Week # 09/26/09 (Ovejas in the backyard!)

Email dated: September 26, 2009

HOLA!

As I’m sure everyone already knows life here is going great and I’M LOVING IT! So first off we don’t have really any progressing investigatores right now which is kinda a bummer we haven’t had any since our baptism but we are working hard to find people so I know it will pay off soon. In the town of Adjuntas it’s kinda crazy there is like a million and a half churches everywhere and half of them were created there in Adjuntas but they all have this mindset that you just go to the church that you live next to and it doesn’t matter what church you’re in just as long as you’re in one and you’re faithful to it. So it’s been kinda hard to convince people that there’s only one true church but yeah so that seems to be the biggest problem here but we are working hard and trying to get people to pray and ask if the church is true because we know that’s the only way they can find out and we know if they really ask they will get the right answer but yeah so that’s how the missionary work is going. also we had a baptisim yesterday kinda haha it was kinda funny cuz there is a family in the branch that got baptized like a year ago almost and so the mom and the two older kids got baptized but the dad still isn’t and the other kids were under 8 but yeah the mom and the two older girls are really strong members and are really cool but we always go over there and try and teach the dad but the last time we went over there the kids like I TURNED 8! I WANT TO BE BAPTIZED! he was way excited but him and his mom thaught that he had to talk to us to get baptized so we explained that since they are already members and he goes to church already and everything that all he has to do is talk to branch president and get his interview so he did that at mutual and then we had the baptisim this Sunday after church and even though it was a member baptisim the kid wanted the missionaries to do it so Elder Kolar baptized him it was pretty cool Elder Kolar has been out just over a year now and he’s had 6 baptisims including the last 2 with me but he had never baptized anyone himself so that was pretty cool it was kinda funny though cuz we try and really get the members involved and the members to do the convert baptisims just to strengthen the converts with the branch but the kid wanted Elder Kolar to do it so we did haha it was cool.So it sounds like the hunting season is going good. I mean I hear about all these Elk they have been seeing but I haven’t heard about any dead ones or seen any pictures yet so I don’t know what to think haha either someone’s a bad shot or telling hunting stories I’m not quite sure :) haha So Eric hurt his hip and went to Cliff huh? Does he still have that big old crazy picture of me in there? I still don’t know about that haha it kinda creeped me out a bit when I saw it it’s like life size haha but man that would be nice to go to Cliffs office right now haha I could use some adjustments :) I loved going there. tell Eric he should have asked him for some acupuncture to fix his little problem that would have been pretty funny hahabut yeah it sounds like everything is going good and everyone is doing well o and about the box I’m pretty sure you tell me you are sending it every week so I get all excited when I check the mail and then its not there haha it’s kinda funny I guess though :) but nope I cant really think of anything I need real bad I think I’m doing good. Elder Kolar said to have you send a bag of laffy taffy for him too haha so that would be nice if you could do that :) but yeah I’m doing good I still haven’t bought my bike yet cuz I haven’t needed to and they are expensive so I don’t want to haha I know it will hurt to watch money go into a bike haha but I guess I should just bite the bullet and do it kinda face the inevitable but yeah haha well i don’t have anything else to say but o yeah really quick I just remembered a story I want to tell you guys so the other day we were at some older members in our branch’s house and we were talking to them and stuff and the old lady was talking to me for a while and she was talking about these sheep (ovejas) behind her house and how they were everywhere and something about these guys coming to get them and stuff so I was really confused because I don’t think there are sheep in Puerto Rico so I was like man she talks crazy old people Spanish and talking about these crazy sheep that are flying around and stuff so then we started eating and I was telling Elder Kolar she was talking to me about some sheep behind her house and I had no idea what she was talking about and he was just laughing and didn’t think there were sheep in Puerto Rico either but anyways come to find out her and her husband started talking about it to us later and I guess the whole time she was saying "abejas" which is Spanish for bees. haha but yeah it was really funny I thought she was talking about crazy sheep behind her house but it was crazy bees so now we have a little joke we say "si habia ovejas volando y brincando en todos lados" have dad translate that for ya haha :) but yeah a funny little story for ya but I’ve got to go and I will talk to you guys next week.
love ya
elder ward

Knight Ring-Bearer!

Knight Ring-Bearer at a Wedding!

Week # 09/21/2009 (Adjuntas)

Email dated: 09/21/09

HOLA
well life down here in paradise is going amazingly well haha this week was really kind of a complicated one (I learned something this week from our president. He said nothing is hard its just complicated and you have to figure out how to accomplish it :)) We ended up dropping all of our investigators pretty much last week and some moved away and stuff so this week we were pretty much just finding all week all day long so we found some people but then the appointments (that was weird to write it took me forever to think of the word appointments we use "cita" haha) but anyways all of the citas that we set up during the week pretty much all of them fell so yeah it was kind of a bummer because we still don’t have any investigators and we are working like crazy trying to find some so yeah we are expecting some good things this week and gonna work hard to find some more people. :)but anyways it sounds like life is going good down there I mean all this bag piping, partying and stuff sounds a little crazy to me haha :) but yeah it’s so true what Mallory says about your mission being the best one in the world cuz you do really love it and it’s really funny cuz in the mtc everyone says their mission is the best mission ever and they haven’t even been to or really know anything about where they are going haha its kinda fun but its cool cuz right from the start you just love where you’re gonna go and you just want to help people and change peoples lives so much its kind of a crazy thing but definitely true because I can tell you right now that the Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission is the best one in the world ;)but tell Jason good luck with the temple challenge haha its kinda crazy but if I were him my advice would be to switch it up and go do some annointing and then endowments and then some sealings and then back to endowments so you don’t do the same thing the whole time that’s what I wish I would have done but yeah either way he will have fun and love it :) it’s a pretty cool experience and you learn a ton of really really cool stuff but anyways about his clothes -- I would get some nice ecco shoes because I think they are the best long lasting and durable and they don’t have hot liners or anything which is way nice. I definitely would say not to get the doc martins because they look way good and mine were definitely cheap and that was nice but other than that I don’t like them as much because they are heavy and a lot hotter. It also would be smart to see if those hush puppy ones are still on the internet the brown ones cuz I think they would be way nice shoes and are a good deal but don’t get the hush puppies like mine cuz they are great shoes and I really like them but the little sole liner thing since it had that little bubble thing for my heel well I already wore that out and it came off so I have to go buy some like doctor scholles or something. and for his suit I assume he only buys one but tell him to get something he likes cuz everyone just wears black ones but if I were him I would get a brown one or a grey one cuz they don’t attract the sun as much and I like it cuz they look good :) but yeah o and for socks tell him to get short ones because they are a lot cooler just like short black ones but then you also have to make sure that your pants are long enough too so don’t get them cut to short but yeah that’s about all I got for advice o except definitely get polyester ties they are a lot better haha but yeah if you are curious about anything else I guess you can ask me next week.
Everything here is going swell and I’m loving the mission life o and if you want when you send that package you can throw a bag of laffy taffys in there cuz they don’t make those around here haha but that would be good but other than that I’m doing really good and having fun I didn’t really take any pictures this week so yeah sorry about that I don’t have any to send ya but it sounds like everything is going great and I cant wait to hear how the hunting season goes it sounds like its off to a great start so make sure Jason keeps me well informed haha well I’ll talk to you guys later
love ya
Elder Ward

Letter to Andrea:

haha i guess the letter will be like a little surprise time capsule when you find them haha but yeah everything is going good I’m loving it here in Puerto Rico but yeah we had two baptisms 2 Sundays ago and that was really cool and everything went well it was awesome. Jason is going to love his mission I have met a ton of people that have gone there and it’s really really cool from what I’ve heard. The language will be a little hard I’m not going to lie I heard that it’s a little different and when you move to another place in the mission the dialect completely changes and it’s a bit tuff but he will do fine :) I’m excited for him anyways -- about the food here when we eat at a members it is always the same just rice and beans with meat but yeah I love it. It’s way good and i cook some good stuff here a lot so we are good with that except we have a lame oven so it’s really hard to bake stuff in it so we have given up on that because it’s like a tiny little electric one and it just burns stuff so you have to like turn the heat half as hot if you want it to work and yeah it’s just a mess and I don’t use it anymore :) How’s the new house? I bet you had a fun little move haha but it sounds like everything is going good up there make sure and tell Kenna that Eric does look kinda cute and girly sometimes but she better stick with the girly hair styles hahaha jk. (Kennady wanted her hair cut like Eric’s and Andrea told her she couldn’t cuz Eric is a boy and she is a girl and needed a little girl haircut. So then she told Andrea she wanted it cut “just like Grandma’s”.) I thought that was funny but yeah life’s great and I’m having fun and I’ll talk to you next week
tell everyone hi for me :)> love ya > > elder ward

Pictures!!!!

Baptism - 09/12/09

Week # 09/14/2009 (Adjuntas)

Email dated: September 14, 2009

Hola
ok so I was so stoked when I found out Jason’s call. Did you call my mission president and tell him? (I emailed Hermana Martineau the Mission President’s wife.) because I was out at like 8 o clock and I got this phone call from Sister Martineau and she was like your brother is going to the Philippines and I was so excited and yeah it was so awesome and I was stoked but yeah that’s so cool he’s going to love it there. Sometimes I wish I went to an awesome place like that I mean I love Puerto Rico that’s for sure but he’s really gonna love it there. And so about the supplies I was going to say that exact thing about the pants haha. Over there you can get way nice dress clothes like your pants and suits and all that for like nothing and they are way nice everything over there is like way cheap and also he’s going to find all sorts of way cool things. It’s going to be awesome I’ve met a lot of people that have gone to the Philippines on their missions and also my companions brother went there so yeah I’ve heard a lot about it and all I’ve got to say is he has to send me some pants and a belt made out of water buffalo horn. It’s really really cool they make a ton of really cool stuff out of buffalo horn so let him know once he gets there that’s what I’m expecting haha but yeah so anyways I’m way excited that’s going to be awesome he will love it!!!Our baptism this week was great it went well. I’ll try and send some pictures this week again but yeah it was kinda funny and kinda a long story but I’ll tell it really quick. The lady is really timid and shy and so she was like freaking out when it came time for the baptism and then once they started going under to dunk her she freaked out and like jumped up and was like coughing and spitting water everywhere and like freaking out. She was afraid of the water but yeah she went crazy so then we decided we would do the husband and then she would go again cuz she didn’t go all the way under. So then the husband went and it was all fine and went great so we went to baptize her again and she freaked out again and was fighting to get out before she went under so the guy that baptized her just shoved her under pretty good and got it haha it was pretty crazy and kinda funny. We decided that the people here in Puerto Rico have crazy baptisms because the other elders that we are always with elder Knudsen and elder Sykes they had a baptism this week too and the kid was a ten year old in a part member family but when he got to the font he was freaking out too and then he just like jumped in and was splashing around for a bit and then he just started swimming around. haha kinda crazy but yeah so they baptized him and then when they were done he started swimming around again and they just shut the doors to the font while they were trying to get him out haha but yeah so that’s our sweet baptism stories kinda funny!But anyways everything here in Puerto Rico is going great and I’m loving the life as a missionary. About contacting people as members the biggest thing I think is to be friends with other people that aren’t members it seems like in Mtn. Home and even here in Puerto Rico where there aren’t that many Mormons all the Mormons are friends with Mormons and that’s just how it is so I think as members we need to try and be friends with other people and then share little points about the gospel and testify what it’s done for you and then just ask if they would want to know more. There are some scriptures and some talks that tell the missionaries to be bold but not overbearing so I think that works the same with members tell them boldly about the gospel and what it means to you and why it’s important and what they can do to find it but don’t try and force it on them haha but yeah that’s my strategy haha but yeah I guess I’m not the best to ask I’m still a greeny I think haha unless that’s just your first transfer that your a greeny I’m not sure :)
About those cds I think you can get the music free on Itunes and just make me a cd if you want. I’m not really sure but yeah that would be cool also all the apartments usually have a cd player so I don’t need that or anything but yeah send me them whenever you can cuz we want some music here cuz we don’t have like anything haha
So the people that got married were both members and they got married in the back yard of the guys dad. His dad is our mission leader but yeah they got married there and then went to Mexico to get sealed in the temple because there is no temple here in Puerto Rico. Most people go to the DR I think but she had family in Mexico or something so they went there.So it sounds like everything is going great back home. I cant believe it is hunting season and I’m not going to lie I’m a bit jealous I want to go shoot a gun and go camping so bad it’s crazy haha but I am having fun here too so it can wait :) and its weird to think about AFAD haha you and Eric were the only ones. It’s weird that all that’s left is him haha but yeah kinda crazy well I better get going but you guys have a great day and tell Jason to write me a letter sometime soon! Oh and tell dad I want to go to the Philippines when Jason gets back so he better start saving up some money hahaha jk but that would be really cool the way I got it figured is that Eric has a lot of good choices to do for his trip after he graduates haha. We have England, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Philippines and idk what else. haha he’s set but yeah I better get going

I love you guys and I cant wait to hear from ya next week.
Elder Ward

Week # 09/08/2009 (Adjuntas)

Email dated: 09/08/09

HOLA FAMILIA
life is going good here on this wonderful tropical island! so yeah that’s always great haha but no really we are doing good I haven’t had any baptisms in my mission yet I’m pretty sure Puerto Rico is like the lowest baptizing Latin place ever haha but no its really great I think the problem a lot of times is the people need to be humbled because like no one works here and they just get money from the government and live pretty good lives so yeah a lot of people are a bit prideful and don’t like to give things up like drinking and smoking or going to church but yeah we find good people all the time and we are having the baptism on the 12th.so I think it’s kinda funny that you can’t read those letters it cracks me up but you’ll just enjoy it twice as much when dad gets home because you’ll just have all that excitement built up haha (Matthew sent a full 1 ½ page letter to us all written in Spanish and Robert was out of town when it arrived.) but I’m not sure what letter that you are talking about to Kyle because I haven’t sent him one. I remember writing one in the ccm a long time ago but I thought you already got that one so yeah I didn’t send one to Kyle did I? (Kyle Hall had actually written Matthew and so I told him I would be sending Kyle’s letter onto him.) I just remember sending one to Sami Jo and Jason but yeah so I’m a little lost about that. o yeah I was going to ask you when you send that package with the cds hopefully you haven’t sent it yet but could you get some motab Christmas music and burn some copies of it cuz we want to give it to one of our investigatores that has heard of them and so I told him I was going to try and get him some to listen to so yeah if you could do that that would be awesome.all this talk about going to the mountains makes me a little bit jealous I’m not going to lie haha I would love some nice cold weather camping trips haha but one day everyone was freaking out cuz they thought like a mini hurricane was coming to get us and we were out side knocking doors and everyone we went to was like you guys better get back home or else this storm is going to get you and it wont be good but yeah it was kinda funny because it got down to like 60 degrees and everyone was wearing like sweaters and stuff but yeah it was cool nothing happened it just got windy and overcast all day and then rained all night long like crazy and then the next morning it was back to being hot and humid haha ok so all this talk about peoples babies and all this crazy stuff makes me feel weird I’m not old enough to know all these people with babies haha but I’m glad everyone is doing good and you can tell them all congrats from me :) Elder Smith is not in my mission he is in the east side I’m not really sure the address but you can figure it out but yeah idk about that mail at the ccm it doesn’t work that great I’ve decided.So that’s pretty cool about all the football stuff man it seems weird that all the football stuff is going on right now and I don’t have anything to do with it haha it was funny at transfer meeting cuz my old mtc comp was talking to me about all the football stuff he was dieing haha but yeah I just think it’s kinda funny but yeah sounds like everyone back home is doing good and enjoying themselves. Here everything is amazing our branch is really cool, kinda small, but they are always there and really cool people. there is one kid that is 16 that always goes out and works with us and he’s awesome he’s gonna be an awesome missionary it’s crazy but yeah every once in a while my comp teaches the gospel doctrine class they don’t have me do that quite yet haha I don’t know Spanish near good enough but yeah everything’s going great o and one funny story that I just remembered so we had a wedding this week and that was pretty fun to get to go to but yeah the funniest thing ever was the guys little boy was the ring bearer and instead of wearing normal nice wedding clothes he was dressed like a knight and had a sword and everything it was the craziest funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life! I thought for sure they were going to make him change but nope he was a knight! Pretty funny haha I’ll see if I can send a picture but yeah I better get going life is going good we are having success and trying to get more.
love you guys
elder ward

Week # 09/01/2009 (Adjuntas) 2nd Transfer

Email dated: September 1, 2009
2nd Transfer
Adjuntas
Companion: Elder Kolar (?)

HOLA!
first things first if people spoke English here do you think I’d be too worried about the Spanish hahahaha jk there are actually a handful of people that speak it really well and a lot of people can understand English but are way too afraid to speak it so yeah we usually never talk to anyone in English It’s rare but there is quite a few and a ton of the members are really good at English because of missions and they all study it all 13 years of school but yeah so a lot of people can speak it but we always speak in Spanish.So anyways tomorrow will be the start of a new transfer which is 6 weeks so don’t get too excited I got a lot more of those to go haha but yeah I’M STAYING IN ADJUNTAS which is awesome I’m really excited about that cuz we still have our baptism on the 12 and I love it here in Adjuntas but yeah so I’ll be here for another 6 weeks :)
You asked in your letter that I got who those other elders were so I thought I better explain it so we have 8 elders in our district and we all live in different houses but the other 6 live in Ponce cuz it’s the big city here and we have to drive down to Ponce to do email every week on p-day. So the guys in the picture were Elder Knudsen and Elder Sykes. Elder Knudsen came in with me and he’s awesome. He’s from Sandy Utah and Elder Sykes is from Texas. Elder Knudsen got called this week and was supposed to get sent to the islands and we were really bummed about that cuz then we wouldn’t have gotten to see him for about 6 months probably but then they called and he is staying now so I’m really excited we usually do stuff with them every p-day so yeah I’m happy.
Ok so I’m really excited that everyone is going on missions its gonna be crazy I’m so excited especially Jason cuz my plan is I can write to him and he can give me pointers on how to be a better missionary so I’m excited about that and tell him that I’m sending a letter to him in the mail today. I just got his in an email from dad :) so yeah that’s awesome Kyle and maybe Tanner too so yeah I’m way excited. Oh and Sister Johns too -- man she’s an awesome lady we can learn so much from her what an awesome attitude and everything that’s so awesome (Sister Johns is an 85 year old Sister in our Ward who is going to serve for a year at the Family History Center in SLC). o and I was thinking you guys better send me a video or at least pictures of Jason opening his call ok... it was really cool today they called me and asked me if I know of anyone going to serve a mission anytime soon and I said yep sure do! It was cool to be able to say it :) but yeah they just gave us all a survey so yeah I feel like I better call them back and say Kyle’s going now too haha

Everything is going great here and we are having fun this last week was a little rough with finding people and contacting people we didn’t really have too much luck but then all of a sudden this Monday start of the week we had some really cool Milagros (miracles) haha like this one guy he is the coolest guy in the world but yeah we contacted him and he told us where his house is like 20 minutes in car so we get over there and we have no clue were it was at -- so we just started hiking up the mountain in the middle of the jungle dieing from heat and it was just a killer but we were yelling at a bunch of different houses and no one was answering it felt pointless but we kept going just winding up this giant mountain and then we yelled at this one house and no one answered so we were like ok lets just head back there’s no way it’s up here and then all of a sudden we see him driving up the mountain in his old beater car it was pretty cool but yeah so he’s an awesome guy. Only half of his body works cuz he got in an accident a while ago so he just hobbles around but he works hard and just lives in this really tiny house and he’s really poor but he’s just so happy and content with life. He’s awesome and a giant example for me but yeah so that was an amazing experience and we expect good things from that but life is great I’m having fun and man I love the mission but yeah I better get going I love you guys o and my address is the same. I’m not moving :) everything is great here and I’ll tty next weeklove ya elder ward

Letter to Andrea:
haha good idea with the halloween stuff I was luigi last year and Nate my buddy was mario (Andrea is dressing the twins as Mario & Luigi for Halloween) haha but yeah life is great here and I’m having fun I’m sure you already got my letter and know pretty much everything but yeah it’s great and I’m staying in the same place so yeah you can send me stuff now :) but anyways good luck with moving (Andrea and Bill are moving into a different house still in England L) I wish I could come help ya cuz I know its going to be killer haha good thing you haven’t been in that house for too long and don’t have a ton of stuff all piled up that you have to get rid of but yeah so I’m so excited about this mass missionary movement it’s going to be great and I can’t wait to talk to Jason about the missionary life after he has been in the field for a while it’s going to be awesome I seriously can not wait but yeah tell everyone hi and I love you guys I cant wait to get your mail from the girls :)
love ya
elder ward

and a little bit of Spanish directed to Robert – cuz I sure didn’t understand any of it …

haha si usamos la palabra chevere cada dia. pero la vida aqui is perfecta me encanta la vida misional. di a brad que espanol es facil y si el realmente quiere aprenderlo podra hacerlo. ahora yo no se mucho de espanol pero estoy aprendiendo rapido yo espero que jason va a mision en un pais que habla espanol porque seria muy chevere si todas de nosotros hablamos espanol pero nuestro investigadores estan progresando y haciendo todo lo que necesitan me encanta la mision y yo se que va a encatarle a jason tambien pero tengo que irme le amo mucho y voy a hablar a ti luego le amo elder ward