Chuck & Vickie Rucker Caribbean Area Mission 2012-2013: Check It Out!

Hi family and friends . . .

Us Arizona folks were glad to see the sun after 4 cloudy/dreary days of rain from "Isaac" blowing through. We had some flooding in some streets and part of a bridge washed away on a road going west of the city but escaped the real brunt of the storm. We are told it literally did a 90 degree turn for a bit to avoid Santa Domingo! The Area Welfare Manager for the church tells us that Haiti had some major flooding and the people are diligently cleaning up and repairing their very humble homes.

We (Chuck really) survived our first monthly Area Audit Committee Meeting. They decided to do it in Spanish as Elder Zivic of the Seventy was more comfortable with that . . . pretty much took me out of it! He is an accountant by profession and was very specific and thorough about going through the details. Chuck, with the agenda, had made a sheet of "unit concerns" that he thought was just to peruse as examples of trouble issues . . . they ended up going through every item and deciding what to do and report back next meeting. It will be a wonderful group to work with and get to know better.

We attended a training given by one of the assistants. There were 17 men there ~ half of them were the bishops of the wards in the stake ~ wow did they look young! Remember the church has only been established here since 1978. They were excited to learn and get things right with finances and had animated discussion. I was impressed with the "brotherhood" I felt they had! They were happy, excited to see each other and really joked around. Chuck enjoyed being with them.

It is the end of pineapple season . . . rats, they are soooo sweet and delicious. The mangoes and avacadoes are huge, cheap and wonderful!

Every morning at 9:00 I attend a short devotional with those here in the office wanting to learn more English. We sing a hymn in English and someone has prepared a short thought from the scriptures and close with prayer. I couldn't help but chuckle yesterday when the man presenting the thought kept directing us to a scripture with the phrase "check it out" . . . things just get lost in translation!

There are always street vendors walking between traffic especially at stoplights selling all kinds of things ~ newspapers, phones and accessories, food of all kinds, hats, maps etc. My favorite so far and I couldn't take a picture . . . a man with a large homemade wood birdcage in each hand with about 10 canaries in each cage! Do ya think he sold any of those on the street ~ how do you take a canary home?

I am sending a picture of Simon Orozco with his wife and three little boys and also one of the home he has built. The house is about 20ft. x 20ft. It is all cement. His brother is going to build a house on the top. We were invited in ~ they gave us a folding chair and they all stood. One little boy had a toy he was quietly playing with sitting on the floor by the back door. I saw no real furnishings but they were excited and happy with their new home. He is one of the 3 auditor assistants here in the DR and works with 86 units of the church to help with monitoring their finances. There are currently 406 church units in all of the Caribbean Area.