Vaya Pues‏

We had one small earthquake. shrug

so emergency changes equals being in trio for a week. Elder Velasquez is from Guatemala and came from Chelatenango because things are crazy in El Salvador. I took a picture of us in trio but it didn't save or something so that's that.

changes are Wednesday

nothing happened p much cus after buying $27 sandals, having the surgery (to fix ingrown toenails on both feet), and eating Papa Johns, I didn't do anything until Wednesday night when I left with the Ward Mission Leader to have all our lessons fall through in our neighborhood. I did read 4 Liahonas in 3 days though. Plus other stuff. Work was pretty meh because I'm out of touch right now and we're recovering the area after 2.5 weeks of bad work, so yeah. Vamos pues.

There is no time for all the details on the surgery. Just did digital blocks on my toes and pulled em out yeah then couldn't leave for 2 days or resume normal work til Saturday. Today is día numero uno (day number one) wearing shoes again. Had to spend $27 getting suitable sandals for the recovery in an Adidas store. We weren't told to bring any to the surgery, but we needed them, so we had to run to this upscale mall quick and find some that wouldn't bother my toes during healing. Being in malls is super unpleasant now. So much commercialism and stuff. Too American. Too much pisto. (pisto=money in El Salvador. Like half of the vocabulary changes from country to country in Centroamerica it's crazy. And it changes entirely, like words change to swears and back, or they won't even recognize the word at all.)

Might get packages at changes. Vamos a ver.

Adios

Elder Newman

meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh

shrug

things are pretty cool though don't get me wrong

That was spiffy‏

So, Elder E taught me how to snap on Friday. I'm figuring that out. I can now do a Z snap sometimes and synchronized West Side snaps. I have to catch up on a life of practice, but I still couldn't provide the snaps for a Poetry Slam or a spunky small choir.

We also had an earthquake Tuesday. That was spiffy. We had some pretty good lateral movement, but it only lasted about 25 seconds, so it didn't do real damage. We were about to leave the house when it started calming down, so it was kind of just an experience without consequence.

Work's been a bit hard. We've dropped a lot of investigators since they were either uninvested in their search or they were never at home, so we're trying to build ourselves back up. Did a ton better talking with people in the street. Going to keep that up.

Also had interviews with the Presidente y Hermana Vásquez. That was super good. Still on watch for training in the future.

Going to have my ingrown toenails taken out today, Gonna ruin my Pday and not be able to work for 2 days but whatevvvvvvvvvvvvs y'all

Oh, and it's been fresquiiiiiiiiito (cool) over here. Overcast and a bit rainy. Super comfortable.

Have some pictures cus I still mess with coins a lot and tried drawing with highlighters to mixed success.

Adios,

Elder Jacob Newman

Link to News about the El Salvador Oct. 13, 2014 Earthquake

7.4 Earthquake Hits El Salvador

(Click on the link and it will open the site in another tab.)

We have not heard anything from the mission president, and in cases such as these, no news is always good news.

you could even say that things *happened*‏

So, I'll be brief in describing this week because a ton happened.

First, we had exchanges Tuesday, so I was with Elder W in Santo Tomas for the day. He's still in training, we got rained on since San Salvador decided it was winter again after not raining for like 2 weeks and my himnal was quite put out by the experience.

We also had my birthday, which was pretty chill. We bought some Ding Dong knockoffs and put 19 matches in it, plus ordered le Pizza Hut. (also Sunday night my companion conspired against me and threw a birthday party thing.)

Zone Conference Saturday, plus the baptism of the M family!!! They'll be super good members. They were thinking about their sealing in the temple before their baptism even happened :>

There's these "houses" here called champas or champitas (example above) that are just made out of a wood frame and putting laminates as walls, roof, doors, etc, a few meters in dimension. My companion wants to live in one to get through college, just build one in the USU fields. (it's weird to go into a champa and see a Plasma TV but that happens)

Anyway, it was a pretty busy week and as such there are pictures (incredible).

My current goal is getting better at repentance. I have a hard time talking to the people in the street, but I hope to get better at that. Praying a lot. Elder E is super chill, and we get along well enough together that he's starting to pull minor pranks on me :y

I hope everything goes well, have a great week! Do the best with what you already have and make something more of it :> Happy October, the best month of the year (Christmas is the other best month)

Elder Jacob Newman, más o menos salvadoreño

I don't understand email titling well‏

We saw all of Conference in English, but there was a blackout for a few minutes of Pres. Uchtdorf's talk in Priesthood Session and we had to use church internet for the Sunday Morning Session, and it was really bunk, so we missed like 2 or 3 talks. Conference was pretty fantastic, but the rest of the week already feels like ancient history, beyond living memory. That's usually why I don't feel like there's much to write. But Pres. Uchtdorf's talk on Saturday Morning was super good. Light is one of my favorite gospel images, and astronomy one of my favorite sciences. He was speaking my language. There were also some really good tests and principles that are easy to apply. And listening to the 2 Spanish talks was good. Pres. Uchtdorf does his own translations in German, and his German voice is quite distinct from his English one (and some others do it for Spanish and Portuguese).

We have a baptism coming up this 11th. (and my birthday the 10th but that scarcely matters) The couple is beyond ready. The husband has a progressive lung disease that causes his lungs to shrink with time, and he has an incredible faith that his disease will die in the waters of baptism. He's already lucky that he doesn't use a respirator already, since they're usually necessary at 18 years (he's 28).

I don't really know what to do about my feet at this point more than pray and do feet baths. I also didn't know that ingrown nails are caused by them being too short, so I've definitely been making things worse this whole time. Elder E is also having weird stomach problems but we determined last night that it might be the chili he uses. The other elders in the Ward have it worse. One had Dengue last month and now Chinkongunya. It's also warming up since it's not raining much now.

But I feel generally happier right now. Gonna apply daily repentance and change some things from here on.

Have a good week! Feel the Spirit, and have continuous revelation!

Elder Newman