Young Women in the US and in the DR

Nancy and Morgan are going off to camp with the Young Women on June 30th. I have had a chance to be involved in their camp experience this year. Each ward in their stake was asked to represent a foreign country and come to camp prepared to share something of that country. Nancy suggested to me that their Utah YW write letters to YW here in the Dominican Republic so they could share information and perhaps begin a correspondence. Nancy sent 23 letters written by the YW in their ward. I found 23 YW here in the DR who wrote letters in return. There have been some mishaps. Two letters sent to Cotuí and San Francisco de Marcorís reached the Young Women and I spoke with each of them on the phone but their return letters have not yet reached me. There is no regular mail delivery service here in this country. The church has it's own system but apparently we didn't use it correctly. Cindy (Cotuí) and Maria (San Francisco) now have Nancy's email address and perhaps they will connect with their pen pals in American Fork. I do know that Nancy has lots of letters that have reached her along with some souvenier type stuff to display in their cabins at camp. The beauty of this exchange has been the sharing of favorite Young Women Values and testimonies as well as favorite foods and leisure activities. The girls here were so happy to learn about real girls their own ages in a country far away and find that they had many things in common. The girls in both countries wrote of love for their families and the importance of their friends and the faith they have in Jesus Christ and the security of knowing we have a prophet who can guide us in the choices we make in our lives. The girls in Utah definitely had more exotic Mutual activities (I'm still guessing what human foosball is and I didn't even try to describe an activity called "Where's Waldo") but both groups loved having fun at Mutual with friends who supported them in their efforts to live good lives. The girls from Utah stapled a photo to their letters so it would be more personal. Here are a few of the photos I took here and sent to Utah.

This is the group of girls that attended the Nizao Branch the first day I visited. Their names are: Loly, Sonyara, Yacairi, Milinia, Stefani, Maileisy, Marlene and Sarali.

More girls wanted to particpate.

I took a photo of Kiari the next time we visited.

I suspect the Mutual activities of the Nizao branch are more simple than some of the activities in the American Fork ward but I'm sure they accomplish the same purpose.

They told me that they do have activities almost every week. Perhaps they sometimes meet in this cool gazebo in the center of town or they could always go to the beach! It is never too cold here.

I don't know if there is a beach with sand nearby but the ocean is very close to their town. I didn't get to go and see because we had another meeting to attend both Sundays.


Hopefully we can go back again and see more. We did arrive a bit early and I took these photos of houses all on the same street that the church is on. There is quite a variety of houses here on the same street in Nizao. No CC&R's or California cookie-cutter subdivisions here.

Before we leave Nizao I wanted to show you the little boys who burst out of the building when the meetings were over. I wanted a photo of the building and they wanted their picture taken and everyone had to see it on the camera. Made me feel right at home. Aren't they cute!

And here is a photo of a beautiful little girl. Someday soon she will be a Young Woman too.

Young Women from our own ward, the Piantini Ward, participated in the letter writing project. Our Young Women's president used to visit her grandmother in New Jersey every summer when she was a child so she speaks English well. She has been a big help and has emailed Nancy. Our ward only has five Young Women. Sister Lin Briceño wishes she had more. Here are photos of a couple of them. Each of the letters from the Piantini Ward were written in English with the help of a couple of other members who are also bilingual. The girls wanted to be sure that their American friends could understand them well.

Sister Briceño also arranged for me to go to another ward in our stake. The Quisqueya Ward only has five girls as well but they were eager to receive and write letters too. Here are a couple of photos from their Mutual activity. In our stake, Independencia, it seems that Mutual is on Thursday nights. I translated the Utah letters into Spanish so the girls could read them. Nancy used a fill in the blanks format and that helped the girls here to know what to write about too. I'm so glad she included a place for a testimony, favorite scripture and favorite YW value. The girls enjoyed reading those entries and discussed their favorites as well.

Sister Briceño came as well as two of the girls from our ward. They are sisters and one has her hand on her sister´s shoulder in front of her. One girl had to leave before we took this photo but you can see Lin Briceño, Carolina before the sisters Natalia and Beatriz, another Carolina, Patricia, Angela de la Rosa who wrote a letter to Morgan, Sister Pilades Martinez, the YW president and Madeline, the first counselor.

Thank you Nancy and Morgan for the opportunity to get acquainted with some wonderful Young Women and learn a bit more about the Dominican Republic as well. Please let us know about your experiences at camp.

Montecristi, Dominican Republic

Last weekend we went to Montecristi which is about as far away as we can get in this country. We left Santo Domingo on the Duarte Highway and went to the end. It is a nice big highway between Santo Domingo and Santiago (the second largest city in the country) and then it gets smaller and smaller and peters out in a small unpaved residential street and just ends. The end of Montecristi is the end of the road.

This cute little girl is playing in front of the open door of her house. Her Mom was watching and came out when I took her photo from the car. I smiled and waved and so did she.

Montecristi is an old city. Columbus was here more than once and for a time Montecristi was an important city. There are several very old buildings but they were not made of stone so they do not date back to the beginning. There is definitely a sense of history here though. This building looked like it had historical interest but many are old wooden buildings that remind me of downtown Melba. They may be old, but torn down and replaced would be an improvement.

The reason we were here was to train the District President and Branch Presidents about the Perpetual Education Fund. And to hold a fireside with the Young Adults to tell them about the opportunity to get help in planning their future; choosing a career and finding out what is needed to prepare for that career and obtaining a loan to pay for schooling, if needed. The three branches are quite a distance from each other. The District President lives in Dajabon so he gathered up the people from his area and they all came to Montecristi. Grandpa is a good teacher and everyone learned a lot and was excited about the opportunities that might be in reach. Here are two photos of the Young Adults looking up scriptures to identify the guiding principles of the PEF program. The District President is in the back with the blue notebook. The people are so friendly and patient with my Spanish. It is a pleasure to get acquainted with them.

We also drove down San Fernando Road to the beach. There was a narrow dirt road right by the shore and we drove down to see what was there. It was about a mile long with houses facing the ocean. One big nice house had a sculpture in front. I think the sculpture must have been a homemade project. But how fun it is to live on the beach with your own sculpture in front of your gate? The rest of the houses ranged from tiny cottages to shacks to large block houses. They are just a narrow dirt road away from the water. One of the members told us that they have much less severe storms in Montecristi than in other parts of the island. I hope they move further inland if there is a big storm.

Grandpa picked up some shells for me. We enjoyed our trip to Montecristi. The only thing we did not like was the mosquitoes. I still have angry red blotches. I guess I am alergic to the bites. But they don't itch any more and all is well. One of the houses along the beach had cows in the front yard. They were happily munching the grass. I didn't know some cows have floppy ears.

When we drove down San Fernando Road to see the ocean we found another end of the road experience. I'm glad we were driving during the daytime:

“People are the most important things; families are the most important people.”

I like this quote. We are away from our family. We are working with people and helping them to improve their lives. We look forward to returning to be with our family again. Meanwhile, email and photos and phone calls keep us close.

We love you,

Grandma P