Branch members and me and Elder de Leon

The temple

The bus tire

Elder de Leon, me, Elder Boi

Week 83 in El Salvador

July 25, 2011

Hey,

Don’t worry about my birthday or the medicine, the books are fine and I don’t have space right now, also I’m good friends with one of the local doctors, so I get free medicine here.

Well, I didn’t have changes, and I’m still with Elder de Leon, things are going well, but the work is kind of slow. A lot of the people we had progressing are lacking faith on their part to take the last final steps. I’m starting to realize that the missionary work is mostly just about finding the right people, because they do their part in gaining their own testimony in going to church, and everything.... sometimes I don’t understand the mission.

On Thursday we went to the temple...I did see Sister Ferrin...she comes running up to me “Elder Day! Elder Day! I know your mom!”...I looked at her and was thinking, “Look, I have no clue who you are lady”...then she mentioned facebook, and it all clicked together...her and her husband were picking up their son from the West Mission.

On our way to the temple the bus’s front left tire exploded, we were jerked hard to the left, dust and smoke flying, but the bus driver held it all together well...I’ll try to send photos.

All right, first photo...Elder de Leon me and Elder Bol

Second, the bus tire

Third, the temple, one of my best photos

Fourth and fifth are some of the branch members and me and Elder de Leon

---Well, this week we did a couple more service projects, but I didn’t have my camera. One of our investigators is going to plant his farm, and so we had to clear out all the trees around his borders so the sun could hit all the crops. So I was up in the higher parts of the trees, and my companion was in the lower. The guy called it work, but I thought it was pretty fun twenty feet up in the air swinging from branch to branch with a machete in one hand...I did have a small quarrel with a wasp nest, and was stung several times in the face, but it didn’t swell up, at the end of it all, the guy decided to give us coconuts, and each of us has drank about fifteen or more this week.

---Well, some bad news, I’ve been feeling kind of weak for the past couple weeks, or months, and getting skinnier, so when the diarrhea started I went in to get an exam, and I have a new friend-- quistes of Endolimax nana, the mission nurse of course got mad at me, told me this was some kind of super rare parasite, didn’t tell me anything more.... our friend that works in the hospital got me the medicine for free, along with the amoxicillin.... its a form of quistomeb.... it really doesn’t bother me too much. I don’t know how long I’ve had it, but supposedly it is like a little blood sucker that nests itself in my intestine.

Well, I read that discourse that Grandpa sent, very interesting, thanks.

Well, I hope everything is well.

Chow for now,

Corey

Transportation

This is a photo from this morning, coming back from breakfast...sometime I want to get a photo of one of these next to a nice car, transportation here is like a free for all, same with the clothes, some people are driving modified Hondas, and some are driving carts with oxen, some are dressed like little Wayne and Brittany Spears and others are dressed in potato sacks and trash bags, that’s just how life is here....

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