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

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

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

Doing awesome!!!

Here is today's email and he is doing great!!

hey everyone!

How is everyone? it sounds like you all had a pretty good and exciting week! That is great! I am happy to hear about cheer, and track, and mom's race, and Ty's mission call! that is all great news! Super exciting that Tyler is going to New York! That is crazy he leaves almost the same day that I left too! Exciting stuff!!

This week here was really good! I am really enjoying my new area! I get along really well with my new companion, and the other people in our house, and overall it has been one of the funnest weeks that I have had on my mission. Things overall just went really well! It was definitely a little bit weird to be with a new missionary for my companion, mostly just because he doesn't really speak Spanish yet, but it was really good! I also really like being more in the city area. There are so many more people to talk too! And my area is way smaller! It is definitely a different style of work here, and I definitely like it a lot better. In the last week I talked to soo many people it was crazy! And we set a baptismal date for the 18th of May with one of our investigators so that was really cool! He is a 19 year old kid named Kevin, and he came with us to play basketball at mutual and stuff and loved it. He is a cool guy and we are way excited to keep working with him in the next couple of weeks. 

Well I am getting way excited for Mother's day! I can't believe that it is less than 2 weeks away! That seems crazy. the last couple of weeks have just kind of flown by! 

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

Transferred, Adidas, and dengue...

Hey everyone! 

How are things going back home? I hope that you are all doing great! It sounds like it is finally starting to warm up a little bit so that is good! I bet you are all happy about that. 

Things here are really good! I got transferred!! Now I am in Caparra, with Elder Nadauld (the person who was supposed to come be my companion a few weeks ago). Caparra is in the city so I am super excited! It is also the area right next to where I was at in Toa Baja. I am super stoked because I like the North side of the island a lot better! Less sun and more green haha. So now I am the District Leader of the district up here, which is my companion and I, Elder Astle and a new missionary who is coming in tomorrow, and two sister missionaries. I am going to be living in the same house as Elder Astle so that is sweet! I think it is going to be a really good transfer! If nothing else it will be interesting. I will be in a new area, as a District Leader, and training as well. Half of the missionaries in my District are new missionaries so that is pretty exciting too haha. 

Last week was really good. I took a kung fu lesson last P-Day from this crazy kungfu teacher here who is an inactive member. He learned Kung-Fu when he was a prisoner of war in the phillipines and it is crazy all the stuff he can do. He started it off by doing pushups off of one of his thumbs! It was a really cool experience! 

Then another cool thing that happened this week is that I went and did some service at a members house. We were mixing and pouring cement, and it got my shoes really dirty and everyone except for me was really worried about it, so when we were about to leave, the guy gave me a brand new pair of Adidas that he bought for his son a few months ago but he never wore them. He wouldn't let us leave until I took them, and I thought it was super nice of him. They are pretty sweet shoes! 

Other than that this week was pretty crazy. I was in meetings all day on Tuesday and Thursday. Didn't sleep in my own house until Friday, worked in 4 different areas, and on Friday Saturday and Sunday I was with an Elder in my District who had dengue. He is feeling a lot better now, but it was pretty rough for him for a while. I definitely don't want to get dengue! But yeah so it was definitely a little bit out of the ordinary this week. 

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

Sounds good and yay for some pics!!!

Hey everyone!
I hope that you are all doing superb and that the past week has been great!
Things here have been pretty good. Probably the most exciting thing that
happened this week was that we had a super awesome service project. We went
and washed the fishing boat of this super rich member. It was soooo sweet!
His boat is super nice and we got to start the day hanging out on a boat,
but it wasn't in the water, in a Nautic Club, wearing shorts and my
Sperries with no socks, and sunglasses. It was definitely a lot of fun.
Other than that it was another pretty crazy week. I am still companionless,
and last week I only spent 12 hours in my area so that was definitely a
little different. I did way more driving around than I usually do so that
was alright haha. If nothing else it was a good change of pace from riding
my bike around i the sun all day everyday!
This week is probably going to be more of the same. I have meetings
tomorrow and on Thursday, and I won't be getting a new companion til next
Monday or Tuesday, so I will be doing a lot of hopping around again! I
actually kind of like it, it is just hard cus I don't get to work very much
with the people that I am teaching.
Hmmm other than that there really isn't all that much new around here.
Today is another holiday, I am not sure what it is though because nobody
that I ask ever knows what all these fake holidays are haha. But yeah it
was a really good week, and I am looking forward to another one!
Well I hope that you all have a great week! Enjoy all the snow out there
haha, it is still super sunny and warm here!
Love you and miss you all! Talk to you soon!
love
Elder Searle

 

Now this is the kid I remember:)

 

Love this!!!!

 

Oh goodness....

8 months, flying solo and conference

Hey everyone!

I hope that you are all doing great, and that you had a great week! Hopefully you were able to learn a lot from conference this week..I know I sure did.

This week here in Puerto Rico has been a little bit crazy! I still do not have a companion.... So for the past week I have just kind of been hopping around my district with the other Elders, and then either taking them or a member to the appointments that I had set up in my area. It made for an interesting week! The good thing was that I taught a lot of lessons this week, because I pretty much just went wherever there were lessons to be taught, and I also got to know the other Elders in my district a lot better. The bad thing was that I did not get to work a ton in my own area, which is always a bummer. Overall it was a really good week though! And it ended really well with General Conference. For conferance here we just went to the chapel and they had a broadcast set up. For the normal sessions we just went to the one in our ward, so there were 5 missionaries there and a couple of members, but for the Priesthood session we went to the Stake center and there were about 13 missionaries and a ton of members. It was a lot of fun there because I watched it in the English room and it was pretty much just missionaries haha. I really enjoyed conference and I was definitely able to learn a lot. Like always Elder Holland's talk was my favorite. I wish that I could speak like that guy haha it would be so cool!

One thing that was not super fun that happened this week happened on Friday when we were doing a service project. We went to this guy's house to help him tie rebar so that he can pour the cement for the roof of the house that he is building...and I wore shorts and managed to forget that when you wear shorts in the sun, you also have to put sunscreen on your legs and not just your arms and face. My legs got completely fried!! it looks really funny because one of my socks was pulled up a lot higher than the other one so the tan line is a little goofy. It didn't feel too good but it made for a great conversation starter with all of the people that we talked with after that. I just asked them all, especially the really dark ones, if they had ever seen pink legs before, and then pulled up my pant leg. Everybody was pretty impressed haha.

Well today is also my 8 month mark on the mission, so that is pretty exciting. 1/3 of the way done! the last two months have gone by really fast, it seems like I was just barely writing home about the 6 month mark haha. Also now there is only like a month til I get to call home so that is pretty sweet too!

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

love,

Elder Searle