Dear Family,
How is everything in the good old United States? Things here are a little tough. The weather has been pretty nasty. We´ve had rain everyday for the last 5 or 6 days. Not anything super hard, but just enough to make it a ¨gloomy day¨. It´s actually great weather for missionaries though, not too hot, and not too wet. The biggest problem is that Ticos are afraid of water or something. So we had barely anyone at church and nobody wants to go outside. But this just means more time to teach right?
So success this week... we had our baptism. Sandra finally got baptized this week. Her daughter got baptized the week before, but Sandra couldn´t. I got to baptize her and everything went... okay. Problem #1 was that the branch was having an meeting at the same time so the president of the Branch and the District both were stuck in that meeting. #2 Not many people came to support her for her baptism. Kinda depressing, not even the branch president would come sit in. I guess the meeting about Mutual was more important... :( That made E. Portillo and I a little upset. Problem #3 (a little embarrasing) It took me 3 times to actually baptize her. She just wouldn´t bend her knees. I promise it wasn´t totally my fault.
Big thing of the week (also the reason for the late email) We had changes meeting. Let me explain that real quick. So most missions have changes every 6 weeks. This is where people move to new areas, get new companions... stuff like that. Well, Costa Rica does it a little different. We have a huge meeting in San José where all the people that have changes, are going home, are coming to the mission, or just want to go. It´s like a big huge meeting in a chapel. They had all the missionaries leaving bare their testimonies, then the pres and the pres´s wife talk a little, then they put all the the pictures of the missionaries and their new comps on a projector screen. It´s like a big game and everyone just screes ¨Usshhh¨ (I don´t know its just the thing the mission does) and claps/snaps. it´s pretty fun.
Well, I didn´t get my package. I really thought It´d be at changes meeting, but i guess i´ll just have to wait a little longer. I miss you all a lot... too much actually, but i´m doing good. Working really hard. Love you all!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
John - September 27, 2010
ello everybody,
awesome to hear about how things are going at home. Yeah so i don´t know why the houses roofs look like they are pink. Its just he way they look. Well we had a hurricane come through these last couple of days. Hurricane Matthew. So there has been a ton of rain! i got a video of what it looks like, i think you will get a kick out of it. That is whenever i send a letter home.
This week has really been awesome! We had a wedding and then a baptism for them after. It is a family of four, but three are old enough for baptism. They are an awesome family! They are going to be a very powerful family here in El Salvador! They are a very smart family. E. Brotherson and i have seen them change so much! Its amazing what the gospel can do! Its hard to difficult to really get connected with this anyone here when you can´t speak their language very well, But i feel pretty close to this family. I baptized Claudia, daughter; and E. brotherson baptized the parents, Dimas and Yessica. They have a son who is 2, he just turned two just last sunday. Anyway they are awesome! E. Brotherson is going to keep in contact with them when he goes home, and i will try to keep in contact with them, too.
So something cool this week. I went on divisions with a other gringo in our zone, by the way our whole zone got a baptism this change so Presidente Perez is coming out to take us all out to lunch today! Right anyway so i was on divisions with E. Price in his area and we talked to one of the persons that is getting baptized next week and i talked to her sister about the book of mormon all by my self! At times it was difficult to say what i want, but i got it across the language barrier. So that was cool, I think it really opened her eyes. I hope so.
Well changes are this wednesday, so my comp is leaving for home. Hah he isn´t very "baggie", that basically means he would want to go home. But he has really been pretty focused when it really comes down to it. umm... so i wil get a new companion, probably a latino. Which is good. This will help my spanish skills explode! I just hope he likes to work hard, because in this area there are people that are ready.Well i love you all!
-Elder John Paulsen-
awesome to hear about how things are going at home. Yeah so i don´t know why the houses roofs look like they are pink. Its just he way they look. Well we had a hurricane come through these last couple of days. Hurricane Matthew. So there has been a ton of rain! i got a video of what it looks like, i think you will get a kick out of it. That is whenever i send a letter home.
This week has really been awesome! We had a wedding and then a baptism for them after. It is a family of four, but three are old enough for baptism. They are an awesome family! They are going to be a very powerful family here in El Salvador! They are a very smart family. E. Brotherson and i have seen them change so much! Its amazing what the gospel can do! Its hard to difficult to really get connected with this anyone here when you can´t speak their language very well, But i feel pretty close to this family. I baptized Claudia, daughter; and E. brotherson baptized the parents, Dimas and Yessica. They have a son who is 2, he just turned two just last sunday. Anyway they are awesome! E. Brotherson is going to keep in contact with them when he goes home, and i will try to keep in contact with them, too.
So something cool this week. I went on divisions with a other gringo in our zone, by the way our whole zone got a baptism this change so Presidente Perez is coming out to take us all out to lunch today! Right anyway so i was on divisions with E. Price in his area and we talked to one of the persons that is getting baptized next week and i talked to her sister about the book of mormon all by my self! At times it was difficult to say what i want, but i got it across the language barrier. So that was cool, I think it really opened her eyes. I hope so.
Well changes are this wednesday, so my comp is leaving for home. Hah he isn´t very "baggie", that basically means he would want to go home. But he has really been pretty focused when it really comes down to it. umm... so i wil get a new companion, probably a latino. Which is good. This will help my spanish skills explode! I just hope he likes to work hard, because in this area there are people that are ready.Well i love you all!
-Elder John Paulsen-
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Adam - September 20, 2010
Hi everyone,
Elder Adam Paulsen reporting this week from Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Life here is good. I had a good day this week with a friend from the past. Elder Kirk Logan! Let me explain
So everytime you have a baptism you have to interview the person, but it has to be done by one of the mission leaders. This week we had a baptism of a girl named Silvia. She is 9 years old and her and her mom are planning on becoming baptized. Anyways, the Zone Leaders wanted to do some divisions, and we needed someone to come do an interview, so one of the Zone Leaders came to Puntarenas with me. And it just so happened to be Kirk Logan. How random? I think they´ve been planning it because it took a little bit of work to make things work out like they did. So Elder Logan and I were together for a whole 24 hours. It was so fun! Here are some reasons why I liked it so much:
#1- We have been friends ever since I can remember
#2- English
#3- We talked about the good old days of Sandy Utah
#4- He´s an AMAZING missionary and taught me lots of things that Elder Portillo failed to mention
#5- His spanish is a little bit Gringo-ish so I was able to understand him a lot easier
#6- He´s funny.
#7- We ate out
#8- We worked really hard and met a bunch of new people
#9- It felt a little bit like home, but not a homesick ¨like home¨, a good ¨like home¨.
There are probably a bunch more reasons, but I can´t think of them all. It was great, and he told me some of the things I need to teach Portillo. Well, we had a baptism this week like I mentioned. I actually baptized her. We were planning on baptising her and her mom, but her mom had an issue and decided to do it next week. It was really cool baptising. It made me think about my baptism and how important baptism is. That we have taken upon ourselves the Name of Jesus Christ, and have His Spirit (The Holy Ghost) with us always. Baptisms are so uplifting and make me excited to go work and find some people.
Well, all the things from home sound exciting! Dad, Nat, and Brady with your new callings. I love hearing about it all. I can´t wait to hear what Dad is going to be now. Mom, how´s the knee? Nat/Brady, How´s work and school? Lana, how´s work and the puppies? Hey, I still haven´t seen a picture of Max... ya, I´d get on that if I were you! Well, nothing new to report really. I´m pretty comfortable here, except for the cold showers. Those get me everytime! Loving life and I love you all!
Elder Adam Paulsen
P.S.
Pictures:
001 - Just a sweet sunset that we saw. I think you can see the ocean.
002 - The family that we baptized and are baptizing this week. The little boy is just a neighbor, he´s not getting baptized.
003 - Elder Kirk and I.
005,004 - Elder Logan and I playing with some fruit while waiting for some other missionaries.
006- The Baptism of Silvia
007- Just a funny picture at a member´s house. That bird is pretty sweet, but it pooped on me. Not cool!
John - September 19, 2010
Hello everybody,
Well things here have been going good. My comp (my ¨dad¨, as they say) is dying (going home) in a week and a half. so i will be getting a new comp in about a week and a half. So that will be exciting.
Things here are going good. We are baptizing a family this coming saturday, after they get married. We have been working with this family since we first got into the area. Seriously like the first or second day. We were walking up the street to see a family that the elders previously had (which they never progressed so we had to drop them), and this little girl came up to us and said, hey come over and talk to my parents. Ha so we were just like alright, yeah. Kinda stunned this had actually happened. So now it is awesome that they are finally getting married, after 10 years of being together, and BAPTIZED! woot! So there are some amazing things happening. Also this week we had a really positive guy, he had already read half of the book of mormon, and seemed really positive, but worked a lot; so we didn´t see him a whole lot. Well we had about a week and a half time where we didn´t see him. So one day something told us to go see if he was home, and we went and he was home. He said he couldn´t listen to us anymore, because one of the doctrine. But we proded more and found the real reason. His old pastor had come to his house and macheted him for listening to us. So we talked and now he is positive again. We are meeting with him this week, so that is exciting. Also so we are teaching these two older ladies, and they call over their friend, who listens and is very interested, so then she wants us to teach her kids. She has 5 neices and nephews we are teaching with them. so its way sweet what the Lord has done for us these past couple of weeks.
Dad that is exciting to hear a new calling. I wonder what it will be. Ha you don´t think bishop, come´on dad be positive. It could happen haha. Wow bingham crushed herriman, talk about sending in your 3nd stringers at half time. Ha. Oh and i bet the alta jordan game was intense.
Wow thats kinda crazy to hear about this fire out in herriman. crazy a few houses got burned up.
Well i gotta get going, I´ve got a few minutes here. well i love you all.
-Elder John Paulsen-
Well things here have been going good. My comp (my ¨dad¨, as they say) is dying (going home) in a week and a half. so i will be getting a new comp in about a week and a half. So that will be exciting.
Things here are going good. We are baptizing a family this coming saturday, after they get married. We have been working with this family since we first got into the area. Seriously like the first or second day. We were walking up the street to see a family that the elders previously had (which they never progressed so we had to drop them), and this little girl came up to us and said, hey come over and talk to my parents. Ha so we were just like alright, yeah. Kinda stunned this had actually happened. So now it is awesome that they are finally getting married, after 10 years of being together, and BAPTIZED! woot! So there are some amazing things happening. Also this week we had a really positive guy, he had already read half of the book of mormon, and seemed really positive, but worked a lot; so we didn´t see him a whole lot. Well we had about a week and a half time where we didn´t see him. So one day something told us to go see if he was home, and we went and he was home. He said he couldn´t listen to us anymore, because one of the doctrine. But we proded more and found the real reason. His old pastor had come to his house and macheted him for listening to us. So we talked and now he is positive again. We are meeting with him this week, so that is exciting. Also so we are teaching these two older ladies, and they call over their friend, who listens and is very interested, so then she wants us to teach her kids. She has 5 neices and nephews we are teaching with them. so its way sweet what the Lord has done for us these past couple of weeks.
Dad that is exciting to hear a new calling. I wonder what it will be. Ha you don´t think bishop, come´on dad be positive. It could happen haha. Wow bingham crushed herriman, talk about sending in your 3nd stringers at half time. Ha. Oh and i bet the alta jordan game was intense.
Wow thats kinda crazy to hear about this fire out in herriman. crazy a few houses got burned up.
Well i gotta get going, I´ve got a few minutes here. well i love you all.
-Elder John Paulsen-
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
John - September 12, 2010
Alright, well hello everybody,
Everything is going well for us, Can´t complain. Ha we had a baptism this last sunday morning, and i baptized her. Her name is sonía Contreras. She can´t read and to be honest just isn´t very smart. So we had to change our teachings a bit to fit her needs, Which is what we do for every investigator. It goes like this, when we find some people that are interested in our message, we ask questions and find out a need they have that we can teach them. Then after teaching we listen to see if they remembered what we have taught. This is the cycle for everything, Its just a big teaching circle. So yeah thats what happens. Here we do some door knocking to find people. We don´t really do any contacting in the street unless we feel prompted to. Because in our area, its like way ghetto. It is so hard to find someones house, they would probably describe it like this, oh yeah i live down that street and the yellow house by the tree and the cow. Ha it is very difficult, so we do door knocking mostly. This last week we found these two old ladies on this side street, and they are so awesome. Hah i lov´em. there would be like the cool old ladies on the block back home. Hah they just have so much of their youth still in them. And they are taking to the gospel really well! Totally going to get baptized!
So a little bit about my area, so basically everything is sloping upwards toward the volcano, So its not flat, well not all the time. alright well about our little house. The size would be like the one living room, we have with the big windows, and probably the other dining room too. So just those two rooms, and thats being generous too. I think it would be less than that size. But that contains our sleeping room, room with our clothes, and kitchen-study area. We have a refrigerator, a little mini stove thing that you plug into the wall and it has two coils, we don´t really use that though. and a sink, which we found out this week has a hole near the mouth of the drain, ha that was fun. so now if we need to wash some plates or bowls we do it out of the bathroom sink. Yes i have a mattress. The city probably has a few thousand people in it. like...10. i have no idea im just guessing.
Thank you for the future package, I´m sure all of that will taste awesome! oh i don´t need a CTR ring, i´ve never been much of a ring wearer.
So about the Pres Hinkley emails, there good, but they do take up a lot time, so just dont send them. oh also about mail. i just got your pouch mail stuff, i wouldn´t send it through the church stuff, it takes way too long! almost a month to get to me.
So i think from what E. Brotherson has said, i will be here for probably 6 months, or so.
That is so awesome to hear that Adam Bryner is heading out! thats way sweet! and i can´t wait to hear where Brayden goes.
Hah thats funny dad to hear about the snow white thing, i had a good laugh. And wow its 44 degrees! wow. I think the people here would die if it got that cold! so the hottest its gotten here was 97 degrees i think. I have it on my alarm clock, which is cool that it can record what the past temp has been. Right, so about the walmart thing, there is a store in our area, that is bought by walmart, called despert don juan... its something close to that. I know that i spelled it wrong, but i haven´t checked to see if it has a pic thing. I will check today. So if i sent the memory card home in a letter it would probably get there in about 3 weeks.
For breakfast i usually have some cereal, frosted flakes. Yumm! and maybe some peanut butter, it depends if we do some lifting in the morning.
Oh and when we kick rocks and stuff, its not like gruesome. You make it sound like we are trying to kill eachother. Its just what ever is on the ground in front of us. Hah except dog poop!! Thats off limits. most of the time its just small rocks, pebbles and stuff. well i got to go i love you all.
-Elder John Paulsen-
Everything is going well for us, Can´t complain. Ha we had a baptism this last sunday morning, and i baptized her. Her name is sonía Contreras. She can´t read and to be honest just isn´t very smart. So we had to change our teachings a bit to fit her needs, Which is what we do for every investigator. It goes like this, when we find some people that are interested in our message, we ask questions and find out a need they have that we can teach them. Then after teaching we listen to see if they remembered what we have taught. This is the cycle for everything, Its just a big teaching circle. So yeah thats what happens. Here we do some door knocking to find people. We don´t really do any contacting in the street unless we feel prompted to. Because in our area, its like way ghetto. It is so hard to find someones house, they would probably describe it like this, oh yeah i live down that street and the yellow house by the tree and the cow. Ha it is very difficult, so we do door knocking mostly. This last week we found these two old ladies on this side street, and they are so awesome. Hah i lov´em. there would be like the cool old ladies on the block back home. Hah they just have so much of their youth still in them. And they are taking to the gospel really well! Totally going to get baptized!
So a little bit about my area, so basically everything is sloping upwards toward the volcano, So its not flat, well not all the time. alright well about our little house. The size would be like the one living room, we have with the big windows, and probably the other dining room too. So just those two rooms, and thats being generous too. I think it would be less than that size. But that contains our sleeping room, room with our clothes, and kitchen-study area. We have a refrigerator, a little mini stove thing that you plug into the wall and it has two coils, we don´t really use that though. and a sink, which we found out this week has a hole near the mouth of the drain, ha that was fun. so now if we need to wash some plates or bowls we do it out of the bathroom sink. Yes i have a mattress. The city probably has a few thousand people in it. like...10. i have no idea im just guessing.
Thank you for the future package, I´m sure all of that will taste awesome! oh i don´t need a CTR ring, i´ve never been much of a ring wearer.
So about the Pres Hinkley emails, there good, but they do take up a lot time, so just dont send them. oh also about mail. i just got your pouch mail stuff, i wouldn´t send it through the church stuff, it takes way too long! almost a month to get to me.
So i think from what E. Brotherson has said, i will be here for probably 6 months, or so.
That is so awesome to hear that Adam Bryner is heading out! thats way sweet! and i can´t wait to hear where Brayden goes.
Hah thats funny dad to hear about the snow white thing, i had a good laugh. And wow its 44 degrees! wow. I think the people here would die if it got that cold! so the hottest its gotten here was 97 degrees i think. I have it on my alarm clock, which is cool that it can record what the past temp has been. Right, so about the walmart thing, there is a store in our area, that is bought by walmart, called despert don juan... its something close to that. I know that i spelled it wrong, but i haven´t checked to see if it has a pic thing. I will check today. So if i sent the memory card home in a letter it would probably get there in about 3 weeks.
For breakfast i usually have some cereal, frosted flakes. Yumm! and maybe some peanut butter, it depends if we do some lifting in the morning.
Oh and when we kick rocks and stuff, its not like gruesome. You make it sound like we are trying to kill eachother. Its just what ever is on the ground in front of us. Hah except dog poop!! Thats off limits. most of the time its just small rocks, pebbles and stuff. well i got to go i love you all.
-Elder John Paulsen-
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Adam - September 14, 2010
ello All!
How is everyone doing? Things are great here in Costa Rica again. The big news of the week is that I got my first baptism. I didn´t baptize her, but I helped teach her and I was there. Her name is Mariela, she is about 24, has a little 2-year old girl and another on the way. And she´s the daughter of the Branch President, so she has been around the chruch almost her whole life. I´m sure she´s had a lot of missionaries over and hear the lessons a lot so I think it´s cool that she finally accepted the invitation to be baptized. We visited her last night and all seems to be good. She was excited and so were we. That´s one down, and the rest of Costa Rica to go.
So yesterday was P-Day, but we had to go to San José AGAIN! I guess they do a 1 month review with all the missionaries. So yesterday I met up with all my friends from the MTC and we just talked about our trainers and how things were going. I loved it, it was so good to see all the guys from the MTC again and talk about all the things that we´ve been having a hard time with. Mostly everyone just said that they were frustrated with Spanish and our trainers weren´t very understanding with how hard it is. Almost all of us had a native comp so we were all in the same situation. It was just really nice to kind of vent about the things that have been bothering me.
Elder Portillo and I got in a little argument yesterday. Now that I look back at it, it was a little riduculous, but I got really upset. I don´t know why because I´m not that kind of person. I don´t like conflicts and I usually just go with the flow, but this time I was pretty set in my ways and wouldn´t budge. The argument was about some of the doctrine that Elder Portillo teaches. He likes to teach some doctrine that isn´t doctrine. For example, when E. Portillo teaches the Word of Wisdom, he says that Coke is against the W.O.W. When I heard this the first time I was a little blown away. I couldn´t believe he was teaching it, I mean, if it were against the W.O.W., then I need to repent. We do have a mission rule that the missionaries can´t drink it, but we shouldn´t teach that to the investigators. Well, we talked about it and he still feels like its bad, so I asked the mission pres yesterday. The judgement is... I´m right! Ha ha, Point for Elder Paulsen!
Well, all is well. Everyone sounds like things are going great. Dad, the whole new calling thing is getting me super excited. I can´t wait to hear what it is. Any guesses? I´m thinking bishop... I know it´s a stretch, but I think your ready. Well, sorry I don´t have time to answer all your questions this week. I got a little preoccupied with scripture covers. Well, I love you all and can´t wait to talk to you next week. Love you!
-Elder Adam Paulsen
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Adam - September 7, 2010
Hello friends and family,
This week has been quite a good one. I did a lot of traveling. I went to Orotina, where our District Leader is serving and did an exchange there, and went to San Jose because we were having money issues. So this week has been a little stressful and busy. The best news that I have is that we have a Babtism this saturday, and hopefully three more this month. That´s huge and it makes me excited to finally speak the language and teach some lessons. On tuesday, we got a call from the Secretaries saying that a woman contacted them asking to take the lessons. She had the missionaries over in 1995 and just started reading the Book of Mormon again. She said that she is ready and willing to be baptized. So now we just have to go over all the lessons with her and her two kids and get her to come to church 3 times. She came on Sunday, so we´re getting closer.
So I want to try to answer everyone´s questions:
Living Conditions:
Not too bad, but a little dirty. We live in a tiny house that has 3 small rooms. I do have a mattress mom, it´s a little old and there are a few spots that you can kinda fall into, but for the most part, it´s pretty comfy. We have a fridge and a small stove that is electric and sits on our counter.
My Area:
I live in a city called Juanita Mora. But it´s really small. I´d tell people that I live in Barranca, or in Puntarenas. It´s really poor, and everyone has really small houses and rides bikes EVERYWHERE! It rains a lot, but it´s not as consistent as somewhere towards the middle of the country like San Jose. The beach makes the weather a different everyday. I live about 20 minutes from an ugly beach that nobody is ever on. It smells pretty funky too. We have a really big branch, almost 90 or 100 active members, and we recieve a lot of references. So we don´t tract a lot. Mostly we are running from house to house teaching lessons.
PriceSmart:
This is my favorite place in Costa Rica. They only have a few and they are all in San Jose. We went there yesterday and I loved it. What it is is.... COSTCO! It´s Costa Rica´s version of Costco. It´s a members only store that sells things in bulk. It´s set up almost exactly like costco with the electronics on the left right when you walk in and the clothes in the middle. It´s a little smaller than the average Utah Costco so it´s a little different. The absolute best part though is that it has AMERICAN FOOD! It´s like walking back into Utah. I loved it. I can´t wait to go back in a few weeks and just reminice of the good ol days at home. Well, I bought a few things to keep me from starving. I bought a 10 lbs bag of Pancake mix (Krusties of course), Syrup, chocolate chips, peanut butter, and jelly. All are from the US and I love eating them. Definitely the highlight of our week.
Well, all is well in Costa Rica. Mom, I don´t think you should get the ring. Thats a super long time and it´s not that important. You can buy them here... I think. But thanks anyways. I love you all and I know this gospel is true. It´s such an amazing feeling to show someone the blessings that the gospel can bring into their life. Actually seeing a change in their thoughts and actions. The work is hard and long, but when you recieve those results you´ve been working for, it´s so worth every minute. I´ve realized that the church can do so much for a person if they accept things with humility and are willing to change their lives. I love you all so much and know you love me. Can´t wait to talk to you all next week!
Con Amor,
Elder Adam Paulsen
P.S. These are pictures of my house, my roommate and I, the scenery on the bus rides, the jungle, and I think I had one of a monkey that we saw last week in Monte Verde.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
John - September 5, 2010
Hello, family!
Well things are going well here, we had 4 of our investigators come to church this sunday, which is kinda a let down, because the people we have been teaching have been swayed to not come to church and its frustrating at times. Their salvation is on the line. But things are good, always having a good time with Elder Brotherson. we play this little game, when we are walking, its whoever can kick little rocks or crushed bottles, really anything, through eachothers legs Gets a goal.
well it rained a lot this week, we talked (ha well E. Brotherson talked i just tried to listen) to a construction worker and he said it was becuse there was a hurricane that hit on the gulf side, So i was wondering if adam got any rain like we did. Speaking of raining, when it does rain my comp and i just bring out our umbrellas, which works awesome. He says it has not rained as hard as it usually does, but yeah. So what im getting at is, that if i had a rain coat i would not use it! Umbrellas work great.
So our for our investigators this week, we have one woman who should get baptised this sunday morning, because she works on saturdays, so that is why it is on sunday morning. Anyway, she has two younger daughters, but they are not progressing as she is. Like she was the only one who went to church this sunday out of the three of them. Hopefully she does get baptised this sunday, she it seems like it could. When we teach her, we have to teach extremely simply, because she does not know how to read and is not very smart, to be honest. So we just have to repeat a lot of things with her. But she is progressing so that is good!
Oh so for my plaque thinger, i want to use the scripture i used in my farewell talk. Matt 5;16 i believe. ´´Let your light so shine before men´´ so yeah i would like that one. Right so the name of the town we are in is called zacatacoluca, area is nonualco. There are 8 missionaries in the town total. We are a little west of the main part of town. If you can find a fast food place called Biggest, then we are west of that and across the bridge, across the street. In a little colonial there. There is an intersection really close that is a four way, but its kinda like a three way. Well its cool there are two volcanoes to the north of us. And just over those volcanoes is San Salvador.
What Brayden is getting his call! wow thats way awesome! Make sure to tell me where he is going when you find out! Thats way sweet
I will tell you about this one story, this happened just yesterday, So I knocked this door, and the door had a picture of christ on it, so we knew that these people were going to be very religious. Well E. brotherson started talking to him, and he brought up the point of why catholics baptise when they are babies: And this man had said he believes in this. So we were about to bust out this scripture that totally destroys this belief, Duet 24:16 and there are like 4 others that say the same thing, Then this guy says that he wants to hear some thing new, from the new testiment. E. Brotherson got really frustrated because says he is catholic but does not belief in the old testiment? Like What? thats retarted. Anyway we did not have any sucess there, but there is one story for you. Also while i have been here i have seen two naked little boys walking on the side walk with their mom. Hah so thats kinda funny.
Well other than spanish things are going good, I can not complain. No Puedo Quejarme
Love you all -Elder John Paulsen
Well things are going well here, we had 4 of our investigators come to church this sunday, which is kinda a let down, because the people we have been teaching have been swayed to not come to church and its frustrating at times. Their salvation is on the line. But things are good, always having a good time with Elder Brotherson. we play this little game, when we are walking, its whoever can kick little rocks or crushed bottles, really anything, through eachothers legs Gets a goal.
well it rained a lot this week, we talked (ha well E. Brotherson talked i just tried to listen) to a construction worker and he said it was becuse there was a hurricane that hit on the gulf side, So i was wondering if adam got any rain like we did. Speaking of raining, when it does rain my comp and i just bring out our umbrellas, which works awesome. He says it has not rained as hard as it usually does, but yeah. So what im getting at is, that if i had a rain coat i would not use it! Umbrellas work great.
So our for our investigators this week, we have one woman who should get baptised this sunday morning, because she works on saturdays, so that is why it is on sunday morning. Anyway, she has two younger daughters, but they are not progressing as she is. Like she was the only one who went to church this sunday out of the three of them. Hopefully she does get baptised this sunday, she it seems like it could. When we teach her, we have to teach extremely simply, because she does not know how to read and is not very smart, to be honest. So we just have to repeat a lot of things with her. But she is progressing so that is good!
Oh so for my plaque thinger, i want to use the scripture i used in my farewell talk. Matt 5;16 i believe. ´´Let your light so shine before men´´ so yeah i would like that one. Right so the name of the town we are in is called zacatacoluca, area is nonualco. There are 8 missionaries in the town total. We are a little west of the main part of town. If you can find a fast food place called Biggest, then we are west of that and across the bridge, across the street. In a little colonial there. There is an intersection really close that is a four way, but its kinda like a three way. Well its cool there are two volcanoes to the north of us. And just over those volcanoes is San Salvador.
What Brayden is getting his call! wow thats way awesome! Make sure to tell me where he is going when you find out! Thats way sweet
I will tell you about this one story, this happened just yesterday, So I knocked this door, and the door had a picture of christ on it, so we knew that these people were going to be very religious. Well E. brotherson started talking to him, and he brought up the point of why catholics baptise when they are babies: And this man had said he believes in this. So we were about to bust out this scripture that totally destroys this belief, Duet 24:16 and there are like 4 others that say the same thing, Then this guy says that he wants to hear some thing new, from the new testiment. E. Brotherson got really frustrated because says he is catholic but does not belief in the old testiment? Like What? thats retarted. Anyway we did not have any sucess there, but there is one story for you. Also while i have been here i have seen two naked little boys walking on the side walk with their mom. Hah so thats kinda funny.
Well other than spanish things are going good, I can not complain. No Puedo Quejarme
Love you all -Elder John Paulsen
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