Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Week 79 in El Salvador
June 27, 2011
Hey,
So, I’ve got good news and bad news....
Good news...Miguel was baptized, he was super happy about it. Not a lot of people showed up, because it was raining.... you should have seen us walking through the rain...in the last couple minutes we decided to buy a small $6 cake for the baptism...so I was carrying two bags, a cake, plastic plates and forks in one hand, and my backpack, and my umbrella and sandals in my other hand, all under heavy rain...there was enough water in the sides of the road that we probably could’ve just baptized him their haha.... anyway.... we had all his friends at the baptism, it was small, but there was a peaceful feeling there.
Also...President Perez is leaving on Wednesday.... the kind general is leaving, and a father is coming. I’ll meet him next Wednesday. It’s my hope that he will be better.
Bad news.... when I left San Miguel, I paid all my bills, but when I came here none of the bills were paid...on top of that, it was Elder B, and another companion with equally as much time as him...two baggies.... spent a ton of money and the bills are at least triple (normal electricity bill is like 12 dollars, if we are working all day, and don’t enter the house until nine, but they left the bill at close to $40.... the telephone bill is worse), because they don’t care...their attitude is “well, I’m leaving, so it won’t be my problem”....so I’m left to pay their bills, with the money I don’t have...my companion is broke too. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but for the past two weeks I’ve been living on the house money, hoping the mission will send us something, but I can’t pay the bills, and the receipts haven’t come, so I can’t turn the receipts into them, to ask for more, .....One big mess.
I hope that when Pres. Glazier comes he will change this to be like the other missions, where the mission pays for the bills, and we are only left to worry about our own costs, and not of the missions and also companions.
Also...the house flooded from the rain, it came through the roof of our two-story house, and the bottom floor is flooded, because the top floor is flooded.
Anyways that’s it for the good news and bad news.
We are teaching a man named Moises.... he’s deaf, and mute, and never went to school, so he can’t read either. He is about 40 something years old, and is just starting to study again at a first grade level...anyway, I’m learning Spanish sign language, little by little.... I teach him with drawings also. He says he wants to get baptized, but he can’t get to church until the next Sunday, because he will be working (he works as a money collector for the buses)...we taught him yesterday the whole story of the Book of Mormon, and the restoration, and he understood...we explained a little bit about ourselves, and the mission. My companion basically turned the lesson over to me...half of the family are members also, and they know an informal form of sign language (basically what I’m doing right now, but I want to learn it good).... anyway, we are hooping that we can get him to church. ...I feel weird after teaching the lesson, my mind has to be working on double time, like when I was learning Spanish, but its a cool experience.
I’m sending photos of two service project that we did on Friday...I don’t know if it’ll work...
I’m going to try to copy my memory as ASAP...
Chow for now
Corey
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Week 78 in El Salvador
June 20, 2011
Hey,
Things are going better with my comp. I’ve been teaching him in the nights little by little. We’re now teaching almost fifty-fifty in the lessons, and we will be having a baptism this week.... I’ll tell you about that, because it almost fell through, funny experience...but things are going better with my comp, and we are working normal again...I’ve learned a lesson over again, something I learned biking too...a bike is better with two half full tires than with one flat tire and one good tire.... I’ve learned that teamwork is always better, that we have to be friends.... it’s a refining process for us both.
We had a talk the other day, and I’ve asked him how he has had so much success, and he told me who his companions were.... almost all of them ex-leaders; zone leaders, secretaries, assistants, his whole mission. He’s had luck with companions.
I’m sending photos...
These are from last week, at the blood drive activity
I don’t know if they will all come through, because I have a virus again.... but we can give it a shot.
----I caught a cold this week, and still have a little, but its mostly clearing up. I’ve lost some weight in this new area...I’m gonna turn out like Ian Jensen.
----Anyway, the story of Miguel, our planned baptism for this week. ...Miguel is a youth (14 years old) of a family we activated that hasn’t been baptized.... he lives most of the time with his cousins, (who are all members), but occasionally goes down the street to live with his parents (who aren’t members)...he always comes to the church, and has come now for a month or so.... we asked him if he wanted to get baptized, and he got excited. He does though, at times have a duel personality, and gets really wild, and other times he keeps all the commitments (he can pray really well now, and he’s reading).... but this Sunday was one of his off days I guess (other off days he has gotten up on busses and shouted like he was the guy collecting money, and other stuff like that to show off....). Anyway, he was going to come with his cousins, but one of his oldest cousins, José showed up with his mom, and nobody else came (they are a family of nine), so I start wondering why Miguel didn’t show up, and after sacrament meeting I talked to José, and he said that Miguel had washed his shoes, and didn’t have dry shoes to come to church with...anyway, a little afterwards Miguel comes walking in the church.... flip flops, shorts on, and he’s got a live chicken tied to a leash by the foot.... so I asked him, “hey, why didn’t you come early?”...he just looked at me and said, “I felt silly coming to church in flip flops”....so I asked him, “and it doesn’t make you feel silly to have a chicken on a leash inside the church?”---he looked at me with this look like “you’ve got a point there”.......so, Miguel went to class, and we stuffed the chicken in the janitor’s closet until the meetings ended...it all went well. I got a laugh.
Well, chow for now,
Corey
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Week 77 in El Salvador
June 13, 2011
Hey,
I got changes...I’m in an area called Jiquilisco, in Usulutan. It’s a small branch and part of a district, but the members are powerful. I’m hoping I can get organized soon enough to get everything going...I’m with Elder B...his last change, and he’s super baggy---I’ll have to tell you about him.
Elder B is from Guatemala...I knew him before this change, because he was Elder D’s last companion. I had actually made a list in my mind of a few people I didn’t want as companions...he was third on the list, I’ll learn a lot this change. He likes announcing on the radio, changing his voice, talking in other accents.... the hard part is to make him shut up.... we have various lessons with people, where he, without getting to know the person at all (zero communication)--opens his bible and talks---not like normal talking, but like an auctioneer announcer...super fast, almost to yelling...if I didn’t know Spanish good, I wouldn’t be able to catch what he’s saying.... so he talks fast, and its not like I can interrupt him in front of the members or the investigators...so he rambles on for three hours.
We have a very intelligent investigator that we found yesterday, and he asked a question about baptism for the dead, so Elder B rambled on about the Word of Wisdom, and the guy interrupted him and repeated the question, I tried to take over, but my companion cut me off, and started stating all the passages in the Bible that speak on witches and wizards and evil spirits, by this point the investigator (three hours later), told us he didn’t have any more time (I was thinking “well yah,” but Elder B kept on rambling on like an auctioneer, returning to the topic of the Word of Wisdom...half hour more....about 20 minutes into his rambling I tried to sign to him to finish, it got to the point that I started kicking his feet....
We were in a march for the blood drive, the whole zone was in. My companion hopped in the car in front (the guy that was announcing with the microphone, leading the parade)...my companion soon took over the microphone, and later in the activity he took over the microphone, directing the plays, speaking from 7:00 am to 2:30 pm....the activity ended. -----Later that day we found a family of 7 people...my companion was tired of taking, so I led the lesson, but the members actually did most of the testimonies for us, on Sunday five of them came to church.... I’m hoping a miracle will happen with this family.
The second day the cocinara asked me where I had been in my previous area, I told her Roosevelt, San Miguel, without explaining anything
----She said “oh, I’m sorry you just got back from hell.”
----I silently thought, “yah, but now I’m with the devil”
-----Things have gotten a lot better since then. The first two days were tough, and then I returned to the scripture that grandpa gave me from Doctrine and Covenants “if their be any among you that are strong in the spirit, let him go with him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness”...I decided that my patience could be edified by being with him, and that I could edify my companion through teaching.... I meditated a bit longer, and a thought came to my mind, “If you teach your companion, you can teach your investigators through him.”---the next couple days went a lot better...though I have to say it is hard to speak to him when he is checking out his muscles in the mirror.... (He wakes up every morning at 4:30 am to do exercise, then goes back to sleep)....
It’s not as bad anymore, even though teaching is still really hard with him. He’s a funny guy though, I don’t know if he tries to be funny, but the days are entertaining. I’m hoping for a miracle.... being with him is enjoyable, but teaching is tough.
We will be having a multi-zone this week; I’ll see Elder Anton again. President Perez is leaving...and President Glazier is coming.
Chow for now,
Corey
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Week 76 in El Salvador
June 6, 2011
Hey,
So, I’ve got some good news.... I LEARNED HOW TO ROLL MY RRR’s...on Monday, I finally got one to roll off my tongue, and ever since then I’ve been practicing all the words with rrr’s.... my companion’s probably losing his patience hearing me repeat perro, carro, ferrocarril, terremoto, rotulo, rojo.... the list goes on.... it’s funny how people say that you just can’t wake up one morning and learn something, but Monday was my day.... months of failed practices...and now my rrr’s no longer sound like I stuck my tongue to the telephone wires.
We might be having baptisms this week, but we’ll see.
The whole mission is doing bad right now...I don’t know if its because we are on the borders of changing mission presidents or on the borders of dedicating the temple, maybe both, or it could be something different.
Chow for now,
Corey
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Week 75 in El Salvador
May 30, 2011
Hey,
So, this week was hectic, I’ll try to explain it...
On Monday, me and my companion skipped p-day with the zone, and went to Yucuiquin to get birth certificates and other documents for the family’s wedding, so we went and came back, got everything without a problem...the zone leaders were also working on a family baptism and had to go to the Alcaldia in San Miguel to get their birth certificates, so they picked our other one up also...the same day we found two people that could be witnesses for the wedding and we set everything up with the lawyer, and everything was in line....
On Tuesday we had interviews...my last one with President Perez. After the interviews we visited the family Rivera, and told them that everything was ready for their wedding (that they agreed to last week), when we told him that he closed up to everything we had taught him, when we were about to leave, the president walked into the house and began teaching the family, but he didn’t get anywhere either and then kept quiet, Pedro was being stubborn, so we exhorted him to pray in that moment and ask about it, which he did after some difficulty...before it didn’t take so much work with him.
The whole week we prepared for the mission activity...we had planned it three weeks ago with the ward and the bishop, but nobody had opened up a ward calendar.... there was a youth activity in San Salvador and a Relief Society activity in the stake center that same day and that same hour...
---In short, the family baptism fell through, and they didn’t come to church on Sunday either...Maria had a fever and was coughing up phlegm, and Pedro was just stubborn, I feel like we are losing them.
---We had the activity---we watched Joseph Smith the prophet of the restoration---not very many people showed up, and we honestly had an equal number of investigators and members there, even though it was announced on Sunday...
----The bishop told us that he would have everything set up when we got there (our job was to bring the food, which we did)---nothing was set up, then Hno. Raul (second councilor) came in, and gave us the keys...he said—“here’s the keys, my wife is in the hospital about to have a baby, you just figure it out!”.... so we did, and there was no audio, so we hooked up the dvd-visual to the projector, and the audio we hooked up to another tv, and we had a big screen movie.... it was all on the spot, but it worked out well.
---Kenia showed up to the activity, and she said, “I won’t be able to get baptized tomorrow like we planned, can I do it right now???”---“Ok, sure-“ --so we baptized her after the movie, and invited the Relief Society from their activity. It was great, my companion’s first baptism...my first baptism in the mission where we taught all the lessons over the phone.... because the people she lives with won’t let us in. She always goes to church though, and has so far read the Book of Mormon up to Mosiah.
----Sunday, almost nobody came to church, Kenia was confirmed, very cool....
----They just told me that nobody was going to have changes.... I will have six months here----4 1/2 in Zacatecoluca 4 1/2 in Ilopango 6 in Soyapango, and soon to have 6 here...
Ok, chow for now,
Corey
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