Visit from the Arellanos

Emily and Edgar and Evan came to enjoy a Caribbean vacation with us.

Isn't this a face that would charm a grandmother's heart? Evan is learning new words every day and can repeat the words you say. I wish I could learn new language as well as he does. He will be speaking both English and Spanish in record time. He was an amazingly patient traveler and enjoyed almost all of our activities. We all enjoyed him!

This is Catalina Island. It is more beautiful than the one that's "...26 miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is the island for me..." That song was popular when I was a kid. They obviously hadn't seen this Catalina Island. We went to La Romana on the southeast of our island and took a 1/2 hour boat trip to Catalina island where we played all day. The crew fixed a buffet lunch for us and later took us back to La Romana at 4:00 in the afternoon.

It doesn't get much better than this - incredible Caribbean scenery and an adorable grandchild. Emily and Edgar were a bonus. Here they are approaching Catalina Island after snorkeling during our boat trip.

We did go to museums, restaurants, small towns, the Colonial District in Santo Domingo with many historical buildings and souvenir shops. The Arellanos went with us to a fireside. But the beach was the favorite destination. The Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean were both wonderful. Grandpa loved the oportunity to spend lots of time in the water. Grandma enjoyed taking photos and relaxing in the shade.

I did make the mistake of asking a man if I could take a photo of him on his horse. The next thing we knew we were taking a romantic ride through the waves. The man said, "Don't worry about the price. We are friends." It was great. How often does one get to go horseback riding on the beach?

Two other guys came along and asked if we wanted sea food. Grandpa was a clear "No" and Emily and Grandma were not interested but Edgar likes sea food. He enjoyed lots of oysters and octopus and I'm not sure what else. They even had hot sauce for him. He said it was excellent. But he was a bit surprised when the price they quoted turned out to be for EACH oyster. Oh well, we all had a great time.


We went to a fresh produce market at the "fair grounds" and Edgar bought the ingredients for Chili Rellenos which he made for us. We even had corn tortillas they brought from California. We miss corn tortillas! We saw this beautiful plumeria and there were goats and horses and poultry. Most of the horses I've seen here are very small but we saw one extremely tall horse. One man who owned several goats came up and introduced himself when he saw our missionary badges. Evan loved seeing all of the animals.

I learned a new word from Evan. "BA-poes" is Mexican baby-talk for shoes. It is short for zapatos and is very cute when he says it. He likes to wear ba-poes and had fun trying on all of my shoes. He loved the high heels best because they made the most noise. Here he is in his Daddy's shoes:

We played dominoes together while Emily and Edgar were at the temple. Playing dominoes is a Dominican tradition. But I don't think they play them the same way Evan does.

We went to McDonald's one afternoon and they were getting ready for a birthday party. We were not on the guest list but "Ronald McDonald" invited Evan to get his face painted.

The Pettingills certainly had a wonderful time. We'll go back to working hard so we can vacation again if anyone else is able to come for a visit.

Love, Grandma P

Looking forward to Arellano's visit

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.

In the town of San Juan de la Maguana I saw more dogs in the parking lot of our hotel that one usually sees in one place unless it is a dog show. There are at least 10 in this photo and there were almost that many scattered throughout the rest of the parking lot.



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

Beaches and dentists and coconuts

We found this beach just 45 minutes from our home. It is called Juan Dolio and this is what it looked like last Monday morning on the way back from the dentists. We didn't have time to do more than just stop and take a photo. Come visit us and we can schedule time to go to the beach and relax.

Poor Dad has had a tooth infection and we heard that a group of CA and UT dentists were coming the next week. With a lot of ibuprofen and antibiotic Dad waited until they came. Dad helped pick them all up from the airport. They are a wonderful group of family and friends who are dentists, hygienists, assistants and the young ones are "runners" getting supplies for the professionals. The founder is a Grandpa and many in his family have followed in his professional footsteps. They take about four trips a year, all over the world, gather donated supplies and bring a whole clinic with them to a stake building and set up practice. They were here at this time because a grandson is just finishing his mission and wanted to share his experiences with his family. His 13 year old brother got permission to spend three days with his big missionary brother. His younger sisters helped in the clinic. There are also many dental friends along.

Do you like the adjustable dentist chairs? Not too many people get their dentisty done lying on a church table but with a zip lock bag full of disposable gloves for a pillow it works just fine. The man with the gray pants in the foreground is Elder Durkovich. He and his wife are the CES couple in the building where we have our office. He was excited to help and did a lot of surgery pulling teeth. Dad did not want to join them in doing dentistry but he did end up helping later by finding the supplies they needed--except extra large gloves. Dominicans are not extra large.

They did a lot more than pull teeth though. They did root canals, fillings and cleanings along with whatever else needed doing. The word had gone out to the missionaries and the church members that there would be free dental care available. They took the missionaries first and then helped everyone who came. All were welcome and more non-members than members got free dentistry.

Dad was a bit of a puzzle. They took a lot of X-rays and decided that all he really had was gum disease. The hygienist cleaned it out well and they suggested topical application of tetracycline. He is doing much better but the problem is complicated because that tooth holds in his bridge and the dentist in Idaho had to grind a ridge for the bridge to fit into. That opened the contact which allows food to get in and caused the problem. All that is more than you wanted to know about his tooth but it is good that Grandpa didn't have to go to a local dentist who would decide to pull it out or something. He does need to get an implant when we return from our mission. It was fun to be a bit involved in this dentistry project. We got a call two days into their visit requesting an amalgamator. It is a machine that mixes the silver fillings. Their machine had broken. Dad found one, bought it and we went back to San Pedro to deliver it. They were running out of the materials to make composite fillings and were happy to have a new machine. On Saturday when we were training a stake presidency in Villa Mella we saw several of the dentist group again. There was a baptism and they were there to support the new member converted by their son/grandson.

Grandpa got the email address of one of his former missionary companions from one of the senior missionaries here. He wrote to Brother Allred and asked if he remembered his obnoxious companion. Here is his reply, "What I remember most is that while I was your companion I read the entire Book of Mormon for the first time. You bore witness to me that it was true and I could hardly put it down after I started to read it." I guess Grandpa has been promoting reading the scriptures all his life. (Actually I think his teenage years might have been an exception.) I'm sure none of our grandchildren will get to missionary age without having read the Book of Mormon several times. The more you read it the more interesting it becomes.

Another thing I am realizing more and more is how grateful we should be for our ancestors. The Perpetual Education Fund is patterned after the Perpetual Emigration Fund. That fund allowed some profound changes in lives. Without that chance to leave Europe we might have all been born in England and our ancestors would not have had the freedom of religion and opportunity available in the United States of America. There has been great economic improvement over the generations. For example, Henry and Margaret McNeil Ballard are my ancestors. Henry was born in England and Margaret in Scotland. They were in desperately humble circumstances by the time they reached Utah. Henry was ashamed of his ragged clothing and begged for clothes that covered his body sufficiently at a house in Emmigration Canyon so he could enter the Salt Lake Valley without shame. Margaret and her family were hungry and without food when they arrived. In front of a small home across a field was a pile of squash, and her mother sent her to beg for some squash for the family to eat. In her journal she wrote that the woman who opened the door said that she knew that a family was coming. She gave Margaret a loaf of freshly baked bread and said she would bring dinner to them soon. That woman must have been prepared somewhat like Amulek was. We don't know what it is like to not have a roof over our head and all the food we need and usually the kind of food that we prefer. We need to remember to be grateful for our blessings.

Here is a helpful tip for getting young boys to work in the yard. Give them a machete. They would love to weild a machete. Just kidding, I only had girls but I can see some problems with this plan. I have seen machetes used to cut sugar cane, hack off the outer covering of coconuts, weed flowerbeds and edge the grass. I'm sure there are more uses that I have not observed. When I have watched someone hold a coconut in one hand and use enough speed and pressure to cut through the tough husk on the outside of a coconut I wince. They cut off the top 1/3 all the way around an unripe coconut, poke in one of the eyes at the top of the coconut and sell it for a drink with a straw.

There are lots of carts all around the university, as well as other places. They sell fruit; pineapples, mangos, papayas, bananas, oranges (the oranges are pretty sad looking compared to CA oranges but the juice is good) as well as some fruits I don't know the names of yet. They sell sugar cane, I guess to chew on. We bought some but I didn't think it was worth the work to chew on the tough fibers. The fibers would just get jammed between my teeth. Lots of people sell candy bars and lolipops and cups of soda from 2 liter bottles. There are ice cream and popscicle carts. And there are carts or pickup trucks with cauldrons of boiling oil where they cook empanadas. They squiggle ketchup over them and sell lots. I would like to know what is inside the crust. There is a fast food place in town that sells empanadas. We need to go there. I'm not brave enought to eat off the street but I'm willing to try the chain restaurant. If they have two locations they probably know a few food safety rules.

We love you all. Be good. We will continue trying to be good for something also.

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

Jamaica and Presidents who respect the Church

We went to Jamaica for three days to hold firesides and teach priesthood leaders about the Perpetual Education Fund along with Brother Aybar and Pedro Encarnacion (the manager of the Employment Center). This is the chapel in Mandeville, near the center of the country. It is a beautiful little town with many very attractive homes near the chapel. Apparently it is favored by rich people who build their retirement homes here. The chapel is nestled in a green meadow with beautiful flowers planted on the church grounds. We attended a priesthood training meeting during a District Conference here. Fortunately a member who is a taxi driver took us around. Driving on the left side of the road is a bit disconcerting.


Upon our arrival we learned that scheduling visits is more complicated than we had realized. Brother Aybar received approval for our dates and one of the Jamaican priesthood leaders who is a church employee agreed to schedule our meetings. But...it turned out that the Family History couple went to Jamaica on the same three days with the same priesthood leaders as their target audience. Also there was a two day District Conference planned that we did not know about. We have since talked with the Area presidency and they will request that everyone calendar their visits with the Executive Secretary in the future so we will not overlap. We did not get to visit with all four districts but we were able to spend time in Mandeville and Kingston. Those leaders now have a better appreciation for the program and their important role in helping it to bless the lives of their young adults. We also had a great fireside where many of the young adults learned about the program and the leaders saw first hand how they could hold a similar fireside in other places. Our visit was probably more pleasant than trying to get to every corner of the country but we missed Montego Bay and Linstead. We will have another opportunity to visit later this year perhaps. We learned that in Jamaica everything is very expensive, the economy and crime rate are bad but the people are delightful; not easy to understand but enthusiastic and friendly. Most of the priesthood leaders are eligible for the PEF fund--under 30 years old. The District President in Mandeville may be over 30 but his three very little boys were involved in all of the meetings. Growing up in the church means spending lots of time at church with their parents. The active members are very active indeed because there are more callings than members. This is a photo of four of the cute young adults who attended the fireside at the Constant Spring chapel in Kingston.

I learned about a new fruit; the Jamaican apple. This man is selling them at the side of the road. It is softer than the apples we know, the texture is kind of like a pear. It is less sweet than our red apples but I liked it. Grandpa wasn't so sure. We also tried Jamaican Jerk chicken at Island Grill. They have a grapefruit soda called Ting that I liked a lot. We also tried "festival", a fried corn meal and flour bread and "bammies" made from yucca. Bammies weren't my favorite but fried bread is always good, right?

We enjoyed a special Family Home Evening in the home of President and Sister Mask this month. The Area Presidency will be reorganized in July so he told us a few things about his experiences and his heritage. He said they were "sweating bullets" before the meeting held at the temple site with the President of this country. Mixing politics and the temple is not the usual procedure to be sure. He said they felt that this meeting was something that the Lord wanted to take place and had the approval of Elder Bednar who told him that good things will come of this. Apparently there are some very positive things happening as a result of that meeting. President Leonel Fernandez told President Mask that the church has a new friend. He was reelected so it will be a good thing to have the president of the country be a friend to the church.

Elder Mask also told us about his Grandpa Gonzalez. His Grandpa lived in Cuidad Juarez in Mexico and Elder Mask spent a lot of time with him when he was a child. I don't know if he also lived in Mexico or near the border in El Paso, Texas. Grandpa Gonzalez was the first native born Mexican to serve a full time mission for the church in the early 1900's. He was married with a small baby when he was called and had doubts about going but his wife insisted that he go cheerfully and confidently. Elder Mask told us about an experience he had on his mission:

Elder Gonzalez and his companion were stopped by the federal militia and told they couldn't preach about Jesus Christ. Elder Gonzalez insisted that they could because they were representatives of His church. The soldiers accused them of being revolutionaries, or Mormons which was worse. The soldiers told them they were to be shot immediately and lined them up. Then Elder Gonzales remembered what he had read that morning in the Book of Mormon. He said, "You can't shoot me because I have not yet delivered an important message to the president." The officer hesitated and ended up taking them into Mexico City to see the president of Mexico who received them. The president of Mexico accepted a Book of Mormon and talked with them for two hours. At the end of that time he asked Elder Gonzalez where he was from. The president pressed for details of exactly which little town and learned that his father had been the beloved teacher of the president when he was a boy. They talked together for two more hours. When they were leaving the president asked what he could do to be helpful in their work. Elder Gonzalez again remembered the Book of Mormon and asked for a letter giving permission for them to teach. An official letter was given to him and they were allowed to teach without interference. Unfortunately that president was assinated not very long afterwards and all of the missionaries were driven out of Mexico for years.

Isn't that a great story! Remember to read the Book of Mormon and remember to use what you read.

We had a special and unusual meeting on Thursday afternoon, May 8. All of the missionaries, church leaders and members who could come were invited to go to the temple grounds for a meeting with the president of the Dominican Republic. This is a photo of Presidente Leonel Fernandez Reyes that I took as he was speaking to us. I was able to recognize him easily as his picture is on billboards and posters and signs everywhere.

The meeting was impressive. He had a special chair to sit in and there was a man guarding his chair until he came. He had a military general in full uniform with lots of ribbons to accompany him. There were many policemen and we entered through a security gate and they looked into our bags and purses. There were three very large tent roofs set up in the parking lot and hundreds of white plastic chairs with fabric covers placed underneath for us to sit in. We all gathered about an hour before the president arrived. There was an elevated platform with long tables for the President and a few of his people and the Area Presidency and a visiting member of the 70's and their wives. A counselor in the Area Presidency welcomed us all and read a letter saying that the church does not support any political party or candidate but encourages all members to vote and and participate in the political process. There is an election this month in which this man is running for reelection. But according to my understanding of what went on there was remarkably little political rhetoric.

The first speaker was President Lee (who is our landlord) the second counselor in the Area Presidency. He spoke for about 10 minutes on the importance of the family. It sounded like a Sacrament Meeting talk with scriptures and a clear message that the family is important because we are children of our Heavenly Father and His plan is based on families. He ended by bearing his testimony.

President Leonel began his talk by saying he also wanted to bear his testimony. I gave him points for that. He knew enough about Mormons to know that would get their attention. He talked about the importance of God and moral teachings and freedom and love of their country. He said that he first noticed Mormon missionaries when there was a young man from England and his companion from the United States. But he said he learned that there are many missionaries from the Dominican Republic as well and all of them are good people and making a welcome contribution to their society. He said that he was aware of the temple and impressed by its beauty. He said that Elder Mask had told him that the church built temples in the finest and most beautiful manner possible because they were built to honor Jesus Christ. He said he appreciated the Mormons and their contributions to the country. It seemed like a good talk and I only noticed one point where he mentioned the election. It seemed to me like the whole affair was filled with respect and appreciation. We should have more of that demonstrated by the political leaders in our country.