Eye Infection, Counting Papusas & MS13

Hola!

Well another week done! This week was rough but at the same time good. Rough because, well on Thursday night I got an eye infection (supposedly from the heat, sun, and humidity. Lots of gringos have had this problem here!), and It was super red and I couldn't really go outside because, well I really couldn't see in the light! It was super dumb, so I spent all of Friday and most of Saturday indoors trying to recover. but please don't worry, I am fine now! Seriously! My eye really doesn't hurt anymore and I am capable of working! So STOP WORRYING! Oh yeah, so btw I gave up on wearing contacts, because well, this place is somewhat filthy and well I can probably avoid future eye problems if I don't use contact lenses, no worries, all is good!

Ok so we are hoping to have a baptism this Saturday with 2 hopefully 3 people, the third girl is really a flake and we don't know if she really wants to be baptized, so we will see what happens! So we are hoping that all will go well with that as planned! I am excited!

So the food, Yeah, I am getting a lot better at downing the food here! I am really probably making it sound terrible, which sometimes it is, and sometimes it is pretty good! Just about every night we buy Pupusas for dinner, we can buy 3 for one dollar, which is a sweet deal! I like them, they aren't exactly healthy, but they taste good! I attached some pics of pupusas, we usually drench them in salsa and you eat them with your hands! You just rip a piece off and eat it, which actually is really hard because they are so stinkin hot after they have been on the grill! So far I have only had 28 pupusas (yes I am keeping score, all the gringos are doing it), some of the elders that came in to the country at the same time as me are already in the 40s, so I really haven't eaten too many in comparison! Some missionaries get up to 1,000 or 2,000 by the end of the mission, which is nuts!! Anyways, we will see what happens! We only eat the pupusas with bean and cheese, because the others with port and stuff really do damage to the gringos! The rules here are so strict with what we can and cant eat, its good but its tough. We cant eat fish, anything from a pig, no pupusas with meat, no Coca Cola or Pepsi, no cabbage and no strawberries! Sometimes its tough because we have to reject food from people (its especially tough when the person is poor because they don't have much), and in the MTC I heard that theres a lot of fish here, but when we got here they said we cant eat it! Theres one situation in which you can drink a Coca Cola, and that is if you get parasites, which I don't want... but if I do get some parasites, I will be more than happy to drink a Coca Cola!

So this past week we have been teaching a few new people, the people are really great, but it is tough teaching people who are Catholic or Evangelico, because they really try and teach us when we are trying to teach them. We did find a cool family the other day and we taught them once, and I fell like it is promising with them! So we will be working with them and a few other people pretty hard this week!

So I realized I haven't really sent many pictures home that I am actually in, so I will try and take more photos in the coming weeks for you! Attached here I put a couple pictures of the pupusas and my legit cases for my scriptures and my hymnbook! So that stuff is cool, after the mission I want to try and make some pupusas because they really are pretty good!




So this last Wednesday we went to San Salvador to do some immigration stuff for me, which was cool. And I ate a cheeseburger at Wendy's which was heavenly! And this coming up Wednesday we have to go to San Salv again for some meeting, so that will be interesting! When we go to the capital we take these buses that are actually really nice and have movies and music (its all in Spanish so I cant understand it anyways). so yep!

So people are asking what things I would like to get in a package. Well its tough to say really! I really don't know, really anything that's cool snacky food, I don't know. There's really nothing that I really really need right now. If something comes to mind later on I will let you know.

So Dad mentioned stuff about a war that was going on here in the 1980s, and a bunch of crazy stuff. I really don't hear much about that stuff, really the big thing is the gangs, which aren't really even too bad. As long as you mind your own business you will be fine. It's actually a rule that we CAN NOT teach anyone who is part of or ever was part of MS13 without special permission from the mission president. Really the most that the gang people do is "ay, gringo, de me una cora!" ) give me a quarter. And that really never turns hostile or dangerous in any way, if they don't leave us alone, we just have to throw them a quarter and they leave. So honestly, no big deal. We are always safe here! I have had probably 4 or 5 people ask me for a quarter, but I never give them one, we just say sorry and move along. So yeah!

Well it is super exciting that Chris is headed of to school this week, as well as Jenni! They are going to have great experiences! And its too bad that Jesse hurt his ankle and cant do tennis for this moment. Kind of a bummer, but you will heal up soon dude!

Well sounds like all is well back at home, It has been great hearing from you as always. I hope you all have a great week! :) I love you.

Love, Elder Vaughan!

No Water, Being Tall & Thunderstorms

Hola!

Well another p-day is here already! Well not too much has happened other than the usual. The first of the week was really dumb because there was no water in our house and so we had to shower out of a bucket and dump buckets of water down the toilet to flush. It was no bueno, about 3 days without water. But now we have water, so all is good! I got to shower this morning which was great! Although there is only cold water, that is just a fact of life I will have to learn to get used to!

So the food is getting a little better, well no it isn't, I think my stomach is getting a little more steel plated! I still don't like the food too much! But every once in awhile there is something good that is really satisfying! I will come to get used to this food over time! Well our house is cool, it has enough room for about 6 missionaries, but it is only us two in there because President Glazier likes having only two missionaries in each house!

So the work here is pretty tough, lots of walking and getting rejected, but whatever, it is what it is! So we have set three baptism dates for the 25th of this month for Franklin, Ceci, and Maybelline. So we will all be working hard to follow through on that baptism date!! This week we also have gotten lots of referrals and we will be doing lots of contacting and many first lessons and hopefully some great new people to teach. So last night we were at the house of Delmi, an investigator, and we were following up to see if she had prayed about the Book of Mormon and all of that good stuff, she said that she recieved an answer to her prayer and she said that she needed to stay in the Catholic church, which is totally a bummer! She was a strong person and after many lessons she just pulls the Catholic card. It stinks. But no worries! We will go out and find many more great people!

So, Elder Tenecora is the District Leader and he had to go to San Salvador for a leadership meeting, so I stayed behind and went working with two other elders, one Elder from Colombia and another Elder Panama. It's really cool working with these guys from all sorts of different countries! Although I miss speaking English with gringos! And dang I feel so tall here in Central America. Back at home I was not really tall, but not short either, just an average height you know. But here I am HUGE! I'm always hitting my head on things and being taller than people! Its strange, but funny!

So Last night we taught a first lesson to a guy named Thomas, he has a tiny sewing shop in his home with his son. And it went really well, and we hope that we will be able to make some progress with him! I am definitely getting better at understanding Spanish, which was honestly a big challenge at first, but not so bad now! The gift of tongues really is something real, and it really has helped me communicate with people! I can almost always get my points and thought across in one way or another to people, with the exception of a few times when I am trying to tell my companion something cool or funny, I cant really get it across to him, and that is sometimes frustrating, but that will also improve over time! When we have meetings with the other missionaries it is always so good to speak English with them! I really do think its better to be set with a Latino because he speaks no English and it really helps even though it is the hard way to do it!

So this past weekend was the District Conference for all of the branches in San Vicente, and President Glazier and his wife were there for the meetings on Saturday and Sunday. It was cool to see them because they are always enthusiastic and they give good talks at meetings which is great! Our branch is called "The Espiga", I have no clue what that means, but we have a nice new church building in town and everyone here knows about it! Which in that building is where we do the emails on Mondays, in the family history room. And this church building is really nice and I love coming to it because it has got to be the nicest building in all the city!

So here we have whats called a Super Selectos, which is a grocery store and we can get stuff like fruit, cereal, milk, deodorant and all that good stuff. So really we have access to some good stuff here. So here along with the buses to get around, we have "pickups" which are literally pickup trucks with large beds and rails you can hold on to and they will take you around town for a quarter, and sometimes they cram 20 people on them, as they are really long bed pickups. And we take those sometimes and they are really fun actually, and we talk to people as missionaries do here and its really cool!

As far as weather goes it has been really cloudy, which is a nice break from the heat, and just about everyday it rained and rained like crazy! and every night there are these crazy thunderstorms. So it is really legit! I love the rain, but its annoying when were walking and tracting and stuff.

Well, I feel like I am forgetting a thousand and one things to say. If I remember them I will write it down and share them next Monday! Well it sounds like things are really great and busy at home! I miss you all a lot and I can't wait to hear from you all again next week!

Love,

Elder Vaughan

San Vicente, Nacho Libre Buses & No Salad

Hola!

Well I am here! First things first, my trainer is Elder Tenecora, he if from Ecuador. It is just the two of us living in our house! So that really forces me to speak all Spanish, this is actually tough typing in English because I have always been thinking in Spanish. Anyways, I am in the city of San Vicente, about an hour away from San Salvador! Well I guess I´ll start the story from the moment I left Guat.





So we got on a bus, then drove to San Salvador, nothing special, just a bus that the church hired to take us, no chickens or goats or anything. About three hours later we arrived in San Salvador to the house of President Glazier. Nothing cool happened on the drive there, sorry to disappoint! And that was Monday. We spent all of Monday and Tuesday at the Presidents house which is really nice, just for some beginning training stuff. On Tuesday we got to go to the temple which was sweet! It has got to be one of my favorite temples!! It was a really cool experience. While we were in San Salvador me and two other gringo missionaries stayed in a house about 4 miles away from the president´s house and the house doubled as a clinic of some lady, so I slept for two nights in a sketchy clinic! That was cool.




So, on Wednesday we had the exchange meeting where I found out who my new companion would be! And from there we walked out of the chapel with all of my luggage and we waved down a taxi who took us to a bus station about 5 minutes awyay, and the taxi rides are nuts, everyone drives like they're on a NASCAR track, no me gusta. Well when we got to the gas station it was insane, tons of buses and people all yelling and we had to find our way to a bus going to San Vivcente! Well no chickens on this bus either, but all the buses either look like Nacho Libre´s orphanage got ahold of them and painted them or Xzibit took them on MTV and Pimped their rides! We got a Nacho Libre bus, nothing special to report for the bus ride! Well the bus dropped us of in the centeer of San Vicente and we walked about a half mile to our home and began to work!







Well, the work is tough, it is so hot here and we do so much walking. We were supposed to have a baptism on Saturday but the kid disappeared off the face of the earth, so we will see what happens with that! Right now we are teaching a few investigators and lots of recent converts! It is going pretty well. It is so hard to understand what people say, but when it comes to me saying whatever it is that I want to say, no problem! Well I think by the end of this month we should have one or two baptisms.

Well, the food. Sometimes amazing, and sometimes as I am eating it I feel like throwing up. It just depends. Sometimes I just have no clue what I am eating, yuck. And sometimes its fairly good, and sometimes it is super delicious! We have a lady across the street that cooks our breakfasts and lunches, the breakfasts are the hardest to down, one day I literally felt like puking, I dont even know what it was!

Well as far as the place it is pretty poor, most of the houses have metal roofs and everynight it rains in the winter (yes it is winter)and we have seen some pretty sweet thunderstorms, because everytime it rains, it thunders! Me gusta. So there have been a few times when we are in a sketchy neighborhood and I feel like we need to leave (MS13, drunks, or whatever reason(seriously dont worry about this stuff, the missionaries have never had problems really with gangsters!)) I can feel those promptings that we need to leave, and well we do that! I know that we are protected from dangers, and all will be well! The biggest danger is me not being able to hold a meal down because I dont know what I am eating! Which I have been successful so far! The food is tough because it is so greasy and quite honestly not healthy, so I take my vitamins everyday for that reason. Everyday I just ask myself ¿how come we can't ever have like a salad?

Well, I am super tired and I have a lot to do! It is really nice hearing from you all as usual, sounds like all is great! I miss and Love you all!

Love Elder Vaughan!

Pictures from Guatemala MTC

Depart Guatemala Monday, No Temple Windows & Companions

Well Monday is the day I am out of here, the bus leaves at 7:00 and should take about 3 or 4 hours to arrive in San Salvador! I am so excited to be there! I am sick of this place! In my exit interview with Dr. Drake (The head medical missionary for Central America) he said "Unfortunately you will have to say goodbye to the delicious cooking here as you leave...wait, you're going to El Salvador right? OK, never mind, the food is just as good there, no worries!" So yeah, I should be good in terms of food! He also said he loves it when the missionaries get sick there because he loves seeing the most beautiful country in central America and the best temple in the world (He doesn't like that they get sick, he just likes that he gets to go there!)

So on Monday we had our morning where we go out knocking doors and contacting people in the street, which was really good. We got 3 contacts of people who were enthusiastic to learn more and the last lady we talked to invited us in and 3 minutes into our conversation she admitted that she was a member, so that was really funny and cool! I hope that when I get to El Salvador I will be able to send some pictures home, as here they don't let us plug in cameras or send SD cards in the mail, so we will see.

Ummm, I don't really know what else there is to report, just been learning more Spanish and junk, to the point where I feel like everything is repetitious, I am ready to get out of here. So Tuesday we went to the temple again, and the whole session was in Spanish, very cool seeing things in a different language, as not everything can be directly translated sometimes you take different meanings from what you hear, it's pretty cool. Lots of people here love this temple, but I think its kinda boring because there's not a single window, well it's a temple though and I still like it a lot, don't get me wrong. I just prefer windows on them!

I feel like I don't have much else to say in this email, next week will be easier to write an email, I don't know when I will for sure, but I will sometime! I am also ready for a new companion. At times it is really tough because my companion and I never agree on what we should teach or do, it can be frustrating. In Provo when I was with Elder Jorgensen we got along great, of course we all had different interests, as he could do 90 push ups in 2 minutes and I cant even remember the last time I did ONE! But we always got along, had fun, and were easy to fix problems, anyways! There will always be tough companions I will have to deal with, that's just all a part of this experience. I just can't wait to get that companion that we get along like best buds and everything is great! Kinda like when Chris was with Elder Willis (I think... wasn't he one of your fav´s Chris?) Anyways. There will be good ones and there will be hard ones, I have already in 9 weeks experienced both! Anyways! It sounds like all is busy and great as usual, maybe a bit more busy! I love hearing from you all! I love you all!!

Love,

Elder Vaughan

Motab, Very Large Beetles & a Temple Blackout

Hola! Well I cant believe another week is in the books! Umm, one more week left and then I go to Salvador on Monday the 30th or something, last week I said it was Tuesday, just kidding I am leaving on a Monday, and I don't know anything else about my travel plans other than were taking a bus and it'll take a few hours!

Things here at the Guatemala MTC are so unorganized compared to the way things were in Provo, I secretly love it! Well just a while ago I was outside playing some futbol again and across the street some party was happening and there was a live mariachi style band with blazing trumpets, booming drums and loud bass, it was legit. Some missionaries were poops and saying "ahhh we cant listen to this, what are we going to do?" Ok that's mean, but I just dealt with it because All Ive heard for the past nearly two months is motab... whenever I try and listen to some Paul Cardall or something good (our teacher put tons of music on the computer in our classroom) people freak out and say "were only allowed to listen to motab!!!" Which is so false. So false. The missionary handbook says music that invites the spirit, which Paul Cardall does! One song the lyrics are all all about Jesus and how he is the worthy lamb, or something to that effect, and just because it isn't a hymn people think we cant listen to it... grrr... anyways, It was nice hearing something other than motab for once!

So the title of my email says "very large beetles", you may be wondering why. Well the reason is yesterday on the futbol court we found a huge rhinoceros beetle and I held it in my hand, it literally filled the whole space of my palm and its shell was hard as rock! Freakiest thing I ever saw or held! And its legs had hooks so the punk cut my hand when I tried to hand him off to someone else! anyways, that was interesting! I always wondered if I would see big bugs here, that definitely answered my question... well it was too big to even be a bug, it was an animal, a critter... eh freaky! Soo I don't think anything else noteworthy has happened this week, oh wait we went to the temple on Tuesday and in the middle of the session the power went out so we did a pitch black temple session, well for half of it. And they used a flashlight to read the words and stuff. It was very interesting!

Oh and this Monday, as in two days from now, we get to go trackting again from 9:00 to 1:00, but this time with no Latino help! Only us gringos on our own. It will be lots of fun this week! An then the Monday after that it is to El Salvador! From what I hear when we get to El Salvador we get to go to the beach and play futbol which will be lots of fun, but I don't know how we got to the beach if San Salvador isn't on the coast. Anyways we will see! Time is up again and I look forward to hearing from you all in the future!! I also acknowledge emails I get from grandparents, I don't have time to reply to them all here, that should change when I get to the field! I love you all, talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Vaughan

Currency Explained, Central Plaza & Soccer

Well this has been an interesting week, and I am sorry if you have been waiting to get an email, they switched our schedule around so sorry if I had you waiting a couple hours longer than normal!

So before I forget, all I know as far as travel plans is I THINK the San Salvador missionaries are leaving on the 30th (Tuesday I think?) which is one day before the other Guatemala peeps, and we will be going by bus, and from what I hear it's only about a 3 hour drive, so no big deal here.

So Tuesday was the big day where we all went to the central markets and Central Plaza and this other park I will talk about in a moment. Well we went to the markets and I didn't get anything because I only changed enough US dollars into Quetsales that I needed for lunch because in a couple weeks I will have no need for the Quetsales, I got 154.60 Q. which is exactly equal to $20, So the park we went to cost 50, the bus 50, and lunch at Wendy's was 49, So I have one Quetsal and some centavos left, so about 20 cents in US standards. I need my money in US dollars since that is what is used in El Salvador!

So first we went to this park that had a huge map of Guatemala (about 200 feet by 200 feet) that has all the mountains and stuff mapped out in 3 dimensions, it was super sweet, other than the fact it only had Guat on the map and not El Salv! I took some pictures of that and I will send them home when I am in the field when I don't have Nazi MTC computers! Then we went in to the center of town and wandered around the plaza and markets for a few hours, it was craziness. Lots of shops selling handmade woven and leather products such as bags, hammocks, mochilas, blankets and so forth. And then there was the food area that had meat, fruits, vegetables and some cooked foods, that was crazy, places would have huge slabs of meat hanging in their shops and they weren't refrigerated (it was blazing hot) and flies were flying everywhere and it smelled sick. After that we all went to Wendy's and had some cheeseburgers which was well, Wendy's.

So Learning Spanish continues here as normal! Oh, another thing, they have so many police here, and we always hear sirens going off and stuff. All the cops have pickup trucks and they fly down the road with their sirens blazing and about 5 or 7 AK47 armed officers standing in the bed of the truck! Every time we hear sirens go by it looks like they're headed off to war, it's really nuts.

Umm This morning I played soccer for a couple hours as it was P-Day, super fun, I scored three goals today, I was kicking trash. The soccer field is concrete and tiny, surrounded by concrete walls, It is so much fun! But I'm all hot and sweaty now, so I am going to shower now and go get some minutes!

Well Time is up for today! It is great hearing all is well at home!! I love you all so much!

I'll talk to you all next week!

Love,

Elder Vaughan