Night of fishing

As you can tell by the few pictures, this week was just a blur. Mostly because I spent the night (the whole night) fishing with Santiago on Monday night. I have been asking him if I could go with him sometime when he goes out with his nets at night. During the day the weather looked like it was going to too rough, but as the day went on the wind died down. Dany and Santiago have a 15-year-old boy that they take care of. He helps Santiago fish. When we went to pick them up Santiago's oldest boy (Jose, 9 years old) was there and wanted to go with us but Santiago said no. AS we left and drove down the hill, Jose popped out onto the road behind us and was running to try to catch up to us. We were at this time about 1/2 mile from their home. As I drove down the road I could see him running in his bare feet trying to catch us. ON the way down to the boat we stopped at a store to buy some ice and a few treats for the night of fishing. We continued down to the boat and started packing getting ready for the night. We said goodbye to Hermana Borup. Pushed out to sea and did some last minute arranging of the boat. I heard Hermana Borup calling out from the shore and she had Jose with her.

Now, remember Jose is just 9 years old. AS Hermana Borup was leaving the beach she saw Jose running towards the boat. SHe tried to tell him we had left and that she could give him a ride home. He wouldn't go with her (maybe stranger danger). But when she offered to take him down to the boat he took her up on it. He had run from his house to go fishing with us. According to google maps it was almost 8 kms. 9 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!. He ran all the way. Santiago told him he couldn't go and told him to go home. HE was not budging. I told Hermana Borup to see if he wanted to go get something at the store, like an ice cream. That did the trick. He ran 8 kms to go fishing and was going to have to run or walk back but he got an offer for a treat at the store and he was ok with that. Hermana Borup said he just got a bag of chips. She told him he could have more so he bought a little bottle of juice (really sugar water).

Two things stuck out to us. One a 9-year-old ran barefoot almost 8 kms. Who does that at 9 years old? He even did it a pretty impressive time. And second. Santiago seemed unphased by it. He just told him to go home. Now that's how you teach your kids to be independent.

About the fishing experience. Soon after we left the shore the wind started picking up. That along with the already big swells and a boat with very old and weathered wooden seats made for a very long rough and uncomfortable night. The first thing we did was set out his 1.5 kms of net. by then it was dark so we went into some deeper water and Santiago hooked some lights up to a battery and we did some bottom fishing. The plan was to wait several hours before heading back to the net. We caught several fish, but the most unusual thing we caught was calamari. They were attracted by the light and we just used a traditional round fishing net to scoop them up when they got close enough. Throughout the night we caught about 10. Not a good night for calamari according to Santiago. The bottom fishing wasn't real fast-paced either. Did I mention it was rough! Did I also mention that I don't need to do this again?

At about 1:00 a.m. when found our way back to the net at Santiago and the 15-year-old boy (I can't remember his name). Wrapped themselves up in plastic and started pulling in the net. We caught well over 300 fish. We loaded them in the cooler that Elder Buhler gave Santiago as they pulled them in. The boy pulled the net in and Santiago pulled the fish out of the net. I watched. I wanted to help but I felt like I was the third wheel and only two are needed. It took until about 4:00 a.m. to get the net all pulled in. Santiago decided not put the net out again so we headed for shore. He borrowed a motorcycle and gave me a ride back to get the car. It was 6 0r 6:30 by the time got home. It felt like I spent the rest of the week recovering from the long hard night.

Ok now that the storytelling is out of the way. We had another great week of visiting and making appointments to visit and hosting district meetings and providing physical therapy and helping people learn a little English. It's all fun. It's really quite amazing all the visiting we do and our limited Spainsh.  We can love. We can show videos with simple invitations and testimonies and we can lend a hand wherever a hand is needed. The best part about being a missionary is being able to testify to everyone that will listen that we represent Christ and we are here to gather His elect. There is a special power of love and peace when we can visit people with that charge. It really is great to be a missionary.

Sorry, this blog is soo late but we hosted the Young Single Adults at our house to see the face to face broadcast on Sunday night which introducing the Church published book on the history of the church. I usually write the blog on Sunday night so her it now (Wednesday Night). I have been reading "Saints" and so far I love it. I love the History of the restoration. I love that people of all walks of life stepped up big to meet the challenge of restoring the Lord's church to the earth. I hope that someday I will be able to meet the Prophet Joseph Smith and thank him for accepting the many challenges of restoring the church.

Our new week has already started and we are off to evan more adventures.

Have a great week.
 Your friends
Hermana Y Elder Borup

This is about 3:00 a.m. They are pulling about 1.5 km of fishing net that we set out 7:00 p.m. the day before. 

Hermana Duffy trying to learn how to shell guandules. She wasn't good enough to be of much help. 

Now we're getting avocados instead of mangos. ANd were not complaining. 

Kids are kids. Hermana Brito teaches us Spanish (It's not her fault)

Just having fun at eh Branch party.

Limoncillo (Spanish Lime, Quenepa) is in season. here it is fully intact. They are about the size between a ping-pong ball and an olive.

Limoncillo with the skin opened and the fruit exposed. It really is just some sweet slimy stuff over a big seed. They are very easy to open. The skin just splits open.

Here it is with the fruit eaten off. You can see how big the seed is.