Notas de la madre de Tanner

Editors Note: Tanner had an epic soccer game with the community team and a big leadership luncheon with his mission president so he just gave us a couple of bullet points from the week.

• No water in his apartment all this week so thankfully it rained again so they could "shower" under the alley gutters.

• Don Paco (age 84) was baptized this week and when they arrived to pick him up he was already in his baptismal whites. 
• Tanner was able to fulfill his lifelong dream of wearing the white jumper to baptize someone because they finally found the missing jumper.

• Amazing ward Noche de Jogar (Family Home Evening) this week including cake and 20 investigators came and Eva gave an amazing lesson about how to recognize you are a child of God.

 

Saluuuuuud

• Elder Moulton

Cuando Su Uber Llega Tarde

Another week in Paradise. These past couple days have flown by, feel like I was just writing another one of these. But I gotta say this week was one I will never ever forget. 

We had quite a few crazy run ins, with horses, drunk men, and old friends but the best news is that we finally had rain! So we weren't too sweaty this week. Which was good because we didn't have water in our colony and passed 3 days with out showering. That was rough. But it rained a lot so we were cleanish.

I'm going to get right to the good part tho, this Saturday we had what us Salvadoreaños call a ´´Tarde Blanca´´ where Dennis, Henry, Karla, Marjorie, Miguel Angel, and Rosaura all were baptized on the same day. And even tho we had a slip and slide sort of accident outside the baptismal font and a wedding with an over the top balloon arch (that your favorite central American missionaries put together) it was one of the most special nights of my mission. But I would like to explain my title. After 5 of the 6 people were baptized, including Henry who is one of my best friends forever and a future stud of a missionary, we realized that Dennis had disappeared. And I was stuck in the water, in the baptismal font. Long story short Dennis is an Uber driver and he left his wedding early and missed the baptismal service because he had to do an Uber run. And we didn't know so after an hour waiting in the water he showed up and was baptized but wow. Never thought I'd be stuck in a baptismal font for an Uber run. Gotta love this life. 

Anyways I wanted to share something with you all that I read this week that really hit me hard from a talk called DO NOT PROCRASTINATE by Eldred G Scott:

The story is told that Satan called a council of his agents and asked how they would combat the forces of righteousness. One said, “I’ll go and tell them it isn’t true.” Satan said, “No, that wouldn’t do.” The second said, “I’ll tell them it’s only half true.” “No,” Satan said, “that’s not enough.” The third said, “I’ll go and tell them it’s all true, but there is no need to hurry.” “Go,” Satan said. “That will get them every time.” Lucifer cannot win.  

If there is something you know you should do but aren't doing it, DO IT. Don't wait because if we put things off it doesn't happen.

Have a great week! 

saluuu

Elder Moulton

!Hola Chelito, Hola Negrito!

Well I can now officially say, I have hit one full year here in paradise. Its been a crazy ride, Ive seen things I would have never imagined seeing, met people who have absolutely changed my life, learned more about my Savior and his love for us, and eaten things that would have made me vomit all over myself a year ago. Its a little crazy to think that this awesome adventure is halfway over but we still gotta lot of work to do and I am so pumped to be here on the grind. 

This week was one of the absolutely weirdest of my mission. We got to travel across the country for a meeting with Elder Taylor, a church leader, who flew down from the USA. It was incredible and just being there we felt the Spirit so strong. We got the chance to have a couple of training meetings with him too and then we spent the day working with ELDER FELIPE!! It was so cool to be able to see him again. What's even cooler is when a missionary first enters the mission, his first companion is called his "dad" and Elder Felipe now has a "son" in the mission, so we got to work with my "grandson" too. It was way cool and even tho we had to  take an 8 hour round trip in bus it was a great couple of days. 

Here in Apopa things are still kickin. When there is someone with a lighter skin tone, they use the word chele or chelito, and a lot of people call me that. My companion and I have gotten to know the community a little bit and one day as we were waiting outside of someone's house some little kids ran by and yelled, "Hola chelito, hola negro!" and that's us. I'm sure there was no racism intended but its just funny to know that we have friends here in Apopa. We kind of stick out. 

But it really was an amazing week and just walking through the market this morning, it kind of hit me that I have been out here for a year now. And wow. I may be forgetting English and its true that eating a meal without tortillas and beans sounds weird to me now, but this is without a doubt the best place in the world to be for me right now, and the mission has taught me so much about  life and more importantly, about my Savior. So, from your favorite chelito and negrito, hope everyone has a great week!

SALUUU

Elder Moulton

?Donde Esta Mi Carro?

Well another week in paradise. Gotta be real this week had its ups and downs but I really cant complain when I got the chance to live in the one, the only APOPA CITY. Its been a blast here and even tho we ended up running back and forth in mototaxi for hours to bring Don Paco to church, and we were gifted so many pupusas that my comp hid some in his backpack when they weren't looking. Also I played piano in our ward for a couple of songs and it went absolutely horribly, but it was an experience. And experiences are something that we never run short of here. Highlight of the week was probably when we had what the Salvadoreans call a pupuseada. Basically my dreams came true. The entire city was invited and we cooked up some mean pupusas here in the church, and yes we ran out of salsa but it was a day I will never forget. Also got the chance to go and visit some other areas with my companion and we had a good time pretending we knew the area and talking with people as if we were locals. Been keeping it real and playing a lot of soccer on Mondays too so we're keeping Gringo Messi alive. On the real tho we had a couple lessons this week that really taught me an important lesson.

We were teaching someone and they just really didn't want to pray. So I said look whats your favorite food? and she said Fish. So I say alright here's the deal, on the other side of that door (as we pointed at a door) there's a bunch of fish. You want some? And she goes, yes. So I say great.  Now we are just going to wait for the fish to open the door. The point of the example is that the blessings or the results that we want don't come to us. We don't wait for God, God waits for us. I think too many times we put off what we have to do, or justify our lack of action saying that we are waiting for a sign, or waiting for God to do something. But we shouldn't wait for God to do our part for us, he is the one waiting for us. Another friend asked us if he was doing everything right, where were the blessings? (He wanted a car more than anything to explain my title.) But It really made me think. As we grind and do our part, we have the habit of looking at what others have, or we look at what we lack instead of recognizing all God does for us. In the end, don't wait for God, don't look at what you lack. Just do all you can do and in the end it all works out. Not saying we are all gonna get cars, and I definitely didn't promise that to this friend, but it all works out at the end of the day. We just gotta do our part.

Hope everyone has a great week!

SALUUUU, 

Elder Moulton