Puerto Rico: Church

 I only took one photo from our church experience but it’s a classic 💀.  (Yes, the shirt was buttoned for church, they’re just hilarious.) 

We had a bit of an adventure trying to get to church on Sunday. To start, most of us didn’t pack church clothes. I really don’t know why. We knew we were going. But in the rush of getting out the door on no sleep, we just didn’t. We pulled together our best and  went to church anyway.

After driving the winding roads in the rain forest, we arrived at the spot listed on tools. There was no building. We met a local and got directions that included “it’s next to a big basketball court. (Bc of course it is! Yes! Boys got very excited for post church hoops) 

We wound back through the jungle hills. 

It was a Baptist church. 

We gave one last attempt and drove 25 minutes another direction to a different building. 

We arrived with 15 minutes left of sacrament meeting, but went inside anyway. The open air chapel was full, so we split in 4 directions and sat where we could fit. We heard 3 testimonies and sang I Need Thee Every Hour all in Spanish. This was a great experience. One testimony was so heartfelt, and even though I understood the individual words used, my Spanish  was not skilled enough to piece together the complete story she was telling. We had a lot of empathy for Quincy, who is almost months into her mission and experienced something very similar. The Spirit testified, regardless of our language understanding. 

When the meeting ended, the bishop asked in Spanish at the pulpit if the big family who came in late could stay after for 5 minutes in the chapel. He had 2 young men there and asked them to bless the sacrament again just for us. 

I’ve never seen this happen before, but it was such an act of hospitality.

 They didn’t use a microphone and the bishop stopped the first young man and told him to start over and bless louder. Hearing a 16 year old kid call out “O Dios!” was a reverent experience none of us will forget. 

 We have felt so much love from the locals here.

Church: 10/10 

Church in Puerto Rico: 11/10