Teaching by the Spirit!

Hey Family!

 NEXT WEEK WE WILL HAVE PDAY ON TUESDAY NOT MONDAY.

It was a pretty fun week this last week! I don't know if you remember but there was a less active member that came at the end of church this last week looking for us to give a blessing to his wife. We went by and gave her a blessing on Sunday and went back on Wednesday to share a lesson with them. She was already up to full strength and was doing great! Then we talked about the plan of salvation and the importance of going to the temple. Brother Guillen baptized his wife about two years ago but they went less active before they could get sealed together in the temple. We talked about the temple and helped them get super excited to go. Then they came to church yesterday and really liked it! 

On Saturday we had an open house for the new Stake Center that they finished this last week. Me and two other Elders were in charge of talking about baptism in the room with the baptismal font. Elder Vasquez and I had all our white clothes on and Elder Villalobos was dressed like John the Baptist hahah it was funny. But there were tons of people there! IT was a great turn out!

My favorite lesson we had this week was on Sunday. We met a guy named Carlos who was sitting in his wheel chair at the top of a Mayan stair case. We hiked up this stair case that seemed like we were climbing Mt. Hood! Then we found him just sitting there looking very lonely. We started teaching him about our church and asked if we could have a lesson with him. He agreed and we started with a prayer. Then he asked what Mormon meant and so we started talking about the Book of Mormon. At first he kept saying how he only reads the bible and that's all we need. But slowly within the lesson the Spirit got stronger and stronger and by the end he was so excited to read it! All we did was teach and testify with the Spirit and then we invited him to get baptized. He didn't give us a for sure yes or no but he said that he was going to invite all his neighbors to join us on Tuesday so that they can all learn about the Book of Mormon! It was awesome!!!!! I love being a missionary! 

I love and miss you all so much! I hope all is well!

Love Elder Markham

Lots of Baptism Dates! And Blessings for the Sick

Hey Family!!!!!!

Well it was one of the quickest weeks yet! We were able to find tons more people this week and really worked hard on getting everyone to accept a baptismal date so that that is the focus on all the lessons. Well, now we have 14 people that have baptism dates and that's not including Orlando! We still are trying to get his papers. He said he talked with his friend in Guatemala and she is goinjg to try and take them out. It would be a lot cheaper and quicker. The only thing is that at this time of the year everyone is preparing for the next school year and they have to take out their birth certificates and other papers like that. So I guess there's just tons of people and the waiting lines are huge and you have to wait about 3 or 4 hours.

Wednesday I went on  divisions with our district leader Elder Villalobos. He's from Mexico and his oldest sibling is 40 and his youngest is 15! His niece is 17! That's pretty crazy...But it was awesome because we were able to find so many people and have great lessons! The spirit was so strong during a lot of the lessons. We taught a guy named Oscar. He says he doesn't really have a strong relationship with God because he doesn't go to church or anything. He also says that he really needs help to raise his two daughters. We talked about how the Gospel will bless his life and he was so happy. It was funny because one of his daughters during the lesson went and got a little jello cup out of the fridge and started eating it. Then, after the lesson, he told his daughter to get two for us. But she said that there was only one more. Then he ran to the fridge looking for whatever he could get for us. We told him not to worry about it but he promised in the next lesson he would have something for us. Every week I'm amazed by the generosity of the people here. It has really helped me develop a greater love for them and want to serve them more! 

On Sunday after church a guy walked in with just regular clothes on. He came looking for me and my companion. He said that his wife was really sick and needed a blessing. It turns out that he is a member but hasn't gone to church for a long time. He took us in his car and we went to their house. He said for not going to church for a long time he knew he shouldn't give the blessing. We were able to bless his wife and set a visit to return back and visit them this Wednesday. They told us how she had been really sick all week. The doctors didn't really do anything to help them so they knew they needed a blessing. It just made me think about how much our Heavenly Father loves us to put trials in our path so that we have to go back to church no matter how disobedient we are. I love being here and there's no where I'd rather be! I love and miss you all!!!! 

Love Elder Markham

Alma 30:41

Hey Everyone!

Today was another crazy week! First, on Tuesday, we had a multi zone conference. It was really good. We talked a lot about helping the less actives. They showed us some crazy numbers. There's about 130,000 members in El Salvador and there's three missions here. So there's about 45,000 members in my mission more or less. But the crazy part is that only 6,000 go to church. There are 34,000 less actives that live in my mission, not even a fifth go to church! That was the big thing we talked about for the most part. Then we talked more about our investigators with baptism dates and stuff. But after the whole thing we ate a super great lunch that a member in my last ward made. I was only in the area for 6 short weeks and I haven't been there since the spring time. But he still said, HI ELDER MARKHAM?! HOW ARE YOU DOING?! haha it was awesome, and he makes great food! So something I forgot to mention about my companion is that he doesn't eat very much at all...so every meal he gives me whatever he doesn't eat. haha

Then we had to go back to the big city of San Salvador on Wednesday and Thursday for two different things. That makes about 50 times I've gone there these past few weeks. I pretty much live there now. And we for sure will have to go back here soon because I've almost been here for a year now and after a year we have to go back to migration. I just don't know when for sure. I'm just glad that I live pretty close and not on the other side of El Salvador. 

We did a few other services this week and found some awesome new people to teach. We visited one guy named Walter and his awesome family. They said that if we ever need anything then to just call them. He even said on pdays we can go to their house and use their computers. Then he asked if we wanted to talk to our families on skype? As he was getting up to get his computer I had to explain about the rules. It was funny though. But when we set a new visit for tonight he said that he was going to get pupusas for us haha. 

Just to finish I finally found the scriptures that helped me gain my testimony. It's in Alma 30 but mostly verse 41. I love it so much. I also tried the thing where you write a scripture and keep it somewhere you can see it. This week I picked D and C 136 29 If thou art sorrowful, call on the Lord they God with supplication that your souls may be joyful! I love and miss you all!!!

Love Elder Markham

"I love the work here in El Salvador! It is the greatest thing ever!"

Hey Family!

This week was a crazy week...so we started off Tuesday with a meeting in President's house because that's when all the news (new missionaries) came and since he was supposed to come with the news, President told us to come. We were there all day and it was nice because we had air conditioning, delicious food, and all the new people thought I was amazing because I could speak Spanish and I had been in the mission for a year. Then Wednesday morning my companion had to go home so the APs took us to the airport to drop him off, then we went to the change meeting. And I was called to train...again...haha and I got my new companion Elder Holmes. He's from Utah and he's right out of the mtc so he doesn't know any Spanish yet. He's also a nice quiet guy but he's doing pretty well!

General Conference was awesome! I loved it so much. We got to listen to three of the sessions in English and we listened to 2 in Spanish. I love listening to the words of the prophets! What was I thinking before when I didn't care much to pay attention?! Haha I really loved the one about having the spirit and doing all the little things that sometimes we don't think are important. I went right home afterwards and cleaned up my desk! 

Sadly we are having more problems with Orlando's paper work. I guess the stuff that the other Elders took out expired so now we have to take them out again! I'm not sure how long it will take or how much it will be but we will find out this week when Orlando calls his friend in Guatemala. Hopefully it wont take that long.

Last night we had an awesome experience with finding a new investigator. We were looking for a guys house but couldn't find it. We asked a guy that was in his house if he could help us but he didn't know either so we just talked to him and just a few short seconds later we were in his house sharing a lesson. It was a great powerful lesson and he really liked it. His name is Victor and he's only 22. He lives alone and stopped going to church a little bit ago. He seemed to really like it because he says he wants to invite a few of his friends on Saturday to listen to us too! I love the work here in El Salvador! It is the greatest thing ever! I love and miss you all at home!

Love Elder Markham

"It's Oregon in El Salvador!" says Garrett (raining)