June 15, 1998
We arrived just fine. The flight from Salt Lake arrived to late in Dallas so we had to take a later flight. I called Salt Lake and had them call the mission President here in Santo Domingo to let them know of the later arrival. Everything worked out fine.
On the plane from Miami to Santo Domingo I sat by a couple from France. They did not speak English and my French was nothing. The little they know in Spanish made it so at least I could get their name and address in France so I could send some missionaries to them to give them a Book of Mormon. I e-mailed the mission president and gave him the reference.
Are first group of missionaries have been wonderful. There are ten of them, three sisters and seven elders. They have all been members of the Church at least five years. That is unheard of. I remember in Venezuela most of them had only one year in the church.
We have a nice home to live in. There is a chapel, kitchen, dinning room, classroom, and two bedrooms for the elders and one for the sisters. Our room is upstairs and the sisters are also upstairs. There is a nice patio out back and also wash rooms with two washers and dryers. The home is located in a real nice section of town and it is real peaceful. I have met my neighbors, and one of them is a retired general from the national police.
We have a vigilante that spends the night. He comes at six and goes home at eight in the morning. He has a nice uniform and a shot gun, but I am sure that he will never have to use it.
The restaurant Buen Provecho caters our noon meal, and it is a nice meal. They all like white rice, and red beans (Habichuelas rojas). They also like platano. Hermana Larsen does the dinner for us, and they all like what she prepares even though it is something new for them.
This group will end their training tomorrow and will go to their mission. The next group starts on the 15th of May. They spend 19 days here at the CCM.
The temple is progressing. It should be ready by next October. I talked to the temple project manager and he is pleased with the progress they are making.
We have a little Mazda car to use, but when the missionaries are here we only use it to go for groceries and to go to the PBO to pick up the mail and to the official church business. They don't call it the PBO it is the Centro de Servicios, but they do the same thing that PBO did in Caracas.
The weather is not that bad. I walk every morning at six thirty and sometimes the elders get up and walk with me, and it is pleasant at that time in the morning. Of course July is right around the corner and then I suppose we will feel the heat.
How did things go with Omar? Is he back home now? Did he enjoy his stay? Have you heard anything from Venezuela lately? How are you doing with you school? How is the situation with your girlfriend?
Bueno es hora de cenar asi que me despido con un fuerte abrazo. Saludos a todos los exmisioneros.
Presidente y Hermana Larsen
CCM Santo Domingo
June 15, 1998
We have started our third group. There are two elders and two sisters, so it is a little different than the last group where we had nine elders and no sisters. They are wonderful young men and women with a great desire to serve. They are very humble people and come from a humble background. One elder has been a member all his life and the others have been members at least four years. They will end their training here on 30 June. Then we will not have another cycle until 7 August. We will have time to travel and get to know more of the island. If we want to, we have permission to leave and visit the other countries in the Area.
There are many things similar to Venezuela. Lots of mangos, platanos, lechosa, naranjas, cambur etc. They call the fruits by different names. Cambur es guineo. Naranja es china. Parchita es chinola. The buses are called guaguas and there are other things that I don't recall at this time.
The temple is progressing but it looks like they will not dedicate it until after our time has expired. Maybe we will come back for the dedication. Also, they have not yet started the construction of the new CCM but that will begin soon.
They have nice big supermercados and all the fast food chains are here: McDonalds, Wendys, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, TCBY, Subway and others. We do not eat there very often because it is expensive. They have some elegant restaurants and we have been to several of them.
We send our regards to all the former missionaries and wish them well in all their worthy endeavors.
Sin otra cosa me despido con un fuerte abrazo
Presidente y Hermana Larsen
Thanks to Matt Hirst for making this information available to the webmaster 05-24-2002.
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