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

Spent the night of Christmas day by sharing a message of Christ with the Sisters to everyone at the Plaza

Christmas dinner at Abuela's

We had an amazing Christmas! With lot's of coquito, rice, chick peas and pernil. We got to make our calls home to our family, and then ate a super good meal with an awesome member. We then spent the rest of our day visiting the members and wishing them a FELIZ NAVIDAD and finished of the night by sharing a message of Christ with the Sisters to everyone at the Plaza.

Christmas activity in the Plaza

The rest of the week has been filled with services and visits. One of the services we didn't even know about. We had driven all the way out to this members house that lived way out in the boonies cause he wanted us to visit him and his family. When we finally made it over there he was out in the backyard. The first word's out of his mouth when we arrived were "Where're your working clothes?" (I guess he had invited us over to do some service, just forgot to tell us we were doing service) Being missionaries, of course our response was "these are our working clothes" So we tossed off the ties and started ripping bushes out in the mud with a pic axe..... Let's just say we keep some spare service clothes in the car now.

Christmas dinner at Abuela's

Anyways, I'm already about out of time, but I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!!

View of Caguas city

Getting presents and going and doing cool things are fun, but TRUE happiness comes from following the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Balling up on Christmas Eve

Well I'm in Caguas now. And apart from the fact that I haven't had like a single free second since I've arrived, this place is absolutely awesome.

Getting ready for Christmas

I spent the first two days of the week saying goodbye to as many people as I could back in San Juan. It was definitely not easy to leave all the people I loved out there behind. I truly had an amazing time out there and was able to see the lives of so many people be blessed.

Saying goodbye to Betty and her mom

Saying goodbye to the Bishop and his wife

When I arrived to Caguas, I was, however, lucky enough to start my time out here right. We had the Ward Christmas party and it was super fun. I've been able to meet most of the members, and they all seem super cool. This is going to be an awesome place to serve.

Mission Christmas Activity

I also totally forgot to mention earlier, but I'm with my companion who was with me before the hurricane. He's straight from the Dominican Republic and speaks only a little English, so English is going to be a thing of the past for a little bit. This is also his last transfer in the mission which means we were companions when I started, and now we're going to be companions when he finishes.

With my new comp Elder Canario

This week, like most of my other weeks, was absolutely AMAZING. A few of the highlights include exchanges with Elder Armstrong out in Cayey, literally nonstop teaching all week, and the mission Christmas party. Let's just say that the fun experiences I've had this week have been far from short. How could we not have fun getting together as an entire mission to do a bunch of Christmas activities and seeing everybody serving on the island again? And let me tell you, I have been eating really well these past couple weeks. Especially since my companion loves to cook. Our mission president definitely did something right when he put us together cause he loves to cook great Dominican food, and I love to eat great Dominican food.

There is, however, one thing that makes this week stand out a little bit from the others. Although it's not true with everyone, a lot of people we were able to talk with this week were a little bit more centered on Christ. We've finally hit this Christmas season, and it's amazing to see everyone with that Christmas spirit. As missionaries we have the opportunity to share about Christ every single day. There is a reason we've left our families for 2 years and learn a whole other language and culture. It's because we know what we share. And we share that following the Gospel of Jesus Christ and trying to be like him is how we ultimately will be more happy in this life and the life to come. Getting presents and going and doing cool things are fun, but TRUE happiness comes from following the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And there is NOTHING better than that.

I'd like to invite you guys, if you haven't already done so, to look for ways you guys can be more Christ-like this Christmas season. Ways that you can give as he gave, and I promise you that whatever sacrifice you make to do it, will be completely worth the peace and joy you will have after.

Que todos tengan una FELIZ NAVIDAD!

At the Baptism of Carlos de Jesus

Coci on my tag

Saying goodbye to Maria and Eddy

With the MTC group

Saying goodbye to Patriarch and family

Saying goodbye to Iliana, Farudy, and Paula

"Peace out homies"

Saying goodbye to Edward

With Elder Shah

With Elder Armstrong

With Elder Smith

view of Caguas

Saying goodbye to Urda and family

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