Christmas and Beyond

Christmas was a wonderful day. Our favorite part was talking with each of our children. We even got some Christmas Eve and Christmas morning photos so we didn't feel left out of the fun of children being excited about opening presents and the joy of family being together and making memories. We opened presents too and loved having new photos and new music and an original DVD to watch. We so appreciate feeling close to our family even when there are many miles to separate us.We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with all of the senior missionaries who live in or near Santo Domingo at the home (big apartment in the patron housing building next to the temple) of the temple president. The mom and two daughters at the table belong to the Santo Domingo East Mission. Their dad is the mission president and the whole family is bilingual. The family history couple are from Mexico and Sister Cairns was born there as well. They put together a wonderful Christmas dinner that we all enjoyed--two kinds of enchiladas, marinated pork, rice, beans, flautas (that is what they called them but they were homemade taquitos to me) and salads along with real salsas and guacamole, flan and sugary fried tortillas for dessert. It was all delicious and made for a very festive time together. Here is a photo of Dad with Elder Bagwell and Elder Babb. They all served in the West Mexican Mission together a very long time ago.
We had two Christmas opportunities this year. Our friend Olgan Sainteluz came to us the week before Christmas. His wife and three children were back in Haiti living with her parents for the birth of her third child. The middle child, a 2 year old little girl, got meningitis and was in a clinic in Haiti with extremely limited care. We gave him enough money to travel to Haiti to bring his daughter back to the Dominican Republic. She was born here and is entitled to medical care. Olgan is in school here, he works at the MTC and volunteers in our PEF call center. He is almost (but unfortunately does not yet have his card) a resident of the DR. He struggles to survive because he can't get a job without residency. The MTC only needs him when they have Hatians there so his income is not steady. He is back now and his daughter is in the hospital here. He said that the doctor told him that it is a miracle she is still alive. We continue to pray that her condition improves, that he can take and pass all of the finals that were given while he was gone and that the process of getting his residency will be finally finished! The Haitians struggle but in spite of (or because of) their difficulties many have amazing faith. The Haitians who come by the bus load to the temple have sacrificed to a level we have no concept of in order to receive their temple blessings. It is a privilege to be in the temple with them, and fun to listen to French when they are the majority. Here is a photo of Olgan:
Our friend, Rosanna, has been working as a volunteer in the Employment Resource Center for months. We hired her to clean our house and pay her well for coming once a week. She left the ERC to take a job but then returned when the business she was working for closed their doors. She comes early and leaves late and gives excellent service for no paycheck. A large department + grocery store has promised her a job in their human resources department when they complete their new location in a month or so. Hopefully that will solve her employment problem. She has been working to help them fill their other 400 openings. The ERC sent over many people recently to take the test to be cashiers and very few passed the test. More non-members than members were hired. We all need to be educated to get good jobs. We are trying to encourage all of the young people here to take advantage of the opportunity to get higher education. Unfortunately many people here are not high school graduates or even literate. We all need to value education more and work throughout our lives to improve our skills and knowledge.Back to Rosanna. She started having headaches several months ago and has been diagnosed as having a brain tumor. She says it is not cancer but it is growing and causing the pain. She took three radiation treatments but stopped for lack of money. She was told she needed six treatments. She has resisted offers of financial help but the pain level is now such that she has given us permission to ask our fellow missionaries to contribute. I think we can raise enough to finish her treatments. We continue to pray that she will know the best thing to do. I am so impressed with her determination to keep volunteering no matter the level of pain. She is there every day, doing all she can to make things better.

For a Christmas gift we offered to take her for a day trip. People with no car and no money do not go anywhere they do not have to go. We told her to bring a friend and we would have a fun day making memories. She chose Sister Cairns and we all had a great day together. The first thing we did was go to the Cueva de las Maravillas. You probably guessed that means Cave of the Marvels. It was beautiful and very interesting. It has been purchased from the government by a private organization and has very well built stairs and railings and lighting and an elevator. A tour guide takes you through and explains the stalactites and stalagmites and rock formations, we saw lots of bats and there are drawings made by the original inhabitants of this island. They are large and simple and look like they were made with a spray can but they assured us that they are original cave paintings. One of the beliefs of the Tainos was that after death a person's head needed to be cut off in order for their spirit to leave the body. Oh, and they were cannibals too. They wouldn't let me take photos in the cave. We drove to the beach in Juan Dolio, then went to La Romana and returned via San Pedro and Boca Chica. We had lunch at Burger King. I took lots of fun photos but I'll only post a couple. Rosanna told us about her conversion. Her mother was Evangelical (that is Spanish, it is also English?) and she went to church all of her life. She never felt completely comfortable there and resisted getting baptized. She mentioned that she wasn't comfortable with how loud and public the prayers were when the whole congregation prayed together. She said that after she was a legal adult she visited a few churches and asked the missionaries when she came across them to tell her about their church. She had the lessons, attended church and asked to be baptized only a couple of weeks later. She said she felt like it was "home" and she was comfortable with the teachings and the people. She has been a faithful member ever since. Her younger brother hassled her but her mother supported her decision to change churches as long as she continued to attend a Christian church. Since then both her mother and her brother have passed away from kidney problems. She never did mention a father. I think the only relative she has is an aunt. I can't imagine not having a big, wonderful family. Thank you to all of you for being a part of mine.These are paper mache masks that will used during Carnival in February. This is a big deal in Spanish speaking countries and usually not a very uplifting celebration.

We visited an artisan center in La Romana. This big chicken and rooster are out in front to attract attention. The rooster is much taller than I am. They make amazing things out of metal and also have a school to teach art skills.

Here is a beach near Juan Dolio:

In Boca Chica we saw these boat racks. This is new to me. Did you know that you could store your boat on a shelf?
We enjoyed our day together and it helped me remember my blessings. As we close one year and begin another one I want to always remember how blessed my life has been and that the Lord is the source of all good things and will help us through the not so good things in our lives.
Thank you for being a good example for me and making this world a better place for all of our brothers and sisters.
Love, Mom/Jeri/Grandma

Getting Ready for Christmas

Margaret Opal Southworth Pettingill died on December 18th at Joyce's home at age 92. Her 93rd birthday would have been on January 16th. Her funeral will be on Tuesday, December 23rd and Richard will be able to be there to represent our family. She was an amazing woman and we all would do well to learn more about what she has accomplished and try to develop our talents and work with the energy and persistence she demonstrated for 92 years. We will miss you very much.


Life is much simpler when you are on a mission. Our gift giving was never very impressive but it is really simple this year. Immediate family have received their envelopes from Shutterfly and will have a 4 x 6 Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Pettingill. So we are ready for Christmas.

We haven't gone shopping in the department stores so we haven't seen much in the way of Christmas decorations. On the outside of some large buildings there are some very impressive displays--as in BIG three dimensional trees and bells and swags and star bursts. Christmas merchandising is not a new concept here.

There is a lovely Christmas tree on the second floor in the Institute building and another in the Area Office building.
The doors on our floor are wrapped in wired ribbon. Below is the elevator to our apartment.This is our neighbors tree as seen by us every time we go in or out of our door. They often have their door open. I'm glad because I'm intrigued by an orange Christmas tree. It is not traditional according to what I am used to, but it is very pretty and goes perfectly with their apartment.

This is our Christmas cache although I now have the decals on the windows so we look festive. We'll leave them up so the Walker girls can rearrange them when they come.

We had a fun "dinner party" a week ago. Sister Cairns is a single sister who works in the temple. She was born in the same city Edgar grew up in but has lived in the USA for most of her life. She helps us one morning a week in the call center and we invited her over to dinner and to teach us how to make enchiladas and Mexican rice. The Francoms came and they had another couple as guests who were being trained on their way to Guyana. We all watched and helped with the dinner preparations, enjoyed getting to know the Whiteheads from eastern Idaho and loved our Mexican dinner complete with a very spicy salsa. We had even found some corn tortillas! Thank you Sister Cairns.

Also last week we went to a choral concert. At the last minute I was wondering why we had agreed to go but I'm so glad we did. Another couple was invited to a choir concert at a stake center and they invited us to go and take them because they didn't know where the building was. Turned out to be very fun. It was not the usual stake choir. It was the national choir of the Dominican Republic and though the sound system was awful (they ended up turning it off) they were great! They sang mostly Christmas music which ranged from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (in English!) to the Hallelujah Chorus. There were also several obviously Dominican numbers with a traditional drum and a scrapey thing. It looks like a round columnar shaped cheese grater with small punched out holes and the man was actually using a pink plastic hair pick with about 12 long teeth to scrape it! The variety in the program and their enthusiasm was very fun. I didn't take my camera because it was in the chapel (but full all the way back through the cultural hall), but I should have. Everyone was taking photos and clapping and having a good old time. It felt like a Christmas celebration!

Rosana organized another party for the volunteers at the Employment Center. This time we all brought food and a CD for the gift exchange. Rosana gave each person an envelope with the name of another volunteer. We read the meaning of the name of each person (very long and involved and quite funny) and then gave them their CD. At the end they all sang Karaoke songs but we sneaked out, not unnoticed--but they already knew we are not the life of the party type.
Rice and chicken are the popular items here. There were three kinds of rice. Every Dominican eats rice at least two times a day. The chicken was very good. There was also green salad and tomatos and some skewers with grapes and ham and green olives and cheese. I brought brownies which were new to several of them. But they decided quickly that they were good to eat and all disappeared very quickly.


Rosana, Sandra, Elizabeth, Sergo and Milagro Saint Hilaire (She is in charge of the literacy program) There were about 20 people in all.

The other thing we did last week was go to the Christmas devotional for the employees. Domingo invited us to go and we heard Elder Johnson (Area President) and Brother Briggs (DTA-Director of Temporal Affairs) give talks and some musical numbers as well. Elder Johnson stressed how important it is to not let other good things replace the reason we celebrate Christmas. He reminded us that the reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and we should not neglect that focus. He said that in their family of six kids they started the tradition of filling a manger with straw in the month of December. Each child was assigned another family member each week in family home evening. Every day, each person was to do a special and secret service. Every time that they did a service they could put a piece of straw in the manger to make a soft comfortable bed for the Christ child who was coming. Putting a doll in the manger and talking about their experiences became an important part of their Christmas celebration. This is President Johnson. His wife's name is Leann.
This is Brother Briggs. He makes Grandpa look short.
There was a lot of scripture reading with President Johnson's talk. This man is reading from his PDA.
Christmas is coming and we are grateful. Grateful for our Savior and for each of you.
Merry Christmas!
Love, Grandma P

Thanksgiving week

Friday we attended a party for the volunteers who work at the Employment Office. You know what party animals we are...not. So Grandpa and I were not very excited about going but I am glad we were there and I learned some important things I want to share with you. First I'll explain that one of the purposes was to help the volunteers to get to know each other better. Rosanna made up a game where every person had a secret identity. Grandpa was Oscar de la Renta (the fashion designer-Bet you didn't know he was born and raised in the Dominican Republic.) I was Angelina Jolie. I had to look her up on the internet to remember who she was but you probably know. I'm sure it is our good looks that we have in common rather than our net worth. We were each given a question and a key word. My question was "en el nemesis" which is not a question in either language. No one answered "Canta conmigo"/"Sing with me". We were to ask everyone our question and find out who gave us the key phrase. Grandpa and I failed miserably in finding our counterpart, but we laughed at all of the nonsense conversations I didn't understand. I felt better when I found out that not all of the Spanish speakers understood the game either. But we all had brought a card and a chocolate candy bar to exchange and everyone enjoyed that interaction.

Rosanna, the one who suggested and organized and carried out the party is a special person. She came to the Employment Office looking for work not long after we got here. She is from the north part of the country, joined the church in her young adult years and married a member. A few years years later he became mentally ill and beat her very badly once. When it happened again, she left. She had to leave her family, her friends and come to the big city to escape him, continue to hide from him, and attempt to build a life for herself. She served as a volunteer until she found a job. A couple of months later the business she was working for closed their doors and she returned to the Employment Center to volunteer again. She has been doing anything and everything to be helpful and has spent far more than 40 hours a week doing all she can to further the purposes of the Employment Center. She has just recently learned that the headaches she has suffered from for the last three months are from a brain tumor! Rosanna has been cleaning our apartment for about six months. We pay her well for her time and I guess she has been living on only that income recently. She is getting some sort of treatment with X rays directed at the tumor. We pray that she will be blessed. It looks to me like she has been doing all she can to serve and contribute to the good in the world. She has received one treatment and says that she feels better since she received it (except for the vomiting and fever that evening). But she was at work bright and early the next morning. She is scheduled to do one treatment a week for two months.

President Viñas was invited to speak to our little group of about 17 people at the party. He is a member of the First Quorum of Seventy and the first counselor in the Area Presidency. He is a Spaniard and his wife is from Uruguay. They last served in the Area Presidency of Western Europe and lived in England. They both speak English. He spoke in Spanish of course but I will report what I think he said. Do not quote me. First he told us that work is a basic ingredient of happiness. He said that 2 Nephi 5:10 speaks of obedience, verses 11 and 15 talk about work, verse 26 is about the temple and verse 27 explains that they lived after the manner of happiness. He also spoke of the parable of the olive trees in the Book of Mormon. That parable points out the danger of the branches overtaking the roots and the Employment Center has the possibility of doing that and must take care to remain a help to the priesthood rather than try to fulfill the proper responsibility of the priesthood. He said that the Area Presidency is working diligently to train and help the priesthood leaders to understand and carry out their far reaching responsibilities. He said that the nourishment for the tree must come from the roots of the priesthood. He explained that everyone in the church is a member of a quorum. And the Relief Society is an essential auxiliary to the priesthood quorums. He likened the home teachers and visiting teachers to the circulatory system in the body or in a tree. They are the means so that nourishment can reach every part of the tree. Their job is to carry that nourishment out and report back to the quorums the needs of those they nourish. When there is a need beyond what the home teacher/visiting teacher can provide it goes up the line until there are resources to help the individual to become capable of meeting his own needs. He said that ideally, no member would come to the employment office unless he was unable to meet his needs through his ward or stake and his bishop sent him to the Employment office with a specific recommendation that this member was in good standing and a worthy representative of what the church stands for so he would represent our values when he obtained a job. (If every placement became a highly valued employee there would be an even greater demand for people recommended by the LDS Employment Center.) Then the employment office could spend the bulk of their time assisting the local leaders, advising as to what skills were needed in the marketplace and how to best obtain them, creating relationships with potential employers and provide specialized help where needed. He said that it is important that everyone understands the vision of the future we are reaching for so that we can all help to bring it to pass.

Another thing he spoke of was the culture of independence we teach in the gospel. He said that the natural tendency is to want to get something for nothing but that is contrary to the principles of the gospel. The world at large is fostering dependence and promising security but that road can deprive us of our agency which we must have to fulfill our purpose here in this life. He said we must individually and collectively promote independence, self-sufficiency and responsibility.

I loved the comparison of the home teachers and visiting teachers functioning to bring the nourishment available from priesthood leadership into the homes of the individuals. What a challenge to bring the strength currently needed by a particular family or individual. And won't it be wonderful when we get to the point where the needs of our fellow ward members become our own opportunity to help and share. "If ye are not one, ye are not mine." I've often tried to figure out how this really works and this example helps me see more clearly how we can be more unified. I also can see how important this is because when you focus only on just one area, like employment, or PEF, or family history, or food storage, or music or whatever--it is easy to see the gospel through only that lens instead of focusing on Jesus Christ. He is the source of power and motivation and salvation. The many, many other areas just help us to become self-sufficient and capable of sustaining ourselves and our families and serving others while we learn and grow and progress into our best selves--all of us together (instead of trying to get ahead of others and counting how many are below and how few are above).

We are proud of you, our family, because you each demonstrate self-sufficiency and also kindness and concern for others in your everyday actions. Our society too often teaches us to focus on ourselves and meet all of our own needs first. That is not the path to happiness. We are delighted to be related to you and hope to set a good example and continue to learn from each of you. We are thankful for you!

I haven't yet told you about our Thanksgiving. We got together with all of the senior missionaries. We each brought food which was served from the apartment of the CES Area Administrator who lives across the hall from the Area President where we all ate. Their apartments are large and lovely and had Christmas decorations just like home. We all had room to sit down and enjoy a lovely dinner. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, vegetables, fruit salads, jello salads, rolls and homemade pies with whipped cream. President Johnson spoke briefly and said nice things about all of us. The only thing we missed was each of you. But even if we were at home it is next to impossible to get our whole group together at one time in one place. But we will work on it. That would be my best wish--for all of us to be together and enjoy each other's company (with a big safe place for the younger kids to go play so we could both talk and hear each other).
Some day....
Love,
Jeri,/Mom/Grandma

Another Saturday Aventure

We enjoyed a new experience. The San Francisco (de Macoris) Stake invited Grandpa to be a guest speaker at a Saturday activity for young people. We misunderstood and thought we were joining the Young Adults and it turned out to be the Young Men and Young Women. But a slightly different approach to our presentation worked out fine.

We were told to be at the Stake Center at 8:00AM so we could travel with the group to their mountain destination. That meant we had to leave home at 6:00AM. We invited Elder and Sister Francom to go with us. They did not have another commitment and wanted to see a bit of the country so they agreed to get up early and accompany us. Naturally it took an hour or more at the Stake Center until everyone was ready to go but we followed the buses up into the hills to a lovely place that groups can rent for a day trip. The drive there was lovely. There were several poinsettia trees that reminded me of CA and Tenerife. Reminds me to think of Christmas too. We passed chickens and goats and cows and near our destination was a home with many types of poultry in the side yard.This is where the activity was held. It has a large area with streams on both sides of the property. There was also a not very clean "swimming pool" made in one of the streams but the youth were told they could not go swimming that day. We were right after the opening prayer and only took about 20 minutes. The kids were anxious to scatter and go exploring. But we had made name tags to put around the necks of three young men and three young women. The boys had a jobs with different income levels and the girls had different numbers of children. We passed out a family budget and talked about the need for preparation and an education to have more choices when raising a family. You do have to live the life of a poor student for a few years but later you have lots more options. With a good job one can earn discretionary income and discretionary time. "Education is the key to opportunity" said President Hinckley. We want the young people to begin to see that the principles of gaining knowledge, choosing to be a hard worker, self-sufficiency and service to others will bring them the kind of life they want to live. The younger kids didn't have much knowledge of the cost of raising a family but hopefully they will begin to think about preparing for their future.

We didn't stay for the whole activity. We had the rest of the day free and wanted to drive and see whatever we wanted to see. Walking back to the car we talked with an older lady who was smoking a pipe outside of her house. She had several very large pigs and a litter of baby pigs. She obviously cared very well for her pigs and their open sided "barn" was surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. We were told that some of the trees we passed were the source of cocoa. There were large pods growing out of the trunks or larger branches. I had no idea what cocoa pods looked like. The pods hold seeds which require a lot of processing in order to be turned into chocolate. We were told that the DR exports to both the USA and Japan.

This is what the hillsides look like. And it is November. The cows resting under those trees have a pleasant place to live. All they lack is an ocean view.

This is Sister Francom choosing some cooking spoons. I bought the bowl on the lower row-the darker one that is the third to her right. It cost us $6.00 to buy a hand carved wooden bowl. It is unique. It is our fruit bowl. It doesn't sit up straight but it holds fruit. This "store" is right at the side of the highway.We drove up the mountain toward Constanza-very steep with breathtaking views. Beautiful ferns covered the cliffs and quite a few wild flowers were in bloom even in November.

We stopped at a place where they were selling pottery. We found that the factory was at that location as well and they kindly showed us around and explained how they mixed the clay and formed the pots. We watched young boys clean the pieces in preparation for painting. It was very interesting but I'm glad I don't work in that cramped dark space.

Next we stopped to see these bright hangings. It turns out they are rugs made from polyester strips of fabric hand tied onto opened up woven plastic "gunny sacks". Two women and a boy were making them by the side of the road. One woman said she could make two in a day. The other woman and boy said they couldn't finish one in a day.

Apparently they are having success because we saw many other people selling this type of rug as well. There were many different colors and some had patterns and designs in them. They said that they could be washed in the bathtub. These would definitely add color to a room!

Our last stop was a lumber mill. This too was at the side of the highway but they had a permanent location and a little building for an office. I wandered around taking photos but I overheard that the father of the young man we were talking to had bought the business just a month ago and on that day they were cutting logs into boards and making table pedestals.Lots of hard work going on but at least this enterprise had the assistance of power machinery. Labor is inexpensive here and many people work very hard without the assistance of machines.

We saw lots of beautiful flowers for sale on our way home. There is much beauty in this world our Heavenly Father has made for us. Hope you are finding beauty in your life as you hurry through your busy lives. We admire your accomplishments-especially the grandchildren.

Thanks for all you do.
Love, Mom, Grandma, Jeri

Random October thoughts from Grandma

My hair is not quite that gray really. But it might be by the time we get home. We were in PriceSmart today. It is the closest experience to shopping at Costco available here.There was not a single person in a Halloween costume even though it is October 31st. Hope all of you are enjoying your Halloween experience this evening. Don't forget to brush your teeth.

I wanted to share some random experiences we’ve had recently. During the rainy season we have had some rip roaring thunder showers. The lightening is impressive and the thunder very loud. The thing that always happens during thunder storms is that it sets off car alarms. The crashing sounds of nature are impressive and kind of fun but the car alarms are annoying. It pours for a little while and then it stops. Usually the streets fill up and the trash floats around but then all of the water drains down to the ocean and everything is just fine. Except for the trash. When I first got here I couldn’t believe all of the trash on the sidewalks. Most of it was tied up in plastic grocery sacks but just sitting on the sidewalk. After a couple of weeks I realized that the custom here is to put your trash out for the trash trucks without trash cans! Most people bag it neatly but there are lots of individuals who come along and rip open the bags to see if there is anything they want to take with them. The poor trash collectors wear gloves but pick up the trash with their hands! They need a horse manure shovel, a backhoe or something serious to work with! There are some 50 gallon drums filled with trash set out by homeowners. I don’t know how the guys lift them in order to empty them into the truck. Whatever they pay them, it is not enough. There are people paid to sweep the sidewalks and gutters. Since there are almost no trash cans anywhere it is a constant battle. Also, a little known fact for those of you who live in the deserts of California or Idaho: Humidity makes it so that when you take a container out of the refrigerator it immediately becomes wet. After you squeeze the mustard you have to dry your hand so you don’t get your sandwich soggy.

The new Humanitarian Service couple are from the country outside of Preston, Idaho. He taught science and math in a high school in Salt Lake and then they moved to a farm 10 years ago. Here in Santo Domingo, they moved into an apartment in another section of our building about a week ago and are having a hard time adjusting to all of the noise. We are on a busy corner in a big city where cars honk their horns much more than cars do in the USA. Most of the taxis and busses have specialty horns in addition to their regular horns to attract passengers to their vehicles. We think it is much quieter than the non air conditioned apartment we had in Los Cristianos with a bar across the street that blasted music until 11:00 PM most nights. Here we close the windows and turn on the air conditioner and the ceiling fan. We are still doing that every night and it is the end of October. But the poor Francoms are used to chickens being the only noisemakers. They do have six sons and one daughter but I guess they have forgotten what it was like to live in the middle of chaos.

Their one big concern when they moved in was getting stuck in the elevator when the electricity goes off. They are on the 10^th floor. We assured them that there is a generator and the elevators always function just fine. Two days after they moved in there was an announcement that the generators would be shut down from 10:30 to noon and from 2:30 to 6:00 PM every day. They did promise to check each of the elevators for occupants before they turn off the generator. If I lived on the 10^th floor I’m not sure I could get home. I huff and puff to get up the six flights of stairs to our apartment. This is only a problem when the electricity is out. It used to be once a week or so. But it has happened almost every day since they moved in!!! They are walking up to their apartment just to practice. I always hope that the electricity is on so I can ride up in the elevator.

I learned a very interesting fact. Brother Call, who serves with his wife as Public Relations missionaries, was born into a polygamous family. He told us a bit about his childhood in a Family Home Evening. He explained that there were two manifestos. The first one is in the D & C and was for the United States. There was a second one a couple of years later for the rest of the world. He was the youngest child of the younger wife of his father and grew up in the colonies of Mexico. His first wife chose the second wife for her husband because they were told by the prophet that they should move to Mexico so they could live the principle. It is amazing to me to realize that he lived the experiences of my great grandparents!

This last photo is one of Rosario with the Evans girls taken about two months ago. Cute girls, all of them! Morgan, Hannah, Kate and Rosario with Mallory in front.

Love to all of you!
Mom/Grandma/Jeri

Come with us on Saturday

Most week days we are in our office at the Institute/Employment building above on the the left. The colorful orange building on the right is a cafeteria where we sometimes buy our lunch. I love it but Grandpa is very tired of rice. Many weekends we take a drive. I want to share with you our day yesterday so you can have a taste of our current Saturday activities. We had appointments to train two Stake Employment Specialists in Santiago, the second largest city in the DR. One of the responsibilities of the Perpetual Education Fund is to contact each participant every month. We want PEF participants to have the support and help everyone needs to reach their goals. And to remind them to make payments, if necessary. In the past this has been done by a call center staffed by volunteer students. They have done a good job but it is difficult for them to know in advance how often they can come so it has been hard to organize the workload and get everything done. We are also challenged by an intermittent internet connection. When we need it, it is down or at least as slow as molasses in January (that is an Idaho January when it is cold, not here). We have about 475 participants who speak three different languages and it takes a lot of time to contact them all! We had requested of our Area President, Daniel Johnson (he said the closing prayer at Conference Sunday morning!), a person, or a couple, with a formal church calling to head up our call center. He said that it would be better to teach the stakes and districts to become self-sufficient (an important principle we are teaching the students) in contacting their own members. It certainly would be better because they have the stewardship, they know the students and are in a better position to be of real help when there are needs. So that is our current focus. We have appointments with all of the Specialists that are called and are gently encouraging the stake and district presidents to call a Specialist if they don't already have one. We still need the Call Center because nothing ever works perfectly but the work load should be much less.

We left at 8:00 for an 11:00 appointment. We found the Santiago North Stake Center with plenty of time to spare and looked in the appointment book to see that we were at the stake center of the 1:00 appointment not the 11:00 appointment. We knew that the Santiago East Stake Center was being remodeled and were unsure where we were to meet the Specialist. Grandpa had had one of the volunteers confirm his appointments for him so he hadn't talked to the lady since he made the appointment. And it turned out that we didn't have her correct phone number and couldn't use her work number because it was closed on Saturday! Grandpa talked with the Stake President and the CES coordinator who was a bishop in that stake but they couldn't help us. We went to the ward building where the fireside was held for that stake last month but no one was there. Grandpa did have the phone number of the volunteer who had confirmed the appointment and he got in touch with her. She remembered that the Specialist had said we should meet her at the closed building and she would direct us to another building. We got there 1/2 hour late but fortunately she had waited for us. Grandpa can't hear well and I can't understand well and we make mistakes. Maria Gonzalez was very kind and assumed we were lost. True enough. She directed us to another ward building that is hosting the Family History library during the reconstruction. She had all of the keys necessary to get into the building and the library but the electricity was not functioning! We need the internet to get an account for the Specialist to record all of her stake's contacts and demonstrate how it all works with her stakes' information. Oh well. We do have a 48 page handout with screen shots so we could explain all of the processes and she will have a reminder when she can get into the system. This was a very bright lady who asked good questions and is concerned about how she can help the young adults in her stake. She will need follow up but I'm sure she will be capable and willing to get the job done.

We called and delayed the second appointment so we didn't keep her waiting. She had a fistfull of keys but was unable to get into the Family History library. So we drove to an internet center where you pay to use a computer. We had the use of a computer for an hour for about 75 cents and it worked out great. We will definitely try that again if there are problems with a Family History computer. Our problem with Miguelina Peña was that she didn't remember her confirmation date. We spent about a half an hour trying various dates until we gave up. But we were able to show her the information on the participants in her stake and explain about how to make the contacts, how to change information when needed and update the computer when new information is called for. Miguelina is a bubbly lady who likes to talk and is proud of her stake members who are opening new businesses when they can't find a good job.

The drive to and from Santiago has some very beautiful stretches through rolling hills with mountains behind them. There are lots of trees. People put up little stalls to sell gorgeous tropical flowers, coconuts, hunks of raw or cooked meat, produce, colorful fluffy rugs, wooden platters and spoons, chairs, freshly caught fish. It is amazing what you can buy from your car here. Only the US fast food places have the drive-thrus we are familiar with, but people are willing to bring most anything to you if you will buy.

The city of Santiago has a monument that is very prominent. Someday I want to have enough time to go and take a good photo of it. I always try to grab a quick shot in case I never get my chance. I think it is a representation of the Savior on top with upstretched hands. Someday I'll get closer. We usually have a story on the Ipod that Dan gave us. We are still listening to Orson Scott Card. We always get very involved in his stories and hate to turn them off when we arrive. The people and the stories are interesting but the best part is that there is always an idea he is exploring that invites good conversations afterwards. Our latest is a story about how the constitution is overthrown in the United States in our day.

We are enjoying our mission and accomplishing some good things. It is a privilege to be here but we are happy to note that we are almost half way to coming home again.
Love, Jeri