Week 95 Ocotopeque

How is the health of you and your companion? Well I am still not completely back too normal. I have been having some back pain lately so we will see what is going on soon because it bothers me all day. Do you still have diarrhea?  Is your back pain down lower? Yes it is lower and I have had diarrhea only today.   I hope that you don't have h pylori.  I don’t think so. My companion is getting better he has been taking the pills for his treatment he has to take more than 80 pills in 10 days. We worked hard this week; some days we had to go slow but we made it. I truly am just worn out at this point but well I am almost done.   I hope that you also have some fun working and it is not all drudgery.  Maybe you should see a doctor.  Next time I end up going to SPS I will have it checked out, and yes I am trying to eat more.

What did you do for p day?  Today we walked to a waterfall and we went and climbed the bell tower in a catholic church and we took many pictures the only problem is that I left my camera in the house and didn’t bring it here to the computer place.  Who went to the waterfall?  My companion and I went.  Only the 2 of you went?  Did you tell the others where you were going so if you got lost?  No we just went, it wasn’t very far there were people on horses all the way there.  How many miles?  It was a lot like 8 miles.  What time did you leave?  About 7:30.  Did you pack a lunch and snacks?  We took chips and bread. 

How is the French bread loaf that you had a picture of last week?  Where did you buy that?  it was really good. I have a number of a bakery and if I call them they bake it fresh and bring it to my house for 30 HNL ($1.32) Do they do the bread special for you?  No it isn’t special but they do seem to make it by order.  How long does it take to order and get the bread?  It takes a couple of hours.

What time do you catch the bus to Copan to meet the president? At 10 in the morning we have to be in la Entrada so we will have to wake up really early that morning to get there. Are you excited to meet the needs pres.?  Yes but not so much about the 5-hour bus ride.  The buses are like greyhound buses and we will leave at about 5. 

Did you do any service this week? Truthfully I don’t remember any service projects this week. 

How was church this week.  Did you get any more young men to church this week?  No we only had two this week. 

Do you have any investigators?  Yes we have quite a few; we just need to help them come to church, that is the hard aspect. How are the members at supporting the new members?  Well they are struggling with that and there is not really good retention. 

How do you like the hot water in your apartment?  Well they only turn the hot water heater on in the night and in the morning so sometimes you have to tough out the cold water but I love having hot water, it is just so nice.  

Well I am out of time so. See you all later love you.

Elder Olsen

Week 94Ocotopeque

How are you feeling? Well I am feeling better I don’t have diarrhea anymore. I just need to keep eating a lot of food, but that will be easy.   My comp is feeling sick still, he is pooping blood now.  He has Helicobacter pylori which causes ulcers.  Did they put him on antibiotics? The medicine comes tomorrow. That doesn't sound good, how long has he been feeling sick? He has been sick since Wednesday.

I had one of these this week in my big toe. Are they ticks and do they bite at night?  No I sat down and took off my sock and there it was, no wonder my toe hurt all day long.  There isn’t any infection but it still kind of hurts a little.  Is that the first tick you have seen on your mission?  No it is my third one in the mission

What is your spiritual experience for the week? it would have to bee the change in attitude of the branch president he has been super de-animated because he expects instant change. But I truly feel like the change is just about to get here, he even has started to plan activities. What kind of activities?  We are going to have a grill party and cook meat and share a message.  It was just amazing to see his attitude change. And now I feel that the branch is going to start to grow. We are working on looking for inactive members there are over 300 of them and less that 30 active. So we have a lot of work to do because this change is coming to an end and the last is soon to begin. Have you found any young men to get come to church?  Well we had 4 young men this week. Hopefully 5 or 6 will come next week.

Tell something funny that happened this week. An investigator gave us backpacks that are completely clear plastic and it is hilarious. Well we have been using them so the man feels good but I truly hope it breaks soon so I don’t have to use it.  The backpacks are great everyone knows what you are packing.  Yes there hilarious and sometimes we just have to laugh about them. No one will rob us

What do you have to do being the district leader? Well I just have to call the other elders and get their goals and things like that. Then on Tuesdays I have to have a meeting with the other 2 elders in our district.

What did you do for p-day? We ate in a hotel, it wasn’t anything special because it was breakfast but it was good. We will have to go back for dinner. Are there places to eat in your city?  There are a lot, there is even waffles and crepes.  Can you get strawberries down there?  Yes they use in the restaurants the frozen berries from price smart from El Salvador.   What about Whipping Cream?  Land of lakes whipped cream in the pressurized canister.  Do any families feed you?  Just one family feeds us on Sunday night. I am looking for new things to cook because I have eaten way too much tuna fish.

What are you studying right now? Lately I have just been studying the lessons in preach my gospel so I can learn how to teach them better and so I can explain things in a way that even a child could understand. There are many people here that just don’t understand much but we will see if the spirit will help them understand. 

When will you meet the new mission president?  We will see him on the 30^th; we have to travel 5 hours to a meeting.

Your apartment looks pretty nice.  Does it rain most every day? It rains every day and the power goes out at least every other day.  Does it rain most in the morning, or any time? It usually just rains at night.  Do you have candles in the apt or sit in the dark when the power goes out?  We use the flashlights. 

Well my time is up. Love you all and talk to you next week. We might go super far so if we don’t write there wasn’t time.   We will try and write it all depends just don’t worry if we don’t write, we will have lots of pictures for next week.

Week 93 Ocotepeque

Where is your new location? Ocotepeque. We live so far away that we are closer to San Salvador El Salvador than we are from Copan. It is like a 5 or 8-hour bus ride to get here.  It is different this is how apparently Honduras used to be it is super calm here and everyone just does what they want and there all happy,

Who is your new companion and how do you get along? My new companion is Elder C., he is from Costa Rica he is just starting the mission he has 4 months now so it is great.  He has been here 3 months.  Does your comp speak English?  Yes he speaks fairly well.   Is your comp fun what is he like?  He is fun but he is serious as well.  Does he like the area?   Yes he does, he doesn’t know any other yet to compare.

Did you go back for the audit or was it too far away? I didn’t go but the best part is they didn’t say that we had anything major that was wrong.  Does Elder E. call you?  He has called me a few times for small things but that’s good because he is doing well.

 Do you have any people that cook for you and wash your clothes? Not really it is expensive because we always have to go far when there are zone meetings so we have to save our money to travel.

When do you think we will find out about your itinerary to come home? My itinerary should come soon. I will call and ask when I will get it right now.

How is the weather in your new area? It is cold and rainy at night and hot and sunny during the day. The power goes out a lot especially when it rains.

Did you take some pictures of the baptism and your new area? I didn’t get any because the batteries in my camera were dead.

What was you spiritual experience of the week? Well I would have to say the most spiritual experience of the week has been to see the change in attitude of the branch president. He got really mad at us and was super defensive until he realized that we were actually there to help and we wanted to do a good job. How old is the branch president?  The branch president is 55 years old.  He is a bus mechanic.

Tell us about your branch or ward? It is small and we meet in an old school. We have been working on cleaning it up because it was super dirty and the branch president’s office hadn’t been cleaned in 8 or so years so that is now clean and we are working to get all of the inactive Young men back to church.  How many young men are there?  Well there are 2 right now, we could have 15 but I would be happy with 8.  What are you doing to activate them? First of all, we found them, now we will visit them and have some activities. 

How did your talk go in your last area? It went ok. I have been sick and it started on Saturday night. I didn’t sleep at all but I wrote my talk in like 10 minutes in the morning and it was good. I gave the talk and then I went out of the meeting and laid down until the meeting ended. Then at the end I got sick to my stomach and started puking in the bathroom so we went to the office and I tried to sleep there, I had a high fever. I still don’t feel that great and I can’t eat much, I took tests and it was possible salmonella but I hope I will get feeling better soon. I just don’t have very much energy and it has been really hard to stay hydrated. I had to talk this week because one of the speakers didn’t prepare the talk but it all went fine I am getting pretty professional at winging things like that.  Please try to stay hydrated.  Well it has been really hard to stay hydrated with the mega diarrhea I have had.  Just try to drink as much as you can, so that maybe you can start feeling better.  Ok I get my blender so I can make juices as well so I can drink more. You need to eat, eat, eat and use some extra money and buy a lot of meat. Well the meat is nasty so I just eat eggs.  I also have a goal to eat 1 fruit a day but they don’t sell bananas in the pulperías.  I have been drinking a powder sure. If you continue to loose weight, you better say something to the president.  Ok. I went and took the stool tests the no it didn’t come out that I had anything i just had lots of leucocytes.

Today for p-day we went to Guatemala, well the border, and there is a free zone until we got to “migraciones” but we were technically in Guatemala. So is there shopping in the free zone.  There is only duty free liquor stores and some pulperías, we went to the exact point that were you cross you are truly in Guatemala and we took pictures, we didn’t cross. We bought all Guatemala foods and snacks on the border.  How long did it take to get there?  20 Minutes.  It only cost 30 limp or 20 each to ride the bus 

How are your rashes doing in the cool?  Well it came back.

What were you doing last week that you could not email?  We hiked to a waterfall climbed a cell tower and it took along time also there wasn’t light until 4 in the afternoon.  How tall was the cell tower? 80 Feet you couldn’t see much because it was on top of a mountain and it was cloudy all you could see was white.  I can’t believe how big the snail was in the picture.  It looks pretty on your hike to the waterfall, it looks more like a jungle than most of the other places you have been in.  It is a protected area one of the few left (like a national park) called Guisayote.  Elder N. came from Santa Rosa to go with us.  In the picture that you are on the ground, did you slip because it was slippery? Yes it was clay and was wet and I fell on my butt.

Well the apartment is awesome there is hot water on tap so it is great. It is the nicest apartment in Ocotepeque.   How much does that rent cost?  2800.

It is super hot water that comes out; you have to turn the cold on to cool it down.

Where are the next closest missionaries?  There are 2 other missionaries here in Ocotepeque.  Are they in the same apt and are they gringos No they live a ways away.  They are both Latin’s.  So you help plan everything and the members show up. What about the relief society and primary?  Well, we go but we are the only people that show up.  Bur finally we had one meeting with the branch president.  We only had 24 people including 4 missionaries come to church last week, but we will change that.  How long has the area been open?  Many years, sounds like plenty of people to teach.  Yes, and over 300 inactive people. The church has had a hard go at it here.  Well hopefully you can help teach some people that will be strong in the gospel.  Many just don’t have the desire and they make up excuses but they say everything is true. 

Do you walk your area or ride busses?  District meetings are here and we walk almost everywhere sometimes we use moto taxis.  Are the other elders working hard?  Yes they are trying there best.  Have they had baptisms there or is it slow?  They have had one baptism in the past 3 months. Who is the district leader? I am, and technically I am the first counselor, I have one of the instruction manuals of church leadership.

What are you eating? We have eaten lots of papusas this week.

What is the primary source of income for the people living there?  Pulperias, brick mason and teacher.  How many people in the city?  It is small like Preston Idaho size.

Do you wear a coat in the cold?  Yes we almost always wear a raincoat.

Do they have a larger grocery store in the city? The best place to shop is in pricesmart, which is 2 hours away in El Salvador.  Don't you have to get permission to cross the border?  Yes, but there are a lot of people that will bring stuff back for us.  Do they travel there to buy food?  Most members just eat eggs tortillas and sour cream and beans. Here they just have the market but some of the best vegetables I have ever seen. I bought carrots and ginger.

Well we are out of time. Have a good week. Love you all. I want to see pictures of the back yard.

Elder Olsen