November 29, 2010

A Month in Review (2 months in El Sal, 4 Months total)

Obviously the biggest thing that happened this month was my transfer to San Miguel to an area called Occidental (Western). Our city is actually called Milagro de la Paz. It was a long day, with like 5 hours on a bus, and spent half the trip lounging on luggage. It was kind of comfortable until the luggage started to shift and I started to fall through a little bit. It's a lot flatter here than in Paleca, a lot flatter. But that doesn't make walking any more fun. Still sucks. Where's a bike? And there is a huge volcano near our area, and there are almost always clouds hanging around it. It's pretty cool. And I kind of want it to erupt just to see what its like. Good way to go huh?

Anyways...my new comp. Elder Cordero. Hes on the back end of his mission. 6 months left. He's from Ecuador and has pretty decent English, and he wants to learn, so I get to teach him a little. He's way chill. Way laid back. Like me. It's a good match. I think he said he has like 40 something baptisms...not sure exactly.

The ward mission leader is Daniel Maravilla. Besides a sweet last name, hes got 3 awesome kids. Angie (6), Bitner (4) and Spencer (1ish). Bitner looks like Jaden Smith, so I call him that, and he responds to it now. Hey Jaden? Yeah?...and Angie and Jaden both are good at pronouncing my last name, because they spent days practicing it. Gilreath, Gilreath, Gilreath...they say it better than most of the adults now.

Then there is Alexis. He can speak pretty good English. Hes going to serve in Costa Rica and he leaves like Jan 11. Hes a little strange...but he's a good guy. He's fun to talk to because he can explain like everything to me.

Our main cook is Hna. Wendy. She has 3 kids that are ridiculously fun. And they love us. We spend a lot of FHE's at their house and play games. Like Cuantas Peca? It's like I guess big booty, like Jamie used to play all the time. Except when you mess up you get a peca put on your face. (peca is like freckle) I have only had one peca ever, and we have played a couple of times...its pretty easy, you just need to pay attention. And Pikachu rock, paper scissors...its hard to explain...but its a fun thing for the kids, and if you win, you slap the other person's cheeks.

One day, we found a turtle...that could climb. Like Spider-man...man, he was cool. We kept him for a couple days...but he's with a fam now..I miss him.

There was the two baptisms of Blad and Luis. Cool kids, pretty serious for their age. It helped that Luis´s bro was baptized a few weeks before them. They just love hanging out with all the Church kids. Members make an impact.

So we had something super crazy called Carnavale. Nothing to report because we had to be in our house early before it started. But it's a huge thing, with a ton of dancers, parades, singers, etc..

Fam Alfara. Some investigators. Almost have them in the water. They have felt the Holy Ghost, but we need to get them to church again. And they are scared of the commitment of baptism. They need to courage to say yes.

Joel. And his wife. He is really excited because he prayed for a job, and found one. So he really wants to listen to us. But he's just starting out honestly. Other than the we told him to pray part.

Fam. Bercian. Great family. Really poor. They don't even have lights. The dad is the most interested because he talked with missionaries before, but they never came back. But he works everyday selling papers...we just need to catch up with him.

Rosita and Estella. Both want to be baptized. The problem. They don't go to church. Their families live elsewhere, and so every weekend they take off to visit their families somewhere else. I don't know how much longer we´ll teach them at this rate.

Those are the investigators I know the most about. We just met some pretty positive people. SO we´ll see...

ON to food. I know Devin asked about this in a letter I got last week. I have eaten a lot of stuff I'm used to. The things i eat the most are puspusas (amazing), fried bananas, and frijoles (beans.) With tortillas. And I had shrimp the other day. They straight up fried the whole thing. I haven't liked everything. But most.

And they call me Tom Cruise. Great. I'm nuts.

Got to run

Love you all.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

November 22, 2010

Haha, I hope Will and Jamie don't drive you too crazy these last 4 weeks. What are their plans after they are married? Like where are they living and all that.

And tell Austin and Shanna congrats for me. That's exciting for them. And yeah, I think Aunt Ann might end up moving out to Utah and leave Uncle Terry behind if Austin and Shanna don't move closer. And then Uncle Terry will follow her. And what exactly qualifies as a "real" job?

Anyways, San Miguel. We have a lot of investigators. Like always some more positive than others. And most are families. We actually just baptized two cousins Luis and Bladimir Hernandez (12 and 10). They had been going to Church for like a year or so apparently and they both just wanted to be baptized. Something changed within the last two weeks. So (not that I´m counting) I have 3 baptisms. And I think more on the way. And hopefully some of my former investigators in Paleca will be baptized soon. And don't worry Mom, this isn't the most dangerous area in the mission. But it might be the best. Right now I think the mission has 80 baptisms this month. Our Zone (San Miguel) has 20 of those baptisms. We have 1/4 of the mission's baptisms. And we (as a Zone) have more this weekend.

And I can definitely see the courage to say "yes". We have a family where the mom needs that courage. She wants to keep investigating. And investigating. She doesn't want to have the courage to say "yes". She doesn't want to take that step of faith. Not yet.

And its absolutely nuts that Clark comes home that soon. It doesn't seem like that long. And I was thinking about Robs this week. I had lost track of the weeks and figured he had gone out last week. Or was leaving this week.

And Sallie has like brown eyes? When did this happen?

Anyways, I know Erik asked about P-days a few weeks ago. P-days here are the same as Paleca. We get up. Get together as a Zone. We go write emails. And then we go play soccer for a few hours. Then we go to lunch. And then we go back to our houses. And sleep. Or write letters. Whatever you want to do. And we'll go drop off laundry or go to the store to buy whatever we need. Its way chill.

That's about it. Not much else to report.

Love you.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

P.S. And you can tell Devin he doesn't have to report on this abysmal week in Sports. He doesn't have to relive the horror.

November 15, 2010

Lets see. Exchanges. I'm a pro at it now cause I was part of it. They called us the day before and were like you're being transferred. So I got to pack everything together and get it all ready. It's a lot easier when you aren't worrying about weight. Basically, only a couple of zones go to certain places, they don't get everyone together. Like we went to our stake center, or the place in the middle of our zone and another zone joined us there. Apparently the same bus comes by twice. If you get on it the first time you go to the Orient. The second time is San Salvador, areas around there. At least for our area, the bus works that way. Anyways, I got called the first time, and they threw me some green tape. I put the green tape on the handles and they put it on the luggage truck. The green tape meant I was going to a certain area, like the Orient. (Orient signifies San Vicente, San Miguel and La Union, I think). So I got on the bus and we went to San Vicente. I got to meet some Elders from the MTC there so we talked a little before I found out I had some more bus time ahead of me. I was going to either Usulatan or San Miguel or Rio Grande (the three zones farther along the road.) The only fun thing about that bus ride to Usulatan was that I got to lounge on the luggage in the back of the bus because there were a ton of Elders on the bus. I know I fell asleep while on the luggage. Anyways, we dropped of the Elders in Usulatan and then I got a real seat. And then we kept driving. But we stopped at Wendy's on the way. I was so excited, it was kind of sad. Then I got to our Stake Center and met my new comp. (I found out where I was going on the way. Its not like we didn't drive for hours or anything).

My new zone is San Miguel and my area is Occidental. I think we are in the city Miracle de la Paz. My new comp is Elder Cordero from Ecuador. He's an oldie. He has only 6 months left on his mission. And he's 26 too. He converted when he was 20, but didn't come out til a lot later. Its hard enough to leave at 19, I don't know how he did it at 24, 25. And he's the only member in his family too. The rest of his family is Catholic. He actually has decent English. And he's way chill. Like super chill. I like him a lot. I like my new area a lot. Apparently it's the hottest area in the mission, but it's not too bad now but it gets bad in like April and May. So I hope I´m out by then. And don't get transferred to Rio Grande. Which includes like La Union and is even farther west. Overall, I never want to travel like 5 hours in a bus again. It was terrible. I hope they slowly transfer me back to the capital. Not San Salvador next, then Rio Grande, then Cuscalatan then Usulatan etc...

Anyways, so apparently these transfers were really nuts. They closed two zones and combined them with other zones. So there are 9 now, instead of 11. I know that one zone has 28 missionaries in it. They transferred out more than half of the zone leaders too. I know in my old zone more than half the missionaries got transferred and both ZLs too. They closed the ZLs area and another in my old zone. Speaking of my old zone, it's one of the two most dangerous zones in the mission. I can tell you now cause I'm not there anymore. But don't worry mom, I never felt in danger or threatened. I was protected. I'm sure of it.

Oh yeah, my area has this huge volcano kind of close to it. It's pretty sweet to look at. And my new area is so much flatter than Paleca was. Its so nice. It does mean less sweet views like in Paleca, but it's so much easier on the body. I love it. And our house is freakin' sweet. Might be the coolest house in the mission. The bathroom is big and the water isn't freezing cold, so I can actually stand the shower. It's got this wide open area in the middle of it which is cool. Overall I think we have 6 rooms besides the bathroom and a garage. We use 4 of them, and the other two are just empty. It's a sweet house for sure.

Anyways, Christmas...yeah that looks good mom. Maybe send me some envelopes to send the letters back in. That would be useful I think. I have so many things I want actually, mostly food wise, but we´ll just take care of that when I get back. I already know my first meal back will be Chick-fil-a. With some ice cream and brownies waiting at home. How sad is that. Oh well. Haha...lets see. Money would be ridiculously nice just cause I can buy some stuff...but I guess if it goes on my card that's fine. I can pull it out later if I want to buy like a souvenir. Anyways, that's all there is this week. Not much going down aquí en El Sal. Apparently I´m getting good at Spanish because none of the members really believe me when I tell them I only have one change in El Salvador. They say I speak better than only one change.

Anyways...love you guys and miss you a ton.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

November 8, 2010

I got your pouch letter. Like a week and half ago. Sorry I didn't tell you. And sorry but uploading pictures takes forever. I´m gonna send home a card at Christmas. It's gonna be a Christmas present. Sorry to ruin the surprise. Haha. And I got the Halloween card. My comp was like what in the world is that. We have changes on Wednesday this week. I'm not exactly sure how it works so I´ll get back to you next week on it. And isn't Toy Story 3 a great movie. I love that movie. I think it was the last one I saw actually. And I've been missing the fam a lot this week. I don't know why.

Anyways, this week was boring. Not a lot going on. But there are some things to report.

The weather. Its been cold for a few days now actually. Its kind of weird. I think its mostly because its been really windy for some reason. They drink hot chocolate here (different from ours) and its actually been useful. Sometimes they serve it and your dying from the heat. Not so much this week. It hasn't been terrible. Like I´m not freezing or anything. But its definitely been colder. All the natives are dying though.

So the other day knocking doors, we found this guy. Not anything special. Not really interested in the church. So why am I telling you about him. His name. Pedro Pablo. My first thought. Petey Pablo. Next thought. "NORTH CAROLINA come on and raise up, take your shirt off and wave it round your head like a helicopter!" Man, that was fun. Kind of made me miss home though.

And the other day there was like a marathon through the city. It was kind of fun to watch, and they were yelling at us to join in. Well, some runners were. Others were dying. Haha. I have no idea what it was for. But I was impressed because I saw a few people running the race with crutches. Because of different reasons. But they were going for it on crutches. And this long hill too. I was really impressed.

"¿Qué vamos hacer esta noche Cerebro? La misma cosa que hacemos cada noche Pinky. Intentamos a dominar el mundo!" <--- Yeah, that's Pinky and the Brain in Spanish. I've been asked about it a few times. And Ren and Stimpy. Memories right there.

And by far my two favorite questions here so far. "Are your eyes really that color?" and "Are you married or single?". They think I wear colored contacts. And that the gringos are married.

Okay, so real news. We have a family of 3 up for baptism this weekend. Except only 2 have gone to church twice like they need to so that they can be baptized. So I won't be disappointed if they wait another week and all 3 are baptized together. So we might have a baptism this week. Might not. We´ll see.

I love you and miss everyone. A ton. I'm glad time flies.

Love,
Elder Gilreath

Letter received November 5, 2010

Hola familia!

Time flies in El Salvador. I can't believe it's been basically a month (probably a month when you receive this.) Oh yea, Mom and Jamie, don't you love your personalized notes? Anyways...so, Mom, that $7 watch we bought back in Utah is basically toast. I chipped the glass and it's spider webbing or whatever the heck you call it when cracks form all over the place. Probably need a new one.

So we might have a baptism this weekend. She's getting interviewed tonight. I'm honestly not sure if she'll pass, but I'm hoping and praying. And I think things are setting themselves up for a few more in the coming weeks. I can only hope. Most of the people have kind of "stalled out" so to speak. Which I guess is why you're always looking for new ones. And that's hard too, because basically everyone has a church, and if they aren't practicing they say it anyways. But hey, that's half the battle, right?

Mi espanol es major pero yo necesito practicar mas obviamente. Mi habilidad a entender as mas mejor pero a veces yo entiendo nada. Pero estoy mejorando y creo que en par meses sero fino con espanol. Actualmente muchas veces otro misioneros o personas han me dicho que mi espanol es bueno para un mes en El Salvador. Pero se que es muy importante que yo progresse cada dia yo aprenda casa nuevas cada dia tambien.

Hmm...what's new....The buses have names here. I forgot to tell you that. Some are like "Blessing of God" or religious. Others are funny like "Red Falcon". And some don't make sense like "Kevin Orlando". Every bus I'm pretty sure has a picture of Jesus or some scripture reference. I remember one wasn't very religious cause it had a sign like "If you say you love God and hate my friend, I'll call you a liar. How can you love someone you've never seen/met." Something like that. Oh yeah, coolest thing ever. They have a train that runs through our area and it only cost 10 cents. It's cheaper than the buses! I'll try to take a picture. And it's like the buses because it stops every now and then to pick up/drop off. It literally dropped us off at the doorstop of some of our investigators. Tan chivo. (Apparently chivo/chiva/chivos/chivas is like "cool" here) (Yup. Goat is cool here.)

Well, I've got to, but I miss you guys and love you. It's freakin' hot here. But we had a sweet storm the other night. And we lost power for a bit too. Os amo.

Love,

Elder Gilreath

PS Our investigator passed (shame on me for doubting) so we got a baptism. You'll probably read the email before this letter...)

PSS I need more shoe polish stuff. I lost mine. :-)

November 1, 2010

First off. Noche de Brujas is lame here. They don't do anything. They know its Halloween. But is way boring here. Nothing fun to report about it.

I learned something interesting this week. The word Celeste in Spanish is light blue. It sounds a lot like Celestial. I love the fact that is Celeste in Spanish. Just an interesting tid bit. (And i saw some dude with a UNC hat. Made me happy.)

Alright, so...In Ciudad Delgado there's a Church called Tabernacle of Faith. Sometimes we walk by, and it always sounds like a rock concert is going on. One of those types. Anyways. So the other night we are walking to an appointment and we come across a crowd of people walking through the streets. Its the Tabernacle people. Basically doing a peace protest march. Through the streets. And all their banners said Jesus Is The Lord of Ciudad Delgado. That's it. It was like a religious march through the streets with their pastor dude shouting into his mike some religious stuff. It was pretty funny. I wish I had my camera. Some did come up and shook our hands and said god bless you. They're nuts. But they recognize missionaries.

Oh yeah. So I had to give a talk this week. I took like 2 hours or so to write it. Sunday morning, I´m feeling pretty good. I timed it at about 8 and half minutes. But the ward started late. And E Almendarez spoke a long time. SO I had like 5 minutes to talk. So on the fly I had to pull stuff out of my talk and obviously this all is in Spanish. It worked out all right. If you're wondering why we had talks, the subject was missionary work and I talked about how important the members are in the work.

And last but not least. The 1 and a half hour bus ride. We took a bus to rest our legs (E Almendarez idea) but it went like every where else in the world, then Ciudad Delgado. So we spent an hour and a half on the bus. It sucked. Not much else to say. Boring week other than that. Some progress with investigators.

Got to go. Love you all. Miss you all. Hope everyone has a good week.

Love Elder Gilreath