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. :-)