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.

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.

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!

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!

Juncos!

Hey Everyone! So I just got transferred. I'm in Juncos. I am still not even exactly sure where that is on the map. Haha. It's on the east side of the mission. My first time venturing to what was formerly the east mission. Once again I am in campo or country. My companion is named Hermana Palmer, she's from Arizona. She's tall and blond and she has only one transfer before she is going home. It was a huge surprise that I was getting transferred. I thought for sure that I would stay in Adjuntas since I just had one transfer there and since Hermana Angel has been there so long. But we got the call last night so I threw everything in the suitcases and here I am. It's super weird but I am excited to see what this next transfer will bring.


Erin! Wow, 3 writing awards. I am so excited for you. Really, as I read the emails from you and mom and I was super excited I can't wait to read your stories. After working so hard this last semester and with being so sick, you deserve it. I'm really excited for you. Sounds like everything is going well at home. Hope everything works out, Dad, with the new office. Rach, thanks for the short email. haha. I hope you had a great birthday. What did you do? How's the new semester going at BYU. Wow, I can't believe the time is going by so fast. Tell everyone hi for me. I got a letter from Jennie Lloyd. You'll have to tell everyone their family hi for me and all the cousins too. It's weird to see the christmas cards, everyone is so grownup.

This last week has been super stressful, crazy and great. First, Juan will be getting baptized this friday. Wow, that was an adventure. At first we were a little stressed because I didn't not feel comfortable teaching someone that fast. I've never liked or wanted to be the kind of missionary that teaches and baptizes someone so quickly that they really don't have a testimony and they go inactive afterwards. It's still quite funny that a member that isn't even from our ward extended a baptism date for us and we didn't even know! Trust me we spent a lot of time, thinking and praying. Praying so much to know what to do. But we went ahead and taught him almost every day for the last week and a half. We moved the baptism date a few days later but we feel good about it. He really is ready. He knows everything and he is living all the commandments. He has prayed and he knows it's true after years of being interested about the church and reading about it he knows that its true. Members had already invited him to stop drinking coffee and when we taught him for the first time he had already stopped. He just knows that its true, he's prayed about it and knows that this is what he wants to do. And since he's been to church already a lot he has the support of the members. It's been quite the humbling experience for me to say, okay it's true, maybe he really is ready. Miguel and Natalie got married thurdsay. Wow, it was really stressful and great. But now there are problems with the paperwork. The process here is super crazy. They are missing some birthdates of his children and a few signatures of the witnesses. Including one of our members spending three hours in the office trying to figure it out and if they don't get it all worked out the blood tests will expire and they'll have to start the process over again! So we are praying really hard that it all works out so they can get the paperwork turned in and can have their baptism interview tomorrow. If not it will have to cancelled again. I'm sure none of that makes sense, sorry. But if you could keep Miguel and Natalie in your prayers that would be great. I hope it works out. It was sad to leave just before they were all getting baptized but I'm glad that Hermana Angel will get to stay. She's been working with them for so long, so I'm glad she'll get to be there to finally see them get baptized.

Well I guess we'll see how this new area is. President is starting a new thing where the elders are not allowed to teach single woman. So we are going to be covering the entire stake, teaching whatever investigators that the elders have that are single women or single moms. It will be interesting teaching many investigators all over the place that don't go to our ward. We will be covering very large areas including working in our own area. I'm really excited to work with Sister Palmer. I've always thought it would be really fun to be her companion. Even last night, Hermana Angel asked me who I would like to be my new companion and I said Hermana Palmer and look here I am. So we'll see how this new transfer works out.

Just so you know, I'm feeling a lot better. I think the thyroid medication is working because I don't notice anymore and I don't even notice me back or my neck hurting anymore. Every once in awhile they feel tight or I'll wake up and feel a little sore but really I forget it even happened. So don't worry about me. Life is good! Love you all a ton. Tell everyone hi for me.

Whooaaaa......slow down

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for the emails.

I appologize for not being able to write last week. You might remember the similar problem last year. Puerto Rico has so many holidays in January and February. But I'm glad you got my letter so it was a little short becuase everything was closed for 3 kings day p-day was a little stressful and I wasn't able to write as much as I would like.

Wow, it's so crazy that it's been so cold lately! Well I guess January is always cold but... It's actually warming up here at least this week. Thanks for the worrying about sending clothes and shoes, but don't stress too much whatever you send will be great and really I don't want a ton because by the time it gets here I'll only have a few months left. So yes, it's official I will be coming home May 26th! President wasn't able to make arrangements to come home on the transfer to give me one more week to prepare before school starts. That's cool that Sam Skanchy came home. Tell their family high for me. Oh by the way tell grandma thanks for the christmas package. I did get it. I feel so bad I just don't have time to write letters very often but I will write her one today. But tell her thank you from me and from my companion.


Sounds like things have been crazy at home with the weather and dad having to move offices. Well it has been equally crazy here. Wow! What a week. I don't even know where to start. First, we have a couple that we are teaching that has had a baptism date since November. Becuase of many complications it has been moved several times. Well they have to get married first but the process here is very complicated and they don't really understand how it works and sadly neither do we. Basically they have to get a medical exam and blood tests and they have to go pick up these forms and then take it back to get a marriage license and they have a limited time to do it. Well they were going to get married on Christmas but we couldn't find someone who had a marriage license. Then they were going to do it on the first but they didn't go get the blood tests done until the day before and it takes a week for the results to come back so we cancelled the wedding. Well finally the results came back for the blood tests so he calls the relief society president and said I have the paper. So she called us and we made arrangements for a branch president to come and marry them and then he calls one day before the wedding and said that he was at the demographic registers office to get the marriage license and they were closed for the holidays. Turns out the relief society president thought that he had the marriage papers but he just had the results for the blood work. So once again, no wedding. So we changed it for this saturday. Well we got a phone call yesterday saying that they have to do everything before friday becuase they had a certain amount of time to do all this and since its been so long they have to be married by friday or they have to start the process all over again! So we had to move the wedding to thursday morning and we have about a three hour window that the branch president can drive out there and marry them, turn in the paperwork and then drive an hour and a half away to get to work on time. Wow, talk about stress. This morning we got a phone call telling us that we have to be in Ponce at 6:30 in the morning for an all day training meeting! Talk about stress. But I know that it will all work out.

So another funny story. Well as I said last time we have been struggling with investigators. We really have. But this week we have seen some small miracles. We've been trying to work with the members encouraging them to pray for missionary opportunities and we have received quite a few references and new families to teach which is great. Well we have been praying and fasting so that we can find people to teach. Well answers to prayers come quickly and in the most unexpected ways. Really, really unexpected. We have an investigator who has been coming to church every once in a while with his girlfriend that is less active. He was taught by the sisters only once before I got there and then went on vacation for a long time. They didn't even teach him a lesson they mostly just answered some questions. He has read every pamphlet the church has from front to back and is reading the Book of Mormon. But we could never seem to get  hold of him to teach. Well he showed up at church the week before last and this sunday. So we were excited because we were hoping to finally be able to teach him. Well while we are in a meeting on sunday, the ward mission leader announces that Juan will be getting baptized next monday. We were talking to other people and before we know it the whole branch is congratulating us and we were totally lost. We were like "what? how? when was this decided?". Turns out that after priesthood a high councilmen from another ward asked him when we was getting baptized and Juan just picked his own baptism date. The man had never even met him before and he extended a baptism date right then and there. Monday at 4:00. 8 days from then. We were in complete shock, because he hadn't received any lessons, we barely know him. It's been a little difficult because we've received a little bit of pressure from the leaders to teach him quickly so that he can be baptized that day but from the beginning I was really uneasy about it. We've been praying about it becuase really we want to do the right thing. But we went ahead and planned how it would be possible to prepare him for baptism in one week. We thought, well after praying and fasting maybe this is the answer to our prayers, maybe he really is ready, but these last three days we have felt that he really isn't ready. We want to make sure that he knows the doctrine and is actually living all the commandments and has a strong testimony. I don't want the people I teach to be inactive in a few months or years. It happens way too often here and I really want him to stay strong in the gospel. So we'll see what happens, we are going to teach him tonight and see then we will move the baptism date to the end of January. Wow, we were praying for investigators we never thought that suddenly we would have to teach someone to be baptized in a few days. haha.

Well that's whats been going on here. Lots of things to plan; lots of stress. Haha...from some really slow days to too much to do all at once. But that's the mission. Hope things are going well at home.

Love you all a ton.

Happy New Year

Hey everyone! It was so good to talk you on Christmas! I'm so sorry it was so short. It always goes by so fast. But it was so good to talk you all I wish I could have had time to talk with you all more, especially with the girls. But that's the mission right? Well we had a pretty good christmas. We basically worked the whole day. We went to old people's homes and hospitals to sing to people and we visited some investigators and recent converts.

The sisters in Arecibo came to spend Christmas with us and that was fun. It's been a pretty slow week, as you can imagine everyone has been celebrating so the work has been a little slow but that's alright. We are finding families! We are working a family that is pretty big, they are grandparents and grandchildren and they are really amazing. I know that things will start picking up soon. I feel like I don't really have any super fun stories becuase I just talked to you the other day. But I'm trying to think... Last night we had an activity with all of Ponce zone. All of the missionaries in our stake went to President Alvarado's parents' house because they are from Ponce. President and his entire family was there. They fed us dinner and we had a testimony meeting. It was really fun. The plan was to afterwards go caroling to some people in their neighborhood but the Ponce sisters had an appointment and President said that they should go because the appointment was more important but they didn't bring their bikes and it was far away so he told us to take them in our car that to divide up so I went with one of the sisters to the appointment and my companion went with the other sister to do contacts in Walmart. Wow, what an amazing experience we had. It was a family that has been recently reactivated. The sisters have been working with them for about 4 months now and they have about 1 month to be active in the church. They were doing a family home evening and the mom gave the lesson. The spirit was so strong as the mom taught the lesson, everything perfectly prepared, she was super nervous but taught the most amazing lesson. I really would not have believed that a month ago this family was completely inactive. She told us how they are preparing to go to the temple and be sealed as a family next year. The sister from Ponce who I know really well because we have about the same time in the mission, expressed to me a little bit of frustration because they haven't had a baptism in a very long time. She felt frustrated because they weren't seeing a lot of success. As we left, we were both so excited, I told her Hermana, being there tonight with that family was better than a baptism. Thats a complete family that is preparing to go to the temple and their oldest son wants to serve a mission. It was a really cool experience. That's what Puerto Rico needs, families like that.

Well I am sending a few pictures of us from the Christmas conference, us in the Yunque national forest, and more.  They probably won't all fit so I'll explain more in each email.

First we hiked about a kilometer and a half to this lake and had a spiritual thought. This is me and my companion Hermana Angel.