June 4, 2012

Time does fly by. Sometimes at night i think of stuff from the mission or I read my journal and it's weird because I remember things like it happened yesterday but some of the things were from over a year ago.

I wish I had nothing to do. I guess I just have to wait like 2 months huh? But it's all good. Don't be surprised if I sleep during the day when I get home. I want to now but I can't. Maybe when I can, I won't want to. Who knows?

Other than my new comp, Elder Azuara from Mexico, nothing. It was a good week though. I got some good videos to show when I get home. We finally got a YM pres here in the branch. The last one left for his mission so the branch didn't have one for like...7 months. Welcome to branches...haha...

I got to do divisions with one of the Zls. He came with the Elder I trained, Elder Martin. He's a cool kid. I had a blast with him that one day. We crossed the freakiest bridge ever--there is no way to describe it--it's not so much a bridge but the people use it as one. I'll see if I can get a pic of it before I leave...

You know what's weird? That I get asked my opinion a lot now. From other missionaries-- they always ask what would I do in such and such situation. My DL has done it a bunch. I understand why. I just think it's interesting. I guess it comes with the amount of time because no one asked for it before...haha...

Well, I got to go now, but thanks for the pics and the updates. I love you. Later...

May 28, 2012

Sounds like it was a good crazy week. He looks cute in the pics. I can't wait to see him in a few months. He'll probably be a little bigger by then I guess. But I'm glad that Erik was able to make it there in time to be there when Evan was born and I can't wait to hear the stories from the day. I look forward to them...

And my room sounds cool.  I think I'll like it a lot. Thanks for everything that you are doing for me.

Man, you get summer soon...lucky...but I get it kind of soon...haha...not really...

It was a good week. It rained  everyday. That was the bad part of the week. I got soaked a couple times. Not the funnest thing in the world to be soaked and working...haha...but it's all good. We had a good amount of gators in church and one is progressing really well. She should get baptized soon. The other ones were there for the first time, so we will see what happens with them. I hope they progress. There were some other interesting things, but I'll save that for when I get home...haha I'll send some pics right now. That's why it's so short...

Later. Love you and miss you!

Going to the temple....

El Salvador Temple

 Pizza Hut

 Flight Plans

May 21, 2012

We went to the temple on Friday...quite the trip honestly. It was good to be back in the temple but Thursday night we had to go stay with some Elders in San Miguel because Friday in the morning we left at like 5:30 in the morning to head to San Salvador on a private bus. It was pouring on Thursday before we left for San Miguel. It was a huge storm. The streets basically flooded and it had huge lightning and thunder.

 

Coming back from the temple was pretty interesting. The bus got a flat tire so they had to put on a spare and then went and changed that to a real tire so that we could make it back to San Miguel. When the bus was stopped in traffic working our way out of San Salvador, this lady comes up to the bus windows (it was a mini bus so it's lower) trying to sell us chocolates and she sees all the gringos (well, not me...I was farther back) but she sees some of them and she says "oh...wow....you're so handsome" (talking with them) and she started basically flirting with them trying to sell them choclates and she starts working her way back so I put my head down and act like im sleeping but I hear"oh...your eyes are so beautiful". I was like...shoot...shes talking to me...she saw them before I closed them....but no...she was talking to another elder...haha..but that was the joke for the rest of the trip...oh how beautiful your eyes!!!!

 

Also the police stopped the bus on a routine bus check stop and when the policeman stepped on the bus, the elders in front started talking to him about the church and invited him and everything. He was kind of surprised to see a bunch of missionaries on the bus.

 

The week was pretty good. We had an investigator who came to church and is on track to be baptized in June and we have been able to have good visits with some inactives. We were actually able to get attendance over 50 yesterday so we are working now to get that an every week occurance and raise it to 60. That's the plan. We talked with the Branch President asking for his help and the help of the organizations, but we haven't had the chance to sit down and share ideas, but we'll see what up. Honestly I feel good about what we are doing here. Maybe we haven't baptized a lot, but we have been reactivating. Everything helps.

 

I'm excited to get to know Sallie more in a few months...

 

Well, that's about it really...I think The biggest thing was the temple. It was fun. I can't wait to go back in 2 months...more or less...

 

I miss you and I can't wait to see you in 10 weeks...more or less :)

 

Saludddd

May 14, 2012

First off. This Friday we are going to the temple again so I don't know if that will be our P-day or not. Last time they said it was our P-day but they haven't said anything about that this time so I don't really know what will happen. So it's possible that I might be writing again on Friday or it might be Monday like always. I don t really know. I think Monday but just in case...

 

It was fun talking with the fam. How do you feel about the news you got? haha...

But...yeah...everyone looked the same except for Jenna...haha...and the girls. They are a lot bigger now. I can tell they are super active and fun to be around. Delainey is really good at talking now. It was fun having the little conversation we had. And Sallie...she's cute. Smiling and throwing kisses like that. I can't wait to get to see them again. Sallie is probably the most different but that's just cause when I left she had 1 month and just slept all the time, but Delainey is definitely different now too.

 

Yeah, I'm good with living at home. That's fine. I just asked because I didn't know. It was just a question I had. I'm fine with living at home. It's got a lot of cool stuff around it and it's 20 minutes to State and Jamie and Jenna and 20 minutes to visit with Devin. It's a good central location. It should work well I think. So don't worry...I'll be around a lot.

 

One thing I was thinking was that I know it might have been a joke about helping Bro. Hemming with his AAU team but I'd definitely do it. I think it would be fun and you know I love Bro. Hemming. It was be cool. And I think it would help me get back in shape and back in bball mode. So if I can...I'd do it. I guess we'd have to talk with Bro. Hemming.

 

Sounds like you're gonna have a crazy 3 weeks coming up. I hope it all goes well.

 

One question I do have for you is games to do during lessons...on Sundays. We are trying to make the Gospel Principles class fun and interesting and so we like do games. What are different types of games that we can do? Like ones that you have done in Seminary that worked well or other ones that you know of.

 

This week was definitely a good week. We had more people in Church then we have had before so that was fun to see. Now we just got to get them every week. haha...but it was a good step forward to see. I was definitely pleasantly surprised by what happened. We must be doing something right.

 

I don't have anything else to say really. It was fun talking with you. See you in 79 days...haha...thanks for letting me know ...

 

Hope you have a good week...love you

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 7, 2012

These first few days of May have passed by super fast! It's crazy!

My weather was kind of similar. It was hot here and humid. It would rain at night but it would be on and off throughout the night so it would be cooler but then the sun comes out and you know how it is... There were some super hot days, but its worse in La Union. I was there this week and when I came back to Sta. Rosa, it felt awesome. It's so humid in La union.

We did have a baptism on Saturday. It was Marcos, the brother of the girls we baptized a few weeks ago. That was exciting for sure. We have some good investigators that I think can get baptized. We'll just have to wait and see when...haha..

Hmm...so they do a bible study. We might be able to pull off something like that here. Everyone loves the bible here even if they have never read it.

Yikes with Taylor. You think he will still serve? They might let him off honorably without serving but that's awful. Man, I feel for him. All I remember is when I broke my collarbone. I can't imagine doing what he did to his ankle. He has some bad luck.

Anyways, if I stay in Sta. Rosa,  2pm should be good here. But if I go, who knows really. It kind of sucks that changes fell when they did. I'll try to call at 2 if even I get moved.

But that's about it. I got some pics to send. If you got any questions, just ask them Sunday.

Can't wait to talk to you!

 frog or toad on the patio

 before the baptism

 

(I love the little girl peeking out from Darin's arms)

 

 (There she is again--trying to peek through again...)

Monday, April 30, 2012

It's kind of crazy that it's the last day of April. It did seem kind of long, but at the same time, kind of short. It was a weird month for sure.

It's super hot today. Soooo hot. We are sweating a lot. Luckily, we can spend time in A/C today. We don't have to be outside working. Some people are progressing--the majority not really. But the brother is progressing and we are hoping to get him baptized this weekend. We got his cousin (who he is really close to) to come to church with us for the first time in years (he's inactive--well, less active now) so that definitely helped.

That's so cool for Daniel (Whitt). He'll probably see more crocs than I have... ;) And a lot more snakes. He'll probably be a soccer nut when he comes home and probably won't work much the summer of 2014. Thank you World Cup in Brazil.

Yes, changes are next week. The 9th. I haven't heard anything about calling home. I would check everything on Skype to make sure just because I don't see why I wouldn't have permission this time around. I'm good to go to use it if I'm here because the cook has a laptop. But if I get changed? Who knows...haha But  prep everything just in case...

This is gonna be short cause I'm gonna send pics from my birthday. Hope you like them.

Miss you and love you.

Here is what happened at night. Party! haha...not really Just a lot of hot dogs and some cake.

Don't worry about the El Salvador version of coke you see in one of the pics. We (me and my comp) only drank the orange looking one. It's so much better than coke anyways.

Monday, April 23, 2012

The investigators are good. It looks like the brother will get baptized, but not until the 5th of May. As long as he does it, I don't really care when it is. And we are working with some other people, but they won't be ready until later in May--maybe even June. Their mom is a member from forever ago. She got baptized as a little girl but has been inactive the majority of the time, but she comes every Sunday now.

Today we played basketball and I am awful now. And we played soccer and I have gotten better. I only played 2 games, but we didn't lose when I played...haha. That's about it. This is gonna be short cause I have pics that I need to send.

Later.

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

 Hymnal

Scripture case

 Scripture covers