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.