Church in the Dominican Republic

The fabulous adventure continues!

First, I must tell you about Friday night--Carlos and the guys performed at the newest resort here in Punta Cana (Breathless Resort). It costs $700 a night! Needless to say, I'm enjoying the chance to visit all these different beautiful resorts! Before they perform every night, we all get to eat at the resort's buffet/restaurant. The food at Breathless left me, well....breathless! It was by far and away the best meal I've had in my life! All the guys said the same thing! I had roasted chicken marinated in some sort of passion fruit sauce...I'm not even sure what it was, other than AMAZING! Carlos's steak was likewise AMAZING! We are all excited to go back next week!!

Saturday was another beautiful day here in paradise. Carlos and I went on a long morning walk along the entire beach. Here's what we saw:

We also talked with Kassim, our favorite Haitian beach vendor. He told us about taking the bus to Santo Domingo (the capitol)...I'm dying to go!!!! It would only cost us about $10 a piece to make the 2.5 hour trip there in an grey hound type bus. I think we will definitely try and get out there before we leave!

The best part of week 1: CHURCH!!!!

We looked up the church building earlier this week and set up a ride with EVOC's taxi driver. Blanco picked us up a little after 10, with his 2 adorable daughters and sweet wife. His wife sat in the front seat holding their 3-month-old daughter on her lap. I'm not sure if she was even wearing a seatbelt herself....

The church building was in a nice, tranquil neighborhood. The branch that meets there has about 30-40 members, and today there were an extra 8 people (from Virigina mostly) on vacation for the weekend. They were all jealous to hear that we are living here for the next few months :) 

We got confused about when church started, so we ended up only being able to participate in Sacrament Meeting, but it was fabulous! It took me right back to my mission! The branch president spoke first, bearing testimony about the importance of tithing. Then, the missionaries spoke about missionary work, followed by a young woman named Jennifer who gave a fabulous talk about how to bear testimony. We were sitting next to a mom named Kati and 4 other young women and kids. Kati was holding a cute little girl on her lap who seemed to be a little restless. So, with my mission scriptures in hand, I started pulling out the pictures I have depicting different scripture stories. She loved them! 

After church ended, I chatted with Kati and her daughter Suisa. Suisa is working on her mission papers and she introduced me to another girl who leaves on her mission to El Salvador at the end of the month. In chatting with Kati, I told her that I wanted to learn how to cook Dominican food, to which she said that I can come over to her house any day and she will teach me anything and everything. She was so excited! I figured out the bus route, so hopefully I can go and visit with her sometime in the near future.

(This is a picture of the tourist ladies and some members after church. 

They wanted me in the picture too.)

One of the tourist couples visiting came up to me after church and told me that she and her husband were watching me as I played with some of the kids before sacrament meeting started. She told me that she had commented to her husband that she hopes their daughter goes on a mission and becomes just like me! What a sweet compliment because I worked very hard to get to where I am now.... and my parents would atest to the long, hard journey it was! But, the compliment left me rather speechless.

As we were waiting for Blanco to come and pick us up after church, this adorable little girl kept looking at me. I stuck out my arms and she ran right up to me to be picked up. I just tickled her and laughed with her until her sweet grandfather came over to take her home. Her name is Maria and she just melted my heart! These people are so wonderful! We are already excited to go to church next week!