23 de junio

Whats poppin fam?
    We had a great week here in the Cima. First off last monday we went to president`s house to suprise him with a cake and tie for Father`s day. we planned the whole thing with Sister Hintze and he was... well suprised. It was pretty fun and i feel like eveyone had a good time. I am going to send a few pictures that I took there. Their house is on the 22nd floor of a 25 story appartment building. It has an amazing view, you can see all of San Salvador, Including our area from his house. Its funny because one of the missionaries that was in my area a few months ago had a pair of binoculars ( I`m still not quite sure why) but he called President Hintze one night at like 11 to tell him that he could see his appartment. I think they were a little creeped out!
    Anyway after that it was back to mission work. Our area is super narrow and really long, all of our investigators are on both extremes of the area which makes it a challenge to get a lot done due to travel times, but we try and make the  best of it. We didn`t really find any new people to teach this week, but the people we have are progressing super well. E is getting ready for her baptism this Sunday, and she is super prepared, we leave her a reading assignment, or a pamphlet and the next time we come to "teach" her she basically explains it to us! At the very most we answer a few questions and testify, but not much more. The H family (R, D, and E) are doing great as well they all came to church and are thinking about getting baptized in July, They all love church, yesterday we talked more about the book of mormon and I think it finally clicked. We talked a lot about the visit of Jesus Christ to the Americas and I think they liked it alot! E says he wants to get baptized around the end of July so July is going to be a great month for us!
   There is also a recent convert family that live forever away that is coming back, the familia P. We are super glad to see they are coming to church. it is a big sacrifice because it really is a big walk, especially with a 2 year old. But they are making it, which is awesome!
   This week I hit the dreaded 18 month mark, the sister mission. It was weird to think that this is the last six months of my mission. In a Lacrosse game the 4th quarter, the most important one. My companion goes home in about two weeks so he is getting suuuuuper baggy, its hard to stay focused but I'll make it, somehow, He goes home on July 9th which means that for my birthday I will get a new companion. I can`t wait to be 21, I will be able to buy alcohol, pistols, and have full citizenship! Whoopie! (not that it will do me any good to be able to buy alcohol) I feel old, but I guess that will only get worse.
   I loved seeing the pictures of Sam McGregor that Laura sent me, he looked super happy! and much different that when he left! I can`t wait to as Eli puts it "form the spanish club" we will have all kinds of fun, especally since there are all kinds of swear words from Peru that are normal here, and swear words in El Salvador that are normal in Peru. It will make things interesting... (next time you see Sam McGregor tell him  "Chucha" for me)
    Well thats about all that`s going on here in good old El Salvador hope you guys have a good week and I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Elder Schriever

Father's Day (almost)

Well first off, ¡Feliz Dia del Padre! here in El Salvador father´s day is tommorow, so whenever I checked the calender to see when it was it said Tuesday the 17th which seemed weird to me that it wasn´t on a Sunday but I didn´t think much of it. Sounds like dad is partying it up in San Fransisco, and not with the rest of the family, but he can celebrate it by going out to eat, I reccomend pupusas, but thats just me. There should be lots of Salvadorean restaurants in San Francisco because everyone here and their dog has a family member who lives in either Los Angeles, San Fransisco, or Washington D.C. there are probably more Salvadoreneans in the states than in El Salvador. I figured I would celebrate fathers day by reminding dad of a few ¨precious¨ moments that we have had. Like the time he baked pizza and all the toppings fell into the oven adn he shouted ¡I WILL NEVER MAKE PIZZA AGAIN! or the time when we were stuck in traffic on the way to grandma´s house when he shouted ¡YOU SUCK! to the poor construction flaggers. but in all seriousness I will always remember the backpacking trips to the tin cup loop in the sawtooths, late night shooting star gazing, agate hunting on the beach (for days), woodcarving, late night Halo fests, and countless other hours well spent together, Thank you Dad you are the best. here is a way cool mormon message that talks about fatherhood: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013&lang=eng&cid=HPTU061014222
    This week was really awesome. We for the first time had a decent amount of investigators in church, Seven in total, only five are really progressing well, but we are happy for now. E came and is super excited to be baptized on the 29th. She loves coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon, people often talk about ¨golden investigators¨ and thats what she is. E prayed and decided that he wants to be baptized around July 15th, its hard to teach him so its good to have a little more time to teach him everything. But we are super excited that he has taken the decision to get baptized, he took a few weeks to decide but he seems sure. Elder V leaves for his house on my birthday so he won´t get to be there but the important thing is that he gets baptized. yesterday for the first time came the H Family, R, E, and D E, They are some friends of a less active member who is coming back to church, and introduced us. They live out in the jungle which is super awesome. it feels good to have mud on my shoes and hike through the rainforest to get to their house. They actually live closer to the chapel than we do, and they are super excited to learn about the gospel, we haven´t gotten to teach E much but he has liked everything so far, They seemed a little bored in sacrament meeting, but they really enjoyed the second two hours. we are going to go visit them Tuesday to see how they are doing hopefully they will have read, and prayed about the message. All in all we are super excited for how things are going finally we are starting to ¨Echar Penca¨ or ¨throw fire¨ as we say here in ´dor. Also F had a legal hearing, the second to last, and things are looking pretty good, we are going to wait to the last hearing, until things have cleared up legally with her, but we are hoping that the grandma will have legal tutorage by late July and she will get baptized then. All in all things are going really well and it makes me happy.
     I can´t believe Elder McGregor is finishing! that´s so crazy! he must be pretty happy right now, and nervous. I feel nervous about finishing my mission, This week I hit 18 months the sisters mission. I know that my time is going fast but I want it to last, I love being a missionary so much. thank you all for writing me and congratulations to Anna for getting a job! the world will never have seen a more talented fry maker than her ;) have a good one everyone!
Elder Schriever

June 9

Another week come and gone,
     Sounds like you all are doing well and enjoying the first few days of summer. We are getting into the heavier part of winter here (rainy season) which means that we are always carrying umbrellas and ponchos. I like it because it cools everything down, and even though it stays pretty humid I have adapted and would rather it be cool and humid, than hot and drier. The only bad thing is when we want to dry our clothes, if we leave our clothes out to dry during the day and it rains the clothes start to stink, bad. so we try and leave them out during the mornings and move the clothes inside when we leave to work, we jimmy-riged some wire lines inside so we can do that, with a fan the clothes dry in a few hours. This morning I washed like five shirts (washing by hand takes forever) and almost all of my socks, hopefully it doesn´t rain before we get back to the house. I was looking at my shirt as I was cleaning it and was suprised at how worn it was. the fabric is really worn down, and there are holes where it has been scrubbed a few to many times, the collar is also starting to wear out. And I love it!!! I remember seeing the older missionaries clothes and thinking wow that is so worn! maybe someday my clothes will be like that too! Well that day is coming fast. I am also going to send you guys a picture of my shoes, I think you will enjoy it.
     We had a really good week this week. We planned a family home evening in the chapel with President Hintze. We had spent the past week or two inviting everyone and anouncing it in sacrament meeting, everything. when it was time to start at 7pm there was like 5 people there, I was pretty mad because we had commited so many people to coming, but we decided to wait a few minutes longer before starting at around 7:15 people came by the dozen, at 7:20 we started and there were about 80 people there, just a little bit under what the attendance in sacrament meeting usually is. It was a great lesson about Lehi´s vision and the iron rod, President talked about a mountain he climbed in Zion´s park called Angel´s landing, the trail is about a yard wide, and on either side there is a 9000, and 12000 foot drop, there is a chain that runs the whole trail that you hold on to to climb. It was a great way to talk about the iron rod. It made me want to take a trip down to Zion´s Park! someday I will go.
     This week E T finally came to church! adn she is going to get baptized on June 29th ! On Tuesday we had an amazing lesson with her. She was a little confused and undicisive the lesson before and when we invited her to be baptized she said she would prepare but she seemed unsure. She read a ton in the Book of Mormon, and prayed all night long, and finally got her answer. It was so cool to see the change. She told us that she felt like she needed to be baptized again (she was baptized catholic as a child) It was great we just need to finish teacher her but she is super happy and we are too. We had an appointment with E this week for Saturday but he never showed up, and he nor his family came to church so we´re not sure what´s going on there. we are hoping to talk to him again this week. We´ll see what happens. we are back to looking for new less active members to teach, we got a reference for this family that live super far out in the jungle which we will be contacting on Thursday, should be way fun to be out in the bush again. The 6 pm curfew got lifted so you guys don´t have to worry, everything is better now. We went to visit a recent convert family that live super far away as well, it was up in the hills, and it was almost cold up there! super foggy. It was kinda like the rainforest in Oregon, but more tropical plants, super cool. Overall the mission work is moving along, which makes me happy.
     In his letter to me Eli told me about how Modest Mouse is coming to Boise, that made me a little jealous but I guess thats just how it goes. we saw some pretty cool concerts when Eli was gone as well. I was thinking the other day that pretty soon we will need to sign me up for classes for BYU and start apartment hunting. do you guys know how that will work? we sill have plenty of time so don´t worry to much about it. Well that´s about all that´s going on right now.
     I was reading this week in Deuterononomy (sp?) and I was reading in chapter 6 where the children of isreal are about to enter the promised land, Moses warns them not to forget God when they prosper and when they don´t have any problems. keeping records and basic habits are the best way to constantly remember something. I wasthinking that we should start a family history, kinda like a scrapbook to remember trips, special events etc... that we could add to every year and then someday have a record of all that we have done. I think it would be pretty cool, something to think about. Well thats all I got hope you all have a great week and I will talk to you soon!
Love,
Elder Schriever

June!!!!

Hey Everyone!
     This week was pretty good. we had lots of freetime this week because of the 6pm rule, which was lifted on Tuesday but put in place again on Friday so I am pretty relaxed and not that tired at all. Today is supposedly the last day so tommorow its back to the 11-9 grind. The problem is that in our area there is almost nothing to do
from 1-5 the most productive hours are form 6-9 so we weren´t getting much done at all. Hopfully this week with be a little bit more productive. First of all crongradulations to Anna for graduating.. HORRAY! High school is awesome but its one of those things that is sweeter as a memory than as reality. Also thank you day for sending me more pictures of the wedding I really ejoyed the picture of everyone in front of the temple, I don´t recognize some of the people but thats okay.
    This morning was super good, I woke up around 5:30 to the sound of heavy rain on the roof, and laid in bed listening to the rain for another hour until 6:30 but I wasn´t tired at all because I had slept so well, It was one of those moments when for no particular reason at all I thought, I am so glad that I am a missionary, I love life. and I
really do! There are struggles and difficulties but there is so much to be happy about! I listened to President Uchtdorf´t talk on gratitude, and It really changed my perspective, he talks about how gratitude doesn´t come from circumstance, but is an attitude. and that it is an act of faith being grateful when times are tough. Knowing that someday we will have all the answers.
     I focused my study this week in the Plan of Salvation, because a less active member passed away the other week, and the mom is somewhat (read very) unconsolable. She has kept repeating me ¨she abandoned me she abandoned me.¨ It was really sad. Her daughter suffered from Kidney failure, and was super swollen with water, and confined to her bed. The times that we had visited her I could tell that she didn´t really want to live. Its hard to describe to her mom that death is not a forever thing, that it is a necessary, but temporary separation from her daughter, and that she is much happier now that she ever was. I was reading in the Principles of the Gospel manual about the Spirit world and said that it is the world around us, and that our loved ones are not far, I think that helped her out a lot. We will keep working with her but it made me think about how grateful I am for the knowledge about the plan of salvation and knowing that our existence is eternal. It makes everything just make sense. There are still many things I don´t understand, but one day I will know and understand everything. For now it is enough to know that God loves and cares for all of his children.
     We have right now a few investigators that are looking really positive, one is E T, who didn´t make it to church because of work but hopefully will have read. when we invited her to get baptized is she receives an answer to her prayers she said yes. We are super excited to teach her so we will keep working with her. another is E who lives in the other mission but comes to our ward with the rest of his cousins. We got permission to teach him in our chapel so we are working with him and shooting for a baptismal date on the 21st of June. he is going to let us know what he decides this next weekend. I we also have F who we are just waiting for some legal stuff to go through, hopefully she will get baptized in june or july. This week we brought back a few inactive members to church and that always feels good as well. Knowing that they are renewing their covenants and learning more. Overall I am super happy with how things are going and am finally getting used to this new area. I expect to be here until Mid august so I hope to build a good relation with the members. There are some really good people here and I hope to get to know them more.
      This past week was changes and I had a few good friends leave, Elder A being on of them. He is my old companion from Argentina, I don´t know if I will ever get to see him again. But I am super glad I got to meet and know him. Super great guy. A bunch of other people left like Elder L, Elder R, our zone is going to be pretty boring without them. We need to liven things up a little bit. It also got me thinking that Elder McGregor is almost done! Elder Stark (V 1.0) as well! they are both probably super baggy. Well thats about all that is going on here in El Salvador Hope you are all doing great from your emails it sounds like you are. Love you all and can´t wait to hear from you soon!
Elder Schriever

End of May

Well my watch tells me that it is the end of May, and I guess I believe it because my month`s money is getting close to 0 but I honestly doesn`t feel like another months has already passed by. Changes are this Wednesday, I don`t anticipate moving or having my companion changed but you never know. I found out this week that Elder S is going to Belize, which means that every missionary that I have trained is in Belize. Craziness. It will be cool to find out where he is going. I am guessing he is going to be put as a zone leader this change, there are like 8 going home so it would make sense. I was talking to a gringo that we ran into on friday and when he asked me how long another missionary had been in the mission field, I told him "he has like 21 months" and he laughed and told me that I must have a lot of time too because in english you don`t "have" time. I didn`t even realize it. I also helped out a member with English homework and was a little embarrased because I have forgotten all kinds of grammer rules (not that I ever was any good at it) It took me a while to figure out how to say most things.
   This week we found a few new investigators, some of them through our own efforts and others through members. It has been a struggle, but we are finally getting more and more investigators. We need many more but its not as bad as it was a few weeks ago. We started teaching this guy from San Miguel that lived in the states and has perfect english, he has an aunt that I met over in Ciudad Arce that is a member so at least he has some connection to the church. He seems eager to learn so we will see how that goes. We also started teaching the sister of the ward mission leader`s girlfriend, named E. She couldn`t come to church this week but hopefully next week she will come. She works as a full time English teacher, so its a little hard to find time. but we will make it happen. I have made a goal to talk to more people on the street, its something that I have never really liked doing but I am starting to like it a little more. It's cool to hear about peoples lives and get a brief glimpse about what its like to be them. Most people here if you try to talk to them on the street won`t stop to talk but on the bus they don`t have any choice, we take the bus around 3-4 times a day so there are plenty of opportunities to talk. Before I leave I want to contact an entire bus. Someday I will do it.
    This week for our zone activity we went lasertagging it was pretty fun, my team sucked it up but I did awesome, we wanted to go paintballing but weren`t able to. When I get back home I will go. This week I read a lot in the book of Alma about the story of Ammon, and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. It was impressive to think of the love that that people had to bury their swords instead of fight and break their covenant. In chapter 24 verse 16 it says: "We will bury them in the depth of the earth so that they shall maintain their luster, as a testimony in the last day that we never have used them, and if our bretheren destroy us behold we will go to our God and be saved" I admire their courage and their faithfullness in keeping their covenants with God. I hope we all can be the same way. Well thats all I got for now hope you all enjoy the start of summer break and have a good week! love you all!
Elder Schriever