Elder Payton Thorpe : El Salvador transportation and lots of pics

So, Mom, I just remembered what you said about me having to write longer emails to you because now I've got the AlphaSmart, so I'll try to give you a little run down of how the weeks going so far. Yesterday was my Birthday and it was a pretty good day. I just felt really grateful for the awesome friends and family that I have at home, as well as on the mission. I was happy to be able to be a missionary on my birthday! We had zone and district mtgs and it went good, my district is working really good right now and mostly all of the baptisms and dates we have in the zone are from my district, so I'm pretty proud of that! Our plans kind of fell through later in the day due to a pretty hard rain storm so that was a real bummer. But it was a good day! I also ate a pupusa loca for dinner. Its this huge pupusa that has like everything in it. It was really good, but I had no idea what exactly I was eating. I'll put some pictures of it. So today is friday, and it was a crazy day. I had to go to San Salvador to renew my residence card thing. It was a fun trip cuz I got to go with all of my buddies from the MTC. About a year ago we all made the same trip to do the same thing, but this time we knew what was going on and understood what the people were saying haha. We had to drive a ways into the city and we were all in awe seeing big buildings, houses, and actual restaurants for the first time in awhile. Crazy how much we have changed. We talked our bus driver into taking us to Wendys for lunch. It was the first time I had gone into a Wendys and sat down to eat in over a year. It was so good! I was also lucky enough to sneak a few peeks at a Little League World Series game that was playing on TV. The whole thing was a really weird experience, eating wendys and seeing baseball. But it was fun! So we rode back to the mission office in the mission bus, then we have to take a public bus back to Atiquizaya. The bus that goes to Atiqui is the 210. So instead of the 310 to Yuma, we have the 210 to Atiquizaya. Boy, I'll tell ya, the 210 at about 12pm is the most packed bus in the country! You literally have to push and squeeze through people to get on. Haha you guys would die if you saw how many people they can fit into one bus. But somehow we always make it! We then had a a pretty good day and fit in some good lessons. But it was kind of one of those days where you feel like there is no one that wants to talk to you. We came to visit some new people we found the other day and they were sitting outside their house. But as soon as they saw us round the corner, they jumped up and ran inside and closed the door. We then knocked on the door and no one answered. Haha it was pretty funny. The joy of being a missionary.

Well, it's now Sunday night again. Crazy how fast the weeks are going by. We had a good day today. I spoke in church today about the restauracion, haha that was pretty easy since I teach it at least 4 times a day, it went well. Our potential for these next 2 weeks and the month of september is awesome. We have been teaching a mom and her 4 kids for the past little while. 2 of the kids were baptized 2 years ago but the mom couldn't because she's not married, but now she isn't living with the guy so she can be baptized now, and she also has a kid that is about to turn 9 who also can be baptized. We talked to them today and the kid wants to be baptized on the 30 of this month. The mom is still thinking about it, but she will be baptized next month. L is so darn close its killing us. He knows its all true, but is just a bit scared of the commitment. But he's getting there! Another girl we are teaching, A, has been coming to church and is getting involved with the youth so we're pretty confident she will be baptized next month as well. She's 17 and a really nice girl and is so ready for this gospel. It is so cool to see how someone is progressing in the gospel, those small little changes they make and the glimpses of the spirit that you can see in them is incredible. I was able to do 2 baptism interviews this past week and one was to a kid that has a cool story. His family is just dirt poor. They literally live day to day selling mangos. He is a sweet kid and has an awesome testimony of the gospel. I asked him why he wanted to be baptized and he said because he wants a better life and he wants the guidance of the Holy Ghost so he won't fall into the bad temptations of the world. It makes you smile when someone just gets it. He will be a great member and leader in the church.

Elder Lopez and I have been improving on our distance with our runs in the mornings, we were able to push it to 3 miles the other day, it was good! Elder Lopez was a big runner before the mission so he is getting me into shape.