Week 55

Estoy Viva! (I’m alive!)

Okay, first off, I would like to thank everyone who has been sending prayers to my little island of Puerto Rico this last week.  It was an interesting week that I'll never forget!  I am completely 100% okay and I am grateful that no harm came to us.  I send my prayers and love out to those who lost everything in the islands really close to us and to the Hurricane survivors in Texas, as well as those who are still being affected by Hurricane Irma in Florida.  I pray that everything goes well for them.

So, on Tuesday, we were asked to be in our house by 5:00 pm, and to not come out until we were told it was safe.  President and Hermana Smart did a wonderful, amazing job at updating us, helping us stay safe and calm, and helping us to be prepared.  They are wonderful and I am so grateful for them.  We were at Mayra and Anjomil's house saying goodbye to them when we got a bunch of texts with instructions and details of what was going to happen and what we needed to do. I thought, "okay that's doable" it was like 4:00 pm, and I was like, Okay, hey Mayra can you give us a ride home?  She said yes, then not even like 5 minutes later we get a call from the Zone Leaders and they're like, yeah Sister Green you have to take all your sisters, pack the car, you're going to stay in San German for a couple days with the sisters over there.  Keep in mind we have to be in their house at 5:00 pm, and we are not by our house, and it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to San German, plus getting our stuff in the car and shutting all the lights and windows, it was probably one of the most stressful 40 minutes of my LIFE, ha-ha!!  But all went well, and after two hours of being there, getting dinner made, we were told to go back to Cabo Rojo, so we packed the car again and went home – it was a busy few hours!  After getting back to Cabo Rojo, we were in the house for 46 hours straight.  It was very interesting, ha-ha!!  We definitely felt the effects of the hurricane, but it wasn't as bad as we all expected it to be.  Not much sleeping happened, ha-ha!!  And we had to close all of our windows and doors until they told us we could open them, and so our house quickly became a tiny oven, ha-ha!!  But we did have good fun as well.  One funny thing that happened; so Hermana Post was like, "I wonder if any thing is going to happen soon,” and right as she says that, a GIANT gust of wind and rain came and we all screamed and Hermana Post starts SCREAMING and freaking out and Hermana Peter (from Papa, New Guinea) in her cute English yells at the window, "GO AWAY" ha-ha!!  Although we had no power or running water for three days, we kept ourselves entertained and we all slept out in the living room.  We were so hot, but at one point we figured out that if we just didn't move, we didn't sweat, ha-ha!!  We ate saltine crackers, tuna and peanut butter for like 4 days, ha-ha!! There were a couple times where it was pretty frightening, but nothing that a prayer couldn't solve.  Cabo Rojo was probably one of the safest cities to be in during this Hurricane.  The only real damage that happened was this giant tree fell over by a school near our house and a street sign flew off somewhere.  Now, the other side of the island, like by San Juan, where the mission office is, it got bad damage, because the eye of the Hurricane passed 50 miles from San Juan.  I honestly didn't understand the severity of how huge Hurricane Irma was until Giselle showed us a picture, and I now understand why my Mom was freaking out so much, ha-ha!!  But I loved being able to call Mom and Dad and let them know that I was okay.  I feel so incredibly blessed. We are so, so, so, lucky.  Thank you for all the prayers. One thing that stuck with me was a text Hermana Smart sent.  On Thursday, we did service all day helping anyone that was in need.  On Friday, was a regular working day, and Hermana Smart sent a text that said, "Your life was saved, now go save another.”  We are so blessed; Heavenly Father truly does answer prayers. 

Me using a Head Flashlight to see in our "DARK" house. (No Power and water for 3 days)

This was in the afternoon showing how dark it was during the day in our house.

A spiritual experience, well, there was one point during the hurricane where it was so hard to sleep because it was raining and storming so much.  I didn't feel any fear, but my anxiety was kind of like throwing my body off and so I just prayed, and prayed, and prayed, that everything would be okay, and that I would be able to sleep.  Shortly after, I was able to fall asleep. It was a tiny little miracle in the midst of so much craziness, but I loved the peace and comfort that came to me from it.

I leave Cabo Rojo today at 2:30. Then I'll drop off my stuff at Guayama in my house, and then we are going straight to Guaynabo, where the new missionaries meet their trainers.  I honestly still am in shock that I was called to be a Sister Trainer Leader, but I am so humbled and excited for this opportunity!  All the Sister Trainers and Zone Leaders, and President and Hermana Smart all meet in Guaynabo every transfer to welcome the NEW Missionaries and help drive them to their zones.  WHICH is really exciting because when Mallory comes to the island, I'll see her!!  I am so stoked for that!  So, I'll be driving around the island all day today.  ALSO, exciting thing is that Hermana Zimmerman is in my zone, and she's training!  So I get to see her tonight! :)   And Hermana Pearce has been in Guayama for a transfer.  I am stoked to be companions with her again!  She is the bomb!!

This week before leaving Cabo Rojo, we found Zoraida again!  We went to go visit her, but we thought she was ignoring us and so we tried contacting other old investigators in her complex, no luck either.  So, we decided to leave and go find someone else on the way out, while we were contacting this man, Zoraida was coming up the hill (in order to get to her complex there is a big hill that is kind of hard to climb sometimes, ha-ha!!) and she was pulling a cart full of groceries.  She almost screamed when she saw us!  After we finished talking with the man, we went and asked her if she needed help carrying her groceries up the hill, and she said yes, so we helped her.  When we got in her house she said that she had been praying for help and we showed up.  We were able to have a small lesson with her and she invited us over to her house yesterday to have some lunch and to teach her.  She cried when she found out I was leaving.  It was cute and sad at the same time.  But she is wonderful.  Hermana Post will have to let me know what ends up happening with her. 

With regards to leaving Cabo Rojo today, yesterday was a hard day.  Having to say goodbye to my family here in Cabo Rojo was reaaaaaally hard.  I have learned many things from the Lord and the people of Cabo Rojo, I have grown spiritually, witnessed miracles, shared experiences, memories, laughs, cries, smiles, and have personally changed forever, for the things that happened here in Cabo Rojo with these members.  I will forever be grateful for the privilege to have served here and these wonderful people.  I will forever, thank Heavenly Father every day for blessing me with this mission, with these people, for serving in Cabo Rojo for almost 8 months, and leaving me a changed person.  But now, off to a new adventure to Guayama.  I have no doubt that I will have similar experiences there, and will change even more.  I am excited and I know that Hermana Post is going to continue doing great things here in Cabo Rojo.

Last time Serving as a Companionship in Cabo Rojo.

Mayra and Hermana Post will always have a special place in my heart.

Thank you again family and friends, for your love and prayers. 

Love always,

Hermana Green