Leaving Arroyo

Another transfer gone by! This one felt like it went wayyyyy faster than the last. Like it still feels like just last week we were watching Conferencia General in Guayama. But, it's gone and it's time to move on! I'm being transferred to an area on the North coast called Vega Baja! I've really heard nothing about it before and have never met a missionary that has served there, so we'll see how it goes. I'm excited for this change though to grow and learn more about the mission and progress as a missionary!

This week was weird and I don't want to talk about all the days in order. We spent a ton of time out contacting old investigators. There's a stack of papers in the house of old investigators that at one point got "dropped" or stopped teaching by the elders that were here. So we went out and tried to find them. That's what we did for like 2 whole days so our numbers were kinda whacky this week. We didn't have a lot of success, but we did find one guy who said that he loves our message and has already read The Book of Mormon. So we wanted to go visit him again but, obviously now we can't because both Borries and I are being transferred. 

Oh, more about transfers- Beecroft and Clavel are staying in Arroyo and are going to be in a trio with another elder. Which will be super weird for Arroyo, especially with the amount of work they'll have to do now. It'll be weird to hear about as this next transfer passes. 

One day this week Jose from Guayama took us out to a member of his family who's less active and we had a little lesson and they love us and are coming back to church super easy and really fast. Then Jose took us out to pizza, but this pizza was even better than regular pizza because he took his grandma's debit card and paid for the pizza with that so that was cool. We were super pumped to be able to go back and teach this family but now we're leaving and idk what's going to happen with a lot of the people we've been teaching and in contact with. 

Saturday was really cool because we had a Mission-wide conference in Trujillo Alto with Elder Christiansen (member of the Presidency of the 70) and Elder Cornish (Area President I believe). And it was really cool. They're both super funny and laid back guys that just want to help the mission be the best it can be. They cracked a lot of jokes which kind of surprised me but it made the conference really fun. Then on the way home we may or may not have gotten lost and took a really sketchy back road home but nonetheless we got home. That was our Halloween. Not super eventful but it was fun. 

Sunday was crazy. Church was good as usual and there were some really good testimonies given about how Christ never said that life would be easy, but that he would always be here to help us through it. Then the rest of the day was kinda nervous and then por fin! at 10:30 we got the transfer call. And we all expected us 4 to stay, although I thought Borries would leave at some point. Then we kinda freaked out and screamed like little girls when we found out that both Borries and I are leaving the area. I have never even heard the name Vega Baja so this will be weird and then Borries and I stayed up until like 12 packing and freaking out about how crazy this transfer is. 

But yeah we got up and started packing right away this morning and I'm pretty proud because I fit everything into 2 suit cases and put the other suitcase in one of the suit cases. Idk if that makes sense but I'm proud haha. So we're just doing goodbyes today and stuff. 

On to another adventure in Puerto Rico! I really felt like I had more to do in Arroyo but I know that it's the Lord's plan for each of his missionaries to be where they're needed and when they're needed. I know that this change will help me grow so much as a missionary!

In church on Sunday we heard a lot about what I mentioned before, that this life was never guaranteed to be easy. We weren't promised anything easy in this life. But we were promised that we would have Christ by our sides to help us make the right decisions and live our lives in a way that we can be as happy as possible. I know that this is true. That no matter what life throws at us, we are here to learn and things will always get better if we just put our trust in the Lord. I love this gospel and I know this is where I'm meant to be and I, my family, and others are being blessed for my service.

Love you all!

Zack