Seeing old friends never gets old

Today was an awesome day in the DR! We went to church today in Montellano, the same church that I have gotten to go to every year, and Josh actually got to preach today! There was a translator for him, but it was really great to hear the lesson in both English and Spanish. At church I got to see many familiar faces, which made my day! I sat with Sylvia and Magellina, who live in the same neighborhood as I do and I got to also meet their oldest sister whom I had never got to meet before! It was so great seeing them and they had fun passing me notes during the service practicing writing in English. After the service I got to see Perla, Jody's fiancé, and she told me all about their wedding this upcoming week and her new job and her trip to the U.S. this past year and I am so happy for her!! It sounds like she has been doing great and I am hoping I will get to see her again this week before the wedding! I talked to Perla and Jody for a while until it was time to leave and go to The Point (which is a historical sight in Puerta Plata). We all went to go walk around The Point and look at the beach for a while. There was a man there with a decorated donkey, but I didn't take a picture of it because he charges $5 if you want to take a picture of it. 

~ On the left is The Point, in the middle is my room mate Kelsey posing for a solo pic!, and on the right is Kelsey and I with Martha and Shelby.

~ The group from Austin Stone!

Next we went to go eat lunch and the kids had a blast playing on the playscape at the restaurant! The chicken, rice, and beans were amazing, as always, and then we took the group to La Sierena to look around and get anything they might want from the store to take home. Bon is the ice cream shop that they have everywhere in the DR and so of course we had to take the group to try it out! I don't know if they liked being in the air conditioning or the ice cream better! The Bon we went to was by the town square, so we got to walk around and look at the big church there while the choir was practicing. A Dominican local gave Tate and Oliver some seeds to feed to the birds and as soon as they opened their hands the birds came together and swarmed them! The boys loved it and had so much fun being surrounded for the next 30 minutes. The rest of the day at the house was very relaxing and I am ready for the upcoming week to be here!

~On the right is Tate and Oli playing on the playscape and on the right Kelsey and Jen are pushing the girls in the swings.

~Tate and Oli feeding the birds!