I can officially say I have swung through the jungle on a vine now

Crab catchin' in the streets

Well, the supposed storm that was going to hit didn't turn out to be much more than a little rain and wind. However, it somehow still managed to knock out the power in part of Mayaguez. It didn't affect us at all though. Matter of fact, we had an awesome week.

To start off, I think I figured out why our power always seems to go out. So after Hurricane Maria, a lot of the power lines got totally damaged. The problem is that it seems like nobody out here knows how to fix any of them. We walked out of our apartment the other day and we saw them "working on the lines." I kid you not, they were just hitting the power line with a hammer and some sort of chisel thing. Then they just left the cut in half power line laying down onto the sidewalk. As to what they fixed, I have absolutely no idea.

We did, however, have some pretty sick lessons. We even got to teach one of our members' mom over skpye. He's the one that goes out with us all the time. He started telling his mom about the church, but she lives in the states. The missionaries over there started to visit her, and he wanted us to be able to have a lesson with her, so we all got around his phone and did a video call to teach her a lesson.

One of our investigators also sent us a text saying he know the Book of Mormon is true. He sent in in really really broken english though, so we'll have to see if that's what he meant to say. He's the one that is from Peru and currently trying to get his masters degree. He's always way to busy to meet with, but he's finally going to present his thesis this Wednesday so he should be pretty free after that. I think it's so funny when people try to talk to us in English, but they have absolutely know idea how to really speak English. Believe it or not, it's always the drunk dudes out in the streets that know the English. For some reason, they're always the ones to know it perfectly.

We also got to check out the campo out here. One of our members was driving us to an appointment, but he ended up going the complete opposite way. We ended up driving for like an hour and a half through the middle of the jungle. Then we had a zone activity out in San Sebastian on P-day and we got hike to some waterfalls which was super dope. I can officially say I have swung through the jungle on a vine now.

"Dope" waterfall

Beautiful waterfall area

View from the waterfall

Vine swinging in the jungle

Balled out with some kids on a homemade basketball hoop

Balling up on a homemade hoop

Well if you were looking for an interesting week, you got one. We did like so many different things that I'm probably only going to be able to remember like a quarter of what actually went on. Matter of fact I'll probably just list my highlights of each day. 

Monday: As a missionary, this is our preparation day, or "P-day." There is no such thing as a bad P-day. It's like a missionary's weekend. We get to do all those cool things like shopping and emailing. After all that, we get to basically do whatever we want. My favorite part of this P-day, however, was our dinner with one of the members of the stake presidency. They made some super bomb food, and we got to listen to all the coci while we ate and talked.

Tuesday: We got invited inside the biggest mansion ever. It was massive.

Wednesday: 4th of July. Well not really. Even though Puerto Rico is technically part of the United States, they don't really celebrate it here. Matter of fact, we asked some kids about the 4th of July, and they had absolutely know idea what it was. Their parents ended up having to explain to them that it's an American holiday. It's all good though cause we bought a bunch of hot-dogs, watermelon, and Malta to celebrate it on our own. This also happened to be the day that I found out I was a maltaholic. They sell this drink out here called Malta. It's like Puerto Rican's rootbeer, and happens to be the best tasting drink ever. I can't get enough of it. Then we got invited over to eat some shrimp and pasta with one of our investigators that we just set a baptismal date with.

Thursday: I have been in Puerto Rico for a couple months now. This is the first day that we've been able to do more than just carrying in groceries for service. It was awesome. One of the members invited us to come out and help work in someone's backyard. We cut a bunch of plants and super tall grass with some machetes right next to this creek. I almost fell in like five times. I also got little cut's all over me from the plants, and to this day I'm still itchy. Totally worth it though. Hopefully we get invited to some more service projects. 

Service with Joey

Friday: We had a lesson with one of the Peruvian students on campus. He's trying to get his doctorate degree and is currently working on his thesis which is about 90 pages. Consequently, this dude literally has like no time. We were finally able to meet with him in the evening, and he told us he hadn't even had time to eat at all that day because he was so busy. We had a super awesome lesson with him though, and we were even able to get two members to come out with us to the lesson. 

Saturday: We balled out with some kids on a homemade basketball hoop. They were using a red milk-carton crate with the bottom taken out as the hoop. It was actually super genius and worked way well. It even had a little bit of spring cause they hung it up with these flexible cords. We totally destroyed. Afterwards we had a bunch of little kids asking to take photos with us. It wasn't even just the kids that were around the hoop; there was a little kid that came running out from his house down the street so he could get a photo with us. We left that area with all of the kids thinking we were famous, and my companion and I weren't about to tell them we weren't. I mean why else would there be two dressed up gringos walking down the street wanting to play a little ball.

Sunday: This is normally a day of rest. I have to say I don't get to much rest on Sundays though. We were asked to give talks during sacrament meeting, and we were given like no time to prepare. We actually ended up going over our time allotment of ten minutes though, and left the last speaker with like 2 minutes. I was also asked to confirm an 11 year old boy that was just recently baptized. That was a super awesome experience. Then we had to do some other work and didn't even get time to go to the classes. 

Today: Supposedly there's some sort of hurricane or tropical storm that's supposed to be coming today. We're not really sure how big it is or if it's even going to hit us though. Hopefully it doesn't knock our power out for too long. 

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.

Opportunity to baptize Rubi & watch Christian finally receive the Melchizedek priesthood

Christian finally received the Melchizedek Priesthood

Brian baptized Rubi who helped bring into the Church

To be honest this week was just a blur. They always go way to fast. One of my favorite moments was getting the chance to ride around a caserio on a tandem bike with some random shirtless Puerto Rican dude. Only in Puerto Rico would somebody offer you a ride after having talked for less than thirty seconds. We almost crashed a couple times and my companion had to start running after me cause he just took off, but overall it was a pretty fun experience.

We got to go on exchanges this week as well which was super fun. We had like the best day ever. I mean we started off the day by finding twenty bucks in the middle of the road walking over to the church to play some basketball for morning workouts (so the day couldn't go wrong). Basketball believe it or not is actually one of the most popular sports out here. There's a court literally on like every corner. Then we just had some awesome lessons. It's always nice to be able to switch it up and work a little bit outside of your usual place for a bit.

Then Sunday came around. Which happened to be an absolutely amazing day. We were able to watch a member named Christian that comes out with us all the time finally be able to receive his Melchizedek priesthood. It's been so cool to be able to watch him grow and learn as he comes out and works with us. After which, I had the opportunity to baptize someone named Rubi. I did not however have the opportunity to get a photo with her before the baptism cause we were super rushed. Maybe I'll get one with her next week. It was, however, a super awesome experience to be able bring someone into the church. Hopefully her 8 year old daughter follows her footsteps and get baptized as well.

Other than that though, we've been doing the usual teaching and preaching all day every day. Well except for P-day, which has actually been going super great as well. We got to meet up with all the other missionaries in our zone and go have some fun for a little bit. Which doesn't really happen out here that often just cause we live so far away from each other.

Amazing beauty in Puerto Rico

Part member families that have been super willing to listen and learn

Nachin - an awesome member who moved to Oregon

Well it was finals week at the university out here. Which meant that we couldn't bring any members that were students out to lessons with us. We couldn't really get into contact with any of the other students either. Everyone was just studying and testing. The semester out here has been pretty crazy cause of hurricane Maria. The students got such a long time off of school because, well, they didn't have any power or anything. However, that just meant the rest of the school year was going to be super crammed. Watching all these other students taking finals just does not get me excited for college.

We'll see how the summer goes out here. It seems like everyone we talk to is heading back to stay with their family on other parts of the island for the summer. Hopefully there is still a decent amount of college students that stay.

As far as the week goes, it was pretty normal. I mean I say normal, but it was actually probably a pretty crazy week. The more and more I do the work out here, the more normal it seems. We talk to way to many crazy people every single day on the streets. You just get used to it though. I could probably have a conversation with someone talking about how aliens are coming to take over the earth, and completely forget about it in five minutes.

We've been trying to focus a lot of our finding efforts through less actives as well. Which has been going awesome. We've recently found some part member families that have been super willing to listen and learn. We even found one family that is way into fishing that said they'd be down with feeding us a big fish dinner or something every week. That got me pretty excited.

I can't complain about P-day either. We didn't get to go a crazy beach or swing through the jungle on vines or anything. That's alright though. We went over to the university and played some basketball for a while.

Balling at the university

The Assistants to the President and one of the senior missionaries were also down in our area so they took us out to a bakery out here for lunch which was so good. I also had like almost all of the staff in the grocery store helping me look for something. I didn't know what the name of something was in spanish or where to find it, so I just asked if they had it in english. Which led to them talking to every single other person that worked there. The entire grocery store knew that I was looking for something and everybody was bringing me to a bunch of random different products. It was pretty funny. Turns out they didn't have it. Puerto Ricans just don't give up though. They try everything possible to help you out.

Hurricane Maria wreckage

We don't always see the blessings of our work right away.

So our week was super awesome. It started off super awesome, and well... it ended super awesome as well.

The whole story starts off last Sunday. O sea, the day we were out in the pouring rain literally all day. Nobody let us in like at all pretty much the entire day, and we ended up just getting soaked wet. Anyways I was thinking to myself, "we probably could have just stayed inside all day and it wouldn't have made any difference at all cause nobody let us in." However, my whole mind got changed when we went out on Tuesday, we walked by some similar places as the ones we stopped by on Sunday. And what do you know, there were a bunch of people that wanted to talk to us and were super willing to listen just because they saw us out in the pouring rain earlier. Sometimes you don't always see the effects of your work right away, but there are so many people paying attention and just by giving a good example can change someone's attitude on something. We don't always see the blessings of our work right away.

Along with that, we had a bunch of other super cool experiences. We found a less active family by knocking a fake address somebody had given to us, which was crazy how it all worked out. The Lord truly does guide this work. If not this church would be done for, cause we have a bunch of teenage kids (missionaries) in charge of sharing it with everyone.

We also went to like the coolest baptism ever with one of our investigators. The place was packed full, and everything went super well. There was even like an 11-year-old girl that gave a talk on baptism which was like the best talk ever. It was super awesome to be able to be there.

In addition, we were able to have a Family Home Evening with a bunch of the YSA in our ward and two of our investigator's. We kicked it at one of our member's house in the student housing. We had pizza and smoothies while we all hung out and shared a spiritual message on the importance of the Book of Mormon. It was super cool to be able to have such awesome members in our ward that are super fun to be with.

And of course the fun parts of the week: I banged out on some teenage kids in a caserio in my dress clothes. It was great to be able to know I still got it in me. I felt kind of bad though cause we embarrassed them so bad the people around were making fun of them..... Long story short they weren't really in the mood for listening to our message afterward.

We also went to El Faro and the salt flats out here for P day with the District. Which was like the coolest looking place ever. We went on a cool little trail along the coast and then headed over to the park to play some sports afterward. Then we finished the day off with some Pizza at a famous place out here. Overall, I'd say we had a decent amount of fun.

On shores of Puerto Rico with Elders

Looking out on shores of El Faro

Brian on shores of El Faro

Brian with comp on coast

Comp unity at Salt Flats