JESUS IS AN ALIEN??! (First Week In Puerto Rico)

Firstly, thank you for all your birthday wishes. It was very appreciated, especially when I was able to read them. It was a rough but good week, to say the least, so to feel how loved I was made me smile! So thank you for that, to everyone that said happy birthday.

So, I flew out on my birthday, July 27, last Tuesday at 6 am. I said bye to my parents at like 4 am or something around there. That was tough, lots of tears were shed from everyone, especially me and my mom. I do miss them a lot and homesickness is a real thing. I thought I wouldn't be homesick because, well, I love my family. But what I am doing is good for two years, but the homesickness is real. It really is real, especially when you have to adjust to a new culture. That part is really hard and makes you miss home a lot. I got to the airport, said goodbye to my family, went through security. The guy had to check my side bag, my personal item, for who knows why. It didn't make any sense to me. But he did it fast and then I was on my way. I didn't really remember it was my birthday at all the rest of the day until like 7 pm. So I went the whole day and forgot. I was walking to the terminal and sat down at the gate. I was really bored, I had no phone and nothing really to study since I packed it all, so I waited. Then Herman Boulton, who was flying with me, showed up and we talked. I was less bored and then finally the stores started opening at like 5, so I went to Beans and Brew to buy water. In the line, the lady in front of me, who was a flight attendant, asked me who I worked for. I said, "The Church of Jesus Christ." She goes, "Oh, I really love your outfits and your name tag." And I think she thought it was an airline. Lol, anyways, I got a bagel. They only gave me one cream cheese, it was kinda dry. Then I went to the gate again to eat it, and Elder Engler had showed up, who was the elder I flew with. We were all talking, and I didn't really connect with them, so it was kinda awkward. The ladies at the gate announced that I should go check my carry-on if I don't care, and I said, "Sure, why not? I don't care that much." So I did, for free, and because of that, I was peer pressured into getting on the plane when they called checked carry-ons and first class boarding. So the elder and the hermana told me to go, but I'm pretty sure I could've just waited with them. Anyways, I got on the plane and I look at the gate number and not the seat number, so I am alone and sitting in the wrong seat. At this point, this lady causes a huge scene about me being in her seat, and I was like, "Yeah, cause I'm 20a and they were in my seat," and pointed ahead of me. And I go, "And I'm supposed to fly with my other friends, our seats are next to each other." She causes a huge scene. I'm nervous and confused and willing to sit anywhere as long as I'm by the elder and the hermana. Then they ask me to pull out my ticket, so I do, and it says that I am in 29a and 20a is the gate number. So I was embarrassed in front of like 12 strangers, all because this stupid lady had to make a scene, I guess it was okay. I had to humble myself and accept defeat, which was very shameful. That I messed up and that lady was crazy, but it was me. I was wrong. Anyways, we're flying and we get about to Denver. So, an hour in, I start to get really nauseous and homesick and anxious because I just left my family. It's quiet and that's all I can think about. My focus was on the bad, so my stomach starts to hurt really bad. I go to the bathroom and puke a few times into the airplane toilet... goodbye, bagel. LOL. So there I am, puked, having no food to eat and nothing to drink anymore. I thought I was going to be screwed and have a headache and stuff the rest of the day, but I was chilling. I never had any more problems that day. I got back to my seat and fell asleep till we landed in Atlanta. We had no gate number on our ticket for Atlanta, so we looked at the board and we walked, and they were already boarding us. So we got on and took off. It was rough flying 7 hours straight without moving, but we did it. When we landed, I go, "Wow, it's not yellow," 'cause everything is growing good here. It rains about every day or night, so it's always raining for at least an hour here. Anyways, we got off, found our bags, met the president, and talked to the other two elders and the other Hermana. We walked to the van and we're off. He took us to a fruit stand and gave me my most favorite thing I have eaten here. It's called quenepa. It's a weird fruit about a little bigger than a grape. You pop off the shell by pushing in your fingers, then you suck off the slime and it's super good. You suck it off, then spit out the pit. Kinda cool. We went to the temple site after that. It's being built still. He said we will all be here when it's dedicated and we will be helping with tours. So that's fun. We then went to the mission home, had fettuccine and bread. The bread here that Hermana Skinner gave was really good. The loaf at my apartment is Wonder Bread. LOL. We met the assistants to the president. They found out it was my bday from Hermana Skinner, and I think it's 'cause it's on the missionary portal. And they sang to me in Spanish. The song was so catchy. "Cumpleaños feliz, cumpleaños feliz." Then we had interviews, orientation, and then went to bed. I got to sleep on a bunk bed for the first time in my life. Let's gooooo! I got the top bunk. San Juan has, well, the whole island has a frog called a coqui, and it's very good for white noise. I slept really good. They don't have coqui chirps in Arecibo, though, and I don't know why, but they were super loud in San Juan. Super duper loud.

Day 2:

This is technically my first day in the field, I consider because it was literally the first full day. Anyways, they took us to see Old San Juan, which was so pretty. Every building is huge and it's all colored pastel bright colors. I saw the tiniest apartment, saw the gate of entrance, and that was dope. We also saw the place where the piña colada was invented and that was amazing. There was a riot from the people to the governor, and they all had megaphones yelling at the governor's building. The riots here are very verbal. The president said he said that we were safe to walk past it, and he was correct. Everyone was just verbal and sitting, yelling at the governor in Spanish. Lol, I saw the oldest street in the Americas, which is all cobblestone and very narrow. We then went back to the mission home, loaded our suitcases, and went to the stake center in Bayamon for transfers. There were like 60/96 missionaries there, and they were all going insane, especially Hermana Harris. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, "NEW MISSIONARIES, LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and her voice traveled. She was super stoked, and it made me feel really good and special. She's a good soul. She made us feel welcome, and it was awesome. Then we sang "Called to Serve" in Spanish and in Puerto Rico. In our mission, you do the "Propósito" and sing with "fuego," so everyone's screaming it at the top of their lungs, and it's so fun. I'm not going to lie. We then sat in a chair in the middle, all the greenies and the trainers, and he announced one by one where we were going and who it was with. So you'd get announced, they'd mark an "X" on the map of Puerto Rico so you could see where it was on the island, and then you'd hug your trainer. I got Elder Christensen, and I was assigned to Arecibo, Puerto Rico, in the Toa Baja Zone. There are six zones here: Toa Baja, Mayaguez, Ponce, Caguas, San Juan, and the Lesser Antilles, which is L.A. for short. It includes all the Virgin Islands and Vieques. It's actually all the islands that speak English and Spanish in our mission in that zone, so we have a lot. We have a lot of the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, and we have Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica. We're not positive about Montserrat, me and my trainer, so I don't know about that one. Lol. We then had orientation, got to talk to some missionaries, and we were off. It was an hour's drive from San Juan to Arecibo, which was very scenic. We got to Arecibo and walked into the "House of Depression." Lol, our house is so sad. I'm not kidding. And Elder Christensen thinks it's perfect. He's brainwashed from the mission, and I'm used to nice houses, so it's been crazy to adjust to. Elder Christensen - for those that want to know, he's my dad. That's what we call trainers in my mission. So when Elder Scott got his trainer Elder Olafant to get a new greenie, he goes, "I got a brother." So it's all just a family here. So my dad is from Wyoming, and Cheyenne to be exact. I was expecting him to be more small-town, but he's not that small-town, I guess. He had 1,200 in his HS, which is funny because I'm pretty sure my graduating class was about that, but his school wasn't too small. The kid is a dork, though. He is very good to have as a trainer, and everyone here thinks he sounds Brazilian. Some guy in the plaza told us that, and we've been asking, so apparently he speaks Spanish with a Brazilian accent. Lol, and he's from Wyoming. He's my age. We graduated the same year, and he's about an inch shorter than me, which is crazy because everyone here is super tiny. I'm like a giant, as you'll see in the photos, and I'm only 5'11". Even all the members and non-members are short here. It's weird being so tall for once. We then went street contacting and met a guy who was atheist but thought Jesus is an alien. I'm like, bro, how are you atheist but believe in aliens, and Jesus was one? He pulled up a picture of Jesus with UFOs and said, "See, this is a painting from 600 years ago, and those aren't angels, they're UFOs." He pointed to the bottom and said, "That's not an angel, it's a UFO." He asked if I understood him, and I shook my head. He then said, "I love you guys, you're my amigo. You do you. If you like doing this, you do you. You've got one life." He had a pile of Heineken bottles to the side, like 12 empty beer bottles, and we started laughing because this guy is just drunk and crazy. Lol.

Then I was taken to meet Remberto, who got baptized on Saturday. Remberto is my miracle this week. It's crazy to see how open he was to learning. If people would just listen, they would get it. He read all of the Pearl of Great Price and 1 Nephi 1-10 between visits with Elder Ogden and Elder Christensen before I showed up. He's a stud. The guy was so happy to find us. He kept saying that we saved his soul and we're saviors. Because of us, he can be happy and know the truth. He was a good reminder of why we are here as missionaries.

Day 3: This was the roughest day of the week for me. We went to the Elders Quorum president's house, and he gave us lunch, which was chicken and rice. It's not that I hate chicken; I just haven't tried it. But I was eating it, and it felt like I had depression. I was struggling and couldn't swallow without gagging. It didn't even taste bad; it was all in my mind. It was horrible. Every bite was mentally draining. Satan knows how to work. He will do anything in his power to make the work stop, especially when you're fresh into the field and new to everything. He knows what he's doing. I know it was him because Satan loves to talk in the first person. He talks to our spirits because he's a spirit. It all feels like we are thinking these things. I recommend listening to the talk by Loren Dalton on YouTube called "You Are Receiving Revelation, Now Act on It." It will help you understand so much about Satan and the Spirit and how they communicate. Satan knows I'm a picky eater, and he knows I've been picky my whole life. Eating food at a member's house was really rough. There's a story about spirits and how they weigh on us physically with Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith. There's a funny quote, "Joseph sat firmly and calmly all the time in the midst of a magnificent glory, but Sidney sat limp and pale, apparently as limber as a rag. Observing which, Joseph remarked, smilingly, 'Sidney is not used to it as I am.'" When Joseph Smith had the First Vision, he went home and passed out because it's such a toll on your body. That's exactly how I felt when we were done. In the car, I was pale, limp, and as limber as a rag. I was drained of tons of energy. I know for a 100 percent surety that I was strongly overcome by the devil. I know it was him, and he is good and working very hard to get me and other missionaries to come home, especially in the first six weeks when you're adjusting. He wants to attack us like crazy. It's rough. I need the prayers of everyone. Please and thank you.

Day 4: Friday, I woke up, and we went street contacting in the morning. It was hot and humid. We were walking around and talking to people, and we found a baseball field that had a ball. So I took it. It's a beat-up ball with tons of dirt and marks. It's a special ball to me now from my first week in the field. It's cool. I'll send a picture later. In the afternoon, we went to the plaza and Arecibo Pueblo, which is super duper sad because the whole downtown is abandoned from hurricanes. The U.S. companies like Walgreens, malls, and Walmart ran the stores out of business. So it's like an abandoned city. It's pretty sad because it's so pretty and colorful. If it had life, it would be so cool and fun. The plaza has some crazy people. Like I said, most everyone here is drunk a lot, and the homeless are not really homeless because they just live in government homes or abandoned houses. So they just smell, but they don't have lots of items with them. We met a crazy preacher who loves Jesus and thinks he's David. He was like, "I love you two. You guys preach Jesus' name, so I love it." We were like, "Then be baptized and listen to our message." Lol. He said all this in English, so that was fun hearing a crazy person from them and not a translation from Elder Christensen.

Day 5: Remberto's baptism. We had Remberto's baptism, and I had to give a talk. That was really scary because I know no Spanish. So thank you, Google Translate, and paper. Hahahhaha. It was awesome that I got to jump into a baptism and see why we're here doing what we do. Remberto was so happy he got baptized. He hugged Elder Christensen and laid his head on his shoulder. It was so sweet. Such a good guy.

Day 6: Sunday was crazy. We had church, and it was all in Spanish. We started sacrament meeting with Remberto's confirmation. I got to be a part of that. Every time I've done a priesthood blessing, I feel the spirit so much. It's crazy to feel that and be a part of it. Also, sacrament was all in Spanish. I bore my testimony the best I could, just to introduce myself and avoid having them come up to me and talk super fast. I had a strategy there. It's awesome.

Hermano Melvin de la Rosa: There's a member here, and his name is Melvin. He grew up in NYC and is a veteran. He tells us some good stories, and they're pretty funny. His laugh is so contagious. He's funny. He said he and his friend were in the Utah and Nevada desert with all the army boys camping, and they were on cots with sleeping bags. His buddy started screaming, and they all woke up and asked him what's wrong. He said a scorpion crawled in, so they picked him up, set him on the ground in his bag, and all the army guys started hitting him with sticks. Then they killed it, and the guy was in shock. They beat a guy in the sleeping bag. It's a lot better when he tells the story, but he's my buddy here. He hangs with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays because he's 70, but he's got lots of energy. All the old people here act like they're 20. It's so fun. They have so much energy.

My apartment and first time living alone: So, my apartment is depressing. It's grey, dimly lit, and has prop-up tables. It doesn't feel homey, and it's kinda sad. Elder Christensen loves it, but I don't. Lol. I like making fun of how depressing it is, so that's fun, kinda. At least we have AC in our study room and our bedroom. The bed is super comfy, and I think I've been getting the best sleep of my life here. It's amazing. Either that or I'm filthy tired and jetlagged. Who knows? We had a cockroach that drowned in the washing machine and got drained out when we washed our clothes. Lol. So we killed it. I can say I have beaten the cockroach. We have no hot water, which isn't the worst, actually, because it's so hot all day and never gets cold. The water tank is just warm. It's like 82-degree water, which is still cold on the skin because it feels cold unless it's a higher temp than you. But it's not as bad as you'd think. The water's safe, but we do have a filter, so that's good. I'm glad I have a driving mission and not a biking one here in PR because it's hot, hot, hot. But we do walk neighborhoods and stuff. But we do get a car, so that's good. It's very pretty too. Houses are colorful, and neighbors are friendly. There's a bar convenience store down the road, and there are always drunks. It's fun. There's lots of fun, and I'm learning and growing a lot here in PR, and I'm getting tan, tan, tan!

I've been good mostly this week. First week, lots of adjusting. It felt like it was forever long. I need some prayers for the food situation. It's been rough and stuff like that. I know I'll get through it. I just gotta make it through the first 6 weeks, and I'll be cruising. But anyways, please write me throughout the week. I can read stuff, just can't reply. So text me on Messenger and stuff. I need some inspiring words and funny stories throughout the week to get by. I need to feel the love from you guys so I can get through these 6 weeks.