🙏The Family is of God 🙏

President Felix and Katherine Diaz family

So many wonderful families here in the DR who really know how to be a strong family!

There is often three generations living within the homes  

In this beautiful country the dominican culture is strong in their devotion to God and to the family unit. We look at the faces of the families as we visit the dominican wards each week and we see the love and devotion for family. We celebrate with them and know that 

The Family is of God. 

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Brayan's grandfather's Memorial

With Brayan at the memorial

We gave the family a guanabana (also known as Sour Sop) sapling we grew from a seed, it will grow into a fruit baring tree in 5-7 years.

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A few thoughts about our friends

On Sunday we visited the El Dorado ward

This is brother Mota.

 As a missionary many years ago, he taught the Breton family.

Marcos Breton was our mission President when we first came to the DR a year ago. He was fourteen years old when the missionaries (Bro Mota and Companion) taught his family 40 years ago.  

Then President and Hna Breton picking us up from the airport.

  He now works with us at the Institute as a director over the Institute and Seminaries program in the Northern region of Santiago. Marcos said he was thinking back on those many years, and is reminded that he was both Brother Mota's Bishop and Stake President. 

Good and special memories!

 

AND Bella Vista Ward YSA's

We love these people and their loving nature!!

Look at all of the arms around one another

These sweet boys are all new Deacons in the ward ordained last month wearing their new white shirts and colorful ties. It was like herding cats getting this picture of them 😁

They were so adorable we had to take a picture, and of course, 

give them a coveted American Hi-Chew!

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We love their strength and their thoughts

Institute Classes

 Jesus Christ and His Everlasting Gopel

(Front L to R) Geraldo, Samuel, Bobson, Sue, Ester, Ismael 

(Back L) Perla

In class we learned God's Justice, Mercy and Love 

are part of Gods plan to preserve agency. 

We also discussed Elder Christofferson's Oct 2016 General Conf talk "Abide in God's Love " He said, "His love is described in scripture as 'great and wonderful love' [D&C 138:3], 'perfect love' [1John 4:18]; Moroni 8:16], 'redeeming love' [Alma 5:26], and 'everlasting love' [Jeremiah 31:3]. These are better terms because the word unconditional can convey mistaken impressions about divine love, such as, God tolerates and excuses anything we do because His love is unconditional, or all are saved in the heavenly kingdom of God because His love is unconditional, or God makes no demands upon us because His love is unconditional. God's love is infinite and it will endure forever, but what it means for each of us depends upon how we respond to His love."  This was a much appreciated aspect in the lesson manual Hna Ellis was passionate to teach.

And then we enjoyed home made mango ice cream to prove that; just as the creator of this ice cream must use the perfect amount of  cream, sugar and mango, Jesus Christ knows the perfect amount of justice, mercy, and love to make the end product perfectly sweet. 

Cocina Class

 

Kenzy, Jesse, Sue, Liyanna, Peter, Dilson (came after pic was taken)

Salchipapas is a favorite dominican dish! 

Hna Ellis's recipe changes it up a little bit-

white potatoes instead of french fries, w/onions, zuzchini and pesto

and 

Funnel Cake

Peter, Sue, Hilton, Jose Roberto (our current director), Dilson, Jesse

The funnel cakes were a BIG hit!

A fun Pennsylvania Dutch dessert enjoyed at American carnivals

We made these in honor of the Domincan Republic celebration of CARNIVAL during the months of February and March

 CARNIVAL is celebrated in Santiago on February 9th. 

Santo Domingo celebrates it on March 2nd.

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Elder and Sister Uchtdorf YSA Devotional  

Croisants and Hershy chocolate bars for those attending

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Brayan's father said he needs a hair cut asap!

On it!

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Shopping for food here can be expensive 

These items were from PriceSmart 

 similar to Costco or Sam's Club and carries products from both  

    Pure Maple Syrup (20 oz) 935 pesos = $15.58    Granny Smith Apples (@ 6) 410 pesos =  $6.83 

    Rasberries 430 pesos = $7.17 USD a clam   Red Grapes 495 pesos - $8.25 USD a sm container

2pk ThermoFlask 2,095 pesos + tax = $36 USD    Asparagus 510 pesos = $8.50 USD   

Blueberries for a small clam container are 570 pesos = $9.50         

There are also foods that aren't as expensive, so we plan our menu around those foods. But every once in a while we splurg on asparagus, or apples. 😀 Live a little, right?!

There are a ton of American names in many parts of Dominican Republic (just a coincidence). There is a town called La Vega (founded in 1495, a year after Columbus arrived) we hear it called Las Vegas sometimes. It is not the party town that LasVegas is, but it is a thriving town that is well established and populated. It was a gold boom town closest to the mountains where gold was found. There is also a town called San Francisco de Macoris (founded in the early 1700's), it is known for their cocoa, and not far from Santiago. It used to be in our mission, but on July 1st 2024 our mission was split to make the Santo Domingo North mission, and it is now in that mission. This bridge looks like the Golden Gate Bridge.  

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In our travels we come across some fun things

This is on a main freeway driving 60 mph 

There are cats, but there are more dogs! It was a curious thing to see a kitten leashed to a shoe. You can't tell from this picture, but these kittens are quite small, and we are going to assume that kitty leashed, is to protect it from running away. 

There was a great Valentine's movie night at the Institute for the YSA's with popcorn and...

 Valentine cookies 

Getting ready for a Centro JAS Valentine's party on Saturday

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Preparing for a Seminary Teachers meeting early Saturday morning

Breakfast was served 

Breakfast burritos and many Valentine's cookies were made for all of the festivities. Wanda was the first to arrive! Early bird gets the worm...or breakfast burrito

 

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Our thoughts and L💗VE

 The days, weeks, and months here are very busy and fly by so quickly! We are grateful for the gospel. It is our rich blessing and experience to learn and grow with deeper understanding of the doctirnes of the gospel as we prepare lessons. We love these teaching opportunities with the YSA's. It takes time and energy to be a student of the gospel, but we love it and feel it a blessing in our lives. 

We are beginning to observe something wonderful happening with Church history topics. More Church history documents, information and resources have become easier to access since the Joseph Smith Papers project, SAINTS series and other wonderful resources have been produced online and on the Gospel Library app. 

We don't have a lot of extra time, but when opportunity allows we enjoy watching Let's Get Real with Stephen Jones, He has several different historian guests on his show-one historian is Don Bradly who talks about leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints due to his research of Church history, and then coming back due to his research of Church history. (He was on WARD Radio as well). We also watched another historian on this pod cast, Steven C. Harper who wrote a book on The First Vision and Joseph Smiths memory of it. We love learning from "Come Follow Me" and the commentary it provides. We also watch Follow Him with Hank Smith and John Bytheway who have guests that they help us go a little deeper into the scripture section- helping with backstory and history research giving us a broader and better understanding. 

Jesus Christ is our foundation, learning of Christ through scripture and prayer help us to know Him. These other helps are the scaffolding as we learn by Study and by Faith.  

💗Thank you for checking in on us! We love you!💗

Elder & Hna Ellis   

Gpa & Gma

Dad & Mom

Brother & Sister

💗 Your friends 💗