La decimonovena semana!

¡Hola!

I have five minutes to tell you all about one of the craziest weeks of my mission yet. So here we go:

The first thing that happened was on Tuesday. I found out at 10 at night that I would be leaving the next morning at 7 so I had to hurry and pack everything I have and get ready to leave. The next day I went to the transfers meeting to find out who my new companion was and where I would be spending at least the next 6 weeks.

After a trainer meeting I found out that I would be training Elder Chitique from Guatemala. He already has 6 weeks in the mission but he had problems with his papers, so he just barely got here to El Salvador. I got transferred to San Juan Opico, which is straight up countryside. I am walking through mountains on trails and dirt roads surrounded banana trees, mango trees and coconut trees. Bummer, right?

Anyway, the next day we had a meeting with the three missions in the temple with Elder Cook from the quorum of the 12 and I was 3 feet from him, which was incredible!

¡Hasta luego!

Elder Vierkant

Opico in relation to San Salvador

Cathedral in Opico

La decimoctavo semana!

Hey everyone!  Esta Semana se fue rapido! Nunca ha ido tiempo tan rápido! Quizás es porque todo va a cambiar y porque estoy animado, pero no se.

It has been a crazy week, it went by really fast. Maybe because I feel at home here now. I feel like this is my life now and I love it. I have gotten a lot more comfortable with Spanish this week, but I still have much to learn. I learned a lot more than just Spanish this week and I would like to share a little bit of that. I would also like to express a lot of appreciation for my zone leader Elder Ralphs, he taught me a ton and he helped me grow as a missionary. He leaves for Belize tomorrow, so I am going to miss him.

This week was weird. We are teaching a 9 year old who is going to be baptized this Saturday. His name is Daniel and he is the coolest little dude ever. His parents are less active but they have been coming to church for almost a month, which is awesome. We also are preparing a teenager named Hector to be baptised, he already told us he wants to be baptised, we just don't know when that will happen. I did intercambios in Porvenir, another area in our district. That night I found out that I will be training right out of my training. I am super excited and I know I will learn a lot but I am also a little nervous because I know it wont be easy. The next day we went to a meeting in the church next to the temple for all the new trainers. There are going to be over 30 new missionaries and only 2 of them are from the U.S. and are Elders (no Sisters). There will also be an Elder from New Zealand.

I need to mention that we also had multizone meeting and listened to the mission president and his wife. That was one of the coolest meetings ever. We learned about setting goals, which is something I have been working to do well. We watched the clip from Alice in Wonderland, where Alice is looking for which road she should take. The Cheshire Cat tells her that if she doesn't know where she wants to go, it doesn't matter which path she takes. This is very applicable to us. If we don't have clear, written goals in life, life will take us where ever and that usually isn't a good thing. Remember to set clear simple goals that are achievable and have purpose. 

More thoughts next week!

Love,

Elder Vierkant

La decimoséptima semana!

Hola!

It has been another fantastic week out here in San Salvador, the land where anything goes. It really is the craziest place. My example for the week are the buses. The buses here are nuts. First off, the buses are like old school buses. They are old rickety machines that have holes in the floor and make loud sounds that are a little bit frightening, but hey, we only have to pay 20 cents to ride the big buses and a quarter for the minibuses. The buses are covered in painted in every color and with all sorts of pictures. There are stickers of religious pictures are all over them. One time I saw one with a picture of Jesus and Satan arm wrestling on the back of the bus. It was one of the coolest pictures that I have seen. The drivers here don't believe in defensive driving or obeying the rules of the road. I don't need to go to the amusement park here, the buses are good enough. But overall, they are safe.

In other news, I met an awesome dude in the street while contacting. He told me that Christianity is a white bible and a black bible, but music, music is the staircase to heaven. He also told me that he made a promise with the Indians and they gave him powers and now he can talk to God. And God tells him ¨I got you in my hands David¨ It was the most interesting conversation I have ever had.

We also found a Little Caesars here in my area. I think it is one of the only in the country but it was the best discovery ever.

This week I was walking in the street thinking about stuff and I learned the rule of sacrifice. In order to gain what we want in life we have to make sacrifices. We sacrifice time to make money. We sacrifice our money for things we need for food, cloths and shelter. The rule applies spiritually as well as physically. Priest before Jesus would make sacrifices for their sins and to make peace with God. Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins and so we could conquer the problem of death through resurrection. We have to sacrifice things in our life in order to come closer to God. We sacrifice time to go to church, people give up cafe tea and alcohol and many other physical pleasures. But the great part about this rule is that, as it seems to me, is we gain so much more then what we sacrifice. We learn important truths in church, we gain health for living the word of wisdom and we can feel the spirit better. As a missionary, I sacrifice speaking English, being with my family and two years of my life. But I become so much more mature, I learn Spanish and many more skills that are very important. Are we willing to give up the little we have to gain a lot more? I promise you as you sacrifice these things, the Lord will bless you a lot more

Elder Vierkant

La decimosexta semana!

Hola!

Happy new years! Feliz Año! I hope its a good one. 2014, the year that I wont ever see you guys. That is pretty cool. New years is nuts here. I was sleeping and then at 12 the world just blew up. I went outside and there was a million fireworks and little m-80`s everywhere. Everyone was blasting music and dancing and yelling. I took a few pictures and then I went to bed when the fireworks died down. 

New years eve was crazy because everyone just gave us food, even the people who we hadn`t planned dinners with. At the end of the night I felt like a balloon that was way too full of air. We then had to walk to our house on the other end of our area and we had to go really fast because it was late. I felt like I was going to die!

Everyone celebrates with the same food. We had bread with rice, a chicken, turkey or chompipollo that is doused in its juices and is well marinated. Usually, there was a salad on the side. It is really good, the first few times. After that it is just all tastes the same.

Talking with my family on Christmas was awesome. It made me realize everything is normal and it will be the same when I get home. It has made it a lot easier.

The other day, we taught the law of chastity to a teenage kid. That seems like it would be really awkward but we had a really good lesson and you could feel the spirit testifying of what we were teaching. I know that living the law of chastity is a commandment of God and that is a sacred and important law that has always existed. I am grateful that I have always had the knowledge of this law to guide me to make good decisions.

I am doing good out here, nothing too nuts has happened to me personally but I am continually learning. I will try to have a crazy experience ready for you guys next week. Love you all!

Elder Vierkant

Where I live.

White boys love their Wendy's!

Wish you were here!

Bowling

This is the best!

Strike of course :)

On the way to Sonsanate.

Me and my companion, twins, am I right?!

Christmas Shirt

Mission Christmas party with friends from CCM.

My District.

I carried that on my head for a quarter mile like the ladies do here. Respect!

Sweet leather agenda cover gift from the mission.

I woke up Christmas morning and opened my Christmas package from Mom and Dad.

These are Christmas candy heaven! 

I love Christmas Trees!

Squatting with jicuma!

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