Sorry!!

I don't know what happened to that last post:/ :0

GROSS!!

But it won't let me go in and delete the pictures or even change anything!!!!

SO, that was our first injury. Ginia was swimming in the green river with all the girls and she just swung her foot along and sliced it open on something!:(

She should've had stitches but I was a little concerned about bringing her in and not speaking their language and not having shots etc etc.

SO...

We got to Jarabacoa and after another day it was so swollen and was hurting her so bad that I brought her to the Farmicia and showed the pharmacist and she was SO nice and she spoke English and said she needs to go to the DR. So she pointed us in the direction. So we go to this tiny little clinic. TINY. And the front desk people didn't speak English, but the very young Dr did, so that was nice. He and his helper companion were so young they enjoyed watching music videos on the the little tv while they were working on Ginia!:) We knew it was to late for stitches and he just kind if looked at it and shook his head and got to work SCRUBBING it clean with iodine. I mean SCRUBBING it! It hurt Ginia just to touch anywhere around it so she handled this very very well. I felt terrible for her! Then he wrote an Rx for a topical cream and told her to stay off of it for 4 days (yeah right) and we paid the
bill for $16 as we left, then picked up the Rx and bandages and wrapping for another $16 and Virginia said it doesn't even hardly hurt anymore! She must have had an infection in it and he literally
 scrubbed it out!!

*Side note, when we went to the Hall for service today the super nice pharmacist was there!! She's a Spanish sister:) she told Ginia she shouldn't be on her foot:/ how do I make her stay in bed when we only have 7 days of this dream left???:/

We have gotten to experience everything DR has to offer. Stay tuned for Izzy's trip to the dentist!! She's going to make her appointment tomorrow I think!

Now......

                                                                   JARABACOA!!!

We love it here too!!!

We got here Sunday evening and Monday we did a horseback riding excursion through the mountains to two different waterfalls, we even got to swim in one (except Ginia, I had to put my foot down there). It was so much fun. I had forgotten how much I really really love horseback riding. Girls are going again today, I'm going to regret not going with, but I'm really not feeling well today:( Both of the boys have shed a few tears about not being able to go again. But we all loved it so much, Micah and Jude are now trying to find us a place to live where we can have horses, and Jeremiah said about half way through "now I want to be a cowboy". Funny we come all this way and spend quality time with elders and special pioneers and I never heard "now I want to be a pioneer, or an elder" but one day horseback riding and they've got their lives figured out!:) I admit, it was a highlight for me too;)

The most memorable moments:.......

Maddi said, "is anyone else nervous, I'm nervous about riding a horse, I don't love riding." Then
about half way through she said she was doing just fine and having fun, "I'm just letting the horse do
whatever it wants" then all the way back we could hardly see her because her horse wanted to rush back and she was far ahead and we kept yelling "Maddi, pull back, say whoa, come back" but she was letting the horse do whatever it wanted, although we could clearly see it wasn't what SHE wanted, and we all had to laugh:)

Abby! She just kept smiling and saying "I love this, I just love this!" And she had the biggest smile for the entire day. Then we did service and it's an amazing congregation....I think she's putting some roots down here!!:)

But Jason made it in our MOST memorable. There is not one of us who can even talk about his riding
technique without laughing, sometimes even so hard we cry:). But, we also feel so bad for him, we really do, he was in miserable pain, it showed every time he road passed us.
First of all, he's gets this truly crazy looking horse. His mane and front hair is kind of short and sticking up, not ugly, just like he's crazy, and a little ornery, and he's got this unmistakeable look in his eye like he wants to run wild. And he's not a really big horse, but then you put Jason, a somewhat
big guy on him and he suddenly looks smaller and more ornery! Not to mention Jason was not nearly as excited to go as the rest of us and he's looking pretty ornery himself (he had also just gotten stuck in the culvert just outside the riding place and about 10 dominican men had to get extremely creative to pull him out, thankfully most of the men came off a big brick truck and were equipped to get him out) But this horse coupled with Jason was truly humorous. The horse just kept trying to take off and every time Jason would go trotting by us he was stiff as a board and cringing in pain and it was a funny, although pitiful, sight. Sadly, two days later and he still can't sit. I know understand that cowboy saying "that really chaps my hide"

So after horseback riding for the day we passed out happy. Us girls went in service Tuesday morning
and we met many AWESOME brothers and sisters. We worked with Josiah, a young brother, 17, from Two Rivers WI, who knows the Racovsky's because that is the cong they are from:) His family moved here a few years ago and he LOVES it. He is a regular pioneer and I think his sister is too. He is just upbeat, positive, and fun. We also worked with Linda, an older sister from California. She moved here with her husband, who is 80, in September and she us so thankful to be here. She said when she had to go back to work a year before coming here she was so unhappy and depressed that
she decided to pioneer too because she figured she was going to her grave at her desk and she wanted so etching positive out of it, THEN her husband decided to consider moving here;) her sister in law has lived here for 3 or 4 years. She's so thankful and hopes they don't ever have to leave!

We also met a family from Michigan who have a 9 year old daughter and 11 year old son. They have been here for 6 months. It took them 3 years of planning to finally make it and their hope is to be here
permanently, one year at a time. They also love being here.

And there is Melanie and her super fun family. They moved here from Florida 4 years ago with their
then 3 teen age children. They were going to do a foreign lang but decided to start in English until they had adjusted, but her husband was appointed an elder and is much needed in English so they are still in English. BUT, throughout the years their 3 children have tried out all the foreign language groups and they now have a 23 and 21 year old sons in Hatian Creole, and a 20 year old daughter in ASL. All still living at home, but serving in the different cong that share the same hall with the English! Melanie has been above and beyond sweet, kind, and generous. She has opened her kitchen for us to use during our entire stay and has offered us to use her washer and dryer and has invited us ALL (10 of us) to all kinds of excursions and outings, and even offered to watch the 3 boys for us to go do some amazing sounding waterfall body boarding thing that kids can't do....we don't have the heart to leave the boys behind for it, so maybe next year;) but she is and her family is just what Jehovah wants his people to be. I hope we can learn to be as warm, welcoming, and hospitable as she is. Especially if we ever become established in a new place and can help others.

This is truly an amazing group of people, 5 congregations of them. And when we meet for service all
5 groups are there and it is such a cool experience. How thankful I am to jehovah for allowing us to be here, to experience this, and especially for allowing our family to be a part of his organization!

As much as we love Las Galeras, I can only say, I love it here just as much for COMPLETLY different reasons!

Pictures.......

I have atempted to post pictures at least 3 times and the internet will not stay connected long enough, so I give up for now!!