Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Just follow the recipe, for reading the BOM not the other recipes

So things here are really good. I forgot my camera cord! I was going to send some pictures. Airet and Arihelys got baptized on Saturday which was so great.

 Like always it was stressful. Something always happens with baptisms. I was just waiting for something to happen because everything was going way too smoothly... haha. Well we got to the church to fill up the font and we swept it out and were just about to fill it up when we realized that the key we had opened the doors to get into the font from the back but not the ones in the front that allow people to see. The lock, which normally can be opened from the inside, was inaccessible because there was a big glass/plastic peice covering the font so no one falls in but you can still see. Well the glass was so close to the door that we couldn't just unlock it with our hands because our hands didn't fit between the glass and the door. The only person who had a key to unlock it was on vacation for the long weekend on the other side of the island. So after about an hour of fiddling around we finally got the door open with a contraption made out of a coat hanger. haha but everything turned out well.

Its been a really great week.  We've been finding a lot of new people. So I'm excited for this next transfer. We are working with some really great less active members. Its ironic that the two less active members we are most excited about are actually more like investigators.  We keep finding people that were baptized over 20 years ago and don't remember anything but they are showing more progress than anyone else.  It just goes to show that some people are prepared and when they humble themselves they will be able to progress.

We had an amazing zone conference this last week on the Book of Mormon. President and the leaders here in Puerto Rico are worried because the members don't read the Book of Mormon as much as they should and we as missionaries need to use it more in our teachings. The San Juan stake is doing something called Club 100 where they are having members read the Book of Mormon for 100 seconds for 100 days. I know that sounds like nothing but the members don't even do that right now.  It's to get them in the habit of reading. Well President and his wife are having us read the Book of Mormon for 100 minutes a day for 100 days. The idea is that whenever we have a minute whereever we go we have a Book of Mormon and we read it when we get a chance. So if people ask us what we are reading we can give them away and also so that we can become experts on the Book of Mormon so that we will be better at being able to pull out whatever verse in whatever teaching situation without having to plan before hand or look up the verse in the topical guide or even being marked in red pencil. Its been really great to read the Book of Mormon that much. Its been hard but I'm reading it in the morning, in studies, at lunch, and at dinner. So to any of you who have lots of time and want to try it even if you don't have 100 minutes a day try reading it it will help you too.

Well we had a really good laugh this week about some things. One morning I started looking at some recipe books that my companion had, that her mom had sent. Turns out they were some old ward cookbooks and some family ones made at a family reunion basically the ones her mom didn't mind parting with for a year and a half. well I thought you might enjoy these. These are some of my favorites:

Crunchy Carrot Balls
beat cream cheese, cheddar chees and honey together. Stir in shredded carrots. Chill. Roll in grape nuts and parsely.
Sorry but that's just weird. But maybe not as weird as Tex-Mex Wontons.

This is one of my favorites... Florida Congealed Salad. Doesn't that sound good.
1 can evaporated milk
1 c. mayonnaise
2 cans crushed pineapple
1 c. chopped pecans
1 c. grated american cheese (Velveeta is Good)
2 small pkg. lime or orange jello
2 c. hot water.
sorry but who puts mayo and velveeta with jello?

Jello Cucumber Salad. This one sounds some what normal right? Not that I love cucumber with Jello but...
1 large pkg. lime jello
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 c. mayo
1 1/2 c. boiling water
1 chopped onion (as desired) (as desired? who desires raw onion in a fruit salad?!)
set jello when partially thickened, beat and add mayo. add rest of ingredients and set until firm.

One more...
Cottage cheese and pineapple jello salad (to me this sounded better than the rest but just wait...)
1 pkg. lime jello
1 c. boiling water
1 can crushed pinneapple
1/4 c. chopped nuts (as desired)
1 tsp. horseradish (???????!!!!!!!!!)
1/2 c. mayo or whipping cream
1 c. cottage cheese

Well anyway maybe you don't think these are funny but we had a good laugh.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Happy Valentines Day

Thanks for all the emails this week. I'm glad you all had a fun Valentines day. Happy Birthday to Erin and to Dad tommorrow. You should fed-ex me some German Chocolate cake. Congrats Rach on getting the internship offer; Dad told me. That's so awesome. What kind of stuff are you going to be doing? By the way are you getting my emails? (haha; if she's not she won't be able to answer that question. Someone do me a favor and ask her for me, thanks) I haven't been getting emails from Rach, so if you are sending them they aren't getting here. I'm glad things are going well at the new office Dad hope things are too crazy for you this year with tax season. I'm glad you still loving your temple assignment and that the temples open again. Wow, I wish we had a temple here... one day... that's what we're working for.


This week's been really good. We are all set to go for the baptism Saturday for Airet and Arihelys. Wow, they are so awesome and their mom, Amerfis who is less active, is progressing so much. The step dad who hates the church has been opening up a little. We had an Family Home Evening at their house the other night and he even came in and sat on a chair and listened a little. Wow, that was a miracle. He really bonded with a member which is great. The members are trying so hard to befriend them. Bruni is going strong. She came to church again Sunday and is so excited about it. The work has been slow as far as finding new investigators but it's been picking up. Things are better with my companion. I'm just trying to help her hold out strong; just two more weeks left for her so we'll see what happens in two weeks. Several sisters are going home and there aren't anymore coming for awhile so President is going to have to close some areas. We are praying hard that he doesn't close our area, its been slow but it has so much potential and its making progress.

As of right now I am signed up for classes in Provo. So... guess I'll have to find somewhere to live for summer term but that should be a peice of cake.Everyone is trying to sell contracts. By the way Rach, if you are looking at contracts for next year I would really like to not have a full year contract because summer 2012 I will be doing an internship somewhere for accounting.  I would rather not sign a contract that I have to find a buyer for. Just a note.



Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Small Things

Hey Everyone!


Thanks for the emails. Thanks so much Mom for figuring out the BYU stuff. I am so appreciative. I am registered for the classes I need for summer. Well sort of; there is a slight conflict but at least I got the business law class I needed. Thanks. They also sent me a message that my scholarship is going to be applied for Fall/Winter so things are good. I'll just wait to hear from the accounting program for the rest of the stuff. Thanks so much!

So things have been a lot better here. We still don't have a ton of investigators yet but the ward is showing a lot of progress and we are working with them to help them share the gospel with their friends and I know that we'll see some results. Things are going better with my companion too. We are really good friends, but she hasn't been as trunky lastely, its been hard for her she's just burnt out. She's been in the same area for ten months and the work has been hard but things are getting better. We had some really awesome experiences this week. We had an less active member come to church for the first time in over twenty years. She is basically more like an investigator because she doesn't remember anything. But we invited her and she said that maybe she would come but we thought that it was a for sure no. But she woke up sunday and felt really strongly that she should come. She ignored it and again she felt like she should come so she decided to get ready and found a map my companion had drawn for her months ago and she showed up. Even though the work's been slow we see small little miracles all the time. You really have to get excited about the little successes that you have. My companion and I were talking about that this week. How it's funny that we get so excited about little things but we do. We put so much of our energy into helping these people that even the smallest progress makes us so happy. We were laughing because it may sound silly but we were so excited that Bruni (the less active) made comments and participated in relief society and gospel principles. That may seem like a small thing but its so great to see that someone we thought would never come back to church not only came but she enjoyed it, she was making comments and participating in the lesson. Amerfis who is really shy made a friend this week, a recent convert. They were laughing and talking and they planned for Amerfis to do Limari's nails this week. We were like - they're friends! haha we are learning to get excited about the small things, like when parents get excited about their babies first words.

Well anyway I have to go; we are going to go to Humacao with a member who is going to take us around to see some things. But tell everyone hi for me. Tell grandma and grandpa I got their letter and I'll write soon. Tell the relief society thanks for their letter. Tell everyone hi for me! Oh and this is a shout out to Steph... I get your emails everyweek.  Tthanks so much.  I'm sorry I can't write back right away but a long letter is coming your way! Love you tons.

Love you all! Happy Birthday to Dad and Erin! And Happy Valentine's day to everyone too! Birthday cards and late Christmas will be being sent soon. Oh and mom thanks for the clothes. Love the skirt, shoes are too narrow in the toe box so I'll have to send them back. But I have to get the return thing printed off the internet but I can't get on Zappos website. Could you print it out and send it in a normal letter maybe? No rush, they have a 365 day return policy. Weird huh? Love ya!









Wednesday, February 2, 2011

I sang, but nothing came out.

Hey Everyone, so its been a pretty crazy week. Things here have been pretty good but pretty stressful too. I'm trying to help my companion keep from getting trunky. I love her she's so fun but she's already burned out from working in the same area for almost 9 months. To give you an idea, I am the 6th companion she has had in this area. But this last week was better. President raised our goals for the week, so we had to work extremely hard. So things are better.


Had a super embarrassing moment this week. Ha ha. So the bishop asked us if we could sing for Ward Conference. Here, usually the only people that can perform musical numbers are the missionaries because no one really knows how to read music. So we accepted. I have had a lot more practice singing on the mission and I have sung in lots of baptismal services and in church activities with my companions so I felt like it wouldn't be that big of a deal. Well, we arranged a song where I would start off singing alone then my companion, then we would harmonize. Well a ton of people came to ward conference. I mean a ton. We had practiced a ton and everything seemed good but when I got up to the pulpit and started to sing; nothing came out! I tried to hit a somewhat high note (which was honestly not that high); nothing but a scratchy voice. I got through the song my companion started off tune and we somewhat salvaged it. Remind me that if I ever want to sing in public again that I'm not a soloist. Ha ha. I'm still laughing about it. It was pretty bad. Oh well.

Well things have been looking up. We are teaching a family, the mom is a less active member and the two daughters are not baptized.  The 8 year old wants to be baptized but the 13 year old wasn't so sure about it. She's been praying about it and this Monday we came and she told us that she had received an answer to her prayer. She had dreamed the night before that she got baptized and that I was there smiling, Hermana Palmer and her mom were crying. So they'll both be getting baptized on the 19th so we're pretty excited. Other than that we have a lot of work to do to find people to teach.

Well, have to go. I have spent lots of time dealing with classes and registration and stuff. Sorry that i couldn't write much love you all a ton!