Week 21: Pack a Day

This last Saturday, the 21st, was my birthday.  It was really weird to celebrate a birthday away from my family for the first time.  Thankfully, I have people here who are like a second family.  Namely, the other missionaries and the Hidalgo family.  Sister Hidalgo not only made pupusas for lunch, she also bought me a cake!  And the family gave me a tie!  They are so amazing!

That family I mentioned last week has a baptism date now.  18th of April!  The daughter of that family is one of the most positive people I've taught!

We went on an adventure on Saturday morning.  We had tried to go out and work before lunch, but all of our appointments fell, so we stopped by a member's house.  That visit turned into an impromptu trip to a place called Casa de la Hacienda.  It's an amusement park on the far side of my area, and has a water park (which we can't use), a zoo, and a museum that supposedly has a bunch of really cool stuff from some of the Maya ruins.  We've been trying to plan a fun P-day where we go to the museum, but we found out that they're closed on Mondays.  Except for next week, thanks to Semana Santa (what they call the week leading up to Easter).  So we may go there next week.

Now, the reason for the title...  At the gym we go to there is a "window" (really just a part where there's no wall, just a fence to keep you from falling off of the building).  From this "window" there is usually a great view of the landscape south of Ilobasco, including a giant volcano about 40 kilometers away.  This last week we haven't been able to see the volcano very well.  There's just too much smog in the air to see it.  I made a comment to another elder that living here is like smoking a pack a day, thanks to all of the smoke in the air.  I can't wait for "winter" (a.k.a. the rainy season).

Love

Elder Colton West

El Salvador, San Salvador East Mission

¡Cumpleaños Feliz!

Tradition here is that after singing Happy Birthday, you take a bite out of the cake,
and someone else pushes you so that you get frosting all over your face.
Gotta have some fun on the mission. (2nd Companion: Elder Chamorro)

Birthday cards from home!

I decided to make sure that my camera is actually waterproof by putting it in the pila.
It is indeed waterproof, and takes good underwater pictures.

We haven't been able to see the volcano for about 2 weeks.
It's usually because of how much smoke is in the air, but today it was because it was raining.
This is the view from the gym.