Okay. I'm doing this thing right. I'm writing the family email first. :)

Holy cow. This week was crampacked with awesomeness. There of course were trials, as with anyone else, but I loved it!

First off--my companion and I are teaching a ten-year old boy named A______. He's like a Latino version of Alan Oldroyd, but acts like Jack. And I love him to pieces! He and his family are the ones who have stolen my heart. Anyway, I guess he loves me to pieces, too. Hna. Mendoza told me that he thinks I'm the most beautiful Gringa in the whole world. haha The other night we called him and his sister G_____ to remind them to pray and read the Book of Mormon. He didn't want to talk to Hna. Mendoza, but as soon as his sister said I was the one talking, he jumped up and answered the phone. He is such a cutie! :D

Another funny story--some random lady on the street welcomed me to El Salvador this week. We were walking through our area and she suddenly asked us if we were looking for la capilla and gave us directions on how to get there. I asked her if she was a member and she said no. She asked me how long I have been here and then gave me a ginormongous hug and kiss on the cheek and.....welcomed me to El Salvador. I love the people here. They're hilarious! Just imagine what would happen if that occurred in the good ol' USA.... ;) hehe

Tuesday. My companion and I learned a lesson in obedience. We left the house late. We live a half hour out of our area and I had been wanting to leave, but my companion didn't. Well....to make a long story short, it began to rain. HARD. Much like Mérida and--from what I've heard from Kelsie--Ukraine. But we had to walk 30 minutes! EVERYTHING was soaked! And my camera and flashdrive were in there! I thought I had lost EVERYTHING--all of my pictures, my agenda was ruined, my hymn book. I was upset (to say the least). My companion asked for my forgiveness and for the first time in my life, I honestly couldn't give it to her. So I prayed. And prayed and prayed and prayed. I stayed up pretty late reading my scriptures, too. The next morning, I felt better and my companion promised that we would be exactly obedient, like I've been wanting to be. That hasn't happened, but I'm trying to be patient and understanding. It will come with time. 

Oh! And my camera is fine. Thank you, Heavenly Father!

Wednesday we had a meeting with all of the sister missionaries in the area and with Pres. and Hna. Hintze. It was fantastic! And I really have the best mission president in the world! I love them incredibly so. An investigator of ours was also going to teach us how to make pupusas, but it didn't work out. Don't worry Bonnie and Sandy, I'M GOING TO LEARN. I promise! Maybe I'll just have to pack my suitcases full.... ;)

Just one more thing. Yesterday I spoke in Church for the first time. Holy cow! I wish that I had been set apart as a missionary BEFORE my farewell talk. To all of those who had to suffer through that, pray that President Peckham won't release me as a missionary until AFTER I give my homecoming talk! There is power in the calling of a missionary. I am SO grateful for the opportunity I have to serve in El Salvador. This is the best decision I have ever made. You can all be missionaries, too! Choose now to consecrate your lives to the Lord and live in such a way that the Spirit can be with you always.

I love you all. Thanks for the letters/emails, love, prayers, and support. I'm praying for you all, too!

Love always,

Hermana McCulloch

P.S. Take advantage of General Conference this week! And take a friend!!! We are so blessed to have a living prophet and 12 apostles who speak to us and guide us in this day and age. 

The scriptures are incredible

I better get this written before I run out of time.

The scriptures are incredible. You can find an answer to EVERY problem or question you might have. It doesn't matter the age, the gender, or nationality. Or even the place you live. The scriptures were truly written by inspired men and apply to every one of us. USE THEM!

We lost an investigator this week. She seemed to think that we had nothing to do except bother her. It's not our fault that she lives right next to the capilla--our meeting place for EVERYTHING. I think she thought that we were stalking her. Oops? But the fact that she doesn't want to know more is SO sad. But we have four people who are progressing! 

The members are a big help here and I'm so grateful for all they do for us. We also have a couple of members who are.....not so big of a help. In fact, they're kind of destroying our progress. Please, please, please be a positive influence on the work over there in Utah or Texas or Idaho or wherever you are! The missionaries need your help. We can't do anything without the Spirit and the help of the members. Our progress means nothing if we don't have the support of the members of the Church.

I was walking around my area this past week thinking about how much I LOVE everything. El Salvador and its people here have already captured my heart. Mom, I don't think that I can come home in 17 months. When you come to visit, please just plan on moving everyone down here. :) haha But really. I don't even want to think that I've been a missionary for a month. It's too depressing....

Please keep saying your prayers, going to Church, and attending the temple if you can! There are blessings for being obedient! If you want to feel the Lord's love in EVERY moment of EVERY day, be obedient! Doctrine and Covenants 6.20--I think. Read it!

God wants to help us! Turn to Him in all you do! He will always be there for us.

Love you all!

Hermana McCulloch

Miracles

I need to be better at managing my time. Oops?

That's actually one of my goals I've been trying to work on lately. I HATE wasting time. Especially here. When we're on the Lord's time. I want to use every moment wisely, but that's hard, especially when you have a companion who may or may not want to do the same thing. 

Oh yeah. My companion. Her name is Hermana Mendoza. She's from Honduras and she's 21. She doesn't speak a word of English so that's....interesting. She wants to learn from me, so we're trying, but she only has six months of her mission left. I don't know that we'll be together after these 3 months of training either. President Hintze is always in need of trainers!

So....we're in San Salvador. We're opening an area called Miramontes II. It's slow, but rewarding work. We actually don't live in our area, so we walk a lot. Hence why I'm so worried about time. We spend half an hour each way just to get to our area. Time is everything here! So make sure you all are using it wisely up there in Utah!

Umm....we are so blessed to have the temple in our mission. It's pretty big for a Latin American temple, I think. I can't wait to enter those doors! President Hintze said on our first day that it's the best missionary we have. And he's right! We had Stake Conference yesterday at the capilla across from the temple (Yes. The temple is actually in my zone area. :D) and we brought three investigators. Two of them are kids--14 years old and 10. They're kind of lacking on the desire to read the scriptures and learn more outside of when we teach them, but we took them to walk around the temple and they loved it! I think there's a lot of potential in each of them to be excellent members and future missionaries. The temple is just merely bringing it out. I can't wait to see how they've progressed since yesterday.

So miracle of the week. It's not the miracle of the week, but it's a miracle that occurred during the week. :) Hna. Mendoza and I got lost (because we still haven't quite figured out the buses) and we wound up in the outskirts of our area. We had no idea how to return to the house (we did find a new investigator!) and so we were walking. And walking. And walking. We were both praying for some kind of help when all of a sudden this man say, "Hola missioneras!" as he walked by. We called him back, found out that he was an RM and then he helped us get home. SUPER amazing. But that's not all. On Saturday, we returned to the same area to meet that new investigator of ours. It was already dark and some drunk man on a motorcycle was talking to me in English. He started to pursue us (we lost him), but Hna. Mendoza was freaking out. I couldn't calm her down either. So here I am, this super tall Gringa walking behind my companion (muy rápido, I might add), praying for a miracle. And you'll never guess what happened! We were walking in the EXACT SAME SPOT that the RM showed up, when two members pulled up next to us and offered us a ride. Incredible. Heavenly Father is simply incredible.

This work is moving forward! I hope you're all taking part in it! You can find missionary experiences EVERYWHERE you go. I hope you're all taking the opportunity to be someone else's miracle. I love ElSalvador. I love my mission president. I love my companion. I love the people here. I love you all. 

Keep praying and remember who you are and what you stand for!

Love always,

Hermana McCulloch

Email from Lonnie's mission president

Dear McCulloch Family,

We are pleased to inform you that Sister McCulloch has arrived safely in the El Salvador San Salvador West/Belize Mission.  We are excited to have her join our mission family, and can see that she is well prepared to start.

She is serving in the Los Heroes Zone, and in the Miramonte 2 Area, with her trainer Sister Mendoza from Honduras.

               

Sister McCulloch will be able to e-mail or write to you every Monday on Preparation day.  Letters from home are a very important part of the missionary life.  Please write weekly and focus on positive and uplifting things to help her maintain a healthy attitude.  The mail system in El Salvador is reliable.  If you wish to send packages and letters they can be sent to the mission mail office.  Address them to:

Sister McCulloch

Misión El Salvador San Salvador Oeste/Belice

Apartado Postal #81, Correos Multiplaza

San Salvador, El Salvador C.A.

We know the Lord will bless you and her as she faithfully dedicates this time to teaching others to follow the Savior Jesus Christ.

                                                                                 

Very cordially,

President & Sister Hintze

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

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