Goodbye April

Well April is coming to a close, I loved April, but I am pretty darn excited for May. We had a pretty good week this week, I fell asleep in less than five minutes every night, but I guess that really is a blessing. The problem is when I almost fall asleep in lessons. It only happens when the person we are teaching starts talking for forever about something irrelevant, but it doesn´t happen that often. We had a fairly good turnout this week at church, we had two investigators in church that we are teaching, and a few more that are boyfriends/girlfriends of members, who we need to start teaching. Overall I am pretty excited with how things are going. We have been struggling with finding new investigators here in this area. we get a handfull every week. We have been visiting lots of members, and trying to get references from them. because contacting here is basically useless. The people have little time, and less interest. unless they are family or friends of members. It will be good for me to learn how to work better with the members, and help them in their own missionary work. So far we have had a small glimmer of success, we visited this one inactive member whose son is 19 years old and has never talked to the missionaries. We didn´t even ask him if we could start teaching his son, he asked us! his name is C, hopefully we will get to talk to him this upcoming week.

    This week we helped with a multistake service project to clean up this river that's filthy, we didn't help clean the river but we walked around telling people not to throw their trash in the river and also giving out these little bags that you put in pilas to kill mosquito larvae  It was pretty fun, after that we had a seminar on how to use family history to help find more investigators, and help reactivate less active members. It was very cool. The guy explained that really the mission work and the temple work are one and the same. and if our converts go to the temple and help out their ancestors the effects of our labors are magnified thousandfold. Really the biggest effects of the restoration are felt on the other side of the veil. It was a really cool seminar and got me super excited about doing family history work and explaining it to everyone. I talked to president and he gave us permission to change our p-day every once in a while and go to the temple as a zone, because we are so close. Hopefully we will be able do it. I would be super happy to spend my p-day in the temple. This week I have been thouroughly enjoying the exercise equipment in our house, especially the punching bag. I don´t know why I never got one before. It is super therapeutic  It makes my knuckles hurt but I can live with that. I was pretty sore for most of the week and it felt great. I miss that feeling so much. My companion wants to start eating healthier. So this week I am planning on eating beans and whole grain rice, with vegetables for lunch. Breakfast will be eggs or oatmeal with raisins. Pancakes are good but not super healthy. I think it will help me have more energy, and get more done if I eat healthy and excercise regularly. Mangoes and avocados are in season which means that I will be eating them just about every day. They are so so good. There is not many things I love more in this world than a tree ripened avocado.

     This upcoming weeks we have multi-zones, temple trips, and we get to call home. Super excited for that! I´ll let you know the details when I get them figured out. There are members here that have nice computers and fast internect connection so Skype will be a great option this time around. But because of their scheduling we will have to plan it out well. When would you all be able to skype? Let me know what you guys figure out. This email is kinda short, I had tons of ZL stuff to take care of but I will write until the other missionaries kick me off.

    Me and my companion get along pretty well. I was a little worried at first, I didn´t really know him that well but he was in my same zone in Sonzacate. But he is a really cool guy, It just takes getting to know someone to get to like them I think. I am getting a glimpse of Dominican culture, and its pretty cool, Bailey is serving in a cool place. I am even learning some dominican slang. Which is always fun. I love spanish slang more than anything. I have hole pages of agendas full of it and am learning more every day. It's hard to memorize and use correctly but I am getting there. the only problem is that anyone that is not from el Salvador will have no idea what I am saying, I will need to get some salvadorean friends while i am at BYU. Or I'll just teach Jake, Sam, Bailey, and Dan and we can all talk together in Vos. It's gonna be sick.

   Sounds like you are all doing great, wedding plans are made, Childers babies have been born, and school is wrapping up. All is well in the world. Hope you all have a good week and I will talk to you soon! 

Elder Schriever

Changes (that's just the way it is)

Well everyone, I wasn´t expecting this but, I got changed. I was
super bummed to leave Arce, I really like that area, I made some good
friends. But I guess it was going to happen at some point, They let us
know about changes at 11 in the night on Tuesday (changes are
wednesday) so we were unsure if we would need to say goodbye or not.
Luckily we had a feeling that one of us was going to leave so we
passed by the people that we would want to say goodbye to just in
case, I was glad we did. Everyone thought that Elder Anco was leaving
because he already has six months in his area, but since its his last
change it was probably better that he stayed and ended in an area
where he knows a lot of people. Thats what I would rather do. Right
before we left the office sent us some new stuff to put in the house,
some bunkbeds, the house is super small but we decided to reorganize
it and clean it up, it needed it badly. There is a false ceiling (like
the cielings in most schools) and the bat poop had really piled up. We
would hit the tile with a broom handle and it would just rain down. At
the end we probably threw out five or six pounds of bat poop, it was
disgusting. We also realized how many cockroaches and other critters
there were the whole time. I´m not gonna lie I am not so sad to be out
of that house.
   Okay so on to the new area. My area is called La Cima, its in the
middle of San Salvador and is super wealthy. There are cars
everywhere, and people live in huge houses for El Salvador. It is a
huge difference from my other areas. We will have to work very closely
with the members if we want to find people to teach. The best part is
that we are super close to the temple, about ten minutes in bus, and
from some parts of our area at night we can see the temple in the
distance. The San Salvador temple is probably the most beautiful
temple in the world, and it's nice to be close. Our house is also way
sweet, it's an apartment on the third floor and it has a great view of
all of San Salvador, especially at night, and the best part....... we
have HOT WATER, HOT WATER!!!!! I couldnt believe it when I heard, I
almost cried with joy, I haven't taken a hot shower in over a year and
it felt great. It's really more like luke warm, but I am so happy with
that. We also have a weight set in the new house, it doesn´t have a
ton of weight plates but I´ll make do, there is also a punching bag,
that will come in handy because there are tons of sister misionaries
here, and some of them are very... dramatic, to put it nicely. Anyway
I am super excited and happy to be in this area. We live like a block
away from a burger king, which is super dangerous, a few blocks from
chinese food and pizza. All in all I am worried about gaining all of
the weight that i lost in Ciudad Arce. I will have to be more careful
now.
   My companion is an Elder from the dominican republic, named Elder V, super chill guy, he eats a ton! but is good to work with he is a little baggy because he finishes on July 9th but I guess that's something I am going to have to live with from now on. He only has two weeks in this area so we are basically opening the area, because neither one of us knows the place very well. But we get along well, and our zone is great. One of our distict leaders is Elder F, a good friend of mine from Lourdes, He is someone I will hang out with after the mission for sure. We are going to do interchanges this week to get to know some of the sister´s investigators. Its so different being in the same zone as all of the AP´s and office elders, President Hintze even lives in our zone. We don't see him much but he lives here.
   This saturday we had the mission activity at the temple. When the
people from Izalco came I ran out to give them all a big hug, I got to
see R A, J and L and their new baby! She was so cute. The coolest part is that R and his wife P are planning on getting sealed within the month, and I will be able to go with them. I won´t get to go to Eli´s wedding, but I will get to go to a wedding. J and L are both still super active, and J is Young Men´s president. people have told me that he has brought back like 20 young men to activitiy. I was so happy to see the both of them. As well as Elder S, he is in the Zone Cuscatlan which is right next to ours, he is coming up on a year in the mission and will probably get put as zone leader this upcoming change. It made my day to see all of them. I am so glad Semana Santa is finally over, its not that big of a deal here in San Salvador, but everyone went on vacation, and no one was home. Hopefully this week will be a little different. also at like four in the morning a certain church would light off fireworks. I am all about fireworks, but not at four in the morning. but its over now
so thats what matters. this week will be a week full of looking for new investigators, less active members, and of course, partying hard like we do. Love you and and can´t wait to hear from you all. T minus one month till the wedding crazy!!! Okay take care all 

Elder Schriever

abril

Hey everyone!
Sounds like you are all pretty busy right now, from finishing
wedding plans, to getting ready for senior project, to the dreaded
O-chem finals. Everyone has some concerns, but like always it will
soon be over. By the end of next change, school will be out, and
everyone will be nice and relaxed, hopefully. this week was another
eciting week of visiting, contacting, and of course eating delicious
food. I have really gotten a love for rice, beans, and tortillas.
After Pupusas it may be my favorite food. The beans here are red
beans, and are way better than the pinto beans that you see in the
states. Hopefully I will be able to find them after the mission. I may
have explained this before but the tortillas here are super think,
about the size of a hand, but a quarter inch thick. after eating about
3-4 you are way full. I have learned how to make them though so I plan
on continuing to eat them during college.
We have changes this wednesday, but we aren´t quite sure what is
going to happen. They normally let us know Tuesday night. But I am not
anticipating leaving my area, possibly getting a new companion. but I
only have three months here in Arce, so I will probably stay another 2
or 3 months if not more. Elder A finishes this next change, so we
are not quite sure what is going to happen there. if he gets changed
to a new area for his last change it will kinda stink for him, but he
already has been here since 6 months, and is ready to leave. I guess
what happens will happen. Que Será, Será. To me it doesn´t really
matter what happens. The work is basically the same wherever i go.
Right now we are really excited about C, He is the boyfriend
of a member in the ward and is doing great. He always comes to church,
and keeps commitments. He reads everything, and understands almost
everything. When it comes time to taech him all he has is really good
questions. Because of work we can only teach him two times a week but
that is good enough for me. He is most likely going to get baptized.
We are trying to organize more family home evenings with the members
here, and helping them to invite their neighboors and friends. It
really is the best way to find people to teach. We have a few set up
for this upcoming week so we will pray that everything goes well
there. We sometimes find people through street contacting but it isn´t
quite as effective. But we really do have some amazing members here.
I listened this morning to the talk by Richard G Scott again,
about how to help people progress towards salvation. He emphasizes
that love should be the motivating factor, and should be evident in
every aspect. I am going to try to work on that this coming week,
really developing a love for the people and desiring their happiness,
and salvation. Asking them deep questions, and letting them make their
own decision. Truely it is the only way to share the gospel.
This week we got our zone shirts that we made, they turned out
super well, I will send a photo after I send this email. This
upcoming week is the Holy Week, which means everyone will be at the
beach and not at their house, but hopefully there will be more people
in the streets to talk to. we will see how it goes. Well Thats all
that´s going on right now. Love you all and can´t wait to talk to you
soon!

Elder Schriever

General Conference

Hey Everyone!
   Another great general conference has come and gone, I enjoyed this conference a lot, but it was nothing compared to the last conference in October. I noticed there was a definite theme about staying firm to our beliefs even though the world keeps lowering its standards. Especially in the Saturday sessions. By far my favorite talk was by Elder Richard G. Scott. I felt like it was especially for me, he taught a great lesson about how we should teach people, and help them to keep commitments. All with love and understanding. I also loved the analogy that Elder Bednar made about the pickup truck getting stuck in the snow, and the load of the firewood being the key to getting out. It was a good way to visualize how when we have troubles and challenges it helps us learn and grow, and is a necessary part of this life. Sometimes I feel like the mission is this huge weight, like there is so much to do. It was a good reminder that without any problems I would stay the same. and wouldn't learn anything. and that through Christ´s help my challenges not only become helpful but redemptive.

   We were able to bring two investigators to see conference, and a few less active members as well. One of them was C, the boyfriend of a member here in the ward. He is looking super positive right now. He has been keeping all of his commitments, reads, goes to church, and asks really good questions. The only problem is that he will be a part of the sister's area, so on the 16th we won´t be able to teach him anymore. but I guess thats not that bad of a problem to have. The other investigator was C, he is from our area, and is a good friend of J, who we baptized a few weeks ago. We have been trying to get him to come to church for a very long time, and he finally came. We are going to have to talk with his parents if we want to keep teaching him. So hopefully that goes okay. 

   This week we had interviews with President Hintze, which are always amazing, he is easily the most laid back mission president I have ever heard of. In one of the elder's interviews they talked about March Madness for almost half of it. My interview we talked about my family, how the zone is going, he basically just told me to keep doing what I am doing. It was very reassuring. We found out that basically sisters are coming here for sure, as long as we can find a house. We may have found one that works yesterday, it's been a huge headache but it's almost over. It looks like the sister missionaries will come at the end of this change which is the 16th!!!! I can´t believe how fast this change has flown by. In weekly planning this week I looked at my agenda and saw that we were planning for week 6 the last full week of the change. I still can´t believe it! I imagine either me or my companion is going to have changes. He finishes with this next change, but already has six months in the area, I have three, but have tons of time left. So who knows what will happen. This past week we helped R F chop down a mango tree that was getting pretty close to falling on their house. My whole body was sore for a few days from doing so much chopping with a machete. They don´t use hatchets here to chop down trees only machetes, and it takes it out of your arm. But it was super fun. Its always a good day when I get to use a machete. Anyway thats about all thats going around on my end of things. Sounds like you are all doing good and having fun. thanks for taking to time to write me and I will talk to you all next week! adios!
Elder Schriever