More Interesting Stories

So, this week was pretty eventful. We had two days where we had very few lessons and the whole week hasn't been great insofar as getting successful contacts, but otherwise, a lot happened.

Did exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Tuesday. Their area is just across the bridge, but it's totally different as far as financial prosperity and all that. People have cars and paved roads. :0 But yeah, I learned a lot, and I did splits with Elder Gibson, who's been out for 22 months. A lot more English than usual, and I slept in a hammock that they have at their house.

Friday, we had interviews with President Vásquez, and I'm pretty fond of him. I'm probably going to do training or something on my 3rd-5th change, because everyone has told me as much and they kind of expect me to do leadership stuff. Zone Conference on Saturday that was pretty normal insofar as I know.

Saturday, I got ¿robbed? for the first time. All the drunks start appearing on your 3rd week, just so you know. So, we were waiting at the door of an investigator's house, and this guy just comes up to us, clearly drunk, and talking to us. I don't understand drunken Spanish, but we opened our backpacks and showed him we were only carrying books. So we gave him a Law of Chastity and Restoration pamphlet, hugged?, talked with a family member of the investigator while he was waiting, and then parted ways. :y It was really weird.

Yesterday, we helped clean up a house that got burned through. The work wasn't especially hard, but it was unpleasant to see. THe only things that survived (minus the house, being concrete), where the Church materials and the surfaces they immediately rested upon. The copies of the Book of Mormon had the outside blackened a bit, even when the shelf they were on was black and breaking to the touch. Where the copies had been set, the wood was good as new. In other places I found warped metal, and literally everything was burnt, so it was interesting to see.

Oh, and I'm learning a lot about architecture possibilities. SInce they build their homes directly here, they do what they want. Wish I could use a building sim or something to just tinker with stuff :>

Only pictures for this week are from an art book I'm doing to help teach lessons. Can't think of anything to draw for the Atonement because my drawing isn't really suitable for the sacred nature of it, but c'est la vie.

Adios,

Elder Newman

We gotta get right back to where we staaaaaaarted from‏

How's it going? Things have been going pretty normally I guess. We contacted 3 new families yesterday and I am know mildly proficient with a machete. I mean, my hand got a really bad blister after like 20 minutes of cutting, but the handle was broken and kept shifting so no mea culpa. I also cut my hand on a rock because the rocks were in the way of the machetes, so that was an adventure. Then, some investigators poured some red stuff on my hand to help the blister heal (I was fasting and a bit out of it, so I didn't resist), so my hand is now stained pink. It's starting to come off a little. SO service is an adventure.

OH, funny story. A few days ago, the lights in the street went out, and it's just really bad when it's like that, so we were headed home and we had to pass the gangsters' home, and while we were passing, one yelled at us, "Mormones! Don't worry, we watch out for you!" We said thanks and continued to walk briskly. That is really reassuring though. The police were hanging around there a few days later. They all have military grade assault rifles here and are dressed in fatigues, so it's a bit disconcerting and sometimes at night they point their lasers and their flashlights at us and it's just like "We're the least dangerous people in the area-- just passing-- hi." But they're police so it should be fine.

Oh, and I really kind of miss the non-LDS stuff that was just really uplifting. Like, the other night I was just pondering Ira Glass' speech about how taste precedes talent and how that causes an obscene amount of stress, Ira Glass is pretty great, and I kinda wish I didn't have to go 2 years without checking my Vimeo playlist of favorite videos. Courtney knows where to find them. Probably. And that's just how it is. I have a good enough memory that I can remember the gist and generally what Ira Glass sounds like, so it's good.

Oh, and our laundry lady has the most obnoxious dog that refuses to leave you alone and jumps on you and gets all your clothes dirty when you just gave up every shirt but the one you're wearing to be cleaned and please don't bite my pants that really makes no sense why bite pants

Hope that the week to come is pretty much fantastic from a generally trustworthy viewpoint that tends to have a higher standard of fantastic things

Elder Newman

[Pics of a cement relief of Guatemala]

P.S. These are all my pics that I've got right now. The last one is a fire in our backyard that I assume my companion set to burn trash. We've also got my home, some bad pictures of the Guatemala and San Salvador temples, and one of the volcanoes. And my selfie game is so mad that I can set it on something and make sure I'm in front of it and I'll be in the picture. INCREDIBLE. As opposed to getting my pants or a wall, as is usual.

San Salvador‏

I've arrived safely in El Salvador and am currently in the mission home. All is well.

Sorry for the brevity, but there's things to do.

Adios,

Jacob Newman

[Elder Newman's group on their last day at the CCM. He's in back row, second from left.]

[I assume this is their last pic at the CCM--on their way to their assigned areas. See him squished  into the left side of the van? Good thing he's a string bean :) ]

Elder Newman‏'s Arrival in San Salvador--Email from the Mission President

Hello,

We are the Glaziers in San Salvador. We received Elder Newman here. He is very well prepared and has great faith. We are grateful to serve with him here in this part of the Lord's vineyard. Thank you for preparing him so very well--he is a fine young man. I hope your family receives many blessings for the sacrifice you have made to bring the gospel to many of God’s children here on earth. I know you will see God’s hand in your life and the life of your son during his mission. One of the promises of God to his missionaries is that they will be protected and watched over.

His preparation day is every Monday. He can write and read your email on that day. He sends his love to all of you.

The best way to send packages is by US mail as these will arrive directly to our office without any fees or problems. The address to send packages to is:

            Elder Jacob Newman

Misión El Salvador San Salvador Este

PO Box # 3362

San Salvador, El Salvador

Central America

We love our missionaries.  We love and appreciate their faithful families.  We pray that, together, we will all grow in our personal conversion to the Lord.  Our mission theme is: "I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, and will be until the day I die."  We are working diligently to convert more than just the people of El Salvador.  We so appreciate your faith and prayers on behalf of all our missionaries here.

Love,

President and Sister Glazier

San Salvador El Salvador East Mission

Me falta una semana; venga rápidamente el campo‏

So, this week has been a mix of highly and not at all eventful! Market day was market day, and it was really cool. I absolutely love the environment here, and it was extremely exciting, although I didn't buy anything (Elder Carver got a chess set). Went to Wendy;s, which was weird, but the plaza was interesting. 

 

I'm sitting on about $10 in Quetzales and hoping I can find something to use them for. The proper army of pigeons was distracting, and I unfortunately let my timidity get in the way of doing contacts properly, but between everyone, we placed 5 copies of the Book of Mormon and my District is really fired up to do practices and get out in the field, which is what I was praying for, anyway. In the Evening Devotional, we saw like 5 people from my BYU Ward so Elder Strein and I were just having a good time (including Elder Tyler Persson, one of my roommates :> ).

 

Since then, it's been pretty chill. This morning may have been the last Temple Trip for a looooooong time. Some Salvadoran Elders say that most parts of El Salvador are more or less like here, which I don't mind since it hasn't been bad at all. I've also heard of some difficulties we'll probably find there (My teacher had a Hermana at the MTC from El Salvador who didn't know what the Gospel was, or more so, what a question was). I'm still District Leader, and things have been pretty solid in the District, and the CCM in general. This group is better than the last one in some areas, but punctuality and noise has been way worse. We've been teaching 2-3 practice investigators every day besides Sundays and P-Day, such that it was weird only having 1 yesterday.

 

All es lo que es. I probably won't get to write next week, almost certainly not the general email and only maybe a "I haven't died email" to my immediate family, so just be aware of that. I've been drawing a bit, doing a lot of scripture memorization, and am about to break p 500 in the Libro de Mormon. Not bad for 3.5 weeks. And recounting Twilight Zone episodes is terribly enjoyable. Just storytelling in general. I'll probably make some storybooks or something like that for the lessons, to help teach children and people who don't know Spanish/poorly educated.

 

Yeah, exciting tiiiiiiimes. Just remember, 1) we're going to Build ZION, 2) find the words of life and treasure them up because they are the beeeeeeeeest!

 

Adios for this week, and thanks to everyone who's written me :>

 

Elder Jacob Newman

El Sol Octagonal‏

Well, I've been a missionary for a month now, and come Wednesday, I'll have been a serving one for a month. This is mostly important because it means we'll be in the field soon. Between a few devotionals, Presidente Cox's messages, and now my spiels about Building Zion during District Meetings, I kind of want to get to work.

 

Speaking of which, this transfer day when the MTC is empty, we get to do a city tour of Guatemala City, esp. the Old City! That'll be great just because we'll finally be able to get out and about for a while. We've been within a 2x1/2 mile rectangle for the whole time we've been here (and that might be generous). We even get our cameras back for that day (though I won't be able to send photos until later). Most importantly, we've been cleared to do street contacts while we're out. They haven't been doing those at the CCM for a time because missionaries were misusing the time and freedom it entailed (same reason we're not currently permitted cameras, minimal contact with Hermanas). We're hoping to place 3 LdM. But yeah, we'll only have 2 weeks left, and as many as 35 nortes are coming in this week, such that there'll be more nortes than nativos. It'll be weird being the CCM veterans this time around.

 

Last week was rather sickly tho. I even had a fever for an evening and was extremely tired, and pretty much everyone was a little under the weather. Another missionary got a concussion during sports and a missionary from the field is on his way to the States for medical treatment. We're fine though, and it's the sickly time of the year in Guatemala, what with the rainy season starting. And our Distrito is working things out. One companionship was having a really hard time getting along, but they're doing better, and we're all setting goals to work harder and all that. So it should be good.

 

Also Job 38 is my favorite rebuke, coming from someone who doesn't care for rebukes. So poetic. One thing though, is that the Santa Biblia often lacks the same poetry as the King James Version. Specifically, Romans 8:38-39 is way better in the English.

 

Alright and Adios,

 

Jacob Newman

 

P.S. The Building Zion thing is really cool, though. We're doing stuff that Moses, Elijah, and every other leader of dispensations haven't done: building the Kingdom of God to last into the eternities. As such, we're empowered to do stuff they couldn't, and have access to different forms of power. I mean, we're doing essentially the same thing as Enoch and Melchizedek. We have a generation very much out of order, but we can also prepare them to conceivably meet God within their lifetimes. I can't really explain the full thing here, but yeah. It's A+.

 

We're gonna raise a New Zion to the Glory of God!

no queshtun‏

So, I'm at the meridian of time in the MTC here, so we're all kind of ready to leave over here. Presidente Cox has the mixed blessing of really making us want to get out in the field right now. But yeah, we're halfway there.

Last week has been about as crazy as it gets down here. All the nativos moved out, plus some of the nortes, and they've been replaced. Each new group of nortes is just getting bigger; the most recent is 11 people strong (only 3 elders and they're in the other branch but w.e). Peter Strein, who was one of the other Assistant Ward Clerks at BYU is here now. The rededication has come and gone, which was pretty cool but I don't really know what to tell you guys about it? And I'm District Leader for the next two weeks. I haven't done much yet, but I'll prolly do something more by the end I guess.  Oh, and Elder Carver was inhibitively sick yesterday (there have been a few sicknesses running around since the new group came in), so I was half Zone Leader last night (emphasis on half cus I'm definitely not a ZL right now). It wasn't really a big deal, but it kept me busier.

Otherwise, things are pretty chill. I can hold conversations with the hispanos down here, even if I have to guess what they're saying about a third of the time. But it's working. Vocabulary still needs work but that's that. More or less on track with my LdM reading (I'm up to Mosiah, though), investigator lessons, etc etc. I have run out of things to memorize though. They have us do el Proposito, First Vision, and DyC 4, but I finished DyC 4 last week, which leaves me little more to do in that vein. My District does have a propensity for creating slang, but that's not actual Spanish.

What do I even write about normally I can't remember for the life of me. It's hard enough remembering last week. Things are happening and all that, but I don't have a clue what's worth telling.

But yeah, Guatemala is Guatemala, I'm a bit impatient to get out in the field, and ~shrug~ Rainy season is starting and we're leaving the CCM [Spanish abbreviation for MTC--Mission Training Center] right before the ridiculous wave of nortes [Americans] comes in. The day after we leave, 60 nortes will come. Weird. Oh, and we know the reason why I got switched to the Guatemala CCM instead of Mexico: Hermana Cox called right as all the reconstruction was finishing and was like we just spent a bunch on reconstruction so we need people to fill it. So that's that.

Gmail/myldsmail looks weird today. I guess that's something. I heard that Thailand's government was overthrown and Ukraine is fighting the Russians/secessionists/whatever.

Adios,

Jacob Newman

Have a good week!