When you are in El Salvador and you and your comp are both gringos...

I sent some pics for you all so enjoy! The cool socks elder Riestvelds girlfriend sent him, the sick laguna in my area, and I dont remember what else... Love you all!

Yes mom, it is definitely the email that I am waiting for each week! Love hearing from you all. Man, another week is gone.  They pass like days now! Its crazy. I read just a bit of Jareds letter but he sounds like he is doing great up there in London! I bet its pretty cool up at the MTC. How long will he be there?? Yeah mom, makes me super happy that you are putting your all into your calling! Its the Lord blessing you with 30 daughters to love! Haha the daughters that you never had haha! Yeah we have been cleaning the house real good. Or at least trying to. President comes at the end of this week to check it so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Good news! We figured out the problem with the water. SO we can turn it on, but theres a leak so we can't keep it on.  So now we turn it on in the morning to shower and then turn it off after. It's kind of a pain, but better than outside. Yeah Elder Smith is out of here in 2 weeks. So crazy! I'm not sure when his homecoming is, but I'll let ya know! No I haven't gotten the package from Jane yet, but hopefully it comes this week! I got a few christmas cards this week from the Sumsions, Hyers, and Steve and Catrina and Carolines family! Everyone looks great! Hyers sent me a gift card but someone got into it and stole the card. Not sure how they did it but, it was gone when I opened it up. But tell them thank you! 

Dad I'm happy to hear that you had a great Bday! Sounds like a lot of fun. That's sweet that my letter got to ya on the 27th! Lucky you!  And yes, "Va pue salud" Is an El Salvador original so I'll teach it to you all when I get home. 

Well its been a pretty alright week so far.  We have found some pretty cool new people this week! One kid were teaching is A___ B___ He's 22 and seems very positive, but we see if he comes to church this sunday. We also found a mom and her 2 kids, ones 17 and ones 15. They are a funny family, and have lots of questions about the church so they have some great potential to progress. We're hoping and praying that they do! 

Today was a long day.  We walked out to a very far part of our area, but we had to go as a threesome with one of the other elders that lives in the house with us because his comp is sick and can't leave the house.  So he stayed with a member and the other came out to work with us.  It was a pretty good day. 

We contacted an entire pupusaria tonight and ended up finding a new family of 6 so we will see how they progress! They invited us for pupusas so we were able to talk to them a little bit more. They are a very cool family and super nice, but just not all that interested in the Gospel. They are more interested in hearing us talk english and tell them about what things are like in the USA. Which is cool and fun to do, but haha it has gotten a little old in the past couple days.  When you are in a country like El Salvador and you and your companion are both gringos, a lot of people are willing to talk to you. Or they just stare at you really weird as you walk down the street. We have gotten both of those everyday for the past 4 weeks. So it helps us out in finding people to talk to, but is a little harder to get them more interested in the gospel instead of how we look and having us speak in english.  I have been shaking things up a bit and have been telling people that I am from Argentina and up till now there are still a few members that think that thats where I am from. Its hard for people to believe that someone with darker hair and eyes is from the States. They all think it should just be blond hair and blue eyes.   

Well I gotta head. Nah Dad, I'm good! My stuff is holding up, and I'm still wearing down those shoes. Mom you dont need to worry about sending me a pckage! Its lots of money and I really dont need anything. Save the money for a date with Dad or something. :) Love you all like crazy, and miss ya tons! Talk soon!

Elder P.R. Thorpe