Week 10: Tamales and Coffee!

Feliz Año Nuevo!

New Year's Eve here made Christmas Eve look like a joke.  There were so many explosions that a war could have broken out and nobody would have noticed.  One of the fun things about New Year's here is that you end up dodging firecrackers, because the kids here are crazy and throw them out in the street without checking if anyone is walking by.  Keeps you on your toes.

Something amazing happened last Monday.  Right after our emails we went to wash some clothes at the laundromat and bumped into a guy from the states!  We had met him a couple of weeks ago and talked for a little bit.  He's down here for the holidays with a few of his best friends who have family here in Ilobasco.  And he invited us to have dinner with his friends and their family.  We, of course, accepted the invitation.  Elder Hood made a joke that since it's another norte (North American) who invited us, we would get a steak dinner.  And as it turns out, we did.  The family who we ate with has these big family and friends dinners all the time where they have pupusas and steak.  It was amazing!  We're planning to go back to that family and talk more about the gospel, because there were 30-something of them there, and they all love us.

Now, to explain the title.  We got invited for breakfast on the 1st to the house of a less active member whose wife is an investigator.  They had tons of food left over from the party they had for their neighbors the night before.  We sat down at the table, and our investigator served us three giant tamales each, and a giant cup of coffee.  But not actual coffee.  Down here they make a drink called "café de maíz" (corn coffee).  It's dried corn that is roasted until it's black, then ground up and brewed into a drink that tastes somewhat like coffee.  There isn't any actual coffee in it, so we're allowed to drink it.  So no, we didn't go breaking the Word of Wisdom.

Other cool things that have happened this week...  Well, we have a new family of investigators, and they are amazing!  They're in their early 20's, and have a 1-year-old daughter.  They're very positive about the gospel, and very attentive when we're teaching.  Oh, and they got married three days before our first lesson with them.  Unmarried couples are very common here, and that can be a challenge with investigators who want to be baptized, because some of them don't want to get married.  This family is prepared to receive the gospel in their lives, and we were guided to them.  Seriously, we were guided.  Our plans fell through, and we decided to go get a snack from a panadería that we've been to a few times.  We had the worst pan de piña (pineapple bread) that I have ever eaten, but happened to walk past this family's house while the dad and daughter were outside.  We didn't stop at first, because we were eating, but Elder Hood felt prompted to go back and talk to them.  And now we have a new family of investigators!

We have another investigator who has a baptism date for later this month.  She is the best investigator that we have.  She is so attentive to what is being taught, is always asking good questions, and she finally made it to church this week!  She's been twice before, several months ago, so all she needs to be baptized is to receive her answer about the gospel!

That's all I have time for this week.  I love hearing from you all, so keep writing me emails!  And be good!

Love,

Elder Colton West

El Salvador, San Salvador East Mission

Tamales and corn coffee.  Delicious, except for the bones.

Making lemonade last P-day.  We have a lemon tree in our house. 
Yes, in our house!  I'll send a picture of that next week.

Steak and pupusa dinner!  It's even better than steak and potatoes.