The temple grounds

A big white wall surrounds the temple, and everyone coming in has to pass the guard house. (Here they call it the casita, which means little house.) You can barely see the top of it on the far left, above the fence.

He watches beside the gate

This is Brother Lara, one of the security guards, in front of the casita. All the guards must have temple recommends and are here 24/7 to protect the temple. They work 12 hours at a time and regularly check different places in and around the temple. They like it when we give them cookies. His wife works in the temple one evening a week. He is a very pleasant man and cares a lot about taking care of the temple.

By the way, the casita is air conditioned. Can you imagine being there in that tiny house for hours at a time in 90-degree heat with humidity almost that high?

Red, white, and blue

The guards put up the flag in the morning and take it down in the evening.

Reading in the grass

One morning as I looked toward the temple from our living room window, this is what I saw. Can you tell what someone was saying?

View at night

The temple is beautiful day and night.

Life in the Dominican Republic

We have begun our eighth month here in the Dominican Republic, serving as President and Directora of the Santo Domingo Temple. We live on the bottom floor of a four-story building that has a small "tienda," like our Distribution Centers, cafeteria for the missionaries who are in the MTC, the room we have FHE in with the couple missionaries, offices for the area presidency (Elders Vinas, Coleman, and Anderson), and our apartment.

On floors #2 and #3 are housing for senior missionaries and temple patrons. Some of the patrons come from as far away as the West Indies and others as near as Puerto Rico. The entire top floor is used by the MTC.

Here we are on the west side of the building. To the left of Larry is a long parking area, where we park our white Toyota Camry.