I'm headed back home!

My companions for the last 2 weeks

Well I never thought this day would come. I still don't think it's quite set in yet nor do I think it will, but I'm headed back home! These past two years haven't been the easiest, but they have been by far the most worth it.

With Elder Young

I have been so blessed to be able to serve in so many different areas with so many different people and cultures, and I wouldn't trade any of the experiences I've had for anything.

With Elder Ortiz overlooking Yauco

Love you guys all and thanks for all your support!!

Baby iguana we caught

I'm back in Puerto Rico!

Saying goodbye to Cindy

Well I don't have too much time cause the library out here is going to close. But I'm back in Puerto Rico!

Saying goodbye to Julien

It feels like I'm already back in the United States. There are so many people here, and the freeways are so big. It's not just a two lane road around the island. And there are a TON of places to go eat and shop. It's pretty crazy, but super cool. I forgot how much I miss this place.

Saying goodbye to the Ger family

With Pinky and his family for the last time

Saying goodbye to Suzie

For my last days though I'm going to be training two Elders. One got to Puerto Rico a couple weeks ago, and is from Texas. The other arrived the day I did here, but he was in Bolivia a couple weeks while he was waiting for his Visa. I'm in a place called Yauco which is in the desert of Puerto Rico.

Saying goodbye to Jeanwidner

The work's been going super good though. I don't know the area nor will I ever get to know it really well, but we've been focusing a lot recently on finding. We've been trying out a lot of the thinks that worked well out in Dominica and it's been going super well.

30 Graduates from English class

Handing out the certificates for English Class

With Kenlove (he helped start up the class)

Then this Pday I finally got to see a bunch of missionaries again which was super cool. We had a zone activity out in Ponce, (the city)  where we played a bunch of sports and had a BBQ. It was super fun!!

Ponce zone activity displaying flags from where they're from

Went back to Puerto Rico yesterday

With President George and his family

Well my time's sadly coming to an end out here on Dominica. I'm heading back over to Puerto Rico this Saturday.

At Morne Diablotin trailhead

We decided for my last Pday out here we were going to hike Morne Diablotin. It's one of the highest mountains in the Caribbean with a summit of about 5,000 feet. It didn't quite go as we expected it to though. We could barely even find where it started there was so many vines and trees. The trail got all destroyed after hurricane Maria, and it didn't look like anyone's really hiked it since. We only made it in about 40 minutes before we decided to turn back. We weren't even sure we were on the path like 80 percent of the time. We just grabbed some sticks and started blazing our own trail hacking things down in our path. Despite our efforts we still managed to get all cut up on our arms and legs from the plants. We didn't quite make it up, but we still had a blast.

Treking through the jungle

Climbing through all the fallen trees

Later on today we also plan on having our graduation for all of the Haitians in the English class. That should be fun.

Our week, however, has been going super great. We've been able to continue to teach someone named Fran out here. We found her a couple weeks ago, and she loves our messages. She goes up to the countryside every weekend, so it's been hard for her to be able to come down to church. She's been truly trying to learn though, and is trying her best to follow the Gospel.

Cleaning the church after a battle

We've had some other really good lessons this week as well. We're teaching this one lady named Joanna and she always has like a thousand questions. Although as missionaries we are so far from perfect, and there are so many things I still don't know I love teaching people like that. Even though we might not be able to answer every single one of her questions right away, I have no doubt that there are answers for them. I don't ever need to worry about people questioning things either cause the Gospel of Christ truly is perfect, and if they truly want to know the truth they'll come to know.

With the Joseph family

Funny story from this week: So for those of you who have never been to Dominica, houses are just straight up built on the sides of mountains. So sometimes it takes like ten minutes to get from the main road down to the house cause, well, you have to scale a mountain. So the other day we were trying to make our way down to the house of someone we are teaching, and his path is just absolutely terrible. It's a super slippery slanted dirt path that just drops off on the left so you can't fall. Anyways, I stepped on what I thought was a step. It turned out to be a very loose log in the middle of the path. I yelled out to my comp who was farther up to move. Then when I lifted my foot the log started rolling and flew down the side of the mountain. It ended up busting a water pipe on the side of their house and started spewing everywhere. So we had to go shut the water off and head to go pick up some parts to fix the pipe. We got it all fixed up, and everything works now, but we're definitely a lot more wary about watching our step now.

View overlooking Cabrits

After church with Danny

With Reginald

On Sunday we got to have church with all the members on the island in one place

With President and Sister Mohr

We had yet another super awesome week! And not surprisingly, lots of driving.

The Mohrs have been with us for the weekend. He's the first councilor in the mission presidency. So these past couple days we've been going on visits with them and having some church activities.

On Sunday we got to have church with all the members on the island in one place. Everyone from the North side of the island bused down to come meet with us on the South end. Afterwards was super fun cause we all got together and had a bunch of snacks.

Swinging through the trees

Then during the night we headed up to the north to have a devotional with all of the youth. That ended up turning out super well and was so awesome for all the kids cause they don't have too much support out here.

The rest of the week went super well also. Besides the fact that I woke up on Wednesday not being able to put my neck straight. I must of slept wrong or something. That's finally gotten better though, and now I'm not dying in all of my contacts.

We've had some really great lessons recently as well. We've just recently started teaching this one lady that is working pretty close to the church. She lives in another village farther away, but has started working and living at a place super close. She's been reading the Book of Mormon and is loving it. We've also been finding some other super sweet people.

Hanging up in the vines

We finished our week off with an awesome Pday. The Mohrs took us out to a buffet for breakfast, then after driving them back out to the airport we finished up all our stuff and headed off to a nature trail to go hiking. It ended up being super cool. After a couple months of being out here I finally saw the amazon parrots indigenous to the island. There was also a bunch of vines hanging from the trees. So naturally we spent like half an hour swinging around on those. Overall super sweet week!

Massive vines from the trees

Massive Boa snake we ran into close to our house

We've been having some really good lessons, and we've been finding some super cool people

Overlooking Roseau next to the Haitian flag

Well I don't have too much time to right today cause we've been hiking all morning. I headed up to the boiling lake for the last time up here. The week has been going great though.

At the boiling lake

We were able to have a couple really cool lessons. We started teaching someone who works near the church, and she's been reading in the Book of Mormon and loving it. We also started teaching someone a little farther who has been able to read all the stuff we've given her, and absolutely loves how much our message is centered on Christ. We were able to meet a super cool lady from the UK as well who seemed pretty interested. Overall we've been having some really good lessons, and we've been finding some super cool people.

Showing us how he makes his homemade bricks

With some super cool Cubans we met out here

Soccer night

Working out in Portsmouth

We're teaching a very well known family in the Kalinago territory

With Claudius and Annette at the graduation ceremony

Well we've still had a bunch of problems to deal with, but even with all of them this week was super sweet. Our power's been out at our house for this last little bit now cause we were having problems with the bank activating our card for utilities (it's all good though cause we've just been staying in the church). And we've had to get a few car repairs, but since our card isn't working we've had to use our money for food and wait for the extra funds to be transferred into our account, so we've had to brake into our hurricane storage a little bit. Luckily though we finally got our card activated so we should be good now.

Hurricane season has also officially started out here. Nothing big is probably going to come in before I head back to Puerto Rico, but we've heard it will start to rain a lot more. And they weren't kidding. It's been raining so hard these past couple of days. Fortunately, we got lended two umbrellas the other day cause otherwise we would have been soaked.

Driving through the jungle in the pouring rain

We got to make a trip to the Kalinago Territory as well this week. That was super cool. We're teaching a very well known family in the territory, and the the wife had started up a nursing program for the people in the Carib reserve. They invited us down for the graduation ceremony. On our way out and back from the territory there was a huge thunderstorm with flood warnings. It was pretty crazy and super cool cause it's about an hour drive through the middle of the jungle with sooo much rain. The graduation ceremony was an awesome experience though. The building we had it in didn't have any power so we had to use a generator with one light to keep it lit when it got dark. We also got to meet the Kalinago chief and some other cool people up there, and try some native Carib food.

Listening to the Kalinago chief speak in the territory for graduation ceremony

This morning we also got the chance to be invited to a hand off ceremony at the Dominica college. The church had donated 29 laptops and 10 projectors to the college, so we and our branch president got invited up for that. It was super cool to see how much of a help that is going to be to them.

Some of the laptops donated by the church

With some students and faculty of college at the hand-off ceremony

The work out here is going great! We haven't had quite as much time to go out and teach, but the chances we do get have been awesome.

After a battle up in Portsmouth

Our view driving around the island

Back together with comp in Puerto Rico right before I left to come to Dominica

English Class students

Well it's been a pretty crazy week with a ton of driving with all the airport trips. My old companion Elder Segura flew back out to Puerto Rico this last Saturday. My new companion, however, flew into the island last Thursday. We didn't know who it was going to be until he walked off the plane, and I was super surprised to see that it was Elder Jones. He was my companion back in Puerto Rico right before I left to come to Dominica. We're back together for my last couple of weeks out here, and it's going to be super sweet.

In these past couple of days though, Elder Jones has got quite the welcome to the island. We had a crazy guy crash our business class. He kept calling me Jerry and would not leave. He started trying to eat our food from the kitchen and to drink our water. During the class, he was going off about how he needed fifteen million dollars so he could take over the world. The day before that while we were exercising at the park a baby bull tried to charge us. Then after having getting yelled at by someone telling us Jesus was black even though we hadn't even said anything to him, we got yelled and threatened to "Leave this place! Get out!" by some Dominican after coming out from a lesson. We also headed out to go pull out our money for some food, the phone bill, and the house's power bill. The ATM malfunctioned and ended up eating my card without giving me any money. The bank was closed at the time, and we were told I'd be able to get it back in two days when the manager comes into work. When we went in to go retrieve the card later on, they told us they destroyed all the cards. So we had a huge hassle with that, and we have to wait a while before all those funds transfer over, and I can get a new card. So hopefully we won't need to much money any time soon.

Anyways, that's been our life recently. We've been trying to sort all those messes out. We have been able to find some cool people recently as well. We have been very busy with all the trips and other work we've been having to do recently as well though.