So to finish off the story we had to climb up on the roof and go through the hole, i got cut on my face a little bit from glass but it all went well and it was a once in a life time experience. A neighbor had a car so we took him to the hospital in that, he was laying down in the bed of the truck screaming, it was a little funny because he was using a lot of bad words but it was sad. I'm excited to Skype, Tace and i have been talking about how we will do it and we have a pretty good plan, i just have to put a specific day and hour with him and he will get it all set up on your part. 

This last week was a good week for us, Christmas is an interesting time here in El Salvador. It is full of parades, parties, fireworks and drunk people. Pretty much everyday where i am there is a dance party or some type of party that makes it interesting and hard to work because none of the members or investigators are in their houses due to the parties. The attendance in church was really low as well so this whole month with be a month of suffering for the church but its all good. So these past two months i have been reading the Book of Mormon and i finished it in exactly two months and it was amazing. My plan is to read it every 4 months in the future which is a very reachable plan, i have learned a lot these past two months and this last week i started to read it in Spanish again and hopefully will finish before the next general conference. Also this last week we had a Christmas party in the house of the mission president and here is a picture of one of the things we did. We did a little scavenger hunt and for a picture we had to take one with every ones feet off the ground so i decided to be the main part in this picture ;) I hope you like it. 

Cole

Mom-

It sounds like it was a good week for you in the office, the things you tell me are really interesting to hear and i like to share them with my companions and friends that are here with me and they all get a good laugh from them. You don't have to clean any of the messes up do you, or is it just the nurses? Like you i had a good experience that probably will never happen again in my life but ill get to that later. I don't have my release date but i think it will be in the last week of June but I'm not fully sure. I have done some calculations on a calender of 2013 that i have and I'm pretty sure its the last week of June but ill double check when i get back to my house and ill let you know next week.

You don't think you can cook but i miss your food so much i don't think you could comprehend it. The food here is good don't get me wrong but i miss your home cooked cookies, chicken Alfredo and a bunch of other things! When i come home i will be so happy to eat your food! I'm glad you get to stay dirty for a couple of days, i wish i could not shave for a couple of days but that's not allowed, when i get home I'm going to grow a fat moustache i think.

It will be cool being a trainer, I'm not right now but i will be in a week and a half. It turns out that my companion has had problems with his visa so he isn't here yet so I'm with another companion until the 20 of this month when he comes in. Right now I'm with an Elder named Elder Escalante from the Dominican Republic. This is my first companion from there and he is very interesting, i never get bored so that's a good thing. He tells the most wild stories and if they are true he has not lived a normal life. So Sunday night we were on our way home and we were about to walk into our neighborhood when a man comes out yelling for help so me and my companion started running to where he was and we found out that a drunk man had climbed on top of an abandoned house and he fell through the roof. No one in the neighborhood has keys to the house so we couldn't open the door to get him out and he couldn't go through the window either because they all have steel bars protecting the house from people getting in. So we have a 250 lb drunk man that fell through the roof of a one story house that hurt his back really bad from the fall and couldn't move, with no way of getting him out of the house except from the place where he came...the roof and we only had three guys to get him out. Oh, he was also bleeding really bad from his mouth, which was actually blood coming from his stomach we found out the next day. So, after 20  minutes of struggling and working we got him out and got him to the hospital and he is in bad shape. We found out that he climbed up on the top of the house because he was looking for his wife...ya we should choose better to not drink because he will have problems for his whole life now. I thought it was a cool experience! 

Anyways it was a good week and I'm doing well. Tomorrow is our Christmas party in the house of the Mission Prez.

Cole

Only one more month until we finish this year and its crazy, this year went by really fast!

This last week was a good one, today was a fun P-day for us. This is the second time I've hiked a volcano here in El Salvador, it took forever! We had a good group that went so it was a lot of fun. My mission president called me yesterday morning and extended another calling for me, he asked me to train again. This will be the third time for me to train, I'm not sure who my new comp is yet but i will know Wednesday. I'm excited to train again but its really tiring and stressful but maybe i need to learn things from it. This means that i will be in my area for at least two more changes and ill be here for a total of at least 9 months and in this same zone for more than a year! I'm thinking about changing the name of my mission because I'm not in the city, I'm in the middle of no where ha but its all good, I'm ready for the third time challenge. Saturday was a cool day for me, one of the families i helped reactivate got married! Its so cool to see the progress of your investigators and the Less Active members in your ward.

I think that's about it for me this week, i cant wait to get your letter! I hope you have a good week and stay safe!

Love Always,

Cole

As for me, you want to know what i eat. Well where i am is very far away, from the capital its about 3 hours in a bus so there isn't much here. To eat we have two really big restaurants that sell one thing...chicken! That's all we eat here, chicken, rice and beans. I love it but it does get a little old after a while. There is Taco Bell in the capital, as well as Wal-Mart, Price-Mart (like Costco but a little smaller, we cant enter though) McDonald's, KFC, Little Cesars, Burger King and things like that. I haven't been in the city for almost a year so i don't remember the taste of that stuff ha I don't want to eat out because i cant bring myself to spend money.  We had a good week, we saw some miracles! We have been having a really tough time on Sundays with members attending church so me and my companion felt that we needed to work more with the members and so that's what we did this last week and it worked! Two weeks ago we had an assistance of 88 in sacrament meeting and this week we had an assistance of 122!! It was amazing to see that every person that we visited came to church, even the ones that told us that they wouldn't go, went! It was really cool to stand in the doorway and welcome all of the members that came and see how they felt the spirit during the sacrament meeting. I had a funny experience with my Bishop yesterday when we were visiting some less active members. Somehow he knew that i don't like to spend money on buses, it gets expensive, so i ask for rides. Well he said Elder lets see how well you can ask for a ride and put your theory to the test and see if you can get a ride for us back to the house. Well the first person that drove by i asked for a ride and they gave us one, not only did they give us one but they went out of their way for us and dropped us off at his doorstep. After i jokingly said, Bishop you didn't have faith in me and he said he didn't for that purpose, it was a funny experience. Other than that everything went well for us and I'm doing well.

Well for me this last week was a really interesting week. Saturday morning we got a call from the mission president saying that my companion had changes and that i wasn't going to have a companion so i was being put in a trio until they find me another companion. So i went to another area Saturday, Sunday and today. This morning i got another call saying that i was going to be changed to another area to help some missionaries that are having a lot of problems not working and not obeying the mission rules, this will be interesting. I'm a very relaxed person and don't rat people out but I'm nervous about that because i know they aren't doing what they should but i don't want to be the rule breaker. Mom, its kind of like you when you had to break up two people kissing in their car at a church dance....i bet you didn't feel good but you had to do it. This next week will be interesting but hopefully i get my new companion in these next couple of days. Oh i also wont be getting a real missionary, it will be a mini-missionary that wont be Set apart, interesting. Some interesting facts that we found out this week. Our mission is getting 80 new missionaries in these next couple of months so a lot will be required of us in these next couple of months but we will see. Its kind of cool being the older missionaries in the mission but its really weird because the younger ones really look up to us, its cool. The mission president will be splitting almost every area in 2 to be able to give areas to all the new missionaries.

It is really hot here still, we passed the rainy season of no rain in my area so ya its really hot. The buses don't have AC, only the super special ones but those cost a lot...we go on them when we can because they only have the big routes not the little ones.My Spanish is good, i still have a lot to learn but i can say whatever i want and i understand everything so its just the little things now...it is tough to learn. Ya i wouldn't want to go to a college in Ohio but if i had to i wouldn't mind it. I'm just looking at all my options right now so we will see whats up in December. I don't want to wait until i have 24 years of age to get married, that's too long mother! Being with Dev would be really cool, we have been talking about it a lot.(Devan is his bestfriend from Texas, he’s serving in Hawaii right now).

Well i think that's about it for me this week so i hope you have a good week and all goes well.

This week brought new challenges as well as new friends. (Dryers, cars, toilets, showers and door locks) I’m learning that things like birthdays and Thanksgiving isn’t really about a cake or a turkey.  It’s about the people that we share them with or the memories of times past.  My sister came to visit and reminded me that I can have confidence in myself because I’m surrounded by people that want me to succeed.  The success is not mine alone but my friends, family and my Heavenly parents.  Thank you all so much.  Lorelei

This week was a good week for us, it sounds like it was an interesting one for you as well. Your were right when you said we cant do anything by ourselves, no matter how good we are at something. Its just like Michael Jordan, he didn't win all of those championships by himself, he had a whole team to back him up. Its the same thing here for us because we can have all the investigators we want but if we don't have the support of the members and their help then we wont get anywhere in our missionary work. I'm glad you have so many people there to help you when you need it and when you don't need it.

This past week for us was pretty good, we had changes and i have a new comp from Guatemala. His name is is Elder Vasquez and he is sweet. I'm really glad we had changes, things are looking up for us now that we get along really well and the members can see that. This past week we found a lot of people that are ready to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm loving it. I'm was ready to change areas but its ok being here another change, i think ill be here a change after this as well but we will see what happens. Nothing really big or funny happened this week, well we did have a mission conference and changes which means that two days in a row we had to wake up at 3 am to take 3 buses to get to the chapels where we were having the conferences. In one day we had traveled about 7 hours in buses, it was an interesting experience. I'm not sure if i wrote this last week or not but ill say it again, a member of our ward that we helped reactivate and baptised his family gave me a coin from El Salvador from the year 1911! Its really cool and really old so that was something cool that happened.

Im glad you had a good visit with Kimberli and you had some good experiences. I think thats about it for me this week so i hope all goes well for you and you stay safe.

Love you lots,

Cole

Dear Coleicious,

 

Well, honey, what one thing did you learn this week?

    What were you most grateful for this week?

 

I think these questions should be asked of each of us each week.  This week I learned that I cannot do everything by myself.  I had to rely on lots of different people this week.  I tried things myself but then had to call in reinforcements.  Brother Taylor to fix plumbing, tow trucks and car repairmen, sisters to engineer plumbing connections and friends to complain to, and children that call to check on me. At one point Kimberli were in the bathroom, wet and laughing because we had just made three projects into even bigger messes needing "professional" help.

 

I am thankful for your dad this week.  The owner of Highway garage was helping me with my car situation and he called me at work about your dad.  He told me that Dad was well regarded in the auto body industry and they had a write up about his contributions in their newsletter.  He offered condolences, and took a little off my bill. Can you imagine what the consequences could have been if he had been unethical or mean?  Because of him, I can be proud of my name.  People are watching and making snap judgments about us all the time.  When people at work find out that I'm Mormon they bring up other LDS families in Aurora.  I'm thankful that they are people I am proud to be associated with.  Think about it......I'm also grateful for orthodontia.  I am a smile, people (at work) can't believe I'm still smiling through every weird thing that happens to me.  But, they don't know what we do, do they?  If I had yucky teeth I wouldn't be comfortable smiling all the time.  So thank you Dr. Pizza (my orthodontist) and my parents for paying the bill.  So, find something to be grateful for and share

 

Take care of your name!

Love, mom

This last week was really cool for us, we had two baptisms! One was Friday night and one was Sunday right after church. We planned one right after the mutual on Thursday and one right after church to have a good assistance at the baptism and we for sure had it. The baptismal room is really small so we didn't all fit in there it was cool. The people who were baptised bore their testimonies and it was really powerful, one is really sure he wants to go on a mission and he doesn't really have the support of his family, which is kind of sad but its really cool. We just got news about our chances and i found out ill be in my same area again but my companion will be leaving. This means that ill have 4 changes in my area, about 6 months and in this zone ill have about 10.5 months. I was really hoping for changes because ill have 16 months with only 3 areas which is very very unusual but i just have to keep in mind there is a higher power telling me where i need to be so i just have to accept it. I took a picture of the shoes i am using now and have used all my mission and they are still going strong, they have 16 months! I hope you like them mom ;)

This last week was a good week for us, it was interesting. Nothing way out of normal happened, no one died in church....did i ever mention that? In my last area a woman died in Sunday School and 5 minutes later she came back to life...it was an odd experience. Anyways, We finally got all of the paper work worked out for one of the families to get married, Ive been working with them for 4 months, but she has her baptism planned for this next Thursday. We also have another baptism planned for Sunday, for a future missionary! We talked to him last night and he really is serious about serving so that's really cool. He was asking who will be there in the church to support him because his best friend is leaving for his mission the 24 of this month so he is a little worried about that, he will be the only member in his family. After talking with him for a while we cleared up his doubts and he is really excited, i cant wait to see this baptism. I’ll be sending some of the pictures of the wedding.

Ya my last letter might have been a little tough but it was a good one huh? I have dealt with a lot of things here in the mission and somehow am able to keep going, I'm not sure how but I'm doing my best. I don't always feel like its enough but its the best i can. I do have a mosquito net, i got bit in the street near a huge tank of water and had a really bad rash but its almost gone. Sometimes it goes away then comes back its really bad and i didn't have any bleeding so it wasn't bad dengue. As for the medical insurance will it cover all or will we have to pay because if we have to pay then i dont think i will want to do it, ill feel bad.

That's a funny story about the sandwichIs the house on the market? Is all the stuff moved into the new house? When you started off that story i thought you were going to end it by saying that you left it in the shed for weeks and it collected mold and had rats and you had to call someone to come clean it up...your ending was a better one. :) That's awesome about Chris Anthony got is mission call, has he sent in his papers yet? Maybe by the time he fills them out, sends them in and goes ill be home so i could say by to him. That's awesome that he can, he will love the mission!

Things here have been good for us this last week, we had a lot of interesting experiences. On my hour and a half bus ride here to write i was thinking of some of them and ill share a couple with you. My area is really really big and we don't have cars or bikes so we have to take buses, which cost a lot, or we ask rides so we were asking for rides on the high way and an 18 wheeler gave us a ride, that was cool at first. So we were going normally and all of the sudden one of the tires pops and that was a little scary but everything was good. Recently they started paying the police again which is good but that might have been too much to ask for because now they aren't paying the postal workers...so sorry to the people that wont be getting my letters right now haha One of the families we were teaching and were going to baptise this week is not doing so well. The man came home drunk a couple nights in a row and now the woman doesn't want to marry him so that is just a little problem. We are trying to get things worked out with them so we will see how it goes. Other than that things are well, I'm getting healthier and still attempting to lose weight but its just not happening.

This last week for us was an interesting one, my companion had Dengue hace 2 weeks and now i have it...its not fun! I have a rash all over my body and am in a lot of pain but I'm sucking it up and powering through it. We had a family come to sacrament meeting yesterday and in the Gospel Principles class we talked about Eternal Families and wow that was a powerful class, the sister started to cry...i think they might be coming more often now. We are working hard and doing as much as we can being really weak with Dengue but its all working out, God is making up for what we are not able to do. Our house is full of mosquito's, its a breeding ground, and were trying to change but in my area there are no other houses to change to so we will see what President allows us to do.

This companion is the toughest i have had so far and i for sure am learning patience. All i am able to do is try to think positive and serve him. Serving someone without anyone asking and not expecting a thank you back is really tough but it does help us learn to love all and it sure is helping me. We don't have much in common but I'm doing my best to help our companionship. So something cool that i found out is that as of 3 months ago the government hasn't been paying the police...ya I'm in the most dangerous country in the world without any police....they are all protesting and its a little nerve racking sometimes but i know I'm protected as long as I'm doing what i need to be doing. 

This ´last week was a good one for us, my companion that i was training got changed...he just finished his training. I am now with Elder Alameda from Mexico. He has two months less than me in the mission so that's pretty cool but i will have to learn a lot of patience with him. I have really learned to bite my tongue and just let things go and just follow after him to clean up his messes but its ok, its preparing me for kids ha we have been working hard and have 4 baptismal dates for this upcoming month and possible two more but we will see. The work is really hard here and people are really full of apostasy, that's what makes it tough but it played right it can be won! It was hard to work this last week because my comp has dengue so he has no energy to work...a lot of elders have been in the hospital for dengue...its really bad here now. 

I really enjoyed reading your talk, i have had a pretty tough life but Ive come to realize a lot of people have way tougher lives...I've seen a lot of life changing things these past couple weeks that have been hard to see and wont leave my mind but maybe that's a good thing. 

Anyways i hope you have a good week and all goes well for you.

The lord has many promises about tithing and one is in 3 Nephi (Book of Mormon). The Lord says that he the windows of heaven will be opened and we will receive so many blessings we won’t be able to take them all in! What a blessing it is to know that. Tithing can be a big sacrifice but it brings more blessings than the sacrifice itself. God doesn't need money, this commandment is more of obedience and when we are obedient there are blessings, 100% of the time.

This last week was a good one for us, we had two baptism sand they went well. We have been working on this family for about 2 months and sadly could not baptize the family, just the daughters. We have to marry the couple before we can perform the baptisms and we have had many problems with the government and their papers so were trying to solve them and then perform the ordinances this next week. Right now were looking for new people to teach, we have had to drop many people these past couple of weeks because they weren't progressing. It’s sad to have to drop someone because the message we have is the truth and they don't want to change to accept it. Maybe in a little while dad can teach them in Heaven.

We had a cool experience this week, I had the chance to go and climb up this clock tower that was like 3 or 4 stories high and while we were up there, there was a strong earth quake and that was pretty scary. The whole tower was shaking and swaying it was sweet but scary. All turned out well and i think only a couple of people died, from collapsing buildings but I'm all good.

 Be safe and happy this week and know dad is smiling down on you. J

Love, Cole

This last week was a good one for us, we had two baptism sand they went well. We have been working on this family for about 2 months and sadly could not baptize the family, just the daughters. We have to marry the couple before we can perform the baptisms and we have had many problems with the government and their papers so were trying to solve them and then perform the ordinances this next week. Right now were looking for new people to teach, we have had to drop many people these past couple of weeks because they weren't progressing. It’s sad to have to drop someone because the message we have is the truth and they don't want to change to accept it. Maybe in a little while dad can teach them in Heaven.

Love always, Cole

As for me and the traveling, i have been sitting in buses for hours in a day going to meetings and other areas; it is way tiring...especially in the buses that are so small. It’s really inconvenient but its ok, it makes me appreciate peaceful, air conditioned cars. We were expecting baptisms last week but they fell through again, all because of one paper we need. We have to marry this couple before we baptize them and wow it’s hard to do! I went to San Salvador, the capital, to try and take out some papers we need but I wasn't able to so now we have to go to another place even further. This country is amazing but they make things more complicated than they need to be but its ok were all learning. We are hoping, fasting and praying for everything to go well this week to have the wedding and baptisms this week. We have been through a whole lot with this family and we don't want to give up even though it’s requiring more than we can do.

As for me I think that's about it this week. We are tired from last week so were hoping to take a nice long nap today if it’s not 100 degrees in our house when we get back. Last week I had to sleep with a fan sitting on my stomach and another one blowing on my head because of the heat! Anyways I hope you have a good week!

Love, Cole

Things here have been good, it’s really hot but the work is progressing. We are hoping to have the wedding and baptisms this week, were hoping it all happens. Things are very difficult in this country but it makes good memories and I'm learning from it. Things really do happen in the time of our Father in Heaven, maybe we have been having the problems with the papers we need for a reason, it’ll all work out though, I know it. We are working hard to strengthen our ward, this ward is amazing but we have some areas to improve like all do. I am now the District Leader, meaning I am in charge of 5 other missionaries and our progress of work. I am really excited for this and to see how it all goes. In my mission I have felt a lot of things but the ones that I focus on are the good times and the learning experiences I have had, well every bad time has made a learning experience so it all has been good and for the best.

Well I think that's about it for me this week, a lot is always going on and were keeping busy. This next week will be a very busy week for me, a lot of traveling but I'm looking forward to it. I hope all goes well and the reception goes smoothly. Remember to keep it fresh.

Love always,

Cole

We as missionaries really focus on asking the people we teach inspired questions and its amazing the answers you can get from one simple question. For example we can challenge someone to baptism and have them commit to the date just by asking them what do they want for their kids in this life. We can ask them what they want in this life and get an answer telling us that they are divorced and their kids passed away...it’s amazing the things that can come from the spirit. When we ask by the spirit, we receive by the spirit!

 Well other than that we had a rough week, we really see the power of Satan and how he can change things very fast. We had three baptisms planned for this last Saturday and we didn't have one! All of them will not be getting baptized at all because they gave into temptation. We have a wedding planned this Saturday and then baptisms planned for Sunday, a family! We have been working really hard on this wedding so I hope it all goes well. Can you believe that, I'm planning weddings here? It’s nothing too special but as long as it is meaningful for them it’s perfect. Our bishop had an accident this week, he rides his bike from place to place while he works and was hit by a car, he is doing ok now, he won’t die or have any permanent damage but he is pretty beat up. It’s amazing how fast life can change isn't it, we always have to be ready.

Love, Cole-man

Things here are good; it’s so stinking hot though I hate it! Our house makes it hotter than it is outside and it’s terrible, we can never get away from the heat. The missionary work is going well, we have three baptisms planned this week and hopefully a wedding a baptism of a family the following. We’re doing all we can to get them to make this covenant with our father in heaven but wow Satan is working really hard on them. With the heat it makes it hard to work, I feel bad when we go and talk to people and I'm just dripping sweat, it’s really gross. But as we know the work of the Lord cannot stop with some sweat.