Diciembre

Well this has been a very interesting week. I never told you guys but about a month ago something appeared on the bottom of my foot.  For a long time I was looking for a rock in my shoe and never found one. Then I found it on the bottom of my foot.  So I asked Hermana Clark when we were together and she said that she thought it was a planters wart.  So I told the nurse and then things got busy but I was finally able to go to the doctor today.  And he said that it wasn´t a wart but it was just dead skin underneath my skin that was just a ball and so it feels like a little rock.  He said that he could cut it out and so he did but then he said that it would just grow back and so he froze it too.  And now I am free of my little rock but now I have a whole in my foot and it hurts!  But he said that it shouldn´t hurt too much after the week end.  And I can still walk fine with a little limp. But I will adjust. Hermana Salazar said that I finally went to the ¨patologo¨ (for those of you who remember my story the other week). So that is what we did this morning.  It was a very thrilling morning out and about.  But it was enjoyable.

Our cook is named Jenny and she is also a recent convert from August decided that she wanted to go out with us and so she got a taxi and we went to my appointment and then we ate lunch at Burger King. Mom asked me about the Christmas decorations here.  Some people do decorate and it is really pretty but not nearly as elaborate as in the states.  But every time we walk past a house with Christmas lights or a tree, Hermana Salazar and I look at it longingly. So, today we also went to a store that is the same idea of a dollar store or really a place that sells cheap junk and we bought a little Christmas tree and some cheap lights that might break before we get home.  But now we can have a little bit of Christmas in our house.  Weather wise, it is still hot. I am surprised it is still hot too.  People had always said that December and January are cold months but I don´t know what they were talking about.  Sometimes it feels slightly brisk but normally it is just hot.

We have had some really great experiences this week.  I think I have told you about Clara.  She is an investigator that we have been teaching for a while that still hasn´t been able to go to church.  On Saturday we taught her and she accepted a baptismal date in December. She told us that she was talking to her mom about the church and invited her to go.  She said that she wanted to tell her mom that her church wasn´t true but didn´t have the heart to do it. Clara has only one problem....she isn´t married to her companion.  We told her that she has to get married first but she has really put her mind of getting baptized the 18th of December and I know that she can do it. And she was going to go to church on Sunday but then she had a fight with her boyfriend so she was going to leave him but then came back the next day.

So, things are coming right along.  We had a second meeting for the new missionaries and then we had a multizone conference and so I feel like we have been in meetings all week long but it is not true. We are excited for the holiday season.  Now we can decorate our little house.  Oh, that´s the other thing that happened this week is we changed houses.  We finally found a little apartment and we went to see it with the zone leaders and they signed for it.  So we are now in a cute little apartment that is a lot nicer.  We still don´t have a big mirror but we are surviving with little make up mirrors.  Well, I love you all so much!

¡Feliz Diciembre!

Hermana Bush

Thanksgiving

This is Crystal's Letter for this week. For those of you who would like to send her a Christmas card, here is her address. It costs 98 cents to mail a letter to El Salvador.

Hermana Crystal Bush
El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission
Colonia San Benito
Boulevard El Hipodromo 537
San Salvador, San Salvador
El Salvador

Well here I am!

I am writing really late today because we had a zone activity today. We went to hike the Volcán de Santa Ana. At the beginning of the year I hiked a volcana named Isalco and this volcano is in the same area but it is a little bit bigger. It was super hard and now I am super tired. So before the mission I was not the biggest hiker and things have not changed. But it was very beautiful and it has a big crater with water inside. We had a good time and I had a really good time taking a little nap in the little bus that we rented. This week we got to see Claudia finally and it was really exciting because she just praised you guys. She had a good time visiting my family and couldn´t say enough about the dog. I think it is funny that one of my investigators has seen my house and the dog before I have.

Many funny things have happened this week but this might be the highlight. Last Sunday all of our citas (appointments) fell and so we went out contacting. Some lady let us in after some weird guy was asking me if I speak English or Spanish. So this older lady went to church years and years ago with a friend. So I asked what she remembered about the church or Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. So she began to tell us a very interesting version. According to her this is what happened: Joseph Smith was a young boy who liked to run in the morning and on time he prayed in a park and an angel came to him and told him where to find the plates of gold. So, he went to the airport to fly to Brazil where the plates were hidden. He tried to get them out of the ground but he couldn´t so he hired 4 men to help him get the plates out of the mountain. Well, there it is. It is a very interesting take on the prophet Joseph Smith. We explained to her what really happened and she laughed and laughed about her version and then afterwards realized it was a dream.

So, right now is the summer vacation in schools here and since we are in the city we have been fighting with finding people in their houses because a lot are leaving to go visit family or do some sort ofvacation. I hope that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday. Our ward mission leader lived in the states for 20 years and his neighbor is a recent convert (Hermana Jenny) and so she made a Thanksgiving dinner which was delicious. She even made turkey with rice and bread and vegetables and french fries. It was very delicious.

We are working hard here in El Salvador. I love my companion Hermana Salazar. We get along really great and she laughs at everything I say which helps a lot. We took a lot of pictures today and some from yesterday but I will try to send you pictures next week. And yes, the picture that I sent last week is in front of our house. Hermana Ramirez always said it was the midget house because in one room my head almost touches the ceiling. We have a lot of positive investigators but they all have problems with something and with most of them it is the law of chastity. We are trying to organize a divorce some marriages or some other options.

I am so grateful for such great friends and family. I love my mission. I love the people and I love our investigators. After a year in the mission, I took some time to reflect my experiences and I am truly happy that I am here. So many people tell us each day that it is such a huge sacrifice that we make and yes it is, but it is worth every day. I love you all.

Hermana Bush

Oh, and by the way, I read Abby´s email about the cold and she says that it is hard and that she always felt sorry for me and Eli sweating in Norway. But right now, I can´t feel sorry for her. I got really

burnt today climbing the volcano. Everyone says that November and December and January are the coldest months but luckily for me it has been hotter than normal. I am just going to work on my tan.

I love you.

1 year down

Hola!

This week has been a good week. Big news! Yesterday I completed one year on the mission. It is strange that it is supposedly all down hill from here because I still feel new on the mission. I still have a ton of things to learn and I still don´t know anything. It is strange to be a girl and go home 6 months earlier than the elders. This week we had some really good moments. We had an activity with our district. We called people in our ward to do divisions with us and then we went out to contact. And it was a very successful activity. We found a lot of people and the great thing about it is that members don´t really like contacting so, they gave references of friends so that they didn´t have to go contacting for 2 hours. So, we had enough work before and now we have a ton of work. During this activity, we contacted a man that is a friend of a member. He said that he is Buddhist. That is not very common here so I had to ask, ¨Where is the Buddhist church here?¨ Then he had to remind me that buddhism is not a religion it´s a practice. Well, at least we had a good laugh about it. He is a very strange person but willing to listen and says that he is not against changing his life. We have to be careful because someone people only will listen to us because they are curious and not because they want to learn. We have to maintain the eye of a hawk.

Another funny thing happened the next day that I hope I can explain. We visited some people and the mom said that someone was a ¨patologo¨. I thought about it for a little while thinking what is a patologo. And then it came to me, the word ¨pata¨ is a foot of an animal so he must be a foot doctor. And so I asked if it was a foot doctor and everyone started laughing. I thought it was very logical and they understood where I got that. But then they clearly explained to me what a pathologist is and the worst thing is that I know what a pathologist is and I know Claudia (our investigator) is a pathologist and tests tumors to see if they are cancerous. Well, it was a good laugh.

This week has been filled with meetings and waiting around for people. For Christmas, each zone has to make a video so we have been planning that a little bit in the mornings. Then we also had to go to immigration so that Hermana Salazar isn´t a tourist. I thought about it and I have gone to immigration 6 times on the mission! That is a lot of times. And I hope it will be the last time. We are working hard with our investigators. Laura (the daughter of an inactive guy) is progressing but when we talk to her she just doesn´t understand the importance of our message. She doesn´t understand God´s love and that Jesus Christ is our Savior. It is frustrating because we can be the best missionaries but people have to convert themselves and they have to put in the effort to accept our message. Sometimes I just want to shove it down their throats and then I remember that every one has there free agency. We are teaching this lady named Clara and she is so great. We found her contacting but she had gone to church before with her ex boyfriend. We taught her the plan of salvation and it was great because she understood everything perfectly. Every investigator should be like Clara (except that she can´t go to church this week). It is so funny because there are so many emotions in the mission. Right now when I was thinking about investigators I was filled with every emotion: happiness, sadness,

frustration... Hermana Salazar and I get along really great. She loves to laugh and so she always laughs at my jokes or the dumb things that I say. She is really nice and a hard worker. We are continuing the work here in Miramonte. I love you all very much. And Happy Thanksgiving.

Hermana Bush

cambios

Hola familia!

One week more.  So here is the big news:  we had cambios (transfers) but I am still in the same place.  But I had to say goodbye to Hermana Ramirez and Hermana Clark.  Now I am with Hermana Salazar who is brand spanking new.  She is from Honduras.  She is just a small little thing too.  I am sure we look really funny together.  It is different to just be in the house with her because I got used to having 3 in the house.  It is also funny because I can hear the difference in her accent.  Most of the missionaries are from Guatemala and the accent is similar to that of here but she is new and so she still has an accent and still uses her Honduras slang which I don´t understand.  I never realized the difference in words between countries but they use a different word for ¨store¨ and ¨kid¨.  Pura catracha.  That means pure Honduranean.  She is my second companion from Honduras and only my third native companion.  How strange.  I have pretty much spent most of my mission to this point with gringas.  I also had to teach my companion about the money down here.  El Salvador uses money from the states and I just never thought that she wouldn´t know how to use it.  It really just never crossed my mind until this morning when we were going to ride the bus. I told her it was 20 cents and she was staring at the coins and then asked me how much they were worth.  It is kind of confusing because a quarter say ¨quarter¨ and doesn´t say 25 cents and a dime says ¨dime¨ and not 10 cents.  And it doens´t help that it is in another language.  I am glad that I didn´t have to learn a different currency.

Just a funny little story.  I asked Hermana Salazar if she had any pets at home.  And she said ¨Yes, my grandma.¨ I started to laugh and repeated ¨Mascotas¨ which means pets because I thought that she just heard me wrong but it turns out that her grandma lives with her and has pets.

This week has gone by fast because we have been in meetings almost all week and taking Hermana Salazar to meet the ward.  Last week we found a family and we are so happy about that.  The mom is the most positive.  She is 26 years old and had gone to church a long time ago with a ex boyfriend but she told us yesterday that she went and loved it but didn´t understand the importance of the Book of Mormon and now she realized that if it is true, then that means a lot of things.  She said that she wants this for her family.  They have two little kids and she wants her family to have a better life.  We are so happy and we are excited to continue teaching them.  We are trying harder and harder to work with the ward.  This email is kind of short but know that I love it here.  The members are great and they are helping us little by little.  Oh, another thing is that we are teaching this teenage girl named Laura.  She is the daughter of an inactive member.  The elders before taught her but dropped her because she never wanted to go to church.  We have been going with youth to visit her and she committed to going to church last week and she went!  She said that she liked it and that she is feeling her faith grow and that before we came she had absolutely no faith.  We are excited for her.

I love you all!  Thanks for everything.

Hermana Bush

carne y...

Well, I feel like I just wrote yesterday.  I am super excited for Mandy and her calling and that she finally made the decision to go.  I got to (not had to) give a talk in church on sunday and of course it was about missionary work and so I got to tell everyone that my sister got her mission call to Germany and as a bonus I got to call home.  Everyone was super excited for her too and thought that Germany is so exotic.  We have had some great experiences this week and some funny ones too but I always have a hard time remembering what they were.

Claudia (I wrote about her last week) and Daniela (her 8 year old daughter) went to church last sunday and they enjoyed it.  Claudia says that she considers this as a new beginning.  The only problem we have right now is that she doesn´t understand our message about authority and so she still doesn´t feel the need to be baptized because she was already baptized once.  But with time I hope that she can understand.  She is going to Washington DC next week and to Baltimore next Saturday and so it would be so cool if she could meet my family.  How weird is that?  Last week we were teaching her the plan of salvation and Claudia was super interested.  Hermana Clark started talking about the nature of our Heavenly Father and said ¨Nuestro Padre Celestial tiene un cuerpo...de carne y huevos¨.  Everyone started laughing so hard.  For those who don´t know, she said that our Heavenly Father has a body of flesh and eggs.  Luckily Hermana Clark is a good sport and doesn´t mind making mistakes and doesn´t mind when we laugh.

We are also teaching a 16 year old girl named Laura. Her dad is inactive and the elders taught her before but dropped her because she didn´t want to go to church.  But we have been going to visit her with people that she has really clicked with.  With Laura we see that her needs are friendship before she will want to go to church.  So she has been reading the Book of Mormon and has been making friends.  When we asked her if she would go to church, she sat there and thought for a minute and then said yes!  We were really excited and everything is set to go for this Sunday.  Laura is a very awkward girl who is very shy and so she always tells us that people tell her she is weird and she has lived behind this shell for her whole life.  But she is really cute and has started bonding with the young men and women from the ward. And she use to never pray but has started making a sincere effort to learn more.

This week was Halloween, Saints day and day of the dead and I saw absolutely nothing different!  How boring.  But the day after Halloween we went to visit an inactive woman and her kid.  She went on and on about how we should visit this other member family because one of their kids dressed up for Halloween and how satanic that was.  There are a ton of evangelical churches here and they are pretty radical about everything.  The women have to wear a white hankerchief tied around their heads to cover their hair and they have to wear skirts always and they can´t dance.  Some people here are surprised that we do dance, we wear makeup and we can celebrate Halloween. I wish that I could have seen the cemetaries on day of the dead because I imagine it as being very beautiful because the people decorate the grave stones with vibrant flowers.

Well, as always we are working hard.  This is the last week of this transfer and so we are waiting in anticipation for who is going to leave.  We will not be in a trio next week but we don´t know who will leave.  I will keep you posted for next week!  Thanks for every thing and I love you all!

Hermana Bush

Hermana Bush´s super duper semana

Well it has been a really great week.  Last week I told you that we got a reference when we went to the fireside.  So, we went and it was incredible all the things that happened.  We were on divisions.  I was with Hermana Clark and Hermana Ramirez was with a member.  We went to contact the reference and we rang the doorbell but no one answered so we went to ask the neighbor.   And while we were talking to the neighbor, a white pickup pulled up and the neighbor said ¨Here they are¨.  So we walked over and this lady and her daughter get out of the truck.  We talked to her and how we got their names and where we were from.  She said that at that moment they were just stopping at the house and they had to leave again but we were welcome to come back later that night.  So, when we were reunited in our trio, we headed back to the house.  The lady (Claudia) welcomed us in.  She is a doctor (pathologist I think is what it is called.  She looks at tumors under a microscope and says if the are malignant).  She has an office in her house and we sat down and we were getting to know her.  Claudia was very open with us.  She said that 3 years ago they were attending a church but dropped it.  They looked for a church for 2 years and then she got tired of looking.  So a year ago she prayed and said that she wasn´t going to look anymore but asked that God sent someone to her.  And she has been waiting for a year.  She said that she got really excited when she saw us contacting the neighbors but then didn´t think that we were going to talk to her.  She said that she knew that God answered her prayers.  She was crying and very emotional.  I have never been in a lesson so inspiring and upliftling.  It really was a huge testimony builder and faith builder that people really are out there.  Claudia is super positive.  She always has a ton of questions and that first lesson we left her with a ton of pamphlets and a Book of Mormon.  When we came back, she had read all the pamphlets, read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and the testimonies of all the witnesses and had started with first Nephi.  Really, I have never been in a more spiritual lesson. Claudia also had questions about the word of wisdom.  She doesn´t like coffee but asked why we couldn´t drink it.  Hermana Ramirez went to answer the question and said that coffee is really bad for you because if you think about it, it goes into your body brown and comes out yellow.  She said ¨where does the brown go?¨ Before she went any farther I had to say that I had never heard that before.  It is a really good point:) but I couldn´t let false doctrine go on.

Yesterday we went with Claudia to the church to give her a really short tour.  I think I told you how small the chapel is, so it really was a short tour.  She met a lot of members and we are going to a members house tonight with her to make pupusas.

Well, there was more that happened this week, but I don´t have anymore time left.  I love you all.

Hermana Bush

FYI from Judy: Amanda's mission call arrived in the mail today. We'll be opening it tonight. Crystal has permission to call and find out where her sister is going on her mission!

Welcome to El Salvador

Hola!

Well it has just been another week and so many things have happened. Well first things first, we received our new companion on Tuesday night. Her name is Hermana Clark and is from Washington (the state. Most people here don´t know that Washington is a state. They only know Washington DC). She is really great and is not shy at all. She is relieved that she doesn´t have to be the mission nurse now and can have time to learn more spanish. She said that she met Abby (my cousin) in the temple and Abby told her that I was with the nurse and so Hermana Clark just assumed that she would be my companion. It is funny that we are companions but not in the nurse´s position. So, I have been talking a little bit more english than I have in the last 3 weeks and actually it is starting to hurt my head to have thing in the two languages to talk to my companions. Yesterday at the end of the day I just didn´t want to say anything because I was tired of thinking in two languages. An interesting fact is that I now have had 4 gringa companions and all their last names have been one syllable and so is mine.

This week we had Elder Martino come talk to us! He is from the area presidency. There was a fireside on Tuesday night and then we had a multizone conference on Wednesday. The fireside was for members and so Presidente Lopez said that we could go IF we had an investigator. You don´t know how hard we tried to get an investigator. We looked the whole day and finally at six o´clock we were giving up but then in the last minute, we called a 13 year old boy who is the nephew of a member and he said he wanted to go! We were so happy and we ran to their house and we arrive at the fireside all sweaty but ready to listen. It was great because it was in the building of my old area and so I got to see a lot of my old people and my converts from Las Palmeras. It was a reunion. And I was really happy we went because I said hi to a lady and she said who are in the elders that are in Miramonte right now. And I was so happy because that is ME! She had a reference for us and she said we can contact them saturdays in the afternoon and they want to hear about the church because they think the church can help their marital problems. I am really excited to go tomorrow. It is fine contacting people but it is much better teaching people that want to hear our message.

At the multizone conference we had, I had to give the opening prayer and I was super scared. But now, I have given a prayer in front of a general authority. And then in the conference, Elder Martino asked Hermana Cash a question and called her my name! She said she was a little offended :) but I know she liked it.

So I think that I already told you but we are in the city and I would have thought that it is the area that we would have to walk the least but it is quite the opposite. There are a ton of buses in the area but no buses that just drive around the area, only through the area so there is no sense in riding any buses to get to our appointments. Sometimes I wish I could just fly or warp myself places because walking is such a waste of precious time. But it is good exercise so I will live with it.

I feel like I don´t have much else to say. But one thing that everyone should do is look up what the national bird of El Salvador looks like because I have seen 2 of them! There is a park in front of the bishop´s house and there are some of these birds. They have very strange looking tails and so I was really excited to see them.


Well, I love you all. Thanks for writing me. I am glad you didn´t forget about me in El Salvador. I can´t wait to hear where Mandy is going. I hope she gets her call soon because I want to know.

I love you all!

Hermana Bush