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
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