This Email Is Dedicated To Elder MAXIMILION FERNANDEZ From MICHIGAN

This week was pretty good. Most of the weeks are good; I don't really see bad weeks anymore. I think it's a focus thing. You just got to focus on what's happened and choose the good. The mission is great. I am learning, growing, and having a good time.

Ever since the temple dedication, the missionary work here has just gotten weirdly easier. I don't know if anyone understands but us missionaries. We just walked up to a gated neighborhood this week. No questions asked, didn't say a word to us, and they came and unlocked the doors with keys and then walked back to their shed. Usually, they let us in, but not that easily. Also, the people are so much more receptive to the spirit, it seems like. And we talk about the Book of Mormon, and so many people are wanting to meet and hear about it. It's crazy how the quote that Satan's power weakens when there is a temple is true. And we are just finding families like crazy.

I remember early on in my mission, Hermana Skinner (our mission president's wife) would always tell us to find families. And we would pray and work and pray and work, and they just weren't coming. Then all of a sudden, the temple is dedicated, and we're finding a family a day, I swear.

We decided to go to this gated neighborhood. There was no security guard there, so me and Elder Aslami just sat there for like 4 minutes, just sitting there. Now, usually I'd be like, "Alright, now what?" But we just sat there. Out of nowhere, the guard just walked down this road with keys. I don't know where or how he saw us, and he opened it. No questions asked. Then we just say, "Well, the end of the street," and we go, we walk and walk like a long while, and we get to the end. I see a dude in a car, we go over to him and talk, and he wasted our 4 minutes, then he's like, "Don't knock this street. There are too many abandoned houses on the other side of the intersection (the T in the road)." And we were like, "Huh?" So I was like, "Okay," and started walking, and Elder Aslami was like, "This house," and pointed at the next-door neighbor on the side the dude said not to knock because there would be no success. So I was like, "Okay???," and we knocked, and a lady came out and was like, "Omg, they're so cute," and just told us to come in, and we taught her, her husband, and her son. Then they actually happen to be the stake president's super close friend and were thinking about going to the temple house and are apparently always asking the stake president questions about their family, etc. It was purely weird. That never happens.

Then another dude we were walking in the same neighborhood a few days earlier. Same thing with the gate. We knock a few houses, then I go, "Elder, I wish someone would just come up to us and ask us to teach them," and not 3 minutes later, a dude walking his dog was like, "Hey, you two, come here. What do you have to tell me about Jesus?" And we were like, "Huh? Uh... America's?" And he was like, "Bett," and he said, "Come over," and walked us to his house. We then taught him and his wife and came back Sunday with a member, and he said yes to church so fast. I don't know; it's been so weird with the temple dedication. It feels like a dream.

We had to go to the doctor. Two stories on this. The first is the fact that my dad was really insistent on me going to the doctor all of a sudden for my acne. I was like, "What is his problem today? He's so insistent." So I decided to text our mission president's wife, Hermana Skinner, to let me go get a pill and cream for my acne. So we waited, and Thursday came. Meanwhile, from Monday to Thursday, my companion got a sore throat but no symptoms of anything else, and it was getting worse and worse, and he wouldn't tell anyone. So we went, and we were like, "Actually, can he get looked at too for his throat?" And they were like, "Sure, no questions asked," and then they looked and were like, "OH MY GOSH" (and their mouths dropped). Turns out, he had a really bad infection in his throat, and it was closing and swelling. It was like a giant cyst on his throat, and if we hadn't gone in, he could have stopped breathing because the swelling was getting worse and worse. And to be honest, we probably would've waited until like Saturday to tell anyone, so GO Dad for being a bot but saving my companion. I also got acne medicine, so that's cool. Look at God, helping his two little missionaries, but mainly my companion. It's not that we don't want to go to the doctor, but we don't. If you go to the doctor in Puerto Rico, it takes 6 hours.

On the way to the doctor, I got lost. I could not find it on GPS, and directions were given horribly. So we got lost and ended up in Ponce (it was literally right by our house) after getting lost and going a little. I was like, "Why can't God just help me find this place?" And then I got out of the car to back up, and it was the Bishop's house of another ward. What are the chances of that? That we back up in his driveway, he comes out, and introduces himself. They give me the directions, and I make it. We're 30 minutes west, and he was like, "Here," and sent us a pin. Not only that, he happened to be the bishop of another ward. Yo, what??? None of you will understand the circumstances but me. How was I right there right then to get help from one of the Lord's people he knew would be able to help his two missionaries?

This Temple Dedication really got clumsy like Fergy, it's got me trippin', oh stumblin', oh trippin', oh, yk.

But for real, I have seen an insane change since I started my mission, and I am convinced it's just the temple. It's like heavenly power that's plugged into the island. It's got roots of heavenly power that are touching the island, and God is shooting light into it to light the island. My weird vision I had.

"A prophetic promise fulfilled: San Juan Puerto Rico Temple is dedicated.

President Russell M. Nelson's assurance that 'better days are ahead' for Puerto Rico comes to pass with Elder D. Todd Christofferson's dedication of the new San Juan Temple in Puerto Rico. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — This sometimes storm-tossed and beleaguered Caribbean isle is filled with friendly, faithful, fortified Saints who heard their beloved Prophet make them a promise one year after the deadly Hurricane Maria devastated the territory in September 2017.

"As you individually grow to become more of the person God wants you to be, you can know for yourself that better days are ahead for the people of Puerto Rico," President Russell M. Nelson said while visiting San Juan in September 2018.

One month later, he announced a temple for Puerto Rico in the October 2018 general conference.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, accompanied by his wife, Sister Kathy Christofferson, dedicated the new temple on Sunday, January 15, bringing a new light to La Isla del Encanto — the Island of Enchantment.

"The temple will bless this island," he said. "It has had a lot of challenges in recent years, natural disasters, and other kinds of difficulties that have been serious and caused a lot of destruction. It will make a difference." (Church news: A prophetic promise fulfilled: San Juan Puerto Rico Temple is dedicated)

The Temple is the key, the miracles I am seeing! My mind is blown. It's like 5x easier.