Great week!!!

Today's email was fabulous.  He is doing so great!!

Hey everyone! How are things going back home? Hopefully everything is going really well! Things here are great! I had a really good week so that was good!

Yesterday we had a baptism of a little girl named Alondra that we have been teaching. It was a really good experience! She is 10 years old, really smart and funny too. She wants to be a missionary someday too so that is pretty cool! It was a really cool baptismal service too because there were 3 other baptisms from the other Elders that work in the same ward. One thing that District Leaders do is that they inteview the people who the other missionaries in their district teach before they can be baptized, so I got to do 3 baptismal interviews this week. That was a really cool experience because it was an opportunity to see how these people's lives have changed by deciding to start going to church and following commandments and stuff. It was definitely one of the coolest experiences that I have had on my mission.

There were a few other things that were really cool this week too. We did some service for this old guy in the ward who is a WW2 veteran that was stationed with the people in Japan when they dropped the Atomic Bombs. It was crazy. He has a ton of cool stories and pictures and stuff. He also has a lot of health problems from all the radiation, and one of his eyes, the pupil and iris have just almost completely disappeared. Talking to someone who was a part of something so huge in history was a really sweet experience.

There were also a couple of Ward activities this week that were fun. We played basketball, and had a Ward Family Home Evening, and then had a luncheon thing at a nautical club so that was all good too.

Well that is about what has been going on here! It was definitely overall a very good week! Hope that yoúr's was the same! I love you and miss you all. Talk to you next week!

love,

Elder Searle

Transfer!

This is the email we received today!  He is doing great:)

Hey Everyone!

Sounds like the week for everyone was pretty good so that is great! I hope that you are all doing great! And I hope that it is warming up a little bit for you out there! It is crazy that Kylie is 18 and that Brooklyn is driving now. A lot changed in the last week haha. 

Well a lot changed here too in the last week. I got transferred from Arroyo to Salinas. It wasn't a huge move, I am still living in the same house, but now instead of going 7 miles to the east to get to my area, I go about 11 miles to the west! It is still sunny and dry, but I have a car now! So we usually take the car out to the area and leave it in a member's house and then ride bikes for the day! And I got my bike back so that is great! So far it has been a lot less biking than in my last area! I am going to have to be careful to not get fat haha. My new companion is Elder Garfield. He is from Springville Utah and this is his last transfer in the mission. He is way cool and I was way excited to be companions with him. So now for the first time I have a companion who has been on his mission for more than a year, and someone who speaks English!!! So far it has been great! All of the people in Salinas are super cool, and something that is fun about being with an American companion is that everyone tries to speak to us in English. Sometimes it ends up pretty well but sometimes it doesn't haha. 

I was pretty happy to be transferred. I kind of got the best of both worlds this transfer, I got to move to a new area, that is a lot bigger than Arroyo, but I didn't have to move to a new house or anything! I think that this transfer is going to be a lot of fun. The only bad thing is that I am still in the same place that doesn't let me send pictures home in emails haha, but oh well you can't win them all. 

Right now we are working with a couple of people who want to get baptized and they are just waiting on getting married first, so hopefully they will be able to get that done in this week, and we will have their baptism within the next two weeks. 

Well that is about how it is out here! Hope that you all have a great week! Talk to you next week. Love you and miss you all

love,

Elder Searle

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

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

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