Miracles and Pictures!!

November 7^th 2011

This week was pretty awesome. we lost a few days because of the whole Hermana Estrada foot fiasco, but we worked hard and saw some miracles!

miracle number one: on thursday we have noche de hermanamiento at the church (night of brotherhood?) at 7pm...but this thursday we had a super long lesson that we didnt get out of until almost 8...we debated for a few minutes if we should or shouldnt go to the church and in the end we decided to go. about thre quarters of the way up the huge hill to the chapel this kid comes over and tells us there is someone on his cell phone that wants to talk to us...uh huh, sure!....needless to say we were VERY untrusting so finally after a minute of trying to convince us unsuccessfully to take the phone, he put it on speaker and a girl named jessica started talking to us and told us something along the lines of: "missionaries! my name is Jessica and this kid holding the phone is my boyfriend, his name is Marlon, and he wants to be baptized as soon as possible! he has a Book of Mormon and is reading it as well as Principles of the Gospel, he is going to church on Sunday and i just need you to call me to tell me what day his baptism will be so i can get off work! is that okay?!"...she paused and I actually said "are you kidding me?! is this a joke?!" she assured me it wasnt....we have a baptisimal date for the 24th of November!

miracles numbers 2-6: on Sunday we usually leave the house around 630 to wake everyone up for church...do missionaries do that in the states?!?! anyway, EVERYONE said they couldnt go, or that they were sick, or just didnt open the door...we were pretty down when we went to the church at 730...but de repente! Carlos came again! very surprising and also Fernando (he wasnt awake when we passed by in the morning so we had given up on the idea that he would come) Marlon came...and then when i had thought that i had seen all the miracles for the day Sabrina came...with her husband!!!!!! (carlos)...in order for you to really appreciate that miracle you need to hear the backstory...

Backstory of Sabrina and Carlos:
we contacted sabrina last week. when we were giving her the first lesson at the end she told us that about eight years ago she was praying to God to find the church that he wanted her to be in...she was praying and praying and praying and one night she had a dream and in the dream Christ told her that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints was his church...and for 8 years SHE DISMISSED THE DREAM AS NOTHING!!! even though she knows that it was the answer!!!! but there is something that is holding her back and we dont know exactly what it is...anyway. we wanted to teach her husband too but she told us that Carlos likes the things of the world and he has told her that he knows hes going to Hell, but hes okay with it...hmmm....anyway on saturday we talked to him and i was pretty blunt telling him that hell isnt pretty and we read the story of Alma the Younger...he didnt seem too interested...BUT THEN HE CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!?!?!?!...we are a little confused. but i guess well see what happens...so in your prayers please include:

Carlos
Fernando
Marlon
Sabrina
Carlos
and ME!!!!

i love you all i am all good and i am loving life...the rain has gone and everyday is BEAUTIFUL!!!! i miss my family...but i.love.el.salvador!!!

(EN: I pretty much thought it was a miracle that she FINALLY sent us some pictures. She is not very good at that... just sayin'...)

Change is good... and unexpected!

November 1^st 2011

The Craziest Day Ever!!!!!

Hello lovely family. yes i am writing on tuesday! yesterday was the Craziest day EVER!!!!!

remember about a month ago when i wrote about how Hermana Estrada sprained her ankle, well, its been bugging her still so we FINALLY made an appointment to get an Xray, we left early in the morning hoping to just get an ankle brace and return before noon...until they found out that it wasn't a sprain...it was a fracture!!!! she had three small fractures in the little leg bone (i have no idea what its called). so they sent us back to Ataco to get clothes and return to Santa Ana, however on our way back to Ataco the car we were in blew a tire...thankfully we were pretty close to a car shop and less than an hour later we were back on the road. we made it back to Santa Ana in time to break a piñata with the Hermanas there...p.s. the house of the nurse has three bathrooms and hot water....i was half tempted to sprain my ankle just to be there for a week...kidding!...anyway...Hermana Estrada is in bed for 7-10 days. no walking, no working. Thankfully! there was a trio in Santa Ana and i am back in Ataco today with Hermana Bonilla...she has four months in the mission but only two weeks in El Salvador because she is from Columbia and had trouble with her visa. She was serving in one of the missions in Columbia and now she just got here only to have emergency transfers...she says the culture is completely different, she can hardly understand the accent here because 'the people here dont speak spanish they speak slang' :) life is crazy, its wierd to have a different companion but i think it will make me work harder...Hermana Estrada and I were too comfortable with eachother.! :)

the rain has gone and now the days are beautiful and happy and the nights are flipping cold...i just bought a blanket today because i sleep with two layers and a blanket and still wake up three times a night with cold. but its all good. i love you all and hope you have a great week! ill write more on monday (Hopefully!!!)

Rules and Revelations

October 24^th 2011

What a week! i know i say that every week, but every week its true...nothing really happened this week it rained and rained until about wednesday and then the weather took a 180 degree turn and now it is bright and sunny and warm....which is just great except that i bought three sweaters last week...but its all good cause everyone is saying that even though it isnt raining anymore (and wont rain until next year!) the weather is about to get really cold...anyway, i doubt you all want to hear about the weather...

Write Me More, Please!!

(EN: Okay, that is not really what this says... but it is what it means!)

due to recent occurances in the mission we are now only allowed 45 minutes to write people...and can only write immediate family...this means that i can still recieve emails, but that all my responses to everyone but my immediate family will have to be through snail mail... ;) i love you all and will talk to you in approx 8 months... :D

Ouch!

me me me. i am all good. today we went to tour a power plant that sucks water from the center of the earth turns it all into steam makes electricity and the pumps the water back down to the center of the Earth. pretty cool. the best part was that we had to wear hard hats! but then afterward we took a little hike to see some hot springs and just to prove that the Lord protects us from danger but not our own stupidity (technically we are not allowed near ANY water) one of the elders took a step where the earth was just a thin shell over boiling sulfur water...his foot was covered and now he has 2nd degree burns all over his foot. and it started blistering and...yeah, it was gross...we are going to see what happens with that....there are just some experiences that the only good outcome is a cool story...

Thoughts on Revelation(s)

this week i have been studying revelation. mostly because even though i love the book of mormon and thinking of all of the fulfilled prophecies in it is really cool i always think it would be even cooler to read about the future beyond our time...and then i realized that is pretty much what the book of revelation is all about!!!!!!!! so i started reading it...i still dont understand all of it, but most of this week i have been thinking about the second coming and everything thats going to happen...im pretty excited about it, the only thing is that we need to prepare...this life is all about preparation. its easy to get caught up in what we call life, the little things that distract us. but really if we always keep our eternal perspective and prepare for the future we will be okay! ...but at the same time living in the moment and doing all the good that we can...i always laughed at the part of the hymn that says 'then wake up! and do something more, than dream of your mansion above...' because who really just thinks about living in the celestial kingdom all the time...until this week when i have been living in that thought...anyway the point is dont get distracted by the little things that happen in life (or the seemingly big things) keep the eternal perspective and do all the good you can, for yourself and for other people.

Me Me Me

i keep getting emails that say i dont talk about myself very much. i feel like all i do is talk about myself. i am great, my comp is all good...i am still with Hermana Estrada, she reminds me so much of trish its not even funny...we've been together three months and still have a month more at least. i love her to death, but i hope we have changes this next transfer because i want to go to Belize...please pray for that! (yes, it is a completely selfish desire) i love life and cant imagine going home ever....i know the culture is completly different, but i have forgotten a lot of the US culture and am scared to go back...whew! i still have a while left...alright..i really have nothing else to write. i love you all and will write...next week!

It's raining, It's pouring!

(Editorial note: As Casey learns more and more Spanish, her English suffers. I think it's kind of cute, so I left her letters [mostly] just the way they came. She also quit bothering with sentence structure early on in her letters, so the ellipses are all her.)

October 17^th 2011

It's... Christmas?!?

this week was definitely interesting...it rained and poured ALL week...in fact it is still raining and pouring. its flipping cold and i only have one thin sweater (because who in the world thought that i would need more than one in El Salvador!!!). i am buying a coat today. :)

Because of the weather i feel like it is Christmastime....i am driving my companion crazy because all i want to do is sing christmas songs, give service and drink hot chocolate, apple cider. and soup... every day i burn my tongue more! the last thing we want to do is go tracting outside!...but we do....however the people in Ataco are not like the people in Sensunapan and more often than not they tell us that they arent interested and perhaps we can come back when it stops raining...and then they shut the door....youd think this would make us sad and discouraged but for the last week i have had a inexplicable joyful feeling...i think it has to do with the Christmas cheer i am feeling two months too early!....all is well!

Fernando

in other news we had a baptism friday! Fernando...do you remember about Alexis in Sensunapan. he's a repeat! he is amazing. just takes everything as it is and knows its true. i am so grateful that i got to be his missionary!

Please pray

please pray for our investigators we have a family that needs lots of prayers they are in a difficult situation that is going to take time to fix...more than anything they need patience and motivation...but their kids are getting baptized at the end of the month! (we hope!!!)

Familia Laguan!
-advardo
-Glenda
-Alonzo
-Michelle
-Natalie

i love you all and hope all is well...stay safe!

A P'Day Week

October 3^rd 2011

this week was definitely a pday week...on Wednesday we had a multizona and we in Santa Ana all day and then with General Conference....usually by the end of the week i am in desperate need of a pday, but today i feel completely rested and ready to work!!!...but we get a pday anyway :)

highlights of the week:

WE HAD THREE BAPTISMS!!!!!!!!!!!

Katherine was baptized Wednesday! after the multizona we had to run back to Ataco (not literally), the multizona ended at about 430, the baptism was scheduled at 6 and it takes an hour and a half to travel back to the area. we got the the church at 615 and we started it at 630...a miracle!

also....LA FAMILIA VELASQUEZ!!!!!!!!! milagro de milagros!!!! it was soooooo beautiful and everybody was crying and they were sooooooo happy! it was really special. this baptisimal service made it to the top of my top baptisms list, well, all baptisms are top...but you know what i mean...

General Conference....I can not believe that six months have already passed by since the last General Conference. can not believe it. but how awesome was it!?!?!?! i cant choose a favorite talk, there are so many! but of the ones i think i needed most were from Barbara Thompson about recieving personal revelation. and then President Uchtdorf....oh my gosh...it was Marvelous! about the two extremes that satan plays in our mind, that we are something, and then that we are nothing. but the reality lies in between, that we are of great worth because we are children of God, but at the same time we are nothing, we have weaknesses and in a moment its all over. we have all power and at the same time we have no power....talk about profound. there was another...oh! the Gift of Choice!!!! i loved that about how really there are two choices, and it is not for us to decide to have a mix of both, it doesnt work like that. and President Eyring about the Baptisimal Covenant! especially because thats kind of our focus as missionaries. there was so much knowledge, it was a spiritual feast! and there were so many things that help me now as a missionary and things that are to help me in my life. after hearing President Monson's talk, when we were back in Ataco i could litereally feel a bubble of protection around us. how awesome is it that we know how to be happy and safe, if we so but choose. this world really is increasing in iniquity at a rapid pace and the gap between 'us' and 'them' is growing wider and wider. and if people would just open their eyes and ears, they too could find real peace...i feel so blessed to have been spoon-fed this knowledge and taught to look for truth rather than just accepting what i've been given. this morning i was talking to an old lady on the bus. we started talking about religion (obviously) and she informed me that she was Catholic, that no matter what she was taught to not even listen to other beliefs because going from one church to another is playing a game and that is NOT right. in fact its the worst thing a person can do. sadly, this is the idea of the majority of the people here...i was born this way, i am going to die this way, and there is nothing you can say to make me change my opinion. people see others searching for truth and look down on them because they are playing with God. i am so thankful that i was taught to not just 'be Mormon' but to search for truth. and there is truth in every person that you meet. I am thankful that my parents allowed me to go to the Bible Study of the Church down the street, and the take part in celebrations of other religions and cultures...experience is what this world is all about and if we close our eyes, our ears, our hearts, and our minds to everything but what we've been taught since childhood we miss out on a lot. a whole lot. so this is my challenge of the week. be open. try something new. learn something from somebody else. open your mind. open your ears. and listen! :)

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