#28 [Cidra - 4] Sept. 23rd, 2013

Hello!

We found a Library here in Cidra! So we get to talk to you guys for FREE! (It's gotta be good!) I'm so glad, too, because I didn't wanna have to pay that much. You guys aren't worth it. Hehe, jokes :)

This week was super great! I am loving this area so much and am meeting so many fantastic people! And me and Hermana Sosa are just fantastic friends! I love this girl! I'm teaching her lots of funny English words, too. :)

So we're finding lots of new people to teach. Okay, well only about two, really. But it's fine! Last week while contacting, we found a lady named E... who used to be visited by the missionaries all the time but then she moved and they stopped coming. She lives almost right across the street from us. We went over and taught her and it was insane because she's not going to any church in particular, but she's looking for a place to congregate in and is tired of looking for the truth and not finding it. She said she's never come to our Church before, but she wants to. She was asking all the right questions, and when we shared the message of the Restoration, she was so excited. She couldn't come to Church on Sunday (yesterday), but she said she'd come this Sunday for sure. We have another appointment with her on Wednesday and I'm so excited to see where she'll be at in her reading of the Book of Mormon; she's excited to read it. She's such an awesome lady and definitely prepared of the Lord.

We also came across a young man named Y... He was outside his house smoking when we walked past. He's 18 years old. Hermana Sosa and I were both not really wanting to talk to him (I don't know why), but we did anyway. But wow. I'm glad we did, because he's another prepared one! He wants to change his life, he went on to say that he feels awful for all the bad things he's done in his life and he's been thinking a lot about his future and how he doesn't want to be his future kids' excuse and get them into the same problems he had growing up (drugs, gangs, etc.) And he wants to change. We shared the Book of Mormon with him and he was so excited to read it. We shared a little bit about the Atonement and gave him an assignment to read Alma 7. He asked us how to pray, too. When we went to visit him two days later, he'd read the chapter but he didn't understand it because he doesn't have any real religious background. He also said he'd been praying every morning and night, and you could see the difference! It was so awesome! He believes in God and Jesus Christ but he's never gone to church. He was baptized in the Catholic church but stopped going when he was like 7 or 8. (He doesn't even know what the Bible is...) But we read the chapter with him and explained the story about Alma and what not. He understood completely and asked about baptism! He thinks it's amazing that we can be forgiven of our sins and be made completely clean again. We taught the Restoration, and he was so excited to read the Book of Mormon more to know if it was true. He is really really special and Hermana Sosa and I are really excited for him. I've never met a youth so spiritually thirsty. But he's already changed so much and it's incredible to see the Atonement work in his life. AGH! I'm just so excited for him! He couldn't come to Church yesterday either because he went to Bayamon for the weekend to visit his mom; she has cancer. But he'll come next Sunday hopefully!

Our landlord is HILARIOUS. I don't know if I've told you about him yet, but honestly, I could spend the whole day talking to that man. He's like 70 and he is a genius. His name is O... and he's a baptist chorister. We hope to get into a gospel discussion soon, he knows a lot of Mormons and he LOVES the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. But anyway, we went over there today and visited with him. I want you guys to meet him when we come back here someday. He has like 30 pet chickens. It's annoying to hear them early in the morning, but you get used to it. They obey him though, and it's so funny.

We're cleaning up/updating the ward list here in our ward; the Stake President gave us the assignment. So we've been visiting the members and updating their information. It's been really difficult because they don't have house numbers here in Cidra. But we found a member's house the other day; they've been dead for almost 5 years, and they were STILL on the list... It was really awkward and almost embarrassing because I don't think anyone in the ward knew. But we ended up getting a new investigator out of it, so it was great!

I've been trying more of the cultural foods here. O... cooks for us sometimes. He's got lots of tropical fruits on his plot of land that we're more than welcome to, and today he made us fried pana. It tasted like platanos, but a lot better. He also made us a guava dessert and it was DELICIOUS. I tried real sugar cane after Church yesterday. Its texture is like an apple, but spiky, and you can't swallow it. One of the members was teaching me how to eat it and he said, "It's like chewing tobacco. You chew it and then spit it out!" It made me laugh. But it's true. You chew and then spew. Hurray for trying new things!

To answer your question, yes, Puerto Rico has its seasons. Jan-March is the cool season, where the weather is perfect. April-September it's super hot. October-December it cools down a lot. Here in Cidra it’s said that it gets to about 45 degrees Fahrenheit at night. So we'll see. If I'm still here I'll let you know. I hope to celebrate Christmas here! I love it!

Thanks for sending me the pictures of Tori's birth mom meeting! That's so awesome that she found her! And it's a funny coincidence that they both love pickle juice! They look alike, too. Ah! Tori's so cute! I can't wait to hear from her!

Okay, I think that's just about all the interesting stuff that happened this week. Love you lots! Thanks for keeping us updated, Dad! I love your emails, they're hilarious. :)

LOVE YOU! Be safe this week!

-Hermana Erickson

#27 [Cidra - 3] Sept. 16th, 2013

So we're living here in Cidra now, and we had no idea where we'd do email this week. We found this internet café on the border of Cidra and Caguas and decided to come here. It's $4.50 every ½ hour, and sorry, but I'm too cheap to pay $9 for an hour's use of internet, so I'll have to do this quick.
   
First of all: We moved into our new house on Tuesday! It's super cute! We're happy about it; lots of mosquitoes! We received a reference from one of the members in another ward on the island; we went to visit them this week and they're great! Totally ready for the Gospel! So pray for Elias and his family! We have an appointment with them tonight!
   
We celebrated my 6-month mark with cake. It was good. It was also Hna Sosa's 1-month mark the next day, so obviously we celebrated with more cake. :) I dunno what it is about the cake here, but it's super good.
   
So I had a really awesome revelation this morning as I did my personal study. I was studying about the Plan of Salvation, and it's a big deal! I was studying, specifically, about the spirit world, because we don't really ever focus on that part of the plan, and it's interesting how few will be able to enter into paradise after our physical death here on earth. It just made me wanna convert more people because I don't want anyone to have to suffer so much after such a difficult life here on earth! I'd go into deeper details but there's not time for that. Sorry!
       
    ●  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ERICA BROOKE EDWARDS ON SEPT. 14th! :)

    ●  CONGRATS TO MANDY FOR GETTING MARRIED!

    ●  CONGRATS TO TIFFANIE FOR GETTING HER MISSION CALL! I had no idea that it'd come or that she'd submitted her papers, but I'm so excited for her and so proud of her. She'll rock it! :)
   
So something bit me again and now my foot is swollen. It's weird cuz this happened exactly six months ago. I'm not sure what it was, but it hurts to walk on, and it's my other foot now.
   
Joshy! Your date is a babe! Didya kiss her!? Heheh jokes.
   
OH MY! I can't believe Kelton came to visit the fam! What a nice guy! He looks the same pretty much.

So BIG NEWS: We're getting an oven! I'm gonna make some of your banana bread, Momma! Cuz our landlord has banana trees all over the place, and we can eat them as much as we want, so I'm so excited!
   
Okay, well I'm really sorry, but that's really all I have to say about this week. We were contacting a bunch again and so nothing all that special happened.
   
Hna Sosa and I are getting along great and I am thankful to have her as my companion.
   
Okay, that's all. Love you so much! Bye bye! We'll try finding somewhere where we can do email for free. (If it's free, it's gotta be good, RIGHT DAD!?)

I LOVE YOU!

-Hermana Erickson

#26 [Cidra - 2] Sept. 9th, 2013

Hello there!

This week was full of contacting and getting lost. I feel really bad driving around all the time, but Hna. Sosa doesn’t have a bike yet, and the streets in Cidra are all really narrow and really steep so it'd make bike riding impossible anyway especially because Puertoriquenos LOVE speeding. I don't wanna be roadkill, so we're driving around until we know the area well enough. But we also went house hunting. That was a lot of fun, and we ended up finding a little house! The guy we'll be renting from is named Obdulio, and he's SUPER cool! He's got banana trees, mangoes, and guava trees all over his property, hammocks, and chickens. He loves chickens, so he's got like 20 that run around everywhere. But we'll be living there, and I'm really excited. We'll be moving in on Tuesday after the District Meeting. I'll be sure to take pictures once we get all situated. I feel so grown up!

We're starting to find investigators. We found and taught a couple who've been married for 30 some-odd years that are really into religion right now because their son is doing bad things and they want to set the example for him. When we sang "Teach Me To Walk in the Light," A (the lady) started bawling. We shared the story about Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah with her and they were really excited to read the Book of Mormon. It just made me realize though how much our decisions must affect Heavenly Father and how hard it must be for Him to see us turn away from the right path. Especially those who have been blessed enough to have been born in the Church. But I feel like A and D (the husband) will progress a lot and we're excited about them.

We spoke in Church yesterday. The Bishop called us on Saturday night to tell us. He asked us to get the members excited about sharing the gospel. We've got Stake Conference next week, and that's what will be discussed, too. I'm just excited for General Conference because I can't believe it's already been a whole year since they made the age change announcement! A WHOLE YEAR and look what has happened since then! It's crazy! I love it though. Time passes quickly. And this week, I hit my 6-month mark! And Hna. Sosa hits her 1-month mark! We're gonna be eating cake, obviously. :)

Speaking of cake, people feed us ALL the time here, members, nonmembers... I feel like I'm gonna get fat. But the food is good... so I can't really complain. It'd be a different story if the food was gross and I got fat, but since it's good.. I won't feel quite as guilty. Hehehe. Oh, and our new house is located just down the street from one of the best restaurants in Puerto Rico, so we'll probably be going there one of these days. Hurray for food!

That's honestly all I have to say about this week, things should be more exciting in my next email home. But now I shall answer your questions and comment about Dad's wit!

I love your guys' emails! Thanks so much for emailing me (and Rae) every week! It's so nice to hear from you all and know what's going on in your lives. It sounds like you're all involved in so much!

I'm glad the dinner with the Beesly's went well. Can you guys send me Rach's emails? I wanna know what's going on with her, too. How many baptisms has she had now? (Not that I'm counting...)

In the Cayey ward, there are just four missionaries, 2 Elders and us. The Elders work in Cayey and we work in Cidra. The chapel is so far away from Cidra though that I hope that the ward will progress enough that they'll decide to build a new chapel for Cidra. I think that's why there are so many less actives. But then if they really wanted to go to church they'd get up and just go... I dunno. Puerto Ricans are really awesome, but they'll use any little excuse to get out of things too. A very indifferent culture.

But anyway, it kinda bugs me having Elders in the same ward, they are always trying to join us in our citas (that means appointment). For example, we set up an appointment with a member, they're planning on inviting a non-member to their home for dinner so that we can teach them, and then I come to find out later on that the Elders had just invited themselves to our cita! Those little moochers! And guess what else?! They have a person that does their laundry AND cooks for them every day! It shouldn't bug me, but it does. They're just coming for the food. Ugh.

New topic. David Low's SISTER is Head's volleyball coach!? What the weird! Which sister? What a small world! Dave said that his sister works for Timpanogos, but I didn't know she still did. How awesome! Tell her I say hello! And when you go to Dave's ward, tell him I say hi, too!
 
You guys kinda got to experience what happens here! It starts pouring rain just outta the blue all the time here! And the streets are always flooded! It's so crazy!

Well anywho, I love you all and miss you lots. Thanks so much for your love and support and thank you for raising us kids the way you did, Mom and Dad. I can't believe how blessed I am in my life because of this Gospel. Thank you so much for being true  to your covenants and teaching us the ways of righteousness. You guys are the best parents EVER! I LOVE YOU!

-Hermana Erickson

#25 [Cidra - 1] Sept. 2nd, 2013

Hello, everyone!

Happy Labor Day! Gosh it’s been a crazy past few days! Okay, wow, where to begin? We don’t have a car in our area yet, so we’re living in Caguas and have to drive to our area every day. It’s about a good 45 minutes away. But anywho... We got to Caguas after all the craziness of transfers on Wednesday, and we got the car later that evening. Unfortunately, it’s not one of the new Chevy’s though. I got demoted to a 2012 Toyota. But I’m not complaining, at least we have a car and air conditioning. After buying some food for the week, we went to our area, even though we had NO idea how to get there or where we were going. We didn’t have an area book yet, and didn’t know any members, so we just went, “not knowing beforehand what [we] were to do,” like, Nephi. :) We ended up getting lost, and I feel like that’ll be the story for a good two weeks or so until we familiarize ourselves with the area.

Hermana S is my new companion, my new child. Hehe. And she’s really great. It’s nice to have a new companion, and that’s all I’m going to say. She and I are getting along just fine. It’s a humbling experience, being a trainer. I am excited about this area, it’s GORGEOUS, and the climate is great. I’ll actually get to use the cardigans I brought! Hurray!

New companion -- New city

We went to Church yesterday (obviously) and met all the ward members. I’m really excited about this ward and feel like it’s going to progress a lot. There were about 56 people there, about the same number in attendance as in Pontezuela. All of the members were excited to be having sister missionaries there again, though. I think having a set of both Elders and Sisters will do a lot for this ward.

We got our Area Book and it was completely worthless. So due to the fact that our Area Book hasn’t been touched in about 3 years, we’ve done lots of contacting in the past few days, so sorry I don’t have any crazy stories for you yet, but I’m sure they’ll be in abundance soon. Oh wait. I’ve got one. So we got a phone call from one of the contacts we made, it was super awkward because we think he was drunk when he made the call, but he asked us if we could get married while out on the missions. When we said no, he was really disappointed. I’m not going to translate everything that he said, but honestly, I feel bad for people that drink like that. I’m thankful for the Word of Wisdom that prevents us from living sad, nasty lives! BUT the majority of the people that live in Cidra are very, very blessed. We have met a lot of good people, too.

Anyway, Hermana S is doing well, she’s a powerful missionary and she’s happy to be here. She is really easy-going and I really appreciate that about her. I just hope I can be the best example for her!
 

Cidra "The Town of the Eternal Spring"

Hermana G keeps me informed on everything happening in Pontezuela. R got baptized yesterday. J baptized him, and I’m sad to have missed such a cool experience. I’m happy though about the work I did in Pontezuela and will miss that area and the ward a lot. R will be getting baptized next Sunday. After seeing R get baptized, he said, “I’m ready! I want to be baptized on Sunday!” So it’ll be awesome. Wish I could be there, but I’m needed here now. I don’t know who will baptize him, but I am just so happy and feel so blessed to have been part of their lives. Hna. G said she’ll send me the picture from the baptism yesterday, but I still haven’t received it, so I can’t send it on.

Everyone in the family looks nice. The Farley Fam Reunion looks like it was a lot of fun. Everyone’s growing up! How’s Lyndsee doing? Does she like school? And how is John’s baby? Hope everyone’s doing well!

Happy Grandparent’s day on Sunday! (You aren’t grandparents yet, but it’s still a holiday). Give Grandma Farley and Grandma and Grandpa Erickson hugs for me!

 Well anyways, I’m gonna try to connect my camera now to send some pictures of Cidra! It’s SO pretty. People ride horses all the time here. They like to dress up really nice and strut around on their horses. Man, if I weren’t on a mission, that’s what I’d do here, too FOR SURE. Hahaha, it’s so silly!

Okay, well, bye! Infinite x’s and o’s. :) (Mom: oxoxoxox)

-Hermana Erickson