La Vida es una Autopista pt 3

If you couldn't tell by the title, this week brought changes. Saying goodbye to Las Canas was pretty tough, lots of awesome families, a dope companion, Candido, everything. But asi es la vida en El Salvador. Wednesday morning we all met up at the bus terminal and I got to meet my new companion, Elder Felipe. He's a cool dude from Guatemala and he's teaching me Kaq Chiqel which is his native dialect. Our area is Cojutepeque, an awesome little city near the border of Honduras. Its like a mix of city and straight jungle. One minute we are dodging buses and cars and the next we are hiking mountains to get to people's houses. Its pretty crazy here. We got to wash someones dog this week, which we only did on the promise that they would finally get married. We carried canastas through the streets on our heads, ate some more liver, had a giant festival in our pueblo fill all the streets and ruin all our appointments but we also had the baptisms of Stefany and William. Stefany is a little girl in the ward and just recently turned 8, and while the actual baptismal service was a little crazy and Elder Felipe and I -who are both relatively new in the mission- were scrambling to pull it together last second, it was a special experience. Secondly, William. This guy is just awesome. We met him my first day here in Cojute and he is just a straight stud. 21 years old, told me he wants to get out on a mission ASAP. He already is killing it as a missionary. He was talking with his family about his baptism and everything and long story short, there are about 15 members of the Beltran'Alvarado family that are investigating the church now. Total Stud. 

Just to fill out the reason for my title and get spiritual with it as always. I wanted to share that we don't know what tomorrow holds. As they say in the greatest movie ever made, ¨Today is a new day,¨ and that means new experiences, new people, new opportunities. In the mission this rings very true. Every day we see something new or get to know someone with a unique story or problem. And in the short time I've spent in this country that's a lesson I have really come to find out. We don't know what tomorrow holds, but we can decide how we face it. So your cheesy Elder Moulton advice for the week is to take advantage of every day you get and every new experience that you find, cuz God is going to put new things in front of us every day, we just gotta choose how we take it. Hope every one has a great week! Thanks for all the support.

¡Salud!

--

Elder Moulton

!?De Verdad?!

This week was quite the ride for your boys down in Las Canas. We had meetings like daily which was a good time, found out some crazy news-stay tuned for the announcement next week. Some other highlights were teaching a really cool guy with no legs who had just some very confusing stories, finding a huge bible for Candido, using Kevin's bike to ride through the streets, got told (with "biblical evidence") that we are all aliens, and got saved by Miracle Buses 4 straight nights. Basically, we got stuck in some sketchy areas pretty late at night and the buses stopped passing by. 4 straight nights walking home, empty buses who were already done with their shifts gave us rides home. God is real, God is good. 

Another one of God's creations that we were lucky enough to discover was papas fritas on the streets. Mayo, ketchup, cheese and pure fried potato. And we got some buds on the main street that sell it so we got hookups. So all in all a pretty killer week, and for the climax...

ESPERANZA AND NATALY BOTH GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! 

I haven't talked a whole lot about them because it was pretty touch and go for a little while, but they are absolutely amazing. Esperanza has been looking into the church for years now, like YEARS. And her kids, except for Nataly were all members. We have been teaching her since like mid' December and this week both her and her daughter were baptized. The entire ward was there to support. It was pretty awesome honestly, and that family makes some bomb pupusas so we ate good too. But honestly this baptism has been the highlight of my time here in Ilopango, if I am allowed to pick one, and it was way cool to see everyone come together to make it happen. To explain my title, just want to explain that skepticism translates, and as two Gringos out here tryning our best to explain things in Spanish, we get the phrase de verdad like constantly. But to get spiritual like always, I am just glad we get the chance to be spreading that verdad, and yeah people don't always accept it, or don't always want to listen, but remembering what the verdad is, and seeing people like Esperanza and Nataly follow it' that makes it all worth it. Hope everyone has an awesome week, stay real.

Salud

--

Elder Moulton

Porque Estamos Aqui

Hope everyone had an awesome week this week. Elder Clove and I had a roller coaster. 

To kick things off, we had El Gran Cambio de 2019. My best friend in the world, a 75 year old baller named Candido, gave up smoking and coffee this week. And he did it in style. He swapped all his coffee for a bag of milk from a member. It was a happy moment. In other news, I broke a string trying to tune a members guitar, taught a lesson to 7 kids on the street (the youth of Ilopango call me Gringo Messi now), had 8 of our currently investigating friends at church, almost fixed a blender, ate 2 tortas and a burrito in one meal, and decided that chicken heart is my least favorite part to eat. It was a fun week, we had a lot of really cool things happen, really saw God's hand in it all. There are things about being a missionary that are so awesome to experience, like hanging out of a bus while a chicken is biting you, or watching people change their lives completely, or answering the random biblical questions of our neighborhood trash bag vendor, or forcing people to drink entire cans of soda for an object lesson. And to answer the question posed by my title, we are here (missionary wise) to experience all of this. To meet these awesome, crazy people and to try to help them come unto Christ.

But to explain more clearly the purpose of my title, sadly this week we have had to experience the passing away of a few really special people. One of which was our friend Wilbur. He was 18 years old and just kind of a goofy kid, but his biggest goal in life was to have a family and he was always grinding and looking out for his little siblings. Its not real easy to express the situation in an email, but we know hes crackin jokes and playing futbol in a much better place now. Its been a kinda sad week, but its lead to a lot of thinking and a lot of change. We aren't here for a long time, but in the time we are given there is time to accomplish what we need. But more than just accomplishing goals and checking boxes, life is about enjoyment and happiness. And in all that comes our way, even if its a dog jumping out of an alley outta nowhere to eat your face, or a person who thinks we are spies, we can choose to find the joy in it. And that holds true everywhere. I'm gonna paraphrase a little because I don't have the technology to get a direct quote, but President Thomas S. Monson once said that happiness is a choice. And just coming from Elder Moulton, I think its one we all should make. So choose to be happy this week, you already know Elder Clove and I are going to have a blast. Choose to enjoy the hard things and make sure to take advantage of what comes your way. Because we aren't here to just get through life, we are here to enjoy it. Hope everyone is doing big things, thanks for the love and support, they make the choice to be happy that much easier. Although being out here in the promised land, happiness is pretty much guaranteed.

Salud

-- 

Elder Moulton

Sepa Lo Que Cree

I would love to say I had a big new year, new me experience, but I think the biggest changes were either the Mac and Cheese we made with Grape soda because we were out of water(Elder Clove ate it), Elder Stoker and I beginning a promising art career, or me hitting my 150 day mark out here in the promised land. This week had its fair share of disappointments, like when the only burrito place in town sold its last burrito as we got there, only killing 1 cucaracha this week, and realizing that we haven't eaten a meal without some sort of chicken/rice/tortilla combo since we got here. But as always the good far outweighs the bad. 

We met some really awesome people this week, saw some really powerful things. There's a lot of people struggling down here, but its always so cool to see the sacrifices people will make for their family or for what they believe in. I don't like dropping names or specific stories a whole lot, unless the people tell me I am good to tell it, so I'm not gonna get super specific. But this week we have seen people who work from 5 am to 10 pm to provide for a newborn baby, people who sacrifice work and money just to meet with us, a man who's mom is in the hospital but who wont mention it to anyone because he is too worried about helping other people. We have seen pastors (some with very loud speakers all night long) defending and preaching to try and help the people of the community, political ralliers spreading their messages, but we are 2 missionaries who keep the grind going no matter how many people question us about reincarnation, or pretend they aren't home when they see us coming. Because yeah that stuff is going to happen, Asi es la vida. But we got a pretty strong belief that what we are doing here is right. And more than that, we know what it is that we believe in. 

Many times its easy to get caught up in a belief, or even to lose track of one. Beliefs are motivations for actions, but sometimes we forget that. We get so caught up in the "what" that we forget about the "why." Which is why my title is what it is this week. Know what you believe. I have a faith in my life. A faith that God has a plan for me, that he knows me, and that I gotta be the best I can in order to fulfill that. I got my faith that I can live with my family forever and as a missionary of Christ I can help share that message with others. There's a lot of different faiths and religions down here, and people are very devoted to what they believe in. And that's an awesome thing to be. But the first step is just knowing what it is you believe in. Know what it is that motivates you, that pushes you to be better. No matter where you are at in life, or what it is you are doing, know what you believe. And if you do know, it gets a lot easier to keep on going forward. 

Hope everyone is doing good, thanks for the love and support.

SALUD

--

Elder Moulton