There is nothing I would rather be doing now than strengthening the families and sharing the glad tidings of the gospel with the people out here in Puerto Rico.

Yet another absolutely amazing week. It was definitely interesting as well. On Sunday, I wouldn't be surprised if more tourists showed up to church than actual members that live here. The entire back rows of the chapel were just filled with gringos that were visiting.

With Zone at Zone Conference

Highlight of the week would definitely have to be our Old San Juan day. So normally we don't go out to Old San Juan cause there's not too much work to do out there (it's where all the tourists are). But we met a couple people that lived out there so we decided to make the trip, and did not regret it at all. We met so many cool people. We also got to check out a neighborhood called La Perla that's super famous out here. It's where they shot the music video for Despacito. It get's even better though. On our way back to the bus stop, two American couples visiting from Utah drove by. About five minutes later, they drove by again and pulled over to invite us out to dinner. We ended up eating the most fancy and amazing tasting Mofongo I've ever had out in Old San Juan while telling them all about Puerto Rico.

Walking along coast with companion in lead

La Perla Puerto Rico

We also got one of the most intense soccer games going in the mud with a bunch of little kids out in a cacerio out here. It was so fun, and we didn't even have as much fun as the kids. That game probably made their entire week. They were so happy after. Right after we went to one of our appointments right next to the game we had, and the person we were working with said it was so cool to see everyone having fun out there with us.

The gospel is honestly the roadmap of how to be happy here in this life, and in the life to come. Us as missionaries not only get to have fun with the kids and people out here every once in a while, but we get to share the joy and the happiness that living the gospel brings literally every single day. There is nothing I would rather be doing now than strengthening the families and sharing the glad tidings of the gospel with the people out here in Puerto Rico.

The colored houses of Puerto Rico

Welcome sign to La Perla

I absolutely love working with the people out here!

Zone Conference at El Moro

We had an awesome week, followed up with an awesome zone activity at El Moro! I also don't think I've ever eaten so much in my life. I have been full from the start of the week all the way up until the end of the week. There was one day where we were fed five separate times in the evening. We were going from one dinner appointment to the next. I can't really complain about that though, cause it's a heck of a lot better than being hungry.

The work out here is going so great though, and it is honestly such a blast. I absolutely love working with the people out here. I've met some of the nicest people and coolest families. We have this one lady in our ward from Mexico that makes us a big Mexican dinner every Sunday, and it's like the best thing ever. We've also been working with this one Dominican family for the longest time ever, and they were finally able to make it out to church this Sunday. Not only that, but they absolutely loved it. I love teaching them, and learning all about their culture. For some reason like all of the Dominican grandmas out here have like 20 siblings. In her particular case, she said she had 25 brothers and sisters, and me and my comp were absolutely blown away by that. There is this other lady we met the other day that had great, great grandkids and was not only still alive, but only looked like she was about 40 years old. It's funny cause the more and more I've been out here in Puerto Rico though, the more and more Boriqua I feel. All the crazy different things that they do out here that isn't done in the states doesn't even phase me anymore. Overall great week though. I'm loving every second of being out here in San Juan!

Hanging out with the zone

The foursome

General Conference Weekend

Old San Juan

Yet again I forgot my planner with notes on everything we did this week. We got absolutely spoiled this week though! There's a new senior couple that just came into the mission, and they got assigned to our district. They've been treating us sooo nice though. They invited us over to watch general conference for the weekend and it was so awesome. They fed us, had snacks, and we got to watch conference in a nice air conditioned house with a couch. Ever since the hurricane, they got rid of all the couches in the missionary apartments, so getting to chill on a couch all day is probably the most amazing thing that could have happened to me.

General Conference with the Flake's

Eating with the Flake's

Not only that, but we found out that they're going to build a temple in San Juan, Puerto Rico! All of the members are going absolutely crazy. They've been waiting to get a temple for years, and they finally announced it! Every time general conference comes around, everyone always talks about when Puerto Rico is finally going to get a temple, and now we're getting one.

Besides that though, we had a pretty normal week. We did a bunch of service, and talked to a lot of people. Favorite part besides conference was probably the lesson we had with a Dominican family and one of their gringo friends. The gringo spoke practically no Spanish, and the Dominicans spoke practically no English. I have no idea how they even communicated with each other. The dinner we had with them was the funniest thing ever, cause we were having two completely different conversations the entire night, and we got to mess with them the whole time cause we were the only people that understood everything.

Holding Pigeons

Celebrating investigator's daughter's birthday party

Celebrating investigator's daughter's birthday party

As far as a spiritual side of things, things are going awesome. We got invited to one of our investigator's daughter's birthday parties and we ended up being the only people who had showed up at the time even though it already started. It's been awesome to be able to work with them. We also had zone conference this week and learned a lot about being bold but loving.

Transfer calls came out this week! Both Elder Shah and I will be staying out here in San Juan. We are getting another Elder in the house though because Elder Cook is going home tomorrow. 

Happiness spreading the gospel

This week was kind of crazy though. Or should I say the people we talked to were pretty insane this week. It's always the craziest conversations we have on the buses or at the bus stops. It's different every single time too. The weirdest one was when we talked to these guys who my companion is thoroughly convinced are Russian spies or something. We were talking to this pretty cool college student at the bus stop at the end of our day when this guy walks up to us, and in the heaviest Russian accent ever asks us (in English) where the bus is going. We tell him, and then immediately after walks over to this other Russian dude and has a small conversation with him (they were facing away from each other the whole time), after which they pretend like they don't know each other. We were talking with the guy on the bus though and he was lying about absolutely everything though. He also said he was Puerto Rican and had learned Russian when he made a short trip over there. His Spanish was so bad though, there is absolutely no way it could have been true. Either way we were getting some funky vibes from the dude.

Funniest part by far of the week was the English class we had to teach though. We talked with him on the bus for like 3 minutes, and got his phone number. We ended up setting up a time to meet up with him at Plaza las Americas (the biggest mall out here in the Caribbean) to help teach him some English. He ends up being super late, and every time we call him he tells "Estoy llegando ahora mismo" or that he's arriving right now. This keeps happening and we end up waiting like an hour and decide to just leave. As we're walking through the mall though with thousands of people he see's us and calls us over. He then starts walking us over to the food court. This guy was kind of a weird dude. The whole time he didn't say like a word to us. When we got there he said "teach me." So we started to teach him and he starts asking us what parts of the body are in English (like head and arm and stuff). Every time he repeats the word over and over.

Brian's love for fast cars has not changed

There's some places we go and the kids literally come running out to play with us.

With comp before the prophet's visit to Coliseo

Well to be honest I don't really remember much that happened this week. I do remember that it was super awesome though!

We've also become best friends with like all of the kids out here. It's the coolest thing ever. We play baseball, basketball, football, volleyball (literally like everything) with them. There's some places we go and the kids literally come running out to play with us.

We did have to say goodbye to one of lo mas chevere members out here. He was baptized a year ago and is honestly like the coolest guys ever. I don't think I've ever seen him upset or say anything negative about anybody. He came up to us the other day though, and told us that he felt like he needed to go to Utah. So within a week, he packed up, and headed over to Utah to start working and living over there. He barely knows any English at all and doesn't really know where he's going, but he's put all of his trust in God and has absolutely know doubts about anything that will happen to him. Some of the people we meet are honestly so awesome with the best examples ever.

(A bunch of probably pretty cool stuff that I can't really remember right now)...

And of course we finished the week off right. We all got together as a zone and had a huge BBQ! Nothing like eating some burgers and playing some sports. Then we headed out and all went bowling. What more could you ask for.

Bowling with Zone

With comp by the ocean

Back with old comp & Christian who traveled a couple of hrs to see prophet

Missions are honestly like the most fun things ever!

Gathering to hear a prophet's voice

Honestly had like the best week ever. It's so much fun out here in San Juan. We literally have everything out here.

So this week we had something super awesome happen. The prophet came out to Puerto Rico! We ended up renting a coliseum out here in San Juan and all of the members and missionaries from the entire island met up to see him. It was quite possibly the coolest thing ever. I got to see practically every member and every missionary that I know on the entire island! It's always crazy to see the prophet in person cause there is always such a strong spirit there. Crazier than that though, President Nelson gave his whole talk. Then he thanked and dismissed his translator. Everybody thought he was finished speaking...

Nope! He then proceeded to finish off the meeting in Spanish. As in from that point on, he literally only spoke Spanish and then finished off by giving the members of Puerto Rico an apostolic blessing in Spanish. He had a bit of an American accent, but he did not make a single grammatical mistake. Not a single one! That absolutely blew everybody's mind. There is no way that that man is not called of God. Definitely an experience that I will never ever forget.

The rest of the week absolutely blew by. Missions are honestly like the most fun things ever! We get the chance to meet so many cool people everyday out here.

Sister Smart's Notes

All of the members on the entire island are getting together because the Prophet is coming to speak to us

Some cool street art

Well last week was pretty sick, but this one was even better. We honestly had such a fun time this week. Especially since I haven't had to do any whitewashing at all. To start off, however, this Sunday all of the members on the entire island are going to get together because the Prophet is coming to speak to us. Everyone's going to meet in the coliseo de Puerto Rico, and we live so close to it that we don't even need to drive. We'll see how that goes though, because the last time a member of the 12 came, we got hit with a level five hurricane. Everyone out here is super excited.

The rest of the week was.. well.. pretty eventful. I don't even know where to start. We got offered Dominican wives. We were talking with this older lady, and she told us that she's going to be our suegra. Then she pulled out her phone and started showing us pictures of all her granddaughters, and told us to take our pick. It was pretty funny.

We also came up with the coolest language study ever. We went to one of the college campuses out here and basically started telling stories to everyone. We'd go to a busier area and stay super close to each other while we asked different groups of people if we could share stories with them. We told them we were Americans trying to work on our Spanish, and asked them if they could correct some of our mistakes while we told a story to them. It was actually super fun, and now we're starting to become way good friends with a bunch of the college students. I swear some of the people out here are the chillest people ever.

We played some dominoes with all of the veterans at this veterans hospital out here as well. One of our members here is in the hospital, and we've made best friends with like all the other guys in there as well. We'll go in to visit him, and everybody knows us. Playing dominoes with a bunch of veterans is so fun.

To finish of the week we ended up painting this guys house, and getting pretty sun-burnt. Then we just got fed to death. I swear I think we only had one lesson that day where we were not fed. When we were actually going into our dinner appointment we were so full, we were thinking about making ourselves throw-up so we'd be able to eat. I'd rather be super full then starving though, so it wasn't that bad.

Preaching with Elder Degn

When you see like 5 super cars parked a block from your house