What is Routine?

Hello everyone. Our lives here seem to be filled with the routine, except when it's not, and that is most of the time. But routine does fill in the blanks. This week we sent an unwilling missionary home, spent some time with some sick missionaries in the hospital, taught our first English class, and became a young missionary for awhile. We did manage to find the local zoo on p-day also.

One of our missionaries from Jamaica was scheduled to go home with the last missionary group in June. Since his residency card was valid until the 17th of July he convinced President Nuckols to let him stay a few more weeks. Neither of his Parents are members and none of his 25 siblings are members. None of them cared if he came home or not. He really was going home to nothing. He's a bright young man who wants to be a doctor but has zero support. His plane left at 10:00 Monday morning. The plan was for the Assistants to pick him up at his apartment Sunday night at 9:30 (the time missionaries should be home) and then bring him to the Mission Home where he would spend his final night as a missionary. No one could get a hold of him by phone so at 10:30 the Assistants went to his home. He or his companion was not there. still no answer on his phone. at 11:30 they returned to their home. President Santos was furious. The assistants waited as he packed as slowly as he could. By the time they got to the mission home it was 1:30 am. I was supposed to take him to the airport at 6:30. To make a long story short, after several hours of interviews and talking to his Stake President at home they go to bed at 3:30. When i showed up to take him to the airport President Santos was there. He wanted to go with us to MAKE SURE he got on the plane. We dropped him off at the security gait and waited about an hour before we felt it was safe to return. President Santos should an amazing amount of love and compassion for a young man who really needs to face the rest of his life. He has all the tolls to succeed but very little support.

The week President Santos continued his Zone Conferences and interviews in the homes of the missionaries. However this week required a road trip. I went to the zone conference held about 2 hours away and became Elder Romero's companion for the week. While President and Hermana Santos and the other assistants stayed to do interviews, we returned to Santo Domingo to hold things down on this end. Having Elder Romero as a companion meant 24 hours as a companion. We had plenty to do in the office as well as I got to go help him teach. He is from Mexico and is a great teacher. He speaks slowly and deliberately and I can mostly understand him. IN the three discussions we taught we extended invitations for baptism for two of them. Both accepted and have dates they are working towards in August. I think it was mostly due to my testimonies and prayers I was able to offer. It was really a treat to teach and testify of things I love and know.

While President was out of town Hermana Borup and I and the Buhlers watched over the sick. We spent quite a bit of time going back and forth the the hospital with food and support. The conditions are not the best but in general things are clean. The missionaries that we were most concerned with had very high white blood counts and probably had pneumonia. They were released after being in the hospital for 5 days. They are now at the Mission home.

We managed to get away for a short time to visit the Zoo here in Santo Domingo. It's is a small zoo but very clean and the animals seem well taken care of. We decided that it should be on the list of things to do when visiting Santo Domingo.

We started teaching an English class in our Branch in Nizau. We had 4 students, 2 Primary kids, 1 young man and a Sister. We had to have it at 5:30 because of the scheduled power outage at 6:30. This week we will have it again but can have it at 7:00. We hope the later time will allow more people to attend.

Hermana Borup and I have started daily Spanish lessons with some new members that live close to us. Both have lived in the US and have very good English (I'm not sure that is a blessing to us). We are very good and getting Spanish teachers to speak to us in English. But this has been a good help for us. Each week we feel like we can understand more and more. But progress is slow. The phone is the worst. However, I had a Breakthrough this week. I called the local Colmado(store) and ordered some refills for our water. IN the past this has been a giant fail. This time I understood him and he understood me and the water showed up 5 minutes later. It just hit me that kma means que mas? What else? Spanish has the letter "S" Dominican DOES NOT. This is a big problem for us that are learning. Line upon line I guess.

The highlight of the week was that we had our English teachers, their daughter, and his mother and her teenage daughter over for dinner and a missionary discussion. The Mother was one of the ones that accepted a date for baptism. The lesson was on the Book of Mormon. The miracle of this work is that anyone believes it. We tell them fantastic things like God and Christ visited a young boy, and then an angel gave him some gold plates that contained a history of an ancient people that were visited by Christ and then later John the Baptist and Peter James and John came to Joseph and restored the Priesthood. It sounds crazy but its true. The only way anyone can believe this is through the Holy Ghost. This sister before she started the discussions said she had 2 questions. Who is Joseph Smith and is the Catholic church wrong? (she is Catholic) Elder Romero said let us teach you and then you can answer those questions. When he finished teaching the Restoration to her he said what do you think she said "I think it's true and that my church is wrong." He said we want you to pray about it. She answered I will but I don't need to I already know the answer.

The work continues and we continue to work at it.

Your friends

Hermana and Elder Borup