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.