Puerto Rico San Juan East Mission
July 2007 - July 2009
Like everyone else I really can't believe that it is already my turn? Well yeah where to begin Brothers the realitiy of things are becoming way too real and its scares me oh so bad. I am back in Puerto Rico, back to the crazy puerto ricans that are so hard to understand I don't care how long you have been here if they don't slow down just a little bit there is no way to understand everything that they are saying. I love them to death, well time has really been a crazy thing for me, it just doesn't stop. So a good story well there are so many I have had the greatest of times and there are endless stories, I love serving a mission so much its just sad that it has taken me this long to really begin to love it, but I guess the fact that I am helping people recieve eternal salvation is a helper for me, I love it so much! I really just wanted to share with you guys that I love the gospel so much this mission has literally changed me and formed and shaped me into the person that I am today, it is weird to think that so many of us have changed for instance Grant says that he is not lazy anymore, I just don't know how true that could be? It is weird what the Lord can do with us if we are willing to be the instruments in his hands, I have really seen that here truly the moments that I am really willing the Lord just shoves so much at me and is like take this and do what you need to do with it, and its like okay I will and bascially what I am saying is that there is no greater place than the mission field! I have seriously found myself and its great that I know who I am, and what I will become! I love you guys! Oh, Elder Beatty sends his "hello" to Gary, Elder Beatty is my ZL so Iget to talk to him every night. Well brethern the time is running out just keeping going strong and the Lord will bless us, we are so priviliged! I hope that you all have a great month. I love you all!Adios, Elder Wells
Elder Jimmy Miller
Hey BOYS!!!
I'm still hanging out here in Kingsbridge in the Bronx. Its so amazing. We've been so blessed in the short time I've been here. We've been finding so many people it's been hard to keep them all straight. Most notable we're teaching this awesome family from the Dominican Republic. They all love the Book of Mormon and to have us over. They just eat up everything we share with them. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Bronx its very diverse--minus white people. Whenever we see another white person it throws us off. And i think being a tall white boy in a suit throws them off. I love it here- although i hate walking everywhere, i'm still getting used to it and i really strongly dislike the cold. i can't wait for it to warm up. We get to do some pretty sweet things here though. This morning we played football in front of the new Yankee Stadium. It was awesome. This is such a sweet mission to serve in. DONT BE JEALOUS! Hope you're all well. Live well. Live happy. Live Strong!
LOVE ELDER MILLER
Elder Grant Huish
hey everyone
how is it going? life is great here in the original OC(oregon city). Man i have been in this area for like 5 newsletters now. we have 2 baptisms this week and another one next month which is pretty exciting. i hope all is well for everyone. some of you are going home pretty quick that must suck. ha ha. oh josh steiner says hi.
love grant
Anziano Scott Ball
This is Anziano Ball's mother . . . again! As usual I am still having sleepless Tuesday nights because I am up by 3:15 am getting online to chat with Scott. So consequently he wrote an email for this newsletter but he said the computer deleted it and he didn't have the time to write again . . . and I am probably taking some of that time. I can't believe another month has gone by and Scott will be home in six months. He appears to be having some great experiences in Modena. Here are a few excerpts from some of his emails this month.
"We are doing fine in Modena. It has been raining then warm, then raining, then warm. We are hoping that it warms up here quick, I'm getting tired of the cold. I bought 2 pairs of pants for the summer since I don't have any more. There are many sales on at this time of year, 70 % of clothes and other stuff. Almost every store has something on sale.
Giorgio, our Russian, is doing great. He works during the week as a truck driver, so we only see him on the weekend with our new convert. He is being baptized for sure. He just accepted to obey the law of tithing and fast. Antonio is still struggling to understand a few things, so we might move his date back. We found a lot of people last week, so we will see how they turn out this week."
Love ya, Anziano Ball
Elder Chase Judd
Hi friends,
Well I am out of time ah! Hey i had a good experience this week i ate a ton of pineapple on monday and the next day on tuesday i woke up had diaherra and puked 10 times cool huh? Well i love Mexico i love you all also hey i have 11 months woooooooo! Love you all i am still in the offices working like a white man.
LOVE ELDER JUDD
Elder Garrett Jones
Hey everybody, what's going on? The Lord continues to bless Steele and I with people to teach and with inspiration about what to teach. I have had two amazing experiences of this this past week that I want to quickly share with youall: On Saturday I was on a split with a new missionary from Brazil. We wentto look up a potential investigator that we had from Venezuela and when we knocked the door she came out and brought chairs for us to sit outside the door with her since there was no man home. We sat down planning to teach the Restoration since it was the first lesson with her but I noticed how she seemed somewhat sad and tired. We started to teach about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, about her relationship with God and about the love that he has for her, and about how we can recieve strength from these things in our daily lives. As we spoke I started to see her change and to see her start to really open up to us. She told us about how she had come to the US with her three kids and had worked like crazy for the past 10 years to provide for them. She told us about how she had got very sick recently with diabetes and osteoporosis and how lonely and tired she felt now that the kids had moved out. It was an incredibly powerful lesson for me as I came to see how the Lord had put us in the correct place and had inspired us to teach the correct things to a lady that obviously needed the comfort. I left feeling like I had accomplished what the Lord wanted me to accomplish and that was an amazing thing for me. The second story is about Grimilda, who is an investigator we've taught for a bit now. She is super awesome and has seen her life change since she's met with us. She told us about her best friend who is a member over in California and what an amazing example she is for her. So a week ago from yesterday Elder Steele and I were trying to decide what to teach to her and we felt that she needed to hear about the second part of the Plan of Salvation including baptisms for the dead and about life after death. Steele and another missionary went over and taught her about that and it was an awesome lesson. The strange thing was that we did something I've never done or heard of doing by teaching the second half of the plan without first teaching the first half. But it felt right and so we did it. Well this past Monday Grimilda gave us a call and told me about how she had just found out that her friend in California, who was one of the big reasons she has been investigating the church, had died. She was super sad but told me that she felt so good about what we had taught her and knew that the Lord had prepared her for the news. When we went over and saw her yesterday we talked again about the Plan and she was so happy to know that what we were teaching her was true. We left on such an awesome spiritual high that the rest of the night just kinda flashed by. Its amazing how the Lord uses all of us to help his children out. I love this work and know that it is his His. Keep on keepin on everybody and we'll hear from you next month. Garrett
Elder Gary Chambers
Hey guys! I hope your all doing well in your respective missions... One of the Sister missionaries that was in my group is going home like at the end of this transfer........ that feels a lil wierd. I'm not trunky though, I promise. My new comp is Elder Cardon from Casa Grande, AZ and is a pretty cool kid. He's my first Jr. comp in the mission, and we work really well together. Work is going great now and I honestly couldn't ask for much more, I like it. I'm still in my same area... Buenos Aires, but without the cat problem that I had been fighting for the longest time before. The office final got our front door fixed so that we can close it when we leave. As good as that makes me feel, I see the cats prowling around the house still... and for all the pee and crap that they graciously left on our floors in the past, I had a distinct feeling that karma was well overdue... So.... I went out and bought a Desert Eagle pellet gun and I start my morning out by popping a few cats and watching them dart of in pain... it's a great way to start the day :) We have a couple of investigators that we're ready to put baptismal dates with who have been progressing fairly well. They go to church every week and have told us they want to get baptized... but for some reason I have the WORST luck with finding people at the time of our cita... I hate it. We've been fired on so much this past week that it makes me want to cry... naw... but really, I hate it. We're movin' along though. All is well. I know that this Church is true, and I'm proud to be one of it's many worthy representatives. Thanks for all your stories and examples... can't wait to hear back from you guys. Take care.
Love, Elder Chambers
Elder Mike Kleinman
Hey fellow Missionary...Fellows. Cordoba seems to be churning along like it always does. I am now in the most dangerous part of the mission. But I love it a lot cuz there is an actual black market here and they got sum goood stuff! Everyone is really friendly here anyway, so when they say dangerous they mean like "care-bear with a BB Gun whos got nothing to lose" dangerous. I went to the Cordoba zoo today and that was...well...lets just say I actually felt like becoming an animal rights activist after going to that place. The tiger looked like a starved cat, and I know for a fact that elephants cant be as skinny as the one I saw. I was like inverted. So Brock is home now I cant believe that!! I can only imagine what he might be doing right now (it involves a PS3, daniel, pepto bismol, and the first season of alias.) The Prez here is thinking of new ways to not make old farts in the mission trunky so he's gonna have them all train, like me! Oh well, it could be worse. I could be training, blanking an area, and be a district leader at the same time. (happened to one of my comps here) Well I hope all are doing well! ttyl bffs
Elder Kleinman
Elder Blake Smith
Hey Elders, Well so I am finally used to the missionary life. Ha ha it is a little different than I thought. And South America is a little different as well. But I don*t have a ton of time to write today so I will tell you a little about Argentina. So I am serving in the province of Mendoza and I am still in my first area and my third transfer in Bermejo. I am loving it. I have had three baptisms and we are having one thing Saturday. The language is coming along. Thanks to my Latin comp that I had last transfer. The people here are just a little different but I love it and love seeing the new weird things they do here. Sorry it is so short this week. But I want to thank all of you for your examples that you all set for me. I love this work.
Elder Smith
Elder Jeff Stoker
Dear Elders,
I got one question...Where'd Febuary go? Looking back at this last month, I cant remember too many things that happened. The work is still going. I am still in the same area. I hope to hit my year mark in the same area this month, so wish me luck. I love it here. Our branch has really stepped up this last month. The 50 active-member branch here has decided on doing a 40 day fast for missionary work. One member (or the missionaries aka. me) will take turns fasting for 40 days straight. We are about half way through, and i can already see miracles. You can literally feel the help. By 10 pm, i just pass out on my bed. You think that waking up at 6:30 am would be routine by now, but i still struggle at rolling out of bed. Luckily we dont have carpet, so when i smack against the floor, it wakes me up. I havent told anyone about pulling toe hair either, and i decided it would be better to not tell anyone, especially my companion. Things here are bitter cold again. I thought that the winter days were over, but once again I eat my own words. There has been a nice -20 degree breeze that pierces through any clothing, skin, flesh, etc. It hits the bones directly. I wish that everyone could experience it, because it is very hard to describe. We have a bunch of investigators, and we are trying to get them ready for baptism. Well, Have a great March. Keep on pushing. God speed.
Elder Jeff Stoker
Elder Max Crandall
Ye Elders of Israel -- How are things? Life here in doubleyou-A is great. I’ve been praying for a good attitude almost every day and it’s really helping. I’ve realized that it’s all an attitude thing. Both of my new comps are good examples of pretty important principles I think I need to work on. I’m trying really hard to develop these things and figure out how to be a ZL. Elder Flake is very humble and just plain solid. He’s a cattle rancher if ever there was one. He sings country songs all the time and tries to get them stuck in my head. Country music is of the devil. Elder Hughes is very proper and obedient, so I often make inappropriate comments for the shock value – but he is going to hook me up with his hot cousin in Gilbert so it’s all good. I’m so stinkin’ excited about life. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been more pumped up my whole mission. Our area is doing amazing things and our whole mission is shattering records left and right with no sign of slowing down. The Lord is definitely blessing us and His hand is very apparent in the work. Our zone is the stereotyped “rich” zone and considered unfruitful but we have found that working with the members is the way to get stuff going down here. About a month and a half ago, we were sitting in Elder’s Quorum. The lesson was on missionary work and in the middle of the lesson the teacher challenged everyone in attendance to invite one of their friends to take the lessons from the missionaries. This great guy in the ward, perhaps bored with the lesson or moved upon by the Spirit, took out his cell phone and immediately texted one of his friends right there in E.Q. His text asked her if she’d like to learn more about his church. She apparently thought that’d be a great idea and asked how she could. So he leaned over to the guy next to him and got our phone number and texted it to her. She just got baptized! She was the most golden investigator ever. She went out and bought a quad after the first lesson. She didn’t have a single concern! Right away she asked where she could listen to the prophet. So we explained General Conference and she said she wanted to go. She is always asking us if there are other books or manuals that she needs for church too. In the last three days, our zone has put six people on date for baptism! We cover two wards and one is the Singles Ward so naturally a lot of our investigators are 20 year old single women. I just mention that to scare my mom. The mission’s success hasn’t come without opposition though. Recently, there were seven missionaries sent home. I don’t know what they did – don’t need to know – but it’s a heartbreaking thing to see them leave. I know that this work is the greatest work on earth and I never want to stop. I feel humbled and thankful and I am so grateful that the Lord has allowed me to be a part of all of this. I love our Savior, Jesus Christ. What He did for us never ceases to astound me. I love telling people that it’s my job to talk about Jesus Christ 24/7. They often laugh, but it’s great anyway. Thank you guys so much for your great examples.
–Elder Crandall
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