August 2010

We had changes this week, My comp and I are still here together, but now I am a district leader. So that is pretty interesting, and cool. I did the totals and we are teaching 7 families that are actually really positive along with a few other investigators, which adds up to be about 28 people. Now this next part is great but at the same time sad - in comparison to the number people we are teaching - we brought 7 people to church, so that was great! And, one of the families came. This week we taught 33 lessons which we feel really good about. I had to be a marriage counselor with one of our families this week - that was intense. So things are going really well, I just pray that it keeps up. We keep praying super hard and are trying to work even harder. There is a saying something like: Pray to God as if everything depended on Him, then work as if all depended on you. So I am trying to put that saying to work in my life.

So yes mom, things are going great. We just need to baptize these people so they can be families forever.

How do you like my photo, I have been LATINOED hahahaha! The bus ride into town today was crazy. I was hanging on outside and going about 60 miles an hour. Pretty intense.

July 15, 2010 One Year Anniversary

This week was action packed to say the least.

On Tuesday I went on divisions with my District Leader and he said "Hey, we are going to be in some forest area for these appointments I have", and I thought that was sweet! I brought my sling shot so I could shoot an iguana and have it for dinner. It had just finished raining so we had to cross a river that was much bigger than normal from the rain and I almost fell in! Fortunately I didn't. After that we were walking super quiet, and in a tree we spotted a hawk, so I pulled back and let fly my marble and missed by only 2 inches above it's head. I am happy I didn't hit it though. I think I would have felt super bad. We never saw an iguana, they were all hiding because of the rain.

Later that night, we were at a lesson and the lady's toddler started choking on a penny. The mom started yelling and was being crazy with fright, so I went and did what I had been taught and smacked the baby on the back while holding her upside down. But instead of coughing it up, she ate it. Not the result most favored, but she is still alive! When you walk by Magnolia pool tell Leanne thanks for teaching me, it did have a purpose.

Saturday night we were talking with a family we hope will be baptized, about the law of chastity for almost 2 hours. It was so draining, but now they are going to give us the decision if they are going to get married or separate on Tuesday. Please pray for them to get married.

Yesterday we went to a new part of our area and got lost for about 3 hours walking in the jungle and having to cross rivers. We finally found a man and asked him to drive us back to Cojute.

So yes, it was an intense and great week.

MS 13

This is Lindsey and I wasn't sure if Colin would send Mom this photo, so I decided to post it for everyone to enjoy!

Colin said that this week was pretty boring because, as a result of heavy gang activity, he and his companion had to stay at home for safety reasons.  Colin, however, being the epic schmoozer that he is, managed to get an unusual photograph with his local MS13 (the internationally notorious El Salvadorian gang) leader.  Not sure how or why, but here it is:

Frankly, I'm not too surprised :)

Let's eat!

This is our now cook. She is a Seventh Day Adventist and is she is super nice! Could you send some recipes for brownies, chocolate cake, taffy and other American things? Some of the people we visit and our cook would like to try cooking some American food.

Hurricane season opens

Thanks for your prayers, and everything!

We are all safe and sound. Saturday I was super drenched all day, and then at about 6 we met up with some other elders that told us the President had called and said that we should go home so as not to get sick. The President also said that we had to have our 72 hour kits ready by Monday. We don't know if he just said that, or if someone from the First Presidency told him to tell us, it doesn't matter- so that night I told my comp we are buying food now! So we went to the Super Selectors, that is the Von's here, and we stocked up on beans and ramen noodles, spam, water, granola bars, and Snickers. We are ready for Armageddon. Or another hurricane, hahaha.

This week was better. We taught a ton and found a ton, but still no success with them going to church, so that is something that I personally am never going to let happen again. I will always have at least one person at church, this is the second week that we haven't brought anyone to church and I was MAD. I know it was raining, but that was no excuse for us, I need to stop being weak and just tell my comp "hey, we've got to do it" and then do it!

President Funez

Something amazingly cool happened last Monday, we were told by the mission president to go to the charity play about the mentally handicapped and racism stuff, so we went. It was neat! There were special needs kids that did a whole bunch of dancing and stuff. It was nice, but that is not the amazing part- right before it started I was sitting by the aisle way, and walking down, surrounded by cameras was good old Presidente Funez, president of the Republic of El Salvador. So Elder Robinson, who I was with, looked and saw him and stuck his hand out and shook it. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I shot my hand out too and I shook hands with the president of El Salvador! That is pretty cool. Also, after the show I got a few pictures of him, not with him, but then I got a picture with his wife, the first lady, That was pretty sweet.

But now looking back on it and what you guys got to do with Elder Oaks, I would have rather have met him instead, because he is that much more important, and less... communist, hehehe

So the working with the eye doctors was cool. There are these people that come down from the United States and they go around and give free eye exams to the poor people, and they just needed some extra help because they don´t know Spanish. It was way fun and so nice to see when the people got their glasses and everything. It was awesome.

My week was not very action packed, just knocking on a ton of doors. That is pretty much all you do the first few weeks of opening an area, but then by the end you start having some regulars that you can go and visit. Our area is crazy, there is one main street that we walk on, and from that street there are passages that feed off the side, and they go straight down. That is right- the main street is on the crest of the mountain and we just go down the sides. It is pretty intense and really sweaty, but that is good because I think I have been losing a few more lbs.! The stairs are good, giving my legs an excellent work out. We will have to have some races when we get home on your trails. Yes, there are parts that are poorer then others but everyone lives in the same cement block houses with a little variation of paint colors. The people are nice, they listen to us sometimes, sometimes not, depends on the day and how big we are smiling.

My comp is good. Very quite and keeps to himself, but he is a great teacher. So I am sure we will see success- just got to keep working hard, and he likes to work hard, it is I that has to be doing the stepping up. We live about 20 minutes away from our area, so every day we have to walk that distance just to get to our area, and then at night time it is too dangerous for us to be up there, so we have to have dinner at 8, which is kind of lame, I would rather be out working, but at the same time it is nice to have something to eat. Our cocinera and her family are so nice, they have this baby daughter that is about 2 years old and she has got to be the happiest little girl I have ever seen. She is hilarious.

Well, we have to go to the office today so that is going to take about 2 hours out of our p-day. The fun thing is is that there is a Burger King by the mission office, so we are going to go there for lunch.

Things are going well and I am happy. Last night we went out with a few of the youth and did divisions with them and we were able to teach about 10 lessons so that was pretty good. With my youth it started out a little rough- all of our appointments fell through, but then we finally had some success.