Hurricane Sandy and our Tropical adventure

Hurricane Sandy brushed past west of us except for a lot of rain and wind.  We were scheduled to present at the Caribbean Area Mission President's training on Thursday, held east of us in la Romana at a resort called Casa de Campo.  The resort is beautiful, as we were there last year and enjoyed a couple of very nice days.  This year however we were confronted with a very dark and rainy day, I even called to be sure we should drive out there, as I was afraid the roads would be flooded.  They said come ahead.

Before we left,  we had picked up the Merino's and Spencer Andersen, who was going to spend the weekend out there with his parents.  We got around the corner a few blocks from home and there was about a foot and a half of water in the road;  thought about finding a different way but decided to go for it. We made it through fine, the rest of the water wasn't as deep, but was still interesting as we were cruising along the highway and would wander into a few inches of water. I had a lot of fun, though the other were a bit worried. The sea and trees were roiled up and doing a mad  dance in the wind. I got soaked getting the car parked, even with an umbrella, pretty cold once I got into the air conditioning.

Our presentation and interaction at lunch went well, nothing dramatic. We did get a nice picture of the Savior with Mary and Martha to remember the day by.  Our drive back yesterday was mild, a little intermittent drizzle and no water in the road.

Today we went to Pricesmart to get new tires and groceries. The sky was not too dark when we left but got very black and windy while we were there. Mega lightning and rain.  We saw some good puddles in the road on our way home.  We also saw our first Christmas decoration and creche for sale.  So Merry Christmas to all.

Highway Las Americas, heading toward the airport along the

 

Caribbean

Raining hard, fooled my photographer.

Wind, rain and fire in our hearts.

More windy palms.

In our split to do medical with the Mission President's wives, the Mission Medical officers. l-r, Srs Alvarado, Mehr, Hendricks, Zivic,Cornish, Andersen,Zwick (SLC), Rodriguez,Glazier, Shaver, Bien Aime, Cuenot.

 

 

These next pictures are from today in the capital, at Pricesmart and driving back.

PriceSmart downspouts, really close lightning

 while I waited.

 

Calle Penson, getting close to the Temple.

Christmas is celebrated for a long time here.

Maybe we'll be able to have a creche in the US again someday.

They are calling this storm "Frankenstorm" in the US media because as it heads north it is meeting a cold front and should make an interesting mess in the northeast of the US. It is hard to believe it will have any rain left after all it dumped here. Good luck in Delaware, Andrew and Leah.