Skyping with Elder Andrew in El Salvador, sister Lindsey in Philadelphia, sister Danielle in Las Vegas and us in St.George, Utah. Hooray for technology!
Mother’s day is celebrated each year on May 10th
in El Salvador. So we were able to Skype
with Andrew and his two sisters on Friday. He seems happy and doing well. The
language is slowly coming. He is having his first baptism on Saturday, May 11.
Here is what we learned:
Lot of Walking: After the first few days in the field
his whole body ached from doing so much walking. It is a 10 minute walk to get
to the ladies house that fixes their lunch and dinner. Her house is close to
many of their investigators. They are constructing a new Stake center that will
be done in June. It will have an outdoor soccer court and basketball court.
They are excited for that.
Buses: He does ride the bus about once a day. The
buses are pimped out with chrome all over and big sub woofer stereo’s in the
back blasting music. They are very short in height. When he gets in the height
of the ceiling is about to his shoulders. So if he doesn’t get a seat, he is
crunched over for the duration of the trip. El Salvadorians tend to be quite
shorter than Andrew’s 6’ 4’’
height. Andrew says that he gets quite a
bit of attention for being so tall. The young kids will see him coming and run
up to him and ask him how tall he is. (1.95 meters!) It is about a half hour by
bus to the San Salvador temple. They take investigators there to walk around
the temple. They use American currency, but mostly coins.
Music: Andrew can play the harmonica fairly well and
he took along on his mission. He will often play a hymn on it at the end of a
lesson. The people are fascinated by it. His companion from Panama, Elder
Cerrud, has several flutes and they will play music as they walk along the
streets to appointments. He said that Elder Cerrud is a straight arrow, meaning
that he is very obedient and is a great trainer. They don’t really speak each
other’s language so that is a little difficult. But the Spanish is coming along.
Food: Andrew said he lost weight in the Guatemalan
MTC because they just gave them one plate of food and that just wasn’t enough.
Now he gets a lot of food with lunch and dinner prepared by a cook. He feels
like his weight is back to normal. He loves Mangos and is given a lot of those
to eat. They must wash them in purified water before they can eat them. He has
mango Oatmeal every morning. I asked him if he could bake a birthday cake if I
sent it to him and he said he has a small stove but no oven. He does have a
land line phone in his apartment but no cell phone.
Culture: Most of the people wear American brand
clothes. There is a mall close to where he lives and he says it is nicer than
our St. George Mall. They have restaurants like in the states, Kentucky Fried
Chicken and Little Caesars serving $5. Pizzas. The area where they live is a
safe gated community. There are street lights at nights and people come out in
the street at night and visit.
Most of the people don’t have real jobs but set up little (under
the table) stands and sell eggs or chips or mangos or small craft items. Many
of the families do not have a father in the home. Some fathers are in the U.S. working. Many struggle with drinking coffee
and the law of chastity. They don’t usually have to set up appointments because
people are usually just home chillin. They do plan their day though.
During the day they go out in the rural area where the homes
are made of tin and bamboo. It is kind of a slum area. There are lots of mango
and banana trees and dogs and chickens running around. They usually sit out in
hammocks and teach under a shade tree. There are some “bad guys” in these
areas. The gangs sit on bikes and smoke and sometimes harass them. They have to
be out of these areas by 6:00 pm. There are no street lights and bad things
happen at night.
Even the tin and bamboo homes usually have satellite TV even
though they don’t have indoor plumbing. He says few people have cars, but if
they do they are usually quite old and beat up but they like to pimp their cars
up! He also sees guys walking with carts hooked up to a cow around town.
Teaching: They are not allowed to knock on doors to
proselyte. They rely on members for referrals. There are 7 million people in
their small country. Besides, the baptism on Saturday, they have two more
scheduled for June. They have a lot of progressing investigators and Andrew
hope to stay in this area to see them progress towards baptism. He has one
baptism of a guy who is a dentist, who studied in the states and speaks
English. Andrew is grateful to get to help teach him in English. His wife is
already a member.
His first transfer will be next week. He knows that he will
stay with his current trainer and hope they will stay in Versailles. This next transfer will determine which
mission he will be in. A third El Salvador mission is being created in July. So
he may get a new mission president or a new mission name. He really looks up to
his current mission president and has learned a lot from him.
Service: They are always looking for service
opportunities. Last week they took machete knives out and helped clear some
areas. They have helped paint and chop wood. They usually just do it in their
shirt and ties.
P-Day activities: They usually just play soccer.
Andrew says his role is to just get in the way of the offense since his soccer
skills are not too great yet. There are some places to hike but since he walks
all day every day, that doesn’t sound as enticing as it did in Utah. There is a
little lake up the road and some ruins to visit. He hasn’t hiked up the volcano
that is close to them. One thing he likes to do on pday, if there is time, is
to take a siesta! He has rigged a mosquito net up over his bed with coat
hangers and his knot tying skills. It is just the beginning of the rainy
season. He says that it can rain very hard all night but when you wake up and
go outside, you can’t even tell that it has rained. There are ants if you don’t
clean up and big beetles that he just whacks!
When asked what we could send for him to give the kids, he
said they like super hero cards and the girls like princess stuff.
Andrew loves getting to spend so much time reading and
studying the scriptures. He is participating in some great conversions. He
feels very blessed spiritually and physically and is learning a lot every day.
He is grateful for the wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord for two years in
El Salvador. He misses us and talked for longer than we expected. He got a bit
choked up at the end.
We are so proud of Elder Flake and are grateful for the
opportunity that he has to serve the people of El Salvador and bring them the
happiness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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