Week 101 SPS

How was the car ride to SPS? It was much quicker than the bus and it was much cheaper for me. We just came talking the whole way it was a good experience. 

How is it being back in the office? It is normal I truly feel that I could pick up where I left off. Elder Elmer still scares me when he drives but other than that all is well. We have been visiting as many people as we can and we have time for.

What was a spiritual experience from the week if any? We ate with him last night and we had our last interviews yesterday.  Sister B. cooks good food, she even made blueberry crisp. Sister M. came with another sister missionary to the meetings. After we finished dinner we had a testimony meeting, it was great to hear the testimonies of all the other missionaries that came with me and to see how much we have changed. The spirit during this meeting was extremely strong and pleasant. We all then went back to the house, the meeting and dinner finished late and all of us slept in the secretary’s house. I am truly grateful to have been privileged to be a missionary and to serve here in this mission. I have learns, suffered and come to know Jesus Christ. 

There are like 7 missionaries that are leaving with me but only 1 that will be coming to Utah with me. 

Love you and see you all on Thursday. 

Week 101 Ocotopeque

What was your spiritual experience for the week? Well we had been teaching family for a while, and we found out this week that the father is inactive and he hadn’t told us. It is amazing to see how the Lord guides us to know whom we need to teach and he guides us in finding all of the investigators that need to hear this message.

Do you have any investigators that are getting close to baptism? Well truly there are 2 potential investigators at this point 2 that have come to church but we haven’t been able to find them to teach them yet. 

Next Saturday you will be in the office, so does that mean your p-day will be Saturday instead of Monday?  What do you think you will do back in the office for the last week?  I will work in the office it is really unorganized.  How are you traveling to the office?  I will ride back with the AP’s and Pres. and his wife.  That will be a cramped car ride and smelly with you three elders.  Oh no, his car is big and it has AC.

I sound like a Tropical storm brush over Honduras; did you see a lot more rain last week? Yes it rained a lot, especially the night that the hurricane passed over us it rained but nothing else all night long. It is raining today as well. Almost every day here it has rained. 

How are you feeling?  I feel fine. This week I just have a cold but it is almost gone. 

So will you be packing tomorrow and saying goodbye.  No I will say goodbye to like 3 families. We have some lessons tomorrow and well I already packed today.  Are you giving any of your clothes to people in Ocotepeque or leaving it in the office apt?  No I have given almost everything away, I just have 2 shirts and 2 pants. 

Also this week I found an ironsmith and he is hand pounding me an axe for 100 lempiras.  Could you send me a picture of the raiders information year and model?   I think I might bring home the parts to fix the motor.  I see them a lot here, we went to the shop of our branch president and he was repairing one from the 90’s.

Love you all see you next week.  Thanks for all that you have done for me. 

Week 100 Ocotepeque

How was your week? It was a really good week we have had a lot of fun, we have walked a lot and it has been hot and some nights the power has gone out so we have spent a lot of time without light. People are animated and so are we. 

How was church, and your visit with the president. It was great. 38 people came to church, the president’s wife came and they stayed the night in Santa Rosa.  We are thankful that people from the district have been coming to visit the branch. This is helping the branch president and everyone else feel supported in their callings.  Did president talk about BYU with you?  No we just talked about the area and that I will be going to the office on the 10^th after a zone meeting, so I wont have to travel so much.  We just live so far away and things just work out better if I go on the tenth after a meeting in la Entrada then on the 12th I would have to go for my last interview, then again to get there to go home on the 17 that’s like over 30 hours in the bus so we are just going to go on the 10 and work with the office elders. 

Tell us about an investigator you are working with. Well we are teaching 2 guys that are in their 20’s, they are really cool. They understand everything really well and well one of them after teaching the restoration asked us what happens with families after this life. Truly the only problem is that there are no other members their age to help them. But we decided that this is why there are 2 of them so one will hold on to the other when they get baptized. 

Spiritual experience. Truly it was great to have interviews with President and well one just feels great and animated after talking with him. He is very funny and likes jokes. He is really funny just and observant he talks a lot with his eyes closed but his talk this Sunday in sacrament meeting was great, he talked about the unity. Well I would have to say that the most spiritual time I have had this week was pondering a bit about my patriarchal blessing what a cool thing it is to have this guide in our lives. 

What did you do for p-day? Washed all of our clothes and we went to the Guatemala border but this time they wouldn’t let us take pictures near the boarder so it was a waste of time to get there. 

What did you do to celebrate your birthday?  Nothing special. We ate at hot food where we eat every day but it is the best that there is here in Ocotepeque. 

Is your back feeling better at all?  Yes it feels better for the most part. 

Love you all and talk to you next Monday. Be safe and have fun. 

Week 99 Ocotepeque

What did they say about your back? Well he just said something about a muscle, gave me some muscle relaxants and some other pills to take but I haven’t felt a difference.  Did they do an x-ray or a mri?  No he just wrote me a prescription and told me to come back in 15 days if it doesn’t stop hurting. 

I went to the physical therapist and he said I have some scoliosis but who knows how much that might be what is causing all the pains. 

How was your week? It was a good week sometimes I get frustrated with my comp because he doesn’t clean anything but that is the least of my worries. Besides being messy are you getting along with your comp?  Yes all is well.

We have eaten good I bought some general tso sauce when we were in SPS and it tastes really good also, I purchased for Thai noodles as well. 

Tell us about a Spiritual experience from this week? My best experiences of the week have been contacting. We were walking home one day at about 8.30 p.m. and we walked past a huge tall black guy and we just kept walking. But I said lets go talk with him. He was from Belize and his English was funny but he truly knew a lot about the church and had visited temple square 2 times. He didn’t accept another book of Mormon because he said that he had read the whole thing and he started reciting if from memory. We talked with him for like 20 minutes and we went home. Truly if you want to have fun and be a happy missionary you need to talk with everyone. This guy looked like he was homeless. And I don’t know if he is, but he speaks at least 3 languages it was amazing. 

What are you doing for your Birthday? I have planned nothing. 

How was church attendance last week?  34 people came. 2 young men came this week.  I just taught young men’s and Sunday school for the youth.  President bush comes this Sunday to visit.

What did you do for p day?  We went to the waterfall again. 

Well my time is up. Have fun in the rain and talk to you all next Monday. Love you all. 

Week 98 Ocotepeque

Who is your new companion?  My new comp is Elder C. he is from Mexico and has about 5 months in the mission.  He is from Vera Cruz Mexico. Yes he is fine to get along with. He speaks well, I haven’t talked to him much in English but I would imagine because of where he is from. 

Tell us your spiritual experience of the week? It was when we were walking around yesterday and we saw uno M. and we asked him if he had read then I just asked him if he was almost ready to be baptized and he responded almost. Truly he has so much potential and there is no major problem for him to get married. I truly feel that soon he will be ready to be baptized we just need to talk to him about getting married but the good part is there isn’t really a huge financial problem for them to get married. I just felt like at least what we were teaching to uno m. was beginning too change his life, he is reading the book of Mormon and he is praying now he just needs to come to church. I just was so happy to see that our work is not just going to waste it is all helping generate long-term fruits. 

What did you do for p day this week? Well we went to the Catholic Church again and we just went up the bell tower. First we went to some bridges and we just jumped on them because they were hammock bridges.  We also went to a war monument for the unknown soldiers that died in the war of Honduras and El Salvador.   It was long so we left early.  The military do this only once a year in remembrance of the war they lost against El Salvador 

Where did you travel for changes? I stayed in La Entrada with 4 other elders while the others went to changes and we got back to Ocotepeque at 5 in the afternoon. 

38 people came to church on Sunday. The branch president was back in town and he is happy and soon president Bush will visit us here the end of July.  

I have been cooking a lot because I don’t want to spend too much money. Where do you buy your groceries?  Do you buy anything of that beef to eat or is it to expensive?  I just buy chicken breast and sausages that taste good but I don’t know what they are made of.

Is it normal to see cows being herded around?  Not in the center of the city, but yes it does happen quite often.  We just buy them from a super market here. 

How is the back feeling do you make your comp carry everything?  Well today it feels fine because I haven’t lifted anything. But I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow to see if they can see what it is. It hurts only when I twist to the left hand side.   Have the medicine helped at all?  I have been taking meloxicam.  Just one day that I couldn’t get out of bed because it hurt too much, it took me literally 1 hour to get out. Well hopefully they can figure something out at the doctors tomorrow.  Will you be traveling some for that?  Yes to San Pedro Sula, more than likely they will do a mri if they have a question, they don’t care because the insurance is 100 percent coverage

Well my time is up but I love you, talk to you all next week. I hope to see pictures from your small trip.