March 28th, 2016 - Weekly Letter - Semana Santa

Semana Santa!!
March 28, 2016 – Weekly Letter

Hello everyone!!

This week was a good one, but it sure was hard! Monday...well you all know how that went...Tuesday we set a couple of fechas with investigators so that was good! This week was so hard to get lessons because it was the Semana Santa which is like the huge Catholic celebration for Easter week. Nobody works and nobody has school so they're all down at the playas so it was so hard to catch people at home.

Wednesday we had a district meeting which was really good. We only taught like 4 lessons because everyone was gone!! Thursday was so good. We woke up at 3:45 a.m. and took pila showers...Ugh.  I hate pila showers. It's because the water shuts off at 8 p.m. and doesn't turn on until like 6 a.m. We all met at the church at 5:30 a.m. and we went to San Salvador to go to the temple with our investigators! Man that was great. They loved it and that temple is gorgeous. It was an activity for the whole mission so other elders and sisters did plays and skit things to explain doctrinal principles. We got home at like 7 p.m. We spent about 8 hours on a bus...but it was so worth it!

Friday we visited some families like normal then for lunch Hermana Bartola gave us so much food it could've fed 15 hermanas. I have no clue how I was able to walk after that...wow. We set a date with Hermana Mari's sister (she's the hermana I baptized) and yesterday we set a date with her other sister so that was good! Saturday we had only like 2 lessons up until 5 p.m. when we had a baptism for the hermanas area. After, we met with one other family so that's good.

Yesterday was so good too. We had the baptism of Hermana Lourdes and my companion baptized her. She's so strong so that was good. Church was good then after we were talking during our studies and were talking about how we can find new investigators to teach. It's hard cause everyone's catholic!! We decided to talk with everyone and so we did. The first guy we talked with let us in and we set a date with him for a baptism. He is pure gold. He is so good. It's just a testimony to me to have faith and act on it and God will do his part. I was super sick yesterday and that was awful, but if you forget about yourself and teach, the Lord will bless you. We're teaching this family called the famliy Carcomo. They are sooo good. He was married before so in order to be baptized, he has to divorce then re-marry with his new wife. But they desire so strongly to be baptized. Man they're awesome. So that was my week!!

Now I'll tell more about my area. It's hot. It's pretty in some parts. It's not too dangerous. The gangs don't hang out down here too often. Personal space does not exist. People always stare at us cause we're 2 huge white guys...everyone here is nice to us though. My companion is from Blanding, Utah. He has 10 months in the field. He played football and basketball and he's a big dude. We like to joke around a lot haha. We say stuff in English how it would translate from Spanish and I just laugh because they're so ridiculous. Like, if you like someone, in Spanish you fall well with them. And to ask whose turn it is you ask who does it touch? It's pretty hilarious. Our house is a bright pink with a blue gate and blue doors haha. We have a little mini fridge, our study room (which has AC) then our bedroom, a kitchen and a pila room. I love the pila. It's like a tub of water where you wash dishes and stuff...hard to explain but I love it except to take pila showers. Also the cockroaches like the pila too. I have killed so many of them. I use this cool white metal rod thing to smash them. I'm super good at it. Also random… I saw some random wild pigs walking down the road the other day...this place is wild. But yeah, it's fairly safe here and very catholic and there are lots of drunk guys and they're so hilarious. And oh man, the paper delivery guy here is SOOOO annoying. He walks up and down the streets yelling yeee yee yeeeeeee in this high pitch voice. Oh man, I wanna strangle him. But life is good. I'm adjusting to the mission life so that's good. I realized that the days go by so fast and there's not enough time to do this work!! So because of that, we have to work so hard every day. I hope all is well at home! I'll talk to you all next week! I love you all!!

Elder Loveless

Saluuuuuuud Pues!

Best and worst of the week:  Worst-getting sick. Best-baptism of Sister Lourdes!

2 Month Mark

March 26th, 2016

Elder Loveless has been gone for 2 months -

Only 22 more to go!!!

Love and miss him so much!!!

Elder Loveless and his district in the Guatemala MTC (CCM)

Elder Loveless is the second one from the left.

Weekly Letter - March 21st, 2106

Week 2!

Hello all!

It was another great week. We worked hard and it went by too fast. Last Monday we played soccer at the church. Like all the LDS churches have soccer court things so that's super cool. Tuesday we slept at the zone leaders’ house and we went with one of them because they´re in a trio and 2 were in San Salvador so we went with the loner. I learned a lot from him because (1) he knows Spanish and (2) he is almost done with the mission and has experience. We also had a zone conference that I learned a bunch from. I got re-motivated because not gonna lie, the mission is taking everything I have to offer and more. It´s exhausting and hard in every imaginable way.

We have a baptism set for this Saturday with Hermana Lourdes and she is so ready. She wants my companion to baptize her so that´ll be a cool experience. We just have to keep her motivated. Thursday was a long, long day. We woke up at 2 am and took the 4 hour bus ride to San Salvador for immigration. The bus had AC and it was probably like 65 degrees and we were shivering. My body is used to the heat haha. I just had to sign some papers for immigration then we went to the mission offices and Wendy’s which was refreshing. We got back to La Unión at about 5:45. I also bought some oatmeal because I could not do pancakes any longer. Worst oatmeal I have EVER eaten hands down. But I´ll figure something out haha.

Saturday we did interchanges and I went with the ZL´s and they´re absolutely hilarious. That was a good day. Yesterday at church we had 11 investigators!! That is soooo good! And we also have this family we´re teaching se llaman la familia Carcomo. They are sooooo good. The only thing holding them back is that the dad was married before and never divorced so we're working on that with them but they will for sure get baptized.  It´s just the mom, dad and their daughter I think is about 11ish. Also there's a less active hermana whose husband just left her and she wants a divorce and it's so sad but she´s gonna come back to church! We taught her about the Atonement and that was so strong. Even though we don't understand what she's going through, Jesus does. Anyways, it was a good week!! Always about 100 degrees and sweaty but it's good haha. Pupusas rock and we have a cocinera who makes us lunch every day and does our laundry and dang does that woman know how to cook. It's gold. But yeah, all is well! Still alive and breathing!

Happy birthday to mom on Wednesday and Ashton on Thursday!! Also I hope all is well in the casa and fun, fun for Zac and Emily and that you all get to go in May!! Stay healthy and safe and I´ll write next week!!

-Elder Loveless


Best thing of the week:  “Best was probably our lesson yesterday with a menos activa and also we did interchanges with the ZL´s and that was awesome.”

Worst thing of the week:  “My body is destroyed … but I’m good haha.   The food doesn´t always like the body (;  Haha yeah … I almost pooped my pants on the bus today...I looked at my comp and said we have a código 8 and we hopped off and waddled to a bathroom....it was rough.”  (Elder Loveless will probably be embarrassed that I shared this last bit of information but when I read it I started laughing so hard that I started to cry.  Poor guy!!!)

March 14th, 2016 - First letter from El Salvador

March 14th, 2016 – Weekly Letter
1st Letter from El Salvador

Hola friends and family!!! I am here safe in El Salvador. I won't bore you with the stuff about the CCM…

On Tuesday we woke up at 5 AM and took a nice long bus ride to San Salvador. We left at 6 AM and arrived at roughly 11:30 at the mission home. We started with some getting to know you things and had some verrrry long orientation devotional things which I really don´t remember at all. We ate lunch, more devotionals then dinner and we were off to the secretaries’ house to stay the night. Their house is so dirty.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and we went to a capilla in San Salvador. We got our trainers and we had a devotional about how to teach and things like that. My companion is Elder Palmer from good old Blanding, Utah. He`s a big guy. He`s about 6’3” and 240 lbs. He has glasses too haha, but he`s super cool. We get along well. After we got our companions we took a 4.5 hour bus ride to our area which is La Union. It`s literally the farthest area from the mission home. It´s in the department of La Union which is like a mini state and we`re in the city of La Union. On the map it`s on the east coast! We have the ocean!! But it`s also the HOTTEST area in the mission so that`s fun. That night we dropped of my bags and we went out and met some people.

Thursday we woke up bright and early, exercised, ate breakfast and studied until 12. That`s the usual every morning. My companion has pancake mix and I hate it because I can`t make a pancake worth squat. I forgot my journal so I don`t really remember that day...we taught a bunch! haha

Friday we had a bauda (Bow Duh) or a wedding for one of our investigators to be baptized the next day. That was very interesting...after we went out to lunch with them and we went back to the house to plan and study some more. We taught some very good lessons. The hermana who was to be baptized is Hermana Mary. She is such a strong investigator. She was super nervous to be baptized so we went and met with her and we talked about her doubts and I felt prompted to have her pray right then and there to know if this was the path for her. She said okay but she had me say it. That helped her so much. That day we taught a bunch more lessons.

Saturday!! Mary texted us and said she wasn`t gonna be baptized so we talked to her and had the hermanas in our district call her and we changed her mind. Then the guy who was gonna baptize her couldn`t make it so she picked me to baptize her!!! I baptized someone in my first week here!!! That was such an awesome experience that I could perform a saving ordinance for someone here. So that day was awesome. We went back home and we went back to work.

Sunday Hermana Mary received the Espìritu Santo and we went out and converted the world.

So the kids here are awesome. I can`t understand them so they just laugh at me a lot...but they`re funny haha. Yesterday we ate an all you can eat pupusa meal at Hermana Caludia`s who is an investigator and her family too. That was awesome. It`s so pretty here. There are lots of dogs and cats and chickens...that`s weird. People build houses out of cement so that was smart...but it`s so hot and the people are awesome, but they`re alllll Catholic. It`s difficult to get new investigators...but we`re trying dang hard!! We take buses a lot and walk a lot more. I have never sweated this much in my entire life. Also send stuff to the mission home. The food here is bomb and there are lots of fat people because they eat pupusas! They`re not the best for you...also we drink everything out of bags...we buy bags of water so that`s super cool...and weird, but it`s very pretty and dirty.  I will send pics! Also Happy Birthday today to Emily!! I love you all and I'll be on next week at the same time!

Elder Loveless

Picture with new Elders

Elder Loveless is in the middle row, 2nd to the end on the right.

(He said it wasn't his best picture - haha!!)

March 2nd, 2016 - Last week in the MTC

Ultimo Semana!!

Hola familia y amigos!!

Another week down and into the last one. This week was great as well! We started it out last Wednesday with the normal p-day stuff I already told you about and then we played sports for 3 hours and learned more. Thursday...Thursday was rough. Elder Huber spent about 4 hours in the bathroom...the food can do strange things to your body...also we learned how to teach the Ley de Castidad y Diezmo. Oh and also día de Reposo. The Latino elders only talk about the Norte Hermanas because they´ve never seen a white girl before...On Friday we taught like 4 lessons. Elder Huber spent less time in el baño so that was good. Saturday was pretty chill (haha English slang).  We learned preterite vs imperfecto which was good cause those are important, we taught a new investigator named Pedro and that went well and then after we learned passive voice.

Sundays are always so good. We did the usual...then we had some devotionals. Also the music really touched me on Sunday. It was so powerful. We learned about Fe y Bautismo and then we listened to Elder Holland and Elder Bednar, we had a district meeting and joined with District Lucas (the newbies). (We are Distrito Isaias.) It was one of the best meetings we´ve had. I have been struggling about how I´m gonna tell people to give up stuff for the Lord when they don´t have anything and I was so blessed to always have a home and food and clothes...I can´t understand them...which breaks my heart, but Jesus Christ does. He understands all of us and our problemas. That really touched me. Lunes we repracticed preterito and imperfecto then we practiced giving compromisos. I studied 2 Nefí 9 which was sooooo good. If ya´ll have a chance, please read 2 Nefí 9. We´re learning so much Spanish every day. It´s so cool.

Yesterday was March 1st! We taught 2 lessons that definitely weren´t our best...we also learned the conditional tense. We taught another new investigator and he will be tough. After dinner we had Elder Ochoa of the Seventy come and speak to us and it was so good. It was about La Luz de Cristo or Light of Christ. He said to leave everything behind and go to work. Do the work the way Jesus did when he was on the earth. We had another district meeting which was good then in personal study I studied the atributos de Cristo and also realized a theme of yesterday; the way Jesus did the work was the will of His Father, not his own. That´s how we must do the work también. Hope really stuck out to me. When we have faith, we have hope that God will do His part of the convenios and that we have hope things will work out for our good. It was very awesome. And today, we just returned from the temple and we did the whole session in Spanish without translation so that was cool. Anyways, this week was great! Also random fact...the clouds here move sooooo fast. It´s so weird and mesmorizing...

Anyways, Yo sé que esta es la verdadera iglesia de Jesucristo en la tierra hoy. Yo sé que Jesucristo es el Salvador y Redentor del mundo. El sufrió y expió para cada de nosotros. Él sabe como nosotros sentir. Jesucristo vivió y todavía vive hoy. Como un representante de Él, yo testificó que Él nos ama y nos conoce personalmente. Él sabe nuestras problemas y pruebas, pero Él quiere ayudarnos. Yo sé que José Smith fue y es un profeta de Dios. Él restauró la iglesia por medio el poder de Jesucristo. El Libro de Mormón es verdadero. Yo testifico que el Libro contiene el plenitud del Evangelio. Yo sé que esta es la obra de Dios. Estoy muy agradecido para ser un siervo de Dios y vestir el nombre de mi Salvador en mi pecha cada día. La expiación de Jesucristo es real y funciona. Yo testifico de la verdad de la Expiación. Digo esas cosas en el nombre ne mi Salvador, Jesucristo, Amen

I love you all!!! Have a fantastic week. This time next week I´ll be in the mission so don´t freak out if I don´t write for a while!

-Elder Loveless

**Best and Worst of the Week:  "Best...district meetings. Worst...probably the loud engine breaks that interrupt the reverence haha!"