La vigésimo segunda semana!

Hola amigos!

This week was nuts, it flew by like nothing. I feel like I am always going at a 100 miles per hour trying to get everything done and trying to do it well. We had some cool experiences this week too, so here it goes.

First off, this Wednesday, we went searching for a contact that we received from the mission office. Some might say that it was a bad idea to do that without a member, but the result turned out be a great experience. The main problem is that our search took us an hour and a half from our house in Opico by pickup, to San Isidro, the farthest point of our area. We got there, taught a lesson to someone we contacted and then went looking, during our search, we found out that the last pickup leaves at 3:30, ten minutes away at that point. We went speed walking for the point where the pickups leave. We talked with the people there and they said we should just wait there. We waited. And waited. Finally a lady who actually knew what she was talking about told us the pickup had left early and that we were essentially stuck 40 kilometers from our house. We went looking for someone with a cellphone and began calling everyone we had numbers for to see if someone could give us a ride, but no one could. Finally one of them told us to wait for a truck with swimmers (there is a river nearby) to pass by. We started walking for a while, but nothing past. Finally we sat down and prayed. The second I asked Heavenly Father for a ride home, a pickup truck appeared. I ended the prayer and we quickly got a ride home. It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had.

This Sunday I had the opportunity to give a talk with a 10 minute notice because one of the missionaries leaving didn't write their farewell. Luckily I had already written talks so I was well prepared for the opportunity. It was pretty cool!

Adiós por ahora!

Elder Vierkant

La vigésimo primera semana!

Hola mi amigos!

I got to say this week was a ton of fun. Our area is starting to warm up, in both ways. At 6:30 in the morning it is 80 degrees and its cold. In the day time it is like 95 degrees of pure wrath of sun beating your skin with a whip. We make it fun. I am starting to get a nice watch tan, which I would already have, but I was taking my watch off and putting it in my belt loop. Then I decided my watch tan would make a nice picture, which would help you understand how well the sun works here. It is all worth it, because it is the only way we can get fresh mandarin oranges all day, along with avocado, marañón (the fruit that makes cashews) and other fruits. It really is like the classic Central America country side; poor in worldly things, but rich in the sense of nature and beauty. Sometimes, when we are hiking the dirt roads and we get to a turn in the road, we have to stop and admire all the creations of the Lord. I will send pictures next week.

The other way that our area is warming up is the work. We have been working hard, looking for people to teach. We talk with everyone and teach anyone that we can. And, for the most part, our work is showing some fruits. We haven't had a baptism yet or had people in church for two weeks, but people are starting to let us in their houses. We have about 5 positive investigators which is a lot better than last week. We have one investigator, Leonardo, who is preparing himself to be baptized and he knows the church is true, he just needs to finish preparing. We also gave a man named Virigilioa a Book of Mormon and visited him a week later and he had already read to the Book of Omni. Maria Lourdes told us after the first lesson that she thinks the Book of Mormon is true and has read only 7 chapters. It is really satisfying to see even just a little bit of success. We will keep working as hard we can, because we can really see the blessings!

I have to say at this point that with all the work that we have been doing, I have hardly any free time, and slowly it has consumed all my thoughts. All I can think about is how we can work better, how we can help the people and I sometimes forget to think about home. I can say with assurity that I don't want this to end for a while.

One Direction music video in the cyber café we are in, got to go. ;)

Love,

Elder Vierkant

(Missed these pics from last week.)

Proof

 



District

District

La vigésima semana!

Dear Everyone,

I have a little more time to write today so you will get a lot more information. I will start by talking about the meeting with Elder Cook, then I will talk about my area a little bit more and I will talk about how the work is going in my area.

The Thursday before last, we had a big conference with Elder Cook in the chapel by the temple. We had to get up at about 6 and leave at about 7 to arrive on time to the temple because the bus ride there is about an hour and a half. We met up with part of our zone at the chapel in Versailles, a city here and also the name of the zone I am in. We rode with part of our zone and part of the zone arce to the temple. We arrived to the temple early but most of the missionaries were already there. There were probably 600 missionaries  in the chapel and the cultural hall because we were meeting as all the missions in El Salvador. When we arrived, I headed up to the stand because I was part of the choir. I sat three rows up on the stand, with the three presidents of missiona in front of me. After about an hour, president Cook walked in by himself, all 600 missionaries standing quietly. It was a beautiful thing. He then at down on the front row of the stand, about 2 seats to the right of me and 2 seats down. I could read his note book from where I was sitting. Then began a spiritual feast, beginning with the spirit he brought into the room, helped by the amazing male choir that I was in, singing Army of Helaman in Spanish. We had talks from the area presidency and Elder Cooks wife. I learned a lot from what Elder Cook taught, especially how to break scriptures down and link them with other ideas. I am really grateful for the opportunity I had to listen to him.

My area is out in the country side like I said. There are a lot of people who tend land with lots of fruit trees. I have learned a lot about fruit, including what fruit cashews come from. I had no idea that they were a seed that sticks out from a really delicious fruit called maringon. Or something like that. There are cows, chickens, goats, dogs and horses every where as well as every type of tree. We walk down roads, dirt roads and the equivalent to hiking trails to get to places. It is really calm and tranquil here, a huge difference from where I was before. There are more beautiful views and you don't have exhaust blowing in your face all day. Our area is extremely huge. There is a town in our area that is over 40km away from where we live. We share the ward with two other missionaries who work mostly in the town of San Juan Opico, where we live.

The work. We work hard because when we got here, there was hardly anything. We have one investigator from the missionaries before, and I believe he will be baptized this month. We have had to contact like crazy and we have to work with the members a lot to find people. Luckily, the members here are extra helpful so we have grown our area very fast. I have learned a lot because I am in charge of what we do. I have learned to talk to random strangers in the street likes it is nothing. I even enjoy it. It took some effort to learn how to do it well, but it has paid off and we have found quiet a few potential positive investigators.

More next week,

Elder Vierkant

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!