Sister Wright is training Sister Evans (across the street neighbor)!!

Dear Evans Family,

            We are happy to announce that your daughter, Hermana Evans, has safely arrived in our mission. The night of her arrival, we enjoyed getting to know her during dinner at the mission home, and we can tell that she is going to be a great missionary. We are grateful for the sacrifices you and your missionary have made that allow her to be here. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will pour out his blessings upon your family. We are very happy to have your daughter with us and we know she will bless the lives of many people here in the great country of El Salvador.

President & Sister Spjut, Sister Evans & Sister Wright

She has been assigned to the area of Los Naranjos 2 in the Juayúa Stake. Her companion is Hermana Wright from Utah, Estados Unidos.  She is a determined, hardworking missionary who is diligent in the Lord´s work. We expect to see great success from this companionship.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Spjut

new adventures ahead...

Querido Familia!

This week I walked past a lady that had a shirt with the Washington Capitol on it and a little paper that said, "I´m just a bill". It was the best! I immediately thought of that song and movie we watched as kids. Good times. Flash back to the past.

The best, or funniest, thing that happened to us was when we contacted a house and the lady came to the window and told us that she would be happy to receive the missionaries and to send the young men to her house. We asked her if we could go in and share a message with her, and she said no, that she will only accept men. She said, "But send some nice young men like you two, white, with green eyes." I was so surprised and not sure if I understood right. Then I asked her why and she said that no, she doesn´t accept hermanas in her house cause she doesn´t want to look "gay" and so she will only accept the men. We left that house and just started laughing so hard. Yep, that was real life. So funny.

Saturday we got to teach Edgar Perez, and he wanted us to teach him in english so we brought Hermano Orlando to come with us. He never asked us before because I was with Hermana Paredes, but now that we´re both gringas, he said that we have to teach him in english. It was so much fun teaching in English! I seriously loved it. And I felt like it was so powerful testifying in my native language. It was a really good lesson and also so much fun. One reason why I was hoping not to have changes.

But I do have changes.  I am going to train and open a new area...so, we´ll see what the future holds ahead. (This happens Wednesday...Valerie Evans arrives Tuesday and Danika has a one in five chance of training her).

Aside from that, this week I studied a whole lot more about the plan of salvation, where we came from, what our purpose here on the earth, and more depth about these details. I wish I had more time to share my thoughts. Fail blog. The time is never sufficient. But just know that God lives, that His plan is perfect, and that as we follow Him and try to do His will, we will return to live with Him. And while satan tries to destroy the plan of God, we have more power than him and it´s our choice to follow him or to follow god. So choose to follow God instead. 

Love you lots and lots! Hope yáll have a Happy Thanksgiving this week!

Love,

Hermana Wright

PS sorry, not time to send pics. But I still love yáll

Birthday week!

Querido Familia,

So this week I don´t have a lot of specific thoughts or long stories. Rather we saw two huge miracles this week that were the best birthday present from God ever. Dayana changed her job and her husband agreed to get married. God is really so good.

I got my two little birthday packages in the mail on Wednesday. That was such a great surprise! I absolutely LOVED the birthday sign. It was an amazing idea and the cutest!! That´s the perfect gift for a missionary. And for anyone actually. And thanks for the chocolate.Thanks for the package! And tell everyone else that participated thank you SO much! And that I LOVED it!! Seriously the best.

We had interchanges on Thursday and I was out of the area. We met up Friday morning to do interchanges again, so when I got back to the apartment my cute companion had hung up my sign that mom sent me and put balloons around. Also gave me a snickers cake (and by cake I mean snickers bars with candles in them). So that was fun.

I didn´t actually feel that old when I said I was turning 26....that is, until an Elder in my district was joking with me and said, "You´re turning 14 right?" and my response was, "Ha, yeah, something like that, just 14 plus 12"....and that´s the moment when I felt old....knowing that 14 plus 5 would be the age of this Elder. Good times.

It was a glorious day, I was working with Hermana Castro all day on interchanges and she is a gem, so that was a great day. 

Snickers Cake

But hands down the best birthday present ever was when we went to visit hermana Dayana. We didn´t have plans to visit with her, but our cita fell through and I thought of her so we called her and she was home so we went.......

I´m not sure if I´ve written about her or not. But I think so. quick summary is that her husband is a member, not active. She´s not a member but wants to be baptized and be a member con todo. But she´s a nurse and has to work on Sundays. And it´s like impossible to change her job and she´s asked a million times. 

Well we finally decided to fast together with some ward members, her and her husband, and the missionaries in the district, so we did that about 2 weeks ago....

So she opened the gate and let us in and I asked her how her day was, and she replied, "Tengo buena noticia." (I have good news). Immediately I froze. "Fui a San Salvador hoy" ella dijo. (I went to San Salvador today) I was stopped, waiting for the good news, and she paused and I told her, "digame digame!" (Tell me, tell me!) And she said that she was able to change her job and so she can go to church on sundays. I just wanted to cry. I had the biggest smile on my face and I was stoked. God is so good. He really does do His part...always. We just have to do ours. I was in so much shock all night. I didn´t even know what to share with her, I was at a loss at words. But ever so grateful and a huge testimony builder for her and for us and for everyone. 

I wish I could write more details about the story and miracle, but there´s just not time. The best part is her husband also agreed to get married and so we have a date with them for the 20th of December. I´m hoping I can come back for that one, as I´ve been visiting this family for 5 months now and I´ll probs have changes next week. But we´ll see. Just love them so much.

Well thanks for the million birthday wishes and cards and emails. I wish I had time to respond to them all, but I just don´t. But I really appreciated getting lots of mail and emails. It always means a lot. So tell everyone thank you lots and lots. 

And family, thanks for being the best! 

Love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Wright

"For your entertainment..."

"I may or may not have 3 pairs of colored crazy spandex pants. 

I love El Salvador."

A story, a baptism, and two moments to reflect...

Familia!

Another week bites the dust. 

This week in our Consejo de Lideres, Hermana Spjut asked us all a question when she shared with us. She said that her daughter who´s a missionary loves the work, she doesn´t want to go home and isn´t ready to be done. She then talked about how it´s hard, how we go without eating for hours and are hungry, we walk and walk and walk and our feet or legs hurt, we are exhausted physically from lack of sleep or just pure tiredness, the bugs and mosquitos attack us, people reject us daily, etc. But for some reason we get up the next day and do it all over again. So she asked us, "What is it that motivates you to get up each day and work in this great work as a missionary?"

"Just because it´s beautiful..."

 I have thought a little bit about that and something that an Elder said that I totally agree with, is I was thinking how much I would charge to do what I do each day as a missionary. How much money would someone have to pay me to be a missionary for a job? Well...the first time I thought, "They would have to pay me a whole lot!" But then I realized that I actually don´t think I could get paid sufficiently or enough to do what I do as a missionary each day. Honestly, it´s just not worth the money.

So if there´s not an amount of money that would be worth it, what is it that motivates me to get up and work as a missionary each day? Well, I think the biggest thing for me is seeing the changes in people. Watching the miraculous changes that happen in their lives, watching more light come into their eyes, watching their attitude change to want to follow God. So many changes that are so miraculous and I absolutely love being a part of it and watching it happen. And that is why every morning, I get up and am excited to have a new day to work in this work...because I would never do it for money, but doing it for the people and literally watching the gospel of Jesus Christ change people´s lives, that is what it is all worth, and the only payment we need.

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Story of the week: And the most eventful thing that happened today though was when a little child ran up to me and just shoved me. Literally. I stood there in shock. Then he ran back and shoved me again. And then a third time. I mean he´s like 10, so it didn´t hurt or anything, I think I was just way more in shock than anything. I don´t think I´ve ever had a small child shove me, especially one I don´t even know. Oh the life of a missionary. Good times.

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"Awkward mission pic where you can´t
touch them..."

Yesterday was Jonathon´s baptism. The baptism was really great and special, you could definitely feel the spirit. But the part that touched me the most is that Jonathon had chinkunguya (I don´t remember how you spell it), it started Sunday morning. Well for those that don´t know what that is, it´s like dengue but way worse. You get it from mosquitos and it´s been an epidemic this year in El Salvador (everyone has it!). It consists of horribly high fevers, aching bones and body, swollen and inflamed joints, and rash all over the body. It´s horrendous and everyone is getting it down here. Well, his dad told us that he told Jonathon that he might not be able to go to be baptized, but Jonathon said, "No way, 

I´m going." And even though he had this awful sickness that is totally a legit excuse, he didn´t let anything from stopping him to 1) go to church this morning, and 2) get baptized and follow Christ. That touched my heart. He is simple. And SUPER shy. But he really showed his grand faith and desire to follow Christ. He´s such a good kid.

Jonathon´s baptism

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Last night we went and visited a family that if I´m completely honest, I don´t really love them. I feel like I love the majority of people...but they are hard for me. They live in our area but go to another ward and they have just honestly treated me super feo just for the pure fact that I´m a missionary from this ward. I don´t know, they are just so ridiculously prideful and selfish and really just people I never want to be like. And the way they have and always treated me hasn´t been the best. So my companion knows them from when she was in their ward another time in her mission, so sometimes we go over there (sacrifices as companions ha). 

Well last night while we were with them and it was just awkward and they were so selfish with their comments and it was super fake and false...I had a million thoughts run through my head. Then I knew that I needed more love for them so I started praying in my mind for help to know how to love them, knowing I couldn´t do it on my own. And one of my thoughts was, "Ugh, I can´t love them, they´ve just treated me so poorly." And then God reprimanded me a little as I immediatly thought about the Atonement and I thought about Christ´s sacrifice. I thought about how horribly and awfully Christ was treated by some people and still continues to be rejected, mocked, scorned, and blasphemed, and despite all of that, He loves us perfectly. Yes, it´s easy to love those that treat us well, but to love your "enemies" is a whole other story. And I definitely have failed at that. How does Christ do it? How does God do it? So I don´t know how, but God and Jesus Christ love us perfectly and unconditionally. Unconditionally...meaning no matter what the circumstances. And while the Lord reprimanded me and taught me that while I have lots of love...it´s no where near the Savior´s love and I still have a long ways to go. I´m working on it,a nd praying for more love for those that are harder to love. It was a humbling moment.

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So...what´s been new in your lives? Hope all is well. 

Love you lots and lots!

Love,

Hermana Wright 

Happy Halloween!

Familia!

Happy Halloween! If you didn´t send me pictures this week of your Halloween costumes, I better get them next week. That´s all I have to say about that. 

Let´s see, what happened this week. I got some nice meds to take to help my arm not fall off from the bug bite. Good times.

She didn't say I couldn't post this.  

I got robbed on the bus again. Fail blog. Oh and me and my companion have officially turned into major gringas...since we´ve been together we´ve made grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, we made homemade oreo cookies to celebrate halloween, chips and salsa, and just about any type of gringo food that we haven´t eaten in over a year. Good times. That´s just what happens when you get a gringa companion who just understands.

Aside from that, this week I completed 1 year on the mission. Yep, that´s right. What is this world coming to? Here are some thoughts from my journal as far as that goes:

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Happy 1 year to me! It´s my one year mark in the mission today. Exactly one year ago I left my home in Alpine, Utah and drove to good old Provo to drop me off at the MTC for 2 weeks before heading to El Salvador. I remember my first couple days and weeks when I finally arrived in El Salvador and if I´m completely honest my thoughts consisted of the following, "Wow, what did I get myself into? 18 months is SO long...it´s never going to come to an end."

But I knew that I committed myself to serving the Lord. I came because I wanted to serve Him. I came because I knew that I had the truth and everyone else in the world deserves the chance to hear it as well and to have the blessings that I have. And I committed myself before the mission to lose myself and forget myself and focus on the people and the work and do everything I could to serve the best of my ability. And so I worked on doing that.

Well, now it´s 1 year later and I am in awe a little bit about that. The time has gone faster and faster as the days go by and I am ever so grateful for the remaining months that I have. And 1 year later my thoughts have changed drastically. Rather than thinking about how long the days are, I am thinking how I can get everything done that I need to in that day. Rather than thinking about all the cultural differences, I am thinking about the people and how we are all just the same in all the world. Rather than thinking about how tired or hungry I am, I am thinking about what God wants me to do and how I can be an instrument in His hands to help serve His children. I really truly love this work. It is a privilege and honor to be a part of it. And it is incredible to watch it move forward. I am grateful that I have 6 more months left on the mission, as I have so much more to learn and grow before I come home and have to figure out what to actually do with my life (yeah...just not thinking about that right now). Happy 1 year to me. 

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Aside from that, my companion got super sick this week, high fevers, loss of appetite, etc. She was in bed Thursday, Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday. I was able to leave for a few hours each day to work with members, when I could find a member to stay with her, but the work was limited. She doesn´t have dengue or chinkunguya, so who knows. We´re going to do some more tests today to see what the status is. 

Aside from that, nothing too crazy. I love you all and praying for you lots. I know life is full of challenges and trials, but that God is always there to help us and guide us. Always. So trust in Him. 

Love you lots!

Love,

Hermana Wright