Letter About Volcano

Letter received from Sister Glazier this evening... Josh has been serving in San Miguel. We are grateful to know he and the other missionaries are safe.

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Espanol abajo…

Dear Parents,

No need for alarm, but many of you will have heard about the eruption of the San Miguel volcano today.  All of our missionaries are accounted for and safe. We have evacuated San Miguel, Usulutan, and San Vicente to the capital for safety. All are well and safe. We felt the hand of the Lord in all that occurred today. The President felt that he should attend church in a city near the volcano. We saw it explode. We were able to reach San Miguel so quickly.  All of the missionaries (54 of them) we were able to contact. (that is a miracle alone, because only 3 have cell phones, but because it was during church, we reached them all.) Our missionaries in Berlin (who were very close to the volcano) just “happened” to have the counselor in the mission presidency visiting. He had them in his car and on the way to San Salvador in a matter of 10 minutes. It was all such a miracle.

We are so thankful for your continued prayers. Please pray for the saints who remain in those affected areas. Pray that the missionary work will be blessed because of this disaster—that hearts will be softened and opened.

We are so thankful for you faithful sons and daughters. They were courageous, uncomplaining, and very obedient today. We are so grateful for their wonderful examples.  They will all be writing you tomorrow of their adventures, but we wanted you all to know that they are safe and well and that God has truly blessed our mission this day, so that you, too, could offer Him a prayer of thanksgiving. How blessed we are! He is so magnificent. We are so grateful. God bless all of you.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Glazier

Queridos padres de nuestros misioneros,

No queremos preocuparles, pero muchos de ustedes ya han oído de la erupción del volcán de San Miguel hoy. Todos nuestros misioneros están bien. Hemos evacuado a las zonas de San Miguel, Usulután y San Vicente a la capital para su proteccion. Todos están bien y seguros. Hemos visto la mano del Señor en todo lo que ocurrió hoy. El Presidente sintió que debía asistir a la iglesia en una ciudad cerca del volcán. Lo vimos explotar. Pudimos llegar a San Miguel con tanta rapidez. Pudimos contactar a todos los misioneros (54 de ellos) en el área de peligro. Esto era un milagro, porque sólo 3 tienen teléfonos celulares. Pero, porque ocurrió durante la iglesia, pudimos hablar con todos. Fue otro “milagro” que el consejero de la presidencia de la misión estaba visitando nuestros misioneros en Berlín (que son muy cerca del volcán. El los puso en su coche y evacuaron a San Salvador, en cuestión de 10 minutos. En todo hoy, fuimos bendecidos.

Estamos muy agradecidos por sus oraciones . Por favor oren por los santos que permanecen en las zonas afectadas. Oremos para que el trabajo misional también será bendecido por este desastre - que los corazones serán ablandados y más escucharán al mensaje.

Estamos muy agradecidos por sus hijos e hijas fieles. Hoy fueron valientes, sin quejarse, y muy obediente hoy. Estamos muy agradecidos por sus maravillosos ejemplos. Todas ellas estarán escribiéndoles mañana de sus aventuras, pero queríamos que todos ustedes sepan que están seguros y sanos y que Dios ha bendecido verdaderamente nuestra misión el día de hoy. Ustedes quizás querrán también, ofrecer una oración de gracias. Cuán bendecidos somos! Dios es tan misericordioso y nos ha bendecido mucho hoy. Estamos muy agradecidos. Dios les bendiga a todos ustedes.

Con mucho cariño,

Presidente y la hermana Glazier

Trio No Mas, Working Hard & Psyched for Skype

Hello again!

Well this week was very interesting and disappointing at the same time. On Tuesday we went to President Glazier`s house for the Christmas celebration thing. That was really fun and all. Kind of redundant compared to last year`s celebration activities, just a bunch of deja vu and all that. When we got back on the bus to head back to San Miguel, President told Elder Caballero (our third comp) that he is getting changed, I don't know why. But I don`t care because now it is just me and Elder Wyatt in a duo again. That`s how it should be. I don`t know if you (Dad or Chris) ever had trios in the mission, but they are annoying. I hate them.

So this week was really lame. We worked really super hard. Harder than ever, and nothing happened. One of the more discouraging weeks of my mission. It makes us question ourselves if we are doing things right or not, which we are. It is just easy to doubt and be discouraged.

Part of the discouragement is that our investigators always move or disappear or other things like that! In the past 2 weeks two of our great investigators have moved to the states without warning. Hopefully some lucky Elders find them there.

The other annoying thing is how people like to reject us. I usually don`t get too bothered by being rejected, but this week was just not cool, an unusually large amount of people rejected us and it is annoying. But whatever. What matters is that we are working as hard as we can, doing everything that we know we should do, and things will eventually work out.

So the Skype call. We want to call on the 25th, but we are not positive. This week we are going to secure a location where we can call , since on the 25th the whole country will be on a nationwide hangover of epic proportions. So we may have to call on the 24th. We will see. Just be on standby on those two days. I will let you know on Monday to verify everything.

Well that is about all I have for today. Sorry my life tends to be very uninteresting, but that's the way it seems to be. I cant wait to call you all next week!

Love Elder Vaughan

Christmas Time is Near, Fireworks are Here & No Snow

Hello!

How are you all doing? This has been an interesting week here, I don`t know where to start... People here are starting to gear up for Christmas time. Although Christmas here is not even close to Christmas back home. People here celebrate with lots and lots of fireworks! More than anything this Christmas season makes me really miss Independence Day!

Yesterday we went to the Christmas devotional, that was really nice. At first I was upset that I had to see it in Spanish, then I realized that I speak Spanish, so who cares. It was really nice.

So if it snows there, be sure to send me lots of pictures, to remember what it is like. Several years ago it snowed here in El Salvador, only at the tip of the highest mountain here, really a once in an eternity experience. So there is no hope here for that.

So Yesterday I got slightly mad at the youth, we had an investigator, Kevin, in the young men's class, and the teacher asked Kevin when he was going to be baptized, and he mentioned that "he was baptized last year in another church" all the young men burst out in laughter at him. Here we have Sacrament meeting after the two other classes, so Kevin didn't even stick around for the Sacrament, I hope he didn't feel too embarrassed. Me and my comps had to "machete" the youth a little bit, or lovingly correct their actions. It is always remember to important to behave in church so that outsiders don't feel like.. outsiders!

Well that is about all that I have for now. I am sending out some mail today for you family, hopefully you get it soon. I am so excited for tomorrow because it is the Christmas party with President Glazier in his house, so tomorrow we will be waking up super early so we can be there at 8AM sharp! I am excited.

I am missing you all this Christmas season already, We are still working on finding where we will be doing the Skype call, so I will let you know the time and date, most likely on the 25th. I cant wait!

Here are some pictures...

The one is with E. Caballero, Wyatt and me with our ward mission leader and his son Chele who just left on the mission in Ecuador.

The others are of us messing around on a Nacho Libre bike. Coolest bike ever.

Love Elder Vaughan

Thanksgiving, No Changes & a Buff Kickboxing Companion

Hello World!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving week! Not much really happened here at all, I don't even think I realized that Thursday was Thanksgiving! But this week went very well!

You may be wondering if I got changed or not. I didn't get changed, but there were some changes here. First off I was in the zone San Miguel, I am still in the same area, they just divided our zone, which is now called Rio Grande. This was the biggest zone in the mission, it included three departments San Miguel, Morazán and La Unión. So the zone was divided to accommodate so many missionaries here. It's pretty cool. There are seriously so many missionaries here now I don`t even know a fourth of them!

I am still here with Elder Wyatt, for our third consecutive change together, except this time we are in a trio with Elder Caballero from Argentina. Caballero means "Knight" or "Gentleman" Its kind of a funny name. He is a cool, guy. Definitely the buffest companion I have ever had, he did kickboxing before the mission, so he is buff.

Umm.. So we are still sharing the ward here with a couple of sister missionaries and things are slowly picking up. This week was tough because it was the gran Carnaval de San Miguel. It is basically the biggest party in Central America, comparable to the parties in Rio de Jainero Brazil. So everyone was out partying over the weekend, so things were slowed down a bit.

Oh, it has also been so cold here lately. These are the coldest weeks before the Summer starts. In the morning it gets down to 74 degrees, SO FLIPPIN COLD!!!!! It makes showering a nightmare in the mornings.

Well... I think that is all I have for right now. I am excited to get stuff done this change here, we have a solid 6 investigators who will potentially be baptized in the next 2 or 3 months here. Hopefully I won't be changed out of here before the baptisms right?

I hope that you are all handling the Cyber Monday orders alright, sell lots of junk! Have a good one!

Love Elder Vaughan

Early Thanksgiving Dinner, Potential Changes & Sister Missionary Assist

Hello family,

Well this week was pretty good. Things are really starting to pick up. We are really focusing on getting baptismal dates with our investigators to help them progress to the ultimate goal, you know. We have a lot of hope for December baptisms.

One of our investigators convinced us that this past Thursday was Thanksgiving so he made a huge turkey and all for us. So, surprisingly enough, we did have a Thanksgiving dinner even though it was a week early. It's really cool how some investigators can be so generous when we just met them this same week!

So this week is changes week, I really don`t know what to expect right now. I could be changed to a new area (which I would not like) or I could stay here (which I would really like). So we will see soon what is to happen with us here.

The sister missionaries that we share this ward with just had a baptism for a couple that Elder Wyatt and I found a while ago. They went through a lot for them to be able to be baptized and all. Lots of setbacks with a wedding paperwork and other things. It was super spiritual at their baptism. Great experience. 

Umm... well that is about all I have for this week to share!

I hope that you had a great birthday Mom! How old are you now? I ask because I always forget, people ask a lot and I really dont know what to tell them haha. I want to say 44 or something but I am not so sure. haha

Also I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving, have a great week. and good luck on Cyber Monday!

Love Elder Vaughan

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