Week 82 in El Salvador

July 18, 2011

Hey,

So, I’m with Elder de Leon, at least until this Wednesday. He’s a good kid, reminds me of a lot of my friends back home, and we get along well. Also we are teaching well together...we both have about the same level of understanding of the doctrine, so we switch off well in the lessons...I’ve had too many companions think that we always have to teach from the book, in order 1, 2, 3 like it is layed out in the manual, and treat the manual as a lesson plan rather than a guide.... but with Elder de Leon, it goes well, and together we use the doctrine as a puzzle, just the pieces we need, to fill in the doubts and worries of those we teach. I’m not worrying as much with him, though I still need to watch him...I should say, I trust him but not completely.... but it is not for open rebellion like my last companions have had, but for weaknesses that he has openly expressed to me.

He is from Guatemala, and speaks English. He is tall and white, so many people think that the president has put two gringos together. We have both been sick...I think we have the same infection. I have had some kind of throat infection, to the point that my ears hurt, it started off with phlegm, but I don’t have that anymore...it was a lot worse (I haven’t talked to the nurses or anybody yet, just a couple members who are doctors, seeing that the nurses of the mission don’t do anything)...so I was taking amoxicillin and acetaminophen twice a day for three days and I took 1 of each the fourth day.... the infection has died down a lot, but I still have pain. It switched from on side of my throat, and my ear to the other, and then back again.

The week kind of passed by without success, and our main investigators didn’t show up, so we were kind of bummed. We decided to look for new people after church, and we came up to a T in the road, and turned right, because on the left turn we had previously knocked all the doors.... we started walking about halfway down the road when I got this thought like “what are you doing going down here? “...At the same time my companion said, in English “I don’t know man, but I think we need to go down the other road”.... so we turned around, and got to the other street, and passed the first house, then turning back around again talked to the lady in the first house.... her door was open and she was watching TV, and upon seeing us said, “No, I’m Christian!” ---Somehow we got in the house, sang the hymn “73: Yo se queue vive mi Señor”---almost immediately catching their attention.... the lesson went very well, there was no thinking, no planning, when I left off, my companion picked up, when he left off I did the same...but it wasn’t us speaking.... anyway, we could finally feel good about some thing that week. She’s going to read the Book of Mormon.

I’ll send photos. Chow for now.

Elder Day