The Mission Call

 
Very excited to receive our mission call on Feb 27, 2015 to the Santo Domingo West Dominican Republic Mission.serving from August 31, 2015 to February 28, 2017.

In April 2015, we received a call from Elder Kent Rappelye and Elder Luis Santana, the outgoing and incoming Church Education Director for the Caribbean Area.  They and Sister Rappleye wanted to meet us while they were in Salt Lake City attending April General Conference.  We had dinner together at Olive Garden in Layton.  It was a delightful evening.  Elder Rappelye said that he was being transferred from the Dominican Republic to Long Island, New York and that Elder Santana would be taking his place in June 2015--a few months before we arrived in the DR.  We were nervous but also very excited to meet our new director.  Elder Santana said that he too was nervous and excited about his new position.  They told us about the DR and what we would be doing.  When explaining that we couldn't speak Spanish very well and that we were quite unsettled about what we were getting into, Elder Rappelye comforted us by saying, "Elder and Sister Park, you will be ok...you were born for this work."  This was the first time Elder Santana had been to the U.S.   What amazing people,  They are so much fun and enthusiastic about the work of the Lord.

   

Missionary Training Center Monday, August 31,2015

What a surreal experience it was to enter the Missionary Training Center as a missionary! We've been there a few times to take our boys and to buy supplies, but this was awesome!

The first thing we did was find our friend, Lidia Ovallas from the Dominican Republic. It was fun to meet her in person as we had been Skyping with her for a couple of months as study buddies. She came to the MTC at the same time as us to come to SLC as a Family History missionary.

We then signed in and got our tags. My first missionary tag. That was cool.

Meeting Caribbean Area Presidency

President  Claudio Zivic (First Counselor); President Devn Cornish (President); Hermana Park; Elder Park; President Hugo Martinez (Second Counselor).  All members of the Caribbean Area Presidency are members of the Quorum of the Seventy.  Yesterday, September 26, 2015, we met with the Area Presidency to become acquainted.  Elder Martinez will be our ecclesiastical leader.  Can't wait to have an interview.  They left the next day for Salt Lake City to attend General Conference and spend some time with family in the States.  They said they were taking the picture so we could prove that we really are  on a mission.   What a blessing to be with special men!

Nine Days in the DR

Sunday, September 20, 2015
   Well, we've been in la Republican Dominica for una semana y dos dias. (One week and 2 days)
We have never been so busy in our lives! We arrived around midnight on Thursday the 11th of September. We got to our apartment and into bed about 2am. The Jensens (the couple that we replaced) picked us up at 9:00 am to show us around. We met the area president, Pesident Cornish, and a zillion other people in the area office. We went to visit our Funval class. They are a class of 19 young men learning English and skills to work in a call center at $11.00 per hour. That is a very, very good wage here. All but one of these young men are returned missionaries. They have strong testimonies and are very motivated. Four of them are married and three of those have children. Some of them live a distance away and stay at Funval for the whole week and only go home for the weekends. The course is 4 months long, but they get periodic interviews and if they get a job earlier, they leave Funval. Funval stands for "fundamental values". It is funded by a wealthy electric company owner in California. The only requirement is to be a returned missionary and they have to take institute, which we provide. They are an amazing group of young men. We love them already.
   We then went to the institute where we met the two directors, Jhon (not misspelled) and Oscar. We stayed there until about 11:00pm. That evening there was an institute activity. It was a dance. They gave the Jensens a gift and everyone cried. They introduced us and we said hello. The jovenes (young adults) sang. Then the dance began. It started at 7:00 but it kept growing. When we left there was probably 300 kids there. Apparently it grew to around 400. Luis Santana and his wife, Diana Carolina took us home early because we were exhausted. Luis is the area CES coordinator. His area is all 26 Carribean countries. They are a really cute couple. Carolina is in our Pathway class.
   On Sunday, we went about 50 miles out of town to a place called Azua to do a Pathway presentation. They have much interest but no one to lead the group. We will pray that they can find someone before next semester. To bring an opportunity for a college degree to these young ( and older) people is such a blessing.
   Since then, it's been much studying and preparation and teaching(my favorite part). I'll post more later, but for now. Adios mis amigos.

In the beginning....

Hola amigos!  Sorry we're so slow. We've never been busier. We love this crazy place!  I haven't driven yet. Partly because I don't know if I'm brave enough and partly because I've lost my glasses. (That's actually just an excuse because policemen don't really enforce any laws. They just join in the chaos.) If you're on a motor bike you have free reign. You can even drive against traffic! It's a lot like bumper cars. We decided to laugh about it because if you don't, you'll have a heart attack from stress.
We're teaching in three different environments:
1. at the institute Randy teaches English and I'm teaching History of the Church;
2. at FUNVAL (Fundamental Values) we're each teaching a Book of Mormon class ;
3. we also are both teaching Jesus Christ and the Everlasting Gospel and mentoring a Pathway class.

FUNVAL Class that we teach every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.

FUNVAL is funded by a California millionaire who wants to "give back" or share his wealth. We have 19 young men learning to work in a call center. It's a very good wage for here. They're American companies so they pay $11.00 per hr. That's four times or more than jobs pay here. They have 2 requirements to be in FUNVAL. They must be LDS and must speak English.

Pathway is a "path" to get you back into college or to get you started through BYUI. It's an online 1 year full credit course that's offered at a large discount. 1 class per quarter. They're worth 5 credits each. They have to meet or "gather" every Thursday.  They are required to take institute. We teach the institute classes and then facilitate the gathering. It's 3 hrs every Thursday. It's a great opportunity for anyone who would like to go to college but has to work full time and/or can't get to a campus. When they graduate from Pathway with a "B" average they can go straight into BYUI Online or transfer to other colleges such as BYU.

WELL, that's what our mission is. We will also recruit in the future.

We love the people. They are kind and loving. It's amazing how fast you can love someone.

I've bored you all enough. Just wanted to give you some background.