The dedication of the San Salvador El Salvador Temple!!!

August 22nd 2011

"I wish you all could have felt..."

so iforgot to mention in mylast letter that this weekend was the dedication of the San Salvador, El Salvador Temple!!!! Presidente Eyring came to dedicate it (because it was Pres. Monsons Bday on Saturday) the night he got here we had a meeting with him which included both of the Missions in El Salvador! he and Elder Christofferson came to speak to us....it was AMAZING!!! i wish you all could have felt what i felt when he walked into the room...yes i have been to see Conference in the conference center when the first presidency walked in, but i have never felt what i felt when Pres. Eyring walked through the door only five feet from where i stood. i have no doubt in my heart or mind that he is a prophet of God. when he spoke to us it was pure love and the things he said were the exact things that i needed to hear. it was an amazing experience all around, especially because i had the oportunity to sing in a choir for a special musical number. we sang Divina Luz (Lead Kindly Light) there were only 16 of us in the Choir (4 on each part) because we were so small in number we got to sit in front! which is why i was only 5 feet from him when he walked in....anyway. this experience was nothing short of amazing and I wouldnt mind repeating it.

Lost in TV land...

I am really sad because on Saturday we did not get to see the cultural celebration :( it started at 6pm and the last bus returns to Ataco at 645 ...they said it was going to play on the local channels, but they lied because we searched every channelfor an hour...not only did we feel inicuo (iniquitus...?...i have forgotten how to speak English) because we saw small bits of Psych, Glee, and Modern Familiy but we did not get to see the Cultural Celebration and we wasted an hour!!! ...but life moves on.

And sick... again...

Sunday was beautiful. i loved the temple dedication and now tomorrow the temple opens to work! HOW EXCITING IS THAT!?!?! Elder Christofferson told us that right now is the best time to be a missionary in El Salvador and I would have to agree with him! ...other that that this week was pretty calm. Sunday night I got sick...( i think i have to quit eating tamales, because the only times ihave gotten sick in the mission is when i ate tamales) ...anyway...im sure youall wanted to know that...i have to go now before i write something else you really dont need or want to know ...LOVE YOU ALL!!!! have a great week!

A few... months... behind...

Hello Casey blog followers! So due to some kinks and changes in the mission rules, some of Casey's emails have gotten a little lost on the way to the page... we are working on it, though!! I will be posting a LOT of letters over the next several days, so you can all catch up on how Hermana Pappas is doing in El Salvador. I will try to keep the editorializing to a minimum... but no promises...

Okay! Here is the first stray letter, dated August 15th 2011:


Miracles!!

I have seen more miracles this week than in any other time in my mission so far!!!

Miracle One:

i think the first one happened wednesday...remember the story i told about the lady who unloaded two years of stress and heartache on us? well we visited their house again, she wasnt there but her husband, rafael, was. we started the lesson and he told us that he has no idea what we were thinking when we came to visit him that day, but that it was truly a miracle. he had been feeling horrible about his family relationships and he had gotten on his knees that morning to beg Heavenly Father for forgiveness and that if there was a way to fix it, to please show him a sign....then we knocked on the door just a few hours later...after we left they talked a long time and are both agreed to make things better. He feel like he recieved his answer and that everything is going to be okay, because he knows that God is taking care of him and listening to his prayers.

Miracle Two

The Valasquez family came to church...well, most of them. they are coming to every activity and now to church...this family is Poderoso!!!! now we just need to get them in the water!

Miracle Three

Josue was Baptized....this is the second time in the history of my mission that a baptism has gone through with the first date...the 'hard part' with him is that we had to get permission from his parents. well, one of his parents is not a member and the other one is now assisting a church evangelical....so we were a little bit nervous about what was going to happen....however. his mom told us that she will support him in whatever decision that he wants to make in his life and that this decision is really personal. then his dad told us that he was overjoyed that his son wanted to take this step in his life and that he was there to support him 100%. ...it was so amazing to speak with them and it was nothing short of a miracle.

Miracle Four

this is perhaps the biggest miracle of all...i dont remember if i have talked about Edwin, but he is an investigator that we have been teaching this entire transfer. he and all of the kids (between the ages of 11 and 28) in the area that hang around his house. he is a 'bad boy' walking in all kinds of things that arent really good in any way. at first he was hard. he didnt speak hardly at all in the lessons and believes in God, but as far as anything else, including satan, he doesnt believe. little by little he has been changing and now he speaks openly to us about pretty much everything. that is not the miracle. everytime we mention the word church he closes up, he does not have any desire to go to church...we think that he thinks if he goes a lightening bold is going to fall upon him...anyway. yesterday when the sacrament meeting had just started one of the young women told us that we had two investigators outside...thinking it was the valasquez family we went to bring them in...but it was edwin and Jorge (one of the kids that hangs in the house) Edwin tried to tell us that he only came to drop off Jorge....but he couldnt fool us because he was in a formal church shirt and shoes.... .... ...right after sacrament meeting he fled,but the miracle is that he came...please pray for him. if we can help change their lives we will change the world....

i love you all and hope all is well, write me :)

"Practice, Celebration, Dedication: Temple Blessings in El Salvador"

Letter 30: "People would just open up to us"

Ataco, El Salvador
September 12, 2011

"...to a whole new level"
This week was pretty laid back. No surprise baptisms!... but then yesterday we had a crazy experience... in the beginning of my mission in the MTC people said that people would just open up to us as missionaries.

So far in the mission that has proved to be true enough, after a few visits, if we ask enough question they open up and share their problems with us.

Yesterday however, we had a lady taking this to a whole new level.

Enna
We were teaching a less active who joined the church two years ago, Rafael. We invited his wife, Enna, to join us for five minutes and she did so reluctantly.

We asked her to choose someone to give the opening prayer and she got this horrible look on her face and told us that she knows nothing about our doctrine so we should just do whatever it is that we do and she will listen for the five minutes. (Whoops...)

Anyway, we started and we asked her a question about Christ and how she feels about him and when she responded you could tell that she just wanted to bite our heads off.

We were really trying to listen to the spirit and figure out what was going on with her and felt that we just needed to keep talking about Christ and his mission for us.

I tried again with another question to get her to open up and tell us the real problem... I don't remember the question, but I do remember that she started talking... and didn't stop...

I wont go into the details of her problem but seriously, for about 45 minutes... she went on and on!

I have never had a stranger talk to me about these things so personal!!! And she said at least three times during her rant that she has no idea why she is telling us stuff that her kids don't even know.

And that maybe God did sent us to help her... even though she blames most of the problem on the Church.... we'll see what happens, but it truly was an experience to remember. Please pray for her.

Temples (trivia)

Other than that, everything is pretty calm.

I hope everyone is doing well. remember, God Loves you, I love you, what else really matters?

...OH! cool bit of news...the temple dedication was the 21 of August! (cool tidbit, the Portland Oregon temple was dedicated the 20 of August 1989!) just in time for my Birthday week! :) and Pres. Eyring and Elder Christopherson had a reunion with the missionaries on the 19th!!! whoooooooo! Super exciting!

anyway, that is all...love you!

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!!!!!!!!