Some more lasts

We have had our last group of Haitian Elders in the CCM.  It is hard to raise the Spirit of the CCM, it is always filled with eager and ready to serve Hermanas and Elderes.  The Haitians bring a special joy to me, they are so grateful for the little things we do to help them.  For our last group, since I had noticed the absence of Church art in the apartments we visited in Haiti, I ordered some of the spiral bound Church art books from distribution.  They were very happy to have them, I hope the art will give them a greater vision of the events in Church history.

Sr. Formetus and Telcy

This week for home evening we gave our farewell testimony for our Family Home Evening group.  There were two new couples coming to be Temple missionaries and only us going home soon.  It is fun to think back on all of our experiences and think of all we have learned.  Cindy did all her talk in Spanish, we have learned many words but are far from functional.  We love serving the missionaries, I hope we have helped them stay active in the field and avoided some sick days.  We love learning the Temple worker routines, it should help keep our minds flexible, switching from language to language on the fly.

Yturralde, Reese's back,Sr. Casanova,Leavitts,Santana,Sr.Reese,Sr.Hyde,Sr,Bair, Merino, Ruckers

Kanangay, Malan, Hmna. Shaver

This week we are visiting the Santo Domingo West Mission zone conferences, next week we will do the East Mission.  These conferences are quarterly now, I feel blessed to see all the Elders and Sisters one more time. They are always happy to see me, and relive a war story or two.  I will miss the association with them and their leaders.

Shavers, Pres and Sr. Rodriguez, Merinos

Elder Aviles form Mexico

The Azua parking lot is painted like the Jazz home court.
Sometimes the Elders have a little extra time and energy.

Paperwork

I am lucky I have someone to help me with record checking and keeping. We do the vaccination review and complete the ones needed once the Elders and Sisters arrive at the CCM.  Mi companjera does the computer check and correlates with the tattered records brought from long ago childhood visits to the clinics.   Our time giving the shots is a lot of fun, after that the missionaries know who we are for sure.

The Malecon walks

We like to walk to the Malecon, the road that runs along the coast, and I have shown many pictures before from the Park and along the coast,  These pictures show a bit more of the way there and back.

Masons building a block wall. Glittery gold shirt on one
didn't photo very well.

Sometimes knowing how to relax is important.

This drain and related collapse was big enough to hide a small body.

Metro station, clean and safe looking, I missed the train in the picture
as it took off without warning me.

This time at the park there were surfers, ballplayers working out in the sand with their "agent/coach" and a guy repeatedly forcing his little dogs into the water, who know why?

East Mission Barbecues

One of our favorite activities is to go to the East Mission office when the Eickbush's, the marvelous office couple, are hosting a barbecue for a district or two.  The missionaries come on Monday p-day and play futbol or basketball, then they eat hamburgers and hot dogs with chips and a Klondike bar from Pricemart to top it off. I love to see the missionaries healthy and having fun, though I do usually talk to a few about health problems, I try to minimize that and have a break for a few hours.

A district hamming it up.

Josh and Liz visited in January

We had more company in January, we had a good time in Santo Domingo and also had some time in Bayhibe at the Catalonia resort.

Don Quixote night at the restaurant in Catalonia. 

Josh and Liz head out for a dive near shore. 

Josh and Rodger on diver's wreck.

Anchor and cannonball at wreck site from 1700's, Guadeloupe.

Cindy and Liz near Casa Reales in
 Zona Colonial

In our apartment with the Iverson's

Blogging drop out

I have had a blogging burn out or something, I have had things to post but haven't taken the time.  In the interest of my future ability to recall things, I am going to go back and post some pictures and type as much as I can.  These are from January 2013.

Elders and Sisters in the CCM like the Sunday night ice cream.

The Temple closes for cleaning for two weeks in January
This means the Casa housing also gets cleaned.

Elder Follette and Reid Cornish at recreation time.

Pres. Glazier's last Wednesday breakfast special.

As we are winding down I get to finish off some treats, this is
the last of the chocolate chips. 

Some things are ending in the garbage room, don't know
why I saved boxes, I am not taking anything home.

The old zoo next to the Temple grounds has been undergoing a re-birth.  They have trimmed trees, planted grass and generally opened things up very nicely. There are exercise machines that I have been trying to use regularly too. 

AMHAs the Merinos in front of some new plantings.

Some of the caves have recent carvings, some are pretty fun.