Traveling and Teaching

We have had an interesting and fun month traveling and teaching. Because of the challenges of driving here, we get a hotel if the drive home takes longer than an hour of darkness. Most hotels make us glad to get home but we have stayed at the Mariott Courtyard in Santiago and felt very pampered indeed. Usually we try to have a training meeting before a fireside. If the location is far from Santo Domingo we try to pack in as much as we can. That way we can train the Priesthood leaders and the Employment/PEF Specialists and also meet with the Young Adults for which the program was created. We have every weekend booked until half way through July and a lot of week nights as well.

We are impressed with the spirituality maturity of so many of the members here. The Church has only been here for 30 years and there are 18 stakes plus 7 districts in 3 missions in the Dominican Republic. The gospel has been in the Canary Islands for about the same amount of time and there is not yet one stake. Most of the people who live in this country are believers in Jesus Christ and not ashamed of it. I am amazed at the signs on the cars and busses and hand painted everywhere proclaiming their love for Jesus Christ. In our country we would seldom be so open about our religious beliefs. This sign on an overpass reminds drivers to "love thy neighbor as thyself" to avoid accidents.

We are teaching the Priesthood leaders how to "seek" out the youth who are ambitious, worthy and needy, "train" them in principles of self-sufficiency and "sustain" them as they struggle to go to school, work, attend institute, care for their families and serve in the church. There are (or will be) employment specialists in every stake and district who provide the same type of services as the employment office in Boise, for example. These specialists also now have the responsibility to contact every PEF participant every month and record those contacts along with helpful information about the students in the worldwide computer system online. It works great--when everyone understands how, has access to a computer with internet and carries out their job perfectly. Since no one is perfect we will have plenty to occupy our time while we are here. And we have the rest of the Caribbean to get more involved with too. We have the help of some other CES missionaries in Jamaica and in Trinidad and Tobago that we are training by email and phone. Haiti is a challenge because we can't talk with people who speak only French or Creole and there are no senior missionaries. We will open Guyana (they speak English) as soon as the finance people can make arrangments with a bank in that country to accept the payments. Puerto Rico will probably be next. It is exciting.

This woman is Nora Cruz. She is a judge and she wears these robes when she sits on the bench. I wish I was taller and you could see the purple puffy ball on the top of her hat that matches the stripes on her cuffs. We had an appointment with her in her office in the courthouse to train her in her PEF responsibilities because she is the District employment specialist. She is a sharp lady and so humble and anxious to help others. She bore her testimony to us that the Lord blesses her family when she spends time serving others. She also teaches the Career Workshop which we took in Boise before we came on our mission. It is a great course and everyone who wants to get employment or improve their employment or learn more about their talents and interests should take it. It is open to non-members as well. The PEF applicants take that course and another one called Planning for Success before they complete their application for a loan.

Another thing we are doing is meeting with the returning missionaries to teach them about PEF so they know that they can go to school and become prepared to get a good job that will support their future families and still allow them time to serve as leaders in the church and community. In developing countries where church membership is growing quickly it is very challenging to find people who have the time to serve in leadership positions. There is no retirement system here and most people must work as long as they live. It is difficult to find people who can serve as workers in the temple or are able to serve as senior missionaries.

We met a brand new couple last night while doing our laundry at the "Casa de Huespeds" (guest house) at the temple. They had been here for only 18 hours and found upon arrival that their mission has been completely changed. They left the MTC thinking that they would be on a proselyting mission in the West Mission. When they got here they were told they would be office missionaries in the East Mission. They seemed to be reeling a bit from more than lack of sleep...but they will be just fine. It seems we always want to know the path ahead of us but apparently the Lord doesn't always think that is important. We just keep moving forward, as wisely as we know how, but trusting that the Lord who can see everything will eventually get us to where we most want to go.

Meanwhile, life here and now is pretty great. We went to Puerto Plata and discovered it is a lovely resort town with a beautiful beach. We look forward to an opportunity to go back.