It´s crazy to me how fast this past week flew by! It seems like only yesterday I was emailing you all! everything here is good! its really hot which is probably weird to you all, I don´t have a thermometer and no way to chechk the temperature, but on a scale of 0 to really hot, its really hot. People tell me that Sonzacate is the hottest area in the El Salvador part of the mission. It is so good to hear from you all, even in the field it seems like I am in a little bit of a bubble, Mom had a list of things she wanted to hear more about so here it goes, Food. Pupusas are awesome! the only ones I have tried are bean and cheese, and chicken with cheese, but for some reason I can´t get enough of them! I try to eat them whenever I get the chance, lunch is the main meal here and we don't eat again until around 9! it amazes me that I can get through the day without starving. there is a lady that cooks lunch for us and it is always really good. Usually some form of fried rice, with meat, and a vegetable. they have this soda here called Kolochampan which I am in love with, its kinda like a banana creme soda, its amazing, not sure if they have it in the States. I also tried this fruit called Jacote and I am in love with that as well. Never heard of that one before coming here either.
Transportation, we walk around most of the time. Izalco is really hilly and by the end of the day my calves are usually a little sore, but the Echoes are holding up really well. When we need to go to Sonzacate for Zone conferences or to write emails we take a bus, it only costs 23 cents to ride so its pretty cheap. They cram as many people they can onto the buses and then drive like maniacs, but I love it, its way fun. They are all painted bright colors kinda like in Nacho Libre, I will try to get a picture of one for next week. Sending pictures here is kinda sketchy. We write emails in a little cyber cafe and if you want to send files you give your SD card to the desk and they put it on the server. Everyone at the cyber can access your pictures and probably delete them if they wanted. I am not a huge fan of that. I don´t think that I will be able to use dropbox, its against the rules plus the connection here is to slow.
My companion is awesome he is a hard worker and is really patient with me, which is awesome, my spanish is getting better! Its a far cry from the first day I got here but I still have a lot to learn. but we will keep trucking along.
Living conditions in the appartment are pretty primitive, we have a pila that we use for washing clothes, dishes, and showers. It has made me really appreciate hot showers, and a washing machine or dishwasher. But I don´t mind it at all. Its actually kinda fun.
Ward- the ward here is awesome, pretty small but they are super helpful and really friendly. last week there were 100 people that attended sacrament meeting. and there are about 300 ward members.. ouch. We are gonna try our best to get that up a little bit. But honestly everything is going fine. I was glad to hear that you sent the contacts, Hermana C said that the mail here is actually really fast and secure. There are over 2 million salvadoreans living in the states so there is a lot of mail that goes between the two countries. So the contacts should be safe. Thank you so much, Ill let you know as soon as they get here.
As far as investigators go we have quite a few but only a few are progressing, we are gona try and get more people to attend sacrament meeting this week. A phrase in Spanish that I hate is "primero Dios!" Its what they say most of the time we invite anyone to do anything, it literally means "god first" but what it really means is "There´s no way im doing that but I don´t want to say it to your face" Its a rough translation but that's they best I could come up with, its a very meaningful phrase. We have a couple dates during the next couple weeks, and there is this one guy O V who ran into us on the street and told us that he wants to join our church, he has been trying to get with the missionaries for 6 months or something its pretty cool. we have only had one lesson with him so far but he seemed way positive! ill keep you guys updated on everything I can! In your emails let me know what you want to hear about, otherwise my emails will be just be random thoughts that pop into my head.
It is awesome to hear that you all are working hard on your goals, It sounds like everyone is making a lot of progress! just so everyone knows my P-day is gonna be mondays, normally ill write a little before noon I think, today I had to go to San Salvador to get my El Salvador ID, which was quite a trip, San Salvador is HUGE!! but still really green. anyway love you all very much have a fantastic week!
