Email from her first area: Metapan

Hey What is up familia!! Well i am here in El Salvador now, and it is my second day here. It has been so much fun!! Yesterday I got assigned a new companion. Her name is Hermana Chiquin, and she is from Guatemala. She is one of the sweetest girls I have ever met. Yesterday was my first day doing contacting on the street. We invited lots of people to go to church, and we ended up getting a new investigator and having someone commit to baptism. It was a great way to start off my first day! me and my companera went grocery shopping yesterday so that I would have something to eat for the week. And there was a man in the store that kept asking me for money. I kinda got scared, I just said lo siento, which means I am sorry, because I didnt know what else to say. Well he kept coming up to me, and I thought that on my first day in the mision field, I was going to get robbed. But it is ok, he eventually went away.

All the houses here have gates around them, and bars on the windows. It is extremely diferente here than it is in the united states. Me and my companion live in a red house. It is pretty nice. The plumbing system is not to good here, so we dont flush our toilet paper, we just put it in a grocery bag next to the toilet. And we dont have a washer or dryer, so we get to wash our clothes my hand, and then we hang them up outside to dry. :) Oh...and the shower in the casa, well...it doesnt have running water, so there is a room with a huge basin of water in it, and then a hard concrete floor with a drain in it. I scoop out the water with a small plastic container and pour it over myself standing over the drain. I am so grateful for my shower shoes because there are bugs that are all over the floor when I shower. These last few days have humbled me. I continue to be humble every time I walk outside of our house. People here have absolutley nothing, but they still find reason to be grateful, and to be happy. This is my challenge for you this week...as you go about your day, keep a piece of paper and a pen with you. Every day when you want to complain about something, write down something you are grateful for instead, or a blessing you have recieved. Make a list during the week, and then at the end of the week...put it up on your fridge or mirror, or wherever you can see it. You are truly truly blessed. I never realized how blessed and spoiled I was until I came here. This experience has truly changed me. Love you all so very much. Have a good week, I will email you next week!! Love Hermana Thomas :)

So a lot of the group photos are with my district at the CCM. The other pictures of the bathroom ect are of the house I am staying in now. There is a picture of me and my amiga, hermana estevez on the bus, on our way to El Salvador. She is the sister that got super sick in the CCM. Hmm que mas...oh I forgot to tell you, I am serving in an area called Metapan. It is about an hour and a half from the mission home. I absolutley love it. And did I tell you that a local was telling me he wanted to marry me? yeah it actually happened on my second day, thank goodness for a companion that speaks spanish, because I had no idea what he was saying. jaja