Happy again

This week was a blast!  We have had so much to do as far as missionary work and it has also been socially satisfying.  We are completely exhausted.

This week was my birthday and I got absolutely spoiled.  Last P-day, Ilia a young single adult in our ward who basically comes out with us every day and we love, took us out to eat at Chili's.  It was so much fun!  I remember that is sort of our "family" restaurant and it reminded me so much of eating out with Dad and the family.  I ordered a mushroom burger in honor of him.  Sister Krout is a great conversationalist and we just laughed and laughed all afternoon.  I also got to hear to of my favorite bands on the radio.  Maybe it is "worldly" of me but sometimes simple pleasures are the best. 

My birthday was great!  Lucy, our investigator happens to have the same B-day as I and so we planned to surprise her with a birthday cake we made for her.  It was fun to show up at her door with a couple from the ward with the cake in hand, but even funnier when she pulled out the cake she had made for me.  It was a great to spend some time with her and her boys. 
I also received many letters and packages in the office, which was really fun for me.  I love the book that the ward Relief Society sent and it looks really good.  I also enjoyed the hug which Emily sent!!!

This week has been absolutely packed and both Sister Krout and I are exhausted.  She have found many key less actives and been working closely with a few investigators.  We received an absolutely golden reference this week for Christina, a 20 girl who is positively searching for the truth.  She seems like she is really dynamic and asks some of the greatest questions I have ever heard.  Some of my favorite include "I believe in the Bible, but it is an old book.  How else can we know the truth?"  and "Why don't we have a prophet today?"  Music to my ears.  She learns very, very ,very quickly and I can see her progressing at in just the few days we have known her, but I am also aware that no one is with out trials or obstacles.  I think our biggest difficultly is going to be time.  She is involved in every club, group, activity on the island it seems and she is extremely talented in everything.  We just need to help her stay focused.

We also had another interesting incident this week.  Our baptism Richard and Aurea have fallen off the map.  They did not show up to church on Sunday and we couldn't get a hold of them.  When we went by later in the week we saw that they were getting into a bus for another church.   Something has obviously gone wrong there.
We stopped by after they had left to try and talk to their neighbor, Hugo, who is one of our investigators but were bombarded and rudely turned away by the other neighbors, who told us we were a false church and that Richard and Aurea would no longer be with the Mormons.  Hmmm.  The situation is less that ideal, but I am hoping we can somehow continue to teach Hugo at least.  Perhaps this was just a strange and mysterious way which the Lord has led us to Hugo?  Things will settle this week.

And perhaps one the greatest highlights of the week was teaching a less active member Yoniel.  To give you some background on Yoniel, he is a huge black who is obviously involved in weight lifting but is the nicest, sweetest guy.  He is a little shy and quiet and it is difficult to get him to talk.  But as we were visiting with him we somehow discovered that he speaks English--but with a perfect British accent.  There is no hint of Puerto Rican when he speaks!!!  Pure British.  When we asked he told us that he learned everything watching BBC America and Doctor Who.  He also owns the worlds fattest cat and lives in the only Victorian style home on the island of Puerto Rico.  An interesting character.

So much has happened this week but there is very little time to write it all down.  This week was packed with appointments and surprises.  Love you all.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

Hermana Palmer

I am happy.

Me and Krout

Dear Family,

This week has been wonderful.  I am stayed in Juncos and got a new companion, Sister Krout.  Sister Krout is awesome.  She is from Washington State and attended BYU Idaho before the mission.  Sister Krout is incredibly outgoing and personable.  Definitely another yellow.  One thing that is really neat is that Sister Krout actually started her mission in San Lorenzo and served the first 9 months of her mission in this ward.  Needless to say she knows and has a great relationship with all of the members and knows a ton of less actives.   Sister Krout is really dynamic and we get along great.  I am her first American companion and so we have a great time quoting movies and reminiscing things from home.  It is very fun and new for her.  Sister Krout will be a great help to me and a great example as I slowly nurse myself back to who I was before all of the horrors of San Lorenzo.  I feel very, very low but I think the Lord is ready to start building me up again.
We have a lot of great work to do here and for the first time I feel like I am not alone.  We can counsel and work together and I am so excited to get back in the action.  I think we are going to focus our efforts for now on less-active members.  All the members that Sister Krout baptized have now fallen into difficult opposition and have fallen into inactivity.  But they are all power-houses and have amazing testimonies.  they just need a little help from the ward to get them back into the chapel.  I am so excited to get started in the work!

We had a baptism last week of Richard and Aurea.  They are the sweetest little couple.  They are very simple and humble people and it has been so interesting to watch them grow and progress in the gospel.  Their service was very small and simple, but the spirit was there so strong.  It was great because Richard and Aurea invited one of there neighbors, Hugo, to come to the service and he loved it.  He was amazed by the peace he felt in church and asked us what the requirements were for him to be baptized.  He told us it was his goal to be baptized in our church.  We taught him for the first time yesterday and it was a great lesson.  It was one of the times that I knew I was a terrible teacher--- I maybe didn't explain things clearly, didn't use the scriptures the best--but the spirit was strong.    That is what is important.  I know the words I spoke weren't really mine. 
I hope that Hugo will be able to take the steps and make the sacrifices necessary for baptism.

I love our house and our neighborhood.  We have some of the greatest neighbors.  There is one little boy, Angelito, who is always in the streets riding his bike.  He has quickly made himself our best friend and anytime we go walking to do contacts he always comes with us on his bike.  He has introduced us to some great people, including his family.  Angelito asked us if he could come with us to church.  Of course!  So he rode his bike over to the chapel and he had a great time.  After church his mom had made us all dinner.  We had so much fun with his family.  It is his mom and older sister.  We have taught them a little bit, but aren't too into making commitments.  But anyway they are great neighbors.  We also introduced ourselves to another great family on our block.
Ok this family is unheard of they have so many things that I thought I would NEVER find in Puerto Rico.  We actually set up an appointment with them planning on teaching them Lesson 1, but they called us a few minutes before and told us they were catholic and asked us not to share anything with them, but we could still come over and get to know them.  We were a little bummed but it turned out great.  This family is amazing:

Krout and I at Zone Conference

1.  The mom and Dad are married!!!!!!
2.  It is their first and only marriage for both of them!?!?!
3.  They have 3 well behaved children who listen quietly and participate politely in conversations!!!!!
4.  They turned off the TV and Radio when we came!!!!!
5.  The whole family stayed in the room the entire time with out bringing in DS, Ipods, or MP3's
6.  The house we completely clean
7.  That family spends time together, meaning they eat meals together and go on trips together



Both Sister Krout and I walked out of the house completely blown away!!!!!  I didn't know families like that even existed anymore!  I thought they were just Preach My Gospel fantasies.  Wow.  Unbelievable.  We had a really great time with them.  We basically just got to know them and shared a little bit about what our church is.  I felt like a member missionary.  That is what members are supposed to do, build friendship and get into homes.  Anyway, we have great freindship with them now and hope to see more of them.   I am still in shock of how perfect that family is.

Other exciting things.  I love having an American companion because we can eat vegetables together.  Puerto ricans do not believe in vegetables.  Just meat, beans, rice, and fruit.  We ate salad for lunch today and it was divine.
I ate Bacalao yesterday.  It is like a pickled codfish, but is soft instead of crunchy.  It was disgusting and I felt pretty sick afterwards. 

I LOVE JUNCOS!!!

I love my companion.
Sister Krout
The cockroach situation is diminishing.  They are eating the poison and dying out.  It is not so bad.  Sister Krout was horrified to learn of the problem, but really she missed out on all of the fun.
Yes, I have heard of the nylon rumor.  That sisters are no longer required to wear nylons.  Hallelujah!  That was ridiculous anyway.  We were supposed to wear nylons on Sundays here.  I think I did for the first two months, decided it was just ridiculous and gave up on that.

I am happy, happy, happy, happy and so grateful for the Lord's mercy.  Thank you so much for all of the packages, Mom.  They have been arriving. 

Love,
Hermana Palmer

8 moves

The Awesome House of Juncos!

Well, I have officially completed my 8th move within the past year.  Yep.  Provo to AZ.  AZ to MTC.  MTC to CCM.  CCM to Carolina.  Carolina to Fajardo.  Fajardo to San Lorenzo.  San Lorenzo to Juncos.  Juncos old apartment to Juncos new apartment.  Are you tired yet?  I am exhausted.  I realized this week that the longest I have been in an area is 3 months.  I am ready to settle down.  But the good news is I love the new house.  (Mom good news they didn't fumigate it a second time.  They just put in poison pellets for the roaches to eat. )  I feel happier in the new house.  The old house was very cavelike.  It was a burrow nestled down on the side of a main highway.  There was practically no light and the apartment just felt like elders.  This new apartment is bright and cheery.  There is plenty of sunlight.  There is even a yellow wall.  (All other missionary apartment walls are filthy white).  And to top it all off the outside is painted peach and pink!  It makes me feel happy and feminine. 
The roach situation isn't so bad.  Good news. The poison is really working.  We see plenty of cockroaches but they are mostly really small and most of them have been dead already.  I have only had to kill 3 small roaches. Mom, don't count on me killing scorpions when I get back.  With only three kills I have a long way to go before I can master scorpions. Bad news.  When we moved in on Friday the cabinetry was disgusting, disgusting, disgusting.  The all the cabinets were lined with cockroach eggs and carcasses.  Here are the things I learned this week:

1.  I am never going to renovate a house.  I have always thought it would be inadvisable because of all the unforeseen expenses, but I now realize that renovation really mean critters.  Lots and lots of critters.
2. Cleanliness standards of men and women just don't compare.  The cabinets were pronounced clean by a man.  I know he went through a lot of work to get them to that state, but men just don't see cracks, corners, nooks. or crannies.
3.  Cockroach eggs are a pain to remove. They have to be popped off individually with a knife or sharp edge.

That's right.  I want all of you Cranes to picture your favorite city cousin, Sister Palmer, spending 6 hours popping cockroach eggs off of the walls and kitchen drawers.  It was gross, but it is over.  Don't worry I had gloves and I just threw away the clothes I used to clean in.  Sister Castillo is a trooper she helped me and coached me on.  the whole time I know Grandpa Richins was roaring with laughter.

Other exciting events.  While the apartment was being completed we got to stay 3 nights with the sisters in Aguas Buenas.  It was lots of fun to live and spend time with them for the few hours each morning and each night.  I have pictures, but on this computer there is no way to attach them.  Aguas Buenas is a tiny little town with only one stop light.  I can't imagine what it would be like to work in that little town.  I am grateful to be in Juncos.

Fun with the Aguas Buenas Sister.  Hermana Perez and me.

Transfers is tomorrow and we still don't have any news.  President Alvarado is a last minute kind of a guy.  I am hoping I will stay in Juncos, but with this President you can only guess.  There are no rules and no patterns.  I think the entire island is going to go through a massive switch up.

Hermana Garcia and Castillo

Investigators are doing well.  We have a couple preparing for baptism this Sunday and I hope all goes through.  They are the ONLY married couple I know in all of Puerto Rico how "lucky" for us to find them.   They are very simple people and extremely humble.  It has been wonderful to see them slowly open up through the gospel.  Lucy is strong.  She is very sad that she can not be baptized, but is working hard to continue to progress and work with her husband to be married.

I will admit I am very tired and a little bit down.  So many more things have happened in these past weeks that I just don't have the time or desire to write them down.  I need a little boost.  But I know that the gospel is true.  I know the atonement is real.  And I pray that we can all have the strength to continue on and endure to the end.  I miss you all and love you so much. 

Hermana Palmer