We are winding down the trip, now. It doesn't seem like we should be almost done, but we are. What a blessing to be here among these wonderful people. Best of all, we have some very good friends here. We will miss them terribly - they treated us like part of their family, and we felt their love. Here is a picture of Shanlee and Megan with all four of their children.
Today was another travel day - we headed back to Santo Domingo. This time, we took a quicker route. We had to go east along the northern coast from Sosua to Nagua, then on a really nice freeway to Santo Domingo.
The trip was bumpy until we got to the highway. Another thing we take for granted - most streets are smooth and you can just drive without worrying that your car will shake apart or maybe lose an axle because of the poor streets. This highway goes from Nagua to Santo Domingo, and it is really nice. Very smooth. About half-way to Santo Domingo, we had to stop at a toll booth. Not surprising - it's a nice highway. We dropped about $4.50 to get through the toll booth and kept driving.
We were driving through a national park - I can't remember the name, we saw the sign as we entered and then no other reference to it. It was a 'mountainous' area, if you can call it that. Doesn't compare to mountains at home or in Switzerland, but still very pretty. They had a few miles of coconut trees on the side of the freeway in perfect lines. Greg said these were likely used for the coconut oil.
We shortly thereafter arrived at...another toll booth, where we had to pay another $4.00 to keep going. OK, fine. I guess that's to be expected. We were one of a few dozen cars we'd seen on this highway, so the fees have to be higher to pay for construction and maintenance. The locals are not likely to use this road - not when driving on it costs more than they'd spend on groceries in over a week. So we paid the toll, drove onward towards Santo Domingo and arrived at...another toll booth. Now it felt like extortion - this was just before we could exit the highway. Still, we paid it (only $1.50 this time) - and drove into Santo Domingo. Here was a big city - complete with all of the normal things you would expect - huge buildings, streets you don't know, and the obligatory signs, such as this one:
Shanlee and Megan didn't know what it meant, but Greg and I laughed and translated: This is the beer that inspires you to be better.We drove along the southern coast, across a floating bridge (Shanlee and Megan wanted to know how that works - I just made something up), and into the city to find the Santo Domingo Temple. It was beautiful. The grounds, like any other temple, were immaculate. The difference from what we are accustomed to in Utah was the palm trees, and the different varieties of plants.
We checked into the hotel by the temple. The rates were amazing - $3/person per night. We went to our rooms and noticed a rather interesting sign on the inside of the door. It read, in English, Spanish, and French, "Staying here and not attending the temple is stealing from the Lord." There was also a great sign in the elevator - avoid children alone. Greg said children alone were a danger and adults should avoid them. Good translation, in my opinion.
We had planned to return the car and then do baptisms on Thursday, but they don't do baptisms in the Santo Domingo Temple in the mornings - only in the evenings. So we went to the temple on Wednesday and planned to return the car on Thursday. We arrived at the temple at 6 p.m. to join a ward that was coming, but we found out they were not arriving until 6:30. So, we waited - and the ward never came.
At this point, we asked if we could do baptisms - just for Shanlee and Megan. This was apparently a big deal, because the worker over the baptistry had a hard time reconciling this. He said we needed four Melchizedek Priesthood holders. I pointed out that Greg and I hold this priesthood, and so does he, so we only need one more. It was funny, really - we found out later that they are used to groups of 25 or more, so to deal with a group of four was a big change.
What was fun was doing the baptisms and confirmations - Greg and I were able to perform the ordinances. We took turns doing confirmations first. We did five names at a time - and Greg took another opportunity to mock my Spanish accent. He gave me a hard time for the entire trip about my 'lisp.' In Spain, z's and soft c's are pronounced like a 'th.' In the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, they are pronounced like an 's,' so people who speak Castillian (Spain) Spanish sound like they have a lisp. It was all great fun.
The names we did confirmations for were people born in the early 1700's. We really enjoyed the sense of satisfaction in doing this work. We then moved into the baptismal font. It was beautiful - there was a marble border around the top of the font, similar to a capstone that extended around the top of the font. I went in and baptized Megan for about 12 people. Megan got out and went to get dried off, and they had Shanlee do a few more confirmations right next to the font. Then she got in and I baptized her for about 12 people. I gave both of them a hug after we finished the baptisms.
I was about to get out, but Brother Bautista had some names of his own that he wanted done, so Greg and I took turns being baptized - we did about 20 names in total. Then we got out of the font, and Brother Bautista sat on a stool next to the font while Greg and I did the confirmations for his ancestors. I've never done the confirmations right next to the font before. It was fun and different.
We spent some time taking pictures of the temple after dark. Megan wanted to get pictures of the shrubbery behind the temple, but it was too dark to see it. So we went back to our rooms and changed into some casual clothes. We drove to have dinner at Dominoes. I know that seems pretty lame, but it was great. Don't get me wrong - we LOVED the food we ate for a week. Still, this was like going home, and all three of us were a bit homesick by this point. We were all ready for the trip home!
We had planned to return the car and then do baptisms on Thursday, but they don't do baptisms in the Santo Domingo Temple in the mornings - only in the evenings. So we went to the temple on Wednesday and planned to return the car on Thursday. We arrived at the temple at 6 p.m. to join a ward that was coming, but we found out they were not arriving until 6:30. So, we waited - and the ward never came.
At this point, we asked if we could do baptisms - just for Shanlee and Megan. This was apparently a big deal, because the worker over the baptistry had a hard time reconciling this. He said we needed four Melchizedek Priesthood holders. I pointed out that Greg and I hold this priesthood, and so does he, so we only need one more. It was funny, really - we found out later that they are used to groups of 25 or more, so to deal with a group of four was a big change.
What was fun was doing the baptisms and confirmations - Greg and I were able to perform the ordinances. We took turns doing confirmations first. We did five names at a time - and Greg took another opportunity to mock my Spanish accent. He gave me a hard time for the entire trip about my 'lisp.' In Spain, z's and soft c's are pronounced like a 'th.' In the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, they are pronounced like an 's,' so people who speak Castillian (Spain) Spanish sound like they have a lisp. It was all great fun.
The names we did confirmations for were people born in the early 1700's. We really enjoyed the sense of satisfaction in doing this work. We then moved into the baptismal font. It was beautiful - there was a marble border around the top of the font, similar to a capstone that extended around the top of the font. I went in and baptized Megan for about 12 people. Megan got out and went to get dried off, and they had Shanlee do a few more confirmations right next to the font. Then she got in and I baptized her for about 12 people. I gave both of them a hug after we finished the baptisms.
I was about to get out, but Brother Bautista had some names of his own that he wanted done, so Greg and I took turns being baptized - we did about 20 names in total. Then we got out of the font, and Brother Bautista sat on a stool next to the font while Greg and I did the confirmations for his ancestors. I've never done the confirmations right next to the font before. It was fun and different.
We spent some time taking pictures of the temple after dark. Megan wanted to get pictures of the shrubbery behind the temple, but it was too dark to see it. So we went back to our rooms and changed into some casual clothes. We drove to have dinner at Dominoes. I know that seems pretty lame, but it was great. Don't get me wrong - we LOVED the food we ate for a week. Still, this was like going home, and all three of us were a bit homesick by this point. We were all ready for the trip home!
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