Letter 29: "Crazy... but great"

Ataco, El Salvador
September 5, 2011

"The rules of writing"
I really just realized I have eight months in the mission today!!!!!

I in the beginning....our president has changed... or rather clarified... the rules of writing. Our letters to him have become too short and we write too long...

So now to be completely obedient (because if I'm not how can I expect my investigators to be?) My letters are going to be much much shorter and/or I'm not going to write very many personal letters... we'll see how it goes :)

City of Ataco
I haven't written about Ataco yet, have I? Anyway, I got transferred to Ataco, Ahuachapan....

It is the COMPLETE opposite of Sensunapan. It is a small tourist town, it's cold, and it rains a lot... sound familiar? (Oregon people!)

The only difference is that they speak Spanish here! On the weekends it is packed with tourists (busloads of north americans) and is dead the rest of the week...

It is full of tiny touristy shops and there is no fast food nor grocery stores... I constantly have a stuffy nose and I am wet. ...I feel so at home here it's not even funny...

I love the ward. it's smaller than Sensunapan, 100 or so active members, of whom I still don't know all of them. But it's great.

The buildings are beautiful!!! And the people...well the people are Salvadoranian...which means they are nice... all of them are really nice....

Although something that is really nice is that about half the people that aren't interested wont let us in the door...

It makes it a lot easier to find new positive investigators....

"Speaking about investigators"
This week was crazy...awesome but crazy!!!

If you look in our planners you will find that we did not plan on having any baptisms this week... but we ended up having two!!!! one was Saul.

Saul: He is 11 and last month his entire family was baptized minus him, because he didn't want to... he just didn't feel the desire.

But then he went to the temple and without any prompting from us told us that now he was going to get baptized... we set it for the second of August, but another kid was getting baptized on Saturday from a different ward,we invited him to as well, and he said yes!...

Then there was Lillian.

Lillian: Her kid, Elias was baptized last month, she had wanted to before, but later decided that she wasn't ready.

We've been teaching her a lot and you can really feel the spirit in the lessons, so Saturday we brought our district leader, Elder Matamoros, and he did a baptismal interview, talked with her for a while.

And she decided to do it!!! The next day! It was crazy! But awesome! Lillian was so happy, and especially Elias.

Her husband is hard hearted and stiff necked, but we have faith he'll come around. We also found a lot of really positive people this week... like The Valasquez family!

The Valasquez family: The Hermanas from almost a year ago taught the husband, Mauricio, but the wife, Sonia wasn't interested. Now she is the one who found us!

She went to the temple with a friend and felt good, so now she is open to hearing our doctrine... please pray for them..and for us so that we know how to teach them!

All in all, everything is great. Crazy...but great.

The other night after the baptism it started raining so hard the street was converted into a river!

I have a video!!!... Anyway. I think thats all I got for this week... I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!!!!!

Letter 28: "I thought I saw..."

Ataco, El Salvador
August 22, 2011

A friend
On Saturday we were walking and I saw this guy getting on a scooter and he looked exactly like a friend of mine... but chubbier... it was the weirdest feeling!!!! Because I thought it was him for over a minute! And then I realized that my friend was taller than me...and this guy was not.That was the only thing that convinced me it wasn't my friend.

I can't imagine the world just reading what my brain and fingers vomit out about the mission.

Spanish (More or less)
Other cool thing! I completely understand Spanish sentences...alright, I know I've been out 7 months and it's normal that I can understand and speak (mas o menos) Spanish...but I still am really proud of myself when I can understand.

I am deathly afraid that when I go home I'm going to lose the ability to do so... and I know my Spanish still isn't as good as it should be... in fact you would not be impressed... and you would machete me for not studying like I should be...


Live your life, don't waste it and don't forget what is most important....pray and read your scriptures every day!

Letter 27: "I will not be able to say goodbye" (Chau Sensunapan)

Ataco, El Salvador
August 22, 2011

Out of Sensunapan
Here I am again in Cambios... did I already say time is moving too fast? Well, it does.

This change, I have changes!!!!!!!!!!!! I am moving out from Sensunapan.

The zone leaders called last night to tell us that I am moving on to Ataco and Hna Fuentes is training! I couldn't sleep last night at all... I think I drifted off to sleep at about 1 am and woke up at least three times until I couldn't fall back asleep at 6 am.

Too many different emotions...I am really excited for a change. My life has been stagnant for too long (as stagnant as a missionary's life can be) but at the same time I am soooooooooo sad because Sensunapan is my home.

I love all the people... that and I feel like I am leaving in the middle of an incomplete job. There are so many investigators and friends and ... anyway... I guess that's always how it's going to be every change, right?

I used to think that I didn't have charity for these people, that I only get frustrated and mad at them and don't like them at all... but now that I'm leaving I realize that I really do love these people.

The members, like Obispo Sanches, hna. Torres, Fatima, etc. .. but also the people who really have no interest in us: Hna Ceci, she is our neighbor and we always buy pupusas from her, she is amazing, and the guy who sells fish, the brats who yell 'Hna Pappas! Hna Pappas!' every time we pass by, and all the people that we talk to everyday that are just a part of the life in Sensunapan.

I love them all and I am going to miss them so much. I know that some will not even realize I'm gone, and some will forget my name within days, some withing weeks, few within months, and I will be just one of the missionaries that have passed through the area.

But their impact on me is so great and I love them so much!!! This realization is why I couldn't sleep at all last night. And because hna. Fuentes is training we have to leave tomorrow instead of Wednesday, so I will not be able to say goodbye to most of them...sad day!

We'll see.
However, I also am excited, really excited. I am going from the hottest I am probably going to have to buy a blanket... although I really wonder what 'cold' is here.

Considering it doesn't snow at all anywhere in El Salvador and if there is a slight breeze they say it's chilly. I guess we'll see. ...

I don't know yet who my companion will be. I heard it will probably be Hna. Perez, and if it is I am excited, because she is soooo sweet. And pretty much every sister I have talked to says she is the best!... but I guess we'll have to see on that point too.

Always changing, yet always the same
As far as life in the Sensu, it's always changing and yet always the same. I know it says in Preach My Gospel that even though some of the people you teach will stop investigating the church you shouldn't lose hope. I just never thought so many people would really reject it.

There are so many people willing to listen and so few willing to act.A lthough, this week we did find this one lady who just accepts everything we say as truth and really really wants to visit the temple... OH

Speaking of! ...
We went to the temple this week, on Wednesday. and Hermana Wooten was there!!!! I don't know if you remember her, but she was with me the entire time in the MTC and CCM, we weren't companions, but we were really close, she is in the other mission, but on Wednesday she was working the the open house!!!!

So we got to talk for a while. It was so great to see her and talk with her! ...

Side note: This is what I get for boasting that the temple was in our mission and not hers... she gets to work in the temple and I don't... not that I'm jealous..... .... ...

Anyway, life is moving, all is well...

God is awake.

I love you all.

Letter 26: "About the dark side of the mission" (Welcome to my mind. Unedited.)

Sonsonate, El Salvador
August 15, 2011

Time
I've been out seven months last week...WHERE IS THE TIME GOING!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!I'm living every moment and having lots and lots of experiences so I don't feel anything regretful about it, but time is moving so, soooo fast.

It's hard to believe 2011 is more than halfway over!!!!

I decided when I graduated high school I needed to have a highlight of every year. Something that I worked for, and lived for, and experienced.

I have to say the mission is the best highlight I have ever had!!!! And I am so excited that I still have a little less than a year left! Really, sure is hard.

Some days are too hard for me, and those are the days that I live by the strength of the spirit of God (some of those days become the best days) ...

The experiences here you really could never experience anywhere else. Where else could I become friends with a 55 year old man who drinks too much and can't give up the ladies? Or a previous assassin? Or become part of so many different families lives in a country that is not my own, in a language that is not my own. I LOVE IT!

I have about 6 months to be here in Sensunapan and I will be soooooooo sad when I leave right now we are teaching more families than ever.

Teaching Families
Families are a lot harder to teach because you want to teach everyone together and it takes a lot longer for families to progress.

However, all of the families we are teaching are positive. Families that I really think will be able to progress, mostly because I know for a fact that all of the families we have found, we have found by the spirit.

It would be nice if all of the people we find, we would find by the spirit, but unfortuanately that is not the case... I think!

I don't remember if I told this story before but about two weeks ago we were not having much luck finding new investigators and so one day we were praying to find four new investigators and a family.

We were contacting and contacting in a really hard passageway (One lady lectured us for 15 minutes about how la Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) is the correct church and she would listen to us if we came to her church...

Side note secret desire: When I get home I want to visit the Catholic Church and talk to the Jehovas witnesses, I think studying the doctrine of these two churches before my mission would have helped me A LOT!)

Out of the blue, we knocked on a door and the girl who answered invited us in without even asking who we were.

The entire family came into the living room and sat to listen to us. The family consists of Mirna (mom) Jose David (dad) Patricia (daughter) Jose David (son) and they are interested...
They are not golden-golden investigators, but they like to listen to us and are willing to learn.

They were truly an answer to our prayers. The Monge Family is Poderosa!! (Strong) They told us that they couldn't come to church last week but they are definately coming to church this week.

And better yet, he is a chef who loves more than anything to cook mediterranian food! The first visit we talked for like a half and hour about restaurants and greek food!!!

We are being led. And I love it. Even though our fruits are small at the moment there will come a time in Sensunapan in the near future that we are going to see the fruit of our labors.

Unfortunately it will probably be the transfer after I leave :) but its okay, in John 4:34-38 there are some sowers and some reapers and we all rejoice together.

I'm thinking I am going to start putting all my investigators in white shirts and take pictures with them... just in case... what do you think? :)

I love you all, today is a good day! Actually, Mondays usually are good days, which means you all get to hear about the bright side of the mission and nothing about the dark side... well... not the dark side, there isn't a dark side... But you know what I mean...

Sorry my letters are so messy... no time to correct them...welcome to my mind. Unedited.

have a great week! i know i will!

Letter 25: “A baptism that I will never be able to forget”

Sonsonate, El Salvador
June 25, 2011

Jose was Baptized (on a chair)
Yay! Jose was Baptized!!!!!!!! And it was a baptism that I will NEVER be able to forget! And let me tell you why:

So the baptism started as the beginning of a bad joke. We had a font, two priesthood holders and... a chair. Let me explain :)

Hermano Max
We thought it would be a good idea to have Hermano Max baptize Jose because he has been visiting him with us and is his friend. When we asked Max to do it he was honored and it made him so happy!

But there were two things we didn’t think about... one, he has never baptized anyone before and even though he said he knew the prayer and how to do it... He didn’t and two, he [was an older man].

One or the other is manageable, but both of these facts together make for an unforgettable experience.

The support & The chair
The elders in our area came to support us and it’s a good thing they did because no priesthood holders from the ward came! (The bishop had a meeting...and I don’t know where everyone else was).

Elder Beaton explained to max how to perform the baptism, but then we realized that Jose couldn’t really bend his knees to be dunked and he is really delicate.

So we decided the best way to do this is to have him sit in a chair in the water so he just needed to be laid back and Max could support him coming back up.

However, then his legs would float up out of the water... the solution to this was to have one of the Elders be in the water too, to hold down the legs.

The plan was Perfect…. right?

The experience
We got everything situated and when the time came all three men entered the water. However, when Hermano Max started the prayer he bowed his head and started saying 'Nuestro Amantisimo Padre Celestial...' ...?!? [Our most infatuatuos Heavenly Phather….] (????????)

We took a quick minute to tell Max how to say the prayer and when he said it they went to immerse Jose... but Max was worried about him drowning so he didn’t want to submerge the head!!!!!... so we resituated everyone so Elder Aguilar was in charge of baptizing and Max was in charge of keeping the legs under the water...

Well Max didn’t entirely understand his job because when the prayer was said again and E. Aguilar submerged Jose, Hermano Max LIFTED Jose's Legs in the air!!!!!

I felt horrible because E. Heil turned red and left the room, E. Beaton could not stop laughing and everyone else was just stunned... for about five seconds we had no idea what to do or say!...

Achieved
In the end of the day Jose was baptized… correctly. It makes me think of D&C 22... It doesn’t matter if you are baptized 100 times, you just have to be baptized once with the proper authority in the correct way...

And in the end we achieved that much... there were hugs and congratulations all around.
I am so glad that Max had the opportunity to help with the baptism because it’s something that he will always treasure... and I will never forget!

Updates
We are teaching more and more Irvin and Zuleyma and they are progressing! They came to Church yesterday and all is good.

Please continue your prayers for them and me... they are working!

There are miracles everyday we just have to look for them!

I love you all!

Letter 24: "A mission of constant changes" (Part DOS)

Sonsonate, El Salvador
July 14, 2011

This is the second part of Letter 24: "A mission of constant changes"
If you haven yet, [and you want to] please read first Letter 24: "A mission of constant changes" (Part DOS)

Previously in Letter 24...
"Hello family and friends! There is so much that happens everyday and so many different sensations that one can feel... and it changes constantly-- No two minutes are the same."

"I have a new companion, Hna Fuentes. She is awesome!"

"Boundaries of the mission Changed. we are now even smaller!... Our mission is called now El Salvador Santa Ana/Belice Mission."

"All the missionaries got moved around and now our zone went from having 16 missionaries to have about 23... We used to be really close, but now it feels like companionships are on their own...It feels like we are less unified in purpose."

"Biggest change of all: Presidente Lopez is finishing his mission this week! Next week we get a new President! Presidente Cordon."

"I think that's it as far as all of the changes. Except our investigators. Which are constantly changing..."

----------

The old man (who didn’t understand)
We have a few new positives [Investigators]. Jose Garcia is an awesome old man. He has 79 years (OK This is proof of how bad my English is getting...pretty bad!)

He is lonely. We started visiting him and found out that he never had parents and his kids never talk to him.

“Only God is with me”
He always says, “Solo Dios conmigo” (Only God is with me). He wants so much to follow God. Before (and sometimes still) we thought that he didn’t really understand what we were talking about… because he just said “Yes” [to anything].

We asked him if he wanted to get baptized, he said yes, and then, we asked when he wanted to be baptized, and he just said, “it’s up to you. You’re the ones taking the time to help me. Whatever time you decide is good with me....”

...So [to make sure if he understood] we asked him what baptism meat and he told us exactly what it means and why we needed to be baptized... we were shocked... in a good way!

He is HOPEFULLY getting baptized this Sunday. I guess we'll see...

The family (who didn’t understand)
We also have a family that we are visiting; The Chuniko Family (awesome last name!). It consists of Irvin (kid- age15), Zuleyma (kid- age13), Judith(Mom) and Carlos (Cousin).

Mostly we are teaching Irvin and Zuleyma, Carlos is always there and wants to listen and participate, but he always says that Irvin and Zuleyma need to hear this and he thinks that he doesn’t.

They are awesome. They don’t go to church, but have a sincere desire to learn.

"Teaching people"
Yesterday in the Missionary Zone Conference (Multi-zona) we talked about teaching people, not just lessons. A lot of times we teach and it’s like we are just going through a list, checking off things that we need to teach.

Lesson 1… check, Book of Mormon… check, Lesson 2… check... etc. A lot of times we forget that we are trying to help people.

Well, yesterday we had a lesson with the Chunikos and the plan was just to teach lesson 2. But then we started talking to them about what they read in the Book of Mormon.

And they had all read it (YAY!) but they didn’t understand [what they read].

So we started talking about the point of reading scriptures and how it’s not just about reading, but it’s about applying it to our lives. And learning about what we need to do from the scriptures... So we took 20 minutes or so and analyzed Moroni 10:3-5. It was awesome!

So we left them two more verses and homework to analyze. Irvin told us when we came yesterday that he was going to go to church this next week... I really hope he does because chances are if he does, Zuleyma will too!!

“Sequel?”
We have more investigators I want to talk about but due to lack of time and how long this post is, I will save the rest for next week :)

"A mission of constant changes" (Part TRES?)

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

"My New Mission President"

July 14, 2011
San Salvador, El Salvador

El Salvador Santa Ana/Belize Mission's Mission President

T. Lorena and I. Poloski Cordón

Iván Poloski Cordón Orellana, 43, and Tirza Lorena Espinoza Barrios de Cordón, four children, El Salvador Santa Ana/Belize Mission; Canajuyu Ward, Guatemala City Palmita Stake. Brother Cordón currently serves as an Area Seventy in the Central America Area and is a former area family history adviser, stake president, high councilor, counselor in a bishopric, ward mission leader and missionary in the San Salvador El Salvador Mission.

Temple Recorder, Guatemala City Guatemala Temple. Born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, to Ovidio Cordón and Ema María Orellana Casasola.

Sister Cordón serves as a Relief Society teacher and is a former area adviser for a special multi-stake youth conference, Young Women president, counselor in a Young Women presidency, Relief Society secretary, Relief Society president and seminary teacher.

Born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, to Oscar Espinoza and Enma Isabel Barrios Maldonado.