Hermana Borup and I in front of the cycling missionary statue. We miss cycling already!


The First Week of Our Mission

Our three new family members, Sawyer, Luke and Mackley
After only a few days on our mission we have been blessed beyond measure. We started our mission with 1 grandchild and we now have 3. Wednesday McKenzie married Luke Wilson. Luke is a great man and we are happy to have him as part of our family. However the best part about Luke is his 2 children, now our grandchildren. Mackley is 10, she is smarter then any of your grandchildren and she is a wonderful big sister. She also knows Spanish so in a few months we hope to be able to talk to her so you won't know what we're talking about. Sawyer is 6 and is an amazing athlete. He's a great kid and sensitive to others. He is also all boy he loves to do boy stuff and Weston and I need more boys in this family. Luke is not so bad himself. He was an accomplished baseball player and likes to shoot things. (you can't get more manly than that)  The thing I like most about Luke is the way he treats Mckenzie. It is easy to see his love for her. He is also a good honorable man.

I can't think of a better way to start a mission than with an increase of 300% in grandchildren.

The Missionary Training Center (MTC) was amazing this week. There were 38 couples that started on May 15th with us. They are from allover and they are going allover. They will serve as missionaries in historical sites, as welfare missionaries, Church education missionaries, Self reliance missionaries, independent living missionaries, office missionaries and member leader support missionaries(MLS).

The Spirit in the MTC is incredible. Young and old missionaries seeking to learn how to invite all to come to Christ. The teachers are full of energy and are great teachers and they are teaching the greatest message. Now wonder this place is filled with the Spirit.

Our MTC district, (left to right) The Ballintines- Martin's Cove, The Borups- Dominican Republic MLS, Brother Weber-Teacher, The Elguedas- Chile MLS, The Akors- Oregon Self reliance, Sister Richins- Teacher
We are excited for the coming week. We have one more week in the MTC to learn the tasks of the mission office. Our mission call says that we are assigned to labor as Member and Leadership Support missionaries (MLS). In the Dominican Republic that means that we need to learn Spanish. We have been studying Spanish Since we received our call in January. The MTC has provided us with a learning coach and language tutors. We are making progress. Our call letter also says that our assignment maybe modified by our mission president according to the needs of the mission. Thus the extra week in the MTC to learn the office tasks.

We have now had the chance to speak twice to our Mission President. He has given us our first assignment within the mission. He would like us to work in the office  and give member and leader support to a Branch that is on the outside of the city. He feels that we will have a better chance of learning the language and that we will be most affective in contributing to the Lord's work. We feel blessed to have a mission president that hold keys and can seek guidance so we can be where the Lord wants us to be. We have never pictured ourselves working in an office but we have always pictured ourselves as following the council of our priesthood leaders.

We are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us. We love the people of the Dominican Republic already. We are going to miss everyone here but can't wait to move forward in the work.

We are not sure how often we will get to update this blog but we are committed to sharing our missionary experience with all that we love. So until next time.
We found the picture of Jake Ferrin teaching on Lake Titicaca

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