Wedding Photos – Morning of The Wedding

Posted by Dominick on Aug 2, 2013 in Featured, Our Wedding, Photo Galleries, Tales From a Faraway Land | 0 comments

These come to us from before the wedding. Expect to see Gilda being made up and me acting stupid with my friends…what a morning!

Early Wedding Photos (First Batch From Friends)

Posted by Dominick on May 21, 2013 in Featured, Our Wedding, Tales From a Faraway Land | 2 comments

Hello everyone!

So its been quite a while since the last post. Please accept my most sincere apologies.

So for those of you who do not know, Gilda and I got married about 2 months March 8/10. Our photographers, Fernando and Suzann of our hall served as our photographers. After our wedding they returned home to their native Australia for a few months to visit family and to work. As such, our “official” wedding pictures have been delayed a bit until their return.

In the meantime, I have decide to upload the following pictures that I have received from others. These may not be the best quality but the give a glimpse into the spirit of our special day.

I hope you all enjoy…and I hope these hold you over until we get the “official” pictures back.

You can also enjoy our first dance together here: 

Life Update Lite

Posted by Dominick on Jul 2, 2012 in Featured, Tales From a Faraway Land | 16 comments

English In Argentina Takes Several Giant Steps Forward

Rosario English Group first Public talk and Watchtower study.

But recently, we have seen the a number of exciting advancements of our work. Last month a new English group formed in the city of Rosario some 150 miles north of BA. It’s being headed up by an American couple from our hall who has moved there to help out.

Also in Mendoza about 800 miles west of us at the foot of the Andes mountains, the very first trial English meeting there attracted 98 and work has begun to form a group there. A brother there has been awaiting this day for a while, he has been collecting English addresses all on his own for several years, he now has about 800 English addresses just in the one city!

Further south in Bariloche, (Patagonia) a brother from our hall was recently there with his wife on vacation and a small group of brothers asked if he would give an English Public talk. After talking with the Elders the small group of publishers (2 american families and some of their friends) were told that maybe they could have their own Watchtower study once every 3 months to start. But after the CO heard that they already had about 20 ready to work in English, he pushed for a group to be started right away! Now that small group is officially sponsored by one of the local congregations and is performing census work to gather territory for the brothers to work.

A picture of Gilda and I with Anthony, one of my Bible Studies from Nigeria.

We also had our first ever english Special Assembly in April! Interestingly, the brothers arranged for the entire program to be handled by brothers from outside congregations, including all of the parts, and even the attendants and sounds brothers-all so that we could all be free from assignments and fully enjoy the program. We are also excited for our first English circuit assembly to be held next week.

Our Congregation Steps Up To Meet The Needs of Our Territory

Watching my study’s “shop” on the busy street during a normal day preaching in Buenos AIres English.

In our hall we have many Elders and Servants, in addition to somewhere around 20 or so pioneers (Out of 63 pubs). This week we were also pleased to have 2 new elders, Fernando and Aaron, as well as 1 new servant appointed, Myself 🙂 🙂 🙂

So while I don’t really have a ton to do in the hall itself, in the ministry my fellow

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(brother) pioneers and I average about 4 studies each. I have a progressive study from Nigeria who has been coming to the meetings and whom I hope will soon want to become a publisher or join the school. I also have a study from Ghana that I go to study with late at night around 9 to 11pm. The best part is that he lives in a bad part of town, so I go carrying only my bible, my books, and not much else. Always an adventure, always exciting and always worth the effort for someone so appreciative.

On the Personal Front…

I think some of you might have heard that Gilda and I are now engaged! So yeah, thats kind of cool… 🙂

Gilda and I at the Memorial

While others would shutter at the thought of a being in a relationship made of two people from very different cultures, who themselves are quite “different”…we have decided we can make it work. Relationship aside there are still several matters, which due to our unusual circumstances are decidedly more complicated than those faces by your average couple.

(1) Now begins the ever-fun task of working through emigration regulations for 4 different countries to get the process finalized. (I have American and Italian Citizenship, Gilda carries Argentine and Spanish) so thats bound to be fun. (2) We also need to plan a wedding here, and (3) some kind of parties back home in Chicago and in California. (4) We need to organize our honeymoon to somehow fit in the middle of the first wedding here, and the additional parties in the States. Thankfully, due to some creative work with frequently programs and credit card point systems, I have managed to accrue for ourselves about 175k miles/points for use on our honeymoon. Thats should be enough for the roundtrip tickets (60K each) and to whittle down the hotel bill wherever we end up stopping for the honeymoon (thinking Belize or somewhere around there).

So figuring out all of that should be gleefully distracting for a while. In any case with both of us in school, pioneering, and working it makes for a very busy life for us both for the next few months especially.

Anyways I think thats it for now. I hope everyone back home is doing well and missing me 🙂 Please send some emails down so I can hear whats new with all of you. We miss our dear friends back home and love hearing from them whenever we can. Take care, be good, and hopefully we will hear from you soon.

Rosario English Group first Public talk and Watchtower study.
Rosario English Group

Watching my study's "shop" on the busy street during a normal day preaching in Buenos AIres English.
Watching my Bible Study Anthony's "shop" on the busy street during a normal day preaching in Buenos AIres English.

A picture of Gilda and I with Anthony, one of my Bible Studies from Nigeria.
Anthony, Gilda and Dominick

The night we got engaged with some of our closest friends.

Rooftop Bar and Dancing: You can never do enough tango on the 20th floor hotel bar...

Gilda and I at the Memorial

Memorial Pics: Gilda and I Stage I: After memorial this year.

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Weddings In Rio – Pablo and Cami Throw An Awesome Party…

Posted by Dominick on Jan 16, 2012 in Featured, Photo Galleries, Tales From a Faraway Land | 1 comment

So I know its been a while since I last published anything on here, and I know I have a lot of stuff going on right now in my life (ask for details later, or just stay tuned and read about it in my next blog post), but I figured that I should at least publish all of these photos from our recent adventure to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

This adventure took place thanks in large part to our newest wedded couple, Pablo and Camila Torrero. Having both been made and assembled in different counties (i.e. he’s from Argentina, and she’s from Brazil, get it?) their recent nuptials posed some interesting challenges. Eventually, they decided that they would have two weddings, a legal ceremony and small lunch in Argentina, and a larger more traditional wedding in Brazil. A few of us from the English group in Buenos Aires (of which they both are members) decided to accept their gracious invitation to join them on their special day (2of2) in Brazil.

So off we went, and what a time we all had. From jungles and jiving, to seeing a 200 foot Jesus struck by lightening while standing beneath him, to playing on some of the world’s most famous beaches, to a lovely international, tradition blending wedding, we all had a lovely time.

Here are a few of the many pictures we came away with. I hope you enjoy the view…feel free ask me for more details on the pictures if you wish…I will be happy to fill you in.

How 3 Seconds Lead To 3 Years That Changed Everything

Posted by Dominick on Nov 10, 2011 in Featured, Matador U Assignments | 5 comments

“Come on baby, just turn over…please you have got to get moving, no matter how cold it is outside. I know you don’t want to leave home, but its time to go to work.” I spoke those words as I had every morning during the Chicago winter, not to my car, but to my body as I lay in bed. I check what the weather is like outside by simply taking the covers off myself, “Another beautifully frigid day”. I get up and get dressed for work, after the first 3 layers of long underwear I decide that should be sufficient for the day’s activity and head outside only to repeat my earlier plea, this time to my car.

I wonder why  that memory has overtaken my mind just now as I sit in my quaint little cafe in charming Buenos Aires. I decide to start writing this story, wondering how what started as such a normal day could lead me to where I am now.

So…Where Have I Been?

Posted by Dominick on Sep 3, 2011 in Featured, Tales From a Faraway Land | 6 comments

In case you haven’t noticed, this is my first real blog post since March (5 months!)…Firstly, for all of you who perhaps upon realizing this said “YAY!!! No more terrible stories to read!” (Dave!)…I would like to offer my most sincere thanks for your unwavering support 🙂

For the rest of you, whom I assume (quite pathetically at times) still enjoy reading my blog at times,  I hope you will enjoy the fruits of my renewed literary resolve here on this site.

But perhaps some of you do not know what exactly lead me to abandon my blog for such a large period of time…I guess now would be a good time to play the catch up game and explain whats been going on in the last few months.

…And Then Came The Spring…Or was it The Fall? I Can Never Figure That Out…

The last 6 months, nay, really the last year or so has been filled with several elements that have contributed to varying degrees to my more chaotic than normal lifestyle since then.

Mamma No Esta Bien

The foremost of these has been the continuing health condition of my mother. In late August, less than two weeks before I was to move to BsAs full time, she was diagnosed with Lymphoma.

Instantly, I began thinking about how this news was going to affect my plans. I initially began thinking that I should put off my move to BsAs…I even considered the possibility of moving to California to be closer to Mom. As these worries were tearing me apart, I managed to convince myself to hold off from full freakout mode until after we knew exactly what was going on.

After a very tense week or so for our family, the doctors finally told us that she had a very good chance of beating the cancer with a evidently “routine” chemo regimen. After a brief, less than fun, last minute visit, I managed to make my flight to BsAs, confidant Mom was in good hands in California, and that the situation was under control…

Fast forward to early January, we receive news that despite the favorable odds for a full recovery, Mom’s treatment was not 100% successful against her cancer. Needless to say this situation was quite distressing for all of us. Speaking for myself, I know I initially felt an immense regret over my choices regarding the previous six months of my life. I began having thoughts of feeling guilty over leaving her, etc…