Blessings in Puerto Rico by Jack

Every time there was a special
day like a birthday or Easter
or Christmas or whatever my
parents would buy us a ton of toys.

Before we went into missions our house was full of toys.  We had so many it's hard for me to even remember them all.  When we left for missions we got rid of all of them which was really surprising to me.  When I thought about life without a house full of toys I thought it would be boring but I soon figured out that it wasn't.  

When we got to Peru we didn't buy any toys because they were cheap knock-offs that were really expensive.  Thankfully some of our awesome mission partners sent us some stuff from the United States like Legos.   I guess we didn't need many toys because we mostly just played outside with all the other kids.  When we left Peru I gave all of our toys away and about 75% of our Legos.  

When we were traveling around the US in 2019 to visit our friends and raise money to go to Kenya I got to have some Legos, but that was really the only thing I had to play with.   

In Kenya we had a little bit of Legos but that was it.  When we left Kenya I packed three small zip-lock bags of Legos once again but then I gave the rest to the little kids that lived next to us.  They didn't have any real toys so they were really happy.  

When we were talking about coming to Puerto Rico I was prepared to have Legos as my only toy once again, but the Lord blessed me differently.  At our house we have a backyard and so I can throw the football around with my family.  Three blocks away from our house is a basketball court which is cool because basketball is my second favorite sport.  Football is my first favorite.  

I took a picture of Alejandro's house 
because I felt weird asking him to take a 
picture of him.

Behind our house lives our friend Alejandro who me and Michael like to play with.  

We jump the fence to go play with him but sometimes my pants get ripped because it has barbed wire on the top.

Another one of our neighbor's gave us a 1990s game box that has 1,000 old games on it.  Some of the games are cool like Mario but some of the other ones are dumb like the game where Elf walks around a Christmas tree farm.  Our neighbor also gave us an old box TV to go with it.  He said, "No boys should have to grow up without video games." 

We get to have the gaming system
in our bedroom, which is cool.

As long as we keep a nerf bullet
jammed in between the plugs it works fine.

Another thing that has blessed me is that there are many different kinds of food here.  Close to our house is an inexpensive Chinese restaurant.  By the church there is a place that sells real hamburgers called Coqui Burger. 

"Coqui" is a frog here in Puerto Rico that makes a sound like "Co-kee".   The burger joint is called "Coqui Burger" because there are a lot of Coqui frogs here, not because the burgers are made out of frog meat...at least I don't think they are.  Either way they're really good. 

The best way that the Lord has blessed me is through our new little kitten Murf.  I love Murf because she is so docile and chill.  She doesn't break things or scratch things like most cats do because she was a free cat who is just happy to be loved.  

I'm so happy that God has blessed me with all these things here in Puerto Rico.  Even though I don't have a house full of toys I'm still really, really happy.

Thanks for reading about how Jesus has blessed us kids in Puerto Rico.

Love,  Your Favorite Missionary Jack