El Salvador del Mundo, Zone Conference & a Department Store

Hello,

Once again it is p-day, Seriously, each week only feels like a couple of days to me, and I find it hard to come up with stuff to say.

OK, so this week was pretty cool. We had a multi zone conference. Our zone picture is attached here, but my comp was photo shopped out for pulling a goofy face in it. What a spaz. The conference was really good and motivational.

This week we are really hoping for a baptism with one lady who we have been teaching, and we have a couple more that are likely to be baptized next month. Sometimes I feel like I don't have many baptisms because I had bad luck in the office and some other areas I have had have been dead, and super hard to find people to teach in. But here in San Miguel things are really starting to pick up. We are slowly becoming the better area in our district, which is exciting since the past three weeks were really slow and all. But now we are on the rise, finding more and more people to teach.

 Also attached are some pictures from San Salvador a couple weeks ago. I had trouble sending them last week and the previous week as well. We are at "El Salvador del Mundo", the central plaza in the nice part of the capital. Hopefully these pictures load up alright, the net is kinda sluggish now.

That's about all there is for now. We only have 30 minutes to email now, they cut us down on our time for some weird reason.

Thanks for the money, I got a new suit and some new shoes, with some money left to spare. Walking into that department store felt like walking into a little piece of the United States. It was cool. Soon enough I will be back. But there are still many things to be done here!

I hope that you all have a great week. until next time.

Love, Elder Vaughan

Suit Shopping, Mucho Sisters & Imagine Dragons

Hello once again!

It sounds to me like things are going great. Lots of exciting stuff going on.

Thanks Mom for the Western Union help, everything turned out okay, and in a couple hours here we are going to go look at suits! I will take good care of this one so I can look like a sir when I come home.

Umm.. That's so cool that Ali Kelly is coming to this mission, that would be cool to see here when she gets here (and when I leave haha). There is a large number of sister missionaries in this mission now. When I first arrived in 2012, there were only about 8 sisters and 150 elders. Now there is probably about 50 sisters and 200 or more elders. There are so many missionaries for such a small country. about half of the wards and branches are divided between two companionship's, like ours is here. It is crazy having three missions in this country with more than 200 missionaries in each one, it is nearly impossible to not meet a missionary here. That is probably what it is like in many parts of the world these days.

Good job Dad on the elections. Its funny that you were challenged by another republican dude that has similar values as you do. Here in El Salvador, the Presidential elections are coming to an end. There are three main political parties in control the Republicans (

ARENA and Unidad are the party names) and the Socialist/Comunist party, FMLN. The sad thing is that ARENA and Unidad are both republicans, but they hate each other, allowing the communists to take control. If only the republicans could get along and get a hold on things. Its so sad seeing people resort to extreme socialism as a solution to problems. Poor people here in this country strongly despise the rich people, as if they were evil people. And honestly, in this country to make a lot of money, you have to be a flippin' genius, making money is hard work here. Half the Salvadoran population lives on an $8 a day salary. That includes housing, food, clothing, transport and all other costs. Sad.

Well, it sounds like business is getting better as usual. Nice work. We all know that that is not just good luck, that is skill.

Random side note, have you heard of a band called Imagine Dragons? Supposedly they are super popular now. I was in the MTC with the lead singers little brother both in Provo and in Guatemala, we just didn't realize how famous his brother was because the band wasn't big at that time.

Anyway. That's about all I have time for now. Maybe next week I will share more details about the missionary work in our area. All else is well. I love you and have a great week!

Love Elder Vaughan

Lamanite Tribute, Sick Companion & Great Ward Mission Leader

Wow, I just have to say that the warehouse is pretty huge, I didn't realize that you had done so much stuff there in such short time... well I guess that I have been gone a while. It is so good to see all the progress that is going on there in these days. It is good to see that the business is prospering. Speaking of business, I was reading Mosiah 18, when the lamanites are controlling the people of Limhi and what not. The Lamanites put a 50% tax or "tribute" on the people of all the things they owned and gained. That "tribute" is still here in El Salvador. The gangsters go to all of the businesses and charge them an obligatory tax between 20 and 50%, and if you don't pay it you can be hurt or killed by the bad dudes. It's crazy. Even like the Burger Kings pay this tribute to the gangs because they have such control over the people here. its sad.

Well, that was random. This week has been alright, Elder Wyatt was sick this week, so it was hard to work when he needed a baño every 15 minutes. He is much better now so that we can get stuff done this week.

Right now we are just focusing on getting more investigators to teach. That is going great and our new ward mission leader is a great help to us here. Hes a sweet dude. He owns a huge cosmetics school with about 400 students and he makes bank. 

Well I don't have much time right now because we only have half an hour today to write.

I love you. Have a fantastic week!

Love, 

Elder Vaughan

Gavidia Ward, Rescue Trio & Metallica

Hello Mom and Dad,

I am not sure what email addresses you are currently using since you changed the company one, so I am sending this to all of them, hopefully you get this. 

I have been getting your letters, even though they were sent to the other mission office, I know the guys there and they are nice enough to send the stuff back to my mission office. Just so we are clear I am in the El Salv San Salv EAST mission, but I am sure you have that figured out by now!

The last letter I got from you was the one mentioning that you were expecting a container from China with product. I hope that all went well with that, and that you will be able to continue that in the future. I am kind of curious as to how the warehouse has changed since I have been gone! Could you maybe send me some pictures of it? I would be interested to see that.

So as of me I am still here in San Miguel, the place that is as hot as hell, right. Still with Elder Wyatt from Logan Utah. We are pretty much kicking butt here. When I got here the area was for the most part dead, in terms of investigators, none were progressing, and in terms of members, they did nothing. The ward we are in is called Gavidia. It has the lowest church attendance in pretty much the whole oriental part of the country, for a ward that is. On average 80 people attend a week on Sunday.

We share this ward with a trio of sister missionaries who are specifically assigned to the "rescue" of the inactive members. Although the sisters are still missionaries and teach the investigators they have along with the references people give them, their main focus is on teaching and reactivating the inactive members. So Elder Wyatt and I can now focus our all on investigators!

Lately we have found some really great investigators here by our own efforts (since members don't help too much). The other day we were teaching William, an 18 year old kid who in super big and buff, and loves  Metallica and what not. His mom was there asking us if Metallica was bad and the two of them pretty much broke out in argument between each other about it. We settled it for them by suggesting that he buy some head phones so that she doesn't have to put up with his music. On Friday, William introduced us to a friend of his who we started talking to and has obviously been prepared by God to receive the gospel. He was pretty much quoting the Book of Mormon even though he has never read it before. He's a cool guy.

We also know another friend of William, who's name is Bani, he used to be a crack dealer in LA and got deported for it, he is actually a really cool guy because he gives us more referrals than the members in this ward do. He's a cool dude.

So... I think that is all I had to say for now... yeah. I am probably forgetting something here... oh well... there's always another pday! I am pretty close to the end of the mission now, this is my 12th change, only 4 more to go after this!

Well I hope that you all have a great week, I love you!

Love Elder Vaughan

Flor de Jamaica, Logan Preemie & Thrift Shop

Dear Vaughan Family,

How are you all doing? I'm sure it's the usual answers such as "great" or "busy", those are great attributes for a family! I imagine that business is good. I really like the new company name, it makes you all sound like such sirs.

So P-Day was awesome. The Zone Leaders surprised us with a Disney movie, "Tangled" because we are an awesome zone, seriously. It was cool to see a movie besides all the church ones. We then played soccer for a bit.

After those fun activities we went to "Burrito Mexican Grill," the only Ameri-Mexi restaurant I have experienced in this country. I also ordered a strawberry lemonade, also the only straw-lemon I have had in a long time, seriously. It's been too long. Mom, please make me a straw-Lemon, I would appreciate it, I love you! I'll have to make you all some juices that we drink here, my personal favorite is called "Flor de Jamaica" which means flower of Jamaica. It's a red flower that you boil in water, add sugar and serve cold. It's awesome, you don't even know!

You want to know something cool? When Chris was sending me those blog entries last year around the start of the school year, he sad, "I met a lot of awesome freshmen, mostly 'premies'," and later said, "I went to 'The Taste of Logan' with a carload of buddies." Well, the cool thing is that my companion, Elder Geoffry Lincoln Wyatt was one of those preemies that was in the carload of buddies. Crazy right? Do you remember that guy, Chris? Tall, short hair, slight receding hairline? Ring any bells? Well, even if you don't remember him he kinda remembers you. Flippin nuts. Small world bro.

Well, things are going well here, the work keeps moving on. I really feel like I have learned a ton of new skills and stuff. Things that'll for sure increase the awesomeness of my life! I am so ready to kick butt when I get home.

Oh random. So there's supposedly a new song called "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore, some vulgar singer. And the song came on in the Mexican restaurant and we coulding stop laughing at the fact that the song swears a ton and was being played in a public place with children and stuff. Hilarious because only us Gringos understood it. You would never hear music like that in a family restaurant in the U.S. I still have that song stuck in my head, it's so dang catchy with the funky-sounding sax part.

Well, that's life. Imma hit the hay! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Joshua Vaughan

P.S.: I bought a machete today to cut our grass. It's awesome!

Challenge Met, Kick-Butt Spanish & Independence Day

Dear Mom and Dad,

Another week in San Miguel is done! The sun is blazing and time sure is flying by! This week was great! Our zone leaders challenged us to place five new baptismal dates with investigators, we got nine new ones, making 10 total potential baptisms within the next 2 months! We're excited for these next few months. We have some investigators who are really having to repent of big things, it is cool being a part of that. I like where I am at in my mission, I can teach with the spirit in the lessons, I kick butt at Spanish and we're kicking butt in missionary work. Not trying to brag, but my Spanish is better than most of the other Gringos here. Okay, I'm bragging, so deal with it ;). Don't worry, I'm usually humble, I just thought you'd be proud of my progress.

So yesterday was Independence Day here again. It's always Sept. 15th in most of Central America. People hardly went to church since there were a bunch of parades and stuff to celebrate the day's festivities.

I like this area, the people are so nice and give us a ton of good food to eat. We get well treated here! One of the things I need to improve on as a missionary is working out, exercising. Don't worry, I'm not fat. But my Papusa-Pack has grown a bit. I'll work on that one, okay? Well, I hope all is well in Gringolandia. I love you a ton, let me know how you are all doing, okay? Until next time.

Love,

Elder Vaughan

Transferred to San Miguel, Comp From Logan & Fire and Brimstone

Hello Family,

How have you been? So right now I am in a new area! On the fourth of this month I was transferred from La Palma to San Miguel. San Miguel is the second biggest city in El Salv, it is really ghetto and all. Oh, and it's hot as hell, literally. That way it's not a swear word because it is a literal comparison to the place called Hell. But really, people say it's the hottest city in Central America, tied with Panama City. In the first couple few days in San Miguel I drank 2 liters of water a day, no joke, my pee still would come out like applesausce. That is how much we sweat here! Another hellish feature is the dirt/rock roads, most of our area is dirty, rocky roads. The funny thing is most of the roads consist of black volcanic rock/sand that is so hot you can feel it through the shoes. So with the fiery sun and the black lava rock gives San Miguel that hellish "Fire and Brimstone" feel.

By the way, I am with Elder Wyatt from Logan, Utah. He is fresh out of his traning. Actually, he is the D.L. now, so I have the honor of teaching him how to be a good District Leader, when I have zero experience doing that. It's hard also because his Spanish isn't too good. It is so hard working with a comp whose Spanish isn't too great. Fun.

So, right now in my mission I feel like I am at the best part, where I am more than halfway done and I have many experiences that make everything easier. I feel like I have really gotten way better at teaching lessons with the Spirit. That has been hard, but I realized now that it is way more natural to teach with the Spirit. It's great!

It may be a while until I get your mail since San Miguel is really far from the mission office. Thanks for all of your help! :) I love you.

Love, Elder Vaughan