May God give each of you a boyfriend.

Hope everything is going well this week. Hope school is going well. Hope you are starting to feel better Erin. Sounds like fall is in full swing at home. I'm jealous about all the fresh produce that came out of the garden and I think a lot about homemade soup, fresh bread, and the leaves changing colors this time of year, October has always been my favorite month. Haha, meanwhile I am sweating up a storm. But that's life here in Puerto Rico.

 I'm sorry to hear about Ben Jacobsen passing away. My condolences go out to the Jacobsen family. Even though I don't know Ben very well, Charlotte and Ted and Rosie and Dennis are so amazing. I'm praying for them.

So another week has gone by here in Arecibo. It's going by so fast. I still can't believe that in two weeks I will have been out a year. Things are really good here in Arecibo. As I have said, this place is amazing. There are really people prepared to hear the gospel and we are finding a lot of people. I might not have made it very clear in my emails but these last few transfers have been really rough for me. Really rough. Between working in an area that was just really struggling, not having a lot of work (except Nicole who is amazing), car accident, sick companions, it was a rough few transfers for me. But things are getting a lot better, not one hundred percent perfect, but a lot better. Our district leader shared a scripture with us this week in D&C 58:1-4 that really helped me a ton. We are seeing the fruits of it now. Sometimes we don't know why we have to go through things but there is a purpose behind everything. I stayed in my last area for 6 months because even though at times I was antsy for a change, we sisters needed to be there to teach Nicole. We are here in Arecibo for a reason and we are finding a lot of really prepared people. The blessings come after the trials.

We are still working with Denis and his family. He's getting baptized next weekend. His grandfather is going to baptize him instead of his Dad but his dad is still progressing towards receiving the priesthood which is great. We found the most amazing investigator named Jennifer. Wow, she really is what you would call a golden investigator. She has gone through and is going through a lot of hard things right now and told us that she was losing her faith. When we showed up at her door she just felt like she had to listen to us. She has the most amazing questions and she is progressing a lot. Her 11 year old daughter is as excited as well. She was going to come to church Sunday but woke up really sick and called us and said she wouldn't be able to go. She told us that she later went into to her daughter's room and saw that her daughter had laid out the only skirt that she had and her best shoes at the end of the bed to get ready to go. When we arrived she had read the pamphlet that we gave to her and she had highlighted it in different colors, but didn't understand anything she had read. But they are so great and we are really excited for them. We are finding a lot of people and as President promised us, we are finding families. Families! Wow, that is just amazing. It doesn't happen very often that whole families get baptized here. Very rarely are there baptisms with mom, dad and kids. That is the goal that we are working on as a mission; teaching complete families and it is pretty hard. We are so used to teaching individuals and teaching a complete family has its challenges. It's harder to make sure everyone is at home at the same time so they can progress at the same rate, they all have different needs, different doubts, for example it's hard to teach the law of chastity to a ten year old and to an adult at the same time. But we are learning a ton and I know that we are going to see a lot of great things these next few transfers.

So... funny story. I thought of Rachel the other day when we were out knocking doors. Remember how Rach would jokingly say that she wanted a boyfriend for christmas or that she wanted a brother-in-law? Well I don't know why but I thought of her. When we contacted an older man the other day, he told us that he lived there with his "novia" (meaning girlfriend); that they'd been married for 50 years. He asked us if we had boyfriends. Lots of people ask that, the other day a woman told my companion that if she liked Puerto Rico all she had to do to be able to stay is find a boyfriend get married and then she could stay here forever and not have to worry about her Visa expiring. We didn't mention that would be just a little bit against mission rules. Well anyway... this man, as we walked away from his house yells out at the top of his lungs, really loud too, "Que papa Dios le de un novio a cada una!!!" In other words... my God give a boyfriend to each one of you. It was pretty funny. I don't know why but it just made me think of Rachel's Christmas wish. So to those of you who are looking for a boyfriend "Que papa dios le de un novio a cada una". Most of my friends that might be reading my blog are probably all married or engaged by now. Haha.

Anyway love you all a ton. Hope you have a great week.