Hermana Y Elder Borup

When we first came here I really did not like the idea of doing house inspections for missionaries. After all they are grown up and if they don't want to live in a clean house so be it. I have to admit that I love doing them now and I think they even have a missionary purpose. I never really liked the approach that "you can't feel the spirit if you live in a dirty house". I'm not convinced that is true. What I am convinced of is that if one missionary likes it clean and the other one doesn't care, it can cause ill feelings. It is hard to feel the Spirit when you are mad at your companion.  By doing the inspections, we may be helping ease some of the tension in the house, which in turn results in an increase of the Spirit. (Hermana Borup probably does not agree with this and that may cause some tension in this companionship) All that being said we just like to see the missionaries and encourage them and let them know we think they are great. That is what is f

Since we have lived here in Azua I have had my eye on a trip to Constanza, a small town north of Padre Las Casas. My first idea was to ride our bikes, it's about 117kms (about 73 miles). I knew some of it would be dirt road but our bikes can handle that. However about 1 month ago we find out that it might not be safe for 2 white people on bikes. But we figured out how we can justify the road trip. Since we're missionaries we needed a missionary purpose. Fellowshipping! We invited Ramon and Ernestina, 2 Recent converts, so we could spend a little time with them.  We were mostly right. We spent a little time with them and a lot more. Google maps said it would take about 2 and a half to get to Constanza from Padre Las Casas. It took five and a half hours. The road was amazing. The trip was amazing. It felt very isolated yet there were small villages and little farm houses the whole way. It was a great experience seeing how different life is in this part of the DR. We decided th

This past week we have spending time trying to find a way to get a couple married. He is from Haiti She is Dominican. Several months ago we went to the Haitian embassy and got his birth certificate. We thought that with that he would be able to get the needed residency card so they can get married. We were wrong. The problem is that no one seems to really know how to do it. They have 2 kids together. He is here illegally but there are almost 2 million other Haitian here illegally also. They are a cute family and we feel impressed to help them however we can. One the things I have enjoyed about our mission is the chance I get to help others with my physical therapy skills. They are outdated and rusty but I feel like I have been able to help the work move along using one of my talents. This week I was able to help a Hermana that has had back troubles her whole mission. She has been given every possible diagnoses and I was able to give her another one. The good news is that I think she