We had a baptism!

Breaking into the font a few hours beforehand

On Saturday we had a baptism!  It was the best baptism yet.  Both Airet and Arihesly (Amerfis's daughters) were baptized.  I don't know who was more excited, us, Amerfis, or the girls.They got there really earlier to try on the jumpers and make sure everything was ok. We had an awesome attendance of the baptism as well.  Normally your lucky if you get 5 members to come to a baptism, but for this one there were probably 30 people.  We had to open the overflow of the Primary room to make room for everyone to fit.  Amerfis and her family have certainly been opened with open arms. 

Sunday, we ate dinner with Tammy and Julio.  Julio made us his special recipe of "Churrasco"".  So delicious!  Julio is an awesome cook. I love being with that family.  I can really feel a different spirit in their home from when I first started coming to now.  Julio also had a little surprise for us.  He invited to Stake President to come over and eat with us as well.  I was really grateful that we had a good message prepared to share with everyone! ; )  President Alvarado knows Tammy from when they were kids together, so obviously she has a special place in his heart.  He always asks me about her when he sees me.  President Alvarado invited me to come to Tammy and Julio's temple wedding in April of 2012.  I told President I would be there.  He will certainly be there. Now all we have to do is invite Tammy and Julio and make sure they will be there!  Ha.

Bruni is doing great and told us that she is back in the church to stay.  We visited her last night and she told us of the incredible peace she has felt since she came back to the church and all the incredible friendships she has made.

This week Sister Barker and I came across another less-active of many years.  Her name is Millie Diaz.  We actually met her in the parking lot of Walgreens and she told us that she was baptized in the Mormon church when she was 10 years old.  It's been about 30 years since she has been to church.  We were able to meet with her briefly yesterday to kind of get to know her.   She has had a very hard past and has many,many questions about he church.  But you can just see that she has a hunger and a thirst for the gospel that us hard to come by.  I really think that she has been prepared to come back to the church at this time, but really she will be the one to determine that.

I absolutely love Juncos!  The people here are so amazing. Emily Anderson is getting baptized this Saturday and we are both happy that I will be here for her baptism!

Hermana Palmer

A trip to Humacao

 February 16, 2010

Dear Family,

Well, last week was a fun Pday trip.

I think I mentioned that I was going to tour Humacao with Nadia and Ilia.  It was fun and interesting.  Nadia took us to Palmas del Mar, which is a huge, resort/condo/gated community.  It is a huge terrain with really, really expensive homes, golf courses, boat docks, a mall, a hotel and a casino all inside.  The entire properties is huge and you have to drive a good ways to get between the different sections.  There are some members of the church who live in one of the gated communities inside so local people live there too, but it all seemed like a huge resort fantasy world in there.  We mostly just looked around and marvelled at the different lifestyle of all the people who live in there. 

There were a lot of American Tourist and even more retired Americans.  It was strange to see them all walking and driving around in beach clothes and tennies.  I think Hermana Barker captured our reaction pretty accurately:  I can't believe people come here and think this is what Puerto Rico is really like.  If only they could see the craziness and quirkiness on the other side of the gate.

I enjoyed it though just chatting with Ilia and Nadia.

This Saturday we are hving a baptism!  Airet and Arihesly (Amerfis'daughters) are going to be baptized along with Emily Anderson.  I am so excited.  The ward is really excited.  They have really embraced Amerfis' family right into the ward.  Those girls are so cute!

Bruni also came to church again this Sunday all on her own.  She is really happy there.  I never thought she would ever come back and certainly not so effortlessly.  She loves Relief Society and is not afraid to put herself out there.  I think she is planning on staying permanently!

Yesterday I was visiting Aida, a former less-active I have been working with for a long time.  Sister Krout and I challenged her back in September to read the entire Book of Mormon.  She is now reading in 3 Nephi.  She shared a sweet and simple testimony that really touched me.  She said:  "I have changed a lot in the past few months.  It is because of this book."  It is true even the simplest things in the gospel change our character.  I have noticed a difference in her.  You can really see a light in her eyes that wasn't there before. 

As Christina would say.  "What is it with Mormons?  They all look different than everybody else."  And as Sister Krout would say "It's the mormon glow!"  I am starting to see the glow in Christina too.  She got called to be a Primary teacher and she is taking her calling very seriously.  She has also taken it upon herself to organize activities for the young single adults of this and the surrounding wards.

Ilia has continued to be a huge blessing in my life.  She is so excited and nervous to go to Mexico for her mission.  I love just talking to her like a friend.  We are having similar emotions as she begins her mission and I finish mine.  She is so awesome.

Tomorrow is Zone Conference.  It will be interesting to see what goes on there.  I am sure it will be exciting as always with President Alvarado.

Love you all

Hermana Palmer

Feb 9, 2010
Juncos is amazing!
This past week Sister Barker and I have been sharing a missionary plan, prepared by Bishop Maldonado, to the members to help them participate in missionary work.  We have a brochure where member write down 2 families they want to share the gospel with and then write goals of 3 actions they will take to gradually invite them to come to church or meet with the missionaries.  It is actually a very well prepared plan and the members have been really excited. 
I have been so impressed as we have invited members to share the gospel.  Usually they tell us that they are already working with 2 or 3 people.  It has really surprised me.  In all of my time in Juncos I have never seen the members so excited about missionary work.  We visited the Andersons, Maldonados, Carrasquillos, Zayas, Cabrera, Valentín and Santiago families to share the brochure.  All of which told us they already had begun to share with other families.  I love it.
The Andersons are so much fun for me.  They are the house of 3 girls and the Dad reminds me so much of my Dad.  They just got back from Disney world and loved it.  I had to ask Brother Anderson if he stood in line for all the Disney princesses.  He told me that he just sat on the bench and took a nap.  That sounds about right.  They are doing amazing on missionary work too.  They have about 5 families they are working with.  They have really influenced a lot of their co-workers and are sharing church articles, movies, and are now preparing to invite them over for FHE.  That is where success in missionary work comes from--the members. And Brother Anderson could not wait to tell us that he shared the gospel with the manager of Chick-fil-A while they were at Disney.  He even looked up the managers' email online and emailed him while we were at his house.  It was funny how excited he was.  I love their family SO much!
This week at church we had a miracle.  We have been working with a less-active for a few weeks.  (Actually a less-active referred to us by the Anderson family!)  Her name is Bruni.  She was baptized in 1987 and hasn't been to church basically since she was baptized.  We have been visiting her just a little bit and invited her to church, but she did not want to commit.  It is interesting because she has been going through some difficulties with her son and everytime she feels depressed she says that she remembers the Mormon church.  She says she can't explain why.  The answer is clear to me: The Spirit!  Anyways, we invited her to church but she seemed really non-committal.  But when we arrived on Sunday she was already there sitting and waiting.  It blew me away.  She found the church on her own by a map I had given her the first day that I met her.  The Andersons were shocked as well.  They had no idea that she was so interested.  Bruni loved church and especially Relief Society.
When people are ready they make changes in their life.  That was a miracle to me.
Juncos is the best area ever!  It has been hard to be here so long, but there are always going to be hard things in an area.  I am so grateful that I have been able to see the growth of the ward and the growth in my life as I have served here in JUNCOS.
I have learned and grown so much.  I feel that my faith and personality has been shaped and molded by the Lord.

Hermana Palmer

Busy, Busy, Busy

Painting gone wrong

Painting Hermana Maritza's house

Kitia and Wilfredo's family

February 2, 2010
This week has been a huge struggle and adjustment to covering 4 pueblos instead of 2.  And trying to teach some of the single woman investigators in the stake boundaries.  We are really trying to balance traveling, finding, teaching, and accomplish all of our companionship and district goals.  It is hard, but as always I would rather be too busy than too bored.    We are teaching a woman, Norma, who lives in Caguas, which is about 20-25 minutes away. I feel that she is prepared to receive the gospel. She really keeps her commitments and has a desire to change her life.  The main difficulty with her is that she works a lot and it is hard to teach her.  She also works every other Sunday.  That obstacle is so common and so difficult.  Working on Sunday really impedes investigators and members progress.  It is hard for them to give that up, but really if they want to stay firm in the church it is necessary.
 She is really great, but it also very difficult to teach someone who is not in your ward.  I am not sure how to use members.  I won't be there to help her in church, since I will most likely be in Juncos ward.  I am not sure how to balance it all, but it will settle.
Our mission is really decreasing in size.  We are losing a ton of missionaries and not receiving many at all.  With these next two transfers  I think 10 sisters are going home and the mission won't be getting any new sisters until June.  I think it must be hard for President.  He is trying to surge the work, but his resources are diminishing gradually. He is really sad that he is losing so many sisters.
I have been sick the past two days.  I have "La Monga" or "Catarro" (sore throat and cough).  It is awful being sick as a missionary.  I just want to keep working because we have worked so hard for the appointments we have set, but I feel gross.  At least today is Pday and I can just go back to the apartment and sleep.  It is only the second time I have ever been sick on the mission, so I guess it is a pretty good record.
Now that I am working in San Lorenzo again, I was able go back to my convert, Nadia's house and resume teaching her the after baptism lessons.  Since I left, no one has been teaching her, but she is doing great!  She is the 2nd counselor in the relief society presidency and she has been really strong.  It was so much fun to go back to her house and share with her about temples.  Since she was baptized in May she has almost completed a year and the bishop has already talked to her about preparing to go to the temple.  I was so happy to go back and see how far she has come in the past 9 months.  It no longer feels strange for me to be back in San Lorenzo.
Last week was ward conference and there were a lot of changes in the ward. The relief society, primary, and young women presidencies all changed.  It was a total shocker, but I think it will be great to have a change.   I love working with Bishop Maldonado.  He is really excited to see the ward progress and he is really picking up the pace.  He sacrifices a lot of time and energy for this ward, but I can really see that Juncos, as a ward, has progressed incredibly!
Amerfis' family is doing really well.  The two older daughters are preparing for baptism and the ward has really accepted and fellow-shipped the entire family.  Airet, the oldest is really showing greater interest and progress and the younger sister, Ariehsli, as always has a great energy and love for learning.  Some of her questions and comments really blow me away.  She really has a special spirit and testimony.

Love
Hermana Palmer

Looking good.

 January 26, 2010
Well. This week has been yet again a huge adjustment, but good.  Everytime you get a new comp, you have to really figure out what their vision is, their focus, things they don't like to do, and you can be sure it will be a big change from you previous comp.  It seems like every time you get a new comp, they come into your area and are disappointed with what they see.  They want to come in and change everything.  Which is good, but I have had a lot of changes in companion lately and I feel like every time I start picking up rhythm with one, another comes in and totally want to re-vamp everything. 
Things were hard with Sister Barker for the first two days, because she just wanted to change everything Sister Curl and I had been doing.  We were coming in at completely different angles and there was tension.  But one night I decided we need to talk and we both just explained why we are the way we are.  Why we work the way we work.  Everything makes so much more sense now. It was a wonderful experience.  We are totally good now and we can compromise and work together.  It made such a big difference.  Before we were both kind of resentful one of the other and now we can't stop talking.  She is very energetic and very much a Preach my Gospel missionary.  It is funny how while on the mission she has fallen in love with the missionary work and I have fallen in love with the people.  You need both and so we compliment one another well.
The ward activity was AMAZING.  The video turned out so much better than I had ever imagined.  We had a huge turn out of people and we did get new investigators from the activity.  Part of the activity was that we had some brethren in the ward dress up like Book of Mormon characters and it was hysterical.  I made some amazing costumes.  It is amazing what you can do with a little bit of cloth, posterboard and aluminum foil.  We had Nephi, Ammon, Samuel the Lamanite, Abinadi, and Captain Moroni.  It was so much fun.  In fact, it was such a hit that the bishopric even talked about making it an annual activity!  Yeah!  It went really well.
everything is going well here in Juncos.  The work has hit kind of a lull.  Investigators are dropping us and the less-actives are just stuck, but I know that we will be able to find a family to teach soon. 
The ward is progressing.  There are going to be a lot of changes in the RS, Primary, and YW presidencies, so that will be a great and long needed change.  I have really seen this ward change and grow so much in my time here.  I think that has been the biggest accomplishment during my time here.
And Tammy and Julio are doing GREAT!!!  Their home has changed so much.  They are really turning around their lives and you can see the changes in each of them.  They are so much more patient and happy!

I have to go.  The Internet is not working well and I have run out of time!

Love,
Hermana Palmer

I am happy Markie is doing so great!  Mom, the IHOP dinner sounded like so much fun.