27: Refugio 6

Hello!

So this week’s been interesting.  Let’s take a look.

Tuesday we went to Tazumal.  It’s a big ancient ruin in Chalchuapa.  After writing, I went and ate at Pollo Campero with the zone (the big fancy fast food restaurant that’s not really that good), then went to Tazumal.  We walked through the museum, but I really didn’t want to take the time to read all the plaques and stuff, so I just took pictures.  We ended up taking a LOT of pictures, caught some sweet shots.  It was a lot of fun.

After that I went to work, and my companion really didn’t want to.  After our first appointment, he just took off walking back.  Then I saw a member carrying some beans and asked if I could help her.  That’s really the only way I could get my companion to work—if we were around members—at least that day.  The member then told me that her mom was really sick and needed a blessing, so we walked with her for about 15 minutes to her house and I ended up giving a really spiritual lesson.  It was so sweet.  After, we got to give her a blessing too.  It was a cool, humble lesson.  I was grateful for it.

Friday we went to the temple again.  There weren’t many people, but we were able to bring Amner and Rafael.  They are two inactives who were baptized a long time ago about the same time and are cousins.  I’ve already talked a bit about Amner.

Rafael has another interesting story.  He was a really faithful saint.  He’d walk two hours in the madrugada to go to church.  He ended up leaving his studies two years into it to go on a mission, but he wasn’t able to go on his mission, and he lost all his schooling.  He ended up marrying outside of the church, and now just has a little store for his work instead of a good career.  He still has an amazing testimony, but just doesn’t come to church because of his history.  Well, we got him to the temple, and now he’s finally starting to change.  He wants his daughter to be able to be sealed in the temple and wants to come back.  I think he’s finally going to be able to get over his fears and return to church, especially now that his cousin’s coming back too.

The temple’s still amazing.  I like it better and better every time I go.  One more trip this Saturday, and then I’ll be able to see the dedication from the stake center in August.

Now, let’s go to Sunday.  Sunday I got to work with Marlon.  He’s the elders quorum president and is awesome.  The first couple of weeks he was basically inactive and wouldn’t help us at all because he doesn’t like my companion.  But we get along really well together, so he’s started working a lot with me.  We went first to talk to the familia Lopez.  The wife and kids are already members, but the husband, Adonaí, is not.  He’s way sweet.  He’s gone to the temple twice and loves it.  He has a date for the 6th of August.

Then, in the night, we got to have an AMAZING lesson with the familia Herrera.  No joke, this is probably the best lesson I have had on my mission.  We brought them down to the chapel where the president had prepared a lesson.  We had to get them out of their house because her mom has started talking against us.  So there was me, Elder Gonzalez, the president and his wife, and Marlon (and for a little bit, Angel).  The president started off talking about the atonement, Jesus Christ, then about love, charity, then brought it in to marriage.  He talked about how wonderful it was to be married, the blessings, the problems, etc.  Then his wife shared her testimony, and I was like...awww, how precious.  Then Elder Gonzalez talked, then tried to end it without really a commitment or anything.  So I was like, hey, I’ve got to say something.  What I said was basically guided by the spirit, totally.  Then Marlon started adding, and we were able to ask some awfully amazingly inspired questions and really got to the core of them.  It was so amazing.  Oscar said yes.  Irene said she still needed to pray, and Marlon asked if they had prayed as a couple.  They admitted that, no, and we got to talk about that.  We had a really open discussion and made so much progress.  Then at the end, I asked them if we could kneel down and pray together, and that she could offer one prayer, and then after that, he could.  A completely sincere prayer.  It was so cool.  Everyone there wanted the same thing, and there was a lot of faith.  The spirit was so, so strong.  Awesome, awesome lesson.  I have learned to use members.  They are so powerful.  It is always tons better when we have a member with us.  I think they’ll get baptized on the 6th.

After that we went to Marlon’s house to eat.  It was about 8:00 and was getting dark.  And it was raining.  Well, he lives about 15 minutes away, and the rain and wind started going crazy.  My umbrella broke, which is too bad, because it’s awesome.  It was seriously pouring.  We were all soaked.  At times, it got so dark that we couldn’t really see anything and we were basically running up a river.  Marlon’s cool.  We were joking around and laughing the whole time.  It was so sweet.  Then we got to have a good dinner with him, his wife, and his 2-week old baby.  It was definitely an adventure.  I enjoyed it.  When we finally got back to the house, we were soaking wet.  My mission manual was soaked to the core, my umbrella destroyed.  So cool.

Then we got a call from the zone leaders.  My next companion’s name is Elder Romero.  He entered the mission at the same time as me, but has one change more than me because of the MTC.  Elder Webb, a missionary in our zone, says he’s amazing.  Well, I’m really excited.  I hope I can finally get to work and have a companion who actually wants to study.  But I have to say, I’ve grown so much from having Elder Gonzalez as my companion.  You have no idea how much I’ve grown.

Well, that’s all for now.  Hope all is well on the home front.  I guess school’s going to start again.  That’s weird.  I’m basically forgetting everything I learned in school.  I guess that’s just what happens when you get old.

Till next week,
Elder Bailey

26: Refugio 5

Hello!

I’m writing you today because today we are going to go to Tazumal—it’s a ruin.  We’re going as a zone, and they aren’t open on Mondays, so for this we have P-day today!  My companion’s really grumpy because he just wants to sleep and doesn’t want to go to Tazumal.  He wanted his P-day Monday, and was literally banging his fists on the table Sunday when the zone leaders told him this.  Then he basically told them that he wouldn’t work Monday, and didn’t.  We missed a lot of important appointments, so I’ve kind of decided to just not set any important appointments this week.  Luckily, all the members know and are willing to do splits with me while another one stays in the house with Elder Gonzalez while he sleeps.

But I have found a lot of cool people and am excited to start teaching them...in a week.  I had a cool experience with an inactive.  His name is Amner, and we found him through a member, Hmo. Ruano.  So we had an appointment with him at 7:00, and he lives a ways away.  It was raining a lot that day—like rivers.  Literally.  Hmo. Ruano came and picked us up in his truck and we drove down a long, dark dirt road.  When we got there, there was lightning everywhere and Amner didn’t have power.  So we ended up trekking in the dark and rain and lightning for about 5 minutes to get to his house from where we parked the car.  This guy, Amner, is really humble.  He’s had a hard life.  He fought in the war about ten years ago and lost a lot of friends.  He also went to the states for a few years and had a really rough time there too.  His wife and kids aren’t members, and his kid has a sickness.  I’m excited to teach them.  He wanted me to look up a missionary who changed his life, and I figured I’d give it a try.  His name is Adam Gibbons Kimball from Utah.  He was a missionary here about 10 years ago.  So you techno geeks, see if you can find him, then let me know.  I need to reactivate this Amner.

On Friday we had interviews with the new President.  He is so awesome.  He’s from Guatemala, was one of the Area Seventies here, and is so cool.  I’m way excited to work with him.  He gives really good advice, and speaks English when he has to say something important to me.  He’s also really tall.  The tallest Latin I’ve ever met.  He’s seriously like 7 feet, and really skinny.  Also, he served his mission in El Salvador a long time ago.  He is changing everything around and it’s getting a lot better.  He’s having the leaders focus more on goals and encouraging rather than on chewing people out, and wants converts. 

So after that I went on a companion exchange for the rest of the night, and went with Elder Hobbs, from Idaho.  He’s got one more change than me and is a good missionary.  We had a lot of fun and got a lot of good work done together.  We found a way positive investigadora.  She told us she felt far from God and really wanted our message to be true, and told us she wanted to pray with a sincere heart even before we read Moroni 10:4-5.  Too bad she lived in Santa Ana because she was awesome.  I really wish I could find people like that in Refugio.  It would be so sweet.

On Saturday I got to go to the temple again (the president changed the rules again and said we could go one time every week).  So I got to go with the familia Herrera.  They brought about 20 people.  It was so sweet.  They loved it, and after we walked out of the sealing room, Oscar (the husband, almost) told me: "one year, one year."  It was so sweet.  There is definitely a spirit in the temple that is different from anywhere else.  The El Salvador Temple is so sweet.  It is definitely a good looking temple.

Later that night, I got to eat chuco with the familia Herrera.  Chuco is like atol, but acidic.  It’s like...black corn, with a couple pinto beans....really acidic.  It was definitely an experience.  It tastes so weird, and it made me so tired that night.  I slept like a baby.  But chuco is actually pretty big here.  There are restaurants that only sell chuco.  It was actually pretty good for what it was, it’s just that I prefer sweet food.  I’m not big on acidic I guess.  But wow, that family is so cool.  I think they’ll get baptized the first of August, but we have to set a date with them first.

Also there’s the family Lopez.  The mom and two of the kids were already baptized and were inactive, and the dad wants to be baptized.  I asked him what he wanted the most, and he said that he wanted to feel free from his sins.  I took them to the temple too on Saturday.  They had some pretty sweet experiences.  Later that day we taught them too, and sang ¨Families can be Together Forever."  They were just staring into each others’ eyes....aaw cute.  He just needs to find a job where he doesn’t work on Sunday.

Then there’s Eduardo Lobos.  Here’s a picture with him that he took from his phone.  He received the missionaries a year ago and knows that the church is true.  He knows it, but only doesn’t want to get baptized because he’s heartbroken.  Last year, Eduardo had a girlfriend and they had been dating for four years.  He wanted to get sealed to her in the temple.  Then the girl dumped Eduardo, and Eduardo has been heartbroken since.  He knows the church is true, wants to go to the temple, but just doesn’t want to get baptized because it pains him.  So yeah, I’m trying to figure out how to help out Eduardo.

Sunday I went on splits with the stake high priest who was assigned to our branch.  He’s lived in Orem before, so wanted to talk to me about Utah in broken English.  It was cool.  Made me a bit baggy.  We taught a family of women, the familia Albarez.  We brought them the sacrament, but they didn’t have any bread, so we ended up using a cookie that I had in my backpack.  Pretty sweet sacrament.  The mama was sick, so we got to give her a blessing, then the others said that they wanted a blessing as well.  I got to give two of them, in tu form.  It was actually pretty cool, and there was a strong spirit there, it was so strong I probably could have cut through it with a knife.

So the more I learn and understand Spanish, the more meaningful and cool this mission is.  I have a lot more spiritual experiences now that I can understand and explain.  I still have a long way to go, but it’s pretty good.  It’s better than a lot of other gringos who’ve been here for longer than me.  I just finished reading the BOM out loud in Spanish.  That helped a ton.  The BOM is pretty sweet in Spanish.  I would read it every morning for a little bit.  Well, I’m starting over again because, let’s be honest, that book gives you power.  I’m also trying to memorize key scriptures because I really struggle finding scriptures and using them to help investigators because I don’t know them well enough.  That’s something I kind of wished I would have done before.  So really, I’ve already said this before, but I’ll say it again.  If you haven’t yet, get to know the Book of Mormon.  That book can change lives, but you just have to know how to use it.  It’s like any other tool.  A crowbar or lock pick set can be really useful tools, but if you don’t know how to use them, they’re good for nothing.  The same with the BOM.  Learn it.

Yesterday, I got to eat conejo [rabbit].  It’s been one of my goals in the mission.  Turns out that rabbit is really, really good.  It tastes like chicken...but better.  It was so good.  Probably one of the best things I have eaten here.  We got to eat it with Hermana Flores.  Here are some pictures. 

Also, attached is a picture from the Fourth of July.  We played volleyball and ate hot dogs.  Let’s just say the hot dogs here aren’t nearly as good as in the states, and the ketchup tastes way different.  But it was still a lot of fun.  We spoke English, sang “The Star Spangled Banner,” etc.  Good times.  There’s some sweet people in my zone.

Yesterday, I also got to eat arroz con leche with the familia Herrera again.  Mmmm.  So good.  Unbelievable.  Mmm.  Yeah.  It’s good.  So off to Tazumal.  8 days more with my companion.  Sunday will come.  Sunday will come (the talk by Elder Wirthlin).  

¡Woot!

Elder Bailey

25: Refugio 4

¡Buenos Días todos!

So I guess it's been an eventful week.  First of all, we got our new president, President Cordon.  To start out, this guy is tall.  I'm pretty sure he is the tallest Latin that I have ever seen.  Secondly, he's awesome.  There is so much love flowing from that guy.  I think pretty much every missionary immediately felt close to him...like they were already friends...within the first 10 minutes of meeting him (except my companion--he was drawing).   He is absolutely awesome, and I'm excited to work with him.  His wife is a lot of fun.  She was a convert and told us her conversion story.  Then she told us how she was able to look up the missionaries who converted her 20 years later and talk with them.  She then talked about how we need to convert, not just baptize, then always be worthy after.  If we're not worthy after, what are our converts going to think?  President Cordon talked to us about love, and that we can love everyone, and about the doctrine of Christ.  It was a really cool lecture.  In all, the meeting was pretty awesome and I'm way excited to work with this president.  Oh, and also, he speaks English—not that I need that anymore.

So Spanish is a lot better.  I understand and communicate, but still need to refine and learn a lot more.  But at least I'm not always out in the dark.  I think it has to do part with the fact that I'm basically in charge of my whole area, my branch, and my companion. I'm learning so much from this experience, even though it is hard. I'm learning a lot of Spanish; I'm learning little by little how to get things going.

Also, I'm learning a lot of patience from my companion.  He's so baggy right now that he doesn't really believe he's a missionary and he doesn't act like one either.  It is so difficult to get him out of the house, and then he just grumps along behind me.  Many times he'll just take off in another direction just to bug me and never really helps me teach.  I'm basically his babysitter and just have to make sure that he doesn't do anything stupid in the next 16 days.  But I'm kind of worried because I'm pretty sure he's planning something.  I've learned a lot a bad words from him too, poor kid.  But now that I've said that, I would like to say how grateful I am for him.  He frustrates me like crazy, but has helped me get closer to God more than ever.  Like it says in Mosiah 23:21-22, it's the trials that make us grow.  To be honest, I feel really sorry for him.  He's going to have a hard time when he gets back to his house and doesn't have a companion there to help him.  I'm trying to help him...but it's really difficult.  Really difficult.

Wednesday we had a baptism.  La Maritsa.  She's the daughter of a member, and her sister is a member too, but she was never baptized. She already had had 3 baptism dates before and had been interviewed and all, but kept disappearing on her baptism date.  We taught her and she still understood and remembered everything and wanted to be baptized, but said that she hadn't yet because she didn't like the other missionaries.  So we set a date with her and got to know her well.  Well, the date finally came, her birthday, and wow, that was stressful.  The baptism was supposed to start at 7, but didn't start until about 8:30 because she was in her house changing for an hour and a half.  We finally got her into the baptismal font, and to be honest, she looked like she was about to run away.  Finally, my companion dunked her, but her feet went up, so he had to dunk her again.  It was pretty suspenseful for me.  But we finally baptized her and she was really happy, and I bought them pupusas the next day in celebration. She really was ready to be baptized but she just needed a lot of push because she's...well...I don't know.  But she's keeping the commandments and even went to the temple on Friday.  So it was good. Here's a picture of her.  She was really nervous, so we couldn't really get her to smile.  We took about 10 of these pictures.  I got bored after about 5, and this was number 7, I believe.

Friday I got to go to the temple open house.  Wow, I miss the temple. The temple here is so amazing.  It is absolutely chulo [cool].  I got to go with the rama [branch] to write down all of the references. There were tons.  Of course, a lot of them weren't so positive, but they all enjoyed the temple.  There was definitely a spirit there way different from any other place.  But I have to say, I do miss the temple.  If you haven't gone to the temple lately, you should go because it really is different from any other place on earth.  The El Salvador Temple is so sweet.  I can't wait to go there and do an actual endowment or something.  Also, I got to eat a chocolate chip cookie after, which is good because I have been craving those things for weeks.  I really am dying for some chocolate chip cookies.  That's something that they really haven't mastered here in El Salvador.

Also, the familia Herrera are finally making up their minds to be married.  I think we're going to get to baptize them the first of August when they have vacation from their work.  They are so awesome, and all their neighborhood loves them.  They're taking a trip to the temple this Saturday and are basically going to fill up a bus with people.  I can't go again because missionaries can only go once, but my companion will go with them (we did divisions on Friday).  I really wish I could go with them, but maybe in one year when they get sealed. They're so great though.  I'm so excited for them.

So it's hard, and there are not as many baptisms as I'd prefer, but it's good.  I'm so excited for the familia Herrera.  Today we're going to have FHE with them and eat Chuco.  I have no idea what that is, but they say it's really good.  I'm a little iffy though because the other definition for chuco here is "dirty."

Also, I found a post office yesterday, so I might actually start replying to letters if I can find time.  But I do like getting letters, so write me if you can...just know that I'm not really good at replying.  I hope all's well in the land of the free.  Happy Fourth of July.  I'm going to go to the stake center in about 30 minutes to celebrate.  I just changed a car tire today.  I am getting so good at that.  People are always getting flats.  It rains a lot here.

Hurrays!

Elder Bailey

24: Refugio 3

Hello from El Salvador!

So this week we got to say goodbye to President Lopez and his family.  We had a huge multi-zone meeting with a bunch of the zones close to us.  Each zone got to sing a song for the president and his family, and we sang...I don’t remember, but it wasn’t very good.  Let’s just say that my zone tried.  But the meeting was really awesome.  First, the president talked to us about how to have success.  That was a cool lesson.  After him, Hermana Lopez told the story of how they met.  So funny.  Basically, they never really dated.  Instead, the president just said, “Listen, I don’t really think dating is worth it if we’re not going to get married.  So if you want, we can plan on getting married on (this date), but if not, it’s not worth it."  So basically, it’s just like a baptismal commitment.  It was a great talk because the whole time the president was back behind her shaking his head and smiling.  Then the president gave us his final speech, and boy, was it spiritual.  I think everyone in the room was pretty struck by the spirit.  Yeah, pretty sweet.  So after, they told us that this once they were going to change the rules and that we could all give the president and Hermana Lopez a hug.  It was cool.  A lot of people cried.  I’ve decided that the mission definitely makes people a lot more emotional.  I would never have cried before my mission.  But now... yeah, it’s weird.

Well, tomorrow we are going to have a new president, President Cordon.  On Friday, we get to have a conference with him.  I’m kind of excited.

So my area is way difficult.  I came into the mission thinking I would baptize 100 people.  But now I’m realizing that there’s a lot more to it than just baptizing.  I could just baptize, and there are people that do that—but I don’t want to do that.  I want to convert.  The whole point of the mission is to bring people a happiness that I know they need and to help them learn and receive the ordinances necessary to achieve exaltation.  And that is really hard, especially here in Refugio where there is a lot of apostasy. 

This morning I was reading in Mormon 5 that the Lamanites would have so much suffering because of their iniquity, and that there really would be a lot of iniquity.  I testify of that.  There are a lot of problems here in El Salvador, and especially in Refugio.  So it’s hard.  The branch is sleeping.  None of the members really like to work.  It’s difficult.  And I’m not really getting results, but I am learning a lot, especially since my companion doesn’t do anything. 

I’m learning how to run everything, and I get to keep trying out new ideas to see if they can change things.  While nothing has really worked yet, I’m going to keep trying.  So it’s kind of good and bad.  I like being in charge and running things, but at the same time I’m not really getting any results.  Well, I am learning a lot.  The work of the Lord is not easy.  The diablo [devil] is working hard against us, but we’ve got a better team.

So it’s going in El Salvador.  I should have my first baptismal date on Wednesday.  I’ll tell you how that goes.  Hope all is going well back home!

Elder Bailey

23: Refugio 2

¡Hola Buenas!

So first to answer questions.  I live in Refugio in a yellow house just above the park.  Basically we have a huge...like... open space in the middle, with a bunch of rooms surrounding.  Here are a couple pictures.  We still don't have running water.  Yes, we still have a cook and a laundress (in this case it's the same person).  Her name is Angelita.  She talks really fast and her food is okay—an adventure.  On Saturday she cooked us chicken hearts and lungs.  I'm not gonna lie.  I'm not a fan.  It tastes like...I don't know.  It just has a texture that's either really...textury...or it's really hard and rubbery.  I ate about three, then gave the rest to my companion.

Also, on Tuesday we went down to visit some recent converts who are very, very powerful, family Ruano.  The husband was already a member before, and the last pair of elders baptised his wife and two kids (there are three girls, the third is 6).  They had references for us, so we taught them, and after ate tamales and jalea.  Jalea is mango juice with sugar, boiled, and wow, it is good.  The tamale was so good, and it had chicken in it that I really enjoyed.  About half way through the tamale, I pulled out a piece of meat that was really weird looking.  It was a yellow piece of meat with three skinny bones sticking out.  Then it dawned on me that it was a foot.  I was pretty surprised and just stared at it for about 10 minutes.  Then Hermano Ruano said to his wife, "Hey, Elder Bailey found a chicken foot in his tamale."  "Pues que suerte!"  ("What good luck!").  Yeah.  It wasn't actually that bad...it was just...a chicken's foot, a lot better than the lungs.

Also this week we had a multi-zone conference in Santa Ana.  It was pretty cool.  I learned a lot.  Pretty sure the president almost cried.  He only has a couple days more, and then he's gone.  I've only had two very short interviews with him.  Since I got Elder Gonzalez as a companion, I keep in close contact with the president and his wife.  Let's just say that Elder Gonzalez has a good heart when we're actually teaching, it just takes a lot of prodding to get there.  And I mean prodding.  Yesterday I spent 40 minutes at his bedside telling him to get up and work. 

It is pretty cool because I am so patient with him.  It's pretty sweet how much I've learned to control myself and keep the spirit.  But I received a lot of revelation this morning when I realised that the reason I've been getting all the hard companions was so that I could learn patience, improve my Christlike attributes, and learn to always be obedient.  I was reminded of the talk that President Uchtdorf gave, where he said that we have a mighty work to do and cannot come down.  And that is what I've learned.  I have a work to do, I have my standard to keep, and I cannot come down to please and get along with other people.  That doesn't work.  I need to stay up with the standard and be an example.  It's more difficult, but better for us in the long run.  As a missionary, I need to be exactly obedient to the rules.  This is key.  People can still baptise when they're disobedient, but they're going to have more problems in the long run.  I just hope that I can help my companion in some way, because he really is a good guy.

I'm also learning a lot about the work and how to do it.  I pretty much do everything.  I plan, make all the decisions, and keep my companion going.  I'm not going to lie, right now I'm not getting a lot of results, but I'm learning how to accomplish and achieve these results better and better every day.  Right now we only have one date.  Her name is Marista.  The family Herrera have kind of been put at a standstill.  They don't want to get married.  They understand baptism and everything, and want that, but don't want marriage.  The reason?  Her first husband died, and as long as she's not married, she gets money every month for that.  Also, I believe they aren't really sure if they want to be together with each other...married.  We're going to try a couple other things out, but really, I don't know.  I really hope we can find a solution, and we pray for them every day, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, the work in Refugio is slow.  We're doing a lot of contacting, but not really finding people who are way positive, and when we do, they're always really busy with work.  The majority of our branch is lazy or inactive, so that makes it hard to find people.  But I'm learning, coming up with new plans, improving the way I work.  Hopefully, I'll be able to begin to get results.  So the mission is hard.  But at the same time, I've grown and improved so much that it's worth it.  I've learned so many lessons.  I only hope that soon I will be able to find, and know how to teach well, and actually help these people find the happiness that this gospel offers.  It's also an adventure.  A lot of weird things happen to me.  But that's not the point is it?  The point is to bring people unto Christ.  And if we remember that, we have reason to press forward.

I'm going to go now.

Elder Bailey

22: Refugio 1

Hello Y'all

So wow, this has been an eventful week.  I have a lot to say.  Ready?  Ok.

So Monday and Tuesday I was basically helping move the offices.  There were a whole bunch of greenies who came fresh from the MTC, and I had to go to the stake center to help load their stuff up in the coasters.  I got to talk with the mission president and his wife for a bit.  It was interesting.  More about that to come.

Also, Tuesday night we had a whole bunch of old missionaries return from Belize, and they slept in the casa grande with me.  So I got to stay up and talk to them a bit.  Belize sounds pretty cool.  They get to ride bicycles because their areas were so big, and they had to learn about 5 different languages.  One of them, Elder Jackson, got put on an island.  Tuesday we went on interchanges and I took Elder Jackson up to San Jorge with me (the Belizians had nothing to do, so we took them to our areas).  The thing is that Elder Jackson was in San Jorge before and baptized one of the most powerful converts there, Miguel.  I have pictures of him with me and Elder Jackson, but I forgot my camera.  Sorry.  So I got to say goodbye to all the people of San Jorge.

So Wednesday morning we had changes and I got to meet my new companion.  He's a chubby guanaco from San Salvador and has probably the biggest reputation in the mission for being chambón (lazy).  I feel comfortable saying this about him because I've been with him for almost a week, and every single person has told me that, even the mission president.  When I told Hermana Lopez that Elder Gonzalez would be my mission companion on Tuesday, she had a quick little "Oh, I'm sorry" microexpression and then started singing "mas paciencia" [more patience].  Then she started telling me that I would need to just pull him out of the house.  Then the president chipped in and told me that basically Elder Gonzalez is a follower.  I would have to lead everything if I wanted something to get done.  So Saturday I met this bloke.  Turns out I learned a lot of patience from my last two companions (they were rough, let me tell you), because we actually get along.  Also, it's a good thing that I played the Wii before my mission, because he really, really likes to talk about that.

He took me around and showed me the area of Refugio after I dropped my stuff off at the house.  Turns out, the area's suffering a bit.  In the last month they had only had 9 new investigators.  This area needs a major branch makeover.  I also got to meet Jose Flores.  He's the 1st counselor in the rama [branch], is an RM, and is really good to work with.  The only problem is that he's really busy, so we don't have much time to work with him (but I have 5 references from him, which is awesome).  The president is good, but to be honest he's just kind of boring—a really good person, just needs a little spunk.  I need to wake the guy up.  He looks like he's sleeping half the time.

So basically, I'm in charge.  Not only is my companion a follower, but he's baggy, because this is his final change.  Really baggy.  In fact, he told me straight up that I'm basically the senior companion because "¡ya me voy!" [he's already gone].  To be honest, I really like it.  I'm trying things out, and I'm starting to see results.  I found about 14 new investigators in three days.  More than they'd found in the whole month.  I'm going to keep trying, and hope I can get baptisms.

They do have one family that's positive.  Familia Herrera.  On Thursday we went to set a date with them (because the husband was a little iffy about marriage even though they'd been together for 15 years).   So we talked about baptism, and I basically got the husband to commit, but the wife was still a little iffy.  She just needed to be prodded a little more, but then my companion stepped in and said that we were just going to make it a goal, and that they could step down at any time when they didn't feel ready.  Then he said that about 4 more times.  GRRR.  There went the date.  But it's okay.  We're having family night with them, so I'm going to try to set the date right.

Sunday we had church.  Obviously.  At first, there were only 15 people there, but then more showed up after the sacrament, and our attendance rose to 49.  That's about normal for Refugio, but the thing is that there are about 350 members hidden throughout our area who are inactive.  I need to find them and reactivate them--especially the priesthood holders (there are not many).  So I'm working on a plan for that, a plan to find and teach more, a plan to deal with my companion, a plan to reach all the goals, and much more.  Yeah, it's actually a lot of fun.  It's like a big spiritual game that's going to result in the saving or loss of souls.  So awesome.  I just keep working and doing service:  I've helped put up fences, cleaned up trees, cleaned cars, etc.  Who knows if these people will actually get baptized, but por los menos [at least] we're planting some freakin' awesome seeds.

It rains every night.  I get soaked a lot.  We don't actually have running water in our house...just two barrels of water for everything and some bottles of drinking water.  I have to carry a bucket of water over to the toilet every time I want to flush it, and bathe outside by the barrels.  It's so awesome.  I love El Salvador.  I love my mission.  I feel like's it's finally picking up.  People are great.  The church is true.  Study your scriptures.  Learn about Christ, and then try to be like Christ.  Apply the principles to your life.  Do service.  Resolve conflicts.  Pray every day.  Go to church.  Do everything you can that will bring you closer to Christ, because that's where true happiness lies.  Remember that you have to lose yourself to find yourself.  Well, I'm losing myself.  I can't even speak my own language anymore.  Endure to the end, and if you do these things, "Tendréis la vida eterna" [you'll have eternal life].

Elder Bailey

21: San Jorge 12

¡Oy!
So it's been a pretty busy week.  First of all, we've been living in the casa grande with the assistants.  I've been talking with them a lot lately and have learned a lot.  First of all, I've learned that being an assistant really isn't that great.  Yeah, they get an extra 100 dollars and a microwave, but that's about it.  A lot of missionaries don't like them because they have a microwave, and they get chewed out by the president for every little detail.  So that's not a very good spot to be in.  Also, I was able to talk with them and we realized that probably one of the biggest problems in the mission is pride, and [also] laziness.
Oh, that reminds me.  I'm moving on Wednesday.  I'm going to El Refugio, Chalchuapa.  My companion is going to be another Elder Gonzalez, but this Elder Gonzalez is basically the opposite of my first Elder Gonzalez (there are a lot of Elder Gonzalez's). Also, this will be his last cambio [change], so I'm going to kill him (that's what it's called).  So yeah.  I'm pretty stoked for that.  We'll see what happens, because I'm kind of known as a flechon (someone who follows the rules strictly).  It's going to be sweet.
Also, I got about five fechas [dates] this week, some of them by myself (actually, I was on interchanges and had Elder Medina with me, but he fell asleep during the lesson...so yeah, I set to fechas bautismales [baptismal dates] by myself).  We still haven't put a date with Benny, but he knows that he's going to get baptized.  We've been having some awesome lessons with him.  Also, he's probably going to return to the states in 2 years, so he's going to give me a call.  But yeah, I've set like 5 dates, and they're all going to be after I leave.  Que chafa [too bad].  I don't know if I can count those as a baptism or not.
The mission has been pretty hectic with all these changes going on.  The new president is going to come at the end of this month.  It's going to be pretty sweet.
On Sunday, we had stake conference and I saw a bunch of gringos coming.  I talked with them a bit because they didn't speak Spanish and I realized one of them was in my BYU Book of Mormon class.  Yeah, that was pretty weird.  Stake Conference was way cool, and I sang a song with Elder Brown and Elder Rabanales.  We harmonized.  It sounded so awesome.  It rocked.
We also had a baptism for Jeronimo, a bloke from San Jorge.  It was pretty cool, but I forgot my camera, so I don't have pictures.  Sorry.  Well, it's been good writing, but I don't really have much time today and I have to go.  So hope all is good, and goodbye!
Elder Bailey