Hey Family
So I got Dads letter and I am sorry. I will try and be
more specific. Let’s see, to start out I am in a city that is call Delgado. It
is really close to San Salvador. If we cross a certain street we are in the
capital so its practically in the capital. My companions name in Magdinlyn
Barid, I think… it’s been a while since I asked her her first name… sorry. But
she is from Massachusetts. She has moved around a lot but that is where her
family is right now. She was studying at BYU before the mission in genetics and
she still has like a year and a half left like me. I am trying to think of
other specifics, like I live in a turquoise blue house and do not have running
water other than the shower. I must be really bad at writing just because I can’t
think of specifics sorry.
My area is really big actually, bigger than most. My
trainer Hermana Baird has been here her entire mission. She has been out for 8
months and spent all of the time here in Delgado. She knows all the people, all
the members, and all of their names. By the end of our time together
she will have had 9 months in the same area. It is kind of hard for her, I
feel bad. But we have lots of fun together.
Man this area had so many investigators when I got here
and I feel like we are just getting more and more each day. Which is good but it’s
really hard to get to everyone and plan for each lesson with the extra training
that we are doing in the mornings for me because I am new. They apparently
started a new training program that lasts for 3 months so we usually don’t go
out working until around 12 or 1 cause then we eat lunch. Its weird, I thought
missionary work would be more knocking doors and street contacting which we
have done and I am sure I’ll get to do so much more but for the last two weeks
more of our time has been teaching and visiting inactive members and stuff our
time is so jammed packed with stuff, its crazy. We have about three
investigators that are ready to get baptized but are waiting for one reason or another,
one, her name is Evelyn, she has been coming to church and everything for 3
months and is waiting for a divorce to come through so she can get married and
then baptized. We just heard that her divorce came through or will on the 21st
of this month so we are planning a baptism on the 25!!! Way exciting! Another investigator, Alex, older like 46, has
to wait because he was in the war they had here. He was forced to fight as a
teenager so he has to get permission from high up to get baptized. And we have
so many others that we are going to try and put dates with this week so keep
them in your prayers. They´re names are Yaneth and Consuello, man I am so
bad with names, there is one other one but I can’t remember her name, I am
so bad.
To give you an idea of how many investigators we have,
yesterday at church, if everyone would have come to church who we asked (and
we didn’t challenge everyone to come) we would have had 19 investigators
there. Only 8 showed up but all of them were really excited and everything.
Oh I need your prayers for me to be able to teach this
one investigator. His name is Ronny and he is really gay so we have to
teach him the law of chastity really soon. But pray that we can teach him with
the spirit and that everything will go well with him. He came to church yesterday
and was so excited and said that he would come every week. He even got the
number of a member so that he can go to the priesthood activities. Oh and
pray for Elena she is so ready for the gospel but she still needs our prayers. Ee
only talked to her for a short time about the gospel and gave her a Book of Mormon
and challenged her to read. We went back last night and she read 11 chapters in
the Book of Mormon and the pamphlet. It was awesome so we are trying to get a
date with her soon.
So I hope that is more specific and will make you
happy hah. So my feet and hands have finally gotten better from eating too much
sugar. Apparently the sugar down here is refined differently so I think that I
had a allergic reaction because of that. But they are all good now and my feet
are finally getting accustomed to walking on the uneven roads here yeahhhh!!! We
are walking so much so it’s a really good thing that I can walk faster now.
Well other than our investigator the only other news is
that pupusas are soooo good here!!!! Ha all the food is, it’s because they fry everything.
I am going to come back so fat so just
be prepared ha. It is so very hot here and it’s only the coldest part of the
year. I am so scared for the summer here. Yesterday my companion and I were
outside when it started to down pour. We were wet within two minutes it was
crazy. I can definitely see how we could very easily be walking in water up to
our knees here.
Ok Mom, I hope you don’t feel too bad but the shoes that
you got me, the 80 dollar ones.... yeah so I got some shoes here for three
bucks that have replaced them… hah! I am sure I will still use them don’t
worry it’s just the ones I have know are so comfortable and so much more
practical for El Salvador. I will probably bring a whole suit case full of them
when I come home. I love them that much.
Maren, thank you so much for your letter last week. I
needed to hear a lot of what you wrote. I am glad to know that you are doing okay
and that you have such good people in your life. Remember how lucky you are for
that. Down here there are people with no one in their life and no one to help
them through their trails. I am so glad you have that though. I am praying for
you and David’s family so much. I hope you know I love you and I hope you can
feel that even when I am so far away. I remember when I got the news all I
wanted to do was hold you and I was so sad that I couldn’t. Know I love you and
I have a really strong testimony of the Plan of Salvation and the fact that God
is in control and that the people we meet and the relationships we make here
are suppose to last much longer that this life. And in reality this life is so
short compared to what will come.
For the rest of the family this week I have been studying
about the family and how smart God is to put us here in families and I am so
blessed to be a part of ours. I hope you know how much I love you all. I think it’s
important to remember that our eternal goal is to have families of our own and
that we have been given this life to practice and to learn how to love the way
God loves and the family is where we practice. So learn to love and love deep
and don’t be afraid to get hurt because love is so powerful that the greatest
act performed on the earth was done out of love and because of that all our
hurts and pains are swallowed up in the love that is all encompassing. Never be
afraid to love. It is the most God like ability we have and we need to
become better at it all the time. I am so sorry my time is up. Know that I love
you all!!!!
Your missionary
Hermana Hale
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