Monday, October 10, 2011
Week 95 in El Salvador (FINAL LETTER!!!!)
October 10, 2011
Hey,
Wahooooooooo!!!!
......The Santana family was baptized.... I’m sending photos....
Like I said, brother Marlon Santana was already a member, but he quit going in 1996, when he moved and forgot about the church. So we baptized the wife and their daughters.
This week has been absolutely crazy.... crazy story with this family.... its like all hell opened up to stop the baptism, long story, the guy lost $400, because he messed up an expensive cell phone in his reparation shop, their friends turned against them, they haven’t had good business all week, and last week, their motorcycle broke, so they have been walking about three miles daily, and having to take the bus, but that still didn’t stop them...they showed up on Saturday, an hour early for the baptism, and excited, even though they hadn’t eaten breakfast or lunch, because they didn’t have the money....about an hour before that, there were huge black clouds and lightning in the sky...it was about all we could handle (we were stressed by this point by the way)---We thought it was gonna be some kind of hurricane storm by the looks of it, so we went to the house and prayed..... And there was sunshine about five minutes afterwards, and then the family showed up, starving, so we invited them to eat..... The members almost didn’t show up, but at the last minute everyone came.... and the baptism was beautiful.... one of the best I’ve had. We found the best dresses for the family, not jumpers, and it all worked out super well..... I’ll have to tell you about it later. They are going to be strong members.
Anyway... I guess I’m coming home this week. I almost don’t believe that actually. It feels like another change, or like I’ll be in the same routine forever.
Other news.... I think the mission just broke a new record this weekend..... 60 baptisms in one weekend. !!!!
Well.... see ya soon.
Corey
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Week 94 in El Salvador
October 3, 2011
Hey,
My fever left on Wednesday...it was about 101.8 d F ...the doctors never figured out what it was either. They said it could have been some type of infection, but for a day they were worried it might be malaria. I don’t have the fever, but I’m feeling drained. I tried to play soccer this morning, and had to lie on the ground, cause I was feeling so weak.
That’s crazy that the kids got cell phones. I hope you still have my old one with the broken screen. I just want something I can call and receive calls, and something that I don’t have to worry about getting smashed again.
That’s cool that Alyssa is learning to ride a bike.
Well, we just figured out that Hermano Santana was already baptized, even though he could hardly remember, we checked the records anyway, and found out he was baptized January 1st, 1995----the same time that he came from El Salvador from Nicaragua, and was introduced to the church. The wife is nervous about baptism, and now nervous that her husband is a member. They’ve got a long story.---he use to be a troublemaker and a womanizer in Nicaragua, he got married over there and had two kids, then his wife divorced him, and he came to El Salvador to look for job opportunities in selling jewelry. In his new business, he met Jaquelin, and after a year of being friends, they started going out, and got married (without telling her that he had two children in Nicaragua), then the guilt got to him and he told her, she was fine with it as long as he still wasn’t with the other girl. So they have had two kids, Margari and Sarai---still in his business of buying and selling gold and jewelry, while he was driving to his business, he was pulled over and robbed of all the jewelry he had, he spent about 6 years in poverty paying it all back and has decided to not go back to selling jewelry, so he moved to a small lot in Tierra Blanca, and has a small sale of cell phone reparation----that’s when we found them, still suffering in poverty---he sold his truck to buy a gas scooter----anyways, long story short----his wife still doesn’t have his complete trust, so she is not sure about getting baptized as a family. I’m still thinking they can get baptized this week, but she needs to get on her homework of reading the Book of Mormon, if not nothing will happen.
I need to ask a favor before I forget,..... Tell the missionaries that I want half a box of books of Mormon before October 12th. I don’t know what kind of materials they have up there, but a copy or two of “our search for happiness” wouldn’t be a bad idea too.
I don’t have a lot to say. I’m still feeling a little weak. As for the shoes.... well I only really have one pair, I’m not so sure about mounting them though.... recently I cut up an old bottle of bug spray, and put the plastic under my soles, so the concrete wouldn’t burn my feet. I’ll see if it lasts. Really if you wanted me to save a pair of shoes, it should have been the other ones that I burned in San Miguel.
Well that’s it for now.
Corey
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
"To This End Was I Born"
is a tarantula that we killed.... there’s been a lot in the house lately, and we saw this one and then it hid.... the funny thing is that when we killed it was climbing up the wall, and we threw a shoe at it, and it fell on the video case of ``To This End Was I Born``---so the photo has a bit of irony to it.
Week 93 in El Salvador
September 26, 2011
Hey,
No, I didn’t know that Liz was pregnant...I lose track of all my cousins...there is one elder in the mission, Elder Orton, whose grandparents had something like 16 kids, and each of the kids has a big family too---he 19 yrs old, is the oldest of 63 + cousins---he showed me a picture with his grandparents holding all their grandkids---I don’t remember the exact numbers, but a big family.
This week we have done a lot of service projects, especially for the families we are teaching. We cleared out one guy’s yard...it was before a jungle, but now he has a yard. We spent most of the day with machetes and cumas. We brought the leaders too (the first time the leaders here have supported a project).
We also painted a house for another family.
We are doing pretty good. Two of the three families came to church again, the others were going to come, but they are in a kind of economical crisis right now.
Yesterday I came down with a fever...yesterday it was about 100. 2 degrees F, and today at 2:30 am it was 101.4 F---I’m feeling a little bit better, though I feel weak, and I didn’t sleep much, my whole bed is wet from sweat, and now our room smells like a giant tree sloth. But we are doing pretty well. I still don’t know what it is though, because apart from weakness, I have no other symptoms.
I’ll try to send pics.
Chow for now,
Corey
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
catching a ride...still 100+MPH on the highway
I’m sending photos...it took me like twenty minutes to get them downloaded onto this comp..... I’ve still got a virus, and had to edit them in paint, and copy them like three times on the desktop.... I still hate computers by the way
"football"
our game this morning...my zone, and like 11 invited people (you’ll recognize them from some of the last photos)
Week 91 in El Salvador
September 19, 2011
Hey,
Who’s in the photo with the bear?
That’s weird about hearing about flight plans right now--18 hours??---It still doesn’t feel like my last change. Just yesterday I was saying goodbye to Louis and Ian at 1:00 in the morning after playing pool.
Well, we baptized Elizabeth, and she’s progressing farther than we ever thought she would. We took the chance she was giving us, and we taught everything this week. She’s coming to church without our having to bring her, and is progressing, still it is a little hard though, because she can’t read or write.
We also set the new record for bringing investigators to church on Sunday----the old record was 12 people, was set by Elder Shinners, a year ago, he came in my group and just got home recently, because his brother was going to Iraq. This Sunday we brought 16 invited investigators, composed of three families and a couple other people. We found a family last Sunday night, and they all showed up this Sunday, and they loved it. The Santana family showed up again, despite their economic problems (they don’t show it, but they are suffering---we’ve met couple of their friends) they all came again, and with a friend.
We had a conference with Elder Martino, of the second quorum of the seventy. We learned a lot of the same stuff that Elder Clark taught us last year.
That’s crazy about the hunting trips, especially the photo.
Today was the first P-day since the rules have changed that we all got together as a zone.... I’ll send you pictures.
Well that’s all I can think of, it’s a bit resumed [shortened], but I’m a little tired today.
I’ll send pics--chow for now
Corey
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Week 90 in El Salvador
September 12, 2011
Hey,
I really don’t have a lot to write this week...
The last few weeks my companion has taken pretty hard, so he’s become more disobedient, thinking that things don’t matter here. I’m trying to encourage him, but it’s been tough. He just turned a year old in the mission, and is probably more baggy than me.
We did have a couple miracles pass though, on Sunday...we thought the week would be the same, we’ve almost dropped all the old people we’ve been teaching, and finding new people (we give them about 3 weeks if they don’t progress, but it depends on who they are)--The branch we are in covers a huge area---like seven towns---we found a family a couple weeks ago in a town called Tierra Blanca ---they are very receptive, but haven’t come to church in two weeks, so when they didn’t arrive on time on Sunday we thought that they were just making excuses and didn’t want to come, like all the other people we talk to, but they actually came, a little late, but all of them showed up.... the husband---was investigating the church for two years in Zacatecoluca, and he’s not sure if he’s baptized or not, but said he hasn’t been confirmed---we need to look up his dates, but we challenged him anyway---we asked him if he would get baptized by someone that has authority, and he said “they have a quorum of the elders there, they have authority, sure”---his wife was a little more hesitant, but we’ll be working with them.
Also, one of our old investigators, a single 16 year old mother named Elizabeth, came back to church, at first she was just going for her boyfriend, and she was super hard to teach (it’s kind of hard when they’ve never gone to school, and don’t know how to read or pay attention).... anyway, a while back she quit going, and then her boyfriend moved to San Salvador, so we thought that after three weeks of going to church, it would be hard (plus she lives a couple miles away).... so we quit visiting...anyway she came to church today, ALONE, without her boyfriend, she stayed for the second class too, and then pulled us out and said , “I’ve been talking to my boyfriend, and I want to be baptized.”---I was surprised, it took me a minute to actually process that she said that, so we’ll see how it goes....
So, thanks for your prayers, keep praying please, we need everything we can get.
---We have a multi-zone this week, with Elder Martino.
That’s about it for now---
Chow for now
Corey
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Week 89 in El Salvador
September 5, 2011
Hey,
Well, sounds like things are going good up there. I’m surprised winter is starting so early...or is this when it normally starts?
That’s cool about the caribou hunt. And the photos are cool. What rifle was he using?--it looks like a shorter barrel, but the photo I’m looking at is 2" by 3"... it’s kind of interesting to think about guns now, here they don’t use guns to hunt animals.... I’ll have to get use to that idea again.
Hey, tell Jason Dexter that today I saw Josè Cruz in Usulután. I think Elder Dexter was the one to baptize him. He’s doing well and his family is still active. They say the missionaries still visit them.
I really don’t have a lot to write this week. We have been working, but with little luck. Sometimes I don’t understand, because the mission says that if we do all the things we are asked than we will have success.... what is success?...normal weeks we can hand out 2-3 books of Mormon a day and maybe find 20 people a week, and of these people maybe 2-3 will actually take the time to read it...this week we have had the same books in our backpacks for almost five days.... nobody wants to read, or commit themselves. We literally had about 16 people that said they would come to church, and we went with members and everything and assigned members to go pick them up on Sunday, but very few have showed up the last four weeks. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the fair (the Ferris wheels and rides were literally in front of the church)...there are really no excuses, so I don’t know how we can make it better. We’re trying activities and everything.
Ha-ha--someone right now just set off a rocket in the other room, some kind of dynamite type bomb...probably leftover from the fair.... I didn’t know that one of the girls a couple computers down was gringo until she heard the explosion and started cussing in English. She thought it was a gunshot, so I’m guessing she’s not from around here.
---Well, don’t have photos this week...I hope you got them from the last few weeks.
Chow for now
Elder Day
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
An activity
an activity we did...none of the people we played with were members, and we are hoping that a few more activities, and we`ll get them to church.
Week 88 in El Salvador
August 29, 2011
Hey,
This week has been kind of interesting. The fair is going on in Jiquilisco, so there is a whole bunch of noise and activities. There are parades, tents, people selling things, the arcades, the Ferris wheel and roller coasters...this week has been absolutely terrible for work. Nobody is in their house.
We have done various service projects...
We built a yoke for oxen, or at least part of it.
We hauled water from a well for about an hour, until the pila was full (it was a huge pila).
We helped family fix their car tires...
...We have had very few real lessons this week
We did have one interesting experience....
We were invited to dinner by a family that is member, and when we arrived they had just finished arguing...they were going to go to the fair as a family, and the baby girl had an accident, and fell from the hammock, and was bleeding from the mouth, and the wife had accused her husband of trying to kill the baby, and they started arguing.... when we got there the argument had ended...the oldest of the teenage daughters, Judith, had invited two friends, both members of the church to also go with them. We thought it would be a good time to teach them, just some principle of the gospel, to bring it back to order.... so we did...a hymn, a prayer...and then the argument started out in an uproar again, and the wife accused the husband of not listening in priesthood meetings, and the husband accused the wife of not learning in the relief society (now they were bringing the church into it, and raising their voices)---what could we do? ---We were with two other members of the church watching a family fight---soon Judith interrupted her parents, and said she was not going to live in a house with them, but out in the street with her friends (which she had done before)...so it got worse, and obviously we couldn’t teach them, because then they would bring up priesthood class, so we tried to get them to the fair, spend time as a family, and forget it.... but nobody moved, and kept arguing...by this point Judith is crying and yelling at her parents, the parents are yelling, and Wendy-the younger, and shy teenage daughter---has tears rolling down her eyes to the point that her cheeks were black with makeup........so, what we did is we left...it was about
8:45 pm---we had fifteen minutes before we had to be in----but we went to the house, and prayed---we asked and said, “we know we have hardly nothing to do with this, and the members aren’t even under our authority, but as their friends, and thy servants, we feel obligated to help---please send something to help us.”-----so we went to the fair, and bought some coconut candies, and headed back, and in the way back, we saw four men.... they were a mariachi band, walking next to us...both me and my companion had the same impression, but contemplated it for a second, because we weren’t sure if we could do it as missionaries, we weren’t sure, and I’m still not sure, but there was nothing bad in its nature, so we hired them for one song (not with the mission money, but with my personal money--$4)..........and we came back......you should have seen the families face when we burst through the door with the trumpet player, the band and the candy.......everyone started laughing....and the four men played beautifully, and we left, and went back to our house and entered about 9:05......and we felt good about what we did. We didn’t know the full impact of what had happened until Sunday morning, the next day...one of Judith’s friends that was there the night before, a return missionary, said that after we left, the whole atmosphere in the house had changed, and they were able, as the families home teachers, to sit down and talk as a family and about the gospel and the role as a family.
--Well that’s about it for this week, I’ll try to send photos....
chow for now,
Corey
Friday, August 26, 2011
Week 87 in El Salvador
August 22, 2011
Hey,
This week was pretty cool...I’ll tell you about the weekend....
Friday 19-Agosto-11
We had a meeting with the general authorities, a conference.
From the Quorum of the Seventy, there was Elder Falabela, Elder Martino, Elder Amado, and Elder Walker.
From the Quorum of the Twelve, there was Elder D. Todd Christoferson.
From the first presidency, there was Elder Henry B. Eyering.
Both missions were there, and before it all started I got to talk to a couple missionaries from the other mission (Santa Ana/Belize)---Anyway, there are huge rumors about our mission---about how bad the missionaries were, and the president.... they even have jokes about it. “¿ how many missionaries in the other mission does it take to pass an interview?”---I guess there is huge gossip----they even knew about the band of Gadianton (I haven’t told you about that yet), and how it was destroyed---so I guess it’s big news.
I learned a ton in the conference, and am going to have to change a couple of things about how I plan and how I teach...hopefully I’ll master it soon. Seeing President Eyering was like in 3-D----like the time I saw Jeffery R. Holland.... they look so close when they speak. ----I have my notes in the house, so I’ll tell you what they said when I get back.
Saturday 20-Agosto-11
The cultural event for the dedication for the temple. We went to Usulután to see it on the satellite screen. Very cool.... all the youth from the nations stakes performed it.
Sunday 21-agosto-11
The dedication for the temple----
We went to Usulután to see it on the screen, and Salt Lake forgot to send the signal, and forgot to pay for the satellite uplink----someone is in trouble------so we missed the sealing of the corner stone. We sat for two hours in silence...a couple people went home after that.
By the second session, all the other stakes and districts had a signal, except for Usulután.... another two hours in silence, most of us ended up sleeping...another group of people went home after that....
In between the second and third sessions, the leaders said they could do nothing about it, because it wasn’t in their authority to authorize that we go to other buildings, and then we as missionaries talked them out of it, and with the help of Brother Torres from Usulután, organized, and we were able to rent a bus for $80----we all dug our money out of our pockets, and so a bus came, and it took a shortcut on a dirt road, and we were able to arrive at Jucuapa 10 minutes before the third session (it’s pretty much a miracle considering the distance, and how fast we got organized and arrived----between 1:30 pm and 2:50 pm)
So, the third session was amazing---
President Eyering went out of his normal script, and didn’t use the teleprompter----he said that while the last speaker was speaking he felt inspired to say something different, very inspiring
Yup, so that’s about it for the most important historical days this country has ever known, not to mention its a huge contrast where I’m at right now.... the fiestas of Jiquilisco right now----botanists, dancers, clowns on stilts, music, and fireworks.
Well, chow for now,
Corey
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)