¡Puchica! una otra semana!

Holy cow (that's what puchica means, holy cow, oh my gosh, wow) another week has flown by. Yesterday was mothers day in the states(you all know) and tomorrow is mothers day here in El Salvador. Its been hot here this week. Even the natives are sweating. It gets really hot and then the wind starts to blow :) and then it blows in the rain clouds, but it is really hot and still right before that happens. And its been hot and still for about 3 days now. It doesn't cool down much at night.

Mom! I got your package last Wednesday. Thanks so much. It was so great to talk to you yesterday and sorry that we got cut off (Zac and mom) the service here is interesting it just drops calls all the time(apparently that's what they told me when I told them that the call dropped.) I do have socks now thanks! But the socks don't stop the mosquitoes from biting my legs.
So a little bit about the culture: first there are a lot of motorbikes up in Candelaria and a fair number of trucks though they are all 2 wd They put metal frames around the bed and then they're like the bus but cheaper(we missionaries aren't allowed to ride in them) and they take people from place to place, and you pay the guy who stands in the back like a dime or something. Another interesting transportation option is a mototaxi its like a scooter with 3 wheels(imagine a scooter, now imagine that the back tire is two tires with a seat above the axle,) they pack like 6 people on those things and go all over. They are anywhere from 25 cents to $1 depending on where you want to go.

Pilas... (mom we started to talk about these but then the call dropped.) Imagine a concrete slab about 5' by 3', then imagine this slab is a concrete block about waist high with three basins, a big one in the middle (about a foot and a half deep) and then one on either side. This is their sink. They do everything here, food preparation, wash dishes, wash laundry, wash children... everything involving water(if you'r lucky your toilet has its own water supply if not grab a huacab(like a plastic basin) and fill it out of the pila(the water that they run into the middle basin when they have water) and dump it in the toilet bowl fast and the toilet 'flushes'.) The pilas are usually outside, but not very far from the house, and if you really want to get technical most of the houses are outside because they are just a roof with two or three walls to give a little privacy. with a fence around the back yard/garden/trees. No there isn't really to much wildlife around these pilas(1 because any animal of significant size has been either killed and eaten or scared away by the dogs, and 2 because these pilas are almost always being used) The poorer people don't have pilas in their houses or in their yards, they take their laundry to a shed looking thing that is a series of pilas and they all wash their clothes together, and they also haul the water to their houses in these plastic jugs that remind me of the clay pots you see in the scripture movies. And they carry any thing that is heavy on their heads. Balanced there so they can hang onto their child with one hand and stabilize the load with the other.

The work, we're waiting for a birth certificate still for one of our investigators to be able to get married to he can get baptized. And we're working with quite a few others that we're hopeful that they'll get baptised this change.

We're also working on finding those that don't come to church. Our 'simi'-I don't know what that stands for- is probably half an inch thick. That's the list of all the members of the church, and since we have an average attendance of about 100 people there are a lot of people who just don't come. We arranged with one of the members to help us, he is family with about half of them. He said that there are really 3 big families that are members of the church(and menos activo) the family of his wife, his family and then this other family that doesn't have anyone active. We're going to the 'mountains' on Tuesday to find them.

The Spanish is coming along. I have days that go really well, I talk a lot and people understand me, and then I have days that I talk and people look at my companion and say 'what did she say?' And miraculously most of the time my companion 1understood what I said and 2 tells them what I said, and I feel like she says exactly what I said, but then they understand.

I've been reading Jesus The Christ while I eat breakfast and I have been learning a lot. This morning while I was washing my clothes(about as mentally involved an activity as moving pipe) I was thinking about the parable of the virgins(which I had just read about in Jesus the Christ) and I was thinking about The symbolism of these women who are waiting for the bridegroom. They have learned that the savior is coming, but they don't know when and the wise ones had oil in their lamps and some to fill the lamps up again but the foolish ones only had the oil that was in the lamps. We all are one or the other. We have our lamps and we have oil (the gospel and testimonies) but some of us have assumed that having had a testimony at one point will suffice, with out realizing that as we wait for the savior to come our lamps are burning. We have to be building our testimony. The oil is burning whether we are working on growing in the gospel or not, and if we aren't working on being better, and building our testimony through study, prayer, and meditating on what we've learned, we won't be prepared to greet the bridegroom, but will be frantically trying to find oil.

I was thinking about some of the less actives that I've talked to here. There was one man, who had been baptized in the 80s he had been active in the church, serving, but he didn't see the importance of studying and learning more about the gospel everyday, and he reached a point that he justified not going to church, I have to work, I am to tired, I _______, until he started to doubt what he had once known. His lamp started to sputter and he had no oil to put into the lamp, and his testimony, which had been a strong vibrant flame, became a smoldering wick, that needed care and attention. Wow that was long and I hope it made sense.

My time on the computer is about finished. Love you all, Love Hna Allen

PS:
I realized I didn't answer your questions, mom.
Do you feel safe? Someone asked me, I realized you've never mentioned it. (Compare it to Egypt.) Well we are instructed to be in our apartment everynight at 8 pm. (just the Hnas the Elders are out til 9) and as far as compared to Egypt I feel safer, but I think part of that is that I know I'm on the lord's errand. I know that as I am obedient to his commandments (the commandments of the church and the rules of the mission) that he'll bless me and I'll be protected. I couldn't ask for a better security guard than the Lord.

Do you have instructions for in case of emergency here's the signal, do this? Some foreign missions have that. We have an emergency plan, but as for a signal, no. As part of our instructions we are asked to keep enough cash in our apartments to be able to pay for a taxi to the mission office. that ranges from area to area from about $7 to $70.

Do you have 72 hour kits in your apt? We have what are called emergency backpacks that we are given on our first day in the mission with medications(benadryl, tylenol, advil etc) and bandages with instructions to buy specific foods to add to the backpack. I have mine, but not everyone was obedient and has theirs.

Do you have electricity in your new rural place? How about running water. I caught that you are doing laundry by hand, how about the rest of it? Refrigeration? Yes, yes, yes. One of the safety guidelines for the housing is that they have electricity and a light outside. Our water hasn't gone out yet and yes we have running water.

What are you eating? We have lunch with a member of the ward who we pay to cook for us, so usually we eat pretty traditional El Salvadoranian foods, Sopa de frijoles(bean soup its like kidney beans and chicken broth with a drumstick and veggies like carrots, potatoes and a green veggie with about the texture of a potatoe, but it doesn't taste like a potatoe, or any type of squash I've ever eaten.) Frijoles(beans pureed), rice with some carrots usually, and tortillas always, but not tortillas like you eat there. They are corn maiz and water, formed into a disk, and then cooked on a griddle, they are usually between the size of the palm of your hand and the full hand with fingers extended. usually about the first knuckle of the hand if you were to put them on the open hand. Also Cheese, but again not like any cheese I've eaten before its sharp, white and has a pretty distinct flavor.

Housing the same in your rural Candelaria? The house here is in some ways nicer than the one in Santa Tecla and in many ways not. It is pretty though

Love to hear, flora & fauna? There are trees of every kind of fruit, and I've eaten quite a few fruits that I've never tried before. Some are good, others not so much. Everything is green and lush, Words are really inadequate for this topic. Truly.
Love ya Hna Allen