Izalco 23ish?

 Well family, another week has passed, sounds like you all have gotten back to the reality of normal life, but I´m sure you had a wonderful trip. This week was a little frustrating as far as missionary work goes. We had several very promising investigators stop progressing because of Anti-mormon literature and lies. It´s hard to see so much work and time be ruined in an instant, but I tell myself that at the very least I am just  planting seeds. Hopefully I leave a good impression and some day another missionary with go back and have success. Right now I am contemplating the possibility of staying in Izalco for another change, which would mean seven months here. That's a long time, either way we are trying to get our área in shape for changes. Supposedly there are going to be a ton of people going from Sonsonate over to San Salvador. Elder U thinks he´s going to be one of the five people that go to Belize. I guess we´ll find our in a week.

     We might hae a baptism in a couple weeks, a grand-daughter of a family in the Ward, named T, came up to us and told us she wanted to get baptized. Her mom is a member but hasn´t gone for years because a bishop offended her. But when we went to visit her she didn´t seem too antagonistic. The only real problem is the dad, who isn´t a member and doesn´t want to much to do with the church. But hopefully he will at least let her get baptized.

     This week we ran into a guy selling those wire head massagers, we both bought one and are loving them. At the end of the day we just sit there and scratch our heads, it feels glorious. We are writing a little early today because we are going to go to San Salvador and eat luch with President. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

    This week I was hoping to try cow foot soup, but the lady that was going to make it couldn´t find any, but I'll continue my search later. A member gave us some tamales yesterday, they were amazing, they are just corn masa, with sour creme mixed in with some sugar. But the way to make it is they take corn from the cob and grind it up to make the Masa, way better than using corn flour. I also made some pupusas in the house, they turned out okay, I learned the basic principles of how to do it, but to really make pupusas you need to make then over fire, and not an electric stove. They are super easy to make but don´t really fit into a missionaries time schedule. Anyway hope you all are doing well and having fun. Take it easy!

Love Elder Schriever

What Up!

Hey family, 

    Sounds like you guys had a pretty sweet trip and its not quite over! Get out there and have fun! That kayaking trip looks like a lot of fun. Hopefully you guys are all relaxed and refreshed. 

      We had a multi zone with president Hintze and they taught us a cool little thing. Water in a train at 99.9 degrees doesn´t do anything, even though its really hot, but the extra .1 degree makes the difference and at 100 degrees the train moves. The extra bit of effort makes all the difference. 

      Hopefully today we are going to go to a member´s house and learn how to make pupusas. They don´t look too hard, but I still want to learn. I don´t want to pull an Eli and come back not knowing how to make any food from my country. They are super simple but very delicious. Corn flour, water, beans, cheese. The salsa is super easy too! You guys should try making them! Send me pictures when you do!

    As far as mission work goes things here are going okay, right now we are looking for more investigators, Transfers are on August 6th so coming up fast, but I don´t want to slow down just because transfers are getting close. It's weird to me to think that in this next change I will hit eight months! It's passing by so fast! My goal for this next week is to stress less, be happier, laugh every day, and love a little more. These past weeks I have been so worried about investigators, members, etc... that I was wearing myself out with stress. I was teaching lessons every night talking in my sleep. But this Sunday the topic was the pioneers. We were singing the song "oh esta todo bien" (come come ye saints) the message over all was even though there are problems, challenges, and difficulties, with faith and hope in the end all will work out. I realize that getting stressed and in a hurry all the time won´t help and just makes things worse. 

     One day this week, Tuesday, I felt pretty down, we were contacting almost all day because we didn´t have any citas and all we were finding were people who didn´t want to hear anything. But almost at the end of the day we found this super positive family. It just goes to show that with a little diligence and faith the lord will always help us through our problems. It was a cool experience in the end. I don´t want it to sound like I´m sad or anything, sometimes the road is a little rough, but I can always see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

     A member here has been reading my blog and told me that I don´t mention him enough so here´s a big shout out to Jaime Garrizano! For being the most Pilas member in Izalco! They are an awesome family here that help us out alot, definitely people I will want to come back and visit in the future. Also the family Menendez, Alvarado, Pacheco are all very wonderful people. 

    Well I'm gonna try and write some personal emails, I sent a letter to you guys last week and am in the process of writing another one. Hope everything goes well! Love you!

Elder Schriever

What Up?

Hey family! 

     Well to let you know the packages came on the 10th, it was perfect. I was loving the galaxy brownies and gushers. And the Postal Service shirt is awesome, it makes a great addition to the Avengers shirt I bought here. The contact solution was a welcome addition, I was down to the last few drops of the other bottle I had, every night I carefully dropped about four drops into each cup, it was getting really close. The card Anna wrote was priceless, some errors in the stories but priceless nonetheless. I will definitely keep that forever. Thank you all so much for the package, it made my week. 

     This week went pretty well, as far as the mission work goes, we worked pretty hard. Unfortunately  we didn´t see some of the results we would have liked but sometimes that's just how it goes. We thought we had 8 people solidly committed to go to church and only 2 went, but I guess they have there agency, even though I sometimes wish they didn´t. But I guess that's how it is. Right now we are working with a few families and they really don´t want to get married, we´ll try and see what we can do but its gonna be a little tricky. I think I am starting to get a better picture of what it really means to be a missionary. It's important to not only try and find new people to bring to church but also try and strengthen the people that are already there. But I guess that's part of the struggle, We had a zone meeting where we talked about how Ammon was happy to have problems to solve, It was a different way to look at it. We have been working a lot really far out in the jungle, it's cool but the only problem is that the people out there have a harder time getting to church. The people that live in the center of town, are a little more hard to work with but I´m sure that the Lord is preparing hearts everywhere. 

     I'm glad to hear that you guys are gonna have a good time. I imagine that you guys are in the car right now. Car rides are awesome. I think getting called on jury duty actually sounds kinda fun! It will be interesting to see how it all works. Something to look forward to I guess. I can´t believe that this week I finish seven months, it seems like it's just getting faster and faster. Nuts, anyway hope you all have fun and take it easy. 

Elder Schriever

IZALCO AVISA AVISA!!!

Whats happening family?

     This week was fairly interesting, I'm gonna spend some time explaining some of the new changes with the mission. Number one, President and Hermana Hintze, awesome people, very patient and very friendly. They both seemed nervous but I think they will do great. They both speak Spanish with an Argintinian accent (cho me chamo President Hintze, instead of yo me llamo presidente Hintze) but that's okay;) they showed us a slide show of their lives and when I saw the pictures of where Hermana Hintze grew up I did a double take, the first picture was of Grace High School! I almost couldn´t believe it, they were telling us that its a tiny little town in Idaho, but the whole time I was thinking ¨they probably know the McGregors¨ It turns out that Hermana Hintze knows Jim from high school! Her name was Diana Matthews, President worked on their potato farm when he was a kid so he knows the area fairly well. Also they have a daughter that got back from the Taipei Taiwan mission about two years ago! Do you know her Eli? 

      Anyway a few very cool rule changes, first off we can Skye for Christmas and mothers day, not that big but its a cool guarantee, more importantly We can write for 75 minutes, 15 to president and reporting numbers and 60 to family and friends, so my hope is that I will be able to write a little bit longer letters and hopefully some personal ones as well. also we can now drink Coke, which is kinda weird, I don´t really want to drink it, but now when a really poor family offers it to us I don´t have to feel bad about drinking it. (spirit of the law, letter of the law) but other than that most of the stuff is the same, Same companion (i´m senior comp), but now there is the possibility of going to San Salvador, they apparently have McDonald's, Wendy´s and apparently Quizno´s. but we still can only go to the temple twice a year, but I´ll live.

     This week we didn´t get a ton done because my companion was sick. It didn´t help that most of what we ate this week was beans, what I have been doing is taking the beans and water that they were cooked in, heat them up in the microwave, and blend it up with hot dogs and add sour cream, it's really good and way cheap! But doesn´t help with the loose bowel movements. It was unfortunate but for a few days we only did a few visits every day. All of our investigators had some problems come up and couldn´t make it to church, but we brought some less active members so it turned out okay. Hopefully next week, our problem right now is that no one wants to get married.

     I was wondering if you guys could do something for me, I love it when members invite us over to have dinner, would you guys mind inviting over the Elders in Eagle over for dinner? I know they would appreciate it. 

   This week I bought myself a hammock as a birthday present, it is super comfortable and basically I love it, unfortunately there isn´t much time to spend with it but I try to make the most of it. I hope you all have a great time and everything goes well. Love you all! 

Elder Schriever

1st of July

Hey Fam!

      Sounds like you all are doing well, a little toasty but doing well. I would just like to remind you all of the wonderful blessing of air conditioning. There are only a few places here where you can find it, in the super market, cibers, and stake center. In the house a cold shower is the best substitute. I got the package from the McGregors this past week, make sure to give them a huge thank you from my companion and me, it was delicios. I especially loved the york mint pieces! I had no idea they even existed but they do and they are amazing. The stretch Island fruit strips took me back to 4th grade when we used to get them every day in our sack lunches that we took to school. Good times.

     So far there really haven´t been that many changes in the mission life with all of the changes. Tomorrow we go to San Salvador for a mission renunion so thats when things should start to feel at least a little different. I am ppretty excited to meet president Hintze, he sounds like a really nice guy. To answer Dad's question about Elder R  is still in the same mission as I am, different district but same zone. I was pretty excited about that, it's nice having someone to reminisce with about good ol´ Idaho.  The next couple weeks should be full of meetings, reunions, ect. but thats okay they are kinda fun. I am way excited to go to the reunion tommorow because we can go to the distrubution center and buy some hymnbooks, oil containers ect... things that missionaries love.

    This week saw a few changes in the ward, the first councelor left for Costa Rica suddenly, not sure exactly why. The second councelor got a job so he´s super busy, and due to a bunch of other strange circumstances a lot of the really hard working members can´t be with us. But I guess we just have to adapt and keep working hard.  

    I was really glad to hear that you guys started a family photo album, if I remember right there was a talk in conference that mentioned that we should keep a family book of remembrance. I think It would be awesome if you guys could make a weekly entry with pictures, funny stories, key events, maybe my mission letters, no sé. I think someday it would be cool to look back and see what went on week to week. I have been trying to write more consistantly in my Journal and write better entries. I know that some day I will be glad I did.

    I don´t know why you guys don´t want to say anything about the beach trip, I get to preach the gospel in El Salvador, there is nothing more fun or rewarding than that! I want to hear details and see pictures! Anyways hope everything goes well, Eli drink lots of water, and take breaks at work. We don´t want a repeat of the temple retaining wall heat exhaustion incident. Take care everyone!

Elder Schriever