Chronic Disease of Inactivity, Giving It All We Got & Cars Are A Luxury

Hello!

Now this week, was pretty average. We are fighting hard against the chronic disease of inactivity in the church. Neither of our recent baptisms showed up to church (Ismael and Miguel). Who knows why, but it is a trend I have seen my whole mission here. People get baptized and they disappear. We are really going to give it our all with our most recent converts so that that same thing doesn't happen to them! That would be the explanation of why there are 500 members in Santa Rosa de Lima, but only 30-50 attend weekly.

By the way, its good to see Lokey is still alive, I was wondering if he was still around, how old it he? I imagined that he would die of old age during my mission. what a trooper!

Also this week are changes, the fact that I just got here means that I probably will not have changes. But my companion will probably be sent to a new area. But, who knows?

Seriously dad? A car for more than half of your mission? Lucky. Was that for leadership positions, or just for having a huge area and having to travel a lot? When I was in the office we traveled in bus daily about 1.5 - 2 hours. We begged and begged for a car, but we never got it because a couple years ago the office secretaries totaled one they had. Two changes after I left the office, President gave the office missionaries a Toyota Hilux pickup. Talk about bad luck huh? That would have been cool.

Well time is up, and I must be going! Have an awesome week family!

Elder Vaughan

PS: Jesse wants me to do a wilderness survival thing with him when I get back, sounds cool. but I don't know If I will be able to because I don't know how my schedule will be.... I don't know haha peace!

Baptism, Faith of a Child & No Pics

Hello again,

Yet again, another week has passed. The highlight would have to be the baptism we had with Ismael, he is a little kid whose father passed away when he was littler, but his grandma has taken him to church and now he was ready to be baptized! Ismael shared his testimony after being baptized, and it was so cool to see such great faith in a little kid. Adults are the stupid ones who doubt, and don't believe in the simple doctrinal principles. I feel like kids have more faith than most other people, and its really cool to see.

For next month we have a couple potential baptisms coming up. Hopefully all goes well with that. 

Sounds cool with all the wall smashing that is going on in the office and warehouse building. In a few years there wont be anymore walls to bust down, you will have to start building new walls. ha ha. Really, that's all I have to report for now. I would send pictures, but I left my camera in the house on accident, oops. Next time I will send you the pictures!

Have an awesome weekend family, until next time.

Elder Vaughan

Baptism, Presidential Elections & Elder Duncan of the Seventy

Hello,

Well this week went well. First off, we had the baptism of Miguel, that was the highlight. The Sunday right after the confirmation, the president interviewed him and ordained him to the priesthood. It is good to see that kind of progress, now it looks like we will have help blessing and passing the sacrament from here on out.

Next week we have another baptism planned for Ismael, a little kid we are teaching. Hes a spaz, but we are equally excited for his baptism. Hopefully all goes well with that. 

Yesterday was the presidential elections of El Salvador. There were three main candidates, two of which are republicans, and one is communist. One republican lost so bad (just like the Denver Broncos) and the other two candidates did just about equally as well. So in March they will do another election to see how things play out with just two candidates. I think this will give the republican a greater chance of winning big time. This country could really use a good president to start fixing the many problems, but whatever, soon none of this will matter to me.

This Saturday, following the baptism of Ismael, we have a big fun activity planned for the branch, in the effort to bring back inactives and to bring in new people. hopefully all goes well!

Also this past week we had a zone conference with Elder Duncan from the 70, it was a great meeting, and a great chance to meet the man in person. When I mentioned where I was from, he knew exactly where Marysville was because he used to live in... Renton I think he said, I dont know. But it was a great meeting, I learned a lot about the importance of setting goals to be able to achieve great things.

Unfortunately, time is about up. I hope you all have a great week, talk to you next time!

Elder Vaughan

Pictures from Paradise, Elder Cook Visits & Good Problems to Have

My time to write is so short right now, because, well it is. All is well. I really wanted to send some pictures, but the slow loading makes it hard to write. 

First picture is me and Elder Wyatt, my previous companion. We visited the house of a member up in Perquin, in the mountains. The mountains behind us are actually part of Honduras.

The next one is of me and Elder Reynolds, his brother is the singer of Imagine Dragons. He is one of the first Elder Friends I have had since the MTC in provolone. 

Next, is me and my current companion, Elder Morales, he is from Ecuador. He is super funny and works real hard and all that.

Then the last one is a shot of the temple from the bus. It is super nice, partly because it is the nicest neighborhood in the whole country, and second of course because it is the temple. Such a pretty place.

We had a multi mission conference in  the temple stake center with Elder Quinten L Cook. It was a great conference. Lots of great things to learn from him. Lots of missionaries I knew before were left in the other mission when the division was made last summer, so it was good to see people I knew from back then.

Enjoy the pictures. The next two Saturdays we have baptisms planned, so hopefully all goes well with that. We are now on the hunt for new people to teach as the current investigators are becoming members, that's such a good problem to have!

Have a sick week in paradise.

Love Elder Vaughan

Drinking Water, Greasy Diet & Busy Sundays

Hello,

First of with the disappointing news, Miguel couldn't get baptized because he had a small issue with coffee, but not to worry, we reprogrammed the baptism and all will go well. We also have a baptism planned for a kid Ismael, for the second Saturday in February. We have some other dates set up for February, hopefully all goes well.

Yeah, it is really hot here, but I just don't care anymore, I try not to pay attention to it, and even if I drink 2 liters of water in the morning my pee still comes out like applesauce. People here have so many problems with their Kidney health. Not just for lack of water, but for the greasy diet too. I hope I can figure out a cheap and tasty way to cook and eat healthy when I go to college. Being here has completely ruined my cooking skills, I don´t even know how to cook healthy anymore.

funny random thing, one of Jenni's home teacher dudes used to be one of my Zone Leaders in San Salvador nearly a year ago. Hes a cool dude. Just a funny small world moment realization.

Based on my predictions, I will come home on May 15th in the afternoon, that's whats most likely, but don't count on it until I get the itinerary.

The ward here is crazy, there is next to nobody in priesthood, yesterday I had to bless the sacrament, give a talk in sacrament meeting (because the speaker didn't show up), and teach elders quorum (because the teacher didn't show up). I feel like it will be like that every week, but things will improve.

Other than that, all is well as normal. I sure miss you all, and I hope you have a great week!  And hopefully President Wilcox can get better soon!

Love Elder Vaughan

PS. I almost forgot, but this week we have a multi mission conference with Elder Cook (yeah dude, the apostle) So I will let you know how that goes!

Santa Rosa de Lima, Summertime & Ecuador Companion

Hello World... again,

So this past week I got changes again, potentially the last area I will be in for my mission. I am in a place called Santa Rosa de Lima, in the department of La Unión. It is literally the farthest I could possibly be from the capital. Not to mention its the hottest place in the country. Remember in September when I complained about the extreme heat? Well, it got worse. I should have kept quite. Now the "summer" is about to begin at the end of February, so it will get even hotter, around 45 Celsius (which I think is really hot). The good thing is that we are farther from the volcano, so if it gets another case of diarrhea, we should be okay.

My new companion is Elder Morales from Ecuador. He is really awesome, maybe I will get a picture with him soon to show you. 

The branch we are in is probably one of the worst in the country, with an average attendance of 40 people on Sundays. Its bad. There are 2 priesthood holders, and 38 relief society. It's messed up. 

Other than the sad branch, we have a baptism planned for Miguel this coming Saturday, hopefully all goes well there.

I am really excited to be here in this new area, where it is obvious that a lot of work needs to be done.

I hope you all had a great week and that all continues going well in the business and in school.

Love Elder Vaughan

Calm After the Volcano, Frosty Trees & Perquin P-Day

Well, this week was pretty calm to be honest, after the volcano thing, its hard to come up with anything that's more interesting than that. So we came back to San Miguel on Tuesday in the afternoon, when we arrived there was still some smoke seeping out of the volcano pretty steadily. But we aren´t worried about that. The people who live in little towns right next to the volcano were evacuated for the fear of CO2 poisoning or something like that.

Things here in San Miguel are alright. The eruption was just a big adrenaline booster and repentance inducer (if you know what I mean). People say that it may erupt again, and maybe stronger, but I doubt it. The volcano looks way cool because the ash that is resting on the trees makes the volcano look frosty, which of course is ridiculous!

The good thing about this whole volcano evacuation thing is that when we were in SanSal the office dudes gave us our Christmas packages and letters. I just have to say that Elder Wyatt and I really enjoyed the packages (from you, Gma Suzi, and Gma Little) It was very kind and thoughtful of you all for sending that! I do have to say that the CDs you sent are awesome, we are really enjoying them! Thanks!

So today for pday, we are here in a little town called Perquin, which is up by the Honduras border, just to see some stuff and have an interesting pday in a cold place (since it is up in the mountains), we just got here and haven't seen anything cool yet, but we will. Lately we haven't done anything cool for pday, so here we are, ready for a good pday.

So this coming up Wednesday are the changes, I don´t know what will happen, but I am sure that Elder Wyatt and I will no longer be as a comp since we already have 3 changes together. Hes a cool dude, but I am starting to forget what it is like to have a different companion. So it will be interesting to have a change. Only three more changes to go!

That's about all for this week. Next week I will let you know how the changes go and all. I am excited to see what I can make of these last months here in this really hot place.

Thanks for all that you do for me, it means a lot!

Love Elder Vaughan