I swear we meet the coolest people every single day

With the Aguas Buenas Elders

I swear I feel like I've spent more time on exchanges than I've actually even been with my companion. We've been trying to roll out some new plans for the zone to be able to accomplish all of our goals that we've been setting. After trying to convey our messages across as much as we can during meetings and other times we've seen the zone, we decided it was best to just minister to everyone on exchanges and make sure that every companion in the zone is living it and applying everything to their daily lives. So far it has been going super well, and it's been a ton of fun being able to work with everyone.

Our Caguas Zone

With Elder Lowder

This week I got to work with Elder Murillo and Elder Lowder. They're both super awesome missionaries, and we had a blast on exchanges. Elder Murillo just got back from one of the islands in our mission where they don't even speak spanish. So he was teaching me some French Creole. Next time I run into a Haitian out here I'll know what to say now. "Kisa ou ble zanmi!" I had a fun time with Elder Lowder as well. He just started his mission a couple weeks ago, and it's super cool to be with someone with a fresh look on the mission.

Eating breakfast at Denny's with the zone

Exchanges with Elder Murillo

Exchanges with Elder Diaz

As far as the work in our area goes we're still working with the same awesome people, and I swear we meet the coolest people every single day. We've started working with this one lady in her 20's that grew up in the states and then moved to Puerto Rico like six years ago. She's super cool and been through the craziest experiences. She's been living out here with her brother and they completely lost their house in the hurricane. They're doing awesome now, but it's crazy some of the situations people have been through. They've been super interested and absolutely love learning.

catching an iguana in the rain

Preaching in Villa Blanca

after playing sports at the church

Elders of Cayey

Cool street art

We arrived home so soaked the local bar gave us some free empanadas and sprite

View of Caguas from the mountains

"Everything's going to be all right"

With the Flakes at an English class

Exchanges with Salinas

the best zone ever!

When you realize you're a lot farther from the house than you thought and have to run more than a mile back to make it in time

Our week literally FLEW by with all the work and exchanges we've had.

On Tuesday I spent the day with Elder Jenson. It was pretty fun because it was like a throwback to my area out in Mayaguez when we were companions out there. We had a bunch of fun though, and it was super cool to be able to work with each other after so much time.

When you realize you're a lot farther from the house than you thought and have to run more than a mile back to make it in time

Then this Saturday I got to head out with Elder Diaz. It was a blast working with him. He was born in the states but both his parents are straight from the Dominican Republic. He's such a cool guy and we had a ton of fun all day.

Comps with Elder Jenson again

The rest of the week though Elder Jones and I have been PUTTING IN WORK. We've been finding and working with the coolest people ever. Jocelyn is still super interested and is now taking all the classes in order to prepare for her baptism. We've been teaching another person recently as well named Erick that has made the biggest changes in his life. When he was younger he was involved in not a lot of good stuff. A couple years ago he changed his ways and now knows more about the Bible than like anyone I know. He's given up drinking and so many other of his old habits, and now as he's been working with us we've been trying to help him give up smoking. It's been so cool to see the faith he's been putting in God though and the knowledge he has that everything truly will work out if he just follows the gospel.

With the District

We then finished the week off right with a super fun zone activity. We all headed out to Denny's and ate some breakfast as a zone. Then we dipped over to the chapel and played a bunch of fun activities and sports together. Everyone in the zone is awesome!

Funny story of the week: When we totally lost track of time and had to make like a mile and a half run back to the house in our dress clothes so we would have enough time to drive out and make our other exchanges.

Running home

cool sunset

We have seen so many miracles this week

Making up some lunch

We have seen so many miracles this week. We are truly working with some really awesome people. We've been teaching this guy named Bryan, and the other day we got to have a lesson with him. We were on foot that day, and we had set up a ride with one of the members to pick us up and come help us teach. He showed up to give us the ride in his brand new Mustang GT which was super fun. Although, I would absolutely hate to drive a nice car here in Puerto Rico with all the potholes and road conditions. The lesson ended up going super awesome as well. Bryan's got a friend that's a member out here in Puerto Rico, and he wants to keep learning and get baptized.

Making up zone book marks before mlc

The rest of the work out here in Caguas is going super well. This is truly such a fun area. Our zone's doing great as well. It's so fun to be able to work with so many others. God truly is willing to bless us according to the faith we have in him. If we have the belief and desire, and then we put in the work and do our part we honestly can accomplish whatever righteous goal we have. It's so nice to be a part of this work and help everyone out here on the island of Puerto Rico.

Zone Plans

Tallest tree I've seen in PR

At the plaza

Eating at Hermana Garcia's house

Heading up to mlc

God will truly never break his promises, and He's promised us if we truly want our questions to be answered then it will be done

We had such a sweet week. My companion Elder Canario headed off to the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, and I've been working with my new comp Elder Jones ever since.

Sending off Elder Canario with Amarilis

We are going to have a blast. We haven't even been together a week yet, and we've been able to put in so much work out here. All the hard work's paid off though. We had the coolest lesson the other day. We've been working with someone named Jocelyn for a couple weeks now, and after the end of our last lesson we asked her if she believed what we were teaching her was true. She said yes, and we mentioned that it was alright if she had doubts or questions. Right after she said "No, I said YES. And I said yes cause I KNOW it's true. I've been praying about it for a little bit now, and just the other day I received an answer that I can't deny." It was probably one of the strongest answers I've ever witnessed on my mission. God will truly never break his promises, and He's promised us if we truly want our questions to be answered then it will be done. We, however, need to do our part and truly be willing to do whatever the Lord what's of us based on our answer. It's the coolest thing ever to be able to see people who truly have that desire though and act on that promise in their own lives.

With Elder Murillo and Wittorff

Caguas Missionaries and new comp Elder Jones

During the rest of the week, we've been seeing miracles left and right and just meeting truly the coolest people. This one family invited us in from the streets to have a meal with them one night. They then invited us back any time, and started telling us all about Puerto Rico. Literally within like 10 minutes they promised us that when we came back to Puerto Rico, they'd take us all over the island to show us all the cool spots. It's so amazing the amount of trust people have out here, and how truly willing they are to share what they have.

Super cool family that fed us

Elder Kelly

Streets of Caguas

With Elder Flake

It will be nice to speak English around the house again

The best district in the mission right now

It's transfer week out here, and nothing too crazy is happening with me. My companion Elder Canario is heading back to his home in the Dominican Republic. Which means I'm going to be staying out here in Caguas, and I'll be receiving my new companion Elder Jones who's currently serving in our zone right now. It will be nice to be speaking English around the house again.

With Elder Flake at the English class

Elder Canario saying goodbye to a family in the Ward

With Abuela (one of the members)

This week, however, has been absolutely awesome. We started off by having a blitz in the Juncos area. We headed out there and just helped them find. It was super fun to be able to go and work in another area. The following day happened to be the first day of the no car days out here. Two days out of the week we're not going to be able to use the cars anymore. Our area still isn't quite set up to work without cars yet though. Consequently, we did a LOT of walking, and even a little bit of jogging to make it to our appointments on time. We also may or may not have had to hop on the freeway for a little bit cause we only knew the directions in the car. All in all, it ended up being a super fun day with a bunch of success. We were giving a Book of Mormon to this one lady that day, and we had asked her if she wanted us to mark a specific chapter to read. Her response was, "well I was planning on just reading all of it, but I guess if you guys want to mark something you can." It was pretty cool. I wish that was the response we got every day.

With Marcos and Elva

I also got to go on exchanges with an Elder that just came into the mission was pretty fun. Although he's from America, his family is from Germany and has gone on many trips over there. It was cool to be able to work with him, cause he's used to such a different culture. It was pretty funny when we were making food and like all we had in our fridge is rice, beans, chuletas, and plantains. He was confused as to why we didn't have any "regular food." We ended up going out to eat and eating some burgers. It was super fun to be able to work with him and we had such a blast that day.

On exchanges with Elder Walker

We set an alarm at midnight to go see the fireworks on top of our roof

Eating New Years Dinner with the Vasquez's

Well as of the 6th of January, the holiday season is officially over here. They sure know how to celebrate it right out here with 3 Kings Day. It's pretty much just another Christmas. We got to spend it with our Bishop and his family who are Columbian so they cooked us up a traditional Columbian dish. New Year's was pretty crazy as well. We set an alarm at midnight to go see the fireworks. When we woke up we climbed up on top of our roof. Never have I seen so many fireworks in my life. Literally every direction we looked they were shooting off fireworks. It was just a huge circle around us. After like 20 minutes of straight fireworks, when something was for sure burning down the street and it was smoking from the neighbor's yard while making a super loud noise we decided to call it a night.

New Year's dinner

New Year's Eve

As far as the rest of the week goes, it feels like we were driving all the time. We went to go visit some of the other districts. We did get to take some super cool routes through the mountains of Puerto Rico to get their though. We also went on exchanges with the AP's which was pretty fun. I went out to Guaynabo to work. We ended up getting caught up in the office making maps for the rest of the mission a lot of the day. We did have some pretty cool lessons though, and it was super fun to be able to work with Elder Smith again. Another awesome week here though, and I'm loving the work out here in Caguas!

Exchanges with Elder Smith

Driving through the mountains

with comp from Dominican

I'm totally out of time so this one's going to be short

catching a baby iguana

Well I'm totally out of time so this one's going to be short. But this week was so sick. We headed over to Salinas to go on exchanges. Had Zone Conferance and a devotional with the area 70, and then headed over to a beach in Guayama for P-day with the zone.

With the Salinas Elders

With the Elders at zone conference

On exchanges with Elder Niederhauser

back-flips at the beach