Hermana Haynie ☀: September 23, 2013 Week 7

I don`t even know where to begin! First, El Salvador already feels like my home. It`s amazing how quickly I felt right at home here. I am in the Santa Tecla zone and our area is Girasoles II. It`s ion the coolest part of the mission, so the weather has been great! It rains, but it`s only been extremely humid and hot one day. My trainer is absolutely fantastic! Hermana Chant! She is 22, from Arizona, and has been out for 6 months. I feel so blessed to have her as my trainer and it makes everything so much easier that she has the same desire to be obedient and work as hard we can. I feel like we are constantly running around from one casa to the next. Okay, the people. INCREDIBLE. The most loving, humble people. I think a lot of them are confused as to what two American girls are doing here, but they always have a smile on their faces and most of them are willing to listen to us. Not all of course, but we`ve found that as we talk to as many people as we can in the streets, a good majority of them will let us set up a time to share with them the message of the restored Gospel. Our bishop thinks a lot of the people will say yes because we`re American, but hey, if they change their intentions after the first lesson then that`s okay! The kids here are the cutest! They all love our "ojos" and the girls always like to touch my hair because it`s so foreign to them. It`s heartbreaking the way a lot of them have to live in these tiny, tiny houses, but the amazing thing is that they are happy. They are always so excited to have us in their homes. One of the less active members we visit everyday is Mirian. She is my mama here! She won`t read the Book of Mormon on her own, so we go everyday and read with her. She is hilarious. She isn`t married and has two grown up sons, so I think she loves having us as her daughters. It`s amazing the change I`ve seen in her. She is now starting to comment on what we read and instead of us explaining things to her, she can explain them to us! I love love love her. It`s pretty funny because she uses all these slang terms in Spanish and is kind of like a teenage girl because she loves to gossip, but she has been doing it less and less! Miracle!

We have two investigators with a baptismal date right now, Ivan and Vicky. Ivan is 25 and already I have seen a change in him, even though I have only known him for 6 days. He struggles with a smoking addiction, but the progress he has made is a miracle. It breaks my heart how hard it is for him, but I am so proud that he is trying so hard. We can tell how badly he wants to change, but how strong and imprisoning addictions are. I know he can do it, only with the help of our perfect Savior. Yesterday, he surprised us by coming to church! He told us he wouldn`t be able to, then he walked through the door and my heart just swelled up! ALso, another miracle: he sang the hymns. Hermana Chant says he never, ever sings, that he refuses to. But during the first hymn, I held my hymn book so he could see and all of a sudden I heard a man`s voice singing next to me and it was IVAN! I wanted to cry in that moment. I know it may seem small, but it`s huge for him. Vicky owns the tienda down the street and I know with all my heart that she was prepared to hear the gospel. Everything we`ve taught her she seems to already know and understand perfectly. The Spirit is always so strong in our lessons with her. She is incredible. She is already a member missionary because she tells all of her friends that they need to talk to us and she`s bringin one to church on Sunday! Oh church, bless the hearts of the people here. They have a hard time singing on key and together, so the first time we sang was a little startling, but it`s perfect and they sing with all hearts! I love it.

The papusas: so much better than that El Salvador restaurant we went to. My favorite is queso with lorocco, which I am not sure exactly what it is, but it`s some sort of green vegetable that looks like cilantro. They are amazing! Muy ricas! Spanish is coming along. Some people I can understand and talk with, but other times I have absolutely no idea. There`s this old man, Gustavo, who slurs all his words together so I can only catch a couple words here and there. The people are always suprised when I can understand, and I`m surprised as well!

We don`t have running water in our casa, so we shower with a bucket with water from a sink outside and wash our hair in the same outdoor sink, where we`ll also do our laundry. It`s such an adventure! The toilet doesn`t work either, but if you dump water down the toilet from outside it`ll flush no problem. We have a little fridge and a little stove AND a microwave! Hermana Chant said they usually see a ton of cockroaches, but I have been utterly blessed not to encounter one yet. However, the bugs here love me! Apparently I`m allergic because I`ve had a couple bites on my legs swell up into these bubbles, but once again to show how loving the people are, the ladies in the tienda where we buy bananas in the morning gave me allergy cream for them! They were so concerned when they saw the bites all over my legs, and within two days they had gotten cream for me and gave it to me for free! Also, Marisol, a woman we`ve been teaching, took me to the pharmacy and made me get pastillas and crema for it! I can use my bug bites as a conversation starter! Blessings!

I love it here. It`s exhausting, but there are always blessings as we keep working hard. Always. Like it says in D&C 58:4, "For after much tribulation comes the blessings." We can never give up. We have to show Heavenly Father how much we love Him and completely trust in Him. As we do this, He will bless us! On Thursday, we had a slow afternoon because no one was home and we felt like we were weren`t getting anywhere, but we kept at it and found 2 new families! Both of them are older couples that we`ll be meeting with this week. We have over 15 investigators we`ll be meeting with this week. I can`t wait. This Gospel changes lives and blesses families. I know that because how blessed my own family has been, which I know is a direct result of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was reading in Mosiah 24:14-15, about how the Lord will ease the burdens put upon us and like He did for Alma and his people, "The Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease." We need trials because they humble us and bring us closer to our Father in Heaven, but the Savior will always be there to make our burdens lighter as we believe in Him, have faith in His atonement. and strive to follow His perfecrt example.

I love you all and you are always in my prayers!