I know Mia Love (sort of)

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 fun about it. Also, I get to watch Hermana Borup gets to tell other people to clean instead of me. (really probably the best part, She's happy and I'm happy)

I have been working on a project for the past few weeks. I am trying to create a business of our friends in Padre Las Casas. I want to prove the concept before I drag him into it. It's making items from coconut shells like earrings or a jewelry box or candles. Once I have figured out an easy and efficient way to make them we will work on making some contacts in Puerto Plata or Punta Cana. I guess that means a couple of road trips. It has already meant a few trips to the capitol for supplies and tools. It has been fun.

I drove Santiago (someone we met when we first got to Azua) to Barahona to process his Passport, which is needed for him to get married so he can get baptized. He's been a little off and on about church attendance lately but Hermana Borup and I have felt like we need to help him get married anyway we can. He has a cute family with 2 young children. His wife has been more active than him. As a side note when we arrived at the embassy a big car just pulled up and a man in a suit (an unusual sight in Barahona) got out of the car right in front of me. I felt like I should go say hi to him. It turned out he was the Ambassador. He said he knew some people from Utah. He asked me if I know Mia Love. I have shaken her hand. Anyway somehow in our talk, we became good friends and he put us straight to the front of the line. There were others waiting but I guess they don't know Mia Love as well as I do. The bad news is that we have to wait 3 months to get the Passport back.

One of the hardest things for missionaries is waiting for the people you are working with to come to church. It's the moment of truth. When they said they would come to church, were they just being nice or was it a real commitment to follow the invitation of one of the Lord's representatives? Sometimes real things come up, but when that family or person doesn't show up It's hard not to take it personally. On the other hand, when they do show up it seems to all be worthwhile. This Sunday We only had one of the families that we visited this week come to church. She is a new member. She brought her 14-year-old son who is not a member. Her son had a friend there and seemed to get along great. She seemed to have very little interaction with the adult members. I guess I need to give my talk fellowshipping over again. We love this family and wish someone would just say hi or invite her to sit by them. It really doesn't take much to make a stranger feel welcome.

We hope you all are doing well, We continue to enjoy our time here. Our time is running out but it seems like there is still much for us to do.

Have a great week
Your Friends
Hermana Y Elder Borup.

We timed our house inspections just right to catch lunch with the missionaries for lunch after their district meeting

Here's what 50 cents worth of eggplant looks like.

These boys were very interested in the video we were showing an investigator. They seemed like ordinary boys on ordinary bikes but look closer. The bike in the back has a plastic bottle for a seat. When the guy in the middle moved we could see his seat was some sort of 2-inch plastic cap.

If you zoom in you can see the plastic cap seat. (I"m going to let you do the zoom, my time as a missionary is more valuable than yours!)

I told Hermana Duffy I would use this picture as blackmail. She's showing her investigator the churches websites. (can't use smartphones in our mission)