There's a special place in heaven for the members that feed the missionaries

Brian with lizard on nose

Well we got our transfer news.... Both of us are staying another transfer. We thought for sure one of us was going to leave. We even said goodbye to like everybody at church cause we weren't sure if we were going to see them again. Another six weeks out here in Mayagüez with Elder Jenson I guess.

The week, however, was pretty much totally awesome. It was a bit funky though. We've been having tropical storms out here, and we're supposed to have them for like the next week. Which means it just starts pouring like crazy and it gets super windy. And we get very very wet. Hurricane season is also coming up so we've been asked to stock up on some canned food and water. We'll see how this goes.

Despite all the rain and stormy weather it's still stayed decently hot out here though. Well, as far as normal temperature goes. I've actually gotten a little cold. It's funny because it will be raining outside, and I'll feel a little bit chilly. So I'll look at the temperature and realize it's still 80 degrees out. I'm just too used to dripping in sweat in hundred degree weather.

Drenched after run in thunderstorm

The reason I said our week was pretty much totally awesome instead of totally awesome though is because of Sunday. Everything was going super awesome until Sunday. We had 11 investigators committed to come to church with us. Which is a little bit higher than we normally have committed. We thought for sure at least 3 or 4 would show up. At the least. Turns out nobody ended up coming. It's the first time that we haven't had any investigators at church since our first week here. Everybody just decided to use their agency wrong.

For real though, we actually found a lot of really cool people this week. A lot of which are super solid and awesome to work with. Although nobody  was able to make it out to church this Sunday, a lot of them really did want to come. They just ran into some unexpected situations. This place really is a super awesome place to work in, and the members are way cool.

With member and comp

With another member

Member missionary work

Member missionary work

Hanging out with cool members

As far as highlights of th week, they all actually have to do with pizza.
First one: Our dinner and Family Home Evening with one of the counselors in the bishopric and his wife. They're both returned missionaries, and they're both only like 4 years older than me. It was pretty basic; we went over to their house and just ate pizza and talked about life, school, and after the mission stuff. It's always awesome to be able to eat pizza and have regular conversations in English.
Second one: All of our plans cancelled, and we still hadn't eaten yet. We were wandering around a caserío figuring out what to do next when one of the members walked passed us, and invited us over to eat some pizza. It also happened to quite possibly be the best pizza that I've ever eaten as well. There's a special place in heaven for the members that feed the missionaries.

The District

Taking part in this wonderful work and helping to bring the gospel to everybody in PR

Brian catching snake in church

Well I had an absolutely wonderful week. Not only that but we were wonderfully fed as well. Some of our meals consisted of freshly caught seafood, some Chinese rice dish, Mexican enchiladas, and of course the classic arroz y habichuelas. It was my first time having all of those foods here in Puerto Rico (besides the arroz y habichuelas of course), and we happened to get them all in the same week.

Apart from the food though, the actual missionary work is going good as well. Somebody that lived way out in the campo (jungly area), requested a Bible from us online. The problem was that we were never told that he requested a Bible, just that somebody requested to meet with the missionaries. So of course, when we arrived we didn’t have any Bible with us to give, and we were way to far out to go back and get one. So we just gave him a Book of Mormon instead. It surprisingly went over way better than we thought though. He wasn’t upset at all about not getting his Bible, and he actually ended up reading half of the Book of Mormon in like three days. I mean I can’t even read it that fast. He would have finished the thing too if his pastora hadn’t told him to stop reading it. It was funny when we were talking with him about it though. We asked him why she wanted him to stop reading it, and he was like “Well, she probably thinks that I’m going to end up finding out that it’s true.” So, it’ll be interesting to see how his next chat with his pastora goes.

We found some other super cool investigators as well this week. We met somebody at the very end of our night and we had like no time to get back to our apartment. So we just gave him a pamphlet and our number and then left. Normally we try to actually teach something or at least mention something about what we believe. Interestingly enough, he ended up calling us wanting us to come back and teach him. He told us that he’s never invited anybody into his house ever to talk about religion, but he wanted us to come over because we didn't try to talk to him or force him to listen to us. We just gave him our stuff and left. So I guess the trick isn’t to try and teach. We should just give everybody pamphlets and walk away. I wonder how that would work out?

We also had zone conference this week. So I got to see all of the missionaries in the West side of the island. It's always awesome to be able to get together and just learn a bunch from everybody. Especially since almost all of the missionaries have so many different insights because they have served in many other missions across the USA because of the hurricane. Not only that, but almost our entire mission is made up of experienced missionaries. I've almost been out for a year now, and I'm one of the newest missionaries with the exception of a few people. The main focus of the conference, however, was our purpose as missionaries, and how to measure the success that we're having. Sometimes all the work we put in yields no results at all. The important part is to keep giving everything you have and just doing your best. We’re getting transfer news next week as well, so it will be interesting to see if I stay out here in Mayaguez or head out to some random part of Puerto Rico. Either way though, I'll be able to take part in this wonderful work, help bring the gospel to everybody out here.