Editors Note: Tanner had to help an elder out in his zone today so he wasn't able to answer emails. He wanted us to tell everyone hello and thanks for the support.
Well, welcome back to another update from your favorite missionary in El Salvador (hopefully, but I wouldn't be offended otherwise). This week brought some struggles as my hair continues to recover from the tragic self hair cut incident. But we stay strong, we stay grinding. Some other crazy things that happened this week was when a lady started shouting at us in the market, using the gift of tongues, but accidentally ended up singing something along the lines of the "Scooby Do" theme song. Or when a preacher tried to challenge me in front of the entire bus we were in. Or when a little girl named Dulce, with all the confidence of a 7 year-old and not a bit of hesitation, counted from 1 to 10 in English but left out the less important numbers of 4, 7, and 8. Or when my companion, Elder Herrera, accidentally introduced himself as being from Disney and not from Guatemala (we still aren't too sure as to how that connection happened). Or when we sang an original song in front of all the members of the church here in Apopa for a talent show. Or introducing the greatest group game of all time 'Mafia' to some families in a family activity (Shoutout to Chula Vista 3rd Ward young men). All in all it was a pretty stellar week.
Which brings me to my title, one which has turned into somewhat of a joke between Elder Herrera and I. As I mentioned last week, the rainy season has started which surprisingly didn't mean that the sun went away. So what we have been facing this week is the strange sensation of sunny rain. And as the water hits the cobblestone and steams into the air, we started, as always, to tie the sometimes awful, sometimes refreshing sunshiney rain to a lil real life experience. Because a sunny day is what everyone pictures when things are going right. And rain is what happens when things are a little more difficult, its sad, hard, tiring, etc. But at the end of the day, what we are usually faced with is a little bit of both, or as we see here in Apopa, a little bit of sunny rain. On the brightest, sunniest days, a little bit of rain will fall out of nowhere. And on the darkest, stormiest days, a little bit of sun will always come thru for us in the end. And what we decided in the end is that the rain helps us to appreciate the sun, and the sun helps us to appreciate the rain. A sunny day or a rainy day, neither of those exist. Its always a little bit of a mix. But its better that way. Because a little sadness, or a tough lesson, or a letdown here and there will just help us appreciate the good things down the road. And when things are going good, the lessons are flowing, things are going your way, we shouldn't forget about the rain. Because in the end we don't control the weather but we do control our reactions. So if it looks like rain, like everything is just going down the drain, the sun is still there, or at least the heat in our case. This week we were having a really rough stretch, struggling with some things in our area and just overall getting drenched by the 'rain'. And in the middle of all this, we met Kevin. Kevin is a friend of a friend who sells bread from his motorcycle to make a living. We hadn't really ever taught him but as we were out one night we ran into him on the street, as we left tired, sad, and dejected from a lesson that sadly didn't go so hot. As he pulled up his motorcycle, he shared with us something that helped bring the sun back out in the middle of all our rain. He told us he had been looking, searching to fill a gap in his life and that he wanted to talk with us. Long story short (a story with plenty of rain and sun in and of itself) Kevin came to church with us this Sunday and, as he searches for his answers is preparing to be baptized. If it hadn't been for the 'rain' of that day with all that had gone down, I don't know if we would've been in the right place or time to find the 'sun,' or Kevin in this case. So yeah it rained a little bit these past couple weeks, but it was always sunny rain in the end. And I don't doubt that that's the way God wants it. So have a great week, stay grinding, and thank you all for all the love and support, it makes the rainy days much more sunny.
SALUD
Elder Moulton
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