I want a Pumpkin Pie but I am denied it‏

This past week hasn't been to particularly eventful, as I am given to say. Lots of appointments fell through but a lot also turned out well, no investigators came to Church but like 40 less actives came so that's pretty great, given that our chapel is right there.

We have a few contacts that are quite promising. We hope to meet a bunch this week and met one last night (follow up visit this evening about BAPTISM yeah), and yeah. Oh, and S M was baptized of course but I already sent that email :>

Our new building is awesome and entirely better than taking a 30 minute bus ride.

Going to work hard and remember things to write in the email home! YEAH!

All in all, it's been quite tranquilo (tranquil). Normal missionary stuff I guess. We have a visit to the Temple in December planned for investigators (just to tour the grounds and teach a bit about the Temple) and I think we have exchanges tomorrow. Probably. Quizas (maybe). We were supposed to have them twice last week but since one of the companions in Santo Tomas has only been there 1-2 weeks due to emergencies (Elder Wikan was sent home due to health problems), he isn't confident in the area.

I'll take pics of drawings one day because I'm still doing it but I'm too lazy.

Adios,

Elder Jacob Newman

Regina Spektor and Les Mis play in my head once in a while but I can't remember the lyrics except for Eet which is pretty appropriate if you ask me.‏

Things are going along. We're already almost halfway through this transfer which is super weird, 

The Open House went pretty fantastic Friday and more or less Saturday. There were some organization problems, but Friday was quite sublime, and Saturday had some success. The important thing is that there are more than a few referrals from members waiting to be filled and now that it's so close, it'll be way easier for everyone to attend. The Dedicación fue buena (the Dedication was good).

We're trying to build our relationships with quite a few investigators. We had some good talks with individual members of the Familia Lemuz, and 2 are close to accepting a baptismal date and we talked with one who had almost never talked with us. A Familia Lino we reeeeeeeeally hope to find and work with them this week. The father has read the Book of Mormon, has a testimony, and would be baptized in an instant, but they're not married (why is this a thing El Salvador being married is pretty good) and the wife doesn't have a testimony. They've been visited by the missionaries off and on for a very long time. Then Familia Perez Cañas has a lot of potential too, but we haven't found them in a while. Same with Ricardo Martinez. He's always busy as a mechanic but he's sincerely interested. Stupid gentile world.

Bagged liquids continue to be a bad idea but I continue having to use them.

Adios Elder Newman

I have absolutely no photos for you‏

I´m a dark blonde now. It's weird; I was just looking in the mirror in the church bathroom and my hair isn't brown. I'm so used to dark brown and here the sun went and bleached it. The mission changes people. :y

Not too much to report this week. Most of it was pretty slow, with a bit of lethargic sickness, meetings with Ward leaders, etc. Monday was intense, because we visited a Sister who's having a lot of problems right now and is falling out of Church attendance (we've also been visiting an investigator with her) and it was basically the Spirit requiring everything we had. We could barely move that night, we were so tired, and the next 3 days were the same, but now I'm back to normal energy levels.

Our local chapel is finally ready and we're having an open house this weekend. Here's hoping that all goes extremely well. All the people in the street are really interested, and it's a big deal to have meetings there again, since at the moment, we have to take a 30 min bus ride to our chapel and almost nobody has cars. It means like 0 investigators come to church too. But yeah, the 23 or 24th whichever is a Sunday we'll be meeting there again (for some reason they decided to dedicate the chapel at 2 this Sunday, i.e., after meetings).

Still not super good at doing street contacts (last night I had my first experience where I just couldn't do a contact. Like, I started talking then got 100% tongue-tied and couldn't speak worth beans. The one after that was a ton better. *shrug*) There's also some misunderstandings dealing with the open house between the various Wards and the Mission Leadership, but we just pray that they work out and I'm pretty sure they'll work out because prayer is a big deal and we all agree that the enemy is doing all he can to make sure that the Open House fails so yeah.

Scripture of the week: Doctrine and Covenants 10:5 (Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.)

PRAY ALWAYS AND YOU SHALL CONQUER (interesting to relate to Romans 8:36-39)

Adios,

Elder Jacob Newman

P.S. I have drawn things but not taken pictures of anything so yeah

hay un feliz pulpo que se halle en la tierra?‏ (Is there a happy octopus in the earth?)

This week went pretty well. Working with Elder V and Elder E was fantastic, but they both had changes. I'm staying in Los Alpes while Elder V went to Santo Tomas (which is still in our District so ni modo) and Elder E to somewhere in Apopa (probably. we didn't go to the transfers meeting and Elder F isn't 100% sure if he went to Apopa. Elder F is training right now :>).

Other news, Elder E taught me to light matches with one hand, peanut butter syrup is a thing, Scheherezade is still the best name ever and if one were to name a child that they could just go by Sche (pronounced Shay) if they wanted but it's still probably a bad idea to name a child that.

Bro. M made me feel really good. I didn't feel like I'd contributed to his baptism because Familia M is super awesome and all but he said that something I said in the second lesson I had with them (he didn't specify what) was what inspired him to make the decision to be baptized in the end. I mean, patently that's just the Spirit working but it's cool anyway.

Elder R is my new companion. He has 2 weeks more than me in the mission, is from Honduras, and the most active member of his family. We're getting along super well and he wants to learn English so we've been singing a lot in English.

Tuesday before changes we also contacted an inactive Sister based on some member localization sheets the Elders Quorum gave us and it was awesome. She was sick from a miscarriage (though they managed to save the child), and expressed a desire to return to Church. She went inactive when her first child was born, but now that he's a teenager, she wants him in the church so that he doesn't go off doing crazy stuff. Her husband isn't a member, but they're legally married (like 10% of El Salvador is actually married) and he left his old church because they didn't accept their marriage (he's a fair bit younger than her). But yeah. Lots of potential. Second visit fell through but that's par for the course. Gonna keep working there.

That's it for this week, minus that today was my first time showering with a pila. We didn't have water this morning so I had to use water from the pila. Pilas are a thing here where it's basically a large basin of stagnant water reserves that's always super cold and you just use a bowl kind of thing to scoop water to wash your hands, throw water on yourself, pour it in the toilet to make it flush, etc. It's pretty ghetto but it's better that we're using the pila cus if you don't mosquitoes just start breeding in them (we also have a thing that prevents them from breeding in the pila but it only like half works).

Adios,

Elder Jacob Thomas Newman

Los Tres Amigos

Having fun during Day of the Dead

New Companions

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.