Oct. 28, 2019

Welcome to your weekly glimpse of El Salvador, everyone.

Here often times to do a fist-bump it is a double-bump. Also, people beckon with their hands palm down. If you want to show how tall someone is, usually we say, "He is like this tall..." and have our hand horizontally at their height. Here you have to have to have your hand vertical up and down or you are showing the height of livestock. Also, cans of soda, bottles of soda, or drinks of whatever type they almost always drink with straws. Now you know. Everyone out there enjoy your washing machines. Washing clothes by hand is the definition of "elbow grease."

The week of parties continues here in Jucuapa. We'll pass like 6 different stages of music set up with walls of speakers taller than us. A parade went past our house with a marching band at four in the morning one night. Another night the traveling party was right outside our house. We fell asleep at about midnight, but I think the music continued until 2 or so. They like their parties. 

I also saw someone with a BYU shirt! He had no idea what or where BYU is, but that was cool. The classic cougar logo. Also a truck drove by blasting "50 tomatoes, one dollar!" You can find some good deals down here. 

The other day we got stuck in traffic on the highway in the bus for like 3 hours. I was standing too, so that was fun, haha. Never fear, though, even though it was a two-lane road we had people going 4 lanes wide. Sometimes two both ways, sometimes one one way and three the other. We also celebrated Elder Peck's 20th birthday! He has 23 months in the mission now. Sadly, birthdays do not seem quite as fun on the mission.

We were laughing the other day because President Duran always gives us weekly studies with questions to answer in an email to him. He wanted us to read for part of it this week about when Emma Smith is called an "elect lady" in the D&C. However, the question to answer was "Who is the elect spouse for you?" Not what is she like or anything, but we were wondering if he's looking for names or what. Kind of funny.

We also had to sort of babysit a drunk guy while his spouse was getting a baptismal interview. He was very nice but very drunk. But by the end he was saying that me and him were friends forever. He also thought I was Mexican, which is a first for someone with a pale complexion such as I, haha.

I just want to testify of the Book of Mormon. Before my mission I faithfully read it every day, but now I sit down with my scripture markers and don't worry about getting through a chapter, but just try to understand everything (even though it's in Spanish). Sometimes I only get through a couple verses because I'm chasing down footnotes and the Bible Dictionary and things. However, I LOVE the Book of Mormon. I can't believe I didn't just want to read it all day every day before my mission. It has so many treasures just waiting to be found. Read the Book of Mormon!

Pictured are me and Elder Peck celebrating his birthday a little late with some cake and ice cream, the view from our bedroom window, me in front of a Catholic church, and me in Jucuapa. The little three-wheeled red thing is a mototaxi. Loads of them everywhere. Also me with some fake flowers I got for free on the bus. Taped them to my little cardboard shelf to liven up the space. They sometimes hand things out for free and then try to guilt you into paying if you want to, but not me! Hahaha. 

Adios,

Elder Harris

P.S. - Hypothetical question: If a member offers us a ride but they don't have a driver's license, can we still accept the ride? And what if we already got the ride before he told us? Just hypothetical... Also you can use a US driver's license here, which is cool.