It was so great to hear from all of you! I'm sure you guys are all nervous about who my companion is so here goes: His name is Elder W, a gringo from Arizona. He is pretty tall and thin, and a hard worker. This past week we worked harder than I ever had. The days were packed! We got nine lessons in on two of the days and 8 on the others. It was nuts. He has twenty months in the mission so his Spanish is really good too which is nice. Elder N was transferred to an area called El Molino in Santa Ana as a ZL- craziness.
So as you can see from the subject, this week marked the start of the rainy season. Make sure to thank Aunt Laura for the dry bag, it has come in very handy! Normally it has rained for about half an hour to an hour every day so far. To me it seemed like it was raining hard but people tell me that its just a sprinkle here in El Salv. It really didn´t help us out on Sunday morning when we were running around trying to get people to go to church. People look for the smallest excuse not to go and the rain was a convenient excuse. But it was a good indicator of who really wants to go. In answer to Dad's question I normally only carry my camera on Sundays or when we have some sort of special reunion, which is when we need to wear "Manga Larga" so that's why all of the pictures are of me in long sleeves. Normally it is short sleeves for me and I love it.
One thing nice about the rain is that it packs down all of the dust that was there before. One of the pictures I am going to send shows my shoes and pants after a day of working, they get pretty dirty. A bit of good news is that this upcoming change for sure they are going to open Izalco II so we have to look for a house. But its good to know that our work has merited a new companionship here. Right now with all the new missionaries coming in they are opening up a ton of new areas. Possibly two in our zone this coming change. Oh and Elder R got moved to Ponderosa so now we are in the same zone! This morning we got together with some other companionships and played some basketball. It made me realize how out of shape I am! Yikes! Maybe I can talk Elder W into running in the mornings.
Elder W and I have discovered guacamole and hotdog sandwiches.The bishop's wife has been giving us avocados from their trees and they are amazing! I really wish you guys could try them! The rain I believe marks the end of Mango season because they start to rot so we need to hurry and eat as many as humanly possible, and find some other fruit to eat. This week the bishop's wife gave us fresh guanabana juice! It reminded me of years ago when we used to buy it from WinCo! Back in grade school if I remember right. It was way good. There is this other fruit called Maranon. I am not a huge fan but it's starting to grow on me.
Right now we don´t have anyone with a baptismal date but we are getting close with a few people. I will keep you posted for sure. Thank you all so much for writing me so diligently, I know I can´t answer you individually but I appreciate your sacrifice and will try to do what I can. As far as calling home in May I'm not sure if we will get to Skype or not. Elder N made it sound like skype was on Christmas and we called on Mother's Day. But truth be told, I'm really not sure.
Well I hope you all have a great week and that everything goes well! Love you all!
Elder Schriever
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| dirty shoes after walking in the mud all day |
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| guacamole hotdog sandwiches |
