Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Sept. 2, 2019 -- Of Coconuts and Lemonade

Dear family and friends,

Holy smokes, sorry for not responding to emails. I currently have 58 unread, haha. I´ll get to work on that.

I am loving the life here in El Salvador. It is very crazy and fun. I have one of those cheap belts with like a plastic-y finish, and it started melting on the outside the other day. Things are very fun here, though. Palm trees, geckos, crazy painted houses. For example, the other day we were at a member´s house and we pulled lemons off a tree and made homemade lemonade. Then to top it off, we just reached up and cut down some coconuts, sliced the top off, and drank right out of them with a straw! Then we ate the inside. It is just kind of a fun place. A lot of the drinks are in bags. The other day I had a shake in a bag. Just poke the straw in and have at it! Lots of fun.

The other day we were in a meeting in the chapel and the primary was having an activity at the same time. We had started our fast, and then lo and behold, the primary breaks out Little Ceaser´s Pizza and ice cream! It was the most American food I had seen and then we couldn´t have it when they offered it to us. Too bad, haha. One of the members that cooks for us was a cook at the fancy Garden and Roof restaurant in the Joseph Smith building in Salt Lake! He always makes crazy good food.

Everything is super cheap here too, which is great! 3 pupusas is plenty to feed me for a meal and you can get that for $1. When we buy them in bulk, our water bags are 5 cents each. My companion also bought a super fancy JBL speaker for $20! I´m not sure how legally it got here, but who knows... You can also take a bus for like a quarter or 75 cents if it is far. Everyone here uses coins, especially dollar coins. Bills are much less used.

As advice for future missionaries, just hang in there. The first day or two I was a little overwhelmed. It was just so crazy and nothing was familiar. I didn´t really believe that culture shock was real, but it is. However, once you realize that nothing is going to kill you, you adjust really fast. The mission is more and more fun and enjoyable every day. At first I understood noooothing of what people said in Spanish. But every day it gets a little better. Don´t worry too much. Also, in mission prep learn things like washing clothes by hand and taking bucket showers, haha. That would be useful knowledge.

Good news, they are hard to find, but Ritz crackers do exist down here.

Also, I must brag for a minute, I finally hit 50 consecutive push-ups! I know that´s nothing crazy, but for me it was very good.

It is kind of funny walking around El Salvador with a red-head. We stand out very much. I think in the states my hair was pretty normal, but everyone here is amazed by it and wants to touch it.

The other day we had some crazy rain. It comes out of no where and is super loud on the sheet metal roofs. Lots of crazy lightning and thunder even when it isn´t raining. I think Grandma Sharon would like that a lot. Anyways, last weeks email was super long, so I will cut this one a little short!

Hasta la vista,

Elder Harris

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