Week 68 SPS

What did you have for Christmas dinner last night?  We ate in the house nothing was open.  That's too bad, what did you fix?  I fixed ham and cheese croissants.  For yourself or you and your comp?  Just for me, my comp ate a baleada.  Did you have baleada’s in the fridge, or did he make them?  We bought them in a drive through.  Did the other elders have invites to Christmas dinner?  Yes the other elders had Christmas dinner invites in wards, but nobody from our ward invited us.

For p-day went shopping and we didn’t do anything else we have done everything in SPS.  Today we ate at Orange Burger it was really good. 

Is there any interesting scheduled for this week?  No we just have to find some new missionary housing for the missionaries in Villanueva because the landlord just kicked us out because her family is going to live in the apartment.  Did she give you some notice about the apartment?  No not really, 5 days notice.  So she wants you out by the first of the month before rent is due?    Yes, but I had already started the payment for next month.  We talked her into the 10^th of January and not the 1^st.   The elders should find a new apartment, but they called me and said they found one that cost 8000 HNL a month when the budget is 2300 HNL.  They were thinking sweet apartment it probably had AC.  They have AC in their current apartment. 

Well my time is up for today; I have some things to do. Love you all it was fun to Skype with you yesterday. Have a good New Years and don’t blow many things up with fireworks.

Week 67 SPS

How are you feeling?  Is your fever gone and the knee looking? Well as far as the health goes I am doing great there are no real problems right now the only thing I have left is a small cough but any day that should go away. The fever lasted until Monday morning and then it hasn't come back and it won’t come back. The knee looks good but sometimes it hurts a little but it is no big deal. Is your knee totally clear with no redness?  Yes my knee isn’t red or hot any more.

Has sister D. been taking good care of you? Yes she takes real good care of all the missionaries.

How was stake conference?  Did you get to meet elder D.?  Yes stake conference was good but it wasn't so good because I felt sick the whole time. We had a mission meeting with D. and it was interesting he has high expectations that are applicable in the perfect situation, it would be easier in business because you can control the influencing factors, in the mission, you can only do your part and if the other side of the equation does not do its part, you can’t force them to do anything.

I show your package arrived and did you open it? The package got here but I haven't opened it I was going to wait until Christmas to open it.

What was the spiritual experience of the week? It is a very long story for the spiritual experience, it all started like two weeks ago some missionaries went and looked at a new house because we told them to start looking because their house cost too much and they found a house.   The zone leaders went there they too approved it and well we said ok, I even went to the house and looked at it, it seemed fine. I got all the papers filled out and made a check and deposited it in the owners account and I told them that we would come and help them move in. Yesterday we went at 2 in the afternoon to move them and we got them moved but in the process we saw that there were a few younger chicas that lived next door and we decided to get to know the neighbors, from this point on I didn’t feel good about the house.  When I say next door, I mean in the apartment next door and well it was just a bad idea to put missionaries there. So we left and we when like 6 blocks and then I called President and explained it to him, he said “well then do what you need to do”, so we moved the missionaries back to their old house but before we moved them back we took hold of the opportunity to make the landlord think we didn’t want the house and I ended up bartering the price lower and changing a few things in the contract. She was charging us 4500 HNL a month, 500 HNL were to pay the lights and water, if they went over they had to pay the difference, they have only gone over 2 times in years so I figured that the dueno was pocketing money. I said we would pay light and water separately. We also talked her down 700 HNL to 3300 HNL it was really fun to barter with the lady in charge and then win my argument. So we got a good deal and will be there for the next year. But it was interesting to feel the difference in the spirit before we had moved them back to their old house and after we moved them back. I know that they are in the house they should be in because the spirit was strong.

What did you do for p-day? We went shopping in the most Americanized store here in SPS and I bought bread mustard and ham and cheese, it is just like a US super market.  I bought Cure 81 Ham and Provolone cheese and will be making some good hot sandwiches with this.   How much was the ham and cheese is that store in one of the malls?  No its is a huge store lets put it this way they even had the Indian sweet chili sauce that we like. The ham was like 5 bucks a pound sliced and the cheese was like 3 a pound.

What are your plans for Christmas?  Has a family invited you to their home? We have no plans for Christmas but I am sure that something will come up.   We have to go to the airport the 23rd and I need to go to Yojoa once or twice this week.

I am out of time right now but love you all and talk to you all later sorry, I haven't sent an email for everyone that has helped me out and given me things for Christmas but make sure to tell them all thanks for me. I really am thankful for all that they do for me. I just haven had time I have been busy all day.

Have you gotten the truck fixed?  No but I have permission and funds to do it by the church; there just hasn't been time.  Won't they give you a loaner car for a day?  No they wont but I am hoping that they give us our new truck and then we get the old one repaired.  Are you getting another vehicle?  We will get a new truck soon. This week we will start the process to get it. We will hit 90000 kilometers in the old one. How much is gas a liter?  I don’t know, all I know is it cost about 1000 HNL to fill the truck.  We drive a lot; I had to fill up the truck 10 times last month. For example, on Friday I woke up at 4 50 AM we left at 5 and we drove 1 and a half hours to Yojoa to pick up a missionary and we took him to the airport more than 3 hours driving time.  Why don't they take the bus to SPS and then you take them to the airport?  There isn’t a bus at this time in the morning and its what President told us to do.

My time is up, and I have to go really soon. I love you all and hope that you all have a good Christmas and don't buy too much. Make sure to have fun. I look forward to talking with you all this week I imagine on the 25.

Week 66 SPS

Ok, I don’t have much time to email just like 10 minutes and then we have to go to Stake conference with Elder Duncan. I went to the hospital because I have had a super high fever for about 2 or 3 days and I had infection in my knee which started a few weeks ago.  Is that the same place you had infection in the knee before?  Yes it was in the same exact place.  We might have that looked at when you get home.  That might be a good idea; I have no idea how the infection started there. Did it puss out like at home?  It did the same exact thing.  They said I was really dehydrated, so they gave me a 1 liter saline IV, it was huge it took like 3 hours to get it all in, and then at the end they mixed the antibiotic with the solution to get it into my system. The blood tests showed that the infection was mostly if not completely gone but they gave me the other antibiotic in just to make sure it was completely gone and wouldn't come back. I am still sick with a fever because I also have a viral sickness and I have a runny nose and sore throat and a high fever from this. But I should get better soon; well at least I hope I will be better fast.  I was in the ER for 5 hours it was super boring. Do you want to hear my blood pressure today it was 151/80.  Were they worried about the blood pressure?  No they said it was fine.  Sister D. came to the hospital with me.  What would you guess it cost, and remember I went to the best hospital in Honduras?  It was close to 2,543.29 Lempiras (114 dollars) that is including everything: the doctor, the IV and the antibiotics.  Well I have to go, talk to you maybe later today.

Week 65 SPS

What was the spiritual experience of the week? I think it has had to have been one thing that I have been trying to change during this week I have been trying not to get as frustrated with the landlords while they are calling me because sometimes they wont even listen to you and they wont give you time to talk, when this happens sometimes I have to hang up. But I feel that I am lasting a longer time without getting frustrated, sometimes though the guards in this country really irritate me because they get mad at you for doing nothing and they wont let us in to go to our appointments sometimes. Also I get frustrated in the airport because they wont let anyone wait in the check in line that isn’t flying so I have to wait in the boonies until it gets to the point that they want to charge them for the extra bag and then I have to walk over there, why can’t I wait in the line.   So from now on, I will have my passport and I will say I am just here to buy a ticket so they can’t say anything. There are about the only things that frustrate me. But these things are small but I know with the Lords help I will be able to overcome or suppress these frustrations.  What are the landlords complaining about?  Why their money isn’t in their account and that’s during November, technically I have until the 5th of December to deposit it, and they all called before this day, which is was frustrating.  All I know is that the payments would have gotten there 3 days earlier if the church had posted a notice saying that no payments would be approved during thanksgiving time.  The Landlords signed a contract so they can’t say anything.  All the time but I just tell them read your contract, or I already have paid you.  Many of the landlords will call and say the payment hasn't arrived because they don't think to check who all of their payments have been from.

How many investigators came to church last week? 1 Investigator came to church last week and we didn't even know that it was our investigator but now we do and we will be visiting him and his family.

What was a challenge of the week? Well the biggest challenge of the week was when the East mission called me and told me that their truck was in the dealership for maintenance and well they couldn't pay at the end and couldn't get their car out, they called me and asked me if I had 20000 lempiras (900 $) in cash, I told them no. Their card was rejected and their mission president was not in town and couldn't pay for it so I had to pay for it. It was difficult because I wanted to pay with a check, and well I had to get the check certified and that was a process, but I now know how to get a check certified here in this country.  It requires 3 signatures from president D. Well I got it done and paid so they could get their car out for the weekend, they were happy and I learned something new.

What did you do for p day? Well we painted some in a house and we went to a store like home depot and we bought two new faucets and a sink so that my worker for the day could install it in a house that I have been repairing. We ate lunch at baleadas express and we are now writing.

Are you getting more comfortable with your responsibilities? I think so, I am starting to understand how to do everything but sometimes there is just not enough time do all that I need to do.

What is happening with the apartment fire?  Got the bid done to get it fixed, it was 7000 lempiras (315 $), so we will have it repaired.

How is your companion?  He is doing well, sometimes he is a little crazy and he sleeps all over.  He’s is an old man because he is 27.  27 is not old, is he a convert?  No he is not a convert?  He studied and graduated first before going on a mission. 

Did you get a new AP?  Yes, he came yesterday.  His name is Elder W. from Idaho.