Prayers For Carmen's Passing

Well, to start off on a sad note, Carmen del Valle Ramos has been transferred to the spirit world. The lady I baptized in Arecibo passed away last night. It's a great privilege to have met her. She was my Puerto Rican grandmother, and I am so blessed to have been used as an instrument in the hands of God to be there at the right time in the right place to get to know her and the love she had for us. Please keep the members of Arecibo and Carmen's family in your prayers.

This last transfer has been flying by, and I am loving it. I am having so much fun with my companion and my area. I am sorry I have been a little bit dry in the emails about what is happening. I am super tired, like so tired every day. So, if any of you are aware of what "whitewashing an area" is (it's where two missionaries come into an area brand new and they know nothing about it), I am actually doing that right now in a branch that has not had missionaries in 6 months over the area. It has been exhausting, and on top of that, I am lip training and a zone leader (talk about a refiner's fire, ay?). No, but on the real, it has been exhausting, and so I have been absolutely pooped. The first 4 weeks were just find, find, find, and try to teach, but lessons just kept falling through, so I didn't really have anything to tell you guys because I have just been knocking doors for the past 28 days and trying to get to know all the members, train a new missionary, and make sure he knows all the rules. Trying to relearn Spanish, just kidding, I know Spanish kinda... This last week, though, things started to pick up, which was good. It was definitely a faith trial to start a new area and try to get everything going for the zone as well.

Besides all that, this week we have taught a lot of lessons. It has been amazing to finally start teaching again. It's supposed to be find, teach, and baptize well... when you are just finding, it's definitely exhausting. But we found this lady the last week; she was sitting on her porch, and we were just about to go home. And I said, "Elder, let's go talk to her," so we walked up, and she was like really interested and super accepting, and then her daughter walked out and her grandson, and they were super excited to meet with us again, so we were like, "Alright, bettttt." So we tried to go back, and they weren't able to that day, so we rescheduled, and then we went back to another lesson the day before the lesson with the family of Cubans, and the girl stood us up by not answering, and here we were on the porch with a member. And it was awkward, but I saw the Cubans outside, and then we took the member to go meet them, and they hit it off. So we asked if she could come tomorrow (to the lesson the next day), and then we had the lesson. We taught the restoration and invited them to be baptized on the 4th of February. And they accepted a date. It was a strong spirit, and they have a good relationship with a member already. Please pray for Ariana, Regla, and Reiney in your prayers so they can be baptized.

THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT THIS WEEK was definitely the temple dedication. It was amazing to be in a temple dedication in your mission, having all the Puerto Ricans around you and feeling the joy and the spirit of their ancestors amongst us. There were many tears shed here in Ponce, and they were happy tears. The saints of Puerto Rico are absolutely amazing, and a temple in my mission is even more amazing. It's a privilege to have been able to help some of the people here be baptized and worthy to go to the temple, and I hope I will be able to go do baptisms with them in the temple. The eye of faith in some of the missionaries early on here is just inspiring, "we are going to bring the temple to Puerto Rico." It's a privilege to be among the saints who have served their missions in Puerto Rico. A huge honor. I'm very proud to be a part of the PRSJM.

We had zone conference, and that was so weird. This is my first zone conference back from the islands, and I knew absolutely nobody here. What on earth is happening? It is just wack. But we did the roleplay zone conference, and it was weirder to be one of the teachers to these young missionaries. I always feel so unworthy, like they should not be taking my advice. There is this stigma where if you come from the islands, you are just like the smartest ever. Whenever I speak in district council, all these missionaries take like a page of notes. I don't ever know what I said or why, but it makes you feel cool inside. Hopefully, this doesn't turn to pride. (Don't worry, I won't let it get to me.)

Good week. We also put Naomi on a date, who is a teenage girl that some dude referred us to on the street.

I have gotten old. I am starting to have scary dreams about plane rides home and hanging out with my parents. I think my mom is praying for me to have a desire to come home. I need some prayers to help me not have these weird dreams. If they keep coming, I don't know what I'll do. Apparently, I'm subconsciously trunky, but consciously scared of going home. Someone have advice for not being scared to leave; it would be appreciated. The mission is the greatest thing I've ever done.

SNICKLE - we made snickles this week. It's a trend going around in our mission started by the elders of St. Thomas. It's a pickle and a Snickers together. You take a big pickle, cut it in half like a hotdog bun, and then take a spoon and carve out the guts. Then melt a Snickers in the microwave and put it on the inside of the pickle, close it, and eat. Man, it's actually fire. Like 100 percent honest, it's really good. Would recommend.

Please pray for:

Ariana

Regla

Naomi

Reiney

Yolanda

Brian and Yaitza

Alexis and Kayla

The Arecibo Ward and Carmen's family

Melvin de la Rosa

Prayers for them are much appreciated ^^^