Upcoming Visit From an Apostile, Headeaches and Possible Baptisms

Dear Mom,

Sorry about the account craze. We have to prepare all of our stuff like dry cleaning and shoe shine stuff and fares for travel because we are going to have Elder Quintin L. Cook at the temple in two days and interviews with President Glazier and we had to repair a burst pipe at the house. Lots of stuff. Olivia told me about her birthday. I am sad that I missed it. Arroz con leche huh? Nice. I will admit I am a bit jelous. I have been fighting with headaches this week, again. But we finally got an inactive member to church this week and another inactive is getting reactivated right now too. We have one lady that keeps saying that she wants to be baptized but she wont keep any kind of commitments or meet with us. It is super frustrating. Many prayers have been said and fasting too. But on the good part of it all. We have had the opportunity to find a whole lot of new investigators and families to teach as well. A couple new baptism dates have been set and we are doing all possible to keep them from falling through. I hope all of you are doing fine. Keep on working hard and being awesome. 

                                           Beautiful Sunrise

                                             We have Rats!

                                                   Lowriders

Love,

Elder Medina

Christmas Pics, Baby Food and Spiders!

Dear Mom,

I still have Elder Granillo, we just had a trio for a little while. Elder Edwards is now in San Patricio. Same zone, different area. I'm Still in San Salvador. Same area. We have gotten some new investigators and made some great progress with some less and inactives. This week was the only week that was really hard for me. We have literally done everything to find new people to teach. I have started to understand how the savior suffered. I have suffered so much this past little week. I have had my patience tried and my nerves fried with mean people these past couple weeks. I have felt a lot better these past two days. I have had the opportunity to meet and teach new people. We suffer, and we get blessed. I feel more of a real disciple of Christ. I am trying harder than ever to clean up my language and act. I can proudly say that I dont say my normal angry words when I drop something or when something scares me. I just scream like a girl. I still have trouble sometimes, but it is slowly getting better. I hope that all of you are still participating in the work of the Lord. 

Love all of you,

Elder Medina

 Elder Granillo and I had been sick. We decided baby food might be the best                                                            thing to eat.

                                   Is that Bacon? I can hardly believe it!

Volcano!

This is a copy of the email sent to all of the parents with missionaries in the East mission.

Espanol abajo…

Dear Parents,

No need for alarm, but many of you will have heard about the eruption of the San Miguel volcano today.  All of our missionaries are accounted for and safe. We have evacuated San Miguel, Usulutan, and San Vicente to the capital for safety. All are well and safe. We felt the hand of the Lord in all that occurred today. The President felt that he should attend church in a city near the volcano. We saw it explode. We were able to reach San Miguel so quickly.  All of the missionaries (54 of them) we were able to contact. (that is a miracle alone, because only 3 have cell phones, but because it was during church, we reached them all.) Our missionaries in Berlin (who were very close to the volcano) just “happened” to have the counselor in the mission presidency visiting. He had them in his car and on the way to San Salvador in a matter of 10 minutes. It was all such a miracle.

We are so thankful for your continued prayers. Please pray for the saints who remain in those affected areas. Pray that the missionary work will be blessed because of this disaster—that hearts will be softened and opened.

We are so thankful for you faithful sons and daughters. They were courageous, uncomplaining, and very obedient today. We are so grateful for their wonderful examples.  They will all be writing you tomorrow of their adventures, but we wanted you all to know that they are safe and well and that God has truly blessed our mission this day, so that you, too, could offer Him a prayer of thanksgiving. How blessed we are! He is so magnificent. We are so grateful. God bless all of you.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Glazier

Christmas in El Salvador and P Day fun

Dear Mom,

I have recieved everything for the Skype account. My allergies are kicking me in the rear like crazy. My medicine is helping me just a little bit. We have 6 christmas dinners for wednesday. I am going to die of food. We now have an official mom in our area. She is a member and is just like you. She goes crazy when we have a problem or something like that. She heard that my companion got sick and she brought us a bunch of food. Ok, my companion changed the time, 24th at two thirty in afternoon. Good job on the missionary work.  I am kind of jealous that Tori got some free luggage, that stuff is expensive. We got to sing in a christmas choir here. We also had a christmas and testimony activity at the presidents house.

                                                               Waiting for the bus

                                                                   P Day fun

                                                 Testimony meeting at President Glazier's

                                                                  My new Casa

                                                              Outdoor plumbing

Christmas Plans

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the love and I am super sorry for Alesia. I know she will be ok. How is everything going for you mom? Are you doing ok? I will admit, I am jealous that I missed shop with a cop. Mi espanol esta mejorando cada dia. I am trying everyday to do something new. Talking to random people in the street scares the living poop out of me. It is so nerve racking. But it is so much fun too. Our area is almost like my last one. Tough, but we are working with the members to get more work to do and more investigators. Ok, as far as Christmas, I will tell you next week for sure the time. But before 4 pm we can talk. I am going to tell dad, but I need you guys to make me a skype account. The rule is only family. Aunts, uncles, grandparents are all fine. But, as Pres. Glazier put it, "future family members" cannot be there or friends. But yes we will be able to do so. Cant wait. Love you all. Oh yeah, are you guys doing your missionary work too? If not, I strongly encourage you to get with the elders in your area soon. I love you guys!

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

Dear Mom,

Everything here is going alright. Me and my companion are doing alright. The only thing that stinks is that we have this one lady who is always talking to us like, hey, when is my baptism going to be? The only thing is that she never shows up or she lied about a requirement or something along those lines. Now, she is legally married, but she is never home and we can't meet or talk to her to see if she is doing alright. It's really frustrating. We did baptize two people however. Which was awesome. I have now figured out how much it sucks when there is no water in the house. Our well to the house was out for two days...... I smelt nasty.... Now however, I am clean and very happy.  Thank you for sending some family Christmas love. I hope that all of you are doing ok I love you all. How are you guys doing with your family missionary work? Have you gotten with the elders there? I really don't know when I get my letters. I just know how the packages work. But I'm assuming at only multizone conferences and at exchange meetings. On P-days I only have 15 min for the Mission President and 30 for you guys. So 45 min in total to email everyone. I am currently serving in San Salvador and my stomach is starting to get better except my companion is sick now. Well, I gotta go. Be good all of you! 

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

New Area, New Companero

Thanks for your support. I am feeling a little better. Elder Vasquez and I had a good change. After it all, we are pretty good with each other. My new area is pretty cool. The support from the members is so much stronger than the last area. My new companion is Elder Granillo. He is from Mexico, Pueblo to be exact. We usually do changes every month or month and a half. He's a good guy that is super nice and awesome. He's about a year into his mission. Medicine.....has been taken. I did get your package. Thanks a ton! It made me and my companion very happy. This Christmas season, I want to ask you guys to do something please. We are asking the members here to do the same. How I like to put it. Find the flowers the gardner wants to have back in his garden. Try to look for some people who you feel that need the gospel. As members and missionaries we all have a  missionary plaque, on our hearts. When we were babtized, we promised to do all the Lord asked, that means as President Monson said,  "Be a missonary. Every member is a missionary."

                              Real food! Besides cornflakes!

Don't you guys forget either. You all are children of God. And He is always there for you. Just reach for him. 

I love all of you. Merry Christmas. (What's Thanksgiving?)

Sincerely,

Elder Medina