8/12/1992 - A year after the call

This post is part of a series I'm doing to commemorate the 20th anniversary of my LDS mission to the Dominican Republic. Links to the other posts in the series appear at the bottom of this one.

Twenty years ago today, I was still working in Guaricano, the second area I'd be assigned to. I was conscious of approaching my "hump" mark--that is, the one-year anniversary of beginning my mission. That milestone won't actually come til October. But it had been a year since I'd received my mission call. It had been a rough year. But I was beginning to turn a real corner. I was becoming bolder about following the Spirit's inspiration to me and working the way I felt ought to be done. Turning that corner was a matter of learning to be more assertive about my own ideas (rather than immediately backing down to companions, or DLs, or ZLs who didn't share my vision); it was also a matter of overcoming my shyness--fear, really--about approaching strangers.

The point of this series isn't to look back nostalgically, though. The point is to look back out to the DR as it is today. So in that spirit, I want to mark the one-year (well, 21-year) anniversary of my mission call by spending some time compiling a prayer roll of people I met during that year. I'm praying for them wherever they are now--assuming (hoping!) that most of them are still alive.

I'm notoriously bad at remembering names, so I'll have to settle for praying for the faces of a good number of people I wish I could still name. Apologies to those whose names I've forgotten, or for those whose names I misspell.

************

My companions: Hill, Macias, Thomas, Taylor, Nelson, Proffit, Cabrera, Inouye, Thrasher. For their families.

For other missionaries: Daynes, Pelanka, Blessing, Sumi, Anderson. For others whose names I forget but whose faces I hold in my mind and heart. For their families.

For the Jarmans. The Paynes. The Baumans. For the Dominicans in the mission staff.

For Nilbio, Diego, Isabel, Rando, Luisa, and their families. For Irma and her family.

For the sordomudo. For the asilo. Assuming they still exist.

For other members, investigators, acquaintances, and neighbors in La Romana whose names I forget but whose faces I hold in my mind and heart.

For Juan and Jackeline, for Castillo and Mercedes, for Geor, for Ingrid, for Altagracia, for Felix and Sonia, and their families.

For Castillo's brother especially. For Jose.

For Lino, wherever he is now. For his parish. For the sisters and their clinic, if it still exists. For Amparo and her family. For her pastor and their congregation, if it still exists as such. For William and FEDOPO.

For the students I taught at FEDOPO.

For the Guaricano branch members I met on my return visit of 1997.

For other members, investigators, acquaintances, and neighbors in Guaricano whose names I forget but whose faces I hold in my mind and heart.

I pray for them in Christ's name. Amen.

************

And now I'm all moody.

************
Other posts in this series: 
7/1/1992 - FEDOPO
5/6/1992 - Guaricano
4/1/1992 - First day in Guaricano
2/5/1992 - The Zona Franca
12/4/1991 - La Romana
11/6/1991 - My first day in the Dominican Republic
10/9/1991 - Entered the MTC
9/4/1991 - Waiting to serve
8/1/1991 - Mission call