Tales From a Faraway Land

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!

Wedding Photos – All Photos

Posted by Dominick on Jun 6, 2013 in Tales From a Faraway Land | 0 comments

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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The Twilight Between Eras…(Nothing To Do With Vampires I Promise)

Posted by Dominick on May 12, 2012 in Tales From a Faraway Land | 1 comment

I am nostalgic…I often maintain a mystical view of the past. Imagining the past as having profound implication and aspiration for the present and beyond…one that is obscured in the minds of most, and only visible to the diligent in endeavoring to perceive it. As such, it is in moments of my unceasing preoccupation with these matters (what I commonly describe as “Thinking way too much”) that I often impart great significance to what I discern to be the ending of an era.

I have identified several momental eras throughout my life that have seen my most memorable highs, and dramatic lows. Moving out for the first time, my friends getting married, moving to Argentina, all of these moments formed the bookends of the various important sections of my life.

What Will This Next Era Hold For Me?

After the roller coaster that was my life last year, I have decided to refocus and see just how much I can accomplish in my life in the next year. I am taking my return to Buenos Aires as a chance to start anew with my goals and pursuits and to see just what exactly I am capable of accomplishing. To that end I have made the following list of goals that I plan on working towards acheiving. Some will come rather quickly, others will take a bit of time.

Getting Married

As most, if not all of your know one of the biggest, if not the biggest aspects of my life in the last year has been my relationship with my lovely girlfriend (now Fiancé) Gilda. Blissful in love, determined to make it, and dedicated to our future together we have been through quite a number of hardships in our short time together. With my mother’s illness requiring me to spend almost 6 months out of the last year in the U.S.  (exactly one half of our year long courtship), and what time I did spend here overcast with the shadow of uncertainty regarding her situation, we have not exactly had a “normal” or peaceful courtship by any means.

Yet despite it all I give credit firstly to Jehovah for helping us all get through this immensely difficult situation, but also to my dearest Gilda for her unwavering love and support.

However, now that things have settled down I find myself at a point where even the majority of people will demarcate as a new chapter in their life…marriage. I am relieved to say that with all of my heart I hold no stress over the decision to marry Gilda. I feel that other than my decisions related to my dedication and baptism, and to serve in the full time ministry, I have not felt more confidant about the rightness of a commitment as I do about this one.

Therefore, over the next (insert timeframe for getting married here) I plan on working hard to prepare myself and my affairs for my impending marriage. I fully appreciate that marriage is not something to be taken halfheartedly. However, as I have had my mind set on proposing marriage to Gilda since the second week of our dating(yeah it didn’t take much) I have already started to work out many of the logistical matters (in my head anyways). Emotionally I think we are as prepared as any couple ever can be for entering into wedlock. Perhaps that sounds like a bit of hubris on my/our part…but in reality I think if you enter into dating with the right mindset (that you are trying to ascertain whether you want to marry this person or not), you don’t really have as much of that doubt and uncertainty that many face.

One thing however remains…that which often (temporarily) consumes the lives of the bride and groom to-be…planning the wedding. In most cases I feel that people way over complicate the time and effort needed to plan these events. I mean seriously how long does it take you to throw a sizable party? Maybe others have a harder time with this…but personally I have always adhered to the philosophy that a party over thought, is a party over done. I often see couples spend a year, sometimes more planning something that is meant to simply celebrate their decision to get married…the marriage is supposed to be given priority, not the party.

However, our particular case is quite unique to say the least. In planning our wedding(s) we need to find a way to incorporate friends and family from across the U.S. but particularly in Chicago and California, but also Argentina, Spain, the UK and beyond. Truly we face a daunting challenge. The exact solution has yet to become clear to us…we have a few schemes, a few designs even are barely past the “sketch on a napkin” phase but show promise.

Pioneering/Bible Studies

After what can only be termed as a disastrous start to my ministry, I am looking forward to getting a relatively “fresh” start on this year’s pioneering. I already have reestablished regular contact/studying with a great student of mine named Anthony. Along with several other Africans I study with, I see great potential in him as his love of the bible is great indeed. After last year’s extremely successful refocus (from concentrating/supporting mainly our census work to working the areas with all of the Africans) I am more determined than ever that by tweaking my performance and refining my circumstance specific tactics that I can see even great successes in my ministry here.

Online College

Thats right, I have started down a path never before imagined to be my own. What could possible have managed to convince me to attend college after nearly disregarding graduating high school at age 20? Well in a nutshell, I want to make sure I always have the ability to have location-independent employment for the foreseeable future.

When I talk with people about my life, I hear all the time something along these lines; “I wish I could do what you do! I mean travel around, live in another country, and pioneer along the way…but I never could do that. I simply do not have the circumstances. I can’t just up and find a job that lets me travel all around and work from wherever!” I agree with most of those people, they don’t have the circumstances…but why don’t they have them? Because they never worked to make them.

While a lot in life is far beyond our control (there is nothing you can do about family responsibilities, illness, etc.), many opportunities are created, not happened upon. For instance, most people say they would like to have the ability to pioneer, or to server where the need is greater, etc…But then they never take any proactive steps to make the circumstances they desire. 

It is in that vein that I have decided that for me it would be a wise course to attend college. I want to work towards having a bachelors degree in environmental sciences (very applicable to my current job) with an associates degree in web programming/design (something to fall back on). Both fields complement my current businesses and will provide good fields for continued location-independant.

(Did I mention I managed to get pretty much a free ride on my tuition?) 🙂

Expanding Businesses

I also have grand plans to reform my current business activities into a more efficient organization, as well as pursue several new prospects. These include: Reforming my current business, launching a new BA centric website with one of my roommates here, and increasing my skills in my current position as marketing director/environmental technologies expert & author for Baghouse.com 🙂

Getting people to come to my wedding:

So its a given that our “main” wedding will be here in Argentina (its the bride’s day after all). But we both understand that not everyone, in fact most likely a good majority of those we would like to have come from back home will not be able to attend such a far away wedding. However, I beleive that in my own scheming, I have found a few ways that will increase the chances most have of being able to come here, almost for free…should they follow the same steps I am taking to get to the US for free.

Along with wedding planning and the like, one potentially complicating arrangement is our honeymoon. Since funds are a little short right now (thank you two last minute trips halfway around the world to visit sick family…) combined with the need to visit US soil for marriage legalities (more on that later), and the now sudden need to pay for everything twice (thanks wifey), I have been in need of a grandly creative solution to these needs.

Throughout my searches I came across a an interesting article on one of my favorite blogs that talked about ways to get flights around the world nearly for free. This discipline has been called “Travel Hacking” by many and now seemed to present the perfect solution to my problems.

The basic idea behind travel hacking is that airlines are starved for your business and they will do whatever they can to get it from you. This includes having some ridiculously good offers for frequent flyers…if you have the miles. Now add to that, merchants (credit card companies in particular) that have the same want/need that reward you with miles (or bonus points good for miles) and you have the opportunity to get your free flights should you play The Game right.

In my personal case, I have managed to with a few new credit cards to get enough miles for both of us to fly roundtrip from BA to Chicago (1st “bonus wedding party”) to “undetermined actual honeymoon spot” to San Diego (2nd “bonus wedding party”) and then back to BA with many miles still left over.

Now you might be wondering did he trash his credit getting a million new cards? Did he end up spending way more than his tickets were worth just to get his “free” flight? The answer to both of those is no. My credit score actually went up, and with some smart spending I have managed to meet all of my requirements without spending any additional money.

I plan on writing a few follow up posts on here about how you too can take advantage of these offers and get to BA for my wedding almost for free! So stay tuned for further posts!

Additional Thoughts/Posts

Combining certain aspects of my life to streamline things. e.g. This blog will now fill the role of informing and communicating with my friends and family back home, as well as serve to fulfill my self-expresive needs (i.e. my journaling) and my creative writing class. Additionally, by further improving my blog, I hope to be able to work on my new website.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to hear from everyone soon. Take care!

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.