We tried to warn them that it was a VERY hard hike.

With the Smarts on the way up

Well these past two weeks have been super busy. We were so tired one night when we got back, when we had gotten home I laid down on the tile floor with no pillow or anything, and the next thing I knew it was morning.

Smart's plane coming in

When the mission President and his wife came down last weekend though, we had a ton of fun. All in all, we had two Family Home Evenings with the two sides of the island, a very long hike, and HOURS of driving with them.

Walking through the valley of desolation

Our first activity with the branch was pretty cool. It was mostly kids that ended up coming so we played a bunch of games with everyone, had lots of cookies, and a whole lot of fun. The next one we had was mostly adults so we didn't play as many games, but they shared a really cool message.

Youth Book of Mormon class

Playing fun games with the kids

Duran shooting into the cups

More games with the kids

Pinky and his three boys

Then on Monday, the Smarts had wanted to go hiking with us cause they hadn't been in forever. They mentioned they've been wanting to go on the boiling lake hike really  bad. We tried to warn them that it was a VERY hard hike. The last time we went it took 4 and a half hours and we were practically jogging a lot of the path. The hurricane wiped out a lot of the trail as well. The hike is so cool though, they wanted to go anyways. So the next day we headed out early to do it. Lucky for them, they happened to come on an extremely rainy day. It absolutely poured the night before and pretty much all of the day. It was so wet, the trail changed from a trail to a stream. There was so much more water we saw a huge waterfall at the start of the hike that wasn't even there the last time we went. We were being hit with massive raindrops and lots of wind. Only time I've ever been freezing in the Caribbean. 6 and a half hours later though, we finally made it back completely soaked.

Flooded trail in the rainforest

Climbing up the trail which had pretty much become a waterfall

Climbing down a mountain

Along the Ridgeline

We had to say goodbye to one of the recent converts down here named Richardson as well. He's Haitian and moving back to Chili to be with the rest of his family. It was cool cause his last Sunday here he brought some of his friends to church so there ended up being like 4 Haitians we had never even talked with there. It's so crazy to see the faith that some of these guys have even when they don't understand like 95 percent of it.

Clear view of the Boiling Lake

At the top of a mountain

The mission president and his wife came down to Dominica island

Brian's Mission President - President & Sister Smart 

Well this week's going to be short cause we don't have any time to write. The mission president and his wife came down the other day so we've been taking them around. We just got finished up going on a 6 and a half hour hike with them in the pouring rain and then headed over to eat some lunch on the ocean front. Now we are going to go set up an FHE for the Branch. I'll give the full update next week when I have some time.

Flashback - when Brian first arrived in PR

Flashback - going back to PR for 2nd time after hurricane Maria

Picture from Sister Smart - excitement for PR temple (just broke ground)

It's been awesome to have such a large focus on Christ and what he's done for us over this weekend

Waiting at the church for everyone to show up to business class

Hopefully everyone had as wonderful of an Easter Sunday as we did. Ours consisted of each of us giving 20 minute talks on the Atonement of Jesus Christ that we found out we were going to give about 5 minutes before we were asked to speak.

Easter Sunday

It's been awesome to have such a large focus on Christ and what he's done for us over this weekend. We truly can receive all the help we need through him. And it's thanks to him that we can follow the path back to God and overcome any obstacles that stand in our way.

After church though, we headed out to share a message of Christ with a few families. It was actually super cool to see so many people enjoying the day with their families. When we went over to visit Delicon and his family, (a Haitian family we are teaching) they were making some food, and invited us in to eat Easter lunch with them which was pretty cool. Before we ate, one of the daughters asked for help with a math problem. After that they all started giving us super hard math problems. We just pretended to solve them all in like two seconds. It was pretty funny cause they all thought we were so smart. Long story short they finally figured out we were just messing with them and flipped out. It was definitely a fun experience to be able to enjoy Easter lunch with them and then share a message.

Right before lunch with Delicon and his family

Towards the end of the day we also got to make the drive down from Portsmouth to Roseau. It's a windy mountain road along the coast from one side of the island to the other. We get to make the drive all the time, but I love it every time just as much as the last. The sunset into the ocean most definitely made the day like ten times better.

With comp at sunset

We had our first lesson from the Business class that we started up here in Roseau as well. We got down to the discussion on best insurance options. It was so funny because the whole class came to the decision that the bed is the best option out here. Our Branch President then started to explain to us about how it's normally just better to rest up than get medical help out here. I guess that happens when you live on a small island in the middle of the sea.

Waiting for people to show up to a Book of Mormon class at the church. Got wet paint stains on our pants when we stood up

Dominica fun fact: Depending on which store you go to, you might need to check the expiration date before buying something even if it's packaged. Some stuff must just take so long to get out here that it's already almost expired by the time it m

At Trafalgar falls

akes it.Heading down to a lesson on the beach front

View of Roseau while contacting

Coming back from a lesson at night

Heading down to a lesson on the beach front

"Yon lòt sis semèn nan Dominica" - "Another six weeks in Dominica" in Haitian Creole

Elder Segura and I

Transfer news came in..... Both Elder Segura and I will be staying on Dominica another 6 weeks. It wasn't, however, too big of a surprise considering the fact that both of us already have the itinerary for our return flights back to Puerto Rico. I won't be heading back until June 29.

We did have to deal with the mess of trying to extend my Visa this week. I didn't have my return flight with me when I came out, so they would only give me a three week stay. Needless to say I had already overextended my stay for almost a month. We tried to get that issue taken care of, and it took FOREVER. After two days, 3 interviews with different inspectors, and having to walk all over town to get all the information they wanted, I was finally able to get it extended. It was definitely a hassle, but I'm now legal for the rest of my stay here.

The rest of the week went super sweet. On Friday I finally turned twenty, and although I couldn't celebrate traditionally with a birthday cake and all that, we got to have a meal with two members that retired out here from Switzerland. It was absolutely amazing. The rest of the day didn't cease to surprise me. Every single day here is so unique. We headed into town to go pick up some DVDs to burn some stuff for the branch. On our search for a place that sold DVDs, we ran into all sorts of stuff. The first shop we entered into told us we had to go to the Muslim store to find them. On our way to go find that, we ended up finding our way into a Chinese store where we tried to explain what a DVD was to a dude who pretty much only spoke Chinese. We ended up just giving up there, and then ran into a Cuban and two people from Venezuela who were calling us Gringos (white people) and cat calling us in Spanish. They were very surprised when we turned around and told them we spoke Spanish. Out of all people though, they were the ones who knew where the Muslim store was, so we finally got some directions to that. On our way out we ran into some more Haitians and talked for a little bit in Creole. And that's about how it usually goes when we head through town to go do something. We never know what the heck is going to happen. It definitely makes our trips fun though.

Cool fact about Dominica: We see a rainbow literally like every single day. I've seen more rainbows in my time here then I have the rest of my life. Including one day when we saw a triple rainbow. I didn't even know that was scientifically possible.

Double rainbow

Rainbow Island

Rainbow

Nothing, however, beats the creativity of "Black Yellow"

Helping church building inspector from Puerto Rico

With General Conference this past weekend, a lot of our efforts went towards getting the word out to everyone. We tried to make a visit to all of the members and everyone else we're teaching. We stayed up here on the North part of the island to set it up and showed everyone that lives up here, while our Branch President set it up for everyone on the South side of the island. In the end only the Haitians ended up coming to watch it where we had it set up which was pretty funny because a lot weren't even members, and we didn't even let all of them know about the conference. How they heard about it or found out the time to come? We have no idea. The word must have gotten out with all the Haitians or something. Nevertheless we showed it in French while we went off to a different room to watch it on our phone in English.

There was, however, a couple we're teaching on the other side of the island who had gone to every single session. They absolutely loved it. In our last lesson we had with them, they told us about how they had never found a more true church and shared with us a lot of their life story. They truly are trying the best they can to follow God. Right now they are showing their faith and doing everything they can to get the money needed to get married. It was cool to see how excited they were when they sent us voice messages with conference in the background to let us know they were watching it.

In addition to all that, we spent a decent amount of time going through the church's food storage that we received as hurricane relief. We were getting rid of all of the expired food, and trying to get all of the close to expired food either out to members or other organizations to get it out to people.

Dominica fun fact: It's very hard to eat something in public without people asking you for food. Like just the other day all I did was open the car door while I was eating a banana, and within 2 seconds (while I was still in the car) there was a boy asking me for a banana from the bunch I had. So I gave the boy a banana, and I swear not more than 3 seconds later two more guys came up asking for bananas. Needless to say... I ran out of bananas very fast that day. I have since learned the lesson of keeping my banana bunches concealed.

Nothing, however, beats the creativity of "Black Yellow." "Black Yellow" is the name (what he told us) of the guy that got us to buy his bead necklace. We were talking to another guy when Black Yellow came up and started asking us for a dollar. After a while of trying to explain to him that we didn't have any money to give him and that we were missionaries trying to help people grow in their faith in Christ, he pulls out his lunchbox. He starts showing us his toothbrush, and then proceeds to try to sell us some Canadian money. Realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere, he pauses and says "You know what. I'm going to sell you guys my bead necklace" He takes his necklace off and just hands it to us. Responding to us saying we didn't want to buy it with "Yes you do. It's special bamboo beads from the island." We tried to explain that we really didn't have any money with us and we didn't want to buy it, but he's just like "Do you know Pinky? (The first counselor in our Branch. Almost everyone knows Pinky in Portsmouth)" We said yes, and then he said "You guys are good Christian men. Just give $2 to Pinky and say it's for Black Yellow" Then he walked off. It's definitely the first time I've seen that sales technique, but I gotta give the guy props. We did not plan on buying a bead necklace that day.

44 Haitians coming to English class on Monday

Helping someone shovel after mudslide from Maria

Well we started our week off really strong with 44 Haitians coming to English class on Monday. The class just keeps getting bigger and bigger. There were so many people we had to move down to the second floor to fit everyone. We're going to need to put a limit on the number of people coming if it keeps getting bigger cause we are not prepared to have a class that big.

Teaching part of the English class

We've met some really cool people again this week as well. We were talking to this one guy in a little shack shop that he owned. Just the nicest humblest guy ever. We were talking to him for a little bit when he starts to tell us about how he's just barely getting by. As we finished up talking I went to go by a little pack of cookies before leaving and I realized I was out of money at the time. He, however, insisted that I take the pack for free. My companion ended up spotting me and paying the man for the cookies. But I definitely did learn something about being Christ-like that day. It may not seem like a lot, but to someone who has nothing, a small sacrifice like that means everything to them. That money will probably go to the food that that man needed to eat that day, yet he was still gladly willing to share it. Made me think about how much I am willing to sacrifice to help others out in need.

We met another cool couple that took us down to their little shop on the beach. It was the coolest place ever. The sun was setting and the waves kept rolling in. This island truly is so beautiful. We had a really cool lesson, and the wife seems like she truly wants to keep learning. She said she really wanted to come check out our church. That is one really awesome thing about this island. Lots of people love church, and they like to visit around.

A bay where Columbus is know to have moored (anchor) his boat

We were also able to play some basketball with the Dominican kids. We had a ton of fun. We've been wanting to play with them for a long time and finally had a little time to do it. Afterwards we headed up to go visit someone we were teaching named Lambert. He loves learning, and just recently started letting another Haitian stay in one of his rooms. It was funny though cause he speaks English and didn't really know the Haitian at all cause they can't understand each other. He was really excited for us to meet his new friend though.

We finished the week off with an amazing P-day. There are so many cool places out here we couldn't decide where to go. We decided to just head down to the closest waterfall to our house. It was definitely worth it. Fist thing to happen when we hopped out of the car at the trail head was we got attacked by ten puppies. It was the cutest thing ever. I then got to have my personal study in a little cave right next to the waterfall and just enjoy the day.

Walking out to the waterfall

Just arriving to the waterfall

With my comp at the falls

Stylized photo Google created of (at the falls)

Coming out from the cave

Personal study in the cave

Tree house

house in tree

The view from our walk back to the house from town

Island life

My first branch activity - pancake dinner and board games

English class with thirty Haitians

We had a super cool jam packed week. First and foremost, in all of the trips we made to the 2 church buildings we literally jam packed our car full of desks and tables. We've been moving some supplies around the buildings and trying to get them to look less like houses and more like churches. Let me tell you though carrying super heavy desks up and down 3 flights of stairs is NOT fun. After a couple hours of work though we somehow managed to get it all done without destroying our backs.

This week I finally got to meet one of the coolest families the Elders have been teaching here. They come from the Kalinago Territory which is a part of this island where the indigenous people of the Caribbean live (the people that lived in the Caribbean before it was discovered by Christopher Columbus). The wife is completely native and the husband is 75% native. We had a really cool lesson with them. We're also going to start up a personal finance class with some of the people of the territory because the husband is like one of their leaders and thought the idea would help a lot of the people. It's going to be interesting to see how that goes, and I'm super excited to start working with some of them.

Branch pancake activity

We also got to have my first branch activity out here. It was actually pretty fun. We had a pancake dinner and played some board games. It was pretty funny cause like nobody eats pancakes out here cause pancake mix is WAY TOO expensive, but the branch received a huge bag of mix after hurricane Maria as hurricane relief and it's going to expire pretty soon. It was funny because when they were planning the activity though they were thinking of the weirdest toppings and were very confused as to how we were going to eat it for dinner considering the fact that they had heard it was a breakfast food. it turned out to be really fun. And we ended up having to end it early so we could go to bed cause we were sleeping at the chapel that night. We got lucky too cause there was some extra mix so we got to make pancakes for lunch the next day too.

Bomb meal we made with leftover pancakes

rainbow over the only fast food place on the island

This is our neighbor's house