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

In charge of first district meeting that includes the AP's, ZL's, Mission President, and his wife

Brian in white for baptism of Rubi in last area (we received this picture from Rubi.

Another super sick week. I think I'm actually starting to figure my way around this place as well. Now in stead of being completely lost, we're lost with a general direction. It's been a blast getting this place up and going though. It's going to be a little funky this next week though because I've been companions with one of the Zone Leaders and my MTC roommate Elder Degn out here, and will be with him for about two weeks. So things are going to stay a bit funky for a while.

I don't have much time because we're emailing in this Microsoft shop at one of the malls here. Some of the main events from the week though:

-First District meeting, and the AP's, ZL's, Mission President, and his wife show up cause they're in my district. I'd say it went pretty well though

-One of the Dominican members out here made us the best pastrami sandwiches that I've ever had when we stopped by to meet him.

-The steak dinner we had with one of the gringos out here.

-And of course getting absolutely soaked by the rain one day when it just starts pouring without stopping. We ended up getting some Popeyes at the end of our day to treat ourselves, and we thought they were going to kick us out cause we were so wet and dripping water everywhere.

We've been seeing miracle after miracle this week

San Juan street art

Well We had like the Sickest week ever. So my area covers pretty much all of San Juan. It is straight up city everywhere. This is honestly the coolest place ever. We're whitewashing in so we don't know our way around at all though. Another set of Elders pretty much drops us off every morning in an area, and we just kind of figure our way back hitting up the buses and stuff. It's a miracle me and my companion actually make it back home every day. This place is huge, and the way directions are set up out here is terrible.

My companion is Elder Shah from San Bernardino California. He's a super cool and funny dude, and was serving out in the Washington mission before coming out here. We're having an absolute blast though.

With new companion Elder Shah from California

We've been seeing miracle after miracle this week. Our second day out here, we were able to find 9 new investigator's. And then we were able to put a family of three of them on date that same day. It get's even better though. We were trying to find our way home at 8 o'clock at night  to go back to eat, and we were just completely lost. Some random dude walks out of a colmado and waves us down. So we go over to go talk to him, and he takes us inside and buys us two drinks. Then he talks with a minute and was like "You know, I actually own a couple BBQ places out here. He told us that after we finish talking we needed walk down to that BBQ place on the corner of the street." Then he calls somebody and tells him that "two guys are going to walk up with white shirts and ties, give them whatever they want." So we headed down and each got half a chicken and some french fries for free. It was so sick.

We headed out to El Moro as well on P-day to play soccer and football with our zone. I'm super excited to be serving out here. I'm excited to see what's in store for these next couple weeks. Hopefully we learn this area sometime soon.

Soccer at El Moro with the zone

More facts about this area: There's so many neighborhoods out here that are pretty much just part of the Dominican Republic. There's a lot of people that move from the Dominican Republic, and they just kind of establish their own places full of Dominicans.

Dominicans are like the coolest people ever. You can get them excited about anything. Any, and I mean any Dominican you see walking down the street, you can get super pumped up if you just say "Ayyy, Como estas?" and then talk with a bunch of enthusiasm about something. It's the best thing ever.

Dominoes is a hot game out here. Don't really have much more time to explain it this week. But things get heated here when dominoes are being played.

Meeting with trainer for first time after hurricane & understanding him

Saying goodbye to Christian a really cool member

Saying goodbye to bishop & counselors

Opening new area as district leader with new comp who has not been to the island

with "mini-missionary"

First things first, we received our transfer calls yesterday. I will now be serving on the other side of the island. It's a place called Hato Rey, and as far as I'm aware of, is downtown San Juan. The biggest city on the island. I will be white-washing (Neither my comp nor I have been in the area, so we don't know any of the members or the area). I will also be serving as the District Leader, and I will be getting a missionary who has never been to the island before.

As far as this week went, well, we had the coolest week ever. I like don't even know where to start. I guess I can begin with the "luz" issues. We were without power for like three days. It keeps going out though, so it's very possible that it's going to go out again. I have know idea why but the power seems to always go out here. It's not just our city either, it seems to be like all of this part of the island. For us, however, no power means no fans or lights and that we're going to be eating a lot of canned food. I also think it's about time that I get myself a flashlight. Some things are getting a little bit annoying to do in the dark. As bothersome as the power outages seem to be though, they're actually super awesome. We were out the other night and it was the best thing ever. It was sooo dark out, and absolutely dead quite. We went to stop by a family that we were visiting's house and had like the coolest lesson ever. There's something about having candles burning in the background with no other light that just makes everyone want to get together and tell stories. They have 4 younger boys that stayed super quite and payed attention to us the whole time we were there. It almost makes me want to have lessons in the dark more often.

We also had the coolest miracle. We went looking for a referral that we got from the church. The thing is, as missionaries we don't have smartphones to just type in someone's address and drive over there. We have to ask everybody around us where we should be heading. Unsurprisingly, we ended up getting directed way up into the middle of the mountains (we get bad directions a lot). When we got to the top of one of the mountains, both my companion and I realized we were totally lost. So we decided to ask someone living up there where the heck we were. When we went to go talk with some people out on their patio they were the most friendly people ever and were super interested in what we were sharing. We ended up teaching the three of them and left them with Book of Mormons. One of the ladies started crying and thanking us so much. She said she had been praying earlier that day to know what she needed to do with her life, and then we showed up at their door. When we went to go visit them for the second time, we had absolutely no way of getting out to their house though because they lived so far away. We had been calling members all day to try to get a ride, but nobody was able to give us one. We decided to go stop by a less actives house instead, and when we arrived we found out that she had called another member over to give her a blessing. We happened to show up just in time to help give the blessing, and right after the blessing the member was able to give us a ride back up into the mountains to make it to our appointment which ended up going super awesome!

Then we got to take one of the young members out with us for a day on something called a "mini-mission." Basically all of the youth in the church that are missionary age get sent to different parts of the island and spend a day working with the missionaries. We learned so much, and realized that we see little miracles absolutely every day. The problem is we just get so used to them as missionaries that we don't even recognize them.

Cool view of mountains with Elder Jenson

Hanging with the Zone in Rincon

Hanging with the Zone in Rincon