Elder Trevor Ward's Mission: There's No Greater Joy

Dear Family,

Happy Valentines Day tambien! I still love reading your guys’ letters. Mom, if you ate what i think you ate...those are called pupusas and I LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!! They’re originally from El Salvador....how’d you like the fried banana? haha That’s funny that you guys went there, we’ve all been asking each other (Elder Galvan, Pace, and I) when our moms were gonna go to lunch together. We were also joking around about how funny it would be if Elder Galvan’s mom said something like, yeah...”it doesn’t sound like my son is eating to well because they have a lousy financier that never deposits the money on time”, and you saying, "Hey...my son is the financier!" Anyways...dad...I didn’t wanna say anything but I’m really glad that Ava got the nerve to tell you the truth...just keep joggin :) Wow, looks like Connor’s gonna be the AP pretty soon here. I don’t know about you guys but I felt the Spirit pretty strong when I read his letter. It was funny when he said that he couldn’t really explain because I know exactly what he feels like.

Anyways, this week has been super busy. The weeks have been flying by here in the office. President has had interviews every day this week, so we’ve basically been running everything this week, which unfortunately means that we only got to work a couple of hours every night in our area. We’re just a little bummed because today we’re just baptizing two people, but I can’t really complain about that. It was hard for us to find Miguel (to complete a family) this week and yesterday when we went to go ask what time his baptism would be at he wasn’t home. His son called him and he said that he didn’t want to get baptized that day because he didn’t like the questions that they asked him (meaning the interview). Unfortunately we found him after the hour that we had planned the baptism and it was kind of funny… he said that he didn’t like two foreigners coming to “investigate” about what he had done in the war and stuff. Anyways, long story short, we talked and he understands a little better now so he’s getting baptized on Tuesday next week. Jaime and Juana are STILL just waiting for the divorce papers to get to them. From what the lawyer says, they’re done, signed and everything, and are going to give them to her next week. So basically everything kinda just got postponed. BUT Glenda is just as awesome as ever for baptism today and so is Jose. Oh yeah, he’s a surprise, or how we say in the mission "un goalaso". On Sunday we were going to get people to come to church when a family of members was leaving their house. One of the women stopped us and says...hey, my son needs to be baptized!" Anyways...he turned 9 this Tuesday, and he’s a super awesome little kid. When we went to go talk to him he said that he had a dream that Jesus Christ came and told him to be good and that his dad needed to be good too (who is inactive). He has like a cyst underneath his chin that he has to get operated on and he said, "I know that if I get baptized, Jesus will heal me." It’s amazing the faith that a child can have and how they can influence the whole family.

So...that’s what’s been goin on lately. Today we went to Masaya (my first area) to go buy some stuff. I was looking at some shoes when I heard a woman saying, "oh those cost like one million dollars..." and started touching my head...I was like, what the heck. I turned around and Hermana Elizabeth was there. She was a recent convert when I was in Masaya and is the Fam Chavarrias’ daughter (don’t know if you remember them, one of the first families I baptized)...anyways she was there with Mariela (the first person I ever baptized). It was so awesome to talk to them. Elizabeth says that the WHOLE FAMILY is preparing to go to the temple in December because now all 8 members of the family are members of the church. Seriously, there is no greater joy than knowing that you helped someone to start their way on the path to eternal life.

Anyways....please pray for me and for my investigators (Miguel, Jaime and Juana esp.) and know that I love you a bunch!

Love,

Elder Ward