Week 64 SPS

Tell us about a spiritual experience you had this week? My most spiritual experience of this last week was really Sunday to see people come to church for the first time and actually have some progressing investigators, 3 people came to church so we will help them come along and get prepared to be baptized.

Did you go to any areas outside of SPS? No this week I stayed in SPS there was no need to leave.

Have you found time to get the truck fixed? No it is really hard to find the time needed to get the truck fixed because they all tell you three days because they prep it paint it and cure it. But here shortly I should find the time to get it done.

Did you have Thanksgiving dinner with the family from Arizona? My thanksgiving was really good if you want to see here is a picture of the people we ate with. Family M. invited us over to eat with them they are a very cool American family. Uno M. is in the purple shirt in the background. We ate well and we got to know the other family that is siting on the couch he is the U.S consulate, I’m not sure if that word exists in English. We ate the normal thanksgiving food turkey, ham, stuffing and vegetables and there were many deserts one of them being pumpkin pie.  It was very good and I left feeling very full.

Is this the week for new AP’s, or is it next week with transfers? No we will get a new AP the Sunday before changes so in a few weeks.

How is your health?  Are you having any symptoms from that amoeba? No i am fine I haven't had any problems I have a little rash but it will go away really fast.

What did you do for p-day? We went to Omoa, which is known as the home of the San Fernando Fort, built by the Spanish in the late 1700’s. Construction of "Castillo de San Fernando" began in 1759, in order to protect against the many attempts of foreign invasion and pervasive attacks by pirates. For lunch we ate really well, Elder J. from Colorado and I ordered a big plate and split it.  It was good but it was kind of hard to eat.  So did you drive to the beach today why did you go there?  We went there because that's where everyone else wanted to go I didn't drive there.  All of the office elders went.

Well I got an interesting call on Saturday morning and some missionaries told me how they had cooked on a grill some meat for thanksgiving, they put the coals out and went to bed, a few hours later they heard some weird sounds so they went up to their porch and their couch was on fire. This was the weirdest thing that happened, here is a picture.  Are your responsible for the couch?  I would say no because it wasn't in the contract. We never put things like that in the contract because we don't want to be responsible for them.  It's a good thing the houses are made of cinder block and wood or something worse could have happened to the missionaries.  Yes it is a good thing it burned a hole in the roof and the firefighters had to go and put it out. I am not sure how it started it could have been a outlet that was behind the couch that shorted out or it could have been the grill because it happened 2 hours after they had put water on the ashes.  Will the landlord kick them out?  No I don’t think he will kick us out now. Well I hope not, because the house is 8 hours from where I am, and I don’t want to travel that far.  That has now been confirmed; I just finished talking with them.  They didn't put the ashes out totally.  Are you responsible to pay for the damages in the repairs to the apartment?  Yes I will have to pay it all.

Ok well sorry I don’t have much time but I now have to go have a good week. Love you all.   What's happening today that you're running behind?  I am running behind like an hour. Yes that and I have to go to the terminal to send a package to Tegucigalpa and also I want to go to office depot.

Week 63 & 64 SPS

How has your last 2 weeks been? Well my 2 weeks have been long that's all that I can tell you, we have had so many things to do and we have had to wake up early so many times it is crazy. In the last 2 weeks, 3 missionaries have returned to their houses because of sicknesses so I have been to the airport 3 times. Only once did we have to go at 4 in the morning so it hasn't been too bad.  I am still learning so many new things because every day I am put into a new situation.

What did you do for p day?

Last p-day we dropped off a fridge and then went to the ruins at Copan.  So it was a work play trip?  Yes, but I didn’t want to enter the ruins because it costs a lot, but I did it anyway because all of the other Elders wanted to go. Did the police stop you on the road to Copan; I read they do a lot of road check?  Yes it is always different and there is always angry people calling me. 

This p-day we ran errands mailing things and also we went to Villanueva to drop off a paper with one of President Dester’s counselors and then we went to Aldea El Caramen to drop off a mission call but they changed the place and we had to go back to the Benque to drop it off. Nothing else really special or interesting has happened.

How are your investigators doing? They are doing good, one of them has come to church 3 Sundays in a row but she always gets there for the second hour because she is busy the first hour, but I think as we help her she will learn how to make the preparations so that she will be able to come to church.

Tell us something funny that happened this week. It wasn't funny but on Monday we celebrated my companion’s birthday we ate a really good chocolate cake.

Did you get the truck fixed? I haven’t gotten it fixed yet but I have finally filled out all the forms and have approval to fix it with the budgets I have.   I got some quotes this week, I just need to find some time so they can fix it.

What did you eat at the mall this week? I ate Burwings one time and we ate at Hasta La Pasta, it was really good, we also have eaten at subway and all the places you can imagine we probably ate there.

Have you taken any trips to the hospital this week with missionaries? No I haven’t had to go;  Hna E. is not a nurse but she is acting in the spot of the nurse until we get one in the new changes. 

Today we went to a baptism that the APs had it was interesting I had to give a talk with almost no notice. The water in the baptismal font was green but we went on with the baptism and Hna Santos got baptized. 

I think for thanksgiving dinner we will eat in a family's house that is in the same building as president D’s.  They are members of the church and there from Arizona, they are still learning to speak Spanish.  The family does work; he is in charge of a call center. I’m not sure what day we would do it.  How old are these people from Arizona and do the have kids?  They are a family, and they only have daughters, from like 10 years and up to 23 I would guess.

How was the pizza?  Wow the pizza was really good and elder Jones got a shrimp pasta that looked really good too.  We thought you might eat the pasta. Is it close to the office?  Yes it is like 5 blocks from the office.  Well it was Italian food, it wasn’t too expensive the pizza and soda and salad and dessert cost 175 lempira.

Are you going to get your residency worked out ever?  I don't know about the residency the government is corrupt and they just want to not give it to us because they charge each of us a 20 dollars a month to be here, but if we had residence they couldn't charge us. The older missionaries were able to establish residency but from my group on, no one had been able to.

How are things going in the office? It’s fun at times and stressful too at times

How is President D. now that your trainer has left the office to go back into the field?  It is interesting to have to call him sometimes and I seem to always need him to sign things but it is very interesting to get to know him and some more of his life as told by sister D.has been fun. He is so patient and sometimes I am amazed that he can have so many subjects in his mind at once.

How soon do the assistants to the president change in the mission?  We will get a new assistant in 2 weeks and possibly a new general secretary.

Who is the companion to the general secretary?  Elder C.  What are his responsibilities in the office?  He sends packages to people and puts in baptism information.  What is his title?  RUTA Secretary  (RUTA means mail secretary)

What took you so long to respond to our last question? I was making some financial arrangements for an elder who had been robbed on a bus. 

I have to go, have a good week. Love you all.

Week 62 SPS

How has your first week alone been did you make a lot of calls for help? It has been hectic because there is always strange things that happen for example one landlord called me and said we had a debt of 22 months of water, another called me asking for money and he almost threatened me, but we didn't pay him because he didn't pay his water debt. In the end I paid him because he said he got it worked out and it is better for the security of the missionaries.  How much was the water bill?  It was 660 lempiras, what a blessing that was.

Are you finding investigators to teach? Yes yesterday we received a reference from a contact that we made and the sister was very receptive and wanted to hear our message (she is a lawyer). We are going back tonight to share more. Her daughter came to church for along time but never got baptized she doesn't go now.   How many investigators do you have now?  Like 4. 

Today we went to Pulhapanzak Falls. We drove there and it was fun and we saw a lot of tourists there it was kind of fun to see this but there are some weird styles among some of the American tourists here.  Did any of the Americans talk to you at the falls?  No because we were all speaking Spanish.  What do the Americans dress like?  Just weird.  Like Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirts?  Yes clothes like that.  Were they on a bus tour?  Yes on a bus tour, they all did the zip line and then the cave tours

This week we ate at Denny’s and I ate lunch three days in a row in the same place we call it Turcos Barrato it is a lot of really good food and it only costs 45 HNL.  How is the cereal holding up?  Good I bought another bag.  Do you eat it for breakfast and late night snack?     Yes almost every day I eat a bow of cereal and a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and dinner.

Biggest challenge you had this week? Figuring out what to do after a taxi hit us in the car. We were going to the bank and we were pulling in and a taxi hit the side of us. It was the biggest joke. He was stopped on the side of the curb dropped off a passenger we were turning in front of him and then he gunned it from a stopped position and hit us in the side. It was totally his fault but he just lied up a storm. Elder Nuñez who was with me, told me about the whole fiasco when this happened to Elder Markus and it took a month to figure things out and many trips to the court house and they took away his license and told him he needed to take a Honduras driving class, I didn’t want to deal with all that.  The taxi’s other bumper was already missing and the bumper that was on there didn’t even have nuts to hold it on, it had wire and string.  

We went to the airport once this week.  I drove there and Sister Dester took 2 sister missionaries with her in her car. We were just there for the migration things.  We helped them with bags and help them get their tickets and pay for the extra bags, well Sister Dester paid because I don’t have much credit left on the mission card.  So why is your credit card maxed out when does it get paid off?  It started on the 24 of last month.  It’s only two weeks into the cycle you must be having a lot of expenditures.   Yes I bought an airplane ticket in the airport; it was the only thing we could do in the moment to get the missionary home. I also had to pay for 4 extra bags.  Too much cheese in the luggage?  Yes that’s true, Sister Dester laughed when we told her this story.

Is it raining a lot now that it is the wet season?  At night it rains but it is still super hot.

You should try and send some thing home thru dip shipping while you can drive a bit.   I will in five weeks because I will have time down there by dip shipping.  A few days before the missionaries finish their mission we go to Guamilito, which is where the shipping place is.  The missionaries buy things to take home. The big wood thing I sent home came from there.

Bye, I love you all.