Monday, February 18, 2013

Email from the Mission President

We received this email a couple days ago and thought it would be great to share!  I hope Elder Searle likes his new assignment...I think he will do great!!!!



Dear Brother and Sister Searle,

I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder Maveric Ray Searle, has been assigned as
a District Leader in the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission. District leaders are crucial to the
success of this mission. District leaders interview candidates for baptism, conduct weekly
district meetings, supervise two to six other missionaries and coordinate missionary work
with ward/branch mission leaders.

I deeply appreciate your son and the work he has done. I have full confidence in his ability
to perform well. I ask you to continue to support him in this new leadership assignment.
Your prayers and letters of encouragement are now more vital than ever.

May the Lord bless you and your family as you support Elder Searle in his new and
important calling.

Sincerely,

Jorge M. Alvarado
President, Puerto Rico San Juan Mission

First week as District Leader

This is the email we got today!  Sounds like he had a bit of a long week!!!


Hey everyone!
I hope that you all are doing well! It sounds like things are going pretty good this week so that is great! Sounds like you had a pretty good weekend down in Ephraim. That is great that Ty got ordained to be an Elder this week! Hopefully he will be joining me here in Puerto Rico soon! haha.
This week has been kind of long here. I had a lot of days of waking up early, like 4 am or earlier, so I am a little bit tired haha. But it was a pretty good week still! Not too much super exciting happened though. It was just a week full of riding the bikes around talking to people. You know...the usual. The last 3 days have been 30 miles or more on the bikes so my legs are a little bit tired right now, but we were able to get to all of the people that we had to visit so that was good! Other than that the only thing that was super different this week was that on Thursday I was in a leadership meeting all day with all of the other District and Zone Leaders in the mission. That was a pretty neat experience. It was a little weird because I felt like I didn't really know what I was doing, since most of the other people there have been in Puerto Rico over a year and I have only been here 4 months, but it was still really cool. I felt like I was able to learn a lot so that was great!
Most of the week I was pretty much just introducing my new companion to all of the members and investigators in our area. It was definitely a different experience to be the person deciding all of the things that we were going to do, and be showing someone else around for a change. But it was really cool and I liked it haha. Well this coming week should be pretty good. We should be teaching more people this week than we did last week and that always makes the week better! I hope that you all have a great week! I love you and miss you all! Talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder searle

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Pics from Puerto Rico

Mav sent his memory card home today with lots of pictures.  I chose just a few to share with everyone!!  Enjoy:)

 
Im sure he was very happy to find a basketball hoop!

 
That flower is huge:)

 
He looks happy!

 
His reaction to a huge snake that is on their balcony:(

 
And to think he used to hate beans....




 
I think this is the girl that reminds him of Brooklyn

 
He loves the little kids!!

 
Not so sure she was happy to have her picture taken

 
Yay for Mickey!!

 
I'm sure it tastes delicious but not sure I could eat it

 
TSUNAMI??????

 
Birthday celebration!  I missed him so much on his birthday.  I am happy to see they all got to celebrate!!

 
Beautiful!

 
Not sure why but I bawled like a baby when I saw this one.  I just want to know what he is thinking.  I really miss talking to him....

Yay, A video!

Never knew Mav could rap so well! Enjoy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvt-Sr4HYA8&feature=youtu.be

Monday, February 11, 2013

He sounds so awesome!!!

Got this great e-mail from Maveric today...I think he sounds like he is doing great!!!



Hey everyone!
I hope that you are all doing great! Sounds like life is still more or less the same in Utah. That is sweet about Jordan Warburton's mission call and Brooklyn's cheer competition! Sounds like it was overall a pretty good week.
This week was pretty crazy here! I got the flu which was not fun, especially on Friday when I was feeling crappy and had to ride 37 miles on my bike, but I feel a lot better now so I am glad about that! Also we got to have the visit from Neil L. Anderson on Saturday which was incredible! It almost got cancelled though which was kind of scary haha. On friday morning we all got called saying that it had been cancelled and moved to Monday because their flight got cancelled by the huge storm in New York. So that was a huge bummer. But then at 8:30 Friday night they called us again and told us that the meeting was back on cus he was able to find a flight after all!!
The meeting was great. I got to meet Elder Anderson and shake his hand and talk just a little bit with him. It was really really cool. And then he gave his whole devotional in Spanish. Well kind of Spanish...he speaks 5 languages and he pretty much just mixed them all together when he couldn't remember the Spanish but it was really cool. It was great too he just talked and taught about just normal stuff. His entire lesson was about the Atonement of Christ, and honestly it was just one of the coolest experiences I have ever had in my life!
Other than that I passed the 6 month mark so that is good! haha. the last two months have gone by way faster than the first two months here did, and from what I hear they keep going faster and faster.
Today was transfers again. I am staying in Arroyo! But I got a new companion named Elder Rivas from Mexico. It was a pretty crazy morning. When they called us last night they told me that I would be training a different missionary, also from Mexico, and then when we got to the stake center to pick him up today we found out that I am working with Elder Rivas instead, and another Elder who lives with us will be training the new Elder. And then we heard like 5 different things from the Zone Leaders and the AP's about what was going on and we had no idea what was happening so we just got sent back to our area pretty much with the new elders coming to the area. Then about 30 minutes ago President Alverado called me and told me that I am District Leader now...and also that we are going to go ride bikes some morning this week from a city called Patillas to a city called Salinas, which are the boarders of the district I am in charge of. And that is super super far...so that should be fun! haha. I wouldn't be too upset if he was kidding about that! Especially because he wants to leave at 5 in the morning! But yeah. So for now I am staying in arroyo, as the District leader for 3 areas, with Elder Rivas as my companion. I am excited because Elder Rivas is really cool!
Well that is about what has been going on here this week! I hope that you all have a great week!
Love you and miss you all. Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Searle





Monday, February 4, 2013

Short on time:(

Hey guys, apparently Mav didn't have much time to write today but here's what he had to say...

Hey everyone! 
I hope that you are all doing great! This week the emails are going to be kind of short because we had some ktrouble finding a place to do email today so sorry about that! I will write more next week!
This week was really good! I got my driver's license finally! Almost hit a suicidal family of pigs with the car, and watched a dog give birth which was super gross. It was definitely a really weird week haha. But here we are all just getting really excited and trying to get ready for the visit from Neil l anderson this Saturday. It is going to be awesome to get to meet an apostle and listen to him come and just speak to us! I am really looking forward to it! 
Also I sent my SD card home today so hopefully that gets there with no problems! Sorry that this is so short this week! I hope you all have a great week and that I get more time next week to get to tell you more about what is going on haha. Well have a great week! Love you and miss you all,
Love,
Elder Searle