Good old El Salvador

Thanks for all the emails family!

It has definitely been an interesting week.  Well, you probably don´t know what is going on in El Salvador right now, and honestly I don´t really know either because we don´t get to watch the news or read the newspaper.  But something has happened this week.  That probably sounds scary, but don´t worry about me!  On Tuesday we were suppose to go the second meeting for new people and their trainers but on Monday night, our leaders called and said that we were not having the meeting because there was going to be a strike (huelga) of the buses in Santa Ana and so people wouldn´t be able to get the capital.  But then on Tuesday afternoon they called again and said that we had to enter the house at 6 o´clock and we were not to ride any buses.  Then the same thing happened on Wednesday and Thursday.  So, apparently the gangs here are attacking the buses.  Don´t worry about me because Santa Tecla is pretty low key.  Really all the dangerous areas of El Salvador are in the other side of the mission and we are just being precautious over here in the West.  But it has been just a different atmosphere.  In fact the weather on Tuesday felt like Halloween.  The air was crisp and there weren´t many people walking around.  It felt a little eerie but now it feels back to normal.  So, all we have really heard about is that the gangs have burned some buses but no where near where we are and all the people in Santa Tecla say that there is nothing to worry about around here.  And hearing the natives say that means something because they are worry warts.  So, we have been able to enjoy more study time at night to read the scriptures and it has also been pretty relaxing.

It doesn´t seem like much else has happened this week but I do have one funny story.  Yesterday we went contacting and so we were knocking on doors and we turned a corner and knocked on the first house.  It was kind of a bigger house and it had a doorbell intercom so it is a richer person.  But as we waited we were waving at people across the street and saying hi.  But no one answered and so we started walking away.  Not before long, Hermana Woods turned around and said ¨Oh, I didn´t realize...¨ and I turned around and above the house is a huge sign that says ¨Iglesia Cristiana¨ and continued to give the schedule of church meetings.  It was so funny because we must have looked so funny: 2 sister missionaries knocking on a door under this huge sign for another church.  Well, we had a good laugh.

This month seems like the month of birthdays (including mine).  A guy that got baptized in January turned 21 on Wednesday and so we went over to celebrate with their family (and the majority of them have been baptized in 2009 and 2010).  We ate donuts and we gave a Triple (Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of Great Price).  He was so excited about it and it was really fun to see.  I love giving presents to Latinos because they are more gracious because they don´t get presents very much.

To answer Mom´s question, the culture is pretty similar to the US but there are differences.  For instance, they listen to US music but the majority is Spanish pop music.  And no matter where you are there are woman carrying big tubs of things on their heads.  That is my homework this week, to figure out the difference in culture.  Hermana Woods has been commenting on differences but I feel pretty much used to everything by now that it doesn´t seem different.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.  I am going to try to send pictures home this week.  I have to find time to write letters today.  And again, don´t worry about me.  We are not in any danger.  I just wanted to tell you what had happened this week:)

We are working hard and enjoying our time in the mission.  I love the gospel and I love to see people come unto the truth!

Love

Hermana Bush

Baptizing and contacting

¡Hola familia y amigos!

I am so glad that it is pday because we are exhausted.  I don´t know why this week has felt like a lot of work, but it was.  I got my big package and I really really wanted to open all the presents inside but I decided to practice my patience and try to wait till my birthday.  It is hard to do.  We had two baptisms last week on Saturday.  I am sending you a picture with me and Hermana Woods with the other sisters we live with and the familia Gutierrez.  This picture also makes it look like the mom got baptized but she didn´t.  Antonio and Jorge got baptized and they are so great.  Jorge is the older one and he is reading in the Book of Mormon every day.  Jorge is a little strange and when we first started teaching the family, we thought that he just wanted to talk to the gringas.  Hermano Gutierrez invited us to go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant on Wednesday to meet his son that lives in San Salvador and plays the cello for the symphony.  So we went and it was fun but the best part was that the son told Jorge that he looks a lot happier and has some sort of light about him.  It is great that other people can see the difference that the gospel is making in his life.

So, this week we have been trying to find new investigators and it is not going so hot.  Yesterday, we decided to go contacting door to door because we don´t do that much and we were hoping to find someone.  So, we contacted for 3 hours and finally someone wanted to talk to us.  It was this man who has received the missionary discussions before and was really good friends with some of the missionaries.  So we were talking to him.  His name is Jaime and he is a little slow.  He takes a long time to think about things before saying them.  So I was having this good time talking to this guy and my companion was getting really antsy and wanted to leave really bad.  Finally Jaime went into his house for a couple minutes and turns out that she thinks Jaime is drunk and I think he is just a little slow.  On further examination, we decided that he is slow and then my companion was fine talking to him.  But it is funny that the two different circumstances can get confused.  Who knows.  We´ll find out on Saturday when we go to teach him.

We went out teaching with some members that are in young womens this week and we were walking in this fairly rich neighborhood and out of one house comes this little old lady that has huge white dreadlocks.  We have talked to her on the street before but I was surprised she lived in such a nice neighborhood.  She let us into her house and the members did not want to go in.  She had taken the discussions before and knew about everything and was anxious to listen to us.  Then she talked to us about justice and mass and who knows what.  After the lesson, the members informed us she was talking about tarot cards, so I don´t think that we will try too hard on visiting her again.  She was so nice but the members said she is a witch.

We still have a baptism date for the 11th of September.  His name is Luis (brother of Alejandro and David) and he is super smart and down to earth.  We went to their house and played commandment jeopardy.  He already knew all the commandments.  One of the questions was ¨What is the law of chastity?¨ David said, ¨basically no sex¨ but then Luis looked at him and said ¨Well, actually it is way more than that...¨ and continued to explain the importance of the law of chastity.  So pretty much, I think he is ready for his baptism.

So, you guys told me about those people throwing fireballs in El Salvador.  I wish I could tell you that it was so cool and that I knew all about it, but I don´t.  I had no idea about it till you wrote me.

I love you guys so much and I just want you to know that I love being here.  I am happy and we are working hard.  Already the mission has flown by and I just want to cherish every second that I am here.  Hermana Woods and I are having a good time together.  I know that the gospel is true and I know that Jesus is the Christ.

I love you

Hermana Bush

baptismal dates and marriage dates

¡Hola Familia!

It has been a really different week. Nothing much happened because we had multizone meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon.  Salt Lake started a new program for missionaries to help us teach the doctrine of Christ.  There are 8 lessons and so we went to the meetings and reviewed all 8 lessons.  I really enjoy it except for the point when we do practices.  I have never been a huge fan of practices even since the MTC.  I don´t know, I have a hard time pretending that other missionaries are investigators but yet I know that there is true benefit in practicing.

So we are having 2 baptisms tomorrow.  They are the kids of familia Gutierrez.  Jorge is 17 and Antonio is 13.  Antonio is super cool and he has his mind completely made up that he wants to be baptized.  We are still nervous about Jorge because he is more rebellious but yet he has changed his life and he believes everything and wants to be a good person.  The mom and her kids are from the campo and they came to live in the city with the mom´s companion.  But they still don´t have much money but I just love the family.  The mom still has a hard time with praying from the heart and not doing a recited prayer but the other day we told her we wanted her to pray and speak from the heart.  So she started giving thanks for everything.  She gave thanks for her cows and goats in the country and then all of us started giggling but we kept it in pretty well.  They are such a humble family.  They are also very white too.  It is strange because Jorge is tall and white and he looks like he is from the states and so it is really strange to talk to him in Spanish.  There is also an Elder in our zone who is from Costa Rica who is white with blond hair and blue eyes and he can't speak any English but I like to bug him and talk to him in English as if he could carry on a conversation.

So we still have another baptismal date with Luis (17 years old and the brother of Alejandro and David that were baptized in July).  But he didn´t go to church so we had to change his baptismal date.  So we hadn´t seen him for a couple days after he didn´t come to church and we just wanted to talk to him and see if he really wanted to get baptized or was just saying okay because we were there asking him.  So, finally we found him in his house and Hermana Woods and I pulled him to the side.  Then Hermana Woods said, ¨Luis, realmente, en verdad, ¿Usted quiere casarse?¨  So she just said, ¨Luis, really truly, do you want to get married?¨  I busted up laughing.  Luis did too so it was all okay.  And Hermana Woods laughed too.  It kind of broke the ice and then we ask the really question if he wanted to get baptized.  So I think that I might have to keep my eye on my companion and all those latino men:)  But Luis said that he really does want to get baptized and he believes in the Book of Mormon and believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  So he is going to get baptized in September.

Nothing much more has happened.  We are happy to be here. I love my companion and we get along great and we have a great time together.  We feel really blessed.  I don´t know if I have ever told you this but President Lopez told us that Las Palmeras is one of the hardest areas in the mission.  Before he has had the assistants in this area and zone leaders and he said that most brave have cried to him more than once because they were in this area.  So, we are just counting our blessings.  I know that it isn´t anything I have done personally but the Lord is blessing this ward with some success.  In all of 2009 they had 10 baptisms and we already have 15 and with the other sisters in the ward, we have 4 baptism dates.  So, we are going to double the baptisms they had all of last year.  But I really love it here and I am learning to love the people.

Here is a weird note: the meetings we had were with almost half of the mission.  There were 8 sisters and after Hermana Cash (who has 13 months on the mission), Me and Hermana Karl were the next ones with the most time on the mission (with 9 months).  How weird is that.  There aren´t very many old sisters in the mission now, just new ones.  Crazy.  I still feel like I left the MTC yesterday I am thinking I might feel that way for the rest of the mission.

Thanks for everything and I love you all so much.

Hermana Bush

¡nuevo cambio y fotos!

¡Hola otra vez de El Salvador!

It has been a crazy week because we have to house the new sisters that came into the mission and the old sisters that are leaving the mission.  Pretty much that means that we have to do a lot of waking up early and going to meetings.  We feel like this pday is  a well deserved pday.  Everything is going great here in El Salvador and Hermana Woods and I are really looking forward to this transfer with our new roommates.  We get along really good and her Spanish is really great too.  She definitely has the gift of tongues because she can say a lot of stuff and only went into the MTC with 2 years of spanish in High School.  We make a good team.  She can speak a lot but has a hard time understanding spanish over the phone with is totally reasonable because she is new.  So sometimes I talk on the phone and translate to both sides: english to spanish and then spanish to english.  I think it is kind of fun.

So last week we got to go to Tazumal and that was super exciting.  It is not very big and it only took us a half an hour to walk around it but I thought that it would have been really silly to have worked in that area for more than 4 months and then to have never gone to the ruins.  I wanted to go there so bad and now all my dreams have been completed.  The baptism was really great too and I am so glad that we were able to go.  Carlos finally got baptized.

Well, right now we have 3 people with a baptism date for the 28th of August.  They are all really great.  We are teaching the family called the Familia Gutierrez and they are so funny.  The dad is the one that has studied all the religions and cultures of the world.  They have 3 kids and one is only 4 years old.  The other day we went to their house and the Dad said that they have been thinking about baptism as a family and they want the kids to get baptized.  So we asked the kids (who are 17 and 13) and they love the church and they want to do it.  The 13 year old boy is especially cool.  He is reading in the Book of Mormon and he had a dream.  He was in the jungle and he was being attacked by big snakes in different places and in one of the places I was there and I helped him to kill one of the snakes and then in another place we were there with 3 other missionaries but he didn´t know who they were and we were helping him kill snakes.  He said that was an answer to his prayers and he knows that this is the right path. I think that I have already told you but here in El Salvador, people have more dreams and they really believe in the dreams and they interpret them all.  I wish I had dreams that were more than forgetting to do my homework.

So we have two new roommates now: Hermana Cash (my trainer) and Hermana Fuentes who is from the other mission in El Salvador.  They are both really great and I am looking forward to the time that we have together.  Hermana Cash trained me when she had only 3 transfers here and guess what, now she only has 3 transfers left in the mission which counts this transfer.  It is crazy how time flies.

I completed 9 months in the mission on the 18th of August.  Time has really flown by.  And now I have successfully ¨killed¨ 2 people (that just means I was there last companion).  I am scared because now I am the senior companion and that means I have more responsibility.  I better not mess anything up.  Hermana Woods is really great.  I am glad that I got to be with a new person that came already trained from the MTC:)  Now that Hermana Schmidt is gone, we have a lot of responsibility but we can also focus a more on the missionary part of the work because before it was more important that Hermana Woods learned the nursing stuff.  President told us that another nurse might come in October but I think that President would send her to the field first before being the nurse. 

Just know that I am happy to be here.  I love the ward and I love El Salvador.  My testimony grows each day.  Hermana Cash always says that if we feel comfortable, then we are not growing.  There is no growing in a comfort zone and there is no comfort in a growing zone.

I love you all.

Hermana Bush

The pictures are of me and Hermana Woods at the ruins in Chalchuapa: Tazumal, me with a whole bunch of piñatas (our recent convert´s wife makes piñatas), the same wife of our recent convert making us empanadas chilenas, and finally the Hermana Woods, Hermana Cash, me and Hermana Fuentes (they are the new sisters in our ward with us and our new roommates).

Hermana Bush Brady :)

Hello!

I am writing a day late because we had interviews with President yesterday and so we had to change our pday to today.  It seems like so much has happened here in El Salvador this week and yet nothing much has happened at all. Last pday we went bowling with the zone.  It was a lot of fun and I was whooping everyone with my top score of 86.  Actually I got 2nd place because my district leader scored an 87.  Watch out, we might start a bowling team. But it was really fun and it was nice to get out of the missionary rut.  Today we have exciting news.  Carlos Mojica, an investigator from Chalchuapa, is getting baptized today and the zone leaders invited us to go to the baptism and so we are leaving to go down to Chalchuapa at 12 and we are going to go to the ruins and then go to the baptism.  I am really excited.  Carlos told the Elders that he wanted me to be there. . That made me feel good because as a missionary you learn to love the people you  teach but you don't really know what they think about you or if you really have made an impact in their lives. Another cool thing about Carlos is that he read the whole Book of Mormon.

We have a really positive family that we are teaching.  There is a mom, dad and 3 sons (ages 17, 13 and 4).  The mom said that when she had here first son, she always wanted him to be Mormon and serve a mission.  Kind of a strange request but it works for us.  The whole family is going to come to church tomorrow.  The 13 year old is cool too because he reads all the pamphlets and is reading in his Book of Mormon.  The mom has her strange rituals and every night she prays for guidance and then opens up the Bible randomly and read a bit.  So she did it with the Book of Mormon.  She prayed to ask if the things that we were teaching were true and if we were truly messengers of the word of God.  Then she opened the Book of Mormon and read Alma 18:30-35.  She said that was an answer to here prayer and now she knows that it is true.  The dad is a little more difficult and he believes in all religions and has done a lot of research about world religions.  He believes everything we say and says that the last thing that Christ said on the cross were words in Quiche (the ancient Mayan language).  He said that Christ said words in this language and no one could understand what he said.  I thought that was interesting although I had never heard that theory before.

We are also teaching the brother of Alejandro and David who were baptized in July.  His name is Luis. He is great and he a baptism date for the 28th of August.  Woohoo!  He is so cool and he has been to church once.

We went to the dentist this week.  I have one filling and it started to feel funny.  I thought that I had a popcorn kernel stuck in my teeth but finally I realized that it was my filling.  So I went to the dentist.  He said that I had some cavities but I don´t know how much of that I believed.  Health care is super cheap here and it cost 20 bucks to see the doctor and to change my filling.  When we went to the dentist they need to know your whole name and we tried to tell them that we only have 3 names.  They didn´t believe us so we gave in and everywhere I went I was known as Cristal (because they spelled it wrong) Ann Bush Brady.  It made me giggle.

So this week are transfers. And as expected, I am staying put.  But I am really excited about transfers because Hermana Cash, my trainer, is coming to work in Las Palmeras!  If you didn´t remember, there are 4 sisters in our ward.  Hermana Woods and I are still going to be together but the other two sisters are both leaving the area and Hermana Cash and a relatively new Latina are going to be in the other part of Las Palmeras.  We all share a house so I am really excited.  Hermana Schmidt is leaving the mission soon so after this week we will be back down to two in the companionship.

I love you all and I am really loving the mission.  I love my Savior and I know that church has been restored again to the earth.  I know that there is a living prophet.  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and is proof of the love of God for all the people on earth and is proof that the gospel has been restored.

Love you!

Hermana Bush

The New Girl

So there are a couple of big newsy things this week.

First of all, the last week we have had 3 baptisms and 4 confirmations! We were so excited.  I am going to send you pictures of the people that got baptized. Here is a picture of Hermana Schmidt and I with our District leader and his companion who came to our baptism with us.  Then is a picture of us with Victor and his wife and their member friends. And then David and Alejandro and familia  and finally a picture of Nestor with us and his family.

But last Saturday, Nestor (married to a member) and David and Alejandro (Brothers and friends of members) got baptized and it was just so great to see them get baptized one right after another.  It was a great day.  The friend of David and Alejandro is a Priest and so he was able to do the baptisms and then our district leader baptized Nestor.   Last pday we bought all 4 of our baptism ties.  Alejandro and David wear tight pants and so it was fun to look for ties and to decide with ones they would like and so naturally we got them the ties with a bit of purple and pink in them.  But last Friday we went around to each one by one and gave them the ties we had picked out for them and they were all so appreciative and they all loved them.  We wrapped them up like a present and all 4 of them didn´t want to rip the wrapping paper because they said they wanted to keep it as a memory.   But Alejandro jumped up and down and ran and gave us hugs.  We aren´t allowed to hug boys and so it was a little awkward.  But it made us so happy.  Victor opened his and almost cried.  The great thing about the people here is that they are always so grateful.  They are also so giving.  When they offer food or something to drink, they expect us to take it and they get offended if we say no.  But the baptisms turned out great.

They other news this week, the new nurse came!  It all came by surprise.  President called us on Sunday morning during church and said that the new nurse would be arriving from the MTC in Guatemala on Monday.  And that is exactly what happened so now we are in a trio.  Her name is Hermana Woods and she is from Arizona.  She has worked as a nurse for a year so it is good that she has some experience.  Her Spanish is already pretty good for her first couple of days here.  She talks really choppy but it is a great start.   We have a baptism tomorrow of Sharon.  She is the 12 year old daughter of inactive members and so we have been working with the family and the mom loves church.   We are excited that our new companion can have her first baptism during her first week of the mission.  We felt a little bad because we just had a big baptizing fest before she came but luckily we still have Sharon.  Sharon is a great girl and we always end up helping her with her English homework.

So the other fun thing that happened this week was that Hermana Cash´s (my trainer) companion got dengue and so they came to our house for a couple days while Hermana Schmidt helped nurse her back to health.  So Hermana Cash and I got to do divisions for 2 days.  I loved being with her again especially when she said my Spanish was great:)  But the strangest thing happened.  When we were together we saw Mauricio (our recent convert from Casa Blanca that went totally inactive and  ran away from us twice).  It was so strange that out of all the times that Mauricio would be in Santa Tecla in our area, I happened to be with Hermana Cash because her comp was sick.  Coincidence?  I think not. We had a great time together and we tried to give Mauricio a pep talk to go back to church.  I don´t know what happened to him but it is hard to give in to the fact that he has his own agency.

So, we have some really positive people that we are teaching and really the members are helping us a ton. I have learned on my mission that missionary work is nearly impossible without the help of the members.  Remember that every member has a reference for the missionaries.

I love it here in El Salvador.  Really, every day I think of how much I love the people here.  There is no where I would rather be.

I love you all!

Hermana Bush

Loving the work and the people?

Hola!

This week has flown by and dragged along at the same time. It has really been an interesting week. We had a baptism last Sunday night! We were really excited that it actually happened because there were a ton of bumps along the road. We were planning on having the baptism on Saturday and but that morning a member called us and said that there was some youth activity in the church the whole day and that there would be youth running around hooting and hollering. We thought about it for a long time and decided it was best to change the baptism. So Sunday we went to church and we were so excited to have a baptism that day and we showed up and there was no water in the church. El Salvador is strange because the water will go out for days or a week and there is nothing that we can do about it. The church does have a cistern that hasn´t been used for ever so it wasn´t a shock when we tried to use it that it was broken. So, we decided to go to another capilla in Merliot (neighboring city). And luckily Victor Molina was cool with whatever we said. And he got baptized and bore his testimony and it was so powerful. He is a good convert. The next time we talked to him he said that when everything was happening to change the time of his baptism he thought that maybe he just wouldn´t do it. I am so grateful that he went through with it and he said that he is glad too. He has a wife and two children that do not want to hear anything about the church but Victor says that he prays that one day they will change and want to go to church with him.

So last week I wrote you about Walter. We have been teaching him for more that a month and we thought he was so close. But let me just say, things have changed. This week we went to visit him and we shook hands and the moment my companion turned around he handed me a note. I didn´t read it and at the end of the lesson he told me that the note was just for me and not for my companion and then my stomach dropped. So when we were out of sight of his house, naturally Hermana Schmidt and I read the note together. And Walter wrote me a little love note! I am still disturbed by this because he probably just goes up to my shoulder. But the note just said that he has liked me since we met and he is always thinking about me and he wanted to tell me in person but never had the opportunity because my companion is always around. Then it ended with he wanted to know what I thought. This happened on Tuesday and so we haven´t gone back. I still get a little barfy feeling when I think about it. Well, we decided that he probably just wants a green card. But it makes things really awkward because he lives on the ways to everything and he lives in his car shop and so he is always fixing cars when we pass. So, that has been really annoying.

Another annoying thing that happened is they said that the new nurse won´t come till transfers week in 3 weeks. I was really excited to have the new nurse come early so that Hermana Schmidt and her could have nurse to nurse talks and I would just sit on the outside like a spectator. But doesn't seem like that will be happening anymore. Now I am scared for the welfare of the missionJ

So we have three baptisms tomorrow! Two are teenagers and brother (Alejandro and David) and the other is the husband of a member. We are really excited. Baptisms are great but they also bring a lot of stress having to plan everything and making sure that every one comes. It is harder too because our Ward Mission Leader doesn´t do anything. But the great thing about this ward is that there are a ton of people and so we have ward missionaries and they are really helping us in the work.

Thanks for all your prayers. We are working hard and loving it here. Hermana Schmidt and I are having a great time together.

Con Amor

Hermana Bush