Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Tuesday Devotional with Elder Wilford W. Andersen

"Tuesday Devotional with Elder Wilford W. Andersen"
Elder Darrel L. Hammon

What a wonderful day today! It started off with our regular Tuesday devotional for the week. This was a special week, come to find out. Every second Tuesday, a member of the Area Presidency comes and speaks. Today, Elder Wilford Andersen came to speak to us. His Spanish is flawless. I was very, very impressed with his language skills. What was more impressive, however, was his ability to bring the spirit to the meeting. His topic was Cuba.
                The Area Presidency has been working with Cuban officials to have the Church become an official and recognized entity. It was been a lengthy struggle, but these men have seen miracles. Just a few months ago, the BYU Ambassadors were able to go to Cuba and deliver a wonderful program. The Cubanos loved it. One of the government officials was there and enjoyed it immensely. Elder Andersen said they have a solid friend in this person.
Elder Wilford W. Andersen
                A miracle occurred before all this happened. They had received visas to go to Cuba to begin the conversations, but they had to go to Miami to pick up the tickets because they didn’t deliver them electronically. To top it off, this was one or two days before they were supposed to go, and they were about to resign themselves to the fact they couldn’t go because of the time crunch and tried to find someone who could obtain the tickets. They called around about how they were going to get the tickets because that office was going to close in one hour. One of the people from the office, I think it was Rafael from the PR Department, said, “Let’s call Esteben de la Cruz. He knows lots of people.”
Rafael called Esteben and asked him where he was. As Rafael was listening, his face blanched. He turned to Elder Andersen and said, “He is in the Miami Airport.” So they made arrangements for him to go pick up the tickets. Elder Andersen said, “What are the chances of that happening? The Lord knew we needed those tickets, and he also knew we were not going to be able to get to the airport.”
                Just incredible! The Lord definitely has a hand in all things. And we look forward to hear more.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Liceo Project

"The Liceo Project"
Elder Darrel L. Hammon

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is incredible! Its willingness to help with humanitarian projects continues to amaze me.

One of the stakes here in the Dominican Republic--the Las Americas Stake--is doing a 75th Anniversary Project. They have submitted a project to transform a neighborhood apartment building into a school for secondary students. The Stake President is Presidente de la Cruz, a wonderful man who is willing to help everyone in his stake, including members and non-members alike. Like me, he believes education is the key to success.


A couple of weeks ago, we went out to the project to see what it all entailed so we could write it up and then submit it to the Caribbean Area Presidency for review and possible approval to complete. We met Presidente de La Cruz at Los Frailles 2 chapel building. He drove because we didn't know where it was located. 

The apartment building to be converted
 We stopped to pick up his first counselor who really knew what was going on with the project. We clamored over and down roads that had huge rocks jutting out. I don’t think our little Honda Civic would have made it. We stopped in front of a building that looked almost completed. We were introduced to the director of the school and a handful of other people, some teachers and community members. We then went on a little tour of the place. It has nueve aulas (nine classrooms), which can ostensibly hold 35 students each. They will have 200 students in the entire school from the 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. session and another 200 students from the 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. session. When we went up there to one of aulas, I couldn’t believe the space could hold have that many student, but they assured me they had a capacity of 35 students.


The courtyard that will also serve as the P.E. spot

Inside one of the classrooms
What the Stake wants to do is convert this apartment building into a school for their children and for the community. It will cost about $12,000 to transform it from an apartment building to a school. Our K-12 educators would literally scream if they had to teach in this environment. Now, couple the environment with no computers, no air conditioning, no real playground, no real area for teacher offices or workrooms, no lunch room, no principal’s office, etc., etc., etc. Yet, the community is willing to make the sacrifices for this to become a liceo for their secondary students because there is no local school for them, and they now have to walk almost two miles to get to school. While school is mandatory here until they are 16-years-old, many do not go because of the challenge of getting to school. I complimented the directora por su coraje (courage) y vista (vision).
First Counselor in the Stake Presidency and the Liceo Director


The community, school supporters, Stake President, Elder and Sister Hammon
And to think Cheyenne built a new South High School for just under $70 million with all of the goodies one would ever need. And the people in this poor suburb of Santo Domingo are trying to convert an apartment building with $12,000 of humanitarian money to do it, and they are grateful and feel blessed that the Church wants to help. When I went to visit the second time, they had already begun with 140 students with no chairs, no chalkboards, no computers, no books.Many of the students brought their own chairs. After seeing what I saw, I have nothing but respect for what they are trying to accomplish.

I wrote up the project when I returned. The Area Presidency approved it on Wednesday with a couple of caveats. I returned on Friday with a couple of Church engineers to make sure the structure is stable enough, especially after taking out the entire wall between the living room and the bedroom, thus making a single room for students. It appears the Las Americas Stake has some service to provide, but they are more than willing to help the community of Las Brisas to get it done.

After thanking all of them for their work, we drove over to the first counselor’s home to meet his family. He has a wonderful little family—a beautiful, vivacious wife, four cute kids, the oldest one being 13. They live in a small home, behind another home. They were very happy to have us there. We stayed for only a moment. Then, we walked down the street, and Presidente de la Cruz greeted several people who were members of the church, some less-active but mostly active families.

We walked over to another house where a young woman was outside doing wash. Her mother came out with another daughter. Both daughters were teenagers. Soon, another little girl came walking up, probably five or six, and jumped into Presidente de la Cruz’s arms and gave him a big hug. He said, “We shouldn’t have favorite families, but this is my favorite family.” They were definitely humble people. After saying good bye, we  walked toward the car. Just as we arrived, he saw another family at the Colmado (little store on the corner). We stopped and greeted them. It was one of the hermanas (sisters) with her esposo (husband). She said she was a member but hadn’t been coming because she had been ill.  He had a nice visit with them. He told me that he had been the bishop here and had very fond memories of the place, and these people were in his ward. Now, they were in his stake. I could see that he was a man of God, loved by all of his people. His heart was full of love, and he wants to help all of them. He is a good man.

We said our good byes, climbed into his car, and he took us back to the capilla (the chapel) where he opened the door for us and for the missionaries who had come to teach English to a group of people. One of the sisters from California was going to teach the English class.

Front of the building with the big gate
I'll keep you posted about the Liceo. It is an exceptional project, one that will help hundreds of young people obtain an education that they might not have otherwise.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

“The Consuelo Branch”

“The Consuelo Branch”
Elder Darrel L. Hammon

One of the grand opportunities senior missionaries have is to attend small branches in the Church. After talking to President Hernandez, the Santo Domingo East Mission President, and his counselor President Mauricio Munive, we will be going to the Consuelo Branch, a small branch out in the San Pedro District, which is located beyond Boca Chica and Juan Dolio, both resorts on the beach. Instead of heading toward the beach, you head away from the beach. It is about 1.5 hours from our home in Santo Domingo.

Opening to the Consuelo Branch meeting house
Last Sunday was our first visit. We rose early in order to get ready to go to our little Consuelo Branch. We met President Munive who also works at the Area Office in front of our apartment. He was a bit late; so I knew we were going to be late to the meetings. But we began our journey. We followed him down Bolivar to Gomez and then onto to the Autopista. And away we went. He was driving pretty fast, even though there was a bit of rain falling. He got up to 109m kph. I thought that was pretty fast, but we were already 20 minutes late.

We arrived at the branch meeting house around 9:15 p.m., and they hadn’t started priesthood meeting yet. We had probably around ten brethren there, including the missionaries, President Munive, and me. The Branch President is a young man named Gary Montero, who has been home from his mission for about eight years. There were several children there. One little girl by the name of Ana came up to me. She is nine and very cute. All the little girls have long hair, and it has been divided up into little twisted pony tails, bound extremely tight, with bobbles at the ends. To me, it would hurt my head if I had little pony tails wrapped everywhere on my head. They seemed happy though.

Front of the Consuelo Branch building
The Consuelo Branch building is right on one of the streets. During the meetings, motorcycles and other cars race by. Sometimes, I thought the motorcycles revved their motors just a bit more as they passed our doors. We had to leave the doors open just to have some sort of circulation throughout the building. Ceiling fans are the only things that circulate the warm air.

Priesthood and Relief Society came first, then Sunday School, and then Sacrament meeting. The branch president taught the priesthood lesson, and a single mother of four taught the Sunday School lesson. It was pretty good. She had a quick smile. I tried to respond a couple of times. Sacrament was very good. Two of the brethren spoke who had gone to the temple the day before. They both had excellent experiences. Then, President Munive, the concluding speaker, called on Joanne and me to bear our testimonies. I went first. Then, Joanne gave her sweet testimony. Tears welled up in both of our eyes. Someday, she will be able to stand on her own and give her testimony without notes. I know it is difficult for her now, but wait, she will be excellent before the mission is over.

After church, we visited some of the members and the missionaries. We did talk to a young woman by the name of Ana Maria who is about 14-years-old and who really wants to learn to play the piano. We told her about a program the church has for people just like her. We also told her that we would find out about it and let her know next week. It would be wonderful for her to learn how to play. It would enhance her life and her way of thinking and doing business.

Today was our second Sunday at the Consuelo Branch. We left early and drove along the beach until we merged on to the Autopista. The trip was extremely pleasant, not too much traffic this early in the morning and on Sunday. We arrived early and parked in front.

Ana Maria y Samuel
During Sunday School, President Montero approached me and asked that I take him to his house, which I did. Apparently, he left the Duty God and YW medallion at home for two young people named Samuel, age 17, and Ana Maria, age 14. It was heartwarming to see these two young people stand and go to the front. They were both wore incredibly huge smiles. Their parents accompanied them. When President Montero handed these two awards to these two young people, you would have thought he had given them each $10 million. Both bore their testimonies today and told how grateful they were to have earned these awards. To them, completing the assignments was easier because they wanted to do what the Lord wanted them to do. Their testimonies were impressive.

I talked to Samuel and Ana Maria’s mother after the meeting and told her what wonderful young people they are. She just beamed but shared some important counsel. She said parents need to be diligent and vigilant in helping the young people perform their tasks. “It is the parents,” she said, “who can help these young people grow and progress.” What a wonderful mother she is! She just glowed when we spoke to her about her children. You can see she loves them and wants to do what is right. We truly enjoyed visiting with her. On the way home, we noticed that their family stopped by a neighbor’s and was visiting. Ana Maria and her father waved at us as we drove by, Ana Maria still grinning and still holding her medallion close to her. What a pleasant sight!

We are enjoying our time at the Consuelo Branch. These humble people treat us like royalty each Sunday. They make sure they shake our hands and ask how we are doing. We already love them and know there are many who are not active whom we should visit. The Consuelo Branch is working diligently on working toward building a chapel. The Church has already purchased a wonderful piece of property for them. Our hope is they can reach their goal before we leave.