!


Posted by Dad at 2:29 PM

Can you first week be routine?

We have been here only 7 days, I feel like I have learned a lot and done enough for it to have been longer. We have been well and good in our apartment so far.  We have a TV but didn't try it out until Wednesday, we get a few channels in English, mostly news but we get some ESPN too.  BYU international is usually on but sometimes they have Provo and English.  We should get conference real time on BYU.  On Thursday our cable quit working, maybe related to our bill being due, we will see what happens with that, it is no great loss but we will need some movie DVD's.

Food stores have pretty much anything we are used too, we haven't tried a restaurant yet but they are reported to be good.  This is Cindy with our dinner on Thursday:





Red beans and rice with lots of fruit.  We are going to try and eat better (especially me) and see if we can walk ourselves into better shape. We have great pineapples and mangoes, the watermelon looked good but the taste didn't match. 

I have the job of screening the medical aspects of missionary applications from the Caribbean Area.  I have many from the DR and Haiti, but sometimes I have to look at the map for St. Kitts or Guadaloupe. This picture show Cindy helping me screen the applications yesterday afternoon. 

We have been tired and generally have slept well at night.  We are very secure in the Temple compound. 

We have taken morning walks in different directions from the Temple, we have been along the south edge of the island to the Caribbean Sea,  We have been back to the grocery store  on foot, it was a hot walk back with our loads.

Our spanish studies continue, we have a long way to go.  I would like to speak better so the missionaries can tell me their problems better.  I usually have a translator but not always, These Hermanas from Guatemala had very little English and no one was around to translate, so we used the dictionary and worked our way through the history.

Sr Garcia and Sr. Velasquez with Hermana Shaver

The Temple grounds are beautiful, neatly trimmed and very green now with the frequent rains.  We like to walk around the grounds.  Soon we will start working in the Temple, we will have two shifts a week.  One will be all Spanish and the second will be on Thursday morning when the Elders attend the Temple, so we will help with the English speakers. 



The door to the Temple and adjacent stained glass our very beautiful.

All in all we are off to an exciting start, glad to be working and learning what we need to do.

Read the instructions

Most things are a little different, shopping, driving and such.  The street signs aren't very visible and billboards, store names and traffic signs all let you know- you are a stranger here.  I look forward to when they will be familiar and moving about will be more relaxed.  I can tell from the veterans that it will never be like driving at home.

I have been looking up medicines, names are generally close enough to be recognized but it can be tricky, what sounds familiar is sometimes not.  I was just changing the toilet paper roll, I had to read the instructions, which are in English, to use a little tool to push in a spring to release the spindle.  Familiarity and the usual way of doing daily things are an under appreciated comfort.

Our apartment

Our apartment is very nice, it is not small, has A/C and the water is good.  Life is good!!  My clinic is good too, I have a fridge for vaccinations, an examining table, lots of storage for supplies and a computer desk.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Carribean Area Medical Advisers and the Area Mental Health Advisers, the McDermids.

Our living room, nice.

Our bedroom

Our open closet and bathroom doorway.

Our clinic desk area.

Clinic entrance and refrigerator.

In the beginning

We had our first Sunday and our first workday on Monday. Sunday we attended meetingsin the CCM with los Hermanos y Hermanas.  Sacrament is in Spanish with District meeting (Sunday School) in English for us.  Priesthood was in English too.  Sunday afternoon I had my first medical work, one Elder needed his PPD for Tuberculosis, I had to put it on so I could read it before he left to his mission on Tuesday morning.  Sunday evening we had a fireside in the CCM with Pres and Sr. Hernandez from the East mission, ice cream after that too.  Pres. Hernandez used written slides to teach attributes of Christ that would bless the Elderson in their missions.  I could read most of the slides but the spoken Spanish is still too hard for me, not enough vocabulary yet.

Monday we had a regular work day just like the olden days, Cindy did laundry and I had clinic in the morning and las vacunes (vaccinations) in the afternoon.  The CCM usually has about 50 Elders, and 8 or 10 Sisters training.  About 40 of the Elders are norte americanos and 10 are Latin, or on alternating cycles, Haitian.  The Norte americanos have had their vaccinations before they get here as they are three weeks in Provo CCM before they come here.  The Latins and Haitians have many of their vaccinations ahead of time but some need to finish them up.  We have Elders from the DR, Mexico, Paraguay, and Honduras that I know of, on this cycle.

After vaccinations we had time for a trip to Price Smart, a Costco-like store.  We rode with the McDermids, stalwart Canadians from BC, we will get our own car soon.  I am a little leery of the driving. The traffic is busy, roads bumpy,  and defensive driving is needed.  We are learning the main streets and should be able to survive with what we know now, we could actually walk to the grocery store. Last night we had FHE with the Senior couples.  We had a slideshow of one couple's mission in French Polynesia.  Tahiti and Moorea looked beautiful. Afterward I had an injured finger to check, volleyball did it.  Then we had ice cream again.

This morning is transfer day for the missions and for the CCM, Missionaries were up early and so was I.  I wanted to see them off and I had that 48 hr PPD to read too.  The Elders  and Sisters are excited to be off and working in the field.  The Senior couples that work the mission offices are working hard to arrange transfers with luggage, new apartments, etc.  The new missionaries are going to one of the three Dominican missions or Puerto Rico.  There were also 14 new missionaries that came from the CCM in Provo, there wasn't room in our CCM for them to come here for their training.




The elders closets taken from the outside hallway.




There are four bunk beds in each room for the Elders.




The luggage divided in piles for each mission to pick up. 




Santo Domingo Temple this morning.



Santo Domingo!!!

We had an uneventful flight to the Dominican Republic on Friday, we arrived about 10:00 pm.  We were met at the airport by the Area Presidency's exec secretary and the two Area Mental Health Advisers.  We didn't have any questions at customs.  Our apartment is on the Temple complex, on the third floor of Temple housing and the CCM, missionary training center.  It is perfect and is attached to my Clinica, where I will see sick Elders and give vaccinations.



Cindy is standing out side the door to our buidling.




Many families and one couple just married.



Modern art in old Colonial Santo Domingo



An early governor in the Colonial town square. 

 Today, Saturday, is a holiday so the Temple and grounds are very busy. We had a short tour and went to the Cambio to get some cash to go grocery shopping at Nacional.  The market was big and modern, so no problemo.  Tonight there is a Relief Society broadcast so the old guys are watching Pirates of the Caribbean IV and having Pizza Hut. 

Finishing the MTC saga

Old Icelandic sagas are long, that was all right because the winter nights were long and there wasn't the internet yet.  Our second week story could be long too, but we've moved on.  Our second week in the MTC was busy and went quickly.  We had medical related training in Salt Lake City, at the MTC and in Draper for computer set up and review.  The driving time made for early starts and late finishes, we had Spanish tutors from 6-8pm most nights.  Elder Russell M Nelson came for our Tuesday Devotional.

Eric, Laura and the kids took us to the Creamery on Monday night after Spanish tutor.



Walking near the conference center to the Church office building in Salt Lake.




Our day started before the young Elder's were upto eat.



Cindy with the Whitings (Fiji) and the Torgersons (Idaho Falls to Colombia Cali Mission.

No idle hands here

Sunday was incredible in the MTC.  We had sacrament with an international branch here to learn English.  A mixed group sang a wonderful rendition of How Great Thou Art.  I spoke with two Elders from the Dominican Republic there too.  As an aside I have met a few Elders with connections to our past here: I spoke with an Elder from Paradise UT, he went to seminary with Anna Thatcher, the daughter of some friends we have there.  Today we finally ran into Elder Thompson, from Eagle and our Wards, Eighth and Beacon Light.  He is well and heading out next Monday.

After Sacrament we went to Music and the Spoken Word broadcast to our auditorium.  Then I had priesthood with Elders heading to the Phillipines (Tagalog). Cindy had RS and then welcome fireside for new sisters, our first, and last, Sunday in the MTC.  We then had a Departure Fireside since we are leaving this week on Friday.  The special musical numbers are outstanding here, incredible talent and spirit.

Today we went to Salt Lake for training in the Church office building Missionary department.  Some was necessary but the afternoon was a painful dirge of irrelevant material, relating to North American medical advisors, not to me.  I thought it was only me but when we were headed back in our van all of the group was disgusted.  We did make it back for dinner but were late for Spanish tutor. 

Finally, at 8 pm we met Laura, Eric and kids for Creamery ice cream.  It is fun to have one last chance to see the kids, it turns out Laura will have to make one trip back because we have some things to give her that we are jettisoning to lighten our suitcases.  The rest of this week is Medical and computer training and then Friday morning we are off.

Espanol

Last night as part of Spanish class we had a testimony meeting for all of the Senior missionaries studying languages.  So we had French, Fijian, Indonesian, Russian and Spanish.  Most couples and Sisters knew their language assignment at home and started with tutors and online support when they received their call.  Our call only mentioned English so I studied Spanish a bit but not with anxious engagement.  On Sunday when we were set apart, the day we were leaving for the MTC, Pres. Stafford read off from his papers that we were Spanish speaking...We asked him to stopped teasing us but he showed us the papers.  Sure enough, Spanish speaking. 

So we signed up for tutoring here, we'll have six nights of classes.  It is very fun and we are learning some, we wrote out our testimonies for the meeting and read them.  Our teacher said we did well and a native speaker said something like "I could understand that, but you have another week right?"

End of First week in the MTC

Today we took some pictures because people from our group are starting to leave.  Those that are Member and Leader Support(proselyting) missionaries only need one week to learn Preach My Gospel.  So we are done with that and next week we do our medical related training.  We will drive to SLC for most of that.  There are several nurses but only me for Medical Advisor.

Cindy and I with our teacher Bro. David Pine, and Elder and Sr. Pemberton, from Washington.  They will serve in California at a Liahona camp in the Redwoods. 

Cindy and I will head to Hispaniola for the Domenican Republic.

Elder and Sr. Smith, they will be heading to Alabama Birmingham mission.  They live in Middleton, ID.

MTC life

Our week is fairly busy, Preach My Gospel training and beginning Spanish.  Young missionaries start right off using their language to study.  We do our teaching lessons in English and have our language separately.  We want to learn Spanish but do not need it to perform as Area Medical advisor. 

Today we started with the alarm at 6:15 am.  We had small group (District) Preach my gospel until 11:30, then ate Lunch.  At 12:20 we met again for our T time, practice teaching to volunteers in the Training Center.  You are observed teaching with cameras so you can be evaluated.  More stressful than it should be, but everyone feels the same way.  Ours went all right today, our investigator gave us a hard time but we didn't cry(some have in the past).  We did learn some weaknesses in our presentation and we need to learn the scriptures better.

After dinner we had spanish from 6-8 pm.  We have a good teacher, Bro. Miller from the Eagle 7th ward.  I think the introduction will set us up to learn the language before we get home.

All in all a great experience that I would recommend for anyone.

The MTC

So far it is every thing I expected, we have been studying and scurrying about to try and get ready.  Laura dropped us off on Monday with Amos, Maggie and Audrey.  We were directed to our room in the Jacob Hamblin building, good for us because we enjoyed touring his home in St. George.  Then we went back with the Suburban with Laura and we had our goodbyes before entering the front door and disappearing for 1 1/2 years.  The kids didn't understand, of course, which helps.  We will miss the family time so much.

Inside we went to a processing room and started getting materials, picture badges, etc.  There are about fifty in our group so we were meeting people faster than we could remember.  There are several from Idaho and thirteen single sisters.  Several sisters are going into a pilot to be Women's Auxillary support specialists.

This week is Preach my Gospel training and intro to Spanish at night.  Next week we will do the medical computer and AMA specific training in Salt Lake.  We are tired at night but that is a good tired. 

Maggie couldn't resist the beautiful flowers.





This is our room, very adequate.  One couple we met here has been staying here for five weeks waiting for a visa to Spain.  They haven't had anything to do the last two weeks.



The roller-coaster starts down soon

We are ready to go, though not really sure about that.  When you don't know what to expect I guess you should expect the best. 

An image off of yahoo.

 Except for a minor bump in humidity it looks like we will be adjusted to the temperature.  I am anxious to get my training, fill in some mental holes and get on to work.