Monday, December 22, 2014



I sent pillow cases but Scott said he doesn't have a pillow so he laid them out as placemats.  I was so happy he received his packages in time for Christmas!!

I got the music to work, thank you so much!

 

A cat? what? Isn't everybody allergic? Is it leaving hair all over the place? Glad sterling likes it though. Poor skip, he needs to rest in peace in his old age.

and Skype, lets say 12 my time, sounds good? no idea what I'll do with the Skype account but I'll have my email open too so we'll figure it out.  I'm gonna start to figure it out now.

this week was pretty hard actually. Comp problems and we've run out of new people to teach. I know everyone in our part of the island. So we're just gonna keep working with who we have and then start in on the former investigators. Having a hard time leaving the nets behind so to speak. I don't know why but I have the hardest time not thinking about the future-and about the dumbest stuff. I mean, its important and all, but not now-I honestly get anxious about where I'm gonna live and what I'm gonna do and what the family is gonna do-It's really a problem and I don't know how to fix it. When I'm working its fine, but when I'm in the house or getting ready for the day or waiting around for my comp I just get swamped with anxiety, and it doesn't help that I'm already super stressed with my companion. It's the dumbest thing but its a struggle.

But, still, all is well, I'm still pressing forward.

I am going to ceiba today actually, on the 2 oclock boat. Calm seas right now so keep your fingers crossed! Always exciting to take the boat. But yeah, we'll never take an airplane unless there is an abnormal amount of civil unrest and they need to jet us off the island.

And thank you so much for all the Christmas stuff! I got a kick out of all that. Especially the scent package. That was the best part of the whole thing. And yes haha I know those are pillowcases but...I don't have a pillow, so they were placemats for the picture. And yes, I got all the packages. much appreciated.

We've had lots of Christmas stuff going on, definitely different. Everybody eats tamales for Christmas and elders in the mainland are swamped with people giving them tamales and we have had one. Funny story, the other day a sister invited us over for tamales, so we cancelled our dinner appointment and went over to her house. After crossing the island and climbing a couple hills, we get to her house and realize that I had misunderstood her, and that we were there to make tamales, not to eat them, so we got stuck with hauling tubs of meat and corn meal and banana leaves and didn't have dinner. Oh well. Also we've been asked to sing like 5 times, and nobody can sing here. Not like I can sing, but Elder Cluff and I sound like angels compared to the latinos. The musical numbers here make me cringe and when the missionaries sing together its still horrible. So hopefully they won't ask us to sing for a while. We've had a missionary Christmas activity, the branch Christmas dinner, and the primary program on Saturday, which was especially interesting because the power went out so they opened all the doors to the chapel and we could see the ocean down below us through the palm trees while we were watching the program. Super Roatan.

Also, sidenote, from grammie's letter sounds like belle is kinda having a hard time and doesn't fit in with the family and all so you may want to reach out to her or something.

I'll tell you about some of the people in the branch right now, just to fill you in a little bit. One of my favorite people here is Hermana angelica. And she will go straight to the celestial kingdom when she dies. She is old, probably 80 plus, and still works as a seamstress. Has very little money but she still feeds us every Tuesday. She knows everybody and pretty much everyone in her neighborhood is a descendant of her. She gives us lots of references. And she cares for her special needs sister and daughter, and they are adorable. One of them looks totally normal but is just not there and she doesn't respond to anything, but the other can speak and has emotions and all and she's my favorite. She was afraid of me at first cause I'm huge compared to her but now we're buddies. She's probably under 5 feet, and she's got big ears that stick out of her hair and a big smile. She's always so happy to see us and she just looks like pure happiness swinging on her little swing outside of their house.

And I'm running out of time so that's all you're gonna hear about for now. I'll try and get pictures of people next week.

I loved hearing about your week! I;m glad it went so well with the canals, and all that Christmas and birthday stuff sounds like a blast. but yeah, I'm gonna talk to you all in a couple days so since time is short i'll save everything for then.

And, as always thanks for the pictures!

love you all and can't wait to talk to ya, merry Christmas!

Elder Vasquez r-u-n-n-u-f-f-t

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

(We got to hear from Scott again this week because it was tranfers)

Elder vasquez r-u-n-n-o-f-f-t. Got transfered, so now I´m flying solo and have the responsibility to teach the area and the people to my new companion (who will still be my senior companion but he wont know anything about the island or our people, obviously).

 

 I was real sad to see vasquez go, but, its for the best. It was time for a change. He taught me alot, and he´s an excellent missionary, but I did feel like he was holding us back sometimes. He was very patient and thoughtful but indecisive sometimes-and because of this we weren´t working as much as I wanted to. Still, I´ll miss him. By the time he left we got real close and were teaching with a lot of unity. 

Anyway, time for my update. Had an excellent last couple days working with Elder Cluff, the other gringo here. It was nice working with him because he´s a gringo and always go go go-and that´s the style I like. I can´t stand waiting around-the only way I can find satisfaction and happiness in this work is to really go hard. If we don´t work hard and are waiting around I start thinking of home and other things and I can´t focus on the work at hand. Anyways. 

We had some gringos visit church on sunday-from monticello and st george Utah. Randalls. Figured we were related. 

Also, just a little sidenote, its interesting that hear when people get up to bear their testimonies, they always bring their spouse with them-there will be two people up at the podium and they take turns bearing testimony. Not sure if its sweet or odd but its sure different. 

We still have our people with baptism dates-the velasquez family struggles to understand everything and Bucho has cigarrette problems. Still pressing forward and we should be able to set two more dates tonight. Also been doing alot of reactivation-one family has returned to full activity in the church-sunday meetings, christmas activity, and christmas devotional-without us prodding them to go, so that´s cool. And we´re reactivating other families but they still need help from time to time. And then last night we found a totally inactive family but all the kids are baptized and they kinda just faded so we´ll have the chance to bring them back too. 

Also, I´m just about fed up with how rude the native islanders are. We´ll say hi to them and they´ll say nothing, or say ¨mhmm¨ or just look at you like we should know better than to speak spanish to them. Sometimes when we contact their houses they will come out to see who´s there, and then they´ll see its us and they won´t say a word and just turn their backs to us and keep talking to whoever else is there-they don´t hide, they just sit there with their backs to us. The other night there was this islander who was fixing his bike, which was blocking the path. We come up and he doesn´t move his bike so we can pass, just keeps on messing with it. So we help him fix his bike and in a minute its good to go-and he just gets up and rides off-doesn´t say a word the entire time. I sure like the hondurans a whole lot more. 

Also, all those stories about latina girls and missionaries? true. Holy cow. I don´t know if I was just looking real good this week or what but I got offered marriage a couple times, was offered a naked massage by an investigator, and had another investigator tell me that she had a dream the other night that she would get married to a christian gringo who came to the island. 

But besides all that, had a real good couple of days. Teaching with the spirit and I´m really learning to be bold and not worry about mistakes. I have absolutely no fear anymore. I love talking to receptive people and I love talking to people that absolutely don´t want us to be there because I enjoy it. And I´m really learning how inspired preach my gospel is and I am becoming a preach my gospel missionary-´by the book is the way to go. 

Although, speaking of preach my gospel, the district videos are a joke for this mission. It just doesn´t compare. I would be very unfit for a stateside mission and I am becoming very well suited for this mission. The district missionaries seem like robots and I can´t stand to watch the (excpet the one elder, elder christiansen, he´s great)  And they have cars and houses and their investigators haven´t killed people. But yeah, getting more and more used to Honduras every day. 

That´s my update! Miss you all.

how was curtis´s birthday? Out of school yet? Tell Chenel hi for me. And for skype, I´ll have however long you want really but shouldn´t be more than an hour. Christmas day or new years day, you choose. 

winter break plans?

And I´m sorry to hear that curtis is getting all heathrow-y. the more he goes fishing the less he´ll be like that, right? allthough I´m glad he´s concerned about how he smells, I feel like that ones pretty important. 

That´s just about all I have to share for now, tell everybody hi and that they are loved and missed. And pray for the other missionaries as well, some of my friends from the MTC are in some very dangerous areas. But, I´m safe and sound in our little tropical island here. 

Rain Finally Quit

December 8, 2014

Scott says he is always wet!  This flooding is from all the rain - very poor drainage!

I´ll find out tonight what´s gonna happen with Elder Vasquez. And there´s always the possibility that I could go but its unlikely. But yes, this week is changes so you will hear from me twice! And if you don´t hear from me, it means I got transfered. 

Christmas is garbage here. It´s not that great on the mainland but even worse on the island. People celebrate with fireworks and all day every day it sounds like a war zone. But they´re not good fireworks, just homedmade pipe bombs that people set off in the street. It´s literally wearing down my nerves. Although, there are some really good things about christmas here too-we had a branch christmas program that the missionaries put on that went really well (although I think part of the reason it went so well is that all the less actives that came got it confused with the branch christmas dinner that we´re going to have later, and im sure they were disapointed when we only served a sandwhich and punch for refreshments)  and then we had great attendance, most of the branch, to watch the christmas devotional. 

But yes, retention! we do alot of work with less actives and recent converts-and this is a trend in all of latin america because baptisms are so high but retention is not-but we do have above average retention for the mission and everyone is improving. 

also, we are killing it right now. We are working hard and effectively. We have 4 people with a baptism date-bucho and the family. progress has slowed a little bit since last week but we also found a few new families-which is the best, we usually teach individuals-but the best family we found can read, has children, and are religious but dissatisfied with the churches on the island. perfect. Also their dog has attacked me twice, and the first time he charged me from 20 yards away so i bent down to pick up a rock and was getting ready to get down and dirty but then this little girl ran out and started hitting the dog. saved by an 8 year old. 

but yeah, spanish is good. I´m at a real crucial point of the language-people understand me and I can always understand them, and this is where alot of missionaries call it good and slack off and then come home sounding terrible. I´m close to fluent but i can fully communicate-´just not well. But, I have done very well in not sounding like a gringo and working on my pronunciation-people often think im from italy (not sure why but i figure because its close to spanish that i don´t have a terrible accent)

but yeah, this week has been kinda weird. the rain is a pain. everyone leaves the island for christmas. 

but our branch is actually pretty strong for a branch. sacrament attendance is usually around 100. still, we have a lot of responsibilities, but the leaders do a pretty good job. and the president and his counselors and all th eleaders of the priesthood and auxillaries are solid. We have a good foundation. But its also hard because the island is very transitory, we may loose a couple key families in the next year. 

I´m very sorry to hear about Kobe. What´s julies email address? Id like to email her. 

 

And that´s a shame about the bears. Can´t blame them for coming out for food when the whole state is being turned into a subdivision. 

also, those blowguns are a blast, Matt cruz and I did the exact same thing right before I left...that´s funny. Maybe i´m not that mature after all. Has matt left yet? haven´t heard from him. 

oh, and tell curtis happy birthday! send me a picture of the kayak.

 Do you guys have plans for christmas break? do really fun stuff for me so i can live vicariously through you guys. 

I´ll have another chance to email you all soon-i´m gonna email friends and take care of some mission business for now-but in case you don´t hear from me til wednesday, love you all, and thanks! my update will be coming in the next email.

December 1, 2014

Yes, the spencers visit was awesome! I'm so glad they were able to make it. They gave us a little inflatable tree which is the best so we have a christmas tree and a nativity scene in our apartment haha. And their buying us groceries was much appreciated and sorely needed. It was kinda cool being their guide for the night and talking to the waiter for them in spanish and showing them around a little-made me feel like a real local. And it was great to hear of things from home and their missions and their kids missions and all. Great time, and my companion and I throroughly enjoyed it. Elder Vasquez got to practice his enlgish too. Great time. And I never know how to respond when people praise me like sandee did in her little letter, but...thanks, its always nice to hear good things about yourself. 

And the packages! thank you so much, i love the shirt and i'm wearing it now. after the mission this is all im gonna wear, i don't care how ugly they are. And i did read all of sister cyrocki's stuff, I'm gonna write her a handwritten letter back. And I read grammies letter too, bless her heart. And no sign of my packages, but...I did get the first package you sent last week finally haha. Forced my retainer in there and suffered the pain for a few days. And you know full well I already opened my birthday package...I will, however, wait to plug it in!

 as for sarah, a fullride? thats really cool. I know its SUU but still...way to go. She made up her mind yet? Jenny goes up to Idaho everynow and then and thinks sarah would like provo better but who knows. And thanks for the christmas music, can' wait!

speaking of my ipod, and instagram-is there anyway you can preserve all the pictures I have? I have some cool pics on instagram I don't want to lose if they delete my account, and are my photos still on the phone? Kate should know all that. 

crossbow thing? I would reccomend no on that, they are useless. waste of money. can't hunt with them and it takes forever to load and shoot. still gonna get them kayaks? thats the best thing, they'll have years of fun with those. and dang, curtis looks like he walked out of a frat house at UF! looking good, and everyone else is too. you all need to go fishing over break.

transfers are next week, I may lose vasquez. and i'll be the senior companion here showing someone else around the island. woah. hope not though, its possible he'll stay. And shoot, theres an old ipod touch in my glovebox in the truck he can have if its still there. 

but yeah, we'll never get to go to the temple. its outside our mission and a long journey. But the branch is putting on a track and were helping prepare people to be endowed so thats exciting! And we had two missionarires return and are about to send 3 out. 

sounds like you all have had some good times. thanksgiving, campout...still jealous about the cold weather. glad to see the atv hayride tradition is still going strong. 

but, heres my update!

This has been by far the most interesting week I've had so far. 

We had a storm for 3 days, and at one point the street in front of our house was waist deep of gushing floodwaters. As such, we didn't have power for a while and did our nightime planning sessions by candlelight swattting mosquitos. We had water for a little while but it was nasty and brown and looked like coffee but it didn't smell so we still bathed and washed dishes. But, as of right now we haven't had any water for going on three days, so we collect rainwater to use for flushing toilets and washing dishes. Haven't bathed, getting a little grody, nor do we have clean clothes. It's been a real Roatan style week. 

Also, during the storm, a boat of cubans washed ashore in front of the house of one of our members(see the picture of their boat) and its truly an incredible story. They left cuba trying to get to miami, and the storm caught them and brought them all the way down here. 15 days crossing the open ocean battling a storm the whole way. a fifteen foot boat, with 15 people, and the last 4 days they had no food, and only rainwater to drink. And when the storm was about to bash them against the reefs that suround the island, a giant wave picked them up and set them gently in the lagoon. The man that was telling us the story said it looked like the hand of God had plucked them out of the water and dropped them into the lagoon. we were listening to that story on the dock next to their boat the night after they made it here and we were out on the dock and the storm was still whipping pretty good and I nearly started to cry thinking of all those people battling a storm for days on end and all through the nights in pitch black with no food, and of all the scriptures about how the lord remembers his people on the isles of the sea and how much of  a miracle it is that they made it here and how they must have felt once they hit dry land and were taken in by the islanders. Also, screw the liberal media telling us how good cuba is and how communism is working and all that garbage. If it was so good then why did they risk their lives like that to escape?

 

And Bucho is still doing good, and progressing well and his baptism date is on my birthday. He's a character all right. And we found a family the other night that called us in from the street and were golden as golden gets-everyone was either married or not in a relationship, wanting to get active in a church-they set their own baptismal dates and we actually had to reign them in a little bit and tell them to slow down and that we have to prepare them more haha. And then we had to other investigators have very strong spiritual experiences praying about joseph smith and the book of mormon so they're fixin to get wet too. Very successful week, we are really reaping the rewards of all our contacting and referrals from the last week. 

I'm also learning more about our purpose-for a little while we were stuck in this little routine (with our less actives) that we would share a nice little message and not much else. It was like "hey, they don't go to church, we'll bring the church to them" but that's not our purpose. Our purpose is to preach repentance and the restoration. And if they won't keep committments or change, then we need to move on. Still visit them, but there are other people that are priority that have a desire to keep committments. and its hard because my comp is pretty attached to them but we're working on it. 

Also, do you all have any ideas to switch up visits with members and less actives? For example, one thing we've been doing is to teach lehis dream and have all the kids draw it out. 

Also had a great spiritual experience this week-we were sitting down with two of our longtime investigators and we had a plan all set but then I got a prompting to change the plan. So I nudged my  comp and whispered "hey, we gotta switch this up" and as I said that I felt this super strong confirmation that that was the right call and I was all of a sudden full of power and light and joy...and then the power went out and we had to rush home for safety. But, I had my opportunity to listen to the spirit and follow it. 

Also, I've eaten iguana and guinea pig. Iguana is actually pretty good cooked in coconut milk if its cleaned good, but when I ate it I kept biting into its scales that had fallen into the meat. almost threw up. guinea pig is like stringy chicken and I couldn't taste a difference. 

 

Also, for my little nature experience of the wek, all the missionares were standing on a footbridge over an inlet on the beach. we were looking toward the island and in the little valley in front of us, we saw two big, beautiful scarlet macaws flying in tandem-flying in and out of these huge jungle trees, calling to eachother, in the misty valley, with the ocean below us-it was pretty cool to see those super rare birds in the wild-and they could have been a hundred years old too, they have crazy lifespans. But yeah.

 

Thats all I got for ya! I'm sure I'll think of more. But if not, or if the power cuts out again, love and miss you all!