Week 56: Get Your Head Out of the Clouds!

Hello friends and family!

This week has been interesting.  They usually are here in the mission.  We're having more success in Berlín.  Yesterday we got another investigator to church.  His name is Angel, he's about 75 years old and is a super nice, super humble guy.  He is a woodcarver by profession, and has all sorts of cool jobs that he shows us when we go to teach him.  This week he committed to go to church, but only made it to Elders Quorum.  I'm pretty sure that he'll make it on time next week, because the members made him feel wanted, and like he is already part of the branch family.

It seems like my P-days are going to be interesting this change.  Zona Jucuapa, my zone in the mission, is very large.  We cover a very large stake, the stake of Usulután.  Out here in the stake and department (the equivalent of a state!) of Usulután, travel is a bit mas o menos.  From my area, Berlin, buses leave every hour.  This is the only means of leaving town for us, so we have to be punctual.  Last P-day we went to Jucuapa, the zone leaders' area, an hour and a half away from Berlín.  This week we are in the city of Usulután, capital of the department of Usulután.  It's almost two hours away from Berlín.  On the bright side, it's a big city, so as soon as we finish writing we're going to go eat at Wendy's!  Next week the zone leaders want to have a P-day in Berlín, to be fair to us.  We've spent quite a bit of time and money on buses thanks to district meeting, zone conference, interviews with Presidente, and two p-days in other cities.

The buses here are interesting not only for the schedule, but also for the ride.  Berlin is a tiny town near the top of a mountain.  That means that the only ways in and out are two-lane winding mountain roads that aren't always in the greatest shape.  Sounds fun, right?  Now imagine going up and down those roads on a poorly maintained, thirty year old school bus.  Yeah, it's a trip.  The five kilometer (three miles) trip from the Carretera Panamericana (the closest major highway) to Berlín takes nearly an hour.  Getting from Berlín to Santiago de María, the closest town, is 45 minutes.  Getting to Jucuapa is an hour and a half.  And Usulután is almos 2 hours.  It makes life very fun being on buses so much.  The scenery is amazing though.

This week's title explanation: Berlin is extremely high up.  We're actually above the normal cloud level for our area of the country.  Sometimes the wind pushes clouds into the mountain.  That happened this week.  We went out to work after the interviews with Presidente and the whole town was covered in thick fog.  We figured out that it was actually a cloud that was covering the mountain.  It was awesome, but I didn't get any pictures.  If it happens again, I will take pictures!

Time's up!  Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Colton West

El Salvador, San Salvador East Mission

Zona Jucuapa!
(Elder West is on the far left)

I have caught paisley fever.  

I hated paisley ties before the mission, 

but I have come to love them here.  

I may have bought a few.

Week 55: The Not-So Caliente Oriente

Well, it has finally happened.  I have left Ilopango.  It only took 7 months of working there for me to do all that the Lord needed.  I'm grateful for my time there, but I'm also grateful to have left.  7 months in an area is a very long time for an Elder.

I am now officially in the Oriente.  It is the absolute hottest part of the country.  Except for my district.  We're in a little tiny town way up in the top of the mountains.  It's called Berlín, and it is one of the coolest areas in the misson.  Literally, it's cold in Berlín.  That's fine with me though, it means that I'm not sweating my brains out like most of the missionaries in oriente. 

Berlín is a way different area from Valle Nuevo, and not just because of the climate.  Being a small town, there's not a whole lot in town.  And we're far away from everything.  To get to our p-day in the zone leaders area was about an hour and a half on a bus, and we still have to go back.  On the bright side, the view while we're on the bus is really awesome.

My new companion is Elder Newey, from Ogden, Utah.  So far we get along really well, and we work well together.

As far as the work goes, we're doing well.  Since I got here, we have found 24 new investigators!  Some of them understand better than others, but that's part of missionary life.  Hopefully some of our investigators that we have right now will keep progressing and get baptized soon.

Well, that's all for this week.  have a good week!

Love,

Elder Colton West

El Salvador, San Salvador East Mission

For more info on Elder West's new area, see link under "Favorite Websites" on the right.

There was a huge rainstorm on Tuesday. The road got kinda flooded.
(Editor's note: Weds were transfers so this would've been in Ilopango I believe.
Also, don't know what's up with the pinkish umbrella. We bought him a
very expensive black one before he left that was supposed to be bomb proof!
Will have to find out what happened to it!)

The family of our cocinera (cook).
(Editor's note: not sure if this is their cook in Ilopango or his new area.
I'm guessing in Ilopago and this was goodbye before he was transferred)

Saying goodbye to the Cativo family. They're members who
helped us out a lot with finding new investigators.

Elder Newey and me at change meeting.
(Editor's note: this is Elder West's first
gringo companion since March!)