Chicharrones y Dia de Madres

Mother's day 

It is not a secret at this point that I Love Chicharrones. A chicharron is a piece of pork that includes the skin and fat which is fried in a pan until the fat has melted enough to deep fry the skin until it is crispy. It is said that chicharrones were started here. That might be true but I know they were perfected here. This week we asked an investigator to teach us how to make them. $20 worth of pork spices, guineo (green banana) and yuca (cassava or tapioca) was all it took to feed 10. Richar took me to all his favorite places to get the freshest produce meat and spices. It was really a treat especially when we got to eat it. Hermana Borup didn't want to stop. We also got to eat another local specialty. It is called lambi. It is a type of seashell that is boiled or fried then mixed with vinegar and lemon juice. Santiago and his wife made us some that he had found in the ocean. As Hermana Borup said she has found her new favorite Dominican food. It was very good. 

There was a baptism scheduled in Branch this week. When the person being baptized still wasn't there 45 minutes after it was supposed to start things weren't looking good. The Elders finally got ahold of him and he said he was on his way. He got to the church about 1 hour fifteen minutes late. Well, sometimes things are late here. But after he got here someone asked him if he had a change of underwear and a towel for after the Baptism. He said no and took off to go get it before anyone knew what he was doing. after another 30 minutes, the Elders finally got ahold of him and he said he had changed his mind. Hermana Borup and I were having a Branch activity so we got it started and then I took off with the Elders to find the man. When we finally found him (it took awhile) he said he didn't want to get baptized in his underwear in front of everyone. Oh NO!!!!!, HE didn't realize that he only needed another pair of underwear because he was going to wear white baptismal clothes. He thought he was just going to get his underwear wet because that was all he was going to be wearing.  oops. The missionaries learned a pretty hard lesson about expectations and preparation. I have to admit I'd never seen that happen before. 

We have been trying to share our message about Temples and family history as often as we can. We think we are even getting better at it. There is always a sweet spirit when Hermana Borup bears her testimony about family history work. She has such a great passion and testimony for Family history work. We feel strongly that it will be a great tool to help people come to Christ. End goal fo the gospel is to bring people to Christ so that can live with Him as a family.

Speaking of family, the reason this blog is a day late is that yesterday was Mother's Day and we had a houseful of missionaries using our internet and computers to talk to their families for mother's day. Google hangouts was the easiest by the way. One Elder from Columbia was only able to call his family because they did not have a way to use Skype or Hangouts on the other end. That actually ended up being the most difficult connection. The miracle was that the internet didn't fail us once. We had both computers going at the same time in two different rooms so the missionary and their companion could talk to their families at the same time. We have trouble talking to our own family just using one computer. something always goes wrong with the connection. It was really a blast to see all the missionaries talk to their families. We got to say hi to all the families and tell them how great their children are doing as missionaries. This served as a great reminder of what an amazing sacrifice it takes to move the work forward It's not easy being a missionary but these young missionaries do it with such great commitment. It really is inspiring. 

We love the work we love the missionaries and the, of course, we love the Lord who they serve.

Have a great week

Your friends

Hermana Y elder Borup

The view from Santiago and Danny's home. They don't have a lot of worldly possessions but they have a priceless view.

Buying the needed things to make a Chicharron meal with Richar

Josi, Teaching us how to make Chicharrones.

This is a 10 ft tall pillar at 12:35. On Saturday the sun was directly straight up. If you will notice there is a 1-inch shadow to the left. I took this photo at 12:40. 5 minutes earlier there was no shadow. 

Richar taking a picture of us eating chicharrones.

More views of chicharrones and guineos. 

The sons of the King

On our way to somewhere else, we ran into a couple missionaries teaching a lady at her little store. 

The Hermanas helping to prepare a whole lot of Guineo (green bananas). They will next learn that they had to eat them all. 

Hermana Borup helping with the guineo. She also helped eat them. 

Hermanas walking through the streets of the Heat of Jesus.

More from the village of the Heart of Jesus. We taught her last week and this week she invited her mother to hear. 

It wouldn't be right for me to not show a pig since I had all the picture of chicharrones. 

Hermana Borup and Hermana Manuela ( a new member) going to the local Catholic church to get names for family history work. 

This Elder's glasses broke and we just "happened" to find some frames that fit his lenses. 

I saw her in a store wearing this great shirt. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know about Ironman. 

Typical scene from Azua

Hermana Borup keeping the kids entertained while we teach her grandparents. 

Watching a church video at Santiago and Danny's house. If you noticed Santiago is wearing fleece. That's because it's only 80 degrees outside.