Izalco 13

Well to be perfectly honest not a whole lot has changed since I last talked to you guys four days ago. We did have a baptism this past Sunday, T F, she is this 83 year old lady and she is the sweetest person ever! It's a huge testimony to me that it's never too late to follow Christ. She is super sweet and super old too! I'm gonna try sending pictures but I'm not making any promises. myldsmail.net is being really dumb right now. Hopefully this upcoming Saturday we will have a wedding/baptism of the S family. It has been amazing to see the change in Hermano S, he has stopped drinking and there is just a light in his eyes that wasn't there before. He still can´t read but we are trying to see if we can figure out something about that. He recently got a job so hopefully he can support his family better. We are helping them make a house right now, I will take pictures the next time we pass by. It's been super fun to help build. I want to cut down a bamboo plant and make cups. The bamboo grows like 5-6 inches in diameter, so it could make a decent sized cup!

     So this Sunday we had 12 investigators at church which was super rewarding after a week of hard work. They are almost all super positive and hopefully they will all get baptized! But I don´t know if I will be there, we have changes on the 29th so who knows where I will end up! I'm guessing I will stay in Izalco for at least one more change, another pair of missionaries is going to come and I would need to show someone else around Izalco and where everyone lives. I guess time will tell. Right now I am in the market for a good machete. They are super useful for everything. If you want to eat coconut you have to have a machete to get through the husk, if you want to cut down little trees to build a house you have to have a machete, if you want to fend off wild boars you need a machete. So I have concluded that it is no longer a want but a need. ;) But don´t worry I'll be super careful. I'm an Eagle Scout after all! 

     I heard that there are some ruins close by Izalco so hopefully we can go try and check them out before changes. I'll keep you guys updated. Sounds like you all have had a good week and are doing well. Love you all and talk to you in a week!

Elder Schriever

Izalco 12

 Well family,

     It's been another crazy week.  This past week we went to help out one of our investigators build a champita, or a small, house/hut. Each morning we would take our machetes, I had to borrow one from the bishop seeing as I don´t have my own yet:( but we would go hike into a more jungly part of Izalco and cut down little trees, bamboo, and really anything we could find to piece together this house. There is a lot of work to go but we are making some progress. They ran out of string so we can´t really fasten the sticks to make the wall. Juan, the dad, is thinking about doing the rest with adobe. So this upcoming week we might go and help them with that. Should be way exciting! A year ago it would have been hard to imagine  that I would be hiking around the jungle looking for strait trees to chop down to make a house, but now that I am here I am in love with it. I have decided that a machete is much more practical than a hatchet or axe, they get these things so sharp and they can chop down a tree in a little over a minute. It was way cool! so when we go camping in the future I will leave the hatchet back home where it belongs and take the machete!

     We just got back from San Salvador, we went to the temple and it was awesome. Easily one of the most beautiful I have seen. I hope to go again soon. If I stay in this area for the next change the temple will be in the mission boundaries and hopefully I will get to go a little more often.

       I am getting used to life without any air conditioning but I still get really hot! Well that's about it for now. hope everything is going well with you guys! It sounded like you guys are doing fine from when I last talked to you. I hope I can send a few pictures a little later but we'll have to see how that goes.

Love you all! 

Elder Schriever

Izalco Week 11

Hello family 

     I´ve got good news and I've got bad news, Oh wait! No, there is only good news. We found out after I emailed last week that we will get to Skype on Mother's Day! We are going to try to do it at 6 pm El Salvador time, but it might be a little before a little after, just be ready I guess. (Mom- if you wouldn´t mind sending me contact solution that would be awesome, it's about $15 a bottle down here, I have a good portion of one bottle left and I'm being super careful with it but I could use some more) 

     As far as missionary work goes, this week was a huge success. We had a surprise baptism (a nine year old kid of a semi-active family) named W L. We taught twenty eight lessons with members this past week (the highest I've ever seen or heard of) thanks to the hard work of some of the members here we had seven investigators in the church! Unfortunately A's wife refuses to get married even after 40 years together and 14 kids, we tried to tell her that it wouldn´t change anything, and that it was basically a chance to eat free cake, but she refused to see reason. So for now we can´t really progress with A until his wife changes. But T is getting ready for her baptism and she is super awesome! Even though she is like 83 years old she is super healthy and active. A lot of people here are super thin, but really active. She is the sweetest old lady ever! There are two families that went to church, the P family and S family. We have been working with the P family for a little over a month and they finally could make it to church! I think they really liked it and should hopefully progress quickly now. We are always trying to find new people but for now it seems like we have our hands full. 

     We have really done a better job of keeping the house clean. Mom would be proud. It's hard to clean after a full day of work, but a little bit of effort at the end of the day makes a huge difference. We have bought light bulbs, and cleaning supplies to try and maintain it a little better. It feels good to have a cleaner house for sure!  We are hoping to paint it next P-day to try and liven it up a little bit. People here love bright colored houses and it really looks good if everyone does it. There are a whole bunch of tiny little houses but they are all sky blue, pink, orange, etc... it's really cool. 

     This upcoming week on the 17th we have a trip to the temple, I am super excited to actually go inside the San Salvador temple for the first time! It is a really pretty temple one the outside and I assume on the inside as well. Right now three of our investigators can´t read, so I am going to buy the church picture/painting book to help them visualize the stories and such. It's kinda tricky simplifying the lessons for people who can´t read, you can´t really read them scriptures. But we are trying our best to help them out. Anyway that's about it for this week! hope everything goes well! Love you all a lot!

Elder Schriever