He sounds happy:)

This is the email we got today...I think he sounds really good!

Hey everyone!

I hope that you all are doing great! Sounds like it is pretty cold in Utah right now! I bet that is a whole bunch of fun haha. It is a little bit warmer here. That is definitely one of the advantages of being on a little tropical island haha.

This week was pretty good. I got to play basketball a few times with some kids at a park and that was pretty cool haha. I really like teaching them because we always get to play basketball after! So today is another Holiday here, and then next week will be Martin Luther King Jr day so another holiday. It is kind of a pain because all of the libraries are always shut down on our P-Days!! Puerto rico just has way too many holidays. But the computer I am using right now won't let me upload photos, so there won't be any photos this week.

This week I met a couple of people who are pretty cool. There is a couple that just moved to Puerto Rico, are super rich, and don't speak Spanish at all. He is from Boston and she is from Jamaica. They are both pretty old and really nice! I also met another rich guy who lives on the beach named Raul. He has a beach house, Rolex, bmw Z4 and only dresses in Ralph Lauren clothes. He is definitely the classiest person that I have seen here haha.

Not really too much happened this week that was super exciting. I saw the beach almost every day so that was pretty sweet though haha. The ocean here is beautiful, I definitely want to come back someday after my mission so that I can actually go to the beach haha.

Well I hope that you all are doing well and that you all have a great week. Enjoy the cold and the snow!!! I love you and miss you all,

love,

Elder Searle

1st week in Arroyo

hey everyone!

I hope that you are all doing really well and had a great week! i had a really good first week in my new area.

The new area is called Arroyo. It is a pretty small town, it doesn't even have a McDonald's (which is really really weird for Puerto Rico) and the ward that I am serving in is actually a branch. Yesterday there were about 32 people in Sacrament Meeting, so that is a little bit weird, but it was also a pretty cool experience too.

The area is right by the beach, well actually it is right by the ocean but there isn't really like a nice sandy beach in the area, which is great. Because it is really pretty but there also aren't any tourists that come there. It is really cool. It actually feels like a different country because the whole vibe of the town is just like old school carribbean island stuff, and my last area was pretty much just like a really dirty poorly planned city in the United States haha. So this area is definitely a lot cooler!

There are a lot of really nice people here too! People have already given us a ton of food, and most of them are just people we visit. Everyone is very generous with what they have here.

We have been teaching a couple people who want to be baptized, one is a man in his 50s who is a retired army veteran who has a lot of drinking problems that he wants to take care of. He is a little bit crazy, and he looks really crazy, but he is also a really nice guy. He lives right on the beach and we teach him on his deck thing that just hangs over the ocean. It is absolutely beautiful! The other person is a 19 year old kid named Alex. He doesn't really have any kind of religious knowledge or anything, he just really likes missionaries and says that he wants to be a missionary so he wants to join the church. He is really cool and really nice too.

the only thing that is kind of bad about the area is how far away we live. It is a pretty long bike ride and it is always pretty windy here, but it is pretty flat the whole way so it really isn't too bad at all. It also doesn't rain near as much here. It is a lot sunnier, so that is pretty tiring, but it is nice to not get rained on every day haha.

Well that is pretty much how my week was. We had another ward christmas party because the people here celebrate Christmas and the Day of the Kings, which is what latin america celebrates instead of Christmas, so today is another holiday haha, but it is ok because the Christmas food here is delicious and the party was a lot of fun!

Well I hope that you all have a great week! Love you and miss you

love

Elder Searle

New Area

This is the email we got from Mav today:)

Hey everyone,

I don't have a whole lot of time to write emails this week. I got transferred today from my area in Toa Baja. Now I am going to be working in an area called Arroyo with Elder Arteaga. He is from Bolivia. So the beginning of our area is about 7 miles away and we don't have a car, so this is definitely a big biking area haha. It is also really weird because this side of the island is a lot more brown and a lot less green and tropical looking. but the good news is that there are a lot less hills so it shouldn't be too hard riding the bike all the time haha. 

I was kind of bummed out to be transferred because I was supposed to baptize someone this Saturday, and I was really starting to make a lot of friends with the people in my old area. But hopefully this new one will be even better! Something else that is different about it is that we have to eat out like every day because the house is too far away to go back and make lunch. I don't know how I feel about that yet but we will see how it goes haha.

Well I hope that you all have a great week and a very Happy New Year!

Thank you all for all of the great Christmas gifts and cards and everything. I got a ton of stuff from a lot of people and it was awesome so thank you all! I love and miss you all! have a great week!

love,

Elder Searle

YAY for Skype

Skype is my new favorite thing in the whole world.  We were able to Skype with Maveric for about 40 minutes on Christmas Day.  It was such a blessing to be able to see him and talk to him.  He looks really good and actually seems happy.  He was pretty emotional though in a few parts of our conversation with him.  I think he is very homesick!! So, that was really hard. It kinda broke my heart.  But, overall, I think he is doing okay.  He is starting to enjoy things a little more and I am happy about that. Oh gosh,  I can't even tell you how good it was to see his face.  I have missed him so much and it was awesome to see him.  I feel very blessed to have the technology that we do.  I also feel blessed that people are kind enough to let him borrow their computers and allow us the privilege of seeing him.  Seeing him was so much better than just talking to him. What a fabulous day we had!!!  cant wait until Mothers day:). Well, thanks again for all your love and support...it is truly appreciated!!

The power of fasting and prayer...

Okay once again it has been too long since I updated this blog.  There have been some ups and downs, some highs and lows for Elder Searle.  He went through a difficult time a couple weeks ago.  He was just struggling with a few things and it was difficult to not be able to help him through it.  I mentioned this to Brother Trussell and I would like to share with you what his response was.  He invited the Young Men, their parents and leaders, and the Bishopric over to his home.  As that group of 30 or so amazing men sat in his home they prayed for my son.  I can only imagine what that room must have looked like and felt like.  The spirit there must have been so strong.  As they gathered together Brother Trussell explained that there are times when we all need a little extra encouragement and support.  At this time Elder Searle was in need of that.  They began a 24 hour fast that night in hopes that Maveric would find some comfort and some strength to deal with the things he was struggling with.  There were no details given as to what he needed or what his worries were.  I did not even tell Brother Trussell what exactly was going on.  I just casually mentioned that Maveric was having a hard time.  I was so touched by the overwhelming love and support that these fine young men showed that night.  I will forever be thankful for this act of kindness.  Maveric will probably never know the events that took place that night.  But, I testify to you all that he felt the love that was being offered.  Since then there have been some events that have helped him so much.  He has had a different outlook on things and has been able to find a way through some difficult things.  He has been lifted up by the spirit and I credit this to the inspiration of Brother Trussell and his inclination to follow it.  I can bear testimony that the spirit comforted me in a way that I so desperately needed.  I was at a loss as to what to do for my son.  I knew that he needed comfort that I could not give him and I was comforted to know that he would recieve it through the faith of these young men. Thank you!!

I am happy to say that, as of today, things seem to be going well for Maveric.  He sent an email today that seemed encouraging.  I will include it below.  Thank you all for your continuing love and suppport.  It does not go unnoticed!!!

Hey everyone!

How is everybody doing? I hope well! I hope that you all had a great week! Sounds like things are a blast in good old Utah!

Haha things here are pretty much the same. I haven't noticed a difference at all in the supposed changes of the weather for winter haha it all feels the same to me. The only difference is that there are Christmas decorations everywhere! People here love Christmas! they start celebrating it the day after Thanksgiving, and they tell me that they finish usually around the 9th of January. Puerto Rican's love to party haha. They have so many holidays here it is nuts!

This week I did a lot of bike riding. We ride bikes everyday now because we don't have a car to use at all anymore so that is a lot of fun haha. I don't really get tired riding the bikes anymore usually, I just feel bad when we show up to people's houses all super sweaty and everything, but it isn't too bad. It hasn't been too rainy the last week (only like 4 days of the 7). There really hasn't been a whole lot new and exciting happening this week though. My Spanish is still getting a lot better everyday. I pretty much can talk with just about anyone now. I am sure I still don't sound all that intelligent when I speak Spanish, but they always know what I am trying to say haha.

I got the Christmas Calendar from Aunt Tina and that was awesome! Thank you for that! Everyone here is getting excited for Christmas, including me! We are having a Christmas Conference on the 17th and 18th, and I have no idea what that means and nobody know what we are doing, but it means we get kind of a day off at least haha so we are all excited for that. I am sure that I will have some good stories to tell you all about that in a few weeks.

Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you and miss you all. Talk to you soon!

love,

Elder Searle

 

A little out of order

Okay, I realize this is totally out of order but, this is the email we got last week.  Sorry I didn't post it then. 

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? I hope that everyone is well and that everything is going good. It sounds like there is all kinds of fun stuff going on. That is too bad that Stansbury lost in football so Books doesn't get to cheer in Rice Eccles Stadium, but it is good that you get to do Ragnar again! I hope that you have a great time!

Well things here are pretty good. Once again I didn't get to get my driver's license yet. I was 4 people from the front of the line and the entire system for the DMV place crashed and they didn't know when it would be back up. And so now I am in a library in the city to do my emails because our P-Day schedule is kind of messed up again this week. Unfortunately my cord to attach my camera to the computer is in our house, so I won't be able to send any pictures this week. I will send some next week though.

This past week was pretty good for me. It went by a lot faster than any of the other weeks that I have been here. It is kind of crazy to think that I have already almost been here an entire month. Sometimes the days are super long, but looking back it doesn't feel like I have been here that long.

This week we actually had some pretty good lessons with some of our investigators. We have one family who really likes the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized, so hopefully they will be able to on November 24th, they just have to go to Church every Sunday before then haha. But it is really good to actually be teaching some people who want to hear what we have to say haha. It makes it a lot better than just trying to talk to people in the street.

This past week was pretty weird cus we had a lot of big meetings. On Halloween we had to be off the streets at 6:00pm because Halloween out here is not very friendly. People go around and shoot paintball guns and throw frozen eggs at people in the streets, so we had to go to a meeting instead of being out walking around haha. And then the next day, the 1st Councilor in the General Young Men's Presidency came and visited us, so we had a conference with him for about 3 hours. And the next day was my Zone Conference, which was another meeting that lasted about 8 hours. It was really good though. I really enjoyed this last week more than any other week I have had in my mission so far!

The other bit of big news is that a Wal-Mart opened up in my area, so everyone is pretty excited about that! Now I just have to hope that I don't get transferred so that I can enjoy it haha.

Well that's pretty much what has been going on with me this week! I hope you are all well, and I look forward to hearing from you again next week! Take Care!

Love you and miss you!

Love,

Elder Searle

P.S. oh yeah I have been receiving the Dear Elders. I got one from Dad, and Tawni, and a couple from Tina. So that still works! And thank you for sending them!! It is great to hear from you!

Update from Elder Searle

I know it has been too long since I updated the blog.  I really don't know if I will ever get good at it.  This is the email we received today:)

Hey everyone!

How is everybody doing? really well I hope! Sounds like the weather is Utah is pretty darn awesome right now with all the snow and what not. I am definitely not jeaulous of that yet. It is nice and right around mid 80's here, and it has stopped raining every single day and is down to about 4 days a week.

Well this past week was a pretty long week, but it also had some really good stuff in it. On Saturday night a man named Angel got baptized. He is in his 40's and is not the brightest guy on the planet, but it was incredible to me how much he loved hearing the Gospel and how badly he wanted to be baptized. It was like he can't really comprehend a lot of normal stuff or remember it or anything, but as soon as you start talking about Church he gets so excited and can explain all kinds of things to you. He was so happy when he got confirmed on Sunday in Sacrament meeting that he just went around and hugged all of the people on the stand with this big grin on his face. It really was pretty awesome. I have never seen somebody who wanted the Church more in their life. He stopped drinking about 2 weeks ago after he learned about the word of wisdom, and he had been drinking for all his life. He has been to church every single week since my second week here, which was his first week to go to church. And probably the coolest thing for me to see is that he doesn't know how to read, so one of his friends (who is also named Angel, and who was baptized about 2 months ago) goes over to his house and reads the scriptures to him everyday. Angel has been a great example to me of how the message of the Gospel can be applicable for everyone. No matter what your circumstances are.

The other cool thing that happened at church this week is that it was the Primary Program. Turns out that Primary Programs are pretty much exactly the same here as they are at home, except that there are only about 20 kids in the Primary haha. But it was a great program.

I also got the package that you sent me. That was great!! Everyone here drinks soda more than they drink water, but they pretty much only have pepsi and coke, so it was great to get some mountain dew haha. Thank you so much! It made my day when I got that package so thank you! I really appreciate it!

So today is some random holiday so all of the city buildings are closed. So once again I couldn't get my drivers license, and also the library we use to email was closed so we had to find a member who was home in the middle of the day that had a computer we could use. Maybe one day I will finally get my Driver's License haha.

Well other than those things, there wasn't really anything all that special about this week. We rode bikes a ton this week, every day except for Sunday, and most of the time we were working in an area about 8 miles away, so it was a pretty tiring week haha.

Well I am glad to hear that Ragnar went well, and that Brooklyn really liked Missionary Week. I hope that you all have a great week this week, and that you enjoy the snow! Take care! I love you and miss you! Talk to you next week,

love

Elder Searle