Vieques

Kay and Wes and Debbie White came for a visit last week. Kay is Gaye's twin sister, more of which has been said and will yet be said.  Suffice it to say that most of what you hear about twins is surely true with them.  

Kay, Debbie, Wes

Today they left for home.  It was especially hard for Gaye to let them go, but much easier knowing that we have only two more months left.  Not that anybody is counting.

We first went to see Old San Juan.  It really is a dynamic place, full of historical sites that go back to shortly after Columbus discovered Puerto Rico in 1493.  

We all piled into a rented Corona and drove to Arecibo where we visited the Rio Camuy Caves.  Our guide made the trip worth while, that’s for sure.  The subterranean river that originally hollowed out the hue cavern is now 150 feet deeper into the cave.  

Rio Camuy where it darts back underground at the bottom of a sink hole.

It flows underground for 9 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. I have no idea how far the stream bed runs in the other direction.  The area is riddled with caves, many of which are not completely explored.

We also drove over to see the Arecibo Observatory.  This is a 1000-foot diameter dish-shaped collector of signals from outer space, the largest on earth.  

It is built in a natural bowl that resulted from a sinkhole, which was in turn the product of limestone being dissolved and carried out by a subterranean stream.  

It was interesting to read of what has been learned by interpreting the data gathered by the huge antenna.  It was also interesting to read how some scientists try to explain life on earth and elsewhere without leaving any space for involvement of a Supreme Being.  

Vieques sunset

Some day  believers and non-believers will all shake our heads in amazement when we learn how it was really done.  Anyway, part of the Jodi Foster movie Contact was filmed there.

We attended church at our Spanish-speaking ward, then drove an hour to Fajardo, where we caught the ferry to Vieques.  (Spell check doesn’t like either of those names.)  That small island is a 90-minute ferry ride off the east end of Puerto Rico.  

Casa Lalanchita

We stayed in a wonderful hotel where the owners love to have Mormon missionaries and guests come and visit.  We had two rooms with plenty of beds, and they even provided an old car for us to drive around the island.

We stopped at a huge Ceiba tree.  What a strange tree, too.

Don't know the old guy, but the chick is Sister Patterson

Monday we visited Blue Beach on the edge of the old Navy bombing range.  

That bombing activity has necessitated the closure of more than half the island to human visitors, although there are some wild horses on the island that wander in there.  There are bombs that have not exploded, so it will be closed for a long time.  Snorkeling was fun there, with several different coral varieties out in the rocks.  We saw several species of fish, too, including the dreaded Lionfish.  The first recorded sighting of this invasive species is 1985.  You can see a short video showing the explosive spread of the Lionfish since then. http://lionfish.co/lionfish-faq/ It really is a serious problem.  

Later Monday we went to Mosquito Bay, also known as Bio Bay, for a very interesting evening of exploring.  The bay has the right conditions to support a viable concentration of dino-flagellates.  Lately the little critters have not been putting on much of a show, but it was still impressive to drag a hand through the water and see hundreds of little sparkles light up.  http://www.biobay.com/

As impressive as the sparkles were, the night sky was absolutely amazing!  Orion was straight overhead, so the brightest constellation with its companions put on a show that I cannot adequately describe.  It is pretty humbling, though, to sit under that starry canopy and realize that for every star or planet visible there are billions more that are not visible to the eye.  Yet, we are children of a loving Heavenly Father who has made this earth specifically for us, and who wants us to succeed in overcoming our challenges here and return to live with God and hosts of faithful brothers and sisters, also children of God.  All these things are God’s handiwork.  We are his children.

This Hubble photo was taken of a spot in the sky about the size of a grain of sand at arm's length.  

Each dot, smudge, or smear is a galaxy with billions of stars.

A couple of 2-month old Chihuahua pups.  $400 each.

https://www.google.com/search?q=hubble+images&espv=210&es_sm=119&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=So4OU-O1I9GMkAeFlYHABw&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1134&bih=634

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgg2tpUVbXQ

Water and Electricity Service

As part of our job description, Gaye (principally) and I (in a support role) are responsible for starting and discontinuing water and electric service to the apartments we have on Puerto Rico.  It has been a bit frustrating.

Last Friday I went with my young elder companion to find the office where we could get accounts turned on or off as we move into new apartments.  The best way for the church is to have the landlord take responsibility for the water and electricity and to include those expenses in the rent.  They don’t like to do that here, though, so we are finding it necessary to set up accounts in the name of the church, using the protocol that the church legal team has set up.  Anyway, we finally found the offices, after hunting around for an hour.  We found some parking, went inside, my companion tried to explain in his best Spanish what we wanted to do, and we were told to go to another office just up the street.  By the time we got there it was 3:35 and the dude at the door told us that they close at 3:30.  Come back another day.  Okay.

Gaye and I tried to make it back to the place, leaving our apartment at about 1030 to drive into town.  The traffic was terrible and slow and heavy, but we made it.  We tried to find parking, stopping in a Walgreen store’s mostly empty lot, but a dude from inside came out speaking Spanish to tell us that we could not park there, no matter how empty the lot is or how short the visit would be.  We should park at the commercial lot very nearby.  They would give us a ticket that we could validate at the water office across the street.  Okay.  But the parking lot was not open that day.  No problem.  Another employee of Walgreens came out and showed us how to park in the roadway leading into the parking lot.  Fine.

We dodged our way across the street to the office, found the elevator to the third floor, absolutely the slowest elevator in the world, and moved down the hall to the office.  It was empty.  Two guys were working on a window and the open door to the office showed that there was some sort of remodeling job going on and there were no employees anywhere.  One of the guys at the window told us in his broken English that we would need to come back on Monday.

We decided to go a little earlier, so after fighting the traffic again we parked at the commercial lot, now open, and dodged our way across the street again, where we met the same non-English speaking receptionist guy we had met before, who gave us a number and told us to sit down.  There were several chairs that faced a big display with numbers.  Our number was 429.  The number on the board was 412.  In two hours the board showed 417.  We decided to leave and come back at the beginning of another day.

Next day we were up early, on the road by 0715 into very heavy traffic with 10 million people going to work.  We went directly to the office, getting there at about 0810.  The same guy gave us a number and pointed to another desk in the room, hollering something to the nice lady sitting there.  She nodded at us to come to her position.  She was actually very helpful, even though her English was not polished.  Not complaining, mind you, because any attempt at English is better than my level of understanding Spanish.  She listened to our purpose and said she would try to help us because we are new to Puerto Rico, we do not speak Spanish, and I was a “man of God” which she deduced from our name tags.  She explained that we were at the wrong office, that the place we should really be is an office not from the mission office.  We smiled, thanked her for her kindness, and drove back to the office, in heavy traffic.

We could not find the address she gave us so we tried Google Earth.  That didn’t work, either.  When we went to our music lesson with Brother Berrios we told him what we wanted to do.  After the lesson he drove to the place we were looking for, with us following closely behind in our own vehicle.  Of course it was late at night by then, so we would attempt to go there the next day.  That was yesterday.

Today we drove over there on our way to the office.  Parking was non-existent for a while, but finally a nice older gentleman indicated to us that he would be leaving and we could take his parking spot.  Great.  We parked and went into the mall where the water and electric offices are located.  We asked a security guard, who did not speak much English, where the water and electricity offices were.  He indicated that we needed to go along the hall in the mall to where we came to the intersection and then turn left, indicating with his arm pointing to our right.  Left, right, whatever.  We found the stairs up to the water office.  In only about an hour we were finished.  The little gentleman who was at the desk where the number told us to go, they like that system down here, did not speak English, but he called another guy over and we got the water problem solved.  Gaye stayed to finish there while I went to the electric office to get in line.

Gaye came over to that office in a few minutes.  I was standing in a line that looked like the other lines we had to get into to get a number that would tell us which line we would eventually be called to.  Gaye said it looked like I was in the wrong line, asked the ubiquitous guard where we should go, and he gave her a number and told her to sit on the chairs to await our turn.  He told her that because we are old people we would be in the priority line.  

An hour later we were called to one of the windows to present our request to have the electricity turned on in the apartment we have just rented for our newly-arrived nurse.  The older gentleman behind the glass window that had a little slit under it through which we were supposed to communicate with the public servant on the other side, that guy didn’t speak English.  We sat there for 10 minutes and an older lady came over to help us.  We showed her the contract, signed by the owner of the condo that we were renting, explained that we wanted to get the electricity turned on (he had already called in to have it shut off because it was in his name and he wanted it put in our name), and that the name we wanted to use was the Presiding Bishop of the church, which is how the legal department wants it done.  She explained that it could not be in the name of a corporation because it is not a commercial building, it is residential.  Okay, whatever.  Since he did not want it in his name, we would put it in the name of the nurse.  However, since her name was not on the contract, which was in the name of the PBO as the legal department told us to do it, we would not be able to put it into her name.  The owner would have to write a statement authorizing her to turn on the electricity to the apartment.  We explained that the church will be paying the bill, so it should not matter whose name it is in.  She said they don’t care who is paying the bill, they only care that they have the name of the person living in the apartment!  A little more discussion, she left and returned 15 minutes later.  We did not get it done.  We will find a local who can go with us to the office to get the mess straightened out.  This has been going on for years. Somebody needs to solve this problem instead of kicking the can on down the road.  These people say they want to be a State in the USA.  Over my dead body!

The nurse took my blood pressure, at my request.  It is 140/90.  ARRRGGGGGHHH!

Vehicles and Apartments

Gaye and Stephanie, Caparra chorister

January has been a month of busy-ness.  Gaye has been working on getting housing squared away.  I have the responsibility for vehicles in the mission.

On January 1, 80% of the vehicles in the mission were parked for good.  That does not include the vehicles in the islands, just in Puerto Rico.  This mission has been one of the most expensive missions in the world, but it is also one of the only places where the membership has been declining.  That is not because of the quality of the missionaries or of the people.  Many members move to the US because Puerto Ricans are US citizens and can go anywhere in the US they choose to go.  Anyway, the cars were parked and missionaries were told they had 6 weeks to dispose of their bicycles.  They could sell them, give them away, or send them home.  They will not be allowed to transport them when they are transferred.  The next transfer is February 11.  I will write more about the bikes in  day or two.

This came about in a rather interesting way.  President Smartt has been focussed on getting the budget under control.  He worked out the plan to get the missionaries out of the cars and on their feet, in part at least to save the church a huge amount of money.  Just insurance and maintenance costs have been staggering.  Contacts and baptisms have been down.  The missionaries need to be out among the people more.  Just as he was ready to suggest the plan to the area presidency there came a call from one of the First Presidency asking if he would consider parking the vehicles.  When he told the area presidency that he had already worked out a plan, everyone took it as a humble witness that God really is in charge of this work.

New apartment for these sisters

With the vehicles being parked the housing of the missionaries had to reevaluated.  I must say that this does not affect the smaller islands and it does not affect the office staff, AP’s, or Sister Trainer Leaders (called STL in this mission).  President wants every missionary working in an area not more than 2 miles from the chapels.  It does not good to teach and baptize people who cannot get to church.  So we have been trying to find and open apartments that meet the criteria and to close apartments that do not qualify.  If has meant a lot of time on the road. Puerto Rico is not a very big island, although is sure seems big after living on the little islands for a year.  I have been around the island three times and there are more trips coming in the next few days.

First we had to go out to every chapel and get the keys of the cars that are parked there.  Some of those vehicles had body work that needed attention, so those have to be driven to the office where we have shuttled them to the body shop a couple of miles from here.  

Some of those problems were the results of bike racks on the trunks.  The newer models fit into the trailer hitches that have been bolted under the rear ends. 

There were also a couple of cars that had serious crashes, so they have also been taken to the body shop.

Now I have to get the reports all put together for the vehicles, get a value established for each vehicle, and send all this stuff to the area fleet manager who will take it to a committee at the area office before we cha plan and hold a car sale.  This could get really complicated, so I won’t try to tell it all at once.  

Roadside stand. Bananas $2 per bunch.

Saturday we went with our friends and associate office workers, Elder and Sister Peterson, to make a deposit on an apartment, sign up another apartment, and deliver some supplies from the office.  It took all day, so we were tired when we got home.  We visited Crash Boat Beach near Aguadilla, 

Crash Boat Beach

Sharon was hit by a sneaky wave

where we bought some yummy goodies at a beach-side stand.  

Chicken, pork, plantain, and fish.  Yumm!

We also took a little side trip to visit Window Cave on the way home. 

Through the window looking at Arecibo River Valley

Cave access. Bring flashlights because that is all there is.

It was full of stalagmites and stalactites 

The Face in the Rock

and the bat guano was several feet deep.  

Eroded bat guano

We also saw a lot of the interior of the island, which is very mountainous and covered with thick vegetation.

I’ll write more soon.  I guess I ought to do this more often before the three people who actually read this blog give up.

Stay tuned.

The Old Testament and trip to Mayaguez

I have been reading the Old Testament.  I would say again, but I must confess that I have not read the Old Testament, at least in sequence, straight through.  The layout of the books in the OT is not chronological, but I want to do this. I have studied the OT a lot and I think I have read most of the OT over the years of quite intense study in institute and Sunday school classes.  However, I need to read it all. My goal is to do it before we finish here on May 8.

Benjamin, next door. A sweet man with severe Parkinsons, always smiling.

A study of Genesis must include Moses and Abraham.  I really enjoyed reading those books. Genesis and Exodus contain several timely and informative chapters.  Leviticus and Numbers have been a challenge, but I made it.  I confess, I have read the chapter headings in those books and skimmed the chapter contents, except for the chapters that get away from the detailed descriptions of each specific sacrifice and when it is to be offered.  That is interesting information to somebody who is studying the history of ancient Israel.  I am not.  I am studying and reading in order to meet a goal, and to renew my acquaintance with the detailed studies of bygone days.  I anticipate Deuteronomy to be much like the rest of the Moses books.

I love the Old Testament, but I find that the best commentary on the OT is the Book of Mormon, which I just finished reading, again.  This time I read the edition put together by Grant Hardy.  He organized the standard text of the Book of Mormon as a narrative history, the product of Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni.  It was extremely enlightening for me to read the standard text organized in that format.  

To this point, I have read the missionary edition that was published sometime before 1981(I think in 1924), the one I used on my mission in 1966-68.  I have read parts of the printed version in Afrikaans, which we did not even have when I was a missionary a hundred years ago.  I am not sure it is even printed now. I have read the printed English version that was published in 1981 as part of the “new” scriptures.  Some people still call them that, but that was more than 30 years ago.  I have read a facsimile of the First Edition of the Book of Mormon as it appeared in 1830, just before the Church was formally organized.  I have read the Yale Edition, the result of the exhaustive work of Royal Skousen in the Book of Mormon Critical Text Project.  I have written the changes suggested by Dr Skousen into my personal copy of the Book of Mormon so every time I read or study the printed version, I see those textual changes that have been suggested by the Critical Text Project.  Next will be the 2013 edition, which is almost the same as the 1981 edition except for a few minor changes.  

The last time I read the Book of Mormon was on my computer.  That is what I am doing with the OT, also.  It gets away from the narrow two-column format of the printed scriptures, which I find sometimes hard to read.  Looking up cross-references is also much simpler with the electronic version.  My printed books, however, will always be my standard.  I write comments in the margins, I have written in my own cross references, and I feel a connection to the printed version that I have not yet acquired with the electronic version.  I suppose it is a generational thing.

On Friday Gaye and I went to Mayaguez, clear on the western end of the island, to sign a contact for a new apartment for some sisters living there.  We took Elder Horner with us.  He is one of our office elders, but his companion was chauffeur for President as he went to interview missionaries, so he came with us.  At first it seemed like an imposition, because we would not have time to just talk between the two of us.  As the day progressed, however, it became apparent that he was a very valuable asset to us.  Not only does he speak Spanish, he has a youthful refreshing view of missionary work that has been a boost to us.  We look forward to more such excursions.  

We never really know what we will be doing from one day to the next, but there is always something that requires our attention.  President said that when we are finished we will not be replaced.  The TO&E (that will be familiar to military personnel) calls for one couple and one single sister in the office.  The previous president had four couples and one sister, and right now we have two couples and two young elders.  I think cutting back that far will really put the new office couple and senior sister under a lot of pressure, but that will not be something that I need to deal with.

Chorister in Caparra Ward

Street in Old San Juan

Stay tuned.

Crowding in Line

I noticed tonight as we were driving home that the locals have no hesitation about crowding into a line.  If one lane is long because it turns left or right, the other cars will just burn past the waiting cars up to the front of the line and then crowd in.  And I mean they literally crowd in.  The driver turns his wheel and puts his nose right into the flow of traffic so the oncoming or following car must let him in or hit him.  It is quite irritating.

It doesn’t just happen in the lanes of traffic, either.  The same thing happened at the grocery store.  Some guy just walked up to the front of the line and crowded in.  That is also quite irritating.  

It happened again when we were waiting in line at an eating place.  Guy walks up to the front of the line and crowds into the line. It really gets irritating. 

I saw it happen a lot on the islands too, where there would be a long line of people waiting to get onto the car ferry.  Young woman drove her hot purple rod right up to the front of the line and crowded in.  The last car in the line just barely fit onto the boat.  He would have had to wait for the next boat, two hours later, because the little lady crowded in.  That was really irritating.

So now I understand a lot more about how the illegal residents in the US feel about waiting in line or crowding in.  They think nothing of crowding in.  It is quite irritating.

Parking the Cars

At our weekly staff meeting a couple of weeks ago President closed the door and swore everybody to silence.  He said he had instructions from President Eyring to park the vehicles in Puerto Rico.  We are the only mission in the Caribbean Area with so many vehicles.  Everybody else uses public transportation as it is available, or they walk.  He would make the announcement on Jan 1, the day after transfers and the arrival of 11 new missionaries.  He said we would also be phasing out the use of the bikes in the mission.  This applies to the “mainland” for now, not the islands, the senior couples, or the office.  Quite a shock since we have been brought into the office to manage the vehicles and the apartments.

December 31 was transfer day, with bunches of new missionaries coming from the MTC in Dominican Republic and at least three coming in from the islands.  Of course, that means that three were going out there to replace them, so we spent most of the day driving to the airport to pick up some and drop off some others. Then we loaded up the newbies and their luggage and headed back to the mission office.  There was a brief orientation and they were taken out to their new assigned areas.  The announcement had not been made about parking the vehicles.  That would be made early the next day.

The senior couples in Puerto Rico decided some time ago to have a little get-together on New Years’ Eve, staying up to see 2014 arrive.  We drove to 20 miles Caguas to the Costley’s apartment for that occasion.  We ate a nice light dinner, played a few fun games, and then we left about 2230 because I had to get up early to be in on the announcement, followed by a trip around the island to pick up the keys to all the vehicles.  On the way back into town we noticed lots of fireworks going off.  We got to bed before midnight, but when the clock struck 12 it sounded like artillery practice outside.  We found out that this is the big holiday celebration where the locals light off lots of fireworks.

Early the next morning, 0730 to be exact, the office elders all got together on a conference call with President and all the zone leaders, assistants, etc, to get the word out to all who had been driving cars and/or riding bikes.  I already knew what was happening, which is a good thing because it was all in Spanish.  After the announcement the office elders made a plan and the three of us took off around the island. (There was not enough room for Gaye to go, which did not break her heart.) We had the assistants get the keys locally while we went to the more distant west end of the island.  

It was a great plan.  Unfortunately, some of the elders were late, which then put everything downline behind schedule.  We finally made it home about 2230 that night.  We had to park all the cars at the chapels, collect the keys, gas cards, mileage reports, vehicle condition reports, and take photos of the damaged vehicles.  

Some of the bike racks were attached to the trunks, which put too much weight on the hinges and sprung three of the trunks.  There are about 35 vehicles, which all need to be inspected and the broken ones need to be fixed, and then we will hold some sales to dispose of the vehicles as profitably as we can, on behalf of the church.  

The bikes are also being discontinued.  The missionaries all purchased bikes at various points in the past, so they will now need to decide how to best dispose of them.  They can give them away, try to sell them, or ship them back to their homes in the US or wherever.  I think they are nice bikes, so several will probably ship them home for about $100.  The bikes were a safety issue, with too many accidents.  The cars were just a huge expense.  Besides, the number of baptisms is going down, so the cost per each baptism has been steadily rising.  This mission, even this area, has been one of the most expensive to operate and is also one of only two areas where the number of church members is dropping instead of rising.  

This is not an attempt to put a dollar value on a human soul, for every one of God’s children is of infinite worth and importance.  However, the Church has finite resources and they need to be maximized.  This move will save a bunch of money, A BUNCH, and it will get the missionaries out on the streets where they will be more visible and be making more contacts.  Tracting is a thing of the past.  Now the missionaries go out where there are people and just contact on the street.  This will also require the members to work more closely with the young missionaries, which will also encourage more personal referrals.  Those personal referrals are the best kind because the new contacts (investigators) already have the support in place for when they gain testimonies and join the church.  

We have been deeply touched by the way these wonderful young people have accepted this radical change.  Almost without exception they have been enthusiastic in their positive response to being put out on the streets!  They will be walking up to 20 miles per day where they were just driving around, or riding their bikes around.  We will be moving some of the apartments so they can all be within walking distance (defined here as 2 miles) of the chapel where they work and worship. 

One elder was trying to get a rusted bolt off a bike rack (the newer ones attach in a trailer hitch slot but they were bolted on instead of with a cotter pin), when it began to rain, first softly and soon a downpour.  The umbrella I grabbed from the car was doing little good.  I tried to shelter him from the rain but he told me to get into the car, so I handed it to him and ran for cover. He just kept on working the sticky nut loose.  He was drenched!  He got the rack off the car and into the trunk, and then it stopped raining.  I asked if we could give him a ride to his apartment.  He said he would not need one, he and his companion had an appointment a couple of blocks from the church.  Then they would walk home, almost 2 miles away. I asked another one of the young men how he felt about this.  He just smiled and said, “It must be the right thing because this is how the Lord wants it!”  

That has been the general attitude, especially of the young leaders.  They can see that this will be a great blessing to them and to the mission.  They know they are not here for a vacation in a lovely place, they are here to invite others to come unto Christ.  It is humbling and exciting to be around such faith-filled young people.  By the way, President Smartt, Elder Cornish of the area presidency, and President Eyring all came up with this idea at about the same time, independent of each other.  Yes, this Church is led by inspiration!  Every day!

We have plenty to do in the office, and we are really enjoying the opportunity to be around other couples.  Being out in the islands has been a great experience, but there have been times when the isolation became a little difficult.  Each little branch is on its own, and no island has more than one couple and one set of young missionaries. The young missionaries are out there for up to six months and then they come back to the big island.  The couples have often spent the whole 18 months on various islands.  It gets a little lonely at times.

Exciting times.  Stay tuned.

2014--What is Ahead, and What is Behind

We are working in the office, enjoying the challenges and the association with other mission couples after a year of isolation out in the small islands of the mission.  I'll write more about the specifics later, but first I want to share this article from the Deseret News.  I agree with the observations and conclusions expressed here.  In fact, I could add a few things.  Later.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865593464/What-we-wish-wed-known-before-we-served-a-Mormon-mission.html

I finished the Book of Mormon again, and it was a whole new experience, again.  That is because the Book of Mormon is the seedbed of revelation, as Joseph McConkie put it.  Now I am starting the Old Testament, and I want to finish it before we leave here in early May.

Happy New Year to everybody.  It will be interesting to see what is ahead.  Stay tuned