Puerto Rico

Great Lunch

Tuesday this week was a special day for our missionaries here in Caguas. As we are preparing to return home from our mission we have found that our cupboards are not empty. Our apartment will probably be closed after we leave for home next week, so to help us reduce our food supply Sister MB went to work.

Using her great cooking skills she prepared a scrumptious lunch for the six missionaries serving in the Caguas Ward – four sisters and two elders. After their district meeting was concluded she served up spaghetti, corn, bread and a very nice green salad. They ate it all and still had room for a Pistachio dessert.

During the meal they were asked to share with us their feelings about the importance of their missionary service. What a treat it was for us to listen to them and feel the  spirit they carry. As servants of the Lord they are working hard to share the gospel message with the residents of this beautiful valley and are seeing success.

What a blessing it is for us to be able to serve with them. We love all of our missionaries.

Puerto Rico

Changes and More

Last week was sad because two of our fabulous “Senior” couples finished their mission and left us. We will really miss them! We were already sad because our wonderful mission president had to be released early because of some family health problems. President and Sister Smartt will be sorely missed by all the missionaries in the Puerto Rico San Juan mission. On a happier note, we are privileged to have Elder and Sister Zwick come to guide our mission until the new “permanent” mission president comes in July.

A few days ago we had an “All Mission” conference. President Zwick told us that soon there would be 90,000 missionaries serving in the world. Wow! He reminded us of the importance of humility and unity in all we do in “hastening  the work”. He stressed unity between companions, members, and investigators. He said that we need a culture of obedience in our mission, we need to serve with exactness and teach by our example. The people of Puerto Rico are praying for a temple of their own, with unity and hard work between members and the missionaries, that goal can be accomplished.

Sister Garcia in our Cagaus ward asked Sister MB to come and help the third graders at her school make greeting cards and especially a Mother’s Day card. The students at Escuela Elemental Pedro Millan Rivera were very enthusiastic and a lot of fun! We took two “young” sister missionaries along to help and it was just a great experience for all!

Puerto Rico

Fun Things

Creating Cards

We have a wonderful new YW President here in our Caguas ward who just returned from her mission to Mexico 3 months ago.  She asked if Sister MB had any fun ideas. One suggested idea was making greeting cards that the girls could give out to members of the ward. The girls enjoyed the activity and you will notice in the photo that a couple of Sister Missionaries even joined in. They were all very creative with the cards and really enjoyed the evening. Also, the girls tried out their English skills and Sister MB tried out her Spanish. It was a fun evening.

After the Test

Part of our assignment here in Puerto Rico is to oversee the Companionship English Language Study Program. Two weeks ago we had a wonderful Elder from Guatemala who needed to take the Language Proficiency test before his departure from the mission. He was assigned in the city of Adjuntas but needed to take the test at the chapel (with high speed internet) in the city of Utuado. Last week we went up to transport him and his companion to the Utuado chapel. We were happy to do it, the only problem there is an extremely curving, winding, narrow road in between cities.  We made it, just a little dizzy when we got there! Good thing Elder NB was NOT dizzy when he was driving! Elder Delcompare did an excellent job on his test, he scored an “Advanced” score on the certificate we gave him. Gotta love those Elders!

Standing above the Dish

We were able to visit the Arecibo Observatory which is built into the mountains south of Arecibo, PR and is 1,000 feet in diameter. It is a radio telescope that has been in operation since 1963 and has made a number of important discoveries. The observatory has also been a couple of movies including a James Bond 007, the movie Contact and Species. It is a very impressive piece of engineering.

Puerto Rico

Holidays on the Island

Thanksgiving Day, 2013, was great. We spent the day at a missionary zone conference attended by President J. Devn Cornish of the Caribbean Area Presidency, and President and Sister Smartt. We received great counsel and words of wisdom that inspired us to become better missionaries. MB added some little turkeys to the luncheon.

Our Christmas Holidays were made so special by the fun visit of Elder Costley’s sister, Kevon and her husband Brent Miller. They were so much fun! We did lots of traveling including the Island of Vieques . We were able to attend church there and enjoyed visiting with the four elders assigned to that island. We finished up their visit with a trip to “Old San Juan”. We love you Kevon and Brent!

Elder and Sister Costley and the four “young” Elder and Sister missionaries in our Caguas Ward were asked to share a talent at the ward Christmas party. NB got to work with the scissors and we all did the silhouette puppet show to the song “Mary’s Boy Child”. It turned out great.  We so enjoyed the dinner and visiting with the ward members – in English.  Our Spanish is still very limited. MB contributed the little “Reindeer” cupcakes.

 

 

Each “Zone” in our mission was invited to Pres. Smartt’s home for a lovely Christmas luncheon of good old American food. We had a great visit with the president and his family for a couple hours – a Christmas treat.