This year will mark the Decennial of my return home from my LDS mission to Puerto Rico, which was now officially too long ago.
To put that in perspective, the day I got home, our greatest hope against Bush was Kerry (dark days indeed). Facebook wasn't on any of our radars, smartphones weren't even a twinkle in Steve Jobs' eyes, and digital cameras were in ascendancy, such that suddenly all my rolls of actual film that you have to get developed at Walmart felt hopelessly anachronistic--and would only feel more so in the immediate years to follow. In fact, it was only a couple weeks ago that I finally got around to digitally scanning some of my favorite mission pics, so that, you know, losing the originals wouldn't be a complete catastrophe.
But scan them at last I did, and today feels as good a time as any to revisit them--or at least a few of my favorites--if for no other reason than on the off-chance that someone wants to see them, I don't have to lug out a big, bulky binder from the back of my closet and blow off the dust like some illuminated Medieval manuscript, all to the confused looks of on-lookers wondering why I didn't just open my laptop.
So consider this a "Mission Pics Greatest Hits" of sorts, arbitrarily chosen and even more arbitrarily ranked, restricted to a (probably not short enough) list of Top 25 in order to resist total self-indulgence, thus providing a brief snapshot of the days when Elder Bender sweated and sunburned in the Puerto Rico, San Juan Mission, AKA Paradise on Earth (or Paradise Lost, depending on who you ask).
25. A sign of how Puerto Rico sits right on the bubble between developing and developed: We had washing machines yes, but air-dried our laundry on clothes lines.
24. I feel like I should include at least one pic of a standard San Juan street, with a local Puerto Rican member.
23. Boats. Beach. Bright sun but a storm is coming.
22. I mixed cement by hand for my 20th birthday, what did you do for yours?
21. Taíno statue just off the freeway near Isabella; looks cool till you find out it was only carved in, like, 1978.
20. Typical view on a typical day, of such grandeur that the photos can only hint at.
19. My Mission President cheats at arm wrestling.
18. My companion was from Guatemala. I'm from Washington. Guess whose bag was whose.
17. Many a pleasant Preparation Day was spent in Old San Juan.
16. Just look at how blue that water is, look at it! (And at me hanging on for dear life, too).
15. Walking along some old abandoned railway trail between Quebradillas and Isabella.
14. I just like the angles on this shot of El Mooro in Old San Juan.
13. In Fajardo, my 3rd area, near where the ferry takes you out to Vieques and Culebra.
12-11. Fun with mullet wigs. (You become easily amused as a missionary--like unto a child).
10. The blazing Caribbean sun is so bright that it can wash out all your photos if you're not careful--though here I think the effect is fortuitous.
9. I was first sent to the Missionary Training Center in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where I snapped this photo beside a Paramilitary doing traffic duty with an AK-47.
8. Most places in Puerto Rico are like America, complete with fast food, Walmart, etc; but there are still places where you really do have to remove your shoes, roll up your pants, and wade across a river just to reach someone's house. (Elder Strege and I made this our Christmas photo).
7. I like how this photo captures the vivid green of tropical Puerto Rico.
6. Toilet on a roof. 'Nuff said.
5: Were we truly lost in the woods or just posing for a pic? THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW!!! (We were posing).
3. Not pictured: the massive hill we had to scale just to reach this plateau...with still more mountains to scale beyond.
2. Once more at El Mooro, the old Spanish Fortress.
1. This one's my pride and joy: The baptismal font was leaking, so we improvised a last minute baptism in the ocean instead. Elder Cox and Elder Nielson actually took off their shoes and rolled up their pants to wade out into the Atlantic with us, to serve as witnesses.
I know I promised up above to restrict myself to 25 pics only, but then I remembered that this is my lame blog, not yours, so screw you guys, here's a bunch more baptism pics in no particular order!
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