The Adventure Continues: Santo Domingo Temple Trip

This past week we made a trip to Santo Domingo Dominican Republic. That is where the Caribbean Area offices are, the Caribbean MTC is training young missionaries, and the crowning gem of the Caribbean, the Temple, is a bright beacon on a hill. We had been planning and preparing for the trip for about 6 weeks. We were not disappointed.

Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple in early morning light

The temple is much like the one in Rexburg Idaho in size and layout. It is made of beautiful rose-colored stone with marble everywhere. At night it is visible to much of the area.

We flew in from Tortola via San Juan on Wednesday morning. There were two young people on the flight who quickly became attached to our group-a young man from New Zealand and a young lady from Panama. They are missionaries just arriving at the MTC located inside the walls around the temple complex. They will have 4-6 weeks of training and then be off to their missions. Hermana Dominguez is coming to our mission. I don't suppose we will see her because we do not have sisters in The Islands, but she is a lovely young woman and will be a great missionary. She speaks zero English.

One of the highlights of the trip was actually an assignment we were given to watch after four young people while their parents were in the temple receiving their own endowments. They were from two families, one from St Kitts and one from Dominica.

Kimberly, Ari, Gaye, Tiffany, Mia, Teo

Tiffany (15) and Theodore (11) Persaud are from Guyana originally but have been living on St Kitts for two years. They helped us entertain Mia (2) and Arianna (4) Joseph from Dominica. Another young woman from St Thomas, Kimberly, was also helping. Kimberly doesn't speak much English (mainly Spanish) but that didn't slow her down one bit. One more little girl, Darlee Rose, waited for her mother, a sweet single mom, so we had fun with her, too. We all got along wonderfully. The little girls were a little hesitant to let their mother leave, but Gaye with her gift for teaching and loving little ones had them sitting on her lap, giggling, inside of three minutes. What a gift!

Kimberly, Mia, Gaye, Ari, Darlee Rose

The MTC has about 60 missionaries at the present time. More are coming as the bolus of new missionaries arrive.

When President Monson announced the lowering of age for missionary service I don't think anybody knew the full impact of the change.

Nobody knows even now, but there are now 65,000 in the field with 20,000 more in MTC or with calls ready to go, and another 6,000 in the system ready to receive their calls. What power this rising generation has! It will be the salvation of this confused world, in spite of what Satan and his minions try to do to stop this work from going forward. It is such a joy to be a part of it.