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.

Not much happened for us this last week, we had a lot of lessons and are getting a lot of references so we are really thankful for that! We have recently found this amazing family and we have a date set to marry them and baptize them for the 14 of this month! The father is less active, for about 10 years, and wants to change so much! It will be cool if it happens this month. Pray for the family Cañas! We have some other investigators that are really progressing and have baptism dates for this month as well so we’re hoping for that! We received 34 references this last week.

This week for us was a pretty good week, not much happened at all surprisingly! We had a good sacrament meeting yesterday and all the young women spoke and explained to us what young women was about. Now the young men have to do something to top them but they won’t, the youth programs here aren’t very strong sadly. I am so grateful for the youth programs that we had when I was a youth, I might not have liked all the things we did all the time but I learned from every experience and am grateful for it. It’s funny how much something means to us after we don’t have it for a while or at all.

Other than that we had some interesting lessons as always and some interesting experiences. It’s funny how some people just come up and talk to me because of my color and how big I am, it’s funny the people that approach us. Each day we have new experiences and it’s fun to see what happens. This Wednesday we have changes and I still don’t know if I will be changed from my area, I hope I will! I am ready for a new challenge so we will see. I’ve had 5 baptisms in this area and we have some more possibilities for this next month but I’m ready to go. My companion is really starting to bug me but I’m being patient and learning from it. I met another gang member that has killed 4 people, pretty sick huh? It’s funny the people we end up talking to in the streets, ha.