Izalco!!!

Hey Fam,

 If there was a theme song for this week it woud be ¨Psycho¨by Mudd. On tuesday, I believe it was, I woke up sitting up in my bed with my hands out in front of me holding an invisible book of mormon, teaching. When my companion turned on the light and woke me up I was inviting the investigator to choose who was going to say the prayer. But I was speaking and dreaming in Spanish so that's good. I still felt like a freak though but we at least get a few good laughs out of it. 

     This drunk athiest guy keeps shouting at us in the park as we walk by, it's kinda funny what he says but at the same time we try not to make a scene so we just kinda keep walking. I don´t have a  lot of time because we are going to President's house after to eat lunch. President Hintze comes in four days and the mission will divide when he gets here, so the next few days will be full of interviews, multi-zone meetings, and whatnot. It's gonna be sad to say goodbye but there will be a lot of new areas and new people so I won´t have much time to dwell on people in the other mission or President Cordón, but he is awesome, a very inspired man. 

     You guys talked about how you didn´t go to the conference yesterday, which was unfortunate. It was very good. They talked a lot about how finding new investigators, rescuing inactive members, strengthening the strong members, and doing family history work is all related and we shouldn´t think of them as seperate. I especially liked the talk by Boyd K. Packer. 

      As far as interesting foods/fruit this week I tried mamón peluda aka lychee. I will try to send pictures  but it's the fruit that is in that one Taiwanese jello. I also had Mora soup, its kinda like a spinach soup but tastes a little better than spinach in my opinion. 

       This week we made some progress with the V Famiy, they are super awesome but if they all get baptized it will be a miracle. They were the "starter" family for the Tabernaculo Biblico church here in Izalco. Or basically they were a strong famiy that came here and helped their missionaries get the church started. But the mom told us the other day that she is going to get married and baptized, we will have to see what the husband has to say but fingers crossed! We found some new investigators up in this place called Teschal, a little bit of a walk to get there but it's super pretty up there, lots of fields and a pretty good view of the volcano. Okay that's it for time. Love you all and have a great week! I want to see more pictures!

Elder Schriever

Izalco

Well family 

   It sounds like you all had a really busy week! Same here as well. As always we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to find new people, trying to teach the people we have, and convice all of the inactive people to come to church. By the end of the day I am beat for sure. But it is a very satisfying beat. Lately all of my dreams have been of teaching people, so I really feel like I am teaching all day and all night. A lot of times I wake up and I´m still talking to the "investigator" from my dreams and I wonder what I´m doing in my bed. 

     We found four new families to teach this week which was really exciting. I'm not sure how it will turn out but they were at least willing to talk to us and let us come back! Right now our only problem is that we don´t have enough hours in the day to talk to all the people we need to. But I guess thats not a terrible problem to have. This morning we were going to go to Santa Ana to have lunch at President's house, but he had to make a trip to Belize so we didn't get to go :( But thats okay, right now is just a crazy time for the mission in general. President Hintze comes on the 28th, we have a multizone on the 25th, and interviews with President Cordón on the 20th - 25th. Most likely when President Hintze comes he will have a mission meeting with all of the missionaries from both departments so the next little bit should be packed full of meetings, and administrative stuff. It's kinda exciting all of the changes but really it doesn´t make any difference in day to day life. 

     This week every morning I made papaya licuados, its basically whole milk, papaya, ice and sugar all blended up. They are amazing just so you guys know. There is a really good pupusaria just across the street from our house so we take advantage of that a lot right now. I had an interesting soup this week its called mora soup. It's basically a more bland spinach with potatoes and broth. Nothing very exciting but very authentic. 

      Okay time for a Spanish mix up story. There is a guy in the ward that got married less than a month ago. So I wanted to ask him "so how´s the life as a married man?" and to say that you would say "¿y qué tal la vida de un marido?" but what I said was "¿y qué tal la vida de un marero?" (How's the life of a gangster?) Marero is the term for the gangsters here, thug. Rest assured I got a weird look and a few laughs from the people that heard. But it's all good, nothing too serious. 

     The rainy season is officially in. At seven pm every day it rains, hard. This past thursday was especially bad. I have never seen rain like that before! There was lighting every two seconds, and the rain was coming down in sheets. It lasted for about 1.5 hours too, some of the streets were flooded and I was soaked, despite my rain poncho. But it was awesome I love the rain, its like a free shower! And it washes away the sweat from the day. The only problem is that during the lessons the rain on the sheet metal roofs sounds like a marching band is going at it just outside the door, and we can´t hear anything. So to talk you have to teach and yell almost at the top of your lungs. It makes me feel like a baptist preacher screaming repentance at the top of my lungs. My favorite thing to do when it rains is sing "Paz, Calmase" (Master, the Tempest is Raging) It makes me smile. 

     Anyway hope you all are doing well and having a good time, take care of  yourselves and have fun.  Okay have a good one talk to you later!

Elder Schriever

IZALCO!!!

Hey Fam!

    Well this week was a pretty sweet. Right now we are busy trying to find new people to teach, which always makes for some interesting times. You never run into the weirdos and crazies like when you are contacting. There were a couple of days where it seemed like we had talked to everyone and no one wanted to listen. On Thursday we had contacted for almost 3 hours and found nobody. It was 8:40 and we were starting to make our way back towards the house, a couple blocks from the house we saw a little comedor, that sells hamburgers and smoothies, for about a dollar each. So we figured we instead of doing L.P.E (lecciones para encontrar) we would do H.P.E (hamberguesas para encontrar) not to be confused with P.P.E (pupusas para encontrar) anyway we ordered our food and then while they were making it we started talking to them. He wasn´t very interested at all. But he did tell us that his dad was going to the stake center in Sonzacate. But when we payed and left we left a pamphlet of the plan of salvation with our names and phone number. 

     I went back to the house kinda frustrated. I had been praying hard all week to find the people that are looking for the gospel, because I know they exist. I remember a conference quote by one of the apostles that goes something like ¨with an increase in the number of missionaries the lord is preparing more hearts. Anyway I was frustrated and anxious after not finding anyone the whole day. But Saturday night we were walking by and the guy from the comedor was in the doorway. He called us over and said that he really liked the pamphlet we left him and wanted to learn more. We taught him a quick lesson because we had another appointment and set a return date for Tuesday. It was definitely an answer to my prayer and a huge blessing. We'll see what happens. 

     For the most part everything is going really well. We finally got a blender and I can´t wait to start making papaya smoothies. I would like to start eating healthier and I´m hoping that a fruit smoothie every morning will help me do that. A member family the other day gave me a 1 colón coin. Colónes are what El Salvador used before switching to the dollar, and they are somewhat difficult to find. It was pretty sweet. 

     Anna mentioned that you guys went to a Cuban restaurant and ate lots of platanos and yucca. In answer to your question yes they eat a ton of that here. Fried Yucca is really good, and in soup. A traditional breakfast here is: pan fried bananas, Casamiento (refried beans mixed with rice) eggs, and sour creme. It is easily one of my favorite meals here. They also eat lots of yucca especially out in the bush. 

     Well It sounds like you all are doing well and having fun, at least for the most part. Love you all and wish you the best. 

Elder Schriever

IZALCO II!

Well fam,

     As you can probably tell from the subject of this email I took a long trip from the area of Izalco to Izalco II. haha They told me about an hour after I wrote you guys but it was too late to let you guys know. And I got made Senior Comp! Crazy! I´m sorry if I sounded down last week I really wasn´t I promised. I honestly don´t mind that you sold the truck, I have learned not to get too attached to things. Okay back to Izalco II, all it really entailed was packing my suitcases and getting them about 6 blocks away. We spent most of the past couple weeks just frantically looking for a house. Houses for rent here are super hard to find. we found one Tuesday night, luckily and moved in Wednesday afternoon. Really not that far away at all. My new comps name is Elder U, another Honduran. He seems nice enough, has a year in the mission. Nice guy. 

      These next couple of weeks will be a little tricky, we need to find a ton of new people to teach. We were doing really well in Izalco but even with that when you divide it in half its not a ton of people to teach. Right now we are trying to find as many new people to teach as possible. Before I was always kinda shy about street contacting, I just never felt comfortable with it, or knocking doors really. But this past week that has all gone away. I actually kinda enjoy it now. The first moment when you ask them to stop and talk to you is always a little awkward but after that Its just sharing the gospel and it's fun! The members here are awesome,, Hermano G is really helping us a lot with finding new people. Our zone has a goal of 50 baptisms to start on a good foot with the new mission president, President H, who should be coming on the 28th. Its now almost official, I belong to the El Salvador, San Salvador West/ Belize mission. Craziness. 

      So this past Sunday was the Stake conference here in Sonzacate, a seventy came and spoke. He had a really interesting approach to how we should live the gospel. He said that the things we need to do to live the gospel well are: have FHE, study the scriptures and pray, and have a smile on your face. It was a piece of advice that I needed for sure. He reminded me of the baptist preachers we hear here all the time. He kinda shouted and did a lot of arm waving, but it kept me awake so that was good! 

     This past Sunday we had a baptism of I M, she is awesome. We met her knocking doors and from day one she was so accepting. We taught the word of wisdom and she stopped drinking coffee that day. Her husband and mother in law are somewhat (very) anti-Mormon. As we were leaving to go to stake conference the mother in law shouted "ellos no creen en el mismo Dios." {They don't believe in the same God} But she didn´t pay any attention, she is amazing.

      Well I love you guys and hope everything goes well, have fun!

Elder Schriever