The tropical island of Puerto Rico

January 13, 2010


This week was one of the craziest yet. Puerto Rico celebrated its favorite holiday, Three Kings Day, and there was no holding back. Lots and lots of parties during the night and let me tell you, no one woke up the next day until like 5 in the afternoon. Those two days were really hard because everyone was inside their house partying and didn't really want to hear from the Mormon missionaries, including the members. But, the bulk of the Holidays are in the past. They are now celebrating "The Seven Days After 3 Kings" which in my opinion is just an absolutely riddiculously extended reason to party, but it is not as big of a deal.

an entire aisle of fat and mayo

Also, it rained for 2 and a half days straight! We did not see the sun for over 48 hours and there was a constant drizzle or down-pour. I have never seen that much water in my life. That also made missionary work a little bit frustrating. I love how anyone we visit tells us "God bless you! Don't get wet!" but never lets us come in and rest from the rain.

Ricardo is getting baptized on Sunday! We are very excited! He is very ready. We have definietly see him turn his life completely around. He has truly been converted by the spirit.

Mantecado!

Hermana Erekson, have really been learning how dependent we are on the members. We can not teach without their help. All of our investigators and even contacts are men except for one! It seems the Lord really wants us to focus on teaching the priesthood, but we have been struggling so much to teach any of them because we need a sister to accompany us. We have been trying to schedule and arrange like crazy to be able to get some lessons in. But flatly, we have not been able to find anyone to come with us. Missionary work can only progress as fast as the members allow, and we are really struggling with that. The Lord is really trying to get us to teach the priesthood-- or work with the ward more.

I had my first real conversation with a member the other day. Where I actually shared my feelings and told a story. It is hard to balance being a focused missionary with also being yourself. I haven't quite found how I
can do both. It is an amazing leap of progress that I actually enjoyed a casual conversation with someone since Puerto Ricans hardly take a breath between their words and are very dominant of the conversation. It is hard to squeeze in your two cents. Especially since my Spanish is a little weak in the chit-chatting areas. Most of my vocabularty pertains to the gospel, which is frustrating. But I am learning a TON everyday and I have seen drastic improvements.

Well, love you all tons and miss you!

Mom:

I am so amazed to hear about Uncle Mel's recovery! That was a big trip for him to make!
Wow. It sounds like most of our stake got cut to pieces. I wonder what the reasoning was behind that.
I am glad to hear that your lesson went well. f Jaime and Jessica were apart of it I am sure everyone had to have loved it.the gossip here is that supposedly Elder Bednar is coming to Our stake on the 24th. We know an apostle is coming, we are just not sure which one. All the clues point to Elder Bednar.  We will also be having a special mission conference with the East and West missions combined. According to Pres.Dewsnup we are not to associate with anyone from the West mission. We are supposed to "pretend they are not
there". I plan on talking to Hermana Miller though before or after the meeting. I got a letter from her and it sounds like she has a rough trainer.

Markie:

You are begining to sound like someone we know with your procrastination!

Hope you find someone cool to go with.I want to hear the song you wrote on the guitar too! I will just have to wait a year and a half, so don't you dare forget it between now and then. I wish you could come do a musical number in this ward. You would blow everyone away.

Well, I love you all tons and miss you!

Hermana Palmer