Creed's service activity

Creed recently got to help with a unique service opportunity. Some missionaries were asked to help an American dentist who had come to the Dominican Republic to help the local people. It turned out that the dentist and his assistant live very close to us. Today they sent us a nice email and some pictures. I'll include the assistant's comments and then some of Creed's remarks about the experience.

My name is Marci Murdock. I live here in Highland and found a connection when I was down in the Dominican Republic on a Humanitarian Trip.

Sunday we were able to find the church and that is where I met Elder Stephens from Highland, Utah. I was quite excited to be in this "strange" place but meet someone from home. (even though the group I went with was from home) And I just love seeing elders.

Then there were two days that Elder Stephens and his companion along with the other companionship were able to come help us out in the cane fields. I am sure it was not the kind of service they have done in the past. I am not sure if they have helped other years.

We had them translating for us, sterilizing our instruments, assisting us in the dental area, the medical area and anywhere they were willing. And believe me, they were so good and willing to help where ever.

I just thought I would share a few pictures with you. I was able to get the email addresses from the elders but I have yet to send photos to them, something I will work on this holiday weekend. My friends told me I would be able to find your email from the school web site.

Oh and can I tell you how fun it is to see your son and his companion. They seem to have a great friendship and get along well.

Hope you enjoy the photos. I know we sure enjoyed having them with us and getting to know them. You have a great son!

The picture of him "peeking" through the window is to funny to me, that is what we saw from the kids all day long, saying "you, you, you" to get your attention and then ask for something. It's very hard to see how these people live. Very humbling!

Creed's comments:

This week was super cool and we did things I never thought I would do on my mission--good things don’t worry. The day after P day we got a call from our district leader asking us if we wanted to go help out with a service in the morning so we said yes of course. We met Tuesday morning at their house at like 8 and he told us that some people were going to pick us up and take us out to the caña fields to help out some of the super poor Haitians. So when we got into the van we found out a bit more of what we were doing. We were going to help them translate and they were doing dental and medical work on all the kids and people who needed it most.

So we went out there and meet the same dentist we had seen in church last week and saw a huge line of people waiting to get worked on. So they got all their stuff set up and ready in this evangelic church and the people were just lined up behind a rope waiting. What we did at first was we went around in the line looking for the little kids with bad teeth so we could tell them to pass and get their teeth looked at. Surprisingly they weren’t too bad. They would get a paper filled out and then wait in line to get worked on. After we had filled up the church with people waiting we each kind of went in and helped out how ever we could. I ended up helping translate with a pharmacist for a bit and then ended sanitizing the dentist tools. So all in all pretty cool

Tuesday they needed our help again so we went again except this time the difference was a different cana field and different village. This was this first year they have ever come to help out this specific village the other one they have done it for a lot of years. So at this church it was a lot smaller and there was a lot more people waiting it seemed like. The church was so small the dentist had to set up outside. There was a fence around the outside and a gate that we had to close so they wouldn’t all just rush in. Instead of us finding the people and letting them in this time they had a few Haitians from the ward do it because it was a bit packed and crazy.

So the whole time I kind of sat in the back cleaning the dentist tools and I would pass them through the window to them on the outside. There was a lot of crying kids at first in this one but they stopped eventually. Slowly through out the day people keep sneaking in somehow without their paper and waiting in lines where they shouldn’t have been. So they had some deaf guy get a big log and guard the fence line but even with him there eventually they had pushed through the gate and were waiting at the door of the church to be checked in even though no one told them to. So eventually the crowd got so big the people doing reception had to come into the church and shut the doors. So the dentist and their helpers were all on the outside and the doctors and me and the pharmacists were on the inside.


They told everyone to finish what they were doing and pack up. My comp was on the outside helping a dentist. So everyone started packing up what was left and finishing what they were doing and the people outside eventually thinned out and left when they saw us packing up. So it was a bit intense inside for a minute but overall an awesome service and they invited to come anytime. They said they do it every year. They also took down our emails so they said they will send you (mother) the pictures that they took.