July 6, 2015

Are you all on the road at the moment? Loving the pictures, looks like a blast. Where's the next stop? That waterfall/river looks sweet, glad yall got to get in and fool around.

Isn't it beautiful though? I love north georgia, nice mix of pastures, white fences, and good thick hardwoods and creeks. It's pretty. How's tennessee, or are ya not there yet? I appreciate the boiled peanut picture too.

Also sorry to hear about the sicknesses, its the worst! I'd rather have any other kind of sickness than stomach issues/nausea.

Also glad to hear I'm the favorite, absence makes the heart grow fonder right? I kinda doubt the consentious would be the same if I was wedged in the backseat with you all, but I miss you all too and I'm glad you're liking the trip!

That's funny about the publix mishap, hope you all took advantage of it and bought a publix sub. There is absolutely no concept of the sabbath here. Even the missionaries. We're constantly buying stuff on sundays and the members buy us stuff too. Even our stake president (who is a champ, President Banquedano is a dang warhorse, I'd let him in the united states just cause we need people like him) took him and his bishops out to pizza hut after meetings one sunday.

Tell Mark hi, did he ever get his teeth fixed? Tell him I said to quit smoking. He's a good guy.

Congrats on the boca hire! I still hate northerners but sounds like he'd be a good fit for boca, being loud and all. And Neil...poor guy. That is literally my worst nightmare. I think I'd just quit. Burn the truck to hide my mistake.

Also tell Peter hi. I think he's gonna be surprised how fluent I am when I get back. What's going on with Cuba these days? I keep hearing bits and pieces.

Speaking of cuba, and immigration, just so you all know, I'm more against illegal immigration than ever before. I love them, I'm becoming one of them even, but it's truly the scum of latin america that goes. Usually. There's some really awesome exceptions I know, like Javier or the Ortiz family, but the vast majority are back here in Honduras because they were driving drunk, were arrested for breaking and entering, or various drug charges. Every single one. and they all plan on going back again and again. The culture is different too, it's interesting. This week we ran into a group of 4 19-25 year olds just lounging around-and I'm like "dude, what do you guys do, why aren't you working?" and they just tell me there's no work, we wanna go to America. The same thing happens everyday. The Honduran will work all day swinging a machete and outwork a northamerican all day long, but only if someone hires him and pays him. The northamerican, if he doesn't have a job, he makes a job-and that's the difference. They sure work hard but the sad thing is that they work hard and don't progress because they don't work smart.

But about the mission! We are working like dogs. Harder than ever before. I'm sure I'll always have something I'd like to change about the mission, but I will never have any regrets about how hard I worked. This week my comp and I found 18 new investigators with 35 in the district. We've got two people with baptism dates. We're not having the same success we had in earlier days here but we're sure working. I'm step by step becoming the missionary and the person I want to be and it feels good. And I've had nothing of anxiety since I last wrote you about it, looks like that one's behind me.

And as a district leader...really, I do everything. The church is really new here and there's not consistent priesthood. I'm like the first counselor in the bishopric. Sometimes I conduct church. Branch counsel meetings. Talking about our needs, problems in the church, what needs to be done, what help we need, making plans. I help the other companionships, do divisions, trainings, stop them from flirting with eachother, troubleshooting, take numbers, help the zone leaders, give trainings on a zone level, all while keeping everybody happy or trying too. I get along well with everybody and I've managed to find a pretty good line between friend and leader. And if I err its on the side of a friend, I've managed to stop myself from getting stiff or pharasaical. There's a good talk by spencer w kimball that someone gave me that kind of inspired me, I think it's called "Jesus, the perfect leader"or something like that.  I love working though. Calling the shots. I love the stress. Not that it's getting to my head, I still don't know what I'm doing, but I get bored and complacent if I'm not pushed. So that's been really good for me. And my comp and I get along great, he's a good kid and came from good parents. And as far as Mater moments go, nothing's coming to mind, but I know they've happened. He learns quick though. I'll be sure to be on the look out for more mater moments though. 

There's so many responsibilities on our shoulders though. Find investigators. Baptize new converts. Strengthen recent converts. Keep the actives active. Find old members that fell away. Organize callings. See that the callings are carried out. Organize activities. Get along with the members. Fulfill the members expectations of the missionaries. Play with kids. Have family home evenings. Be able to come up with a talk, a lesson, or a game on the spot. (are games are sweet, we go big in family home evenings). Missionaries do everything here. The only way to get it all done is to go full steam ahead all day ever day.

I feel like whatever perception you could have of missionaries in the states is way off. It seems like a different world. I know my perception was way off. It's just different here, I can't explain it. Missionaries in the states seem so polished, spick and span, organized, military almost, and that's just not how things get done here. I prefer it my way.

Investigators-The two most important ones are Antonio and Rosibel, hermana Ortiz. They're progressing well and everythings good. Antonio told his boss he wasn't gonna work any more sundays and his boss was like "ok, cool, no worries" so we got that obstacle out of the way and there's nothing else to hold him back.

Also, one thing that really impressed me this week-the importance of the small things. Family prayer and scripture study. Kneeling prayers. There is power in family prayer and we've seen the difference once families start praying together. Same with reading the scriptures together. Even if it's 6 am and no one's paying attention, it leaves an impression.

And yeah man, the thunderstorms! we've been getting sweet storms. Lots of heat lightning. It's about time. Still hot and dusty but the rain helps a little bit, til it gets humid. The other night my comp and I put chairs outside and watched the lightning for a while, just like we were back on the front porch. It's amazing how blessed we are in the states-my comp had never seen thunderstorms before-and today he was talking about how he'd never seen an eagle and I'm thinking how I've seen like 6 in my life-We have so much natural beauty and all that kind of stuff. And animals. I've yet to see a single wild animal here besides iguanas. In Florida we're always seeing deer, turkeys, bears, gators, hawks, snakes, and then in arizona elk, deer, antelope, what have you-and here we're surrounded by jungle and mountains! We just got lucky I guess.

As far as crazy stuff I've seen this week-I saw a robbery but that was about it. Pretty tame all things considered.

Still getting mangos off our tree, makes for a good breakfast.

I think that's about all I got for ya but I'll be here for a while and I'm sure I'll think of more stuff. Have a blast! Love hearing the stories and seeing the pictures, keep them coming! I'm not homesick at all right now so no worries!

Love you all!