Week 37 La Jutosa

Did you get transferred? Yes I got transferred.  I am in an area that is called La Jutosa it is in the middle of nowhere and it is a little city hidden in the mountains.  My zone is Choloma.  My new companion is Elder D., he’s from Paraguay and he has been out like 14 or 15 months, he’s been in the area for 1 transfer.  What type of background does your comp come from how long has he been a member.   All his life, his dad died when he has like 4 and they’re prone to fight and punch is what I have heard. 

How was packing all of you stuff? It was a little bit hard to pack all of my stuff and I even sent a couple boxes in the Ruta (Honduran Mail) with all my books and a hammock and my blender. My books arrived last week but my blender should arrive this week.  Where do you put your luggage on those buses?  You pay for the luggage as a person and you put it in the seats. I spent like 3 dollars to get all my luggage there. Did you stand up on you bus ride from Santa Ana?  They chartered a bus. But yes, I am almost always standing on the buses.

What did you do for p-day?  We went and hiked to a couple of waterfalls today, I hope that I will be able to upload all the pictures.  Why are you carrying your machete?  We used it to make our trail. Then we took a 40-minute bus ride to get to the house from the main street where we ate at Wendy’s today.  I am in the zone that includes the beach so we will go the beach most p days.  Choloma, that’s where we are at right now emailing, it has a nice mall.  Are you having problems uploading photos today?  Yes these computers are using windows XP and it is bad and slow and way outdated. 

How is you house? Can you sleep in you hammock?  I can sleep in my hammock but I haven’t found a ladder to put it up. The house is huge but it isn’t even painted on the inside.  Do you have water and are the windows covered?  Is the weather any cooler in the mountains?  The weather is much cooler and there is a river by our house.   We have water only during mid-day and at night but yes the windows are covered.  Is getting fed more similar to La Entrada than Santa Ana, do you get fed by families?  No it’s a miracle but there’s food every night.  Are you using your blanket?  Yes, without it I would die.  What do people do for work?  They work in fields or they are sewing or making products such as fabric and thread, stuff like that.  Do you have a cook or somebody to was your clothes?  Yes we have the 2 but I think I will wash my clothes for a while and then I will pay someone when I am tired of it.

I am in a branch and this week only 28 people came, including some visiting older couple missionaries and us. Is all of the church outside, or just the chapel?  The chapel is outside and there are a few rooms inside. We had to teach primary and there wasn’t a priesthood class.  Yes alcoholic’s anonymous it next door and we got to listen to them during sacrament meeting and we had to bless the sacrament because there is no one else.  That would be hard to have church outside, my mind would really wander and so would the little kids.   

A member of the quorum of the 70’s came last week and really taught the leaders so it is a make it or break it situation, they could close it down in the future if it doesn’t go good. You have the priesthood to lead the branch. Try and be a leader for the branch on the correct way things run. Where is the closest baptismal font?  The river is the font.

How was your week? Well it has been a little hard, just like Steven I am with a companion that is a little hard to get along with but well I’m with him so I have to deal with him. The first day we worked good and everything until we got to the house and started to plan for the next day, my comp lost it he was going on saying that “I changed everything, that people aren’t important to me, that all that matters to me is numbers” and well a lot of other things. I asked him what I was doing to bother him and his only response was “I am not a recorder”. Wow!  Well I just sat there and asked him for like a thousand times what he wants me to change and he just said he’s not a recorder. He said “well this isn’t going to work out” I can’t be your companion and a lot of other things and I said “well I didn’t choose you as my companion, the Lord did, I am here to stay, at least for this transfer, so buck up”. I had to endure like a half hour of verbal abuse from my companion and I really only did one stupid thing, I took the camera out and put it there and put it on record. He was furious, but it was very interesting to hear the change of the tone of voice and how he changes to saying that I am talking different. I managed to keep a soft voice the whole time. So the next day I really just gave him the opportunity to lead in everything but we really don’t accomplish much, I feel like he wants to lead everything but that’s ok, the Lord knows that I am doing my part. We haven’t had a problem since but sometimes I feel bored and that we are wasting our time. 

Spiritual experience. I think the most spiritual experience I had was yesterday. We found an inactive member and we began to ask her questions and I asked her if there was anyone else that would like to hear our message and she brought in her sobrina (Niece) I don’t know how to say it in English. But she was so prepared and I think that if she comes to the church this week she will progress very fast. 

What did you do for the "Week of the Family"?  We had our activity on the iron rod before I was transferred.  In my new area, we went to Puerto Cortes and saw a talent show from the whole stake.  How long did it take you to get to Puerto Cortes and did you see the ocean from there?  We saw a lot of cargo boxes like from the boats but it was at night, I didn’t see water.   I bet you packages come into that port.  It says that it is the only deep-water port in Central America.  Yes it looked like it is huge. 

Tell us about a funny thing that happened this week? Well today we went to a waterfall and it was the most fun thing that we have done all week long. Another experience was we were in Puerto one of the members of the church acted like he wanted to rob my bag when we were in a pulperia (corner market) but he was just seeing if I would go for it. The funny things was that I had seen him in the church when we walked in at first so I knew that he was a member, you should have seen his face.

What was the fire in the picture?  Someone burned a whole hill

Know that we love and support you, the president sent you there for a reason and work as hard as you can. You just need to try and be supportive.   Be your calm self and if you need to, ask the district leader to do splits so you can vent.  He is the district leader.  Have you met any other elders, how close do they live?  They all live like 50 minutes away.

Ok my time is up but it has been really fun to talk to you guys, I hope that you will have a good week and wow its really weird that my cousin is getting married. But love you all and have another good short week.