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Sunday, January 31, 2016

Week 73 SPS


How are plans going for the baptism? Good Hna A. passed her baptismal interview and will be getting baptized today at 5 so that will be fun. Also Hna M. has her baptismal date set for the 20th of February and she is progressing to meet this goal. Han M. is a pediatric doctor or whatever you call that. Is there going to be a lot of people at the baptism? I think so. Do the office elders have many baptisms? Some.



What was your spiritual experience of the week? It was definitely the lesson we had with sister M. we taught her in the home of the family A. the husband is one of the counselors in the stake presidency and he is an orthopedic surgeon. They were very willing to help us and share their testimonies, the spirit was very strong and it was amazing when Hna M. said that she was going to be ready for her baptism on the 20th. She totally felt the spirit and I can’t wait to see her change and hopefully get married after she gets baptized.

How has the weather been for you? It has been really cool i have had to carry my blanket around in the hose in the morning for a while to stay warm. Also the water is extremely cold.

What is one of your favorite scriptures? This week I have been reading in Mormon and well as the Doctrine of Salvation. One of the things that caught my mind this week is truly how much love and understanding Christ has for the Jews. As I read in Mormon 5 verse 14 I just thought a lot about how He is even going to give the Jews another chance to accept him as their savior. He really loves us more than we can comprehend.

Mormon 5:14
 And behold, they shall go unto the unbelieving of the Jews; and for this intent shall they go—that they may be persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that the Father may bring about, through his most Beloved, his great and eternal purpose, in restoring the Jews, or all the house of Israel, to the land of their inheritance, which the Lord their God hath given them, unto the fulfilling of his covenant;


What did you do for p-day? We haven't done anything in the morning, the power went out in our house so there was nothing then we went and got some baptism clothes and we then ate breakfast and came to the office so they could drop off the new printer.


How was the week for finance secretary? Slow because the printer didn’t work. Has the printer come? Yes it came, but its not the best, I prefer the old one. They sent us a discontinued printer. Does the church send it to you? Yes and they sent us a ok printer but sometimes I think that they don’t know what they are doing, many times they just buy without seeing a demonstration.


Do you realize that today is there are 200 days until you come home? It could possibly be less. I talked with president about it, but he hasn't told me anything. I will have to ask him again this week. That would be good. Family wants to know so that they can make plans to come see you.

Are you using mosquito repellant for the new zika virus? No because I will get it anyway, the mosquitoes bite regardless of the mosquito repellent.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Week 72 SPS

Did you do anything for p day?  We just ate lunch and cleaned the house.  We ate at Orange Burger; I got a chicken sandwich that was really good.  Did everyone clean the house or just you?  Just the cleaning man and I cleaned the house. Was the picture of your house a current one, there was trash all over.  Yes that is the current house the missionaries destroyed the house.  Wow that would drive me crazy.  Yes it is all cleaned up now. I just shut myself in my room and went out in the morning to see destruction.  We cooked breakfast and they ate dinner in our house and one time we purchased Chinese food.

How is the truck trade in going?  Well we are over 93000 KM so we’re closer, next month we should get there or at least to 97000 then we only need a week for the other 1000 KM.   So you might get the new one before you transfer out?    We will get the new one.  Did you ever get the truck fixed?  No we haven’t had time we also need new shocks.

Tell us about a spiritual experience from the last two weeks? I would say the most spiritual experience would have to be with our investigators. We have several but it is hard to divide our time up to go and visit them sometimes it just does not seem like there is enough time to do what we need. Yesterday after we left from the office, we went to a lesson and it was really good. We visited the family of A. and the whole family was helping her and teaching her about the gospel. We tried to put a baptism date with her and then the mom and the sisters started to fight a bit about their schedules and it was very interesting to see the daughter that is 9 tell her mom and her older sisters that “this Saturday I will be baptized you don't need to fight over it”. Han A. has gone to church her whole life so hopefully everything will go fine with her. It is amazing to see how the Lord prepares people to be baptized.   Also in the case of Hna M., she has a very busy schedule but the one date  (Feb 20th) we felt was the right date for her baptism, she had traded shifts and would be able to come. Han M. has had to work some Sundays but that is her life as a doctor here in Honduras, she is pretty much always on call. To me these are small miracles that I have seen in the last two weeks.


How are you feeling? I feel great, sometimes I am tired but this is just a result of airport runs at 3 in the morning.

Did you have transfers last week? Yes there were transfers.  How did that go?  Well it went well, there were over 20 missionaries that came and 20 that left so there was a lot of change in the mission. We picked up the new Elders except for 2 that would come the next day in the morning. We went the next day in the morning and we were literally 5 minutes late getting to the airport and the elder and sister that were going to arrive were not there, we spent an hour or so looking for them and they finally showed up at the mission office. They said that they came out there was nobody, so they sat for a minute and then someone offered to give them a ride to the offices so they went with them and well we thought they were lost.  Did they missionaries travel by themselves this time like the mission president wants to try? No they traveled in groups it is safer to travel like this here.  When the missionaries are heading home, do you usually take them shopping for souvenirs?  Yes we always take them shopping for souvenirs.  This time my 1st companion, Elder C. went home.   Next transfer, Elder P. goes home. So you can see Elder P. when he leaves?  Yes I will take him to the airport. 

How is the new AP? The new AP is very funny and he likes to do a lot of exercise. He seems to be willing to help others and he still likes to have fun so it is a good combination.  How much time does your comp have on the mission?  1 month less than me.  When does your companionship change?  Will the new companion come in three weeks and then transfer out at the next on March 8th?  Yes in 3 or 4 weeks my comps replacement and my new comp will get here.  Then do you go the transfer after that or in two transfers?  I don’t know when I will leave the office, most likely is in two changes.

Were you ever able to get the deposit back from the Landlord who took the keys out of the missionary’s hands?  No I never got the deposit back

We travel to Bountiful today; Aunt Cris is going to quilt them for us to take to Mexico.  Are you just building normal concrete houses?  It is adobe brick and concrete will tie it together.  Adobe or just cinderblock it doesn’t take much for people to make cinderblock here in Honduras, and its super cheap.  I wish they made some things at home like they do in Honduras like concrete stairs outside they can make them beautifully out of concrete.  Could you build us a house before you come home to vacation in at the beach?  Yes it is called a tarp and 4 hammocks.  


My time is up we have a lesson at 6. I am thankful for all that you all do. Talk with you all next week.


Saturday, January 16, 2016

Week 71 SPS

How was your week? It was good but long, there have been many new and weird things that have happened. I will try and write more about them on Monday as I think that I will write because I don't have time right now.  We have a baptism and a lesson to go to. 

Were you able to contact your investigators this week and teach them? We haven’t really been able to contact them because there all busy and we are too. But today at 5 hopefully we will get to see one.

How was church last week, do you have to participate? No I didn't have to do anything in church, just listen to the talks and sometimes help prepare the sacrament but that is easy.

Do you ever get invited to eat at a member’s house? Yes every Thursday we eat with the family Galindo on Sunday for lunch we eat with family A. and for dinner with family M. also on Wednesday we eat lunch with some members family Z, I think that is how it is spelled they sell Kyani it is a product based out of Idaho that is a wellness supplements made of out Wild Alaskan Blueberries and Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon. 

How does your money hold out with having to eat out a lot?  How often do you use a taxi? We use taxi like 4 or 5 times a week, but we get reimbursed for this. As far as eating out, I have enough money always.  If you don't get out of control, you can eat out at very nice restaurants a lot. We tried sushi this week at SUSHITO it was really good, were just waiting for their 2 for 1 special and we will be going back there.

I will try and write more on Monday, I just have to go now.




Saturday, January 9, 2016

Week 70 SPS


What spiritual thing happened this week? Well there are always many stories but I always think about one thing it is amazing to see the small miracles that happen everyday. President wants to do changes where the one companion travels by himself so we tried it out.   We had an elder come from Yojoa a far off area, so he could pick up his new companion, we had told him to be in the terminal at a certain time, he got there way early without a companion and well it just so happened that the other mission was there looking for another elder that never arrived.   We ended up picking up the elder for their mission, and they picked up the elder for our mission and all was well in the end. God really does put the right people in the right places in the correct time especially when it comes to his missionaries. 

Did you have to go to the airport this week for any early flights? Yes I went to the airport 3 times this week: One was this morning early because we had to go and pick up a sister missionary from her area, we woke up at 3:30 and we got the airport at 4:20.  The 2nd time we went at 4, but it was just to drop off a missionary that would be going to the MTC in Guatemala, he was from the district that President is over so we were in charge. The 3rd was to drop off a missionary that finished his mission and was going to New Zealand or Australia, I don't remember for sure where.  What other countries do you have missionaries from besides the U.S. and South America?  Just Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Do you interact with the East mission office elders?  Yes we go talk with them a lot.  Do you help each other with financial and other problems?   Have you met Sister K. is she a nice lady?  Yes I have met Sister K.; sometimes we help each other out.  I have had to pay for some of their things and they had to pay our mission back.

Has your companion’s replacement been sent to the mission home to learn what his job is? In like 5 weeks my companion’s trainee will get here.

Did you teach any discussions to the doctor or the atheist this week, and if so how did they go? No we didn't we had appointments with them; they never answered their phones making it impossible to find them to teach them. But hopefully next week we will be able to get back in contact with them.

What did you do for p-day? We went to the airport and my companion slept forever, when we got back we ate at Popeye’s and then we walked around in the mall.   Next week we will go shopping with the AP that will finish his mission.  So is the new AP in the office already?   No he wont come until next weekend.

How is your health? It is good. I haven't had any problems but many of the other missionaries have been getting sick lately with all sorts of weird things.  What kind of sicknesses are the missionaries coming down with?  Do you finally have a mission nurse?   Yes we have a mission nurse, they are getting weird stomach bacteria, sica and chickengunya, all of that good stuff.  Do you see lots of mosquitos in the city?  I don’t see many.

Do you have a funny or interesting story from this week? I don't remember than any funny things passed by this week it was normal.  I just had to take a phone call that want that pleasant, I think the guy is going to rob us 2800 HNL deposit because he stole my only leverage, the keys to the house out of the hands of the missionaries.  Nothing was in the house; we had moved them out last week. He was just going through to see what we needed to fix and he was really rude and pushed a missionary and grabbed the keys and refused to get them back.  First he said he has to do some touch up painting, we painted the house to start off.   Second there are 2 tiles that are broken, well that's because they are all loose. He has really been a bad landlord. Stealing light, had years of water debt and the bank wanted to repossess the house.

Has the weather been wet with El Niño?  No, it hasn’t rained once and is really hot.  It should be rainy right now but its not. 

What else are you working on today?  Well today I am figuring out how much money and how I should help the missionaries that haven’t paid their lights or water bills and are a month or more behind.   Do they have to pay the lights from their own money?  From the money they receive on their cards, but we just changed it, and now the mission pays up to 300, or 600 if there is 2 companionships in a house.  I made this change that we will be paying up to 300 per companionship a week ago, so we are just getting everything back on track so in the future there wont be any excuses.  The missionaries have to pay the bill then send me the receipts to pay them back.

Well my time is up.  Have a good week. Love you all.  I will try and take some pictures.

  

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Week 69 SPS

What spiritual experience did you have this week? My most spiritual experience this week had to have been on Tuesday we had 4 lessons: 2 with members and 2 lessons with inactive members. We are teaching about 3 investigators that have a real potential. One is a doctor she is really smart and just moved here.  Her boyfriend is a return missionary and she is really interested. She already had the scriptures downloaded on her phone. She came to church last week for the first two hours and then had to go and work and the week before she came just after sacrament meeting. The next investigator is E. he is more or less atheist and does not believe in God or anything; he says the bible is a fable.  But we watched a video with him and the spirit was present, this was also when he started to imagine his life as being a Christian. We asked him and he said he was thinking about his life being a Christian he said he had never thought that before. The last one is G., he is an Engineer of some sort and makes machines for packaging products and so forth, he is really cool.  He came to church and he likes the book of Mormon and he is reading a lot. He was traveling and couldn't come this Sunday but this or the next he will be back to church. It was really cool to see the progression of these people because many of the inactive people have been inactive for a lot of time but when they say “I am working on becoming active again in church” it just makes me happy.

Did you find the new apartment for the elder? I am not sure which elders you are talking about but there were some sisters that moved this week. There are about 5 houses at a time with problems that are in the process of finding a house and then moving and sometimes it is a big headache.

Do you like the office, or do you miss proselyting? Well we get to proselyte at night and that is kind of fun because it’s just the right amount of time. Plus, in our area, nobody is home during the day, so if we worked in the day, nobody would be there to open his or her houses up.

What did you do for New Years? Well I slept and woke up at 11.55 because the fireworks started to sound and took a video of this it wasn't as loud as Christmas, but it was enough that I couldn't sleep through it.

What are you studying right now? Well I just got to 3 Nephi so that means I will soon be getting to Christ’s visit here in the Americas. I am finishing with all the wars and contentions, finally.

Look what we did with the bunk beds.  No I didn't sleep on it, but it was really tall over 25 feet tall and we built it inside the house

Was that a ward or stake Christmas party?  It was our ward Christmas party.  We ate pork salad rolls and pastries like pumpkin pie and all sorts of stuff like that.


How is your health?  I feel good. Today I made the biggest mess two times. I decided we were going to see if the dishwasher in our house worked, so I filled it with dishes and just threw a couple spoon fills of laundry detergent in, the next thing I knew, foam was running all over the place.   I washed another batch, but I put less soap and it wasn't as bad, but still some bubbles still came out.  You do know that they make dishwashing detergent?  Yes but I wasn’t going to buy the detergent without knowing that the dishwasher works.  So for p-day did you just stay at your house and used the dishwasher?  Yes, that is it. I cleaned the kitchen. Good for you to clean kitchen. Yes it is better, but not there yet, it is just that no one else does anything. 


Yesterday, we ate at Inca Peruvian grill. I got sweet and sour chicken it was good, the sauce tasted just like wonton sauce that we make.  How much did that cost?  220 HNL. 


I am out of time and I have a lot of things to do. Love you all and talk to you next week.