Well I got changed. My new ward is called Campestre, which is the stake center of the Los Héroes Stake. Our Chapel is beautiful. And the ward is really big. Around 200 people come each week. We live and work in a place called Antigua Cuscatlan, which is super safe and really cool. There are tons of huge houses but thats not that much different from La Cima. Campestre is literally right next to La Cima. My old area is a block away from my house. I sure didn´t go far that time! The good news is that I´m not far from all of my friends back in La Cima. I sure am going to miss all of them, but I hope to see them again some day, I know i will. My companions are awesome one is Elder Z, from Mexico. He leaves at the end of this change but he is a real hard worker and a great teacher. I will try to take a picture of all of us to send to you guys. There is also Elder R, from Guatty who is super crazy, but really funny and happy always. He works super hard and we get along really well, you know you have a good relationship with someone when you can joke around with them. My other companion is..... Elder R!!! I was super excited to find that out. I have been waiting to be companions with him my whole mission. People call us the "Boise Boys" and it fits. Its cool to be with someone who is similar to you. We were sharing pictures of our families and to our suprise our family photos were taken in the exact same place, at that farm out in Meridian. His Dad is also named Rodney. Small strange world. I took a picture of the two family pictures so you all can see that. It was really funny. Our house is huge. But super dirty. there is just old garbage everywhere. Our goal for today when we get back is to clean the place up. I have found some cool stuff though! like "the great apostasy" by Talmage and some ties that other missionaries have left behind. but I don´t think that we will ever really be able to clean the place all the way up, it is just too filthy. But we do have a gym super close to our house and we all love to go. So every morning we wake up at 5:50 to go lift weights and run occasionally. It makes me feel so much better and helps me stay focused throughout the day. I am going to try eating better and I think I will have lots more energy! I am going to get stuff to make sub sandwiches this week to change it up a little bit. with carrots and brocoli. we don´t really have time to cook, and we are barely ever in the house so I have to think of things that are quick, cheap, and healthy. Thats a pretty short list. Its weird thinking that this is going to be my last area. I don´t think of myself as an "old" missionary but I now realize that there is no other word to describe it. I am old, worn shirts, worn pants, worn shoes, But with a big smile. I am enjoying life and doing great. I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that everyone is getting back into the swing of real life. good luck with studies and work and I will talk to you soon!Hasta Luego!Elder Schriever (Chevere)
Well everyone another week has come and gone. This week was pretty busy, as usual. We have lots to get done here in the zone. Almost every night it just poured rain and got everyone and everything soaking wet but that meant it wasn`t that hot. Count your blessings. We had some good successes and some failures but I`ll tell you about that later. First off I want to say congratulations to Jake and Katie for finishing honorably their missions! Well done! You guys are the best!
Okay so here in the Cima we realized that we need to look for more new investigators. So that was our big focus this week. We have been looking for references but for the most part we were unsuccessful. so we got to the point were we just decided to go tracting on Saturday. What a horrible Idea! we wasted a few precious hours going up to peoples doors just to hear them say, "we are busy right now come again later" or "we are catholic" or a five year old girl say "I`m here alone" after we had seen her grandma, when I called her out on it she went back to the good ole "we are really busy" excuse. Lame. After about two hours we gave up on that.
The good news is that when we were visiting R H (who was confirmed on Sunday) her mom was there. We answered a few normal questions like "why do you keep the sabbath on Sunday" "don't mormons worship some dude" and questions like that. But we have an appointment to meet up with her on Thursday so hopefully that will go well. R really has a strong testimony, and is sharing it with all of her neighbors and family. She is awesome. E as well. He went to the temple last week to do baptisms for the dead and I think he really liked it. Overall they are doing really well, and we are hoping to be able to teach more people that they know.
This past week while walking up by their house we saw a few of the national birds of El Salvador its called the Torogoz I couldn`t take a picture of it but lookit up on google. Its super cool.
In other news we have an investigators named M, she spilled boiling beans on her feet last week but now she is all better so she could come to church. She really wants to get baptized but I want to wait a little bit to make sure that she understands everything. But she really wants to do it. I am just afraid that she will go inactive really fast without a strong testimony. So that is the job right now. Making sure she knows what she is doing. We are still on the hunt for more investigators, and trying to help out the zone with theirs. We have a family of 5 that is going to get baptized on the 30th in a ward called Campestre and we need to make sure that there is good followup there. Basically everything is going super well. My companion is awesome and this change has flown by. We are on week six which means it is almost over. hopefully I will know by next Wednesday if I am moving or not we`ll see what happens.Well thanks to all of you for writing me and I hope you all have a great week.
Elder Schriever
Hey everyone how is everything going? This week was a great week. The last week of any month is always pretty busy, you work hard to try to tie up any loose ends from the month thats ending, and its the most important to get ready for the month that is coming up. We ended up the month of July with 7 baptisms in the zone. Not bad, not great but not too bad either. When you consider that we started the month with a potential of 1 (one person baptised with zero baptismal dates) we finished pretty well. Elder M works really hard and it lets us get alot done. I am super grateful to be his companion he is always happy and even when things don´t go as planned we can laugh and make jokes out of it. Life is just better when you are happy. Someone asked me when changes were and if I think that I will get changed. Changes aren´t for another two weeks, on August 20, but I have a feeling that I am going to get changed. I am just having too much fun right now to have it last. Yesterday we had the baptism of R H, which was super good we had it right after the the church block so that the members could come. When we try to do it on Saturday everyone is busy. It was a great experience all in all. After her baptism she bore a really cool testimony about how she had been praying to find someone that could help her get to know God better. And thats when she met S P, the member who gave us the reference, and then she met us. It was really cool to hear that. Right now we are pretty slim on investigators, we have a few that are progressing but we need more. Everyone that we had committed to come to church bailed on us. But hopefully next week we will be able to bring around three people. Tommorow we have a mission temple tour, which should be way good. We are hoping that in total around 1,000 people will come. It is going to take up most of the morning tomorrow but it should be way good. President Hintze always says that the best missionary in El Salvador is the temple and it is so true. You canjust feel a difference when you enter the temple grounds. I normally get to see some old friends as well so I will be sure to take lots of photos and look for as many people as possible. We are going to be really busy this week doing interchanges. Basically every day we are going to be doing something in other areas, its good because it keeps us busy and we get to work with all of the missionaries, and know them better. I can`t believe that Jake and Katie are getting home this week! thats so crazy! Especially Katie, since she started after me and is finishing before. I bet the Starks and McGregors are super excited! I am excited for them! Well my time is almost up, because right now is vacations here in San Salvador the temple is open today and there are a ton of people trying to use the computers. I will be on for a few minutes more and try and send more photos. Thanks to all of you for writing me and have a great week Talk to you all soon!Elder Schriever
