La Coca & La Iglesia

This was another beautiful waterfall we saw in the rainforest. It's called La Coca Falls and it was such a mild waterfall compared to La Mina, but yet its a steady stream of water all the time....amazing huh?

Let me tell you that we take MAPQUEST for granted in the United States!! Puerto Rico doesn't have this luxury and so we had to use a vague map to try to find the church building in San Juan---there are hardly any street signs there!!! There were supposedly three Latter-Day Saint churches in San Juan. After much searching---and yes Scott stopped at a gas station to ASK FOR DIRECTIONS..shh..don't tell!! We finally found the church!!! Only one problem..it had been turned into a mission office....there was no one there!

So, then we drove around for another 45 minutes looking for the other close church in San Juan...we stopped and asked a man who was in his front yard...he didn't know, but his mom knew the Mormon church and she gave us good directions...we found it just in time for the last meeting. It was interesting sitting in church and only understanding about 1/3 of what was being said!

Scott greeted everyone in Spanish when we showed up. I said "Hola" to people and they asked me in Spanish what my name was and where I was from. Since I answered them I think they THOUGHT I spoke fluent Spanish!! Needless to say my head hurt after that meeting, trying to concentrate on what was being said...and then I did a lot of smiling and nodding as people spoke to me!! After church I was waiting for Scott in the hallway and I finally found an English speaking lady serving a mission in San Juan. What a relief it was to speak English and to understand what someone was saying to me!! Then Scott came out of Priesthood Meeting speaking fluent Spanish.

As we left the parking lot some people came up and talked to Scott in Spanish. I just smiled and nodded. Then as we drove away Scott confessed that he had NO IDEA what they had just said to them. Their accents, slurring of words, and fast speech had confused him. So then I felt a little better. Needless to say Sunday was an adventure I will always remember.

My Mormon friends will relate when I say that I'm grateful the songs in Relief Society were "Families Can Be Together Forever" and a song by Jenny Phillips that I have on CD. So even though the songs were in Spanish I knew the tune..so I sounded legitimate when I was singing anyhow.. =)