I'm going to be heading out to be Zone Leader in a place out here called Caguas

Getting ready for Christmas

Well this week has been absolutely INSANE. Transfer calls came in the other day, and there's been a lot of changes. On Thursday, the other Elders we live with got a call from the mission president. Turns out he got transferred to an island out here called St. Thomas. For his last couple months he will be serving out there and will need to brush up on his French Creole to talk to the Haitians out there. He headed out on Saturday, and we've been in a trio with his companion ever since.

Saying goodbye to Jonathan

I, however, got my call yesterday, and I'm going to be heading out to be Zone Leader in a place out here called Caguas. It's in the middle part of the island, and it's one of the bigger cities here in Puerto Rico. The rest of my zone is straight campo though. I'll be heading out tomorrow, which means the last couple days I have been saying goodbye to everybody. San Juan is going to be such a hard place to leave. The people here are so awesome, and it's been hard to say goodbye to everyone.

Saying goodbye to Jesus and Belkys

It was for sure a good last week out here. We got together as a zone on Saturday and all headed over to the veterans hospital. We then went to all the rooms singing Christmas carols to everyone that can't be home for Christmas. It was so fun, and really cool to see how happy everyone was. We almost weren't even able to make it in. We all showed up in a huge van, and they told us all we weren't going to fit into the parking garage. We decided to take the risk though and piled as many people into the van as we could to weigh it down as we drove super slowly coming millimeters from scraping the top. By some miracle, we were all able to make it in, and it turned out awesome.

With Hermana Rojas

As hard as it's going to be to say goodbye to this area, I'm super excited to head over to Caguas. I'm going to meet some amazing people over there as well, and I can't wait for all of the new things I'm going to learn and cool experiences I'm going to have.

Saying goodbye to Eduardo our neighbor

With like two hours before our next service project, I don't think I've ever painted faster in my life

Viejo San Juan

Painting someone's house pink

Well, unsurprisingly, we had another amazing week. We've been so busy recently, and it's the best. I don't think we had a single free moment. For P-day today we went out and checked out Old San Juan again. We've been out there before, but we normally just go play sports on the huge field by the beach. Today, however, we went and checked out all of the shops. It was super fun, and I'm pretty sure we saw more tourists than actual Puerto Ricans walking around.

With Hermana DeLeon

This week we did a BUNCH of service. On December first, they wanted us to join in some community service projects. So we took that to mean we needed to try to set up as many services projects as possible that Saturday. Not surprisingly, we ended up way over booking ourselves. We showed up at the first one, and they wanted us to paint the entire outside of their house. With like two hours before our next project, I don't think I've ever painted faster in my life. Despite the fact that I ended that day with pink paint spattered all over my clothes we had a bunch of fun, and we were able to help out a bunch of people.

Eating some Paella with some Mexican members

Getting ready for the Christmas season out here is so cool. They've put up lights all over the streets already, and everyone is super excited. There's one thing that they do go way hard on out here for Christmas. The food. And it's not just on Christmas. For all of December, they make rice and gandules and this macaroni stuff, with some other sort of meat. We've been given so much food though, we've been eating it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We're going to be very well fed these next couple weeks.

Some amazing flan and pineapple upside down cake someone made for us

We've also been working a lot with Edward recently. He's been coming to church, and reading the Book of Mormon, and praying. The other day in our lesson, he finally told us the church was true like three times. He is the most down to earth guy, and is so kind and friendly. He's more Christlike than probably like 99 percent of the people I know. It's been so cool to be able to help teach and work with him these past couple weeks. Especially to see all the miracles in his life, and seeing how the gospel truly has blessed his family.

Cool view from Aguas Buenas

It is the coolest thing to be able to meet with people that have completely changed their lives

Puerto Rico!

Well last week was Thanksgiving week, and let's just say I have PLENTY to be thankful for. On Thanksgiving day we got up at 4:45 in the morning so we could all get ready and go to the church to watch the sunrise with the rest of the members in our ward while everyone shared their testimonies. It ended up being super cool, and afterwards we all got together and had an amazing Thanksgiving breakfast. The members out here in San Juan are honestly so awesome. As far as the rest of the day went... we literally and I mean LITERALLY went from Thanksgiving dinner to Thanksgiving dinner for the entire rest of the day. I don't think I've ever been so full in my life. In total we got invited to about 6 dinners, and by the end of the day all we could ask for was a little bit of dessert.

With a recent convert named Paula

Sunrise with the ward

Shawn, probably one of the most unique yet super cool members in the world

As far as the way Thanksgiving is celebrated out here, it's actually pretty similar. A lot of people didn't really celebrate it in our area because they're Dominicans, and it's not a holiday in the Dominican Republic. However, almost all of the Puerto Ricans do celebrate it. They make a turkey, and instead of serving it with mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing, they serve it with this like macaroni dish and arroz con gandules (rice with green pigeon peas). The one thing I definitely missed was the pie. Instead of pumpkin pie, they serve flan. At one of the dinners they actually gave us flancocho which is like half flan half cake which was amazing.

One of our Thanksgiving dinners

The rest of the week was awesome as well. We had zone conference the day after Thanksgiving where we were given a traditional Thanksgiving dinner which was amazing. We also got to do a lot service this week. We helped someone move, and have been cleaning out some abandoned houses from the hurricanes so people can live there. In addition to all of that, I had the opportunity to give a couple baptismal interviews. It is the coolest thing to be able to meet with people that have completely changed their lives, and to listen to their stories of how much the gospel has blessed them.

We are so blessed to be able to have that guidance and instruction from God in our lives

Cool street art

We had an awesome start to the week, and finished it off even better with a visit from one of the 12 Apostles. Elder Christofferson came down for the weekend, and he met with all of the missionaries on Saturday and then with our stake on Sunday. It was super cool to be able to meet with him, and the spirit that was felt there was so strong.

Entire Mission with Elder Christofferson

One of the people we've been teaching named Edward was able to make it out to the meeting with him on Sunday. We've been teaching him for a while now, and our last lesson was about Apostles and Prophets. Edward is a super smart guy in his twenties, and is always asking the most deep questions while paying attention to every single word we say when we answer him. We mentioned, that an Apostle of the Lord was coming to visit Puerto Rico and he got super excited. He wanted to go really bad, and during the meeting on Sunday he pulled out his phone and was taking as many pictures as he could of Elder Christofferson. It's funny, cause that's not really a thought that runs through most of our heads when we see an Apostle. It made me think about

Meeting with Elder Christofferson

how truly lucky we are to be able to listen to living Apostles and Prophets. That was an understanding that Edward had, but that many of us take for granted. We are so blessed to be able to have that guidance and instruction from God in our lives, and we should always strive our best to heed to their council.

Edward after Elder Christofferson came

Apart from the awesome weekend, we had some other cool things happen as well. We set up a Family Home Evening night with a bunch of Dominicans in one of our areas. It turned out being super fun. We all got together and played a bunch of dominoes while eating Mangu.

Playing dominoes with the Dominicans

We were also got a little bit lost one day while we were trying to get to one of our lessons. We were talking to this Dominican guy though trying to get directions. He decided to just give us a ride in his truck, and I swear we almost crashed like 5 times. He had absolutely no idea where he was going at all, but I finally recognized the area and started to try to tell him were to go. We ended up just stalling in the intersection and almost crashing a few more times. By some miracle though, we finally ended up making it to our appointment alive. We probably won't be hitching any more rides from crazy Dominicans for a while though.

Elder Shah and I with a family we're teaching

I love getting to work in different areas and meet new people.

Elder Judd and I in front of the PR flag

Besides starting off the week by getting sick, our week was a blast. I got to play basketball for the first time in a while. San Juan doesn't have nearly as many basketball courts as most of the areas. We set up a time to play with us, the other Elders and some people we've been teaching, however, it was super fun. As we were waiting for everyone to show up, we met a really cool Venezuelan dude skating on the court. We're really good friends with the skate shop down the street from our church building, and everyone comes to the church to go skating. They've started bringing out a bunch of ramps and rails to ride on, and we're always meeting cool people out there. Anyways, basketball in Puerto Rico is probably the most tiring thing ever. It is super humid and way hot. Despite getting soaked in sweat and probably super dehydrated, we had a bunch of fun, and everyone loved it.

Comp & I at beach

Another cool thing we got to do was a blitz in one of the areas after our district meeting. I love getting to work in different areas, and meet new people. It's just a reminder of how much I like this island and the people here. 

For P-day today we headed over to a beach out in Luquillo and had a blast. We played kickball, basketball, and football with the rest of our zone. One of the senior couples also came over and grilled up some burgers and hot dogs for us. It was way fun, and it's always nice to be able to have a good time and enjoy life.

Burgers and sports with the zone at the beach

On a different note, one of the people we've been working with received some unfortunate news this week. His name's Yonel and he's one of the nicest loving people I've met. He's been on house arrest and has just recently got baptized like a year ago. We've stopped by a few times, and he is always trying to help others. He's been on trial for a while, and he just found out the other night that he's been sentenced to thirty years. He invited us over to say bye, and it was the hardest thing ever. A lot of his family was there, and it was one of the last nights they were going to have together. We got to give him a blessing, and he shared a little bit about how the gospel's made such an impact on his life. He was so willing to part with what God had in store for him.

cool view from a members house

One of our investigators bird

I absolutely love teaching the people out here

wearing Dominican Tuvis that a member gave to us

This week's been pretty fun. We haven't done all that much finding because I've been showing the area around to my new companion Elder Judd so he can meet everyone. He seems like a super cool guy. He's from the south side of Washington, and is super into cars. Matter of fact, I've only been with him for about a week now, but I already feel like an expert on cars just cause we've talked about them so much. He's loving Puerto Rico so far though. He was out here for about three months before the hurricane hit, but had been in Utah ever since. He says he missed Puerto Rico so much. I'm super excited to be able to work with him.

In front of a cool school out here

Right now though, Puerto Rico is getting ready for the holidays. I really hope I stay out here in San Juan for Christmas because I heard they go crazy out here. Everyone's already started putting up lights, and the malls and stores are already decked out with Christmas decorations. The only thing different is it's still like 90 degrees out here. The funny thing is people still drink hot chocolate. We'll be sitting outside already sweating, and people will give us hot chocolate, end we end up just dripping in sweat it gets so hot. Halloween was pretty fun as well. We went to get some free ice cream from 31 flavors, and then we had to come back to the house early. So we headed back and set some decorations up. Then we just played a bunch of Brisca and Dominoes with the other Elders while stuffing ourselves with candy to finish off the night.

As far as people we've been teaching recently, we found an awesome family about two weeks ago. We've been working with them a lot recently, and they are THE BEST. The mom listens to everything we say, and loves learning. They love when we come by, and we plan on inviting them to be baptized tonight so we'll see how that goes. Everyone else seems to be doing awesome as well. I absolutely love teaching the people out here.

Maria and Eddy (A family we're teaching)

Carla and her daughters (Another family we're teaching)

Beach view

I caught my first iguana this week

Catching an iguana

I don't think I could have had a better week to finish off my time out here with Elder Shah in San Juan. We got transfer calls last night, and we found out that he's going to be leaving. I'll still be staying, and I will be getting Elder Judd who is currently serving in Utah right now. He was here before Hurricane Maria, but is just now coming back.

Anyways... I don't even know where to start this week was so sick. We tried to visit everyone that we've been working with a bunch just in case anyone left. On Tuesday, we had an amazing dinner with a gringo member who lives out here. He's Toyota's lawyer for Puerto Rico, and has SUCH a nice place out by the beach up here. It was cool to be able to spend some time with him. He talked a bunch about his mission in Chile. He's heading back there this weekend, and is super excited. He was sharing stories of emails he's getting years later with people that are now baptized with completely changed lives that he only talked to like once. It's crazy to think that just one contact with someone can have on their entire life. It definitely motivates me to want to work hard.

We also tried something pretty cool to find. We headed out to one of the beaches out here, and drew the Plan of Salvation out on the sidewalk in chalk. As people walked by and asked what we were doing we just started talking about it and setting up some other time to visit them. It was super fun, and we actually found some really cool people. I also think I saw the most gorgeous sunset of my life that evening. Puerto Rico is such an awesome place.

I legit don't think we had a single bad moment. I also caught my first Iguana this week. There aren't all that many iguanas out here in the city, so when we saw a couple, Elder Shah and I had to go after them. Iguanas are the funniest looking things ever when they run. If you haven't seen one run before, I would highly advise looking up a video of it.

Then I finished off the week on Sunday, by giving a talk during church and giving a baptismal interview which was a super cool experience. After which, we headed home to find out our house wasn't yellow anymore. It was blue. In just a couple hours, without us even knowing, they painted our entire house from yellow to blue.

By the beach