Temple Wedding

We were thrilled to be invited to our Pathway student Ricardo Rodriguez de Jesus sealing this past week.  Ricardo and Etleva met while they were both serving as missionaries in London, England.

She is from Albania and lives in Orem, Utah with her parents and 19 year-old sister.  It was a gorgeous sunny day--a good day to be married and everything was perfect.  The Santo Domingo Temple is amazingly beautiful.

In the temple ceremony, President Flake, the temple president, said, "...isn't it wonderful to think about a church and the Gospel that brings together two people from unique cultures and creates an eternal family."  Only a small group of friends attended so we felt particularly honored to be invited to participate.  It was a beautiful, simple and spiritual ceremony.

Etleva's parents attended and we watched them as they embraced their new son-in-law.  Her father, with tears,  emotionally whispered to Ricardo as they embraced, "The Lord has sent me a son!"   We are so proud of Ricardo.   He is a special young man and it is a joy for us to teach him and help him with his education.

 

Tournaments

In early December, I finished directing a ping, pong, fussball (fubolito) and dominoes tournament at the Institute.  About a month previous, I decided to have some fun and get to know a rather large group of young men who would hang

Jancer, Nelson, Esmerlin, Jose

out in the multi-purpose room and play ping pong, futbolito and dominoes,  How about a tournament I thought?

Julian Rodriguez -Winner Ping Pong

So with the approval of the Institute Director, Jhon Lopez, I wrote an announcement and sign-up sheet in Spanish, posted it on the bulletin board and with lots of enthusiasm, we began.  I said this will be a "play for fun" tournament, but not so.  I soon found out that that they take this seriously.  The winners would receive a large pizza and two movie tickets.  Wow how I was impressed at their motivation for a pizza!!

It was a lot of fun with some pretty intense games with a lot of people watching the action and some good-hearted Dominican trash talkin'.  The winner for ping pong was Julian Rodriquez.  He didn't lose a match. He is good!

For dominoes (the Dominican second favorite sport after baseball) and "futbolito"(little football or fussball), these are team sports.

Dr. Esmerlin (yes a doctor) Ramirez and Wirmin "Gambao" Ramirez won the dominoes tournament.

Amazing! to watch them slap and slam the table with their domino pieces each time they make a play.

Dr. Esmelin Ramirez and Wirmin Ramirez
Winners Dominoes

Their cousins, Nelson and Jancer Ramirez won the futbolito tournament. 

 Other major participants were Jhon Lopez and Elder Park, Rene Alcantara, Maximo Garcia, Luis Luciano, Gionny Ramirez and Jose Delio

Nelson and Jancer Ramirez Winners Futbolito

"Futbolito"

During one of my first dominoes matches, I realized there were three Dominicans looking over my shoulder at my pieces and trying to coach me.  They could tell quickly I didn't know strategy and what I was doing (I still don't).  I didn't know how to "slap the table" with my domino piece so right there I was at a hugh disadvantage; a dead give away that no one wanted Elder Park as their partner.  They smiled, were kind and helpful so I didn't look too un-Dominican!  It was so much fun!

Rene, Julian, Jancer

Organizing the tournaments turned out to be a good experience.  I was able to make some new friends and open doors of communication. I was particularly impressed with Esmelin that he shared his winning pizza with the losers and that he paused for a group prayer to bless the pizza.  Touched me!  I have new respect for Esmelin Ramirez--my new friend! Randy

¡Prospero Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year!

We just arrived home from Puerto Plata where we spent three days with 16 other missionaries. Wow! I had no idea how beautiful this country is! Santo Domingo is just another big city. Para when you go 25-30 miles north you start to see the amazingly beautiful tropical paradise that it is. Some areas are so dense, that it gets dark driving through.
We rented two houses and Randy and I stayed in one with just one other couple. We had an amazing view of the ocean from our bedroom balcony.

View from our rental house

Each couple bought food for one meal and the maids cooked for us. Some wanted to cook themselves. We snorkeled, hiked, went to Ocean World (like Sea World), Monkey Jungle, and Parque Nacional La Isabela ( National Park.)  We took the gondola to the highest point of Puerto Plata, Pico Isabel de Torres. There we enjoyed a replica of the statue of Christ the Redeemer that is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was a great weekend with awesome friends.

Christ the Redeemer Puerto Plata

One of the highlights was attending the Puerto Plata Oeste Ward on Sunday morning. One of the first people to greet me was a young man that I had met at the National Park the day before. He is serving in Santiago as an Elder's Quorum President and was vacationing in Puerta Plata also. He gave me a big hug and said "Good to see you again!"  After sacrament meeting, he said,"I'll see you at the temple". These young people are so dedicated. They go to the temple all the time. The ward members here are very strong and grounded in the gospel. We were there on fast Sunday, so we're able to enjoy the spirit of their beautiful testimonies. One man who was a new member or investigator came with his tie in hand and a young Elder tied it for him before the meeting began. He later stood and bore his testimony. It was so powerful! The sister who taught Gospel Doctrine was knowledgeable and confident. I didn't understand a lot of it, but what a powerful spirit was in that classroom.

She challenged everyone to read the complete Book of Mormon another time in 2016, studying by topics.

It's so impressive to me how the Spirit teaches through language barriers. I hope I can always feel the Spirit so that I can learn all that God has for me. I have so much to learn, I often wonder why I'm teaching. I guess it's partly because when you teach, you learn more than your students.  How I love the people here.  As we were leaving I noticed a mother with her four children who drove out of the church parking lot on her "moto."  A motorcycle is a very popular, inexpensive form of transportation here in the DR.    they are everywhere!How about the phrase, "a family that rides together, stays together."


On Tuesday, December 29th we were invited to have dinner at the Diaz's for a second time. The first was a month or so ago at the request of their son, Jose. This time Jose was out of town and it was us and his parents and two younger sisters. They are such good people. Jose Luis and Margo are their names. They told us that they like our company (so kind of them). He is a caterer and a good one. I love his food!

Their son, Jose (Luis) is waiting for a mission call. I think they are excited and a little nervous to see him go. His Mom wants him to go somewhere where he can be humbled. She says, "Africa". I think he will be humbled wherever he goes. They do well and have a nice life.  They are humble in nature though and I really love them.  Both have started their own businesses. His is catering and hers is an online business.
Peggy