Called to Serve: Best Christmas Ever, Volcano, and It's a Small World

Dear Family,

Oh man was it good to see all of you this past Christmas day!! That was seriously the best Christmas present i could of ever gotten, so thank you for taking time to talk and ask questions and listen as well. Also, when i think about it I was probably really rude when I was talking but in my defense its because spanish is so demanding its a demanding language, they just command or cut people off and I guess I have gotten into that bad habit so I apologize for that.

Thanks Shane for sharing your story with me this past week, that really helped me so much, with one of my current investigadores. So please keep the advice coming I could use it so much!!

This past saturday was our Christmas party with the branch, so that was great we had over a 100 people there, so it was a major hit!! Us missionaries played the parts as Santa Claus and Elfs and Rudolf, so that was great, we got one of the local political groups to donate toys to give out to all the little kids so that was such hit, the kids loved it!!!! How did your guys past saturday dinner with the local missionaries go?

By the way I am willing to bet all of you are freaking out even more now that I told you that story I told that cause its a joke here anymore. That little was just unlucky, the one missionary who has been here 2 years now that was his first ever run in with this stuff. So you guys have nothing to worry about, if any thing I be worried about catching a stupid parasite again more than anything, if you continue to worry I will begin to ask. ¿De Donde Estan Su Fe? So please don´t worry about one thing I am safe and sound.

How is everyone doing? What are your plans for the new year? everyone coming to our house or what? I hope you have a great week!! Uds. Quiero much!! Espicailly you mom to the moon and back and then some!! have a great New Years!!!!!!

Love your missionary jungle,

Elder Leatherow

When I arrived at work Monday morning I had received the following email from the mission president and his wife:

Espanol abajo…

Dear Parents,

No need for alarm, but many of you will have heard about the eruption of the San Miguel volcano today. All of our missionaries are accounted for and safe. We have evacuated San Miguel, Usulutan, and San Vicente to the capital for safety. All are well and safe. We felt the hand of the Lord in all that occurred today. The President felt that he should attend church in a city near the volcano. We saw it explode. We were able to reach San Miguel so quickly. All of the missionaries (54 of them) we were able to contact. (that is a miracle alone, because only 3 have cell phones, but because it was during church, we reached them all.) Our missionaries in Berlin (who were very close to the volcano) just “happened” to have the counselor in the mission presidency visiting. He had them in his car and on the way to San Salvador in a matter of 10 minutes. It was all such a miracle.

We are so thankful for your continued prayers. Please pray for the saints who remain in those affected areas. Pray that the missionary work will be blessed because of this disaster—that hearts will be softened and opened.

We are so thankful for you faithful sons and daughters. They were courageous, uncomplaining, and very obedient today. We are so grateful for their wonderful examples. They will all be writing you tomorrow of their adventures, but we wanted you all to know that they are safe and well and that God has truly blessed our mission this day, so that you, too, could offer Him a prayer of thanksgiving. How blessed we are! He is so magnificent. We are so grateful. God bless all of you.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Glazier

I sent the email to Tom and he responded, "WOW do we live under a rock?" He quickly emailed Wes to see if the volcano effected him at all and this was Wes' reply,

"No, I was not, but another two zones are and they took them all out and there is a chance I will get changed because of ash and more urrupting and there was an earthquake as well. It's coming true the prophies in the Book of Mathew and D&C ~ its insane!!!"

Also the other night as Tom and I were lying down for bed my phone chimed letting me know I had just received a Facebook message. I read the following message from Tom's cousin, Ronette, :

"Hi Shar! Tonight we were at the theater and ran into one of Landon's buddies from high school. He told us he returned a couple of months ago from El Salvador. We were mentioning all of the others we know who have served there, and when I mentioned Wes, he perked right up and said Wes was his last companion and he was Wes' first companion. His name is Mitch Winters. He went on and on about what a great missionar Wes is. Small World!!!" We immediatly knew who she was speaking about because Wes had sent home photos with his companions and he said that he and Elder Winters really got along well. (post from Sept 30)

Thank you Ronette for sharing the story.

I must agree with Wes and hearing his voice and SEEING his handsome mug made Christmas perfect. If we didn't open one gift we would have been just as happy.