Emily and Edgar and Evan are coming to visit on the 31st of July. We wanted to check out another beach and found this one in Guyacanes. Looks pretty good, don't you think? This is on a Saturday afternoon so I expect we won't find it crowded. Lewis bought a plastic bucket and shovel for Evan at the dollar store. I think Grandpa is excited too.I wanted to share with you an email from Nadine Brown in Jamaica. She wrote: "Thanks for your interest in how I have been doing having benefited from the PEF Programme. I should let you know that after completing my studies, I was promoted to the position of Research Manager at the Social Development Commission. That has been a great blessing in my life and I have learnt a lot. Today I had to make a presentation to a number of stakeholders including two Consultants from the European Union for the United Kingdom working on a project here in Jamaica. They were very impressed with the presentation I made but I know, had it not been for the PEF programme which allowed me to further my studies, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit it would not have been possible. I remember feeling nervous about the presentation and just before going up, I said a prayer in my heart asking Heavenly Father to help me through it and he did. I think the greatest encouragement I would give to persons on the PEF programme now, would be to serve in the church, be worthy of the Holy Spirit and Heavenly Father will bless you in your studies. He did it for me. Thanks again for writing and taking an interest in us as former students." Isn't that a great message?I asked Nadine for a photo of herself and received a photo that is in a word document that does not upload, so you miss her photo.
I do have a photo of a girl in curlers I want to share in an effort to preserve culture.
This is Sandra and she came to a Saturday afternoon fireside in her rollers. I only want to preserve the memory, not the practice. I used to sleep in rollers this size when I was a teenager. We didn't have colorful plastic ones in those days. I used brush rollers. They were made of a wire spiral covered with brown plastic mesh fabric. Inside was a length of brush like a baby bottle brush. The tips of the brush stuck out of the mesh a little bit to help hold the hair in place around the roller. None of it was comfortable to sleep on. But no price was too high to have the popular "flip". There were no hand held dryers. If you wanted to dry your hair more rapidly than overnight we had hatbox sized hair dryers that had a hose attached to a big plastic shower cap. You had to sit next to the noisy machine with the puffy hat circulating warm air through the curlers until your hair was dry. It was a great opportunity to read though. We didn't have curling irons either. They were obsolete objects from my grandmothers day. She used to heat curling irons on a stove to make the marcel waves popular in the 1920's.We are still traveling to all of the Stakes and Districts in the Dominican Republic. We only have one more district to go to finish the circuit but the Area PEF Committee wants us to continue. We will call all of the Stake and District Presidents again and offer to come and train their priesthood leaders and/or hold another fireside. We have talked with a lot of people but there are even more who missed our first round. We will offer them a second chance to hear our message and provide this opportunity for their young adults. We enjoy traveling because we usually listen to a book on the Ipod Danny gave us. We are enjoying the novels of Orson Scott Card. We also see many interesting sights. Here are a couple from our trip to San Juan in the interior of the western part of the country.
We saw a man plowing with oxen. He had a long whip that he would crack over their heads to give encouragement. When he got to the end of the row it was difficult to get everything turned around but he finally managed. Grandpa stopped so I could get this photo.
This is the pretty gazebo in the main plaza in the center of town. There is also a very pretty church and some colorful spiral sculptures.
On the way back I saw chickens hanging from a car in front of us. I thought to myself, "I guess if you don't have a truck to carry dead chickens, you hang them on the outside of your car." But, when we pulled around to pass, one of the chickens squawked and I realized that they were live chickens. Not comfortable but very much alive.
One more thing I learned last week. MariLuz is a cute young blonde lady from Columbia who has been volunteering in the Employment Office while she looked for a job here in Santo Domingo. She told us this morning that she has found her new job! She is very happy and excited. When she went for her second interview the boss asked her what she had been doing to look for work. She explained that she went to her church's employment office and had been working there as a volunteer during her search. He asked her if she was a Mormon. She said, "Yes" and he said he didn't have any more questions and she was hired. He has hired other Mormons and been very pleased with them. He was willing to hire her without further questioning because he expects she will be as good a worker as they are. How is that for setting a good example? She is great. He will be pleased and hopefully will provide more jobs for excellent young people or Mormons of any age. Oh, and I thing I learned last week is this; Lewis was on the phone when MariLuz came in to say, Good Morning and chat a bit as she always does. As she left, she said, (in Spanish of course) Tell your Bon Bon "Good Morning" too. I was completely baffled and asked what a Bon Bon is. She told me that in Columbia that is what they call a sweet man. So I am very lucky I have my own Bon Bon and he is as sweet as candy and calorie free. Hope you all feel the same about your spouses.
Love,
Jeri
No comments:
Post a Comment