La decimotercera semana!

Hola todos! Esta semana fue loco! pero fue bueno.

We did some pretty cool stuff this week. This Saturday we gathered our whole district in our area and then we went to a neighborhood in our area and sang two songs at three houses. It was great. It brought the spirit to have 6 missionaries  our spirit and ward mission leader singing accompanied by a flute and a violin. One lady was almost over come and almost cried. It was a great way to build relations with the people. Another great people stopped and watched us so I think it will help us a lot in the future. The last house we stopped at feed us. We sat down at the table and the sister began bringing use food. And she just didn't stopped. There were six of us and we could barely finish off the food. In the end we were both spiritually and physically filled. It was great night.

I haven't told you a ton about El Salvador, so I will add a bit here. The people here love Fast and Furious. When Paul Walker died, they were devastated. Who is Paul Walker you ask? I didn't know either, but I now I know he was a person in Fast and Furious.

There is no such thing as space between buildings. Everything is packed together. The trash can is the street. I would like you to take a moment to think about how grateful you are to have clean streets with places to cross safely. And also, speed limits and road laws are pretty cool. I guess they are just trying to drive like the people in Fast and Furious!

It is really tropical here. It is like 85 degrees here and humid. There are tropical plants and tons of ants!

I want to invite you all to read 2 Nephi 2 and think about the plan of Salvation that our Father in Heaven has for us. Central to this plan is Jesus Christ. He was chosen before this life, when we lived with our Father in Heaven as Spirits, to suffer for our sins and make it possible for the imperfect people that we are, to return to live with God again. We can only accomplish this through faith, repentance, baptism and by enduring to the end.

I love you all!

Elder Vierkant

P.S. Send me any questions you have for me! Peace out, going bowling :)

 

 

 

Christmas Singing Party

(There were supposed to be caroling pics, but they didn't attach to the email.

I will try to get them for next week.)

 

 

La duodécima semana!

Buenos días, amigos!

Well, here I am 19. And I don´t feel a bit different. It is weird to be honest. Maybe because out here on the mission, you don´t really celebrate your birthday. It is just another day.

On Thursday, I did kind of celebrate my birthday because a really nice investigator family threw me a birthday dinner and gave me Tres Leches cake, which was amazing! I was really thankful for the dinner because it was thoughtful, especially because that was only the second time we had talked with that family. That is the way people are out here. They are really giving and nice. I am learning a lot about love here.

This week was interesting. I had splits in trios for the first time. Once because an Elder left for for Belize a week early and his companion was left alone. The other time because one of the AP´s came and visited each of the areas in our zone to help teach one investigator. One of the zone leaders came with us and the other zone leader stayed with the AP. I got to talk to the AP who just finished being a zone leader in Belize. Apparently they speak many different languages. English is the national language, Spanish, Garifuna, some Mayan language from Guatemala, Creole and many of the other languages of the world. Also, the culture is a lot different. It is caribbean country so there isn't a whole lot of 'Latin culture', I guess is what you would call it.

I think one of the most spiritual moments this week was also one of the most frustrating. While I was on splits we went and taught a girl that was going to get baptized, but she couldn't get the permission of her parents. Then her parents gave her permission to be baptized, but she doesn't want to for some reason. She told us that she believes everything, but she stopped doing the things she needs to and she refuses to do them. We tried to figure out what was wrong. We asked questions that we felt were inspired from the spirit and we left silence for the spirit to talk. All three of us felt the spirit a ton, but she just looked down at the ground and gave us nothing. You could tell she was feeling something, but for some reason she just wouldn't commit to anything. I hope the Elders who are teaching can figure out why she is refusing to follow what she knows is true.

Love you all! Hope you have a white, love filled Christmas!

Elder Vierkant

Soccer on P-Day

A sweet sign in a member's house.

A sweet view during splits.

Splits with two other white boys, Elder Paulson and Elder Shirley

Christmas tree from house that gave me a birthday dinner.

Actual birthday dinner with food gifts I gave myself.

Can't eat just one pudding cup on your birthday!

My birthday on paper.

La semana undécima!

Hola amigos!

Well, this next Saturday is my 19th birthday. Wish me luck. I hope I don't get health problems from being so old!

Hope you are all well? I am doing pretty well here in El Salvador. Everyday it gets better. I love it more and I love the people more. I think love is the greatest thing you can have. It sounds cheesy, but it really is powerful when you put it into the work. You have more patience, you listen more and you understand more. I can see how great it is every time I teach.  Love is a Christ like attribute and Christ like attributes make your life so much happier. As I try to develop them during my mission, I can see how much it makes my life better and how much better my life will be. I challenge you all to search out the christ like attributes and develope them.

This week was pretty great. My Spanish has gotten better. The hardest part is understanding others. It takes a lot of practice and focus. I wished I had watched some Spanish movies or listened to music more before my mission to help me understand the way things are accented. But even then, the only way to get better is to be in the actual situations. I hope that by the end of my training I can understand most all that is said or I'm afraid I will get really lost.

I think the most spiritual experience I had was during a bible bash. My companion and someone were hashing out where doctrine were in the bible and what things meant and the spirit just wasn't there. I got really sick of what was happening and I just stopped and said that we could argue all day but in the end it wouldn't change anything. I bore my testimony. I don't know that my words changed their feelings, but the Spirit came and we stopped the arguing and you could tell they were a blown away by what they felt.

Love,

Elder Vierkant