Dengue:(

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? Hopefully really well! It sounds like you all had a pretty good week so that is great! I am super glad! 

The last week here was kind of rough. I definitely got some pretty solid dengue. I am getting better now though, just really tired and sore still, but it definitely wasn't the funnest week haha. I had a fever all week, the highest that it got was up to 101.2 when I was on Tylenol, and dengue is super painful and exhausting! Way worse than mono! but now my fever is gone and my stomach is not upset anymore and things are looking good! On Wednesday I had to go get bloodwork done though because I started bleeding out of my gums really bad. I brushed my teeth and was just spitting out mouthfuls of blood for a couple minutes. My blood platelets were low, but not low enough that I had to go to the hospital or anything, I just had to stay in the house and sleep for the rest of the day. Other than that there wasn't anything too exciting with the dengue haha, just had to drink a lot and take tylenol, and I was supposed to rest if my fever got over 100 when I was on Tylenol. Pretty fun stuff haha. Turns out that staying in the house for any longer than 45 minutes is terrible!! My whole body hurt so it was hard to fall asleep cus it was super uncomfortable and there is very little to do as a missionary in your house haha. I read the whole Book of Mormon in a week, and quite a bit in the Bible as well haha. But now it is all good cus I should be back to normal this week!

Things are good though! There is a really cool family that came to church yesterday that we have been teaching and things are going good with them! Everyone is getting a little excited here because we get a new mission president in 2 weeks so that is going to be pretty exciting and different. Other than that though it is all normal! I got the package with the mosquito net and stuff in it! But I already had the dengue haha. I really liked it though! Thank you!

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

love,

Elder Searle

I hate that he was so sick:(

A couple pictures

 

Not sure who this is but Mav looks happy

 

Our awesome friends were able to visit with Maveric while they were on vacation in Puerto Rico!!  I will eternally be thankful for the fact that they took time out of their vacation to make arrangements to meet him.  Thank you Curtis, Cyndie, Phil, Brian, Zack, Kenzie and Dakota!!!

Dengue, dead dogs , and 10 months

Hey everyone! 

I hope that you are all doing well! It sounds like you are all keeping pretty busy so that is good! I can't believe that I have been gone for 10 months now and haven't seen you! That is so crazy! It has been quite a long time!

Well this past week has been pretty crazy here. In my District we have been having a pretty solid battle with the dengue! Elder Astle was the first one to get sick, then just as he was getting over the dengue, his companion Elder Duncan got it. Now Elder Duncan is starting to feel better, but now I am starting to feel like crap, so hopefully it is just something else and I do not have dengue, but there is a pretty solid chance that I have dengue haha. I guess we will see if it doesn't get better soon haha. But because of all the dengue in the house, it was a pretty weird week. We were trying to cover two different areas with three healthy missionaries all week, and it made for a lot of running around and stuff, and then Elder Duncan and Elder Nadauld hit a dog with the car and had to go get a new car from the mission office cus the other one got pretty messed up haha. 

Considering all the weird things that happened this week, it was pretty good though! Elder Nadauld and I are teaching a pretty cool family that we found recently and they are super interested and excited about church so that is good. And hopefully we are just looking forward to a more normal and healthy week with nobody with dengue haha. 

Well I hope that you have a great week! I love you and I miss you all so much! I will talk to you soon!

love,

Elder Searle

Forgot to post this last week....oops!!

Sorry, forgot to post this last week!!!!

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing? I hope that everything is going well, and that you are all getting excited for graduation and everything! I can not believe that Kylie is graduating this week. It just doesn't seem right it is so crazy! I wish I could be there soo bad but oh well i guess haha. I am sure that it is going to be an awesome experience though! Good luck!

Things here were pretty good this past week. There really was not a ton that happened that was too exciting. It rained a lot this week, so there were a lot of wet days haha. We got to play tennis a couple of times in the morning for our exercise time though so that was cool. I am absolutely terrible at tennis now...apparently 9 months without practicing at all is pretty bad for your tennis game haha. 

One thing that was pretty exciting is that there was some truck that was just randomly on fire on the side of the road one day. I am not really sure where it came from or what was going on, but we just drove past it on the freeway and there was some guy with his face painted like a clown who walked up and grabbed a backpack out of this flaming car and then walked off. When we drove back past it on the way home it was still burning and there were firetrucks there just dumping tons of water on it, and the crazy clown guy was nowhere to be seen. It was super weird!!! 

Other than that is was just a normal week pretty much! 

Well I hope that you all have a great week! I love you and miss you all so much! I will talk to you soon!

love,

Elder Searle

Ups and downs...

Sounds like he had an interesting and a bit frustrating week!!

Hey everyone! happy memorial day!
I hope that you are all doing great! It sounds like it was a pretty good
week so that is really good!
This last week here was pretty crazy! overall good! We had a baptism this
week. A 19 year old guy named Kevin Torres. He is super cool! The
missionaries started teaching him about 2 days before I got to Caparra, and
we have been teaching him since. It was really cool to see how much he
likes the church and everything. He is a really nice and sincere guy. Elder
Nadauld and I were very excited about him being able to get baptized.
This week I also crashed my bike one day because there was a ton of rain.
It broke the gear shifter right off of my bike and the back tire fell off
while I was riding it. It was pretty crazy. So then we were walking a lot
for two days, and on Friday I had to take it to get fixed at the bike
store. 60 bucks later I have a good bike again so that is good! haha.
Another thing that was really cool that happened this week was that we had
a meeting with a guy that just moved into our ward a couple weeks ago and
his wife. His name is brother lee and he is a former mission president and
a former 70, so it was a pretty sweet appointment. He is a really cool guy
that knows a ton!
I got the package with the shirts in it too! Thanks so much for that! It
saved my life cus it rained litterally all week and my clothes did not have
a chance to dry haha but I had new shirts so it was no problem!
I did not hear anything from the Kirks or get to see them. That is a
bummer!
Well I don't have a ton of time cus it is another holiday :( but at least
today is a real holiday haha.
Well I love you and miss you all! Talk to you soon! Happy memorial day!
love,
Elder Searle

Mothers Day!

Well as you know, Elder Searle was able to call home today!  It was awesome!  He was supposed to call at 2:00 but he actually called at 1:00!  Thankfully we had decided to leave church early just in case.  So glad we did.  So, I got to talk to him for quite a while.  We had a total of about 45 minutes on the phone and another 45 minutes of Skype.  It was totally awesome!!!  He is really happy!  He looks really good and he sounds really good.  I was just so happy for him today.  I am happy to report that I didn't even cry when I talked to him.  I know, I know, it is truly a miracle.  Anyway, things are going great for him.  He loves the people and he loves the food.  Right now it is the beginning of the rainy season and it rains a ton!!  He said that is better than it being so hot though.  The bad thing is that  they don't have a dryer and they are supposed to just hang their clothes outside to dry.  Well, they never dry!!  Haha. Another bad thing is that he hurt his ankle really bad on Wednesday.  He thought he broke it but now he things he may have just torn something!  He showed it to us and it doesn't look very good...poor kid!!  Hopefully it feels better soon!!  So, we surprised him and had the nieces and nephews here so they could Skype with him.  It was pretty cool!!  Not everyone was here, but it was still cool!  I think he loved it!  Also, Amanda came up and so he got to see her too!  It was a good day!  I still miss him like crazy but this definitely will help me get through the next little while. I am so thankful for modern technology and mostly for Skype!!!!  What a great Mothers Day I had!

Rain, Rain, Rain

hey everyone!! 

It sounds like it was a pretty good week at home so that is great! I am happy to hear it! Things here were pretty good as well. One thing that was pretty crazy this week was all of the rain. I am pretty sure that the rainy season is starting here because it has just been coming in buckets and buckets. On Tuesday, there was so much rain that the streets basically turned into rivers. There was water almost halfway up our bike tires and the sewer grates got ripped out of the ground and floated away!! It was crazy! I don't think i have ever been so wet in my life haha. It was also the first time that I have been cold here. 

This week I spent a lot of time in meetings, so that wasn't super fun, but at least it was more time in air conditioning haha. And I went and bought a tennis racket because we were going to play tennis today for P-Day, but it is raining a ton now so that probably isn't going to happen haha. But I found out that there are tennis courts and a golf course in my area, so I hope the weather starts being good on P-Day's so that we can have some fun! haha. 

we taught quite a few lessons this week so that was good. There are quite a few people here who let us in and listen to us. More than in the other areas where I have been, so that is really good. 

Other than that the week wasn't all that exciting..But this next week is going to be great!! Almost Mother's Day! Woohoo I am way excited! I can't wait to Skype you and see you guys! It is going to be a great Sunday that is for sure!

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

love,

Elder Searle