Week 27 (11/28/11) - Thanksgiving and surprise investigator!!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Hey everyone!

How are you all?! I love you all so much!

Hey! So, the most exciting news of the week!!! 2 members of our ward got their mission calls! One will be going to Nicaragua, and the other will be going to Honduras San Pedro Sula! I am pretty sure that is the same mission as Thomas, right?? Maybe he will train him! He is such an awesome kid! He is a recent convert from last September and he is the only member in his family! His mom doesn’t want ANYTHING to do with the church and doesn’t care at all that he is going on a mission! He is really strong and has a lot of faith! He is a really strong example for me! I am here and I have all of you guys and it is hard! I don’t know how I could do it like him but he is so faithful and excited! It is cool!!! Anyway, let Thomas' mom know and tell her to tell him that his name is Marvin Esperanza and that he will be coming into the mission at the beginning of March - right at his year mark! CRAZY! Thomas has already been out almost a year!!!

So, as for other news, they do not celebrate Thanksgiving here but they did have a big party at the church (not for thanksgiving though haha)! But we went to talk to a couple investigators and stuff (we aren’t supposed to be in parties very long so we just stayed a few minutes) but we got some delicious pupusas! I love pupusas! They have some that they make with a type of squash that they grow here called ayote and it is so good!!! But NO worries! They do celebrate Christmas! Everyone already has up their Christmas lights here. It is really funny because all the trees are still green! It looks so funky! AND GUESS WHAT?! We get DUCK for Christmas dinner! The bishop invited us over to eat and he said that is what he’s going to make! YUMMY!! Funny though, here they celebrate Christmas on the 24th! But I will be calling on the 25th sound good?? I will be calling in the afternoon sometime…my companion and I are going to talk about it and stuff to find out when we should call :) Anyway! Let’s just say I'm stoked! Oh and by the way I found out that I can't use Skype so you should call and find out how much it costs to call per minute to El Salvador, sound good?? 

Other than that, this week was pretty basic! We didn’t have a baptism this last weekend but we might this next weekend! We have a lot of cool people we are working with! A mom and a son named Patricia and Brian that are really nice! We are working right now to help them to strengthen their testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith but that is their only doubt right now! We also have a surprise investigator! Remember Patricia and her kids, Mario and Sarai? Well, remember how their mom, Patricia, couldn’t be baptized until a week later?? Well, the reason was because of the Law of Chastity and she got rid of her boyfriend! But now, he wants to learn the gospel so they can be married in the temple! How cool is that?! We are teaching them and I think that if all goes well he can be baptized before the new year!

So exchanges were this week! We got a few new elders in the zone and it is nice to see a change! I will only be in my area for one more change! I will be leaving here about the 3rd of January!

Other than that, I don’t know that there is much more! Just thank you so much for all that you have done for me! I love you all so so so much!! Stay strong and remember to have faith! I pray for each of you every day!!

Love,

Elder Woodfield

Braden!

Week 26 (11/21/11) - More baptisms!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Hey everyone!

How is it going this week?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I am grateful for the opportunity to write you this week! As it is Thanksgiving… I should be, yeah?? :) Well, I always am grateful to write you guys! I love writing to you about my experiences and getting emails! Thanks so much for your love and support these past 6 months! I can't believe that I have already been out here for that long!!! Crazy!!!!

So, this week has been really fun! We had another baptism! Like I said on Thursday, we were able to interview Claudia and then Sandra, and we baptized them both!! We also baptized Claudia’s nephew, but his mom is a member so it doesn’t count as a "convert" baptism but it was still cool!! The baptismal service was really spiritual and I loved it! The zone leader that did the interviews asked them who they wanted to baptize them, and they all said they wanted me! I felt extremely honored to be the one to be able to baptize all three of them! They are all such special people! I love to work with the people here in El Salvador! It is such a special opportunity to do this!!

ANYONE that has the opportunity to help someone come to baptism, should do it! You don’t need to be a missionary to help people be converted to Christ and receive all these blessings that we have! Think about your friends that aren’t members and just imagine them in white ready to enter the waters of baptism! Really, do all that you can to share this amazing message! Just think about it, we have so much happiness through the gospel - we have the opportunity to enter the temple and do work for the dead and help others but we have friends that still haven’t had the chance to learn! Basically what I am trying to say is… give the missionaries references and then help the missionaries to teach them! The missionaries love it but then also the people are helped SO MUCH!!! What you will find is that you will have an "addiction" to help others. Can’t you just see the blessings that this could bring?!?!?

Other exciting things that happened this week! I bought new shoes! My first new pair of shoes in the mission!!! My other ones are basically THRASHED and so I decided to buy a pair here! They were cheap but work well! I hope that they last at least a couple months! haha those that I had before lasted 6 months! That is a long time with as much walking as we do! haha but that is pretty exciting!

So... I haven’t done much since this last Thursday... don’t have much more to say! I do want to say, however, that I went to pizza hut the other day and had “pan con ajo” or garlic bread... DELICIOUS! Haha I am craving good food!!! I can’t wait to come home and just destroy the kitchen! Haha sound good????

That is about it! I love you all! I hope that you are all doing really well! I am praying for all of you every morning and night! Keep working hard and remember that through Christ, anything is possible! He loves you and just remember the hymn "Abide with me ‘tis eventide" No matter the problems -economic, spiritual, mental, or anything - Christ is with us, Christ has felt everything that you are feeling. Use the atonement, don’t take it for granted!

I love you all! I am so grateful to be here at this time of year!!!

Love you all! Happy thanksgiving!!!

Love,

Braden

Week 25 (11/17/11) - Salvadorian Volcano and the Temple!

We got more photos this week! Our missionary is doing so well! We are proud of him! See his weekly email below. P-day was on Thursday this week so we just heard from him. Enjoy!

Braden with another missionary from his zone visiting the volcano in San Salvador

Braden's Zone at the El Salvador Temple

Elder Woodfield, Elder Encarnacion (former companion), and Elder Hammond (current companion) 

Elder Hammond and Elder Woodfield at the volcano

Looking down to the valley at the El Salvador Temple

Beautiful sunset in San Salvador - I like to think it was sent just for me (Lizzie) ;) 

So pretty!! 

Cute missionary! 

Sarai and Mario's baptisms on Saturday, November 12. There is Sandra on the right by Elder Woodfield (why isn't he smiling?!).

Hello family! Hello everyone!

How are you all???

Lots of stuff to tell you from this last week and a half or so! It has been a very long time without a p-day, I must say! haha but anyway! Here we go!

First things first - this last Friday, we had a special activity with our Zone and the Mission President! He took us to the Volcano in San Salvador! It is a dormant volcano but it was so cool!!! We drove up there and had a blast just taking pictures and running around and playing! We hiked a bit to the top of the caldera (cone) and got to look down in and see it all! I will send a picture, and maybe a video if I can! It was so fun! Then, after that we went to the president’s house and got to eat a lot of food! That was way fun! It was just a really fun day and a treat because this last month as a Zone we baptized the most families in the mission cool huh?!?

So the next day, on Saturday, we had a baptism! 2 actually! I said that we were going to baptize Sarai and Mario, and maybe their mom if she could (she had problems with the law of chastity). Anyway, it went through! We got to baptize the two kids and we are baptizing the mom Sandra this Sunday!! Yay!!! I will send pictures! Anyway, so we went through this whole week just working like normal and then last night, we had divisions with the zone leaders and I was in my area with one of the zone leaders and we went to do an interview for Claudia (who will be baptized this weekend too!) At the same time, we found out that Sandra was ready too! It was sweet! This is what happened - Sandra has been having problems with a boyfriend and the law of chastity and we have been working with her to be worthy but it was taking time! And I was going to use the zone leaders help to help her out so we had an appointment with her. When we got there, she said she had been fighting with her boyfriend and they finally officially ended their relationship! She says, “Everything is settled and I am good!” I was like, “SWEET!” And we had her interview right then! She has been so ready for her baptism - the only problem was her boyfriend supported her with food and stuff but she finally had the faith to trust in God! I loved to be a part of her decision! I love her and her family so much! They are so strong and are so loving!!! I love to be here working with them!! Also, do you remember Claudia? She is another lady that we have been teaching for about 2 months? She finally made the decision to be baptized this next weekend! So we will have 2 more baptisms this next Sunday!!! I am so excited! Keep praying for them for me! I know you can love them as much as I do! In the picture of the baptism that I will send, it has a picture of Sandra who is getting baptized this weekend!

The last thing I have to say about this week is…the temple! We got to go to the temple this morning! IT WAS AMAZING!!!! If I could make the capitals on AMAZING bigger, they would be, trust me! I LOVE THE TEMPLE! There is SUCH a strong spirit of love and peace in the temple! And I just want to say…I hope that no one is taking the temple for granted. We can receive so many answers and find so much love there! Those that are worthy to go, should go and reap the blessings that are found there! Even if you are not endowed, you should still go do baptisms! It is so important to just go and serve!!! Anyway, I will send a couple other pictures of us at the temple (even though I took these pictures when I was going to the volcano on Friday last week and they aren’t from this morning they are basically the same right???? :))

I love you all!! I hope you are all doing so so well! I love reading all your emails every week! Thank you so much for the time you take to write and send them! I enjoy each one! Thank you so much for everything! I love you so much!!!  I pray for each and every one of you every night!

Love from LOURDES!

Braden

Week 24 (11/07/11) - Just another week!

Elder Hammond and Elder Woodfield. Posing for the camera!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Hello Everyone!

I love you all! How is everyone??

I miss you all so much!!! I hope that you are doing lots of fun things in the snow up there! I LOVE THE SNOW!!!

So, I want to keep this letter a bit short today. I don’t really have much to say about the week except.... well, there was lots of sickness haha anyway! Here we go!

So, first things first, baptism.... we didn’t have Manuel’s baptism! We had everything planned for his baptism. We called him Monday night and asked if everything was good and if there was anything we could do and if he felt ready and excited about his baptism on Tuesday! He said, “Yeah! All good! All good!” Well, Monday was Halloween, right? And here they don’t really celebrate it the same way… they just drink and have parties! So Manuel decided to go to a party... he drank and smoked the night before he was supposed to be baptized.... Here in El Salvador, someone that is going to baptized has to be sober for 1 month before he can be baptized. So, it was really disappointing for that to happen! We have been trying to go back to talk to him but he either hasn’t been home, or sober, all week! Thank you so much for all your prayers and if you could please keep praying for him! He really is a great man, he just has an addiction... it is sad to see but I know that through the Lord, anything can change!!! So, keep praying for him please!!

Other than that, well, that is about the most exciting experience that has come about this whole week! My companion has had food poisoning for about 4 days and he has had to stay in the house and stuff!  I was able to leave with members and keep teaching though, so that is good! I think I got the same thing my companion got but it didn’t hit me as hard at least!!! haha I have been a bit sick and have been in the bathroom a bit but I’m not weak with a fever like my companion at least! haha I give thanks to all the vitamins I take everyday! Go Vitamin C! haha

One more thing! We will have a baptism this next weekend! We have 2 for sure - a girl that is 13 named Sarai and then a boy named Mario who is 11. Also, their mom might be baptized as well! The only problem is that she might have problems with the law of chastity that we need to work out! haha EVERYONE here has some sort of problem with that! Haha anyway! BAPTISM! Yay!!!!!! Pray for them as well please! We need all the help that we can get!

So guess what?! I don’t have much more to say today but I have my camera, and all the pictures have been put onto a cd so I can use the computer without worrying about deleting any! I will send lots of pictures to make up for the lack of cool stuff in my email sound good???

I love you all!!! I hope you are all doing great and that the snow isn’t too cold!!

Love you!

Elder Braden

The baptism of Familia Rivera and Reyez on 09/28 - this is the photo we were unsure of a few weeks ago!
Left to right - (top) little boy, Elder Encarnacion, Maria Elida Reyes, Patricia Reyez, Maria Rivera, Marvin Baca (member), Jose Rivera, Elder Woodfield (Braden!), Erasmo Reyez (bottom) Alejandro Reyez and Marvin Mendoza (member)

Familia Reyes - they had Family Home Evening (FHE) with this cute family a month ago (09/21)!

Cake at FHE 

Some of the boys of Familia Reyes

Carlos and his family at his baptism (10/08)

Erasmo and Elder Woodfield - Braden says he is "one of the most christlike and loving converts I have! He is amazing!!! I love him so so much!"

Erasmo, Braden, Alejandro (Erasmo's brother and also a recent convert!), and Gesenia (Carlos' sister) 

This is Marvin Baca, a member that helps the missionaries almost everyday, Braden says "He is such a christlike person! I love the members here!"

The Elders made homemade papusas...and this is our Elder showing his off! Yum!

Elder Hammon and Elder Woodfield. 

Studs.

This is another member named Marvin Esparanza! He loves helping the missionaries and they use him lots to help teach the people!