This is Heaven's Handiwork

For P-day Week 11, we went to the Botanical Gardens here on the University Campus of Puerto Rico.
We spent several hours together in a lush, peaceful environment... pretty much on our own. We saw breath-taking beauty and things so large, we had to blink twice. If a picture is worth a million words, then I just put together a 26 million-word page - I think I will leave it at that. ENJOY!

God created the world everything there in.

Backyard Pleasures = Paradise

Today we harvested a big bunch of bananas in our backyard! I had one and I think it was the best banana I have ever had in my lifetime... it was amazing! Here are a few pics to show our backyard pleasures.

It was our day of preparation so Kyle washed the cars... and I cleaned the house.  We spent time trying to get the lizard out of the couch... he is so tricky and fast... no go. So we decided to just make him our pet! What shall we call him?

Why God Gives Us Flat Tires and the Rest of the Story

Elder Young and I went to Juana Diaz on Monday to look at opening a new apartment for the Elders. The Elders who serve there had found one and it had been a two month process to find one. For some reason, no one rents in that city.

Well, we were almost to the place when I heard a "pop" and we discovered we had a flat tire! It was a little surprising because the tires were practically new and Elder Young had just had them rotated. Hum??

Well, the good news was that we were close and we met the "dueno". Their place was a great place for missionaries! We set up making the contract and told them that we would be back on Friday. However, the man wanted to help us with our flat tire.

We drive a white Tacoma and the spare tire was very difficult to get off the truck... so the man and Kyle ended up taking the flat tire to a shop. His wife and I waited across the street at a little park. It gave us about 45 minutes to talk. She used to be Catholic, but now she is going to the Evangelist Church with her husband. Well, she had lots of questions about the Mormons and I was definitely helped by God to be able to explain several things to her, many things in which I had never explained in Spanish before. One concept was the unnecessary baptism of infants and little children and I showed her Moroni 8:

12 But little ^achildren are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world; if not so, God is a partial God, and also a changeable God, and a ^brespecter to persons; for how many little children have died without baptism!

 13 Wherefore, if little children could not be saved without baptism, these must have gone to an endless hell.

 14 Behold I say unto you, that he that supposeth that little children need baptism is in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; for he hath neither ^afaith, hope, nor charity; wherefore, should he be cut off while in the thought, he must go down to hell.

 15 For awful is the wickedness to suppose that God saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must perish because he hath no baptism.

 16 Wo be unto them that shall pervert the ways of the Lord after this manner, for they shall perish except they repent. Behold, I speak with boldness, having ^aauthority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for ^bperfect ^clove ^dcasteth out all fear.

 17 And I am filled with ^acharity, which is everlasting love; wherefore, all children are alike unto me; wherefore, I love little children with a perfect love; and they are all alike and ^bpartakersof salvation.

 18 For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is ^aunchangeable from ^ball eternity to all eternity.

 19 Little ^achildren cannot repent; wherefore, it is awful wickedness to deny the pure mercies of God unto them, for they are all alive in him because of his ^bmercy.

So I truly believe in my heart that this "flat tire" experience was meant to be. Otherwise, we would have never had that long conversation. I am amazed how God orchestrates his work here upon the earth.

And now to give you the rest of the story... with the Dones Family. The Dones family are the ones who had our wedding invitation in their house. One of the missionaries serving here had seen the announcement  at their house and recognized us! He took a picture of it and showed it to us when we came to visit in Caguas. You can imagine how surprised we were when we saw it!

Well, the Dones family invited us over for a Family Home Evening on Monday night. We met the missionaries at their apartment so they could take us over to the house. Sure enough... The minute Kyle saw them, all the memories came flooding back and he was so emotional to be reunited with them again. It had been 30 years! In 1983, they had been freshly baptized when "Elder Young" was transferred to that area and so he had taught them the new member lessons.

God works in special ways to bring people back together. We had a special evening with them and enjoyed feasting upon the spirit. They are a beautiful family!

I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving us such precious experiences on the mission. It is more than rewarding, it is life changing! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint is true!

God Works in Direct Ways Too

Hello Friends and Family,

I just have to share two experiences this past week how God works in DIRECT ways to further His work here upon the earth. There is no doubt in my mind that these were not coincidences, but miracles directed by the hand of God.

I got the opportunity to go out with the two sister missionaries in our ward which is the true "frosting on the cake" of the mission. We had a beautiful evening teaching investigators and visiting less actives. It was about 8 p.m. and we decided to stop at one more place. Maria del Mar, a member, and Luis, her boyfriend who is not a member, and her 5 year old son, Steven, we had met about a month ago at church. She was really warm and receptive to me and I had invited her, her son, and her boyfriend to a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) but they had not made it yet.

Well, I asked the sisters if we could stop and visit them. Sister Burgess said that it was really hard to get into their tower apartment because of the security, but we could try. So they showed me where it was and I drove up to the entrance with the little security speaker. I said "Casa de Maria del Mar, favor" and they said "Que Numero" - What number is the apartment? Well, we didn't know what number they lived in and so I said "no sabia" - I don't know. I didn't know what to do at that point- I mean - I had been thinking of them all night and felt that we needed to go over there... but without the number - we were stuck. Well, at that moment, they drove up on the right side of us (residents enter on the right because they have a beeper) and Sister Burgess said, "Hey! There they are!" We rolled down our window and asked if we could come in to visit and they gave us the number to the apartment. We went in and taught a powerful lesson to their family. Wow! Perfect timing directed by the Lord.

One more...
So we were out doing "surprise" visits to missionary apartments and this one happen to be about an hour away in a town called Caguas. This particular apartment houses about six elders, 2 of which are the zone leaders, and I needed to see if the apartment was large enough to be a "visiting apartment" to have other missionaries come to be trained by the leaders. Anyway, they had 10 minutes noticed and I was tickled pink when I came in and found all the dishes done, the beds made, and the house rather tidy. Things are looking up!

So what was amazing is one of the elders, Elder Lares, didn't say anything, but showed us a picture on his camera and to our astonishment it was our wedding announcement picture! I had to take a double take and we, of course, asked him where he got it. Well, he had been visiting a less active member in the ward and they were looking at old pictures. Elder Lares had recognized us in the wedding announcement and told the man that we were now serving a mission here in Puerto Rico.

If this is the same man Kyle thinks it is ... his name is Brother Dones and Kyle baptized him 30 years ago when he was in Caguas, his last area on his mission. We asked the missionary how old the man was and figured out he would have been about 17 years old, which matches with who Kyle thinks it is. When we got married, we sent wedding invitations to all of Kyle's people in Puerto Rico. So we think it might be the same man and the Lord is bringing Kyle back into his life to help re-activate him. We are going to a Family Home Evening on Monday with the missionaries to meet him and we will find out!   - Thus  - a story to be continued...

Have a beautiful day and remember - the Lord is in control!

God Works in Mysterious Ways

I have witnessed the hand of the Lord in the work here on our mission. His angels are not too far away, because I feel a divine help almost daily. I have to share a one crazy little experience that happened this week.

I had to go to Walmart to return some housing things (Yes! We do have Walmart). One thing you need to know is that the lines at Walmart and everywhere else are always very long. For instance, there is no such thing as "fast food" here because every time I have stopped at a McDonalds or the like, I have waited about 30 to 45 minutes in line. The "people in general" move very slowly and if they take 15 minutes to hand you a soda, that is the norm. It has taught me patience more than once.

So....
while standing in line at Walmart for a very long time, I witnessed a lady who came to the customer service counter and pointed at the top of her paint can, while another lady without stopping what she was doing,  reached into a drawer and grabbed a paint can spray "topper" and handed it to the lady. When I got through that line, I was finally ready to shop.  It was a very busy day at Walmart because with school starting, everyone has shopping to do. So, it was probably another hour later that I was finally standing in line ready to check out. Again, another test of patience. While I was standing there thinking about my purchases, I thought about how it was strange how the spray paint wasn't locked up. I had found some epoxy appliance paint to rejuvenate some scary looking fridges in the mission. I thought, "Wow! Maybe PR teens don't steal paint from the shelves to use for graffiti and destruction?" Then I remembered the little scene I had witnessed earlier at the customer service counter and I thought, "No, maybe they have to remove all the spray toppers?! and ...I better check mine!" I took off the cap and sure enough there was no sprayer. But I smiled inside because I knew just what to do! It was amazed how the Lord had let me witness that little event earlier that day so I would be able to know what to do and get a spray topper. Otherwise, I would have taken my spray paint and traveled to another part of the island to work on a refrigerator, only to discover that I couldn't because of having no sprayer. I thanked my Heavenly Father for this help because it would have been a waste of time, traveling, and gas money... otherwise to take care of these fridges.

So after finally getting through the line and paying for the items, I knew exactly what to do. I went to customer service, scooted all around the people waiting in line, opened my can of spray paint and motioned for a topper. It was as easy as that, no Spanish needed, and I was on my way! I was grateful I knew exactly what to do! Hah! God's work is orchestrated and he works in mysterious ways.

Here is a picture of a "before" fridge:

Wish me luck - painting all the refrigerators in the mission!

Kite Surfing, Tropical Birds, Giant Roots, and Smashed Cockroach - P-day Week 9

Hello Friends and Family!

We took "P-day Week 9" out to the Southeastern part of the island yesterday. We helped move two Elders to Salinas! These two missionaries are close to our hearts: one from American Fork High who graduated with our son, Ty, and the other, son of Mission President in New Zealand. Moving out a shelf we found a surprise...

Being over the housing for the missionaries, I have strongly encouraged them to have cleaner surroundings and so little by little, we will make these little critters extinct in the apartments.

We stopped to see several beaches because we are scoping them out for our family who is coming in October. YAY! One daddy/daughter team was throwing a net in the water to catch little fish to use for catching bigger fish.  And the kite surfing was fun to see because the winds were perfect for it.

After the beach, we headed to the hills traveling northward to discover the nooks and crannies along the eastern part of the islands. We saw some surprising things... things that are rare... such as: a bubbling brook and a gorgeous lake. I loved the tree we found with protruding roots, the secret stairway, and the tropical bird.

There are many pleasant sights on the island of Puerto Rico and many unpleasant sights on the island, but as the scriptures say - opposition in all things- right? We loved having a day of many pleasant sights. The church is true!