No Email :(

No email this week. I guess no news, is good news. I'm thinking that Elder Medina may have been transferred. That may explain no email from him this week.

On The Mend (We Hope)

Dear Mom,

Yeah, those aren't fun the whole kidney infections. Our cocinera is looking up all of the natural food things that she can do to fix up kidneys. I guess pineapple works and carrots. But I don't know there. I want a healthy week as well. I understand the whole hydration thing. I always have water with me or a way to get it. I am drinking. I'm pretty sure it's just because of constant sun exposure and like you said the humidity. On top of that the fridge is broken. Not the best situation. But we're in the process of getting a new one.

This week was a week of challenges. My companion and I have had to cross new techniques to get to investigators. We had to defend our own testimonies when an investigator said that if we went to his church we would find that he was right and not us. I felt the strongest Spiritual high and I was able to testify again along with my companion and that man kept quiet and didn't push it anymore. I have come to find that now, I don't need to argue or get mad to get a point across. I just need the Spirit. We're trying so hard to keep the Spirit close to us. It's working a lot more. 

Mom, I love you. I hope you feel good this week. There is a scripture in Psalms 147:3 that I love that I found this week. In spanish (sorry didn't read in english) it says: "Él sana a los quebrantados de corazón, y venda sus heridas". Only through Him and His Spirit of love can we be healed emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I know this because I have had to depend on Him and His power here. There has been so many times that I have felt pain that I didn't know what to do. When I had my infection and fighting by myself with a dangerous fever, for the first time in almost 3 or 4 years, I cried for my mom. I bawled because of the pain. I had to depend on my Maker to get me out of it. And I was able to. I felt your love and prayers and the love of my Father and Older Brother. You can feel the same. As well as everyone else. We just have got to grab onto it.

Take care this week Mom, I love you so much. I literally want a wife like you so my children can have such support in the future, you've always been the greatest example of parently love I've seen.

Love all of you!

Elder Medina

Kindney Infection

Just wanted to give everyone an update. Elder Medina is currently dealing with a mean kidney infection. After several days of fevers and feeling horrible, he went into the Doctor's. He is being treated for it and it already feeling a lot better. The mission office has been in contact with me, which has been great.

Hives!

Dear Mom,

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, Diego my man. I would be doing the same as dad probably. "Diego! Get the ball." Oh funny, that really made me laugh. Something that my companion and I figured out, after today, only 10 more emails and then I'm home. He's supportive. It stinks really.

We're still trying to work hard. We got some more baptismal dates this week. We should have some this month. It'll be good.

We went to the beach to play ball again. I didn't want to go. But my comp did so we went. It was raining. Not fun. But the waves were HUGE!!!! On a side note. I just randomly broke out in hives this week. Don't really know why. But I'm ok now. We painted a house this week which was fun. We saw another area 70 in stake conference. Interesting. Mom, I can say that we had a great week!

Take care I love you all.

Love,

Elder Medina

Goodbye Elder Lloyd!

Dear Mom,

This week has been interesting. Elder Lloyd left (sniff sniff) and my new companion is Elder Zolano. He is from Nicaragua. I'll send a picture of him next week. He came with me in the mission. The only difference is that I go home earlier than him. I had more time in the MTC that's the only reason I'm going home first. For the first time in a REALLY long time we went running. We got up at 5 am to do it. I am SOOOOOOO sloooow now. I was embarrassed, so badly. On top of that, I felt like I was breathing water the whole time (humidity). My companion and I are both wanting to do it. So that's cool. 

We are trying really hard lately with less actives. And on top of that home teaching and a whole lot more of other difficulties in the work. Something that has been really stressing me out lately is that everyone here looks at the missionaries to do EVERYTHING. To visit less actives, inactives, active members, and on top of all of that the investigators. I was just a little frustrated on that point. So now what we're doing is doing another mini-MTC for the members again. We are going to do it on a small scale and maybe eventually for the whole stake. But we'll see how that goes. Oh, we have a new bishop now. He's pretty sweet. He wants to get stuff done as well. We all have some high hopes to have an increase of activity here. 

I love you guys. Keep up all of your hard work. Thanks mom for the jersey money. I appreciate that. 

Love,

Elder Medina

Beach Day!

Dear Mom,

Oh, injury stories. The sister's feet. Olivia, yes I do remember coming home from that senior trip. That was exhausting. On top of bible bashing with an old guy (that was a bad idea). Olivia looks so cute now! I showed all of the people in my pasaje her graduation notice. Every lady in the street thought that she looked beautiful. Especially her hair. Way to hold the beautiful family genes there. 

Having a companion who is finishing the mission is pretty hard. It is almost impossible to not feel baggy at times. At times we'll think of pros and cons of going home. It's pretty funny sometimes. A whole lot of people have been showing feelings and love to my companion. It's pretty funny actually. The work is going great. We are still finding some great people. In a literally Catholic society on Sunday, we found a guy sitting outside, he let us talk to him and share a bit of our message. He was a great man, he told us of how he overcame drinking and a whole lot of other stuff. And how he and his family are doing a whole lot better. We are just going to help him get a little bit closer now ;). 

Today was the best P-day in the world. We all went to the beach (with authorization) and played beach soccer! I found like a million shells to bring home with me. For free too! I wore a hat that was "regalado" given as a gift to guard my neck from turning more black. Elder Lloyd got sun burnt as well as a few other guys. I can now understand why Rocky Balboa ran on the beach. It is a whole lot harder to sprint. The sand literally eats your feet as in you sink at some points. Yes, we all are wearing America jerseys made by the bishop. We got these a while ago. Now it's just waiting for the El Salvador one. It's going to be sweet!

Well, that was this week. I love all of you. Take care of yourselves. Keep up on your scripture studies.

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

Last Skype

Dear mom,

Yeah, skyping for the last time. I understand not being lively. It is pretty hard to be happy when you're sick. I remember my salmonella days. Like it was last week (because it was.)That was pretty tough. Yeah, I'm pretty bummed that Alesia missed out on her play. I know she was really looking forward to that. That's one thing I regret from high school, was not doing drama. It was something that I always wanted to do. 

The bishop's house was fun. While we were waiting to skype for the other guys, we watched motab movies and videos from the life of Christ. My companion had a family emergency. Please pray for him. I do not know what happened really. Please include him in your prayers. 

This week was a really great week for work. We got lots of references from members making a Mormon Lemonade Stand. We are going to try again in a few weeks and we are going to better plan it this time.

I love you mom. Happy mothers day. Stay awesome. I appreciate the maturity thing. It was something I needed to hear. This week will be dedicated to a lot of working harder and doing great stuff. Oh yeah Dad, those times. I will start working on those when I'm 100% on health.

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

Going Strong

Dear Mom,

Dang, way to go Emilio. Get that number and keep it. My companion and another missionary says good work. Olivia, she's so CUTE! Alesia, you really need to start charging for your performances. You look like a future stage ninja.

This week was very fruitful still. We were able to have another baptism of a young woman. She wanted to get baptized last week but she couldn't because her mom wouldn't give her permission and she drank coffee X(. But now she did get it and she is very positive still. She is very happy and helps us out with her older brother. We were able to get a good turn out this week. We had a bit of a gang scare yesterday for the first time in a REALLY long time. So there was a bunch of soldiers walking around the other elders area because that was supposedly the danger. But me and Elder Lloyd were blessed with a really good day. Hey! Just a movie suggestion. There is a new movie out by the church. http://www.mormon.org/easter it is an amazing movie! #becausehelives. Mom, put that on my facebook for me please!

I am still in the same area. I am "killing" Elder Lloyd or in other words, being his last companion. It's funny because there are planes that fly over our area everyday. You know what's really amazing? We are going to meet Elder Alonso (area 70) this week. I am looking forward to that day.

I love you guys. Keep up the good work.

Love,

Elder Medina

PS- We went to the hospital for Elder Lloyd a while back. I weighed myself and I weigh 155 lbs.......I'm getting fat......

The Gift of Music and Holy Week in El Salvador

Dear Mom, 

This week has been pretty weird. Elder Lloyd didn't have and intestinal infection. He had Dengue. The calm kind though. He didn't have the horrible death one. He is ok now. Just weak from the constant strain. He lost a whole lot of weight because he didn't want to eat. I loved conference. I liked the area seventy who talked about music. "I teach you to dance, but you need to hear the music." And, "We learn to dance with our minds, but we hear the music with our hearts." Its probably what I loved the most. Obviously Elder Hollands' talk was spectacular. It was a great way to explain the Plan of Salvation. I love getting more mature, because I appreciate more the general conference sessions. I was able to get some really great notes in. The investigators liked it too. We have a baptism lined up this weekend. His name is Romeo Alfaro. He is an older gentleman. He seems like he'll be pretty good. And next week, I am praying for two more. A young lady wants to, but she needs her mom's permission. Sad, we've been working super hard. 

Mom, I was thinking a lot about the music analogy. You tried tirelessly to teach me to dance. I just can't do it. But I still liked that quote, I love music. I do, you do too. And I love that you do. You showed me a great example of what it is like to be more appreciative of God's gift to us. I have a special place in my heart for music. Being in choir in high school gave me a better group of friends. And a happier view on life. I had a really depressing time in high school around sophomore year, and to be perfectly honest I didn't really want to be me. I wanted to just end it. But that musical group of friends saved my butt from myself. And you, mom, helped me to have a base to love music. I have always had good music in the house. Mostly because you showed what was good and what was not. I'll admit I still like a little different. But we have a lot in common. I took it for granted. You have always loved me in a way that makes symphonies sound lame. You've been a great mom. I thank you for that. I really do. Thank you for making music a big part in my life. Michael Jackson all the way. Man in the Mirror, all that. 

I love you guys, lets beat all of the symphonies and mozart and make the best family band in world by living these principles of the restored Gospel. Thanks guys.

Easter, sucked. We did nothing fun. Just conference. Easter really doesn't exist here. But these cool alfombras de sal do. They have something here called semana santa. It is basically a week to remember the last week of Christ's life. Which people use to go to the beach instead. The Catholics go crazy. The Jehova's Witnesses do their only sacrament service. And so on and so forth. But, it was still interesting. My companion and I got Pringles for the conference. And juice, and I brought a big box of cereal for the Sunday session. And then we ate spaghetti too. We had fun. We watched it in English Well, that's what happened this week. Oh, and my suit pants ripped, they're getting repaired as we speak. Yeah, I'm getting old in the mission. My pants are breaking, the zipper is destroyed on another pair, another got stained by something that looks like bleach. And yeah. Life is good. 

I love you guys, keep up the buen trabajo.

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

. 

Under the Weather

Dear Mom,

Darn it, I will be praying extra for Emilio now. Like him, I was sick to this last week and still am. I need to go take a poop test today, just to make sure I don't have a parasite again. I also have a cold. I started out with horrible stomach problems. Now it is just a good old cold. Not the best stuff in the world. We moved today too. We have a cooler house that is in our area too.

This week was full of trials for us. After working our hinds off for the past 6 weeks, almost all of our investigators are turning A wall on us. Our one super good baptism date told us he had a dream that Christ appeared in a pizza and he felt that God revealed him to go back to the Catholic church. A couple that my last companion baptized in October are getting divorced, because they weren't ready to get married yet apparently. And we had a curfew due to crazy political elections. It has been hard but we have been pulling through it. 

I feel stronger though through all of this. I feel like the Lord is going to bless me soon with something great.

I got the jersies. Olivia, you should like yours. I got I think the number 14. They are both really cool. Emilio, you take care of yourself. I don't want to get a call that you croaked! Keep on keeping on bro. You're a beast. You can live! Mom, nice different shoe thing, did you not know that it is the new style? Everybody wants to do that now!

I love you guys. Keep on with what you're doing!

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

Veggie Straws!

Dear Mom,

Hey guess what? I found veggie straws and I found APPLE STRAWS with CINNAMON! I am eating them at the moment. Super yummy! They were $1.63 for a huge bag. I have been waiting for them to go on sale for over a month. 

We have a mission thing to try to focus on service as well. We have been putting a huge focus on it. If you want there is a new Facebook page for the mission, it is called Al Servicio De Los Hombres, Al Servicio De Dios. It has a bunch of pictures of service and baptisms and whatnot. I think you guys would like it.

This week was great for work we found people still. We focused more on members this week. It was hard working too, we had interviews with the President and we had a huge meeting yesterday and we lost pretty much the whole day of work. We got home around 7 pm. The meeting was in Los Alpes (old area). I was able to see my "mommy" her name is Veronica Vasquez. She gave me a PB&J sandwich and I saw the old bishop too. The chapel was remodeled. We have a man named Fransisco Efrain. He is literally the most amazing man in the world. From a month of fighting hand to hand combat with people we have been able to find a man super prepared. He is going to be baptized on the 21st of March. He might be baptized sooner. We'll have to see. We now have 10 progressing and we had 27 lessons and a whole lot of love going around. We are getting work done. And I can't be any happier.

I love you guys. I hope that you all can have a great week. You are such great examples for me. I love you all. }

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

PS- I can still run, I outran everyone in my district running for a bus yesterday. And guess who did 60 pushups in a row?!

Elder Flake's Homecoming

The kids and I were able to attend Elder Flakes homecoming in St. George on February 8th. It was such a great experience to talk to someone who had seen my son, more recently than I had. When Victor was called to El Salvador, Elder Flake's blog was the first one we found. It helped us prepare for what was lying ahead for our son. We were thrilled when we found out that he lived so close! Elder Flake is super kind, along with his family and way taller than I expected :) I'm so glad we got to hear him speak. Well done Elder and welcome home!

Dear Mom,

This week was darn sweet. For the first time in a really long time we had 31 lessons in the week. We have been super busy. We have been going crazy with new investigators too! We got 18 this week. We have a man who has a baptismal date on March 21st.  We had to move his date because he doesn't have enough church attendances. He wants to be baptized now!

Guess who solved a rubiks cube 4 times these past 3 days! I have been trying to relieve my stress lately, Elder Arias left a rubiks cube for me. And I have been working on it ever since. I finally got it! I solved it this morning too. I just get stuck on a few spots. 

As souveniers go. I saw a jersey that I wanted that the bishop makes from soccer teams and puts names on it. I already have a couple of slingshots for me and dad. I saw one for Liverpool that I liked and one for El Salvador for Olivia that I think she would like. It costs about $30 for both together. Supposedly there is a spot in Ilobasco here that sells some cool stuff. I don't know how much it costs. Basically that for right now. That's pretty much it. If you could that would be nice if not, I understand.

Spanish wise, Mom, just go crazy speaking with dad. Don't speak anything else. Even send texts like that. Watch movies with spanish subtitles, learn a song in spanish (hymns). Label stuff. Use it like you need it to live. I wish the members here gave us more food to eat. We don't get too much at times. My diet is granola, frosted flakes, water and sometimes juice, but oh well.

The wedding pictures kind of wigged me out a bit. But that's good for them. Tell them that I wish them lots of happiness. I know that Storland will be a good man. And Mrs. Storland of course. Wow, that sounds weird. Braxton that stud. They should be a good happy couple for each other. I remember that in high school Kaitlyn had a huge crush on him. I guess that worked out good for her. 

I love you all. Keep up on the hard work!!!!

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

A Changed Man

We received a letter from Elder Medina in the mail today. I wanted to remember the feelings I had while it read it, so I decided to jot it down here. I was overcome by a spirit of peace. I could feel in his words, the change that was happening or that has happened while on his mission. You always hear that you send them away as a boy and they come back as a Man. Today I truly felt that. He has changed and is changing in ways that I never could have prepared him for, this was and is the Lord's work in action. I'm proud of the "changed man" that he has become.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I am writing this letter for two purposes. 1- I am the worst son in the world and haven't bothered to send you a letter and 2- to apologize.

I know I'm not the best kid. Something that I would like to thank you for is for the outstanding love you have always given to me, even though I have done things to grind your gears. Second, the support. Mom, I have never had a better offense and defensive cheerleader in my whole life. You give off so much energy that I can't explain it. Dad, you have always been my trainer, on and off the field, mat or track. And you both keep doing it and I am grateful for it.

My mission up until this point has been pretty tough actually. I'm just now starting to learn how to budget and how to keep one. Not easy at all, but totally worth it. Mom, you're my hero for giving me the example on doing that with 5 kids. Do you remember the envelope system that you taught me before I left (that I hated?) I use that now. It works so well.

Dad, working like a man! Not worrying about people trashing or hating you. Everyday I have people, even kids yelling derogative Mormon slurs and openly disrespecting my companion and I. I have had to learn how to be an example and contain myself and turn my anger to love and compassion towards them. Not a lot of the world loves you for the profession that you have Dad, but you don't let it get you down.

These are only a few of the million things that you both have taught me. What I've been trying to do is magnify your love that you have for me to others. My investigators don't complete a lot of the commitments we leave with them and it hurts to see them not progressing. I'm sure that's how you and Dad feel when I don't progress, you are so sad and I'm sure a bit disappointed. I am sorry for any inconvenience I have caused you guys. I love you both no matter what in the world. I'm trying so hard to be a better person.

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

P.S thank you for doing family prayer, scriptures and FHE. You will all have more blessings than you ever know.

He also wrote Diego a really nice 2 page letter. He told him about eating Iguana and about eating "Nacho Libre" corn. He promised to teach him how to make it when he comes home in August.6 months can't come soon enough.!

Busy Week, Lots of Contacts

Dear Mom, 

This week was crazy. The gangs had a tight hold on the people here and the missionaries. Almost my whole area was shut down. However, Sunday and Saturday was amazing. The whole week we had curfew and couldn't leave the house. But I had 13 lessons in two days and talked to 25 people by myself. My companion has been sick these past 4 days with swollen glands. I had to work by myself with a member. I have been a horrible son and haven't sent any pictures to you guys. Here is a whole bunch of them.

This week I would like to give you all 3 Nephi 11 to read for the week. 

I hope all of you guys can have a great week. And I hope you guys can be happy. I have so happy this past week with my work. The Lord really was with me and I was able to teach better lessons than normal. My relationship with my companion is so much better. We are happier and a lot more unified.

I love you all no matter what.

Sincerely,

Elder Medina