Our First Week in the DR (Dominican Republic)

This is the Dominican Temple - I know it doesn't look like a photo, but Rob really took this picture our first morning.

We finally have internet, so I can email! We have a little contraption called a “fly box” that gives us an internet connection anywhere we can plug it in.

We do want you to know that all is well - in fact, better than all is well. We have a really nice 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath apartment about a half block from the temple. We can see the temple spire looking out our 2nd floor apartment. At the beginning the stove (gas) wasn't on, and the fridge was way too warm, but all of those glitches have been fixed.On Sunday, we attended a DR branch for Church where I had the opportunity to translate into French for a sister from Haiti. That was a little challenging because now I find myself throwing in a Spanish phrase here and there, besides the fact that I couldn't understand her very well. We broug

ht her back to the apartment for a make-shift lunch and the

n went to bed about 8:30 and slept until around 6:30 - we were beat.

Rob bartering for a papaya. The avocados are the size of small cantaloupes.

I'm standing by the meat counter - can you see that the chickens still have their feet? Yummy! (And no, we didn't buy any of it!)

Can you see the rooster just walking around? He was crowing his head off.

All of the temple missionaries who live nearby have been so great, and one couple took us to a grocery/home goods store yesterday where .we purchased all of those things we needed, such as spices, etc. to get our kitchen supplied. We went to a fun open-air market in the morning and brought home several kinds of fruit that we have never heard of before. One is large and green with prickles and makes a wonderful smoothie when peeled and blended with water. The kitchen is kind of funny though - there are three empty salt and pepper shakers and no toaster or can opener, but there's an enormous rice maker, blender and waffle maker... It's not a problem - just a little funny... Until I got a few of these supplies, I kept going to cook something and then found that I couldn't – like one night last week when I cooked ground beef to make chili and then discovered that there was no can opener!

This mission is turning out better than expected. We have a car, and Rob has had the opportunity now to drive in this crazy traffic where there are really no lanes and motorcyclists are crazy - He loves driving – I’m so glad that it’s him and not me! There's a law here that if a motorcyclist hits you and it's not your fault, you still go to jail until he is out of the hospital, and you have to pay all of his medical expenses. So they have nothing to fear... In addition, no one has insurance, so most cars have dings and swipes in them – people (and I mean everyone) just ignore them.. He is loving driving!

We travel to the Dominican Republic!

We have arrived in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. We left Salt Lake at 6 in the morning – Heather and Adam are seeing us off.

Then we had a two hour layover in Dallas where we were able to be with Ben and his kids. Rob videoed most of that visit, so I only have a picture of us with little William – isn’t he a cutie!

Then onto the Dominican Republic and our apartment by 10:30 at night – whew! The trip was uneventful and we were met by some fellows who work in the same office as Rafael Gutierrez who is our boss. It was so nice to be met and then whisked away to our apartment which was prepared for us with even some food in the fridge and a lovely little orchid plant for me. We made it!

Lots of Family Time

Pizza with Heather and John

Greek food with my brother Bert and his dear wife Chris

Playing Clue with Heather's family

Celebrating Catherine's 12th birthday!

We took John Morgan (Heather's son) out for ice cream.

Rob taught Heather's Catherine and John Morgan how to repair a wall.

Dinner with Rob's great brothers and sisters and spouses.

Adam with Ali, baby Peter, Eliot, and Abe.

Ali with baby Peter

Adam's family at Peter's baby blessing.

Our Week at the MTC

We finished our week at the MTC and made so many friends among the other senior missionary couples. I feel a little embarrassed about going to the Caribbean when others are headed to some really difficult places. There’s another Public Affairs missionary couple going to Cambodia and Laos and several couples going to Russia. Then there are two going to the Philippines, one to Indonesia, one to Australia, one to South Africa and one to the Democratic Republic of Congo. There is one going to Columbia, and one going to India. Plus a number going to locations in the US. Another couple is going to Santo Domingo, but they will be working in the Temple. We took some pictures of our district group.

We learned about how to preach the Gospel although we won’t be using that as Public Affairs missionaries where we are supposed to become friends with opinion leaders instead. We’ll learn more next week.

We went home every night to Heather’s which was fun to visit with the grandkids. However, I think if we do this again, we might want to just stay at the MTC 24/7 and have a language tutor at night. I don’t know how my Spanish will go in the coming months – I’m so glad that Rob speaks it fluently!

We Enter the MTC

Yesterday, we had our first day at the MTC. Heather took our picture as we entered!

There are 32 Senior couples in our group going everywhere from India to Cambodia, to Australia, to Russia. There’s another couple who are in our district who are heading to the Dominican Republic to work in the temple, so we’ll already have friends there!

I was amazed at how well–organized everything is. For instance, the cafeteria runs so smoothly will all of the missionaries piling up plates of food – we are staying with Heather and her family in Provo, so we only eat lunch there, but it is wonderful. It was kind of strange to see some missionaries running around it shorts, but then we learned that it was their P-Day.

We ran into Joseph Weiler in the cafeteria – he will be going to Argentina in about five weeks – he looked so great and is really speaking the language well according to Rob. I could even understand about 50%, so I might survive this whole process :-) We’ve been practicing Spanish in the evenings, so I hope that I can learn it well over the next two years.

Here we are in Salt Lake where we've been for a week helping Adam and Wendi with little Peter. He is so sweet. He was able to get out of the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) last Thursday and go home after only three weeks in the hospital! What a miracle! They took him to the doctor today and he now weighs 8 lbs. 13 oz. - up a pound from his birth weight.

Tomorrow, we have our first Public Affairs training at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake where we'll meet with the couple whose place we will be taking. We have lots of questions, and I hope that my next entry will have lots of answers

Off to Utah!

I decided to just copy the email that Bryan sent the family after he took us to the airport. He said it all so well:

Hi Fam,

I just dropped Mom and Dad (now Elder and Sister Dunford!) off at the airport.

Grace and I went to their setting apart last night, which was really neat. It was kind of interesting to be on the other side of things and see your parents meet with the stake president. He remarked that Mom and Dad had waited 40+ years to be where they were that evening, going on a mission. President Weiler shared some great scriptures and thoughts, and asked me to join in setting Mom and Dad apart, which was something I hadn't thought about doing but was really special. President Weiler asked me to invite each of the family members to try especially hard to be obedient during the next two years to be a blessing to Mom and Dad and to each of our families. It was a really touching experience.

They finished packing up some last things late last night and came to our house for a few hours of sleep, said goodbye to the kids before they left for school, and then I drove them to the airport this morning and dropped them off for the beginning of this great experience. We will miss them but are so excited for the great adventure they are embarking upon, and we look forward to hearing more from them.

Love, Bryan