Love and Chocolate Sauce.

The Carter's took Elder Lacanivalu (pronounced la-thon-ee-vah- loo) out for his leaver dinner Monday night. His visa expired Wednesday so he flew out early Tuesday morning to go home to Fiji. Elder Lacanivalu is 6'8" tall and has a quiet personality and his smile is a mile wide. He is a very humble, obedient, missionary and a great example!

The office staff met at the Carter's for a small testimony meeting with Elder L. after dinner. I wish you could have been there to hear the testimonies and to feel the Spirit. Talks were given by President and Sister Carter, and President Carter always ends the meeting by singing in his beautiful voice an Eddy Arnold tune entitled May You Always. It's a song his father sang to him as a boy and he accompanies himself on the guitar. The words are tender and very moving and there isn't a dry eye in the house when he finishes. I'm going to try and video the singing at the next leaver meeting.

In his remarks, President Carter shared that President Hinckley's daughter came to his ward a few years ago and said that the greatest power on the earth is LOVE! He initially disagreed to himself thinking that surely the greatest power is the Priesthood, but has since realized she was right! LOVE is the reason the Father sent his Son, it's the reason the Son did not shrink, it is the First Great Commandment and if people would express LOVE out loud and sincerely more often in our homes, marriages, families, churches, work, and social groups, imagine our world!

From the first interaction with President and Sister Carter AND these young missionaries, I noticed love and appreciation is easily and often expressed. At the end of phone calls to or from missionaries we hear and feel " love ya!" It's a wonderful tender mercy to participate in THIS work, in THIS environment, with THESE people, at THIS time, in THIS place and we are very very grateful!

At the end of the evening, Sister Carter served yummy brownies under vanilla ice cream, with homemade chocolate sauce, topped with chopped pecans, cookie crumbs, and whipped cream. Sister Carter shared the chocolate sauce recipe and it was divine! I can totally understand how it's come to be a Carter family favorite because it is a chocolate lover's Heaven!

Sister Carter's Chocolate Sauce

2 cups sugar 

4 T butter

3-4 T cocoa

3 T flour

1 can evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla

1. Melt butter over low- med heat in large sauce pan.

2. In a separate bowl mix flour, cocoa, sugar.

3. Remove pan from direct heat for a moment and slowly add #2 to #1 until smooth and makes thick paste, stirring constantly so it doesn't scorch.

4. Add 1/2 milk and stir it in, then add the rest of the milk and stir.

5. Bring to a boil...keep stirring!

6. Once it's at a rolling boil, time for 3-4 minutes, keep stirring!

7. Turn heat off and once it has stopped boiling, add the vanilla, stir, enjoy!