Week 31 (12/26/11) - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Hey everyone!!!

 

I love you all so much! That was so awesome to talk to you all! I loved it and it was so fun! There is a saying in the mission..."baggy."  It's like the word "Trunky" haha It is when a missionary is thinking a lot about home and he has a hard time focusing 100 percent! Well, I'll just say that was definitely me! haha but I'm better now! The baggy sickness is gone! I miss you all but I am back to work :) I love you all!!! 

 

So....not much has happened since Saturday! but I will tell you all about my Christmas! As I said, they all celebrate Christmas on the 24th here! So, right after I talked to all of you on Saturday, we went the the Bishop's house! He gave us SO much food! We had turkey and a potato beet salad thing and some really good rice! The bishop also bought us rootbeer! You don't realize how much you miss rootbeer until you haven't had it in 8 months!!! It really is so delicious! Make sure you drink some for me, sound good?? haha anyway, after the bishop's house, we went to the Mission Leader's house and he gave us some chicken sandwich thing and then we went to an investigator's house and they gave us food too! Let's just say we ate a lot!!!! After we finished eating and visiting everyone, we were on our way home through a war zone!! Apparently, Salvadoranians like fire crackers more than Americans!! Seriously, EVERY single house had people outside throwing fire crackers and not just little ones... HUGE ONES!! Seriously, some were the size of my hand! They were like bombs! But then they also had like these bottle rocket things and stuff as well! Let's just say it was literally like being in a war zone! Bombs going off everywhere...little firecracker "guns" going off and then rockets in the air! SO crazy! But as you can imagine, it is a bit difficult to sleep with all that noise? Yeah we fell asleep at about 3 in the morning...haha crazy, eh? Yeah I was tired yesterday!!! haha but then on the actual Christmas day, we went to church and just visited people that we could! Not very many people were home - a lot of people were with their families so we just stayed with the members that were home! haha it was way fun! SWEET!

 

Other than that, not much has happened! We did play soccer today and that was fun!

 

I love you all! Thank you so so much for all being there on Saturday! I loved seeing you all! Just so you know Kalee, I've worn my retainer more here than before my mission - my teeth are good haha As for my eyebrows....that's a different story haha but anyway! I loved seeing you all! And my knives! That was sweet! I love you all! I love you Mom and Dad! I love you Britny and Luke and Anslee! I love you Kalee and Kortnee and Derek! I love you Kolby and of course, I love you Lizzie!!! Stay strong and stay happy everyone! Keep reading the scriptures and have lots of fun!!! (PS I left dylan out for a reason...that was so mean! (in reference to the fake on-screen proposal) haha just kidding I love you too Dylan!!!)

 

I love you!!!

Braden

SKYPE with Elder Woodfield - Feliz Navidad!

On Christmas Eve (the day that Christmas is celebrated in El Salvador, the 24th), we were all able to gather at the Woodfield home and SKYPE with Elder Woodfield. It was SO good to see and hear him! He looked so good and sounded so happy. For most of us, it was the best Christmas present of the year! We also received some fun Christmas surprises at our home...

Sunday morning, Christmas, Momma Cherie woke up to find "Elder Woodfield" standing in the kitchen with his chef hat and jacket on. Later that day, Cherie and Kortnee showed up at Liz's, Elder Woodfield's girlfriend, home with Elder Woodfield - she was absolutely thrilled to see "him." It was a fun Christmas and although we miss our missionary dearly, we know that he is doing the Lord's work and he is where he needs to be. We love our Elder! 

Showing off his name tag!

Elder Woodfield....with Mitt Romney's body!

Cherie and Kortnee on Liz's doorstep with Elder Woodfield!

Elder Woodfield also had Cherie get Lizzie some flowers for Christmas (along with a few other surprises :)) - what a great Christmas for all of us!

Week 30 (12/19/11) - FELIZ NAVIDAD and Rene is baptized!

Feliz Navidad Familia!

I love you all! How is Christmas without me? Do you miss the smell of cinnamon and chocolate or is the lack of a huge mess a good thing?? haha I hope you are all still keeping my kitchen in shape! Don’t let her get too unused! haha

(Also, don’t you touch my knives! They are telepathic and they let me know when they are being used! Don’t even think about it, Derek!)

Anyway! So, good news everyone! We had another baptism this last week! Rene was so excited! He is a 47 year old single man living in his mom’s house that has just been a party boy all his life but he says he finally has purpose! It’s so cool! The thing I love is how every single person we have taught has expressed in some way or another that they want to go and share this gospel! He said that he just wants to go out and help people!  Love it! I will send a picture this next week though because we are on the virus filled computers again! haha I hope you don’t mind!

So, I just wanted to share my Christmas experience with you here in El Salvador! Right now, I am sitting in a cyber, typing. I am in church clothes but I am sweating so I could easily be in shorts and a t-shirt! haha But then when you walk outside, there is snow! But, it’s not normal snow! haha it is snow of ash! This time of the year, they harvest sugar cane! And once they have juiced it, they burn the woody part of it! Well, even though the nearest cane field is about 15 miles away, the ash raises up really, really high and falls here in Campos! It isn’t that much but every once in a while it will get in your hair or something haha it’s funny! Also, to answer your questions, yes, they use lights and Christmas trees! Not everyone has them but some streets are just totally decked out in lights! haha it’s sweet! Also, there is a Santa Clause in the place we go to eat on Wednesdays, in the UNICENTRO mall thing, it’s funny! I bet he is so hot! Oh, also, they love to dance at Christmas time! And everyone has been dancing a lot lately! Salsa dancing to be exact!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Also, Kortnee, Happy Birthday last week! Sorry I switched the letters! I actually didn’t mean to! haha I had them both and had the evil thought to switch yours and Kolby’s b-day letters and then I was like…no, not worth it! haha but then I guess I did it anyways! haha that’s so funny! My mind just works on it’s own I guess!! muahahahahah :)

Oh, so funny story! I love the people here so much! For all of you guys, this won’t be as funny, but just imagine it, yeah?? So, there is this kid named Marvin Mendoza in our ward. He is the nicest most loving kid I know! He is 16 years old and he comes with us to work like 2 or 3 times a week just because he loves missionary work so much! Anyway, one day we were in the church and I was like, Marvin, do you trust me? He was like…yeah…so I had him do the whole fall backwards and I catch him thing. Anyway, he is about 5 foot 5 and weighs about 115 pounds! Easy, yeah? Well, then he was like ok! So now, let me do it to you! Do you trust me? I was like.... yeah, of course I trust you but I don’t trust how big you are! haha anyway, he talked me into doing the faith drop thing and as I started falling I was like.... oh bad idea! Well, needless to say, I took him out! haha We both just fell flat of the floor laughing! haha It was so funny! I love these people here! I am glad that I am serving here in El Salvador! I miss you all but I will just say that I am in the best place to be on a mission!! Love you all!!!

Also, about calling this next weekend I talked it out with my companion and we decided that the best time for us is on Saturday right after lunch…we will eat lunch right at 12 and then go to the church to use the internet there (its the fastest :)). So, I will probably be calling at about 1 o’clock my time…I have no clue what time it is for you guys. I get so confused with time zones! haha but anyway, I hope that is all good for all of you! I think it would be easiest to just call Lizzie’s account on Skype! Also, I think I remember my Skype account name and password but Lizzie could you send me an email to this account with my Skype account if not then I can just make a new one :) sound good?? cooooool :) :) :)

Anyway family, I love you all so much! I hope that your week went well!! Take care and make sure Lizzie gets home safe! haha I heard her story... take care of her for me! I love you all!! Stay safe and remember that Jesus loves you!!!!

Love,

Braden

Talk to you all on Saturday!!! 

Week 29 (12/12/11) - Another baptism and skype call!

Elder Braden had a GREAT week - another baptism and he will be able to Skype his family on Christmas Eve! So excited to see and hear from him!

The baptism of Josue with Elder Hammond, his wife, Josue, his boss, and Elder Braden. 

Elder Braden making sugar cookies at their zone Christmas party!

The following are some photos he forwarded from their Christmas Party last Monday!

Their zone (Elder Braden is in the back left of the photo).

Pillow fight!

He's not in the following photos but you can still see how much fun he was having!

Hola Familia!

I love you all! How are you all doing?? I hope you weren’t worried too bad about the sudden drop in temperature here in El Salvador! It’s back to the normal 75 degrees at night and 90 degrees during the day! DON’T YOU WORRY!! haha anyway, LOVE YOU ALL!

So good to hear from you all this week! Thanks for all your emails and such! I loved getting it all! Oh, and guess what?! The postal service here is apparently on strike! haha So, I hope you get my letters or that I get your letters/packages before February! haha they will for sure go through…it is just a matter of when... haha but guess what?! Good news! We got permission from the Area Presidency to talk on Skype for Christmas!!! So, it will be free and you can see my face! YAY!! But, there is just one problem that we have…well, we were told that we can’t call our families in the proselyting times, and that is from 4 to 9 at night. Since you guys have church in the morning until 12ish, and my church starts at 2 (but I need to go eat and bring investigators) I don’t think I will be able to make the call on Christmas day?? I won’t let anyone miss church to talk to me so that isn’t an option and we can’t miss church either, so I guess we can do the call on Saturday, Christmas Eve?? How does that sound? We could do it like around 12, 1 o’clock on Saturday?? I don’t know what works best for you all!? Anyways just let me know in the emails next week, deal?? I LOVE YOU ALL!! SO STOKED TO TALK TO YOU ALL!!!!!

Apart from that grand piece of news, not much else to report... But, we did have a BAPTISM!! We baptized someone names Josue this week (it means Joshua in English). He was a reference from the temple (pretty sure I already told you that) but he works in the grounds of the temple and he wasn’t a member! Well anyway, he got in contact with his boss who is a member and said he wanted to hear the lessons and then they called us and here we go! We have been teaching him for about a month or so and he’s awesome! He reads the Book of Mormon every day and accepted everything that we taught him! He’s so awesome!! I will send a picture of the baptism! Also, it was cool because I was the one to baptize him!! Cool huh?? hehe

Other than that, we haven’t had much to do this week! I told you about the cool activity last Monday already…and the rest of the week, we’ve been doing lots of missionary work! Wake up at 6:30, get ready, eat cereal, study at 8, 9 comp study till 11, 11 - language study, 12 - lunch 1 o’clock begin to teach people! We have been teaching a few new people lately but no one is super positive at the moment. But we do think that Rene will be ready for baptism this next weekend! Rene is Sandra's (Sarai and Mario’s mom) boyfriend.  This last week, we gave him the Doctrine and Covenants dvds (the ones they use to teach in seminary). It has three disks - 2 with short video clips, and then another disk with like 4 hours of different church videos (Joseph SmithP: The Prophet of the Restauracion and others like Legacy). When we came back the next day, he had already watched them all! It was like seriously 9 hours of videos! It was sweet! Anyway, he learned so much and is so excited to be baptized!

That’s about it! I love you all! I hope that you’re all doing really well!! I am excited to talk to you all! Just let me know when and all that! I am sure Lizzie can help you set up Skype and everything! LOVE YOU!!!

Love,

Braden

The first picture is of me when we made sugar cookies last week! Yay!!! The other is of the baptism! The other people in the picture are his boss and his wife! They are so awesome! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Week 28 (12/06/11) - rough week as a missionary...and Christmas celebrations!

A few more pictures from our missionary!

Elder Woodfield and Elder Hammond at their Christmas party this week!

Beautiful sunsets in El Salvador!

Hello Everyone!

…Help me! The nights have been getting long, and the days shorter... the terrible wind is frigid cold and I just cant stand it! At nights, the temperatures are dropping...Friday night it dropped to 65 degrees! I don’t know what I will do! Haha…So, I hope you all know that I am joking! The wind here blows a whole 6 miles an hour and the people get all worried over it! haha but really, the temperature dropped down to 65 the other night! I had to wear long pants to bed! Terrible, eh?? haha Everyone here has been like freaking out that it is so cold though! It is funny! The only thing I have to say though is taking a cold shower when the air isn’t exactly "hot," isn’t very fun! haha But I hear the weather up there is getting colder and colder?? LUCKIES!! I want cold! I want to wear my American Eagle jacket again! haha I miss it – that’s for sure! But no, it is EXCELLENT here! Love you all!!!

So some news from this week, this week has been a bit trial-filled, I suppose you could say?? Haha…lots of our lessons fell through and lots of people rejected our message… but through it all, I still have faith! By far the hardest thing was that we had 10 people commit to come to church and NONE of them came! We had members setup to take them all to church and everything, but when the members went they all had problems and couldn’t come, or just weren’t there... sad sad…but I know it will be ok! No worries! Other than that, it has been a very good week! We’ve had a lot of success with the family of Karla and Carlos! Do you remember them? We found Karla and it was when her husband wasn’t living with her anymore…and then when Carlos (her husband) came back, she kind of stopped listening. Anyway, we basically dropped them as investigators at the time…but there is a member that lives close and he never gave up! He kept visiting her and visiting her and he actually got her husband a job and everything! Anyway, long story short, they came to church one day through the efforts of the member and we went to visit them that night and it went awesome! He loved church and wants to keep going! We challenged them to baptism on the 17th of December but they still haven’t accepted because they are scared to commit but I know they will get baptized soon if not on that date! I LOVE IT! They are so awesome!!

Other than that, that was about my last week! Apart from yesterday! The reason that p-day was switched is because the Mission President had a family night/day in his house! He has been taking each zone of missionaries, one at a time, and inviting them to his house! Him and his wife wanted us all to feel at home and to feel loved so they had a "day of Christmas traditions.” It was so awesome!!! So, first things first, we got there and had a prayer and read Luke Chapter 2 (the Christmas story). We had a good discussion about Christ and his love for us, and then after, we got to change into our regular clothes and play around! First off, we made and ate sugar cookies and then we had chips and dip! Then, we took all the couches in the house and built forts…and then threw hundreds of wadded up socks at each other like a snowball fight! It was such a blast!!! I loved it! We then cleaned up and had a scavenger hunt with cameras! We had to do things like imitate a scripture scene in one, and in another, we all had to be jumping…and in another, "be creative with a door" - just fun things like that! They will be sending all those pictures to us next week so I will be sure to get those to you all!! After that, we looked at all the pictures together and just laughed and had a lot of fun! But then after that was the best part!!! We had lunch! And all of it was imported food from the US!!! We had carrots in a butter sauce and a baked Idaho potato! Then we had a classic Utah Jello side and for the grand finale, we had a prime grade skirt steak! SO SO SO delicious! I LOVED IT!!! The president definitely spoiled us! I was completely stuffed!!! I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MMMMMM…I forgot how good American food tastes! Anyway, after that, we played a game where everyone writes the name of a famous person on a piece of paper and then I would guess if someone wrote that name and if I was wrong he got to guess someone else and if I was right he was on my team, and we would be working together! It was a lot of fun and a bit like Apples to Apples! It was all a blast! Anyway, so after this, we changed into missionary clothes again and had a testimony meeting (really cool! loved it too!!) and then after, we all got hot brownies and ice cream!! So classic American! Love it! Anyway, it was a blast! Make sure you are all having fun and partying like that every day, okay?? Oh, also, just so you all know, I totally made a Christmas countdown with candy and saran wrap! hehehe

Anyway, that is about it for this week! I love you all so much! Stay strong and always remember the real reason for the season is Christ! Everyone read in Luke chapter 2 and think about Christ! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Love,

Elder Woodfield (Braden:))

P.S. Something funny that happened to me  - On the first of the month, I went to take out my money from my account and I forgot my pin... well, lets just say I was dumb and put my pin in one too many times! Now, I don’t have a debit card (my mission one, at least…I still have my personal card, no worries) but they had to transfer all of my money into my companion’s account and they will give me my new card in a month! haha funny, right? You can all laugh at my stupid moment if you want! That’s me! Forgetful Braden! You still all love me, right?? hehe

P.S.S. One of our investigators named Jose, "admitted" to us this week that he committed a grave sin (a grave sin is like murder) and he was totally serious! Want to know what his sin was?? He told us that one day, he skipped school to go to a cyber and play video games... and the police saw him in his uniform and took him to his house! haha Isn’t that funny? Totally not a grave sin but he was all scared that he couldn’t be baptized and stuff! I loved it – too funny!