Buenas Dias todos!

I finally left the CCM! We woke up super early and took a bus to the mission office in Santa Ana. We got split into two groups and half of us went to a plaza and contacted people while the other half did paper work. After we had dinner at the presidents house. We slept at some elder's houses that night and woke up early for exchanges. I got assigned my trainer Elder Rodriguez, he's a short Honduran. Hes been in the mission for 20 months, his english is pretty broken. My first area is called Magdelana, it's the biggest area in the whole mission. Its so beautiful here but everyone is so poor. Our area is pretty rural and a little dangerous so we can't live there. Our house is a 45 minute walk from our area. So every morning we have to walk 45 minutes or if we're lucky catch a bus just to get to our area! We walk soooooo much. We spend most of our days walking though the mountains and visiting members, less actives and investigators. We have 2 baptism dates and about 6 investigators now.  The people here are so poor but so humble, most live on dirt floors. Enjoy a few hot showers for me! I got to go but keep the faith!


Elder Tobar

Bus ride - Guatemala to El Salvador

No explanation necessary ...

Elderes Rodriguez y Tobar

Nuestro apartamento y estudios

It's so hot!!

the elders that live behind us. We climb over the roof to eat and ask for things they're super chivo. We raided their kitchen on Sunday because we had no food in our apartment haha

Arrived in El Salvador!

Here's an email from Tad's mission president after he arrived.
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We are happy to announce that Elder Tobar has safely arrived in our mission. The night of his arrival, we enjoyed getting to know him during dinner at the mission home, and we can tell that he is going to be a great missionary. We are grateful for the sacrifices you and your missionary have made that allow him to be here. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ will pour out his blessings upon your family. We are very happy to have your son with us and we know he will bless the lives of many people here in the great country of El Salvador.
He has been assigned to the area of Magdalena in the Chalchuapa Stake. His companion is Elder Rodriquez from Honduras.  He is a determined, hardworking missionary who is diligent in the Lord´s work. We expect to see great success from this companionship.

Sincerely,
President and Sister Spjut

Semana 5 en la CCM

Don't have a lot of time but here we go!

First off thank you everyone for your letters and emails I love to hear from you and how you are all doing! This week was pretty rough. The day after P-day, Wednesday, I got crazy sick with the stomach flu so I was out for 3 days in my room. Wasn't fun but I'm better now. We got the new Latinos and they are probably my favorite.

We have been studying Spanish like crazy and everyone is getting really excited because...drum roll...We finally leave on Tuesday!  I can't wait to get out of here. Don't get me wrong, I love it here and the people I've met but I'm a peacock you gotta let me fly! (sorry if you didn't get that reference). We had some great devotionals and get to watch "Meet the Mormons" this week before we head out. I'll miss the CCM and President Cox but Eccl. 3 "there is a time and place for everything".  I got some pictures from the plaza so enjoy. Sorry this week was so short but I'm out of time!  Love you all, Keep the faith!

Love,
Elder Tobar

Semana 4 en CCM

We had such a crazy week here. Every minute is packed with classes and devotionals. These last two weeks have gone by so quickly. This week we got the opportunity to teach some inactive families that were brought to the CCM. We taught a single mom and her adorable daughter. I remember starting asking her questions and asking her when was the last time she went to church, it had been 4 years. We taught her about prayer and testified it could strengthen her testimony again if she read the Book of Mormon and asked God if it was true. The spirit was so strong in that room. I remember looking at the daughter and thinking how badly she needed the gospel in her life.

Sunday was amazing like always. We have great devotionals and testimony meetings. At the end of the night we went up to President Cox's apartment again for another devotional and cookies made by his wife which is awesome haha. I just love them. Today is P-day and this time we got to go on a field trip. After the temple we took a bus to the capital of Guatemala just in front of Presidents Palace to a plaza to place some Books of Mormon! Oh we had the best time. It was so beautiful. We visited a market before and I bought a sweet hackysack for 5Q haha. We visited a huge cathedral right next to the plaza which was really cool as well. In the plaza we only had 30 mins but my companion Elder Aldous and I talked to three contacts and gave them Books of Mormon and got their address for missionaries to stop by. Two of them were students and another from the town. It was amazing that I could understand and teach complete strangers. I mean granted they have us eating, drinking and sleeping Spanish here, it felt very rewarding.

On the way home on the bus we got everyone to sing hymns (cough cough totally started that haha) which was so fun! Hermana Cox said out of all the missionaries we were the first ever to do that. Now we're back in the CCM all the old nations are gone out into the field and new ones will be trickling in today and tomorrow. Its crazy to think this will be the group we leave to the field with in two weeks. I love you all and love hearing from you. Keep the faith.

Love,
Elder Tobar

ps We take a new picture every two weeks. They took our individual cameras while we are in the CCM.

Semana 3

This week has flown by. The old group of Latinos left and we got a new group come in on Wednesday. Which makes us top dogs on campus now. We get so many questions on how everything is down and they all look to us for a example to follow. I love the Latinos here and the teachers. My favorite day is by far Sunday. We get to have a lot of awesome lessons and devotionals from the Presidents and broadcasts. They know so much and are so full of life, I love hearing from them. I love getting to visit the temple every week and love my District.  Can't wait to get in the field but I'm learning a lot while I'm here.  Ask me questions about what you want to hear about and keep me posted on all the news.

Love
Elder Tobar

hahaha so if you're wondering why my hair is so short...they buzz everyone's hair here every two weeks. no joke he took max 1 min on it.

Guatemala City MTC, 02 June 2015