Week 21 Santa Ana

I found a type of bag at campsaver that you put your clothes in add water and soap rub it around for three minutes and your clothes Are washed. Drain the water and add rinse water then they suggest you pre dry them with your microfiber tower before hanging them to dry. It costs 20 and you could just pack stuff in it when you move. Don’t worry about the bag I can get the clothes really clean with a pila. I am looking for someone to pay to wash my clothes.  What else would you like in a package? Did you like the jerky?   I haven’t eaten the jerky but I liked the one bag I got with the mp3. I think that the thing that I want is, well I can’t think of anything.

What was the spiritual experience of the week?  I think it was the baptism of Hna E. H.C. We got a call on Thursday night from some elders form another area, telling me that I was going to baptize an investigator that just moved from our area. She said she wanted me to baptize her so I said ok. We have a baptism for next week so it should be good. I had only taught her and been to her house like 5 times. I baptized her on Friday night; I had to do it twice because I said one of the words wrong. But she is now happily baptized, but she was really sick Sunday and couldn’t come to church so she will be confirmed next Sunday. Just to feel the joy of helping someone move forward in returning to the presence of God.  It sounds like you are finding more people to baptize in this area, that is great.  Whose baptism is scheduled for next week?  A youth of 17, his name is C. he is really cool and well he wants to be a part of the church but we have a lot to teach him to be ready this Saturday. 

Did your investigator teach you how to make a hammock? No we haven’t had an opportunity to learn.

What did you do for p-day? As a zone, we went and played soccer in Dos Caminos, then we went to Wendy’s and I ate another baconator.

Did you help that person paint? Yes this week we painted for 6 or7 hours just painting one room. The paint was oil based and it was thinner than water.

Have you seen Pres. Dester since you are much closer? I haven’t seen him yet but this week we all have interviews with him. 

I have been good as far as health goes and well it has been really cold here in the night so I use my blanket and a sheet. I slept in the hammock almost all this week but didn’t last night because I got a cramp in my leg.  Right now everyone has the chickengunya or whatever it is called.  There are so many people sick with this and its brutal I haven’t gotten it and I don’t want it, I will use a lot of mosquito repellent. 

Is the girl in the picture scare of the dog?  No that’s not a big dog, they treat the dogs real bad you can pretty walk up to a dog in this street and pull it by the tail and it wont bite. So the strays are not to mean?  No they are all scared of the people.  We have one investigator with a Great Dane, it is at least more than 200 lbs. and the pit bulls and all types of dogs the people have are really well kept but the strays are crazy and ugly.

What are you dress up for?  We did skit about David and Goliath for a talent show. 

Well we got a piece of this cake after the talent show. One of the members gave us food and it was her birthday. She said that every time it is her birthday, 4 elders eat and well just so happened that there were 4 of us there. 

Have you noticed different groups not getting along? Do you know where not to go tracking? We don’t go out of our area and it feels safe.  Is that's because you know you are protected? Yes.   How often do you hear gunshots?  Well sometimes it is hard to tell but I think 3 times a week. It’s hard because there are fireworks sometimes and they sound similar.  Are any sister missionaries in your area or is it too unsafe?  There are not any sister missionaries in my zone

I had mondongo this week and it was good.  What was in the mondongo?. Did you eat the stomach? it had Yuca, Banana Platano, carrot, and lots of other things. 

there is always mud here i think i have never had clean shoes

Those pictures where you are looking down into valley, are there people's house up there and are there lots of goats there? There were some goats up there. Yes there are people’s houses there. Every week we climb this hill because there is an investigator there. Its pretty but sometimes there is a lot of spiders, mosquitoes, and dog poop

Send me some honey. I haven’t had the opportunity to use it; I haven’t had food that it will go with. There is a picture of a little box that has a little hole and it is a bee hive that has honey in it, the cool thing is that the bees don’t sting. We need to get some of those bees, I wonder if they can't survive the cold weather here, find out what they are if you can.

Well my time is up so I have to go now. Thanks for all that you do and have another good week in the super cold. It should start to heat up here in a few weeks and then it will be really hot. Tell Madi good luck recovering from the concussion and that she should be safer playing basketball. Tell all the neighbors thanks for their emails and letters and that I look forward to receiving more. 

Week 20 Santa Ana

Our house is the yellow house above the green house but its just one room.

Are your clothes coming clean from the washboard? Yes my clothes are coming clean I just don’t have all the time in the world to wash my clothes. I can get them real clean and even get all the black in the shirt collars out but it takes time.

How has the food been at the cook’s house?

It has been some of the best food that I have had in Honduras. She can cook and it’s really good. And the best part is the husband has an obsession with the hand made drinks so we get lemonade and other crazy drinks a lot. 

How many investigators are you teaching?

We have 10 investigators or so. Many have potential some don’t have that much but we will keep trying until we feel we have given them enough chances.

Has the blind man been around anymore? First of all the man isn’t blind rather he can’t speak or he just doesn’t speak. I found out where he lives its not that nice but I will send you a picture of it in the coming week. He goes by the name R. and there are many videos of him on YouTube because he is outright hilarious. I have given him some food and a can of pop.

What was the spiritual experience of the week? I think it was a lesson that we had with Hno. E. This was the first investigator that actually completes the study portion in the pamphlets. It was amazing to see the power of the Book of Mormon. Because we really didn’t teach anything he just explained to us how he came to his conclusion and answered all his own questions. Just so you know this man is a vender of all the different Bibles and he likes to examine Bibles but the Book of Mormon he was impressed with the power of this book. I felt like I didn’t even talk in the lesson because he was the one teaching and everything he taught was truth. We taught one family called family Orellana and my comp told me to ask them about the state of their wedding because the man had separated but wasn’t divorced and for some reason they couldn’t do something. Well it was a mess but we got the answer we were looking for that he wants to divorce and remarry and then we can baptize them. . How many people came to church this week? Just under 100 we think. Did you email Steven? Yes I sent him an email. Is he going good to leave tomorrow? 

 How did your week go? My week was really good.  So what did you do for p day?  We studied in the morning until 10 then we went to Via Nueva, which is where the Wendy’s is. We ate with some other elders and then we went to their stake center to play some basketball and then we came back here.  We are emailing in our stake center. Yeah Wendy’s was really good the first burger that was good here in Honduras it was the Baconator but it came with a price 149 lempiras. Do you wear Missionary clothing for P-day or shorts? We usually wear shorts but today were wore missionary clothes.

I slept in my hammock almost all this week and today I am going to put up my mosquito net because there are a lot of cases of the chickengunya and I don’t want to get it. Do you take pills everyday for malaria?  Do mosquitos bite you a lot?  I wear a lot of repellent it’s the only thing that is free in the mission. I don’t need any more screens. Well I guess I will just have to have faith that the mosquitoes aren’t going to bite me. Do you still do language study in the afternoons?  Yes when we have time. I like to study in the hammock because the metal chairs in the apartment are uncomfortable.

How are you getting along with your companion? Well he is awesome and we have a lot of fun we can even eat whenever we want because he is always hungry. He likes a lot of the tings that I like and well it is just fun. 

What was the funniest thing that happened this week? We were in a lesson and the recent convert told us that he liked a certain song so we were going to sing that song. So he sang the tune and it was so bad it wasn’t even music. So we decided to sing Until We Meet Again and well when we got the till we meet part we just stopped and ended the lessons because we couldn’t sing any more because it was so bad.

Have you had to speak in church yet? Oh yeah I forgot to tell you that I was just sitting in the congregation the past Sunday and they called me up because there was extra time to share my testimony. So it wasn’t that hard and well I hope I don’t have to do it again, 

Is the food any different that La Entrada? Yes it is more modernized and we have more variation but all if deep-fried. There are days that we don’t see beans and every meal in El Dorado had beans and tortillas.

Have received any letters yet? No I have not received any letters yet when did you send them. There were 2 packages of letters mailed before Christmas and then grandma sent one after hopefully you will get one this week. 

Are you eating a lot of fruit in the new area? Yes I eat 2 or 3 bananas every day. Have you seen any ripe mangos?  I have seen some but they eat green mangos with salt more. 

Nicole's relative was just transfered to Chamelecon his name is elder A.  He is from California he looks Latino from his blog but he his dad has red hair.  Have you met him? How often do you have district meetings? Yes I have met him he is in my district he seems really nice.

What are the different modes of transportation in the area?  A moto taxi is a open air 3 wheeled motorcycle. The rapidito is an 18-passenger van and the taxi is a small Toyota corolla or Honda civic. What is the best way to travel? Well there all good ways to travel it just depends on the distance. If you have to go a long ways take a rapidito if its not that far, a moto taxi or if you want to pay more a taxi 

Well ok. I guess I will go now. But have a good week and be safe. Tell all the neighbors hi. And tell thanks to all those that have emailed me. But I will have another short week in the mission it doesn’t even feel like a day in-between p days. But love you all and se cuidan. 

Week 19 Santa Ana

How did transfers work?  Did you travel most the time to this new area with somebody? The mission chartered nice school busses. The zone took a bus to the stake center, everybody who was changing zones got on another bus headed to our new zone, we stopped where there were groups of missionaries and we joined with our companions. We were never solo. 

 Goodbye La Entrada de Copan District

How is Santa Ana? I like the new area a lot it is a ward and not a branch, there is a big difference in the atmosphere that’s all that I have to say. We meet in a stake center that is gigantic. It’s a lot different having people in all the callings and not just the same 6 people in all the callings. They say that is it dangerous here but I haven’t seen anything bad. There are a lot of drunks that hang outside of our house during the nights. One night we were walking home and this guy, in a wheel chair, was stuck in a pothole so we pushed him out but of course the foot support was broken.  We tried to bend it back as the man tried to talk to us, I couldn’t understand a thing when he tried to talk in English. We tried for about 30 minutes to bend the foot support back but we couldn’t. He told us push him that way so we started pushing and we ended up pushing him 7 blocks in the mud with big holes in the road. My comp pushed 2 blocks and I pushed the rest in the same time he went the 2 blocks, finally we arrived where he said and one of his drunken friend’s was awaiting him.  He started talking to me, he asked me a question like: what do you think drinking does to you? I said “it puts you in your own world” and he responded “yes that’s true, it puts you in the world of Satan, is that bad”. We shared a short message until he finally let go of my hand and we headed for the house. 

How are you and your companion getting along? We get along really well. My comp is 6 ft. 3” so we both look like giants and all but is it good. He comes from Mexico, 3 hours from the border of Texas and he lives modern so all the stuff here isn’t normal for him either. We joke around a lot and have had some good experiences.  Does your comp speak English being that close to Texas, and what is his name?  Elder M. and he can speak a little English; he understands it so if I have questions I just ask him. Guess what he had a classic Volkswagen bug too.  Is his car in good condition? Yes it looked really good but it was just a stock 80 so it’s not that old, but his parents sold it.  No you cannot sell mine.  What did the member say when they saw gringo coming in?  There are a lot of gringos here in the zone.  Are any of them from Utah and did you any of them back in Copan? There is one that I know from Copan, he is from Utah his name is Elder H. There is one from Preston Idaho that started his mission the same time as me. Do you know the elders name from Preston I can talk to his parents?  No I don’t know.  Did the Preston one go to the Guatemala CCM with you?  No everyone went to the Mexico MTC. 

How are your living quarters? Not very well I can’t send pictures because I have been told that there is a virus on this computer and I don’t want to connect my camera.  It’s not really an apartment; well they only pay 1500 lempiras a month including water and power.  It is one room about 200 sq. ft. and we have a bathroom, and water all the time so that is good. But the concrete on the floor is cracked and flaking and the screens are non-existent and all the beams showing so I hung up my hammock. It is not to bad but it is open to all the bugs and animals. Did you put anchors in the beams for the hammock?  I wrapped the rope around the exposed metal beams on the ceiling.

My new apartment

What did you do for p day and do you go to SPS(San Pedro Sula)?  There are pans in the apartment. I did a lot of cleaning and I bought all the stuff to make pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, and yogurt for breakfast so I will be happy this week. Since by transfer all I have eaten is bread with honey or peanut butter until we went to the store. We have a Maxi Dispensa in our area; it is nice to shop at. Do the stores have armed guards at the entrance?  Yes almost all stores. SPS is out of our zone so we have to get permission to leave, so we didn’t leave. We cleaned the house went shopping and also we are going to play ping-pong. How far away is the Internet cafe? We are emailing in the family history center, which is few blocks from our house. The church is using pirated versions of windows here, how about that and they have viruses. 

What spiritual experience did you have this week? Well I think it happened last night. We finished all of our appointments and we didn’t have anything to do but we remembered that the wife of the bishop had told us to pass by and she was going to give us masapan that was fried.  So we stopped by and she gave us the bag to go, it wasn’t 8 yet so we couldn’t go to the diner appointment and it was early so i didn’t want to go to the house. So I told my comp lets sit down in front of the church on the steps in the street. So we sat there prayed and then ate, and let me tell you it was really really good. As we were sitting there this little man in his 40 walked around the corner and my companion started hiding his head because he didn’t want to be seen by this man because he had talked with the man before and he said he is crazy. Well of course the man comes right up to us and it making all these signals with his hands, I don’t know what he means. He was there for like 5 minutes signaling and I didn’t know what he wanted. So I loaded some beans on the fried masapan and gave it to the man. He was happy. He sat down next to me and made some more signals. He was sporting a pair of shades that were dark and of course this was in the night but he took them off and tried to give them to me. But I gave them back and gave him more food. He tried to re-gifted the glasses like 20 times and we finished and got up to leave but we snuck the glasses into the mans backpack with the doll that he had and all he had. I think that this man was homeless and he couldn’t talk and I think that he had a hernia because he had something wrong with his stomach and it looked funny. Either a hernia or someone beat him up.  I was thinking what would Christ have done for someone who couldn’t talk and was mentally handicapped. He wouldn’t look the other way and hope the person doesn’t see him, he would help him. We should all be the same, we need to help all people regardless of their position; if they have a handicap, if we don’t like them, if they are poor or have nothing, they are all children of God. 

How many people are in you ward? 105 came to sacrament meeting, but I was told we have nearly 600 members so there are a lot of menos activos.   I asked for a list of all the members so we will see next week.  How big are the ward boundaries? The area is huge we have one spot that is called lempira and it is a hill that is very steep, the kids ride plastic 3 liter bottles down the hill like sleds.   How many missionaries are assigned to this area?  There are 2 of us, my companion and me. In between our area and the area of the other elders, is an area that is the dangerous part of Honduras; it is the frontage of the 2 gangs.  So your area is not in the dangerous area just next to it? And there are no missionaries in that area.  That is correct, we are just next to the dangerous area, which is 2 blocks outside of our area.  There is a branch in that area, but it is difficult, you basically can’t cross the road because of the gang rivalry. Yesterday I met the branch president of this area he was pretty cool; there is only 30 members of the branch. 

Ok you two big guys stay away from trouble.

 

Stake Center

This city is much more modern, I feel like I returned to the States from a third world country. Everyone has laptops and touch phones, Bikes and stuff like this. They seem to make a lot more than the people in Copan. I think they are making 3 or 4 times as much money. 

How do you around in this city?  Are you riding walking or using the bus?  Just walking. 

Do people feed you more in this area?  Yes we get fed lunch every day by Hna B.  We pay her, but we don’t pay her much, she feeds us way better than what we pay for. We only pay 525 every 15 days.  We have dinners lined up every night of the week so we only have to make breakfast, which is very nice. 

Daily Lunch

When I was saying good-bye to one of the families in El Dorado they told me that they knew someone that lived in my new area that feeds the elders. I found this lady and she gives us the best food, it is a heaping plate of tajadas and fryed chicken. You’re going to be fat from this area.  That’s what they say but it won’t happen, I hope, and if I start to see it I will exercise more. I think I lost weight in the ccm so I will be normal weight again. 

Is the temperature much hotter there? I don’t think that the temperature is much hotter; I still sleep with my blanked. During the days it is hotter but not that much.

Who is washing your clothes?  We get to wash all of our own clothes. When you wash your clothes do you go to a Laundromat?  Wish we could was our clothes in a Laundromat, but there are no Laundromats. We will use the pila, our hands and a lot of soap.

The language is pretty good, I can say what I want most of the time and if I can’t say what I want I can explain what I want to say. 

Did you like mom's dolls to give out as gifts to the girl? Do they like stickers?  The boys really like the hot wheels and the dolls were good for the girls. I still have one hot wheel and a couple of the pins left.  How about the wood cars, or hot wheels are better.  Hot wheels are better. 

Saying Goodbye

Thanks for all that you do. I am having a great time with my new companion and we have had some very powerful lessons. Thanks and until next Monday. Love you all and have a good safe week.

If we send a package what would you like?  Just send me a jar of honey and be creative with the rest.   But only if you can find a 32 gb for under 25 dollars if not I will buy it here. 

But love you all and my time is up.