Pictures Posted on Facebook

Sisters Vazquez, wife and daughter of the Mission President, President Vazquez, posted these pictures on Facebook, along with many others pictures of other missionaries. Some were taken during an event they arranged at the San Salvador LDS Temple. Missionaries were asked to bring anyone interested to see the temple and to learn about the plan of salvation while there. Lots of people came, some from far away. Elder Newman was able to participate in the event this time. Other photos were taken during zone conferences. (This is the main reason I put up with Facebook! :D )

vaya pues‏ (go for it)

The curfew was just because the gangs had declared a stop on public transport and some buses got burned. We weren't really ever at risk, but it was just a precaution. 

So last week was the slowest week I've had in the mission :>

Well, the curfew ended, but as a consequence, we lost contact with all the new investigators we had found, and given we had dropped nearly all of our old investigators... and it was the week of las fiestas de San Salvador, which means everyone is on vacation except for our positive investigators. It was weirdly difficult. But we have high hopes for this week and by the weekend it stopped being quite so ridiculous. My fever was gone by Monday or Tuesday and it was replaced by a full body rash for a while but that`s gone too so I am now fully healthy :>

Oh, and Elder W went home Tuesday after choir practice, so it's just Elder P and I in a duo. It's weird going from a trio to a duo (more than going from a duo to a trio).

I'm also practicing in a choir. A General Authority is coming to the mission in a few weeks and we're prepping How Firm a Foundation. I'm doing the tenor part, and this experience has actually taught me quite a bit about singing. It's a bit chafa since we have to go to Ilopango for the practices (an hour or more in bus, one way), which made us lose a good bit of time last week too, but así que se vaya. I like singing anyway.

There isn't too much more that's happened. Hope to follow the Spirit and feel a bit more of the fire this week :> So, echen fuego, hagan lo mejor que puedan, y vayan con todo! (Throw fire, do the best you can, and go with everything!

Elder Newman

And remember to hear the music of the Gospel! If you don't enjoy what you have to do in the journey, you won't enjoy the end product very much either!


OH AND THE BAPTISM PHOTO FROM LAST WEEK

it is preparation day today‏

This week was a week.

More than anything, we´re under a curfew again. We had to enter at 7 all week, which is a bit of a shame because most of the investigators we had found the week before as well as la familia V were only available in that time period. And I´ve had a low fever since Thursday but that´s not that big a deal. Just means I´m a bit more tired than I´d be anyway, since I´m always tired.

But R S had a wonderful baptism. He has a teacher age son who has been baptized for 5 years and he finally decided to do it as well. The whole family came, as the mother and an older daughter who are still very Catholic. He thanked us at the end for helping him make the right decision. It was the first time I saw him in a white shirt :>

We also saw a weird pigeon. It had an extremely long and bloated neck which made it nearly incapable of flight. It tried to fly onto a roof and after a very slow ascent tried to land but fell too quickly and hit the wall. :< poor pigeon. It was a really weird looking thing. There´s also a chicken that looks like it has white fur and blue skin. Elder W calls it the abominable snowchicken.

It was a good week.

Elder Newman

"kiwi is the father of all fruit" - I don't remember why someone was talking to us about fruit‏

So I actually could have been loading photos most Mondays but I was so used to computers not having an SD port that I didn't check in the ciber that we currently use. :> So here's a brief summation of these pictures:
a picture of Elder W and Elder P doing nothing, Pollito (Little Chicken), Elder V burning trash in the backyard, and me with the Ward Mission Leader of Los Alpes during the change meeting with an investigator who just got baptized! I started teaching him when I was over there, and he got baptized a week before changes and wanted to come to the change meeting to see the mission.

Important news: we found a lot more people this week. Most of them were kind of weird, but así que se vaya (that's how it goes). Jehovah´s Witness, Catholics, Evangelicals, etc. Last night we found a self-proclaimed hippie who is super cool. We were looking for another reference when he saluted us with "Elder" and when we couldn't find the reference, we went and talked with him. He used 2 arm-canes to walk and has crazy hair and had an ash tray and a pistol on a table in front of him, while watching the Tour de France, but it worked out well. A large chunk of his family just got baptized in another area, and he liked the talks he had with the Elders there.

So yeah. Life is liffing at a rather liffy pace.

And yesterday all of our plans exploded and came to naught (which was ok in the end) because we were asked to attend a training meeting for Ward Councils by Pres. Vásquez and we also attended a Stake Bishopric Meeting. It was cool seeing how Stakes work even though we didn't strictly do anything.

And of course we're now in a trio, since Elder P joined us due to emergency changes Tuesday. He's the first person I've met from Belize! Belizeños speak British English with a Latino accent! So we all still speak too much English. His mother is from Ahuachapan, El Salvador, and his paternal grandparents are from México.

And R S is all clear to get baptized this Saturday! It's super great because he's had a ton of contact with the Church but only recently decided to try it out and repent! His 14 year old son was baptized 5 or so years ago.

And Antonio Ayala, a recent convert, finally received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday! That's super important since that was like my first assignment from the Bishop when I got here 4ish months ago, preparing him for that.

And Familia V came to Church and C U will probably get married which means he can get baptized! Yay!

That's all for now!

Elder Newman

I also found this on the Meet the Mormons disk it's so perfect
Mormon Messages for Youth

(No Subject)

This week had some downs but some ups too. The familia Vásquez is super fuerte, and Hermano S decided that he really did want to get baptized, so his baptismal date for August went from trivial to substantial! La familia V is going to start doing FHEs and the Hermana wants to read the Book of Mormon an hour a day. Fantastic! We mostly just want to find more positive families, because that hasn't been coming along well, and you can only teach a given family so much. We're going to try to find a bunch of old investigators and explore neighbourhoods that I've never worked in.

Elder W taught me a bit about photography. I'm feeling pretty good about a Math Major and study Logic and CS in addition. But there are always too many good things to study :> Maybe I'll just have to audit a ton of classes or be a professor and just convince everyone to let me into their classes. Learning and not knowing yet but coming to know is the best. He got registered for BYU last week.

I decided that my goal for the rest of the mission is behaving and thinking and doing like Christ. So I'm going to study PMG 6 a good and healthy bit. I feel like PMG 6 is mission success, so if I focus on it constantly, I find it improbable that I should fail.

But yeah. That's my life! Tell me if you find out anything cool (Scriptures, books, art, whatever)! Truth is the best :> . D&C 136:32-33! Live for glory!

¡Nos veeeeeeeeeeeeemos! ¡Edifiquen Sión!

Elder Newman

PS. We decided that we love geckos and we killed a rat in our house with the whiteboard.

Elder Nigman, Elder Nelman, Elder Winters, Elder Winners‏

(I figure the above title are all the names he and his companions have been called instead of their real names, as the members try to pronounce their gringo names :) )

So, changes! Elder V is in my old area in San Marcos, so I sent some letters with him (another Elder in the Zone went to my area in Usulután, so more letters!).

My new companion is Elder W (gringo número 3). He's from Ohio. The members find it kind of funny that I just have a bunch of companions coming in and going out as if it were a revolving door and I the attendant. And it's worse because Elder W goes home in 3.5 weeks (he'll leave before the transfers meeting so that he can go to BYU). That means 100% chance of emergency transfers yeaaaaah. But we have way too much in common. He did LD debate too and I remembered everything about social contract and deontology and all that jazz. We talk a bit too much about art and moral philosophy. He also likes Regina Spektor and everything and later today I'm going to help him choose classes for BYU since he got permission and has never done it. My reading list for when I get home has grown in size, especially since my companion is a Kant junkie and I always liked the summaries of Kant that I've heretofore studied. But we, being debaters, have our ridiculous sense of humors come out way easily (lengua del corazón--language of the heart),

One of the sons of Hermano V read half the Book of Mormon last week so that's good, plus they're committed to get married and everything. The whole family is fascinated by the Book because they all have studied it with real intent and it is just different from everything else. We have two investigators that went to Church asked for copies of the Liahona to read and we saw one of them in the afternoon sitting outside his house with it. :> This area is kind of hard and sometimes has the most negative people I've ever known (a reference made up an address, a phone number, and an appointment why do you try so hard :y ), but there are some fantastic, fantastic, people always.

But yeah, that's the week. Things feel pretty good and we have some good goals. I want to memorize a scripture a day and we both plan on doing exercise.

But yeah, nos veeeeeeeeemos! Echen fuego! Edifiquemos Sión!!!!!!! (We are going! Throw fire! Let us build Zion!)

Elder Newman

In which the 4th of the July was celebrated‏

This week was kind of slow because Elder V was suffering severe body pain from the waist down. So in that respect, not too much happened. I wrote a ton of letters to converts, read a lot of the Teachings of the Prophets, etc. The 4th of July passed without import.

Yesterday we had a good activity in the Stake. I finally received my birthday present from the Church, es decir (that is to say), I finally saw all of Meet the Mormons (which came out my last birthday). One of the important pieces of doctrine I got out of it is that it doesn't matter so much what you do as how you do it. God doesn't have one life planned out neatly for you- you can do many things and equally please God. There isn't just one career that is a perfect match, because you'll be able to build the kingdom in whatever path you choose. (the same principle I believe applies to marriage. There is no soulmate, rather, you have many options and being married under the laws of eternity, the spouse gradually becomes your soulmate).

I have ingrown toenails again :> And we cleaned the house this morning and I read the entire book of Revelation. You can do a lot before 10 AM.

Elder V received notice that he has transfers last night. So Wednesday, I'll be receiving a new companion. This is only the 2nd time that I'll spend so much time in 1 area. I suppose that there's still bastante que hacer (enough to do).

So yeah, that's the week I guess. La vida es buena (Life is good), we're here to be happy, and as such, happiness is never out of our reach. Let us be saved!

Glory to the Good God who reigns!

Elder Newman