Letter #6

Hola!

It's been a wild one! Finally made it to El Salvador, already feels like I've been here forever. Had to say some hard goodbyes to my district and teachers at the CCM in Mexico, gonna miss those guys, but I know they're doing great work in Guatemala and Texas.

Anyways, since the last time has emailed a lot has happened; don't even remember the last week at the training center ngl. We had a pretty cool devotional on Sunday by Elder Ulchdorf, don't remember all what it was about, but it was awesome, felt the spirit a lot. Also had a cool devo on President Nelson's birthday (happy late birthday to him), it was just super cool to see how much joy he and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve have. They're such great examples, we're blessed to have a prophet and apostles today to guide us.

As for travelling, it was pretty great. Thankfully we didn't have to leave at midnight or anything crazy, and the flight was only a couple of hours. There were 7 of us that came to El Salvador, and luckily we had 2 native Spanish speakers with us, so we weren't too lost. The view from the plane was gorgeous though, El Salvador really has it all. We could see volcanoes, mountains, lakes, farms, and even the ocean all at once, it was sick. And the views just kept getting better too; on my way to my first area (San Miguel), we got to see a lot more of the country, it's super green and pretty.

The only bad thing is the heat- we stepped out of the airport and man it was crazy. I thought I was prepared for it because Texas isn't exactly a winter wonderland, but I was wrong. It felt like walking into a sauna, and needless to say in our suits we were sweating like crazy. It's gotten a bit better, luckily it's been raining almost every day, so the mornings suck but afternoon it's usually pretty cloudy and nice.

Speaking of, I've been born in (my first area) Gadivia 2, San Miguel!! It was funny, cuz right when we got to the mission home we were talking with one of the elders and he was talking about how his first area was in San Miguel, one of the hottest parts of the country. He said once he came back to San Salvador he was cold, which was wild. So he totally jinxed us, three of us got sent to San Miguel, but it's been awesome. 99% of the people are actually super nice, we've only been ignored once so far, and usually most people listen to what we have to say.

As for food, let's just say, if this whole transfer is like this past week has been, I might be leaving this area a little bit heavier than I came in. The food is actually super good, we get dinner every day from members, and sometimes lunch as well, it's great. And we walk a lottttt, our area is pretty big, so by the time meal times roll around I'm usually starving. The most interesting things so far have been pumpkins and papoosas (not sure if I spelled that right). But that's El Salvador's thing, they have them pretty much daily, and they're awesome too. As for pumpkin, they dice it up like potatoes and eat it, not my favorite thing ever, but also not bad either. I don't really know how to describe them, they're kind of like a sweet and sour potato.

My trainers name is Elder Moss, he's a dawg. He's from Idaho as well, so that's

2-0 comps from Idaho. He's awesome though, speaks really good spanish. Speaking of Spanish, I feel bad for him cuz he kind of just carries all the lessons, I just kind of say a little bit here and there when I can catch a couple words the people are saying. It's pretty tough, learning how to be a missionary and also learning spanish is kind of overwhelming. I have to keep reminding myself it's only the first week, and I have 2 more years to learn and master it all, but it's pretty hard sometimes.

I feel like there's a lot more I could say, but I'll probably end it here, sorry its already been a pretty long one. Last things I want to talk about are miracles and a spiritual thought. Over the past week, I've seen so many miracles, it's crazy. We're whitewashing this area (meaning the two elders that were here before us were both transfered out, so me and Elder Moss are both brand new here) so it's not hard to get turned around on accident. However, every time we've gone the wrong way accidentally, we find the coolest people and families, the Lord has definitely been leading us to where He needs us. We've also been saying a lot of prayers for guidance, and every time we do, someone either walks by, opens their door, or a couple minutes later we knock on a door and find people that are interested, it's actually super cool. Our experiences remind me of how President Nelson said that we need to "seek and expect miracles." I can truly testify that miracles are real; the Lord really wants to bless us, sometimes we just need to have faith and take that next step.

The last thing I want to talk about is joy. I was having a bit of a rough one the other day, we were close to the end of the day and while teaching a family on the street the thought came to my mind "Why am I even doing this? These people don't want to listen, and even if they did, I can't understand what anyone is saying, and I can't talk to them understandably either. Even if I could talk with them, I'm not a great teacher, so how am I supposed to help them?"

Then 2nd Nephi 2:25 came to mind. It says:

25 Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.

That hit me pretty hard. Our purpose in this life is to have joy. True joy only comes from knowing that God loves us, knowing that Jesus Christ gave His life for us, and knowing that because of that sacrifice, we can live with our families together. That's the message that I'm trying to share out here, is that sadness, loneliness, death, and all the bad things in the world have been overcome, and that it is possible to find and have joy. I testify that there is so much peace and joy from having an unshakable testimony in Jesus Christ. I testify that He loves us, and that God knows exactly what we're going through. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

So I'll keep trucking on over here, and invite you guys to do the same. Keep "[pressing] forward... with steadfast faith in Christ"!

Love you guys!! Keep sending emails, I promise I'll get to them sometime, it's pretty crazy busy out here.

¡Que le vaya bien!

-Élder Bagley