Mother's Day Program

This post is a way late but still wanted to talk about our fun Mother's Day dinner and program. Mother's Day here in the DR (May 29) is two weeks after the U.S. celebration.  A week previous to the big day,  I was asked to sing for the senior missionary Mother's Day Family Home Evening program.  I decided to have some fun and put together a barbershop quartet to sing a couple of good ol' oldies.  Just by chance, I brought my music binder on my mission and in it is the barbershop music "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" and "Heart of My Heart."

Paul Westover (Bariton), Jon Fuller (Bass), Steve Bentley (Lead)
 and Randy (Tenor) - "Chimi and the Chinolas"

With a little help from three other senior missionaries, Steve Bentley, Jon Fuller and Paul Westover--all by the way sing quite well-- and five rehearsals, I knew we could give everyone a special treat!.
Adding to the fun though, I played a little trick on the unsuspecting senior missionary audience by saying that my Dominican singing friends Bismark Brito, Alwin Nunez and Jose Rodriquez--which all the seniors missionaries know--were delayed on a public bus and were going to be way late.  Acting disappointed but hopeful,  I told everyone I have an idea...I will call on some volunteers from the audience and have them help me sing the two easy songs.  After some pretended unfamiliarity with the song and a few lines of off-key warm-up practice, we all broke into full volume with four part harmony and plenty of gusto!  The audience was pleasantly surprised and realized that had been lured into this delightful little ruse.  "I can't believe that you pulled people from the audience like that and you sounded so good" several commented.  We practiced five times previous to show time and pulled off a fun and enjoyable program.  Everyone laughed at our quartet name, "Chimi and the Chinolas" (the Chimi is the name for the famous Dominican hamburger and Chinola is the Dominican name for Passion Fruit. We had fun and provided a special tribute to our awesome wives and mothers! Randy

Valiente Branch Update

We continue to have memorable experiences at the Valiente Branch teaching English.  For the last several weeks there have been 240 students that come to the classes at the branch each Saturday morning.

We have eight classes being taught in English at several levels by senior missionaries, four young "Gringo" Elders and and a couple of local non-member friends of the branch president. We have been  working closely with the branch president and others to support this major effort.

Peggy is helping to teach the 8 to 14 year old class of  84 students.  It is huge but we don't have room to divide and make the class smaller.  They get creative in keeping the younger students interested with fun songs and fun games.

Randy has taken on a leadership role with training and providing the curriculum direction.  What is amazing is that when we arrive at the small branch building at 8:00am to prepare for the 9:00 classes, there are already about 30 students  inside the church waiting for this fun event.  They are excited!

With their notebooks and pencils in hand, they are ready to learn.

The teachers are:  Peggy, Sister Martinez, Sister McGuire and Miguelina (a non-member) in the young class, Jose Rosario (non-member) in the adult class, Elders Richardson, Frampton, Nelson and Mejia, Daniel Allred (BYU intern) and senior missionary Elder Martinez.

We attended a baptism of two young men. Their mother spoke and told of how she had been baptized and was active for four years before these two boys were born.

Elder Celaya, Jose, Mom, Leandro

Recently, as her boys began investigating the church because of the English program, the Relief Society sisters started to friendship her. She told of how much she had missed " the spirit" she had felt many years ago. A couple of weeks later, her two daughters were also baptized. We have a young couple that is investigating now.


The husband John has been coming to English class alone because she is struggling with morning sickness. They came into Santo Domingo with Elder Frampton and visited the temple. They will be baptized soon also.

Daniel Allred and John

Elder Frampton is a zone leader in the Valiente area. He also brought two recent convert, brothers, Domingo and Esterlin, into the city to see the temple on a follow-up lesson.

We had them to dinner and returned them back to Valiente that night. They are so humble. They had never been in a home like ours. It's humbling to realize we live very affluently compared to them who have so very little.

Each week, we have younger and younger students. A new little boy Eddy came Saturday, that can't be more than five.  He was so attentive. Peggy would kidnap him if she could.  We really love these people at Valiente.

They have been a big part of our lives, even though it's not part of our regular assignment.

Eddy (isn't he cute?)

We are grateful for the opportunity to be with them every Saturday.

Elder Frampton, Daniel Allred, Esterlin and Domingo

Funval Graduation

On Saturday evening, June 25, we attended the graduation ceremony of our Fundamental Values (Funval) class.  There were 20 young men that completed the training program to work in telephone call centers.  Most of the young men have now acquired jobs.

FunVal Class "The Boys"  Graduates!

When we arrived at the National Library where the ceremony was held, we were escorted to the front of the auditorium to sit with the temple president, President and Sister Flake. We could feel the Lord's Spirit as we entered the auditorium. Our students were part of the 100-plus LDS young men who had graduated from the four-month training program.  We were excited to watch the five different training groups file into the auditorium in their graduation black caps and gowns with colored-collars representing their specific training program.  As the graduates were concluding their rehearsal, David Clark, the founder, and one of the key note speakers, came up to us, introduced himself and expressed how grateful he was for our contribution to teach the young men the Book of Mormon institute class which is a requirement of the English speaking  part of the Funval program.

President Gary and Janet Flake, Temple President

We want to give you a little background on David Clark before going on.  He is the son of the founder of FUNVAL (who has now passed away) from San Diego, CA. and is a very successful and wealthy business man. After serving a mission in Latin America, David Clark Sr. wanted to "give something back" to Latin America so he started Funval.  He created the foundation that annually funds a job training program in customer service, electricity, air conditioning and communication systems in four Latin America countries: Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Equador and Peru.

After being touched as everyone in the auditorium sang the Dominican National Anthem, we listened to inspiring messages by the Funval directors,

David Clark, Founder FunVal Program

David Clark and  Elder Claudio Zivic, 1st Counselor in the Caribbean Area Presidency, We then watched our students file across the stage to receive their diplomas. We stood, giving these young men that we have come to love a standing ovation.  We are so proud of them.

Peggy was so humbled when she walked out of the auditorium and all of the guys applauded and cheered. They love us for just being us. It's so amazing when you feel such an unconditional love as this!

Julio Aquino

One of our students and a special friend of Peggy's from when we first got here, Julio Aquino, who still hadn't received a job when the semester ended, came up to Peggy and exclaimed, "Sister Park, I got a job!...and they paid me!" 

We were so excited for him.  We laughed and hugged him.  We then  took pictures with  the guys--"our boys." and met their families.  It was an amazing night. We feel so strongly that this is an inspired program which lifts people from poverty and gives them opportunities to progress and be self reliant.
Peggy and Randy

Times of the "Butterfly"

On a recent trip to San Francisco de Marcoris, we took advantage of an opportunity to visit the home and museum of the Maribel sisters.

Maribal Sisters - Martyrs

These four sisters are national heroines here in the Dominican Republic being very instrumental in the overthrow of the famous dictator Trujillo in 1962. The "sister's" home and national museum is located in Salcedo, about two miles from San Francisco de Marcoris in north central Dominican Republic.   They are recognized in the national history as heroines and martyrs, after they stood out in the fight against Trujillo's regime in the years 1930-1961.  Also known as "Las Mariposas" (The Butterflies), Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa were brutally assassinated on Trujillo's order, in November 1960, while on their way to Puerto Plata to visit their husbands who were in prison.

 This was a very sobering and memorable experience as we learned about this black mark in DR history.  But it made us proud that these strong ladies stood up for the importance of freedom, bringing about the downfall of an evil dictator and the eventual reality of a democratic, free Dominican Republic.

In downtown Santo Domingo, a 100 foot high obelisk monument--the shape of the Washington Monument in D.C. and located on Avenida George Washington-- stands to the celebrate the Maribel sisters.  We came home from this trip and watch the movie "Times of the Butterflies" on You Tube.   As we present one of the lessons in our Book of Mormon class about religious freedom, many of our students say their grandparents lived during the Trujillo days and

Anti-Trujillo Freedom Fighters.  

have passed down the stories of Trujillo and the the importance of maintaining freedom. Their words touch my heart and make me thankful for the blessings we have in the U.S.  Randy