Dominican Baseball

We did it!  Our two week wait was finally over!  We went to heaven! We attended our first Dominican baseball game.  I must admit that this experience far exceeded my expectation for entertainment and excitement. About four miles from our apartment is the beautiful Estadio Quesqueya Jaun Marichal Baseball Stadium, the shared home of the two major baseball teams in Santo Domingo--the Licey Tigueres (Tigers) and the Escogido Liones (Lions).  The stadium is named for the former famous Dominican baseball player Juan Marichal, who pitched  for the San Francisco Giants when I was growing up in the 1960's. Right there, I was in heaven--Juan Marichal's stadium!  Three of our Funval students, Jaime Viscano, Andres Anderson and Miguel Perdomo, who are baseball crazies, said they would like to go to a game and would escort us to our first game providing us with all the inside commentary about Dominican baseball.  There was electricity in the air at game time that I haven't felt in baseball for awhile as the game between the Tigers (blue team) and Lions (red team) is a major rivalry here in the city and in the Dominican league.  Our friends Lynn and Richard Keisker--temple missionaries, our Spanish language tutors and directors of our senior missionary Christmas choir--love baseball and jumped at the chance to join in the fun.

Front L-R Miguel, Andres, Jaime.
Back L-R Richard, Lynn, Peggy, Randy

We bought baseball hats for the Tigers but Andres, who is an avid Lions fan, bought Peggy a red and black Lions cap as a gift. Peggy, being undecided about which team to support, instantly decided to join with Andres and support the Lions.  So all during the game, we all had this back and forth cheering and groaning thing going on every time one team would score or make a good/bad play over the other.  I have never seen such enthusiasm by the fans for baseball.  In the U.S. baseball is pretty mild.  Not here!  There were colored flags flying, a drum ensemble pounding out head-pounding, fast-paced rhythms, and Latin salsa music blasting during and between innings and pitching changes.

To top off the entertainment, the two funniest fat-bellied, dancing mascots--a lion and a tiger (the tiger looked like a chipmunk) The Loin was better and funnier, Peggy) put on a great show of their own.
Wow, when the mascots came out during the seventh inning stretch and had a dance and gymnastics "smack off," it was both entertaining and absolutely hilarious. The mascots made the crowd laugh and got both sides cheering and pumped up.

These guys are our boys! We love them so very much.
We missed Edison, who couldn't come.

The Tigers (Loud!) Drumming Team (top row)

This game reminded me of a BYU-Utah game.  Half the stadium was dressed in red and the other in blue.  Oh...the game. Well the Tigers scored first, then the Lions went ahead and then the Tigers tied it up in the 9th 4 to 4.  In the top of the 11 (yes extra innings!) the Lions scored the tie-breaker run on a very controversial call at home plate.  The umpire called the sliding Lions runner safe on a throw from the outfield.  Wow, talk about the blue team fans going crazy and screaming   "Matar al arbitro!!" or "kill the umpire" in Spanish along with a lot of other phrases that I both couldn't understand and was sure that I really didn't want to learn.  And the red team fans, were out of control jumping up and down, dancing the salsa, Merengue and Bachata all at the same time and screaming that they had just scored what would prove to be the winning run.  Talk about a playoff environment!  The umpire ejected the Tigueres manager after he politely commented on the state of the umpires eye sight which the ejection definitely helped to endear the fans to the ref!! The dejected Tigueres fans (including me) slowly filed out of the stadium (Peggy and Andres were having a giddy victory celebration) when we stopped to watch the instant replay that showed what appeared to be an obvious tag out by the catcher on the runner. (You can tell Randy is writing this, aye?) Not only ouch, but a BIG OUCH!  The umpires had to be escorted off the field by the a host of security guards for their protection.  The game was amazing!   It was so fun for Peggy and me to watch our Funval guys have so much fun being together. I don't think they can attend very many games.  They thanked us many times and you could really feel their appreciation.  Miguel said to Peggy, "I am going to miss you." Peggy gave him a hug and told him we will keep in touch with them. This was another special experience with our new life-long Dominican friends.
Lynn and Richard were thrilled to be there also.  Temple missionaries only have one van that they all have to share, so they are more limited to be able to go places. We really enjoyed having them with us.

 We love all of our new friends.

Randy (with Peggy's comments)

Santo Domingo Sites

Not far from where we live in downtown Santo Domingo is a national monument to Christopher Columbus.  We visited this cultural treasure recently and felt the spirit of this revered explorer.  The monument/museum is a massive concrete structure built in the shape of a cross and centered in a large park.

Inside, at the center of the cross is a statue of Christopher Columbus.   Along the museum corridors are small rooms displaying paintings, pottery, figurines and other cultural fine arts from most Central and South American countries and the U.S.

At night, white spotlights outline the cross and shine upward into the heavens. Impressive! It was fun to see the Peruvian room having visited Peru with our son David.  This was an educational fun day trip.

Several weeks ago, another cultural trip took us to the old Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo and to The Ozama Fortress, one of the first military fortresses in Spanish America that protected the port and major waterway to the island.

Upon entering the fort, visitors are greeted by a Darth-Vadar look-a-like, a statute to Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo--the historian who wrote the history of the Indies during the colonial times. We climbed the medieval castle built in 1503, marveled at the military architecture, brick designs, walls, guardhouse, powder house and the impressive line of old cannons used to defend the city.   We enjoyed this visit with our friends Kris and Steve Bentley from Orem, Utah, who are the area IT missionaries.  This site really took us back in time!

A week ago we visited the Tres Ojos (Three Eyes) cave in the Las Americas part of east Santo Domingo with our temple missionary friends Richard and Lynn Keisker from Providence, Utah.  Descending steeply on stone-carved stairs from the ground level into what felt like a rabbit hole, and holding tightly to handrails, this cave was a little like Timpanogos Cave with  delicate stalactites and many unique rock formations.

 Open to the sky in the middle of the cave allowed for sunshine and light, providing a stark backlight contrast to the caves darkness. There are three small grottos with crystal clear water surrounded by jungle-like foliage, hanging vines, and flowers.  Linking the three caves from the main cave area was a 25 peso (50 cents)Tom Sawyer-like raft ride across an interior pond. Relaxing leisurely fun riding the raft though the cave in the dark.

Climbing out of the hole in the ground near the exit are some very unique wood carved totem poles displaying religious characters and others.  I especially thought the carving of the women showing her unborn child in her womb was especially fascinating! We marveled at the uniqueness and impressiveness of this amazing national monument site.  As they say in the DR, "Super Chevere"  (Super Cool!)  Gorgeous place! We loved it.

Tried to get into the National Palace (Palacio Nacional) but it was closed on Saturday.  We stood outside and took some photos.  The President of the Dominican Republic resides here.


Check out the guards.  They love tourists!
We will have to come back during the week to get in.

Looking forward to a visit at another date.  Still impressive to walk the periphery and enjoy the beauty!  Randy

Amazing Grace

Hi everyone,

Today has been such an amazing blessing for Elder Park and myself (I call him that so I can practice. I'm always slipping up and saying, "Randy" in front of the students. They laugh, so esta bien (it's all good). They love me fortunately so they are patient with me.)

We had our first formal interview with Elder Martinez, our ecclesiastical leader here. He is an area seventy and also in the area presidency. He is a very special and spiritual man. He's also very funny.  He told us of his conversion and how it took him a while because he wasn't reading the Book of Mormon at first. He said his wife was ready from the first lesson, which was about "families being together forever." He talked of how he would have flash-back memories of his childhood, as the missionaries were teaching. He knew the memories were brought to his mind by the spirit to confirm the truths of the gospel. He talked about Guatemala, where he was a mission president, and the special spirit of the Lamanite people. We had a wonderful visit with him and came out refreshed and spiritually fed. He is a lovely man and I wanted to share my thoughts about him with you all. 

We had a little free time this morning and it was so nice to be together and not be studying. It's really new to be together so very much. Sometimes we don't appreciate what we have, but then we remember how blessed we are to be together and be doing what we're doing. It's really amazing!

We gave our sweet young amigo, Jose a broken table fan for his apartment. The fan part worked, but it had broken off of it's little stand. Tonight he brought me a picture of it. A neighbor was throwing his broken fan away and Jose asked him if he could have it. He took both fans apart and attached our fan to the stand of the neighbor's and make a better floor model than the original. The interesting part is that both fans were blue! It's a nice fan!  I love that he is so resourceful and appreciative and talented! The replacement fan we bought is not near as nice as his is. I told him that the Lord is blessing him and he agreed. How I love Jose. My hope is that he will join the church before I leave this country. It will take a lot of faith on his part because of his family situation. I know it will happen. I hope I can be here when it does. He is an amazing young man. 

Randy's English class was fun today. We played a game where everyone is assigned a number then you clap your hands, snap your fingers, clap again, then slap your thighs in rhythm as you say a number (while snapping fingers) that is assigned to someone else. Then that person has to say someone else's number when fingers are snapped again.  They laughed and laughed. We've played this type of game hundreds of times in school, YW, Scouts ...but they've never seen or played it, so it was awkward for them and very funny. A fun way to learn your numbers in a foreign language. They are amazingly happy and fun to be with.

One of our Funval students, Edison, stopped in to see us tonight. He's waiting for a call for a job. He told us that one of the other young men, Andres, in our group was ill. Elder Park called Andres and he was glad to hear from us. We are going to a Dominican baseball game with them this Saturday. We love these young men from our Funval group. They are Amazing young men with a lot of faith.

Last week in class we were talking about Alma 7 where Alma is teaching about the Savior suffering every kind of affliction for us. I asked them, "What would you say to someone who asked you, 'What has Jesus Christ done for me?'"

Jamie popped up with, "Sister Park, I want to tell you about a miracle that happened to the four of us just the other day. We had to go to an employment interview. None of us had any money and some guy gave us some money for a taxi. Just gave it to us without us asking because he was kind. When we all finished with the interview,the interviewer said to go to lunch and come back. We didn't have enough money to eat anything so we were just walking around. A man  on the street that had a fruit cart tried to sell us some of his fruit, but we told him, No thanks. We have no money, so he prepared fruit for all four of us at no charge. (That was amazing in and of itself, because the street vendors are pretty humble and can't really afford to give their food away.) Then we went back to the company and they hired two of us! After we left, we didn't know how we were going to get home. We only had 17 pesos (about $.37) The public car cost 25 pesos each. We were on the corner when a car stopped and we told him that we didn't have enough money to ride and the driver said, I'll take whatever you have, and took us all home for 17 pesos! That's what Jesus does for us. He cares about us.

I've never witnessed faith like these young people have. Miracles happen because the Lord cannot withhold from such great faith. And they know exactly where that miracle came from. How I stand all amazed! I cannot express this kind of love that I have for these young people.   

The Lord is definitely blessing us with His grace to be able to be here at this time with these amazing young people. How I love my Savior! I love watching His hand in these young peoples' lives and at the same time knowing that His hand is directing us as we interact and teach them. (They teach us so much more than we are even capable of teaching them)

I couldn't be here without His grace in my life. I am so grateful for His amazing grace! I love you all, Peggy  (I'll post some pictures tomorrow)

Two young men, two differentt stories

9 November, 2015, We just got home from our choir practice. We went out to Las Palmas, a Santo Domingo suburb, to a baptism earlier. 

Left to Right:  Peggy, Jhon Lopez Institute Director, Stephen Wallace, Oscar Amparo, Institute Director, Randy

It was difficult to find and we barely made it there on time. Stephen, the young man who was baptized, is a great  young man and he has many friends. This will make it easier for him as he settles into his ward. He sang with a choir made up of many of our institute students. He then sang a solo, I Know that My Redeemer Lives. He has a very nice voice. Both of our CES directors were there also. One of them is his Stake President. It was a very nice program.

After the baptism, we took two of the young men with us to the CCM (MTC) at the Temple property, where they joined us for our Christmas choir practice. The program that we are doing for four different branches is absolutely beautiful. Our director is the former director of the Utah State University Opera Co. It's all in Spanish, so not only do we have to read the new music, but also learn it in Spanish. I love it! Spanish is a very beautiful language. It's a whole different experience of the mission for us. It's nice to have the diversity.

Cassagnol asked us to come into the hall
so he could have a picture by the Savior

Last Saturday, 31 October, we attended another baptism . It was Cassagnol's.  He is a young man that the missionaries suggested that he take an institute class. He signed up for my Church History class. He is pretty quiet, but speaks English quite well. I talked to him each Thursday after class and as the baptism date approached, told him that we wanted to come. When we got there at shortly before 6:00, only the missionaries and one family of an eight year old candidate were there. We waited, and more people came, including Cassagnol. He grinned at us and came up to us to shake our hands. After he changed his clothes, we took some pictures and waited awhile. The six o'clock baptism began at 6:45-6:50. Elder Park and President Nukols (our Mission President) were the witnesses. There were two eight yr. olds baptized also.  Afterward, one of the families served cake, and then we took Cassagnol home. 

He is Haitian and has been in the DR for about five years going to college. He wants to be a doctor. He needs and is looking for work so we told him about Funval.  (the program that trains LDS young men to work in American Call Centers) He is now checking that out. He took their test and passed, but may not be able to get full-time work because he is on a student visa.  (I don't know how it all works)  
Anyway, on Sunday we went to his confirmation. It is a very small ward and he doesn't know anyone yet. We left after Sacrament meeting, and I'm sure he was fine but I couldn't help but think of the time I dropped off Dave alone at an Order of the Arrow camp. He looked so forlorn and alone. I felt awful for leaving him alone. I cried all the way home. That's how I felt last Sunday, but I knew he'd be okay, just as David was many years ago. On Monday, Randy emailed him the pictures we took at the baptism. Cassagnol wrote back:

 I'm really exited to see them again, it's like I'm living the moment again.Elder Park and sister Park, you are my new family. and thank you for your friendship. thanks a lot, Cassagnol

We love this young man, and are very happy to have him as our friend. I know that throu
gh obedience and prayer, he will  be a doctor one day and raise a family in the gospel. And.......he will have many new friends, Peggy