Hermana Y Elder Borup

It's hard to believe that another week is here already. This week it fills like we are getting a grip on our duties in the office. You know what that means. It might be time for a change. President Santos has been asked by the District President in Azua if he could have a senior Missionary Couple in Azua to help them grow to become a Stake. There plan is to combine 2 Districts Bani and Azua to make one Stake. President is leaning towards sending us there in the next month or two. It makes us very nervous because our language skills are not nearly as good as we need them to be but we also know if that is where we are assigned we will be successful there. Stay tuned! Monday there was another Multi-Zone activity. This time it was for the Zones in the South part of the mission. Tuesday we learned that one of the Elders from Brazil hurt his leg playing soccer. (knowing Brazil soccer players I was sure he was just taking a "dive" to get the penalty kick) He went to see the l...

This week was not like any other week. Oh wait, have I said that before? There really is no such thing as routine. Hermana Borup continues to get better at her work and I continue to find ways to be creative in my failures in the office. Remember last week I spent more than 5 ours paying the electric bill? I came back to the office to see if the amount I was refunded was correct. As it turns out they were 8500 DOP (Dominican pesos = about $180 US) short on the refund. This week I returned to the electric company with Elder Buhler who speaks Spanish. After another hour and a half the manager discovered I was right. She then told us that there was nothing she could do. In other words oh well, better luck next time! Apparently she has no way of refunding the money since it wasn't the same day. I couldn't return on the same day because by the time they finished the 5 hour marathon (a little longer than my time in a marathon by the way)  the office was closed.  This week star...

This is getting to be a habit, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit it. Hermana Borup and I managed to find our way to our favorite beach again. It was along week in the office for me, filled with many mistakes and long days. We are constantly amazed at how friendly people are. This week at la Caleta some young men asked Hermana Borup for her phone number. She never really told me if she gave it to them or not. While we were reading on the beach a young boy made friends with us. He gave a fruit that in English is called Sea grapes (uva de playa). He just hung out with us the whole time we were there. We ended up giving him a ride home. It was a couple miles away. As you can see from our pictures of La Caleta we don't look like anyone else there. It doesn't seem to bother anyone. I guess that means if we are ever here without our swimsuits I can swim in my underwear just like the locals. We made another trip to the airport this week. A young man from the Don Gregorio Bran...

We hear that it is starting to get cold in Utah. I'm never cold and Hermana Borup complains about being cold once in awhile when she thinks I have the Air conditioning too high. It seems like we have been getting less rain and the days are a bit more mild. Mid 80's and partly cloudy. It's really warm but more mild. As you can see from the picture below, we enjoyed another trip to La Caleta, a beach near the Airport. I would call it my favorite beach. It has tons of character, the water is crystal clear, the people are amazingly friendly and it's easy to get to. We went for a swim and when We got back some boys about 12 years old were asking about our goggles. We let them try them for a while. They had a blast. Our English class just took a major jump in enrollment. Last week we had some kids that we didn't recognize show up to class with note books, ready to learn. They told us that their teacher announced our class to the kids at school. They asked it was ok ...

It was another great week in the office. It feels like we are making fewer mistakes but then again we continue to get older so it might just be our memory is getting worse. Every day we go into the office with the determination to return home in the early evening. It almost never happens. We get home late and we're tired but feel like we have made a little difference so we are happy about our efforts. The best part of our day is always when we get to interact with the missionaries. They are truly amazing. Iv'e said before but it needs to be said again. This is not an easy place to be a missionary. They teach a lot, but the conditions are never easy. But whenever we see missionaries they always have a smile. They carry the good word happily. The mission has increased our effort to help others come to Christ through the Book of Mormon. Everyone here (except the guy i mentioned last week) believes in Christ. The goal is to help people know Him better by learning about his t...