La Cocinera

Today has been a very busy but rewarding day. I know that the Lord has blessed me with an amazing love for the people here in the Republica Dominicana. They are so humble and loving. Moroni, our Institute Student Council President is such an an amazing young man. He is so organized and prepared. I really respect him. We had our planning meeting tonight and they (the council) have a great plan for the next four months. Except for one thing....they're planning on Hermana Park making lunch for their temple day. I've learned a very quick lesson. Never say "never". It's so true. I must have told 50 people "I'm not going to cook!" Ha, ha Peggy. Serves me right for being so headstrong.  Today one of my favorite young men and I made Rice Krispie squares for Institute Devotional. Last week we made cookies. Jose is one of our non member students. I love him so much. We're teaching each other our languages with the help of Google Translate. He is studying medicine at the University. He takes New Testament at the Institute.

I wanted you all to see how we get our best fruit. I took this picture from our fourth floor apartment looking down at the street where Elder Park is buying platanos (bananas) and an aguacate (avocado) from Ramon.  Every morning Ramon pushes his cart down the street calling "¡aguacates!"  These avocados are huge. We pay about $1.00 for one, which is about three times the size of a Haas avocado at home. They are more expensive in the store.
One of the other people in our lives is William. He is Haitian and i
s our security guard. Not a word of English  and is pretty muscular. He looks like he would just as soon kill you as look at you. When we say hello and smile he has a beautiful, big smile on that usually stern face. The other day Elder Park gave him a banana and that big smile appeared. You have to love these people!
P.S.  All of our FUNVAL students were hired this week.  They will all start their new jobs by Oct. 12.  They are so excited and we are excited for them but we will miss them.  This next week will be our last time teaching this group.  Te amamos todos, nuestros amigos! (We love you all, our friends)