Cool people! Cool week!

Hey Everyone!
How are things going? It sounds like last week was pretty crazy. Hopefully
you are all doing good now!
That is so crazy that Kylie is living at college now, and that Tyler is
almost done at the MTC already! Crazy crazy crazy!
The last week here was really good! I met some really cool people! One of
them is a lady who has a $130,000 Lotus, which is probably the coolest car
I have ever seen, and then another one was a lady who has over 2200
different elephant figurine things in her house. It is pretty crazy! There
are a lot of elephants in her house haha. Also this week was stake
conference. So I was able to go to church in Toa Baja again, and see a lot
of the people that I met in the start of my mission. That was really cool!
I got a new phone this week. That was pretty weird. They changed things so
now every missionary has their own phone and keeps the phone for their
whole mission, and they can have whatever kind of phone they want as long
as the Church's SIM card is in it. That was pretty exciting for a minute,
but the new phone is even more boring than the old phone I had. The old one
was basically indestructible and that was pretty sweet but the new one is
just a super cheap plastic phone haha. Other than that it was just another
normal week. Things are going really well. It is raining less, and it is
still hot haha. Should be another great week this week!
Well I hope that you all are doing well and that you have a great week!
Love you and miss you all! talk to you soon!
love,
Elder Searle

Almost halfway!!!

Hey everyone! 

I hope that you are all doing great! Getting all excited and ready to go back to school and all that jazz. 

Things have been good here. It is getting HOT!!!!!! I thought that it was always hot it but lately it has been getting over 100 everyday and you can tell a difference haha. Other than that things are really good though. My new companion is learning a lot really quickly and we are still getting along really well and everything. He is teaching me how to play soccer a little bit and that is cool. I just don't really have the patience for it haha. I don't think that soccer is my sport. 

So it is pretty crazy that I will hit the 1 year mark this week. It is kind of weird to think about. I am glad though. 1 year is pretty sweet cus it means that now all I have left is the best half of my mission, when I can speak the language and know a little bit more what I am doing haha. So that is cool! 

It is crazy to think that Ky is going to school soon, and that Ty is leaving on Wednesday. A lot has changed in a year. It is pretty crazy. 

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

love
Elder Searle

Torn pants and athlete's foot... :(

Hey everyone! 

I hope that you are all doing well! It sounds like you had a pretty good time in New York! I am super super jealous of that! That sounds like a sweet trip! Sounds like it was a good time and you enjoyed it so that is good! 

This last week was pretty good. Nothing too exciting though. I did find out that now we can go to malls so that is sweet! I think we are going to go today and check out what a mall is like here. Also we can have iPods now so that is sweet too! And the khakis and light colored pants are allowed as well. All kinds of changes haha! 

Other than that it was kind of a normal week though. One of the pairs of my pants ripped almost completely down the side so that was a bummer. I tried to fix it, but it turns out that I am not a good sewer at all haha, it ripped again within like 10 minutes. I also got some bad athletes foot last week, which was a bummer, but when we went to Walgreens to get some medicine for it we found a cool guy who we are going to start teaching. 

Things are going good with my new companion. Oh yeah and I got the package! Thank you so much for that it was really cool! All the candy was perfect because there is a little kid whose family we visit and everytime we go he asks us for candy, so I took him a baggie full of it and he loved it haha. 

Well I hope that you have a great week and that you get home safe! I miss you and love you all! 

love

Elder Searle

New Companion

Hey everyone! 

I hope that you are all doing great! Things are good here! I got a new companion on Wednesday. His name is Elder Hernandez, and he is brand new from Honduras. He is a cool guy. He was a professional soccer player in Honduras before his mission so that is pretty cool. We are going to be working in Caparra still, so that is sweet because I get to stay in my area. I really like the people here so I am happy about that. 

There was a tropical storm that hit where I was at last week. It wasn't that bad, it just brought a ton of rain, and there was a ton of lightning and stuff. It was actually pretty cool. A lot of places flooded though so that was kind of a bummer for a lot of people haha. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful week. We moved apartments and that took up a lot of the time last week, but the new apartment is a lot better and bigger. The only problem is that it is at the bottom of a giant hill so first thing on the bikes is going up a mountain everyday haha. 

I am super jealous that you guys are going to New York this week. That is going to be awesome! You are going to have a great time! That is also crazy that Tyler had his farewell last week. He will be out in New York in no time!

Well I hope that you all have a great week and a great trip! I love you and miss you all. 

Talk to you soon!

love

Elder Searle

Great week!!!!

Hey everyone!

I hope that you are all doing great! It sounds like you had a pretty good week! That is great! I hope that you have another one this week!

The last week here was great! Elder Nadauld and I had 4 baptisms on Saturday. The Rolon family got baptized and that was really cool. Elder Nadauld and I were the ones who found them about 6 weeks ago, so we were able to see them go through the entire process of learning about the Gospel and everything. It was really cool, and it has changed their lives a ton. The other baptism was of one of the kids of  one of the families in the ward. His name is Daniel Dickson, and his family is definitely my favorite people in Puerto Rico. They are awesome! His little brother Diego is probably the funniest little kid I have ever met in my life. I will send you some pictures next week. Today is another holiday so we aren't in our usual library to do emails so I can't send any pictures today.

Well this week should be exciting. Wednesday is transfers and there are a lot of new missionaries coming in, so there will probably be a lot of changes. That is always exciting! 

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

love

Elder Searle

P.S. oh yeah! that storm didn't do anything here. It just rained like it does everyday haha

11 months....almost halfway there :)

Hey everyone!
I hope that you all had a great week and a wonderful 4th of July! This
are going really well here! The 4th of July was a bit of a bummer.
Everybody here celebrates the 4th by going to the beach, so there
weren't really any celebrations that we got to join haha. And there
weren't hardly any fireworks where I was at either. But one of the
families in the ward invited us over to a barbecue for lunch and that
was really good. We had salmon hamburgers which were really really
good! Other than that though it was pretty much just a normal day.
This week was really good though! There are a lot of people who are
really progressing in our area and love listening to us and going to
church and everything. This weekend the Rolon family should be getting
baptized if everything goes according to plan. They are a great family
of 3 who we have been teaching for a little over a month now. The dad
used to smoke 2 packs of cigarrettes a day, and he stopped cold turkey
after we taught the word of wisdom and now he hasn't smoked for 2
weeks! He has started to be able to do exercise again and he is so
happy and already getting healthier! It is great to see!
We had a car all last week so that was sweet haha. It was a good
change of pace to have the option of getting in the car when it was
pouring rain instead of riding the bike haha.
It is crazy to think that today is the 11 month mark! That is a long
long long time haha. The time just keeps passing by!
Well I hope that you all have a great week this week! I love you and
miss you all! Talk to you soon!
love
Elder Searle

Doing great!!

Hey everyone! 

I hope that you are all doing great! Things are going really well here! President Smartt got to Puerto Rico yesterday in the afternoon and is now our new mission president. He is a real estate lawyer from Alabama and is here with his wife and 2 daughters. I haven't met him yet but I will get to tomorrow morning. It was a pretty good week with a lot of stuff to get ready for the new President. 

On Saturday I got to go and pick up the Honda Pilot that is assigned to the mission president and take it to the mission home. Super sick car, it had just got detailed and everything and was looking sick! then we went and picked up the 2nd councilor in the mission presidency from the airport. and then I got to take the brand new 2014 chevy cruze that only had 30 miles on it to the mission home for them as well. It was a pretty sweet day and a good break from riding bikes around haha. 

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. It was weird to say goodbye to the Alvarado family. We had a leadership meeting on Thursday and it was his last meeting and it was kind of sad and everything. but good too. 

The only bad thing about last week was that I popped like 4 tires on my bike so I finally had to break down and just buy a new actual tire instead of just a new tube. That was a bummer haha. 

This week should be pretty fun since we get to meet president smartt and everything. Hopefully it will be great! I hope that you all have a great 4th of July and a great week!

love you and miss you all!

love

Elder Searle