Fin de semana

Friday, June 4
English club at a University this morning from 8-10. This boy, Adam was seriously in love with Kassandra!! It was fun and kind of disorganized but fun to talk to people.
Brother Hernandez was too nice to us: they kept giving us gifts! The University gave us boudin, then Bro Hernandez gave us breakfast sandwich meals, water, peanut M&M’s, got us free super nice hard covered Libros de Mormon at the CES building (which is gorgeous and has ping pong, air hockey, and foosball!), he then drove us to the distribution center and bought us Spanish Bibles and hymnals because we had wanted some but didn’t have money! He was like no big deal—you can pay me back later! He bought America a triple in Spanish so she could learn more Spanish and then he drove us all the way home! It was ridiculous how nice he was. I also sat in the front of the car the whole time and talked with him. It was the first time in my life where I understood everything he said and I could say everything I wanted to say back! It was a way cool experience—one of those times where everything is made worth it. I love it! It’s cool to feel you can have a conversation with someone if needed.
I got sad to leave again today.
We relaxed and rested at home until Estela’s. We went to dinner—it was Ligia’s birthday so they had made tamales (Mexican tamales are SO much better, though. They are definitely more flavorful and appetizing). Misau (Estela’s son) gave us his sweaters to borrow for our hike tomorrow, which was way nice.
We tried to go dancing but apparently the clubs don’t start hoppin until 11 pm—we were too tired for that! The security guards were hilarious at each club. We just got ice cream (choco banana style—seriously why don’t people in the States do this?) and went to the Hiper. Party at the grocery store on Friday night! We were all dead though.

Saturday, June 5
We woke up at 5:30 to leave for the bus terminal. It was a way beautiful 3 hour bus ride to San Ignacio. The bathrooms were gross and smelly and I had to scoop up water in a bucket from a trough outside the bathroom to flush it down the toilet. It was totally one of those “We’re in El Salvador” moments! We then asked where the bus was to Rio Chiquito (the trail head to El Pital—the highest point in El Salvador). The bus wasn’t leaving for another 2 hours and in that case, we wouldn’t make it back in time to catch the last bus to San Salvador at 4:30 because it was already after 10. We asked someone else and found an earlier bus leaving at 11. We got pupusas and the owner said there was no way we would make it back in time so he gave us advice on hotels and bartering for a price, etc. I kind of started freaking out inside because it would be a cool adventure to stay and it really wouldn’t be a big deal but we would have to call Tyler and Juliann, and we didn’t have any clothes or anything, etc. The bus came and we rode up to Rio Chiquito. It was seriously the most GORGEOUS ride through green jungles and countryside and cloud forests. The whole way up I was just praying that somehow things would work out and everything would be okay with how our day panned out.
We got to the trail head and began the 6K hike up to El Pital—the highest peak in El Sal. The book had said it was one of the easiest hikes in El Sal—not sure about easy! It was short—just a little over an hour to hike to the top. But it was super steep! We made it, though! We didn’t have any use for the sweatshirts at all—people are crazy who think it’s cold up there! It was perfect weather and still hot, but there was a cold breeze blowing. Thank the heavens for that!
The clouds were incredible! There were definitely clouds that looked like 2nd coming clouds! (or Mufasa clouds as America said once she saw the picture)

It was super bright green everywhere up there and just gorgeous!

We headed down the mountain—still not sure how we would have time to go to La Palma and walk around artesenias after in time. We were making good time down and this pick up drove past us with this kid in the back and he pounded on the window and asked his family to stop. He told us to hop in if we wanted a ride down the mountain and it seriously saved us so much time! The family was way nice bringing us down and we got down in 30 minutes! I used another sketch bathroom—Kristen thought I would get eaten by malaria. The bus stop there near the trail head was seriously a fly mating ground—I’ve never seen so many flies swarming in my life. We made friends with a dog and affectionately named it “Pupusa”.

We had waited for 30 minutes for the bus to come and it still wasn’t coming when this family we had talked to on the way up and at the top of El Pital drove by in their pickup (with 8 other girls in the back from their town as well). They asked where we were headed and we told them La Palma and they said jump in! We were so excited! We hopped in the back of the truck and perfected our squatting skills while the truck headed down the mountain. The brakes started burning on the way down because there was a steep decline, he was riding the brakes, and there were 11 of us in the back of the truck! Brian and I literally prayed the whole way down that we would be ok because there was smoke and a definite burning smell coming out from under the truck—yikes! We made it to La Palma and still had 1 hour to spare before the last bus came through to San Salvador!
We were so blessed today with little miracles and I’m so grateful!
La Palma was a way awesome town with colorful murals and artwork EVERYWHERE! It was awesome.

We caught the last bus to San Salvador! We were dirty and exhausted but happy and satisfied. Our bus had neon lights and a strobe light on the outside of it and he played crazy music. We got stranded in the centro because the bus driver lied to us about where it went when we got there! It just happened to be we got stranded in the most dangerous place in San Salvador for gringos haha. I got us a taxi for $4 though because I insisted we didn’t pay more than that and I was pleasantly surprised when he accepted. I was proud!
We then met our neighbor, Carlos. He’s way cool and from Anaheim but is working for an American real estate company here in El Sal. We headed to the Porters and I got a glorious hot shower—we didn’t get to do laundry and we were so dead we wished we would have just stayed home and gone to bed!

Sunday, June 6
Woke up late (per my request people talked outside the room if they needed to—hallelujah!). We got ready for church and made it on time! We sat in front of the awesome young adult investigators: Julio and Alejandro. T hey remembered our names after the first time asking them 4 weeks ago and haven’t missed a beat since!
I bore my testimony in church today in Spanish. It was nerve racking but I knew what I wanted to say and I knew I wanted to keep it simple. It was definitely simple but I felt good about it. This is what I said:
Buenas tardes hermanos y hermanas! Quiero compartir un parte de mi testimonio con ustedes hoy. Yo se que la iglesia es verdadera. Yo se que Jesu Cristo vive y el vendrá un dia. Yo se que las escrituras tienen las palabras de Dios. Yo se que Jose Smith fue un profeta y tenemos un profeta de hoy, Tomas S. Monson. Yo se que Dios nos bendice cada dia y estoy muy muy agradecida por los bendiciones hoy. Estoy agradecida por la oportunidad estar aquí y no quiero regresar a los Estados Unidos en una semana de verdad! Yo se otra vez que la iglesia es verdadera y este es mi testimonio en el nombre de Jesu Cristo, Amen.

I love my Ward and wish I had more time here with them. I loved Sunday School today—it’s so awesome to be in a great Sunday School class and I wish my classes were like that in the states! (especially with the Old Testament!)
Luis’s dad gave us a ride home since Luis was being dropped off for a meeting. He was so nice and awesome and keeping up conversation. He told me that he totally remembered my family: that Dad was a doctor and spoke Spanish like a native, that Mom was Mexican, that I had two brothers, etc. He commented a couple times at what an amazingly incredible man I have for a dad. It is very true and it’s humbling when other people recognize that as well. He is the bishop of Estela’s ward and informed us that Estela and Ligia almost never come to church. Dang them! We need to get on that. It’s interesting because Tyler and Juliann had their doubts—it’s funny because the ones that cook for missionaries sometimes are inactive they were saying.
We played cards today—I got a little angry competitive inside which just made me nostalgic. So….we watched This is It—MJ cures all haha. I love that movie.
Team meeting as always.
Then it was a super frustrating night trying to plan out my vacation days. I’m way mad at myself for not coordinating better and for not doing more things at the beginning. I’ll have to make the best of what I have and hopefully my plans work out.