Living on the Edge of a Volcano, President's Birthday & Chinese Food

Hello World!

So another week has passed by yet again, the weeks just don´t stop flying! I feel like I only have a couple weeks left to finish learning all of the stuff that I have to do here in the office. Here I attached some photos from last week. One is with Elder Cifuentes who was in the hospital with some kidney issues. He will be the new records secretary here, but not to worry he is back on his feet and working now!

In the other picture we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch on President Glazier´s birthday. The two elders that are right by president at the table are my two comps, it's actually pretty cool being in a trio here. We always get to go on divisions with the youth getting ready for the mission and we get a ton of stuff done! Anyways, that was by far the best meal I have had since Ruth's Chris Steak House before the mission, not better than RC steaks, but pretty darn good. Speaking of Ruth's Chris steaks there is one here in El Salvador, although I know we will never get to go there, it's cool knowing that there are people who like to eat good food here. This place where the office is, is actually  the rich part of the country and there are so many people driving around in BMW's and all types of sweet cars here. We just go around in a 1980 Toyota taxi, or a bus.

In the other picture we are in the office about to eat some cake with president. Behind the president you can see the remote control for the air conditioning, I love that part of the office. In San Vicente nobody had air conditioning, and it was always a whole lot hotter there as well.

We also have one of the best houses in the mission, there are 2 others that are better than ours. We have a full stove with oven (not just a tiny two burner plug-in stove), a brand new washing machine(we still dry the clothes on a clothes line), a microwave and air conditioning in the bedrooms and the best of all is the hot water in the shower! The hot water here is heated by electricity, you will never see that in the USA because of obvious safety hazards. I have already shocked myself a few times in the shower because the wires are on the shower head and that is where the switch is to turn on the heated water, its weird but funny when I shock myself.

Anyways... this week was just a bunch of work. This week I have been mainly working on making house contracts and calling all the owners and bugging them to get it signed and to us. The work in the area is great. The area in which we work is in San Salvador - Mejicanos - San Ramón, its really odd how cities (municipios) are laid out here. We really live in those three cities at the same time. I don´t understand! But the area is on the north side of San Salvador, pretty much at the edge of the capital by the volcano! Its pretty cool. Next week we are planning on having a baptism of a young man named Elmer, so lets hope that everything comes out okay!

Love Elder Vaughan

Eating Healthy, Hospital for a Day and Stolen Car

Hello,

So this week was seriously one of the most crazy weeks of my mission. So much happens in a week here and the weeks are going by so fast, its just crazy. So lets start with the happy, that is, I ate some real Chinese food two days ago, it was amazing!! So you may or may not be concerned with my unhealthy diet here in the office, but the truth is... pizza hut, china wok and wendy´s is a whole lot healthier than the garbage we would eat every day in San Vicente. The problem with the food in the country is that everybody cooks with a TON of oil, it is just unhealthy. People here always get so sick all of the time just because their diet is terrible! But not to worry, I have recently started working out a little bit lately to try and counter the effects of unhealthy food!

So this is random, but there has been a change of rules here in the mission. That is, we are now allowed to write to our friends and whatever other non family member through email! So yeah, friends can write me through email now if they really want to!

So all  day yesterday I was in the hospital, all day. It was terrible. Ok, you are probably so freaked out right now, I am fine. The thing is another elder who works here in the office has some problems with his kidney, so I was his companion yesterday in the hospital all day long. Not going to lie, it was actually nice not doing anything all day long, I don´t do nothing very often! So this poor Elder Cifuentes has probably the worst luck and the worst day of his life on Wednesday. After being in the office he started feeling sick and started vomiting and all that lovely stuff. So they took a taxi to the house and rested a while. Later on at about 8 PM they decided he needed to go to the hospital since he was just getting worse. So our ward mission leader, Benji, an 18 year old guy came in his mom´s car to pick him up and take him to the hospital. Then they were waiting at a lonely stoplight, when all of the sudden two armed men robbed their car, so they were stuck without a car. and after walking a half hour back to benji´s house they finally took another car that belongs to his father, and finally went to the hospital. That poor elder had the worst of luck that day. But fortunately the police found the stolen car and he is being treated in the hospital as we speak. It was just crazy.

So as far as the new mission goes, we do not know which mission we will be in, and I personally would like to be in the West mission, which is really the central mission here in the capital. If I am in that mission I will be having a new mission president and the possibility of serving in Belize. That would be so cool to serve in Belize!! That´s really the main reason I would love to be in that mission! But, who knows, we will see soon enough. Today is President Glazier´s birthday, so in a couple hours he will be taking us (but I will pay since I´m the money guy here now!) to the best Chinese Restaurant in the whole country! I can´t wait! After that we will be going to a few possible locations in search of the potential new office for the other mission. So yep.

That´s about all I have got to say for now! This has been a crazy but good week. I hope that you all had a great week as well.

Love Elder Vaughan

So Much to Learn, So Much to Do & Speaking Financial Spanish

Hello World!

So this week has definitely been a great week for me! So much has been going on, its really crazy! Firstly, I have a TON of responsibilities as the financial secretary. But firstly, I am now in a trio companionship, let me explain why. Since there will be another mission we will be needing another financial sec, so now Elder Earl (my companion) is training me and Elder Glenn at the same time. So one of us will be in the East mission and the other of us will be in the West mission. So now we are in a trio, which I thought I would not enjoy, but I am actually loving it so much! I still don't know what mission I will be in, but I hear that Belize will be part of the West mission, I don´t know why. If I am going to be in the West mission it is very possible that I could go to Belize for part of my mission, that would be soooooooo awesome! But, we will see what happens in the future!

So like I said before, we hang out with the assistants on P-Day here because they are the only other missionaries that have P-Day on Friday  and now we are in the temple offices using the computers to write home, and there is a sweet view of the temple right outside. It is great. One advantage of being here is that we pass by the temple all the time, and it is just so nice to be able to see it, since I only saw it twice in my whole time in San Vicente.

So about my new job, I have a ton of responsibilities as the Financial Secretary. First off, I have a cell phone. That means that all the missionaries and all our vendors (who sell stuff to the mission) can contact me all day every day. So when I leave the office in the afternoon I am almost always taking phone calls on the buses or even when we are walking in the street. There are just so much things to do. The general tasks include: making house rental contracts, paying contracts and writing the security deposit checks, giving the missionaries their monthly money on their credit cards, paying all the phone-light-water bills for every house in the mission, and making purchases for whatever other expenses or needs there are in the mission. So far after one week I have learned a lot about these things, but Elder Earl tells me that there is so much more to learn. I really like having all of this stuff to do because I like the feeling of getting the stuff done.

So the food, I am no longer eating garbage for lunch every day. I am so happy about that. What we eat most of the time is delivery food that is local style foods or whatever, and when we feel like eating better than that we can call Pizza Hut, Papa John´s, Wendy´s, Subway and much more stuff. And it is all delivery which is interesting. All the food here people just put it on a motorcycle and deliver it to us. I know its not the healthiest food, but dang it is such a great change for once. I decided to start working out more in the mornings to avoid gaining too much weight!

Anyways, This has been a great experience so far. I am loving how I am so busy, time is flying so much faster. Most missionaries dread the thought of being an office missionary, but I love it. There is so much here to learn that will help me in the future, not to mention how much my Spanish skills will grow because I am learning how to talk office-financial Spanish. So, who knows how that will help me in my future!
Well that is about all that I have got to say for now! I am really enjoying this new assignment that I have here! I hope that you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Joshua Vaughan

New Area, New Assignment & a Third El Salvador Mission

Hello!!

Well I bet you weren´t expecting to get an email from me until Monday! So from now on out I will have my P-Day on Fridays, every week from here on out! Like I said the past week, we have had some changes here! I left San Vicente after being there for a good amount of time. My new area is in San Salvador in a "Municipio" called Mejicanos. But wait, there's more! The best part is that I was called to be the financial secretary for the El Salvador San Salvador Mission! This week has been so full of so many surprises and changes in the mission and the country!

The other big change that will be coming, the country of El Salvador will be getting a third mission!! That was new news to us on Wednesday! So here we will have the ES Santa Ana mission, ES SanSalvador West (which now will include Belize...I think) and the ES East Mission. I would explain physically how things would be laid out, but that is complicated, in Church News an article should come up in the next few days about this change! So in June the mission will be divided, and we don´t know who will end up in which mission!

So, more about my new job. I am with Elder Earl who was the previous "Financiero" and he is going to be training me this change how to take over his job. I would like to thank you Mom and Dad for the experience that I have had in the office with you. Yesterday we had to reconcile almost 3,000 dollars worth of reciepts and bills, and it was cake because I already know how that all works! So far this job is perfect for me!! Elder Earl is impressed with how fast I am learning and working. I am so happy and excited to be here, it truly is an honor, I guess. Because out of a mission with 230 missionaries, I was the one picked to take his place! Also, with the mission division coming up, we will need another financiero who will be in one mission, and I will be in the other. As to which mission I will belong, who knows which one I will be in.

So we are in the heart of the city, and I am loving it. It is such a huge change from San Vicente, so many things are different. The best part is that we get to spend the hottest hours of the day in the air-conditioned office, that in itself is a privilege! Also we have lots of great options for food every day such as Chinese food, Papa John´s, Wendys, you know... normal food! It is such a blessing. The office is in a neighborhood called "Escalon" which is pretty much the richest part of the country, I like it! Every morning and afternoon we commute from Mejicanos to the Escalon, it truly is not that far, but in the buses it takes like an hour. We will always have our P-Days with the assistants, so we get to go around with them in their pickup truck which only took us 5 minutes to get here to the office. After we write we will be going to go eat something delicious for lunch and then we will go to Wal Mart to do a little bit of shopping! I have never been so happy for a trip to Wal Mart!!!

So that is whats going on now! Lots of things are going on and I am as happy (and as busy) as ever! This is really such a great responsibility and I am so excited to be taking this on!! We have a never ending pile of work to do here in the office and we have a regular area to do missionary work in and we are held to the same expectations and goals as the rest of the mission. So really I am living a "two job life". But I really couldn't be more excited for this! The best part is I have my own personal office here (where I am right now writing you) and it is about the size of Dad´s part of his office and I have the huge mission safe and all the stuff of the mission. It is a great responsibility and I am so ready to take on this challenge!!

I hope that I will get to hear from you all next Friday! Have a great week!

Love Elder Vaughan

Changes This Week, District Conference & Feeling Prepared

Hello Family!

Well, this Wednesday are the changes. And yes I have changes! I only got to half train Elder Flores, which is really disappointing to me, but no worries, I will have other opportunities to train in the future. So we will see what will happen! Oh yeah, and when someone gets changed in the middle of the 12 week training period, its called an "aborto", yeah, I think you see why! I am actually excited to see where I will be, the fact that I am still in my first area I still feel like a n00b in the mission, so I guess I am ready to move onward to other things and other places!

So this week was pretty interesting, Friday we had a Zone meeting here in San Vicente and the President randomly decided to show up and we learned lots of great things! He went to the Super Selectos (the only grocery store here in town) to buy us all ice cream to eat after the meeting, and while he was there he talked to a man in the store and got a reference and gave it to us because the man lives in my area here. That was just cool because yesterday we found him and are teaching him! It is always really hard to tell in the first lesson if the person will be able to progress or not, but it would be sweet that in the future if he got baptized and all. I guess my comp will find out!

Also this week was the district of San Vicente Conference, that was really cool because it was the most spiritual meeting we have had in a while here in the church and we had several investigators there in the session on Sunday! It was really great! Then we got to introduce our investigators to President Glazier which was cool.

So I have been here for almost 7 months now, I sure have learned a ton since I first got here! I remember the first weeks when I couldn't understand half of the things the people were saying to me, and here I am now being a trainer and teaching someone else how to do stuff here. This time here has for me been a "trial and error" run for me. And by that I have seen from my trainer how to be a good missionary, and from the second companion how to persevere, and now I have had my chance to do things how I want. So now I feel really prepared to do great the rest of my mission!

Well this week sure will be interesting, who knows where I will be. The biggest zone in the country is San Miguel, by that I mean that it has the most missionaries than whatever other zone. Wherever I go, I do not want to go to San Miguel because it is supposedly the hottest area in all of central America... and the worst part is, we are in summer right now. So wish me luck! Well, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Joshua Vaughan

The "Japan of Central America", Tap Water & Cow Guts

Hello World,

Okay, so this week was somewhat interesting to me. Nothing too big or crazy, just interesting. As far as the week went, a fairly normal schedule, only on Friday we were in Ilopango (San Salvador) for a multi zone meeting with the president. It was pretty cool, there are always things I learn that help me improve my work as a missionary and make me more motivated me to do a better job each day! Those meetings happen usually every 2 or 3 months, I'm not exactly sure. 

I actually love going to San Salvador for meetings because I like seeing the city because it is insane. El Salvador is the most densely populated country in all of Central America, it is super tiny and there are just a ton of people here! So for that I like to think of this country as the "Japan of Central America". San Vicente is not that big, and for that it is a calmer place and for that it is much easier to find people to talk to and all that. But in San Salvador the way things are just blows my mind. The houses are all so tiny and so packed together and the streets are crowded with hundreds of buses  Here there are not any of those sound ordinances or pollution guidelines on vehicles, so all the buses are super loud and pollute like crazy. When I was in Ilopango on Friday the sky was grey from all the bus pollution, fortunately its not like that in San Vicente because there is only one bus route and nobody goes anywhere.

So we are still here without any water coming out of the tap. When Chris came home from his mission I remember him being amazed that water actually comes out of the tap every time he opens it. Chris, I can totally relate to that feeling now! About twice a week in the early morning the water comes back, so we always leave the tap to the pila opened so we can have water to bathe with. As far as drinking water, the only Central American country with safe tap water is Panama (because the  gringos who dug the canal also set up the water system in Panama while they were there). So here we aren't supposed to drink the tap water, but I know I have drunken it a million times, its unavoidable, but when it's us in the house, we buy 5 gallon bottles of purified water to drink. Many times the people offer us a "fresco" which is their homemade fruit juices, and that is almost always made with tap water, so whatever. 

So this week we are teaching a great family that is super excited and all. We think that they will be able to be baptized soon enough. The other day we were in a lesson with them and the little girl was told by her mom to go feed the pigs. So the girl got up and brought out a bucket filled with cow guts. Everything from intestines to hearts and kidneys, she had it all. She just spilled all the guts on the ground and the pigs went nuts. It was like one of those things you see when sharks go nuts eating a piece of meat, but these were pigs. Probably the gnarliest thing I have seen in a while. So it turns out that the dad of the family works at the nearby slaughter house, so he gets to take home as many of the cow guts as he wants to feed his animals... interesting. As far as teaching them goes, all is well, they are accepting very well all that we teach and hopefully will follow through with the goal baptism date in march!

So that's about all I've got for now to share with you. I hope that you all continue having a great week.

Love,

Elder Joshua Vaughan

No Water, Pirates & Obedience

Hello World again,

Well this week was pretty good, definitely much better and more eventful than the last! So this week we had planned a baptism for Saturday, so that morning we went to the church to fill the font and there was no water in the church, like, really there was no water anywhere in the whole city because the water company "ANDA" has been doing some hardcore cleaning and maintenance in the water system, so all week we have had no water and we won't have some water for quite some time. In our house we have this thing called a "pila" its just a huge cement box behind the house that we fill with water so we can "shower" when there is no water, its pretty sweet. So with the baptism we had no water to fill the font. All day we were running around talking to all the people we could who could possibly help us find a place or fill the font for the baptism. So with the help of the District Prez (we're too small to be a stake) he made a million phone calls (which here you pay per minute on the phone, phone plans don't exist) to many members and other people he knows to help us find a solution! After about an hour of phone calls we remembered that there is a less active sister who lives 2 blocks away from the church who has a swimming pool! So after all morning and most of the afternoon we finally found the solution!

I would totally send you some pictures of the baptism and stuff, but the computers here in the church have viruses and our branch president is blaming us for using our cameras and USB drives, I really don't believe it since all the members here use this place as their personal cyber cafe to download pirated music, movies, PlayStation games and etc. Here in this country the people live off of pirated media, original copies of movies, music, and games just don`t exist. Its funny. I have explained to people that the church doesn't support pirating, but nobody believes me and it is the only way to obtain media here!

Anyways... Although this week was eventful... nothing else comes to mind that I would like to share with you.... Sorry for being lame. Well, this week should be just as great, we don't have any more baptisms planned this week, but we have some wonderful investigators and families we are teaching. It seems that right now the members are helping us more than ever with the missionary work, and I know that the level of help we receive is directly connected with the level of obedience that we live.

Well that's about all! I am excited to continue working this week! I hope that you are all having a great time as well!

Love Elder Vaughan