Elder Payton Thorpe : Homemade fried chicken and french fries...

Hey Familia!

So good to hear from you all! I am soooo happy that we had some great wins this week contra MM! That's also insane that Utah beat USC?? I bet that game was soo sweet! Jealous you got to go dad! Man everyone looks so big in those pictures. Seth Mortensen has grown a ton! And Jaxon Child looks like his 20. That's way cool that nick and his friends are going to the temple, AND will be on the slide for EFY!! Haha you're famous dude!

The meals here are basically all the same. We made some great food yesterday though. Some fried chicken and french fries. I put a picture of it on the dropbox, and some of the church. We Have a lady that cooks lunch for us and one other that washes the clothes. It's just hard to dry the clothes in Apaneca cuz there's not much sun, and they don't have dryers. But it's going good! I'm loving it!! Oh and we come down to Ahuachapán to write, its a 40 min bus ride from Apaneca.

Today was Wednesday. It has been hard to write lately cuz I've been just so dang tired. Today my comp had to go to san Salvador for his migracion stuff but luckily I didn't have to go with him. However, I did have to wake up at 5:30 and make the trip with him to Ahuachapán. I stayed in Ahuachapán with another Elder for the morning. We came back around 2:30 and got to work. The sun came out a little today for the first time in awhile here, it is usually all cloudy and foggy. Every night there is some thick fog that sets in and you can barely see from house to house. They say that the weather gets colder en November y December so I am super excited to spend Christmas here. I can have me a little fire in our fireplace and some hot chocolate at night when I come home. But I was wondering if you guys could send me that long sleeve shirt I got in mexico and maybe a sweater or two to work in? And maybe the long sleeve shirts with a hood. Not much, but a few so I have something to wear when it gets nice and chilly at night. Also one or two for my companion if you can! Don't make it so its too much money to send though. Annnddd some airborne would be awesome.

It is now Friday. We had a fun zone mtg with President Spjut yesterday and I learned a lot. Later in the day, I got to experience ANOTHER earthquake. It lasted for about 15 seconds, we were in a lesson with an investigator. I forgot to tell you that yes, I did feel the big one that hit a couple weeks ago. I was washing the dishes when the house started shaking. It was super crazy, and lasted for almost a minute. Hah I was trying hard to realize that I was actually in an earthquake. But nothing happened, everyone's fine. Today we went to a part of our area that is kind of a ways away. Supposedly the missionaries have never gone there before, but there is one member that lives there so we went with him to contact some of his friends and to our surprise we found some pretty positive people. We have been able to teach the guy that came to church on his own last week a couple times and we have had some great lessons with him. He smokes and drinks, but has desires to change. His name is R. We invited him to be baptized and he still hasn't given us a for sure answer but he knows it is something he needs to do. So we will see how it goes! I'm excited to keep working there and see what comes out of it. There is this evangelical church by our house that is currently jamming to their crazy songs/prayers. Sounds like they are really "feeling the spirit".

Another week is over, just like that. Today was sunday. I sure do love sundays. I am really liking this branch here in Apaneca and all of the members in it. They are great people and super nice. I spoke in church today about Prayer and the power it has in conversion. I've had a nice cold for the past couple days... So it made it fun to speak. The Members in the branch are awesome, but it is difficult because there aren't many. I got to bless the sacrament for the first time since the MTC and I think I will have to do it every sunday from now on. But it's fun to do it in Spanish! It has gotten even colder en the past 2 days. The wind has started up and has made it pretty chilly. I went out in a long sleeve shirt all day today, that was weird. We have been trying to make a little fire in our fireplace the last 2 nights but the wood we have is wet so it hasn't worked. But here in a few days we'll get one going. We were able to find a couple positive new people today, one of which has a little brother in the mission. Just more proof of how the mission changes lives of the familia! Yeah, this area is a little hard. Not many people want to listen to you. But we are doing our best to ignore what people say and to just work hard, having lots of faith that things will change and work out for us. This coming Thursday we get to go to the temple!! I am way excited to get back in the temple finally. I have missed it a lot!

Well I love you all so much and am so proud to be apart of this amazing family that we have! The Church is True!! Hey my guess for Jared's mission call is the Ukraine! Not sure why, but I'm feeling it! Talk to you all soon!

Elder Thorpe