The House of the Lord in Santo Domingo

This week we attended the Santo Domingo Temple to complete endowment work. It was another spiritual experience.  I marvel at its beauty both on the exterior and interior.

Our session was conducted in French because the group we were with was from the French Caribbean island of Guadaloupe.  We had to wear the electronic translation equipment to hear English and the Dominican temple workers had to wear the same so they could understand what was being said in Spanish.  I couldn't help but have a tender feeling of unity and the brotherhood of Christ as three different cultures and people come together in faith to complete the work of the Lord.  At the end, Peggy and I sat together in the Celestial room pondering on our blessings and overcome by the Spirit of His work that WE were apart of.

The temple, located two blocks from our apartment in the heart of the city, is adjacent to a beautiful community park and numerous high rise apartments. From our fourth floor apartment, we look directly east to see the temple spire and Angel Moroni rising above the tree line framed by high rise apartment buildings. At night, the striking, pure white temple spire is a stark contrast against the dark sky making it easy to locate in the area.  Gorgeous! as most temple locations are.

Like our home in South Jordan, we are blessed to have the temple so close.  I want to testify that the Temple truly is the House of the Lord and by attending you can feel the most calming, comforting and joyous peace that only is possible through the Prince of Peace--the Lord Jesus Christ.  Randy

English Second Language

I have been having a special experience teaching English as a second language at the University Autonoma Santo Domingo (UASD) Institute.  There are 15-25 students who attend each Tuesday afternoon from 5:00-6:30pn.  I have a few returned missionaries who want to expand their English skills they learned from their USA missionary companions or from the Disney channel.  We laugh as I kid them that they learned Mickey Mouse English!!

Many students have never spoken English before, so the challenge at times is the range of abilities from zero English to those who can carry on a reasonable conversation.  The first thing I taught them was Saludos (Greetings) and how to pray in English.  Now into the 5th week, several students have given a basic prayer in English, can greet you and say a few phrases.  I tell them in Spanish, "Excellent-Excellente or Perfect-Perfecto"  They are so proud.  We learn the alphabet, vocabulary words and watch many pronunciation videos downloaded from the internet, write short sentences, and speak etc.   The latest technique to teach vocabulary and pronunciation is singing.  We sing church hymns and fun English songs.  Their favorite song so far is Old MacDonald Had a Farm E-I-E-I-O.  They love to insert words into the spaces, "...an on this farm he had a ____"  They also like the song B-I-N-G-O and BINGO was his name-o.  Great spirit and great students.  What is rewarding is they come up to you in the hallway during the week and speak English.  A huge grin comes when they realize they are learning. Sister Park and I also ask them to teach us and help us with our Spanish pronunciation and vocabulary.  It works both ways!  This is another special experience helping young people to be successful in life.  Knowing English will help them get better jobs.  Peggy and I feel blessed beyond our understanding!  Randy

Who Would Have Thought It?

Who would have thought that 43 years ago, sitting on a swing on my front porch with Randy, that I would be here, in the DR today fulfilling a dream that he promised me that night? Time flies so very quickly. For my grandchildren: there is no time to waste with frivolous things. time passes quickly and you must prepare now for your futures.
Before we were married, we decided we would serve a mission together. The Lord has blessed us with good health and the opportunity to achieve that goal. Now I realize what a great responsibility that is. We love the young adults in Santo Domingo! We can't let them down. We need to be good examples of happiness and love of God and each other. Sometimes I feel that I'm not up to this task. Teaching them the Gospel and all that that entails. I need the spirit to be with me and sometimes I don't feel worthy of it.
 I know that my Savior is aware of my weaknesses and I know He can make weak things strong. I also know that the "Spirit" can teach where I lack.

This past week in my Church History Class we were talking about agency, and a young man that is not-yet baptized asked a question that took a lot more explaining than we had time for in class. I answered the best and shortest way I could at the moment. After class Elder Park gave him some scriptures to read and they talked for just a minute. I have thought about this a lot and I hope he understood and that he read the scriptures Randy gave to him. It's bothered me since Thursday that I didn't answer him adequately, but today I realized that Heavenly Father is aware of my inadequacy and this young man will be taught by the spirit. I  know that part of that teaching was fulfilled by my wonderful companion, Elder Park after class. This young man's name is Cassagnol and he is being baptized on Saturday. We are excited to have him in Randy's English class and my Church History class.  Peggy.

FunVal (Fundamental Values)

Each Tuesday and Wednesday, Peggy and I teach LDS young men (who are returned missionaries) an Institute class in the Book of Mormon in English. They are required to take Institute as part of a job training program to work in a call center for companies such as Direct TV, Convergys, etc. This training program called Fundamental Values or Funval is in the Dominican Republic, Peru, Guatamala and Equador.

 
In addition, for the last 20 minutes of our 60 minute class on Wednesday, I teach them about the USA and American culture.  They will be talking to Americans in their work so their Funval supervisor wanted me to tell the young men about the USA culture.  They love hearing about baseball in the US.  Peggy showed them a recent video of our grandson Jackson blasting a double into left field at his little league game.  The Dominicans were impressed! especially Jaime who is a baseball crazy!  Baseball is the Dominican Republic national pastime.  We talk the regions of the USA, the individual states and cities, Utah, holidays such as Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas etc.   We teach in a three-story old office building in East Santo Domingo in a dimly lit room that sometimes (many times) is a little dark and hot after one of the frequent power outages takes out what light there is.  However, the light in their eyes, their love of the Lord, the knowledge of the scriptures, and the conviction in their hearts that Jesus is the Christ their Savior, makes the room glow.  It is powerful!  Wow, we really do stand all amazed!  Peggy is a good teacher.  She really touches their hearts with her testimony and her love for these guys.  You can't help but fall in love with them when they welcome us into their classroom each week.

 
Each week the number of students in the class is getting smaller as they are getting hired and moving into on-the-job training.  These jobs give them the skills necessary to lift them up economically and allow them to support themselves and their family.  We saying goodbye to a few each week.   We will soon say hello to a new class of young men who I'm sure will be just as amazing. In the mean time we hope to keep in touch with this our first group.  We have grown to love Alberto, Emanuel, Carlos, Jose, Miguel, Jaime, Edison, Anderson, Ruben, Cruz, Jack, Santiago, Victorino, Enmanuel, Daniel and Basilio.

The Field is White

This morning Elder Park and I attended a sealing in the Santo Domingo Temple.  One of our students in Pathway was sealed to her husband of one day. They were married yesterday.

Doriann's Father, Doriann, Carlos, Carlos' Mother

 President Flake (Temple President) performed the ceremony. I'm so glad that we have done many sealings in the Jordan River Temple because of course, it was in Spanish. It was awesome to listen to and know what was being said. We also knew many of the words he used as he counseled them. She looked so radiant and truly happy.  Her name is Doriann Garcia, now de Martinez (de for of) adding his paternal last name. There are many other names in there somewhere also. She was Garcia, now she is Garcia de Martinez. She and her husband Carlos both teach at the CCM (which is the MTC here). It was a privilege to be invited and to be at a ceremony of one we love.
We saw so many of our young students working in the temple. They are amazing young adults. I am continually impressed and overjoyed with them.
 On Wednesday of this week a young woman walked into the Institute and asked how she could register for a class. I showed her the schedule and how to register online. She spoke some English so I told her about my class. On Thursday she showed up and introduced herself as Astrid. My Institute class was about the growing young church and taking the gospel to the Lamanites. As the lesson progressed, I sensed that she was a non-member, which is always good but her eyes were a little glazed over. So after class I sat down and asked her if she was a member and she said, "No and this is the first time I've heard of Mormons."   I asked her how she came to be here and she said that a friend told her about the institute.  The friend was not a Mormon either.  I proceeded to tell her about Joseph Smith and the first vision and I bore my testimony. I asked her what faith she affiliated with and she told me she was a Catholic. I told her that through Joseph's vision, we have the knowledge that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are separate beings of flesh and bone and that the Holy ghost is part of the Godhead but is a being of spirit. I told her that I knew that was true and we talked about how in the new testament Jesus prayed to his Father. She just lit up and said, "That makes sense!"
We talked for a few minutes and I showed her how to get the manual for the class online. We then  walked into the student study room where I showed her the manuals that she could use at the institute. She said, "Is there someone I can talk more to and ask questions?"  (Talk about the golden contact!) I took her name and phone number and told her I'd call the missionaries and they would call her. I know she will embrace the gospel and I will pray for her. I can't believe how excited I have felt.
My office specialist said she would call but hadn't yet on Friday, so I talked to the Mission office secretary and she will call the missionaries on Monday. These are the kind of experiences we're having! It's so beyond real. The field is white and we are seeing the harvest with the young people in the Dominican Republic.
 My friend, Jose was meeting with the missionaries on Friday after we left the institute. I can't wait to talk to him on Tuesday and see how it went.
 











mtc

La Cocinera

Today has been a very busy but rewarding day. I know that the Lord has blessed me with an amazing love for the people here in the Republica Dominicana. They are so humble and loving. Moroni, our Institute Student Council President is such an an amazing young man. He is so organized and prepared. I really respect him. We had our planning meeting tonight and they (the council) have a great plan for the next four months. Except for one thing....they're planning on Hermana Park making lunch for their temple day. I've learned a very quick lesson. Never say "never". It's so true. I must have told 50 people "I'm not going to cook!" Ha, ha Peggy. Serves me right for being so headstrong.  Today one of my favorite young men and I made Rice Krispie squares for Institute Devotional. Last week we made cookies. Jose is one of our non member students. I love him so much. We're teaching each other our languages with the help of Google Translate. He is studying medicine at the University. He takes New Testament at the Institute.

I wanted you all to see how we get our best fruit. I took this picture from our fourth floor apartment looking down at the street where Elder Park is buying platanos (bananas) and an aguacate (avocado) from Ramon.  Every morning Ramon pushes his cart down the street calling "¡aguacates!"  These avocados are huge. We pay about $1.00 for one, which is about three times the size of a Haas avocado at home. They are more expensive in the store.
One of the other people in our lives is William. He is Haitian and i
s our security guard. Not a word of English  and is pretty muscular. He looks like he would just as soon kill you as look at you. When we say hello and smile he has a beautiful, big smile on that usually stern face. The other day Elder Park gave him a banana and that big smile appeared. You have to love these people!
P.S.  All of our FUNVAL students were hired this week.  They will all start their new jobs by Oct. 12.  They are so excited and we are excited for them but we will miss them.  This next week will be our last time teaching this group.  Te amamos todos, nuestros amigos! (We love you all, our friends)