Mav came home

I want to thank you all for taking the time to follow this blog and keep up on how Maveric has been doing.  I would like to inform you all that he has come home.  On Tuesday of last week I got a phone call from him and by Saturday he was home. He has served and loved the people of Puerto Rico for the past 13 months.  He has had many great experiences and we are all very happy to hear about them. At this time there are some things he is going to work through.  There is a possibility that he may go back in a few months.  I am very proud of him and the man that he has become.  He is a man of integrity and is a great example to me.  I am very proud of him and the things he has accomplished.  I will keep you posted on how he is doing and what he decides to do.  Thank you all for your love and support.  I thank you for the prayers that have been said on his behalf.  It is my prayer that if you see him you continue to offer him that same love and support.  Thank you!

Love,

Tami

Great week!!

Hey everyone! 

I hope that you are all doing great. It sounds like you are all keeping busy with work and school and everything so that is good. Hopefully it all goes really well for you! This past week here was really good! First of all, it is time for transfers again and I found out that I get to stay here in Caparra for at least 6 more weeks. I was really happy about that because there are a lot of great people that we are working with, and I didn't want to leave right now. I am still going to have the same companion too so no changes there haha. By the end of this transfer I will have been here for 6 months, so that is kind of weird to think about haha. that is a long time. But it is good! 

I had a pretty cool adventure this week when I went on a tradeoff on Friday. I was with one of the other Elders in my district, and they have a place in their area that is pretty far away and up a mountain. They always used that place as an excuse to always be using a car and never ride their bikes so I have been kind of getting on them about that since I got here. And on Friday I decided that we would prove that they don't need their car by riding our bikes out there to visit a family that lives there. It was a great time! We left the house at 10:00 am and got to the house right exactly on time for our appointment at 3:00 pm. It really wasn't that bad for me and it was actually a lot of fun, but for the other guy who was with me it was pretty rough because he doesn't hardly ever ride a bike. He might have thrown up a couple of times on the way up haha. It was cool though, the mountain was beautiful, and it was a nice 18 mile ride up the side of the mountain. I really really enjoyed it. Then everything went well with the people that we visited up there and everything, and then we got to come back. That was a blast!!! We passed a couple of cars who were riding down the mountain, and had to wait for a lot more. our top speed that we got to was 36.9 MPH! It was so fun! and it took us less than 2 hours to get back, including the time we had to take to fix my flat tire. It was sweet! I definitely want to ride my bike up there again sometime haha. I took some videos and stuff, but they are too big to email, so I will try and send them home in a package or something soon. 

Another cool thing that happened this week is that a couple of the guys that were baptized last month got the priesthood in Sacrament Meeting. That was really really cool. The dad got ordained first and then was able to participate in ordaining his son. They are both super excited to bless and pass the sacrament next week and it is really cool to work with them. I love that family and it has been crazy to see how much their life has changed since we met them a couple of months ago. Good stuff! 

So yeah it was a pretty good week out here! I hope that you guys are great back home too! Try not to have too much fun with work and school! I love you all and miss you a ton! Talk to you soon! 

love

Elder SEarle

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