Opening a new area in the mission and PICTURES!

Hey Family!

It has been one of the hardest and craziest weeks.....

Monday: I was in the office all day because my companion had to talk with president. Then we had to go back to the house so he could pack his bags and had emergency changes. Then I went to stay with Elder Hale and Elder Guzman again.

Tuesday: We just worked and taught in their area and I was told that I would receive my new companion the next day at changes.

Wednesday: At 7:30 in the morning getting ready to go to changes I got a call that said I had changes as well. All my stuff was still in my house and nothing was packed but they said that I'd pack after I got my new assignment and turns out I'm opening an area called San Patricio. It's close to my old area. But there hasn't been missionaries in this area for more than a year! We have to start from zero. We just went around with the first councilor (of the Bishopric in the ward) meeting the members. Oh and we don't have a house there yet so we are still looking to rent one.

Thursday: We went with one of the members to find a house. We found a few options that are in a super nice area. But we still have to talk to the owners. That will be tomorrow.

Friday: We went with another member to find some people to teach.

Saturday: The same

Sunday: A family brought a friend to church so that really helped us out a ton! 

The place I'm in is a pretty small branch of about 40 or 50 people that are active. The first few days were a bit hard but I think we have a hold on things. I'm just glad we've been able to get so much help from the members! 

I love you all! I hope everyone's doing great! Estoy muy feliz para poder servir aqui en El Salvadro! Amo la mision. Amo El Salvador. Y no hay otro lugar donde quiero estar! Les extraño y les amo mucho!

Elder Markham

Some of Garrett's favorite children in El Salvador

Here are the stairs to Carlos' house. It was difficult for Carlos to get up and down the stairs as he was missing a leg.  But he would do that to get to church each week.  Carlos will be baptized soon but Garrett had to leave the area before getting a picture with him.

A rainbow at the church

Heres alberto and his wife from Santo Tomas.

They are the ones that survived a crazy mooto accident and now he's getting better from his surgery that he had from internal bleeding. He's a member but his wife isn't. She couldn't get baptized because they aren't married but they'll get married soon!

Garrett is practically a Latino!

Hey everyone!

It's been going great here in Santo Tomas! So I have already been here for 5 months and I'm here for at least one more month because changes are this week but I don't have changes! Just my companion. This change is only going to be for 4 weeks because it was going to end too close to Christmas. But the next change is 8 weeks. I will be here for at least 6 months and if I have to stay the next change I will be here until February haha. 

Carlos Jimenez went to church again and loved it! We found out this week that he's not married so we will have to help him get married before the 8th of December. That's his baptism date. He hasn't drank coffee or alcohol and he just needs to keep going to church and get married and he will be good to go! He is such a great guy! We also found a few new investigators that were super happy to have us come in and visit them. They are a young couple and their names are Iris and Rene. They said that they need help with where they are and are super willing to listen to us. They had a ton of questions for us so it helps us know that they really want to change. 

I can't believe Christmas is already coming!!! Thanksgiving doesn't exist here at all soooo....but hey! This week we were walking down one of the passages and there was a family setting up some Christmas lights outside their house so we stopped by to help them out! It felt so good to hang up Christmas lights! But...it wasn't the same because it was about 90 degrees and so I wasn't freezing. But there are tons of trees up and everything haha. I have to go but I love you all and miss you so very much! 

Love Elder Markham

**Garrett gave a talk in church yesterday and a guy told him he was pretty much a Latino because his Spanish is so good.  He only gave Garrett two things to change: 

Garrett:  "I would say todos de nosotros, trying to say all of us, but it's only todos nosotros. Then he said I said mas que when I'm supposed to say mas de. He says it's not a big deal because every missionary does it" haha

"Day of the Dead"...And "All Souls Day"

Hey Family!

It was quite the week! So I didn't write yesterday because here for the 1st and 2nd of November they do this thing where everyone goes to the cemetery to decorate their families graves and stuff to remember them. And man there were soooo many people. We went there to talk about family history with everyone. We had a table display with a huge banner and a ton of family history pamphlets and stuff. But it wasn't that successful haha. Not many people here are interested in learning about their ancestors and stuff haha. So we just had to start talking about the plan of salvation to get references to teach people.

Well Orlando probably wont be getting baptized soon because his niece in Guatemala hasn't been able to take his papers out. The office of the mission says that they can't help us so there isn't much we can do but wait and pray. But we have another super awesome investigator that I talked about a bit last week. Carlos Jimenez went to church with us. He only has one leg but still walked down...I guess hobbled down....those huge stairs and waited for us to pick him up for church! We visited him with two members two different days this week and they both struggled to get up those stairs. But he is amazing. The only problems he has is alcohol. But I know that the healing powers of the Atonement of Jesus Christ will help him. I've already seen it so many times here in the mission.

I can't believe it's already November! I hope to see a few pics of the bright Christmas tree that was put up on Sunday....right? hahah I miss and love you all! 

Love Elder Markham

http://ucanr.edu/sites/Spanish/Calendario/Major_Holidays_and_Celebrations_of_Spanish-Speaking_Countries/

***Nov 1 & 2

Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead (Mexico, Central America). In most regions of Mexico, November 1 is to honor children and infants, whereas deceased adults are honored on November 2. This is indicated by generally referring to November 1 mainly as Día de los Santos Inocentes* ("Holy Innocents Day") but also as Día de los Angelitos ("Day of the Little Angels") and November 2 as Día de los Muertosor Día de los Difuntos ("Day of the Dead").
Traditionally, it is an observance festivity to celebrate and honor one’s ancestors. It’s based on the belief that there is interaction between the living world and the world of spirits. On the Día de los Muertos, thealmas, or the spirits of the dead, are said to come back for family reunions. Many celebrate setting upofrendas (altars) in their homes to honor the memory of deceased loved ones and to welcome their visiting souls. Others visit their loved one’s cemetery plot and decorate it with flowers, candles and food. The holiday is celebrated with family and community gatherings, music, and feasting, and the festivity of its observance acknowledges death as an integral part or life.

* Día de los Santos Inocentes is not to be confused with Día de los Inocentes (April Fool’s or All Fools’ Day) which is celebrated on April 1st.

Nov 2
All Souls’ Day or Día de los Difuntos. This Catholic observance celebrates the memory of all early martyrs, saints and the faithfully departed.

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)