The Moores in the West Indies: Leaving the MTC and going to the Dominican Republic

We finally left the MTC on 20 Nov 2013 after one week of Preach My Gospel training, 4 days of Humanitarian training and then 5 days of being at loose ends. While we were at loose ends we went to the Museum of Art and saw the Bloch exhibit. This is a very good exhibit showing some of the original paintings depicting scenes from the life of the Savior. It puts into pictorial form many of the things the Savior did that are recorded in the Gospels in the New Testament.

Sister Moore got a bad chest cold, the 1st chest cold she has ever had, she usually gets colds that stuff her up but don't cause chest congestion.

One of the really nice parts of being at the MTC so long was that we got to go to more devotionals and hear really inspirational talks. We attended 3 Tuesday night devotionals with Elder Zwick from the Quorum of the Seventies, Elder L. Tom Perry from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, and Sister Mary Edmunds an author and very motivating speaker. We also got to attend 2 Sunday devotionals.

Because of the amount of luggage we brought with us we called the Airport Express shuttle rather than fight getting luggage on and off of the Commuter train system. We had to pay $40.00 for our extra bag (we had 3 between us to be able to take the clothing we will need for the next 2 years). We also each had our carry on luggage.

After we got checked in and settled to wait for our flight I saw this:

Who would have thought, the MTC is at the airport!!!

Getting to the Dominican Republic was and adventure in it's self. 1st we flew to New York City, (John F. Kennedy Airport). We then changed planes to go to the Dominican Republic. At the airport in Santo Domingo we had to pay $10.00 US to get temporary visas (these were good for 60 days). Of course neither one of us speaks the language, but we found that smiling and being cheerful sure go a long way in smoothing out the process through immigration and customs so we had no problem in these areas.

Here we are in the Dominican Republic.

This is Sister and Elder Crismon our guides, hosts, and the couple who gave us some more training on our calling as Humanitarian Specialists.

This is the plaque commemorating the setting apart of the Dominican Republic for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Elder and Sister Moore in front of the door to the Temple in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. They did let us in.

In front of the Temple.

The Temple, what a magnificent building.

OK, all was not work we got to see some of the sights also.

In the park across from the Temple.

Yes, those are Christmas decoration already going up in the park. The Dominicans really like the Christmas Season, the decorations in this park had been being put up for quite some time. The people even put a new coat of paint on their houses and perimeter fences at this time. The houses are decorated for Christmas very early. There was even a Christmas tree in the lobby of the area office where we had our training.

Building commemorating Christopher Columbus. It is in the shape of a cross. You can see the Pope Mobile used by Pope John Paul.

Behind us is the sepulcher containing the bones of Christopher Columbus. This is one of 2 places that claim that they have the bones. The other one is in Europe.

The inside of the building. There are a lot of rooms on each side of this immense hallway.

Many countries sponsored rooms here. Some of the countries went all out to show case their cultural heritage and others just put in a flag and little else. The largest display is from China.