October 19, 2015

My update

Me and the boys, Elder Saunders and the famous Elder Magalei (the one with 12 NCAA brothers) 

Elder Sandoval



The Zelaya family. The dark skinned one with the baby is Vilma, the girlfriend of Byron, that are gonna get married this week. I love this family, my favorite family here. Not pictured are Leidy, who´s already been baptized and is super active, and Byron, who´s gonna get baptized. They always give us food, treat us well, and are going to be the best converts I´ve had besides the Ortiz family. They´ve made huge changes and really, really get it. 

 

And don´t worry on the email thing, we were just in the internet sending dats off. 

 

And my toe sucks, its still not growing back and it hurts like the devil, and my pain meds are just about out. Good thing I´m in Honduras and I can buy some good stuff for a nickel. 

My new comp! Is the best. Makes such a difference in the mission. We´re best buds. He´s called Navas, and he´s from Costa Rica. He´s a universtiy grad, probably coulda gone pro in soccer, and we´re on the same page with our attitudes and ideas. Laid back, good missionary, and we just enjoy the heck out of the mission. Doesn´t get offended, he´s just a normal dude. For example, if I lost the keys, lopez would have been like  ¨I can´t believe this. This is your fault. We´re wasting the Lords time and money, what an idiot.¨ and Navas would have been like ¨haha freak dude, we´re screwed! guess we´re going camping!¨ Totally different attitude, stripped of pride and he doesn´t think he´s all that. We just get along. Share money and everything (I still feel like I come up on the short end of the stick but its the thought that counts right?) He´s everything that´s good about the latins and none of the bad. 

And your question-honestly the city is better. I hate to say it. I love Morazan, I love seeing cattle and trucks and planting pineapples and working on farms but...for the missionary life, the city is way better. Honduras is still pretty undeveloped, and in the country areas a lot of people can´t read, even less are married, the evangelical churches are way too strong, there´s not modern conveniences (remember my poverty struggle in morazan when there wasn´t an ATM?) and the food is just better in the city. More variety. Sure, homegrown beans, eggs, chicken, and corn tortillas straight from the field is to die for, but after eating it for weeks straight I´m not real interested in how fresh it is, I just want Wendy´s. Here in Ceiba there´s american food we can get our hands on once in a blue moon. The wards are way stronger people are jammed packed together and it sure makes for easier tracting. 

Sorry to hear about the shop drama. Couldn´t tell ya what´s got into them. Tell Peter hi for me, he´s a good guy. Peter has problems with the latinos because he wants them to work, and he has problems with the white kids cause they all come from wealthy families and aren´t humble enough! Also I´m not a big fan of josh, he bugs. He´s a nice guy, never clashed with him, but he´s just  fresa. 

That´s so cool about Devin. How´d everything go? are they honeymooneying? 

And no I didn´t make cookies, I can´t remember the last time I´ve seen an oven in honduras...haha I´m just gonna make the dough and eat it, I prefer it that way anyways! 

And hey, keep on sending me pictures of Rhys, and better yet his email, I still think that´s the coolest thing. 

Also, I´m real glad that skips doing better! I hope he can hold out. 

But yes, being ZL is cool. I´d rather just be a district leader but no one asked my opinion. Also, I´ve got 14 months tomorrow! It´s moving so fast now. Not too fast, mind you, but it´s going. And it´s looking like I´m only gonna have one more area after this one, hoping I can finish the mission with 4. 

Campout looks fun. Although after a two year long campout it´s kind of losing its appeal haha. Not really though, I´d still enjoy it. Sorry the fishing wasn´t great. One day we went out there and did all right though, I remember we caught a few small bass and a few mudfish. Hope Dad enjoyed the lack of pressure! How´s seminary? 

Anyway, i really don´t have that much to tell you all, just work. Pouring rain all week. We didn´t even carry scriptures. I just wrote down our list of appointments on a piece of paper and put it in a plastic bag with our phone and that was it. Everyone´s got a bible (although it sure makes things difficult when they´ve got the jehova´s witness-conveniently-modified bible and the verses don´t match up) and we´ve got the book of mormon scriptures memorized so we´re good. Still working like crazy and having success. 

And I´m gonna send Sarah her own email haha sounds like life caught up with her huh? College will do that to ya, you think you´re doing great til midterms and then you get a big wakeup call. 

Anyways. I´ll be on for a while if i remember anything else. love and miss you all!

October 14, 2015

I´m just emailing doing zl business but just wanted to let you know that your prayers were answered and lopez is gone! my new comp is awesome. love you all!

October 12, 2015

I'm really glad you all sent me new shoes

Hey everybody! I'll go ahead and respond to everything and then give you all my update.

Yup, magalei's the one with 12. I'll get yall a picture with him, he's one of my good buddies here.

haha, our whiteboard! Yup, that's just our area, my comp and I. Papeles is papers, as in, papers to get married...such a headache. I know the honduran municipal governments like the back of my hand.

And yeah, that's the great thing about latin america...we are always well recieved! No one wants to do anything but they all want to listen! I remember seeing the numbers of the missionaries in longwood, like...10 lessons in a week. That's the states for ya, poor guys. And my comp showed up in the pictures I sent you! The baptism pictures?

But yeah, comp still sucks. No need to complain about it but If I had to choose between spending the day with Obama and and Lopez I'd pick Obama. I'm in sore need of repentence but I can only be so christlike...I can only take so much, ya know? I'm winning the battle, but it's a battle. Not rising to the bait to fight, letting the abuse roll off my shoulders. But one day I might just snap. I've been incredibly christlike, I've really surprised myself, but at the end of the day I'm only human. When one of us have changes (which might be tomorrow-pray!!) I will be sorely tempted to tell him to kindly go to hell.

And yeah, Sister Klein is great. She's so gringo. And yes, I got the package and loved it! Shirts awesome, shoes are perfect, no complaints there! And the video...wooo, I opened that package after a leaders meeting in san pedro and all the boys gave me hell for that one. But, I already watched it, 20 minutes every night at a time, and loved it. Thanks!

And I think thats about the coolest thing ever what Rhys and Dallas are doing...That's my dream right there. I even wrote about it in my journal. Make it happen in north Florida. Land costs 1k the acre, super cheap, make a deseret style empire on the old logging company lands in NFL. Cattle, peaches, lease land, hunting operations...If there's any kind of possibility of that being a reality I'd do it. I've got my ranching buddies here on the mission in on it. Great picture of Kent's family too.

I always love hearing about everyone's activities. Kate's looking so grown up, she's a pretty girl. And I hope sterling does do pop warner, I think it'd be real good for him, he's got lots of potential. And curtis never answered my questions! Just let curtis be a hunting and fishing fool, my viewpoint is that you have to be really good at something but it doesn't really matter what that something is.

sorry to hear about skip. Hope he makes it. He's a good dog. But if he doesn't make it just don't bring him to the shelter to put him down, that would break my heart. Find a way to do it at home. But I hope he makes it!

Say hi to everyone in the ward for me. Especially old bishop spencer and sandee. They really are great, seeing how the church functions here really make me appreciate them. Also, tell Julie hi! Any updates from them? The boys still frequenting the river?

Also, could you all send me talks again? If you can find them I'd love to get some from Jack R. Christianson-he's not a GA or anything but I heard he's got some pretty good stuff.

 Update! We're killing it with the work. We had 9 investigators in church on sunday. And it was a testimony meeting...but, thankfully, almost all the testimonies were solid. For the first time in a while I was actually able to feel the spirit in a honduran sacrament meeting! They're honestly terrible but Its grown on me.

It's really interesting how much my capacity to love has grown. Loving members, and investigators. There's one family here in the ward that I've really grown to love-the matriarch, sister merlo, reminds me of you-real active, backbone of the ward, alway serving and helping, truly dedicated. But for some reason she's kinda rubbed people wrong in the ward-she's offended some people, and honestly its kinda her fault, but I just saw her the other night coming back from the third church activity that sunday and just sit down on the couch, just exhausted, and I felt such a great love for her, I just wanted to wrap my arms around her and tell her how great she is. She works so hard and is giving her life in the service of the lord and her family and is greatly underappreciated.

I've also seen alot of gossiping here-problems in zion-being a missionary is interesting because people want to tell you everything. I know everything about the ward here. It's made a big impression on me how everyone has weaknesses and make mistakes but everyone does what they do because it's what they believe is best or because they don't know any better. Just gotta love everybody, not get offended, and realize how damaging are little snippy differences and gossips and things like that. It kills wards here (the people are extra gossipy in honduras) but it pains me to see. Don't gossip, love everybody, and remember that everyone that is serving in the church is a volunteer just like we are!
But yeah, I'm definitely learning alot here. I may not learn a ton about the gospel, about deep doctrine or what have you, but I sure am learning alot about the practical side of religion. And I'm learning people. I remember that Kyle Johnson told me that his mission taught him more about the world and how people work than any college education ever could and I think he's right.

Cool story for the week, I was chatting with a sister in church the other day and all of a sudden her huband talks to me in English-turns out he's a new yorker that joined the marines and ended up in honduras and stayed. He's a vietnam vet and ended up finding the church because he had a buddy in his platoon from Alaska, a good old mormon boy. One day they got trapped and engaged in firefight and he told me that he was next to his buddy, an endowed RM, and he saw a bullet smack his buddy in the chest and then fall to the floor, as his buddy reached down to pick it up, juggling it in his hands for the heat, and put it into his pocket for a souvenir. He was impressed by the protection of the temple garment and then later found the missionaries in honduras, read the book of mormon in a day, and then got baptized. Cool guy. Real grumpy but interesting story.

Also, I'm becoming latin. I don't know how to make jokes or have fun in english anymore. But gosh dang it I'm funny in spanish. One, the people are real easy to please, they like to laugh, and second, somehow they like my sense of humor.

Also, enjoy FHE! After I get done writing we're gonna go have a NDH (noche de hogar) with a family of recent converts. We'll sit down on their porch on the dirt floor under a bare lightbulb with a dog laying at my feet and a caged parrot above my head. We'll sit on a cinderblock bench and hammocks, swatting mosquitos. It'll be us, Acner, who passed the sacrament for the first time this sunday, and his mom, Johanna, the woman who got baptized last saturday, and Emilio, her other son who's a teacher. She'll whip out doctrine and covenants and give us a lesson and expound on a verse or two and tell her sons how they need to be priesthood men and good boys, and then if we're lucky they'll give us a glass of coke. At least that's what happened last monday.

Anyway, that's my update. Pictures are coming!

Oh yeah, I also got surgery this week! Went to a honduran doctor. Half way through he stops and starts typing on his computer and I'm just thinking "freak, this guys looking up how to do it on youtube" but it actually turned out pretty well. Super painful though, I was limping around for a while. Ingrown toenail. They numbed my toe and then just cut the thing out with scissors and pulled the nail with medical pliers.

 

Love you all, sorry that time is short!

October 5, 2015

Happy Pday and happy birthday!

The office party! Looks fun, loved seeing everybody. Can´t wait to shoot the bull with the latins. Tell them all hi for me, as always. Any new office gossip? How´s sunburst doing? Nikki´s family?

And yes, conference was great. More on that later. No package yet! Maybe tomorrow. But yes, I´d love some more contacts. not too many more but I am running low. I think -4.0 is what I´m wearing. And I´m good on garments, thanks for always watching out for me. 

But yeah, basically I´ll always be writing at this time. Hope you all don´t mind! 

I thought that was so funny that sarah got in begging. Right on. What are you all gonna do for thanksgiving? Go big! who are you gonna do it with? And how´s the family? And Dad´s side?

Hope dad enjoyed the movie, I think I´ve seen previews for that. 

What´s going on with the lot next door, are they gonna build or what? 

And that´s what I miss most about conference...before the mission the actual conference didn´t interest me too much, but spending the day with the family and the conference breakfast I definitely miss! 

That´s funny they were all calling for me, our family´s pretty dang funny. 

My little reply to dad: Enjoy the weather. we´re still in full summer here but I was just thinking...this is my last summer here! Well, my last september. I think september´s the hottest month and I won´t have another! How´s seminary? And yeah, I´m super open with the president Klein, he knows how it is. He kinda just laughs, shakes his head, and tells me good luck. And yeah, I am kinda plateuing with spanish. I just never have time to study. I´m really good at listening to how people speak but as far as book learning I´m not progressing at all!

Alright, time for my update.

my companion, our bishop, Johanna, Acner, and I. 

our desk and our board

house and the view from our front door

 

Comp issues; We´re a whole lot better now. Basically I quit trying to be friends with him and settled on being missionaries and it´s working out pretty well. We had a long discussion/fight til midnight one night and since then its been pretty good. I kinda just accepted that that´s how he is and we´re moving forward. We really did it for the zone more than anything, it´s hard to motivate missionaries when those that are supposed to be the leaders are engaged in a big pissing contest. 

They´re still feeding us like crazy! We´ve had dinners every night, and one night this week we had three. They´re filling us up, bless the relief society here. It makes life so much easier. And we actually have money and don´t have to eat semitas and juice made from tang for breakfast. 

 I wanna tell you all about our typical day. So ya know my schedule. At 6 we wake up and go to the gym and go hard for an hour and a half. At 8 we´re studying personally, and then at 9 o´clock in companionship (which almost never happens due to our constant stream of ZL duties). At 10 we´re visitng, on a good day we can get in 3 visits before lunchtime. At 12 we head over to hermana Mercede´s house to get filled up with rice, beans, bananas, chicken, and stuff like that, with juice made from tamarind seeds or jamaica flowers. At 1 we study language, theoretically, and at 2 we´re back making visits. If it´s a good day we´ll get in 5 more plus a dinner of beans, eggs, and cheese with tortillas and chili sauce on the side. We´re in the streets til 9;30 usually and then we get back and plan til 10, and just about every night we´ve gotta take care of some matter of business in the zone, and we´re in bed at 11 usually. 

Little funny story from this week, my buddy Elder Michael (my ccm comp, who´s in the zone about 10 minutes away) got robbed the other day-they took their phone and some money. And then the other night we got a phone call from their phone-freak, the thief is calling-so we answered it and its Michael...turns out the gangster had felt bad, realized that they were missionaries, repented, and brought the camera back. Cracks me up. That´s Honduras right there. 

This week we did divisions with my favorite companionship in the zone, Elder Magalei from Hawaii and Elder Jaurez from Guate. I went with Magalei in his area and we had a blast. He´s kind of a new missionary so it was fun teaching him some stuff and kinda showing him how to work. His other companions had been good kids but didn´t push him, and then we went out and found 6 new people and had 9 lessons in one day he was like ¨this is so cool!¨ lots of motivation, I felt pretty good and prideful about that division. Felt like I was doing my job. He´ll be a better missionary than I´ll ever be, lots of potential. Then in the night time on the divisions we invited my buddy, Elder Saunders, the DL over there, and his comp Villegas (an old comp of mine) over for a ¨p-noche¨. We had a good old time, had ourselves a little devotional, sang ye elders of israel, shared our favorite scriptures, and it actually turned out being a really powerful experience. Everybody was feeling the spirit. Then we watched Ephraim´s Rescue and got seriously motivated. Great experience all around. Looking back I´m actually pretty sure it was against the rules, but...I´m glad we did it. Raised a whole lot of motivation where it was needed. 

Alrighty, conference, before I run out of time. Brief thoughts. Loved Uchtdorf´s first talk. If our church experience is working for us. And the counsel to simplify. Not let ourselves get burried by programs and numbers. Exaltation is the goal and discipleship is the journey. And also the counsel for all the doubts/church history/anti-mormon type stuff. You can be happy or you can be right. If we pursue shadows, that´s exactly what we´ll get-lots of things of little substance that don´t lead us to happiness. Loved hearing sister Marriott´s talk, just for the accent. Couldn´t tell ya much of what she said besides ¨It will all work out¨but it was a delight listening to her talk. There´s another Elder here from Texas and we got a little fist bump out of the experience. I do love what she said though about everything all working out. I believe that I am always divinely guided-every trial, challenge, problem, asignment is given to me to prepare me for something else. And I believe that every one else is also divinely guided-God has a plan, in spite of sins and mistakes, and he´s sure not looking to send anybody to hell. Elder Hollands talk on mothers-Love you Mom! Also, I like that they mentioned our heavenly mother. And Foster´s talk on how society fights to change identity and mind of our families, and how children our the biggest group of investigators in the church. I was pretty impressed by the counsel he gave for fathers as well, the whole ¨I was 9 once too, here´s what you might come across¨. Stellar advice, I feel like you all did that one pretty well as parents. 

And how Neil A. Anderson said ¨The priesthood makes us different. We no longer stand on nuetral ground¨. Like Joseph Smith said, when we united with this church we made our choice-there is no longer nuetral ground for us. We chose to fight on the side of right and if we quit fighting, we are opposing. 

I loved Eyring´s talk, when he talked about the EQ president that activated all the guys in his quorom talking about trucks. That´s my future right there. I also loved his counsel on leadership too. Despite his inadequacies and doubts he said  ¨As it was the will of the Lord I accepted.¨

And how Elder Renlund said how the Lord calls us for what he needs to do through us, in spite of what we have done, not because of what we have done. And this only works if we do it his way. And, in Elder Schwitzer´s address, he said that as a leader, one should seek to inspire, not to impress. I think that´s one thing I´m good at because I´m really not all that impressive, but I do a pretty good job of inspiring and lifting. 

I enjoyed Christofferson´s doctrinally sound talk about why we need the church-and how it´s a hands on experience. And, most importantly, how the point of the church is so that a family can qualify for eternal life. We´re converted unto the lord and united to the church. 

And how elder Keetch and Sister Carole said, people are unwilling to keep the commandments/submit until they understand. That´s so hard to do with investigators. Get them to understand, really, why they are making these changes. Pretty much all of them do it to avoid hellfire, but theres so much more than that. There was a ton I liked but I´m short on time! I missed Elder Nelson´s talk, because the power went out, but...hope it was good! 

Also have been thinking about spiritual experiences in the past. Elder Uchtdorf´s talk really jived with me...like, how some mornings, I still wake up wondering if this is all really true or if I´m wasting my time and my life here-and then, after putting some thought into it, I remember how many spiritual experiences I´ve had-how many witnesses. I can´t deny it. I know its true. Early experiences, when I was 16 or 17, just seeing that preach my gospel manual on my nightsand. I´m pretty sure I never read the thing, but I could just feel that it was true. I could feel that the book had power. The same with my Book Of Mormon. Even from a young age, even just holding the book in my hands would give me a feeling of power. Even though my scripture reading habits were pretty so-so, I could still feel it. Family scripture study. Family prayer. Even though there were so many times it felt routine, it made a huge difference. Up backpacking in Montana with Hyrum when I had 17 years-we got scared of the dark and a deer we thought was a grizzly, so we started to read the little military edition of the BoM sister Smith had given me. Reading up in my treestand hunting in the swamp. Reading on the mountainop in the blue with Orrin after filling the tag last november. Feeling the power of Repentance for the first time up in BYU, and many times afterwards. Seeing and doing miracles through priesthood blessings in Morazan. Recieving revelation from reading the scriptures in my personal study on the mission-pure revelation like I´d never recieved before. Seeing families and lives change. If I we´re to deny all that now...

 

Anyways, that´s about all I got for ya. Time for some pictures. 

 

also I didn´t have time to reply to sarah but tell her I was cracking up reading her little note and that I miss her and I´m glad she´s doing so well! 

 

reply to curtis: Hey Curtis! What kinda .270 are ya looking at? What brand? I always wish I had bought a .270 instead of a .30-06. Fishing gear! braided line just about always unless you´re bottom fishing for grouper way offshore. I´d say 15 lbs braided line if you can find it. I like Power Pro or Suffix. And then always fish with a 15 or 20 pound flourocarbon leader of about 2 feet tied together. If you can´t tie the knot learn! But if not you´ll still catch fish without it but I think it helps. And you know how I like to fish the rivers-2/0 wide gap gamakatsu hook with a super fluke jr in color baby bass or arkansas shiner. Tears it up! Just cast to trees and stumps and twitch it back to the boat pretty fast. I expect some pictures! 

 

Sterling: Loved the football pictures. I miss football! send the videos! Sometimes I can´t watch them because of the internet connection, but I´d love to see you in action. And dude...Mrs. Voke is the best. She´s kinda hard, but I really do think she´s a great teacher. Out of all the teachers I had in middle school she´s probably the only one I´d like to visit. And she loves our family. Get to know her! Keep killing it with the football! One of my best friends here is from hawaii and has 12 brothers and all his older brothers are playing college football-in oregon, in utah, and hawaii, how cool is that? 

 

 

 

September 28, 2015

Would you still love me If I got sent home for beating the living daylights out of my comp?

I´m gonna complain a little bit, bear with me.

I´ve heard alot of people talk about how humble the latin people are.

It´s garbage. I´ve never met a people so proud. It´s like Alma says to the outcast zoramites-they´re humble because they´re compelled to be humble. And the humble people of Honduras are truly wonderful. But as soon as they get a little money, a little power, a little authority, it goes straight to their head. I am convinced that The poor here are forced to be poor because if they were not poor they would head straight to hell. A little example this week that left a really bad taste in my mouth-There was a conference a little bit ago in another city in Honduras-I didn´t go, but I heard about it-And one of the area authorities, a latin, walks up like a rooster in full strut, and starts calling out the bishop´s name by name. Says ¨Bishop Medina, how many baptisms have you planned for the upcoming year?¨ The bishop stammers a little bit. The area authority walks up to him, sniffs the air around the bishop, and says ¨You don´t smell like a sheep. Sit down.¨¨  (The latins have this thing, always comparing sheep and goats. To call someone a goat is a bad word). And then he moves on to the next bishop doing the same thing. And my comp is telling the story like it´s the best thing ever, and how awesome the machete is, and I´m just thinking...what pride! This leader got himself a little authority and look what happens. D&C 121. I despise that. And that´s the kind of leader my comp wants to be. He only wants numbers, only wants to machete people, and basically he wants us to see how righteous and competent he is and what awful sinners we all are.

Now, I love honduras and hondurans, but I can testify that the Nephite pride cycle is alive and well in their descendents.

But apart from all that, Hondurans are great! Still loving the ward, the members, the bishop, and the investigators. couldn´t be happier.

We also had two baptisms this week, Yohanna and her son Acner. Love them to death. Great baptisms, solid converts. I baptized Acner who´s excited as anything to get the priesthood and pass the sacrament, and the bishop baptized his mom. For some reason he thought that after the baptism we would be transfered, and he was starting to say goodbye and getting all emotional and we had to explain to him that we´re not getting transfered. He´s a good kid and I like him alot. He´ll go far, we have a solid young men´s program.

Also, my comp just about lost it when I bought a little bag of water on sunday. We passed by the pulperia and I told him I was about to buy it, and he´s like ¨It´s the sabbath.¨ and then I was like ¨you are correct. But we don´t have any water, the ox is in the mire¨. And then he got mad and stormed off shaking his head, real ticked off to be chained to a sinner such as I. Then we get back to the house and he´s like ¨hey, wanna give me some of your water?¨ You hypocrite. I gave it to him though, without comment. I´m improving.

It´s hard though. Our leadership styles do not mash. He gets mad when I talk to the missionaries. He´s jealous of personal relationships. He erases text messages to hide messages when the missionaries are like ¨hansen, love you bro¨. I´ll be talking to the district leaders about their districts, problems, strong points, ideas, and he´s just tapping the desk whisper shouting ¨Only ask for the numbers!¨ If I didn´t have to put the example and be a good ZL I would honestly have hit him by now. But I´m happy, I´ve found a real happy medium. I know why I´m doing what I´m doing, I´m confident in myself, and he can go burn all the bridges he wants but I´ll just keep on doing my thing. Also, I have to look at the positives, he´s a really hard worker and he is truly focused in the work, but...still sucks.

Had a real hectic week. We had to organize a multi zone conference, spend some time with the AP´s, and give a training workshop to all the ward missionaries and ward missionaries of the stake. I get about 5 hours of sleep sometimes. We get home at 9:30 from working, plan for us, then plan for the zone, and then listen to my comp nag for a while, and then It´s 11 o´clock and I realize I have to plan my workshop or my class or something for the next day. I´m not tired though, I have no doubt I´m being strengthened and helped because without some divine help there´s no way I´d be able to function like this.

´That´s basically my update. I can´t think of what else I want to tell you. In case you were wondering my two favorite latin countries are mexico and the dominican republic. I´m a big fan of both Mexicans and dominicans. Laid back, friendly, just good, genuine people.

But yeah, La Ceiba is great. Great members, missionary work is solid, and its relatively safe. Our area is pure mountain and we have to hike every day but I´m not complaining. And we´re sending a recent convert to the temple this week! I´m gonna do better next week about pictures, telling you about people, and throwing in a few stories. And regardless of all my complaining, I´m doing really well, growing in testinomny still, and I´m healthy. Every day is a struggle but that´s life I guess.

Love you all!

Did ya have a good birthday?? What did they all do for ya?

It´s so nice having a building. I don´t think the members here appreciate it. The ward is great and I´m a big fan. Its still Honduras, there´s still a ton of lazy, shiftless, ne´er do wells but theres like 5 families that are solid and make up the difference. The bishop is stellar, he´s just like Dad. We get along great. He´s got a little cabinetmaking business, drives a 90 something toyota, and lives in a humble little house with a happy family. They fed us on sunday and we got to know them and we just had a good ol time laughing and joking for a while. They fed us crab soup and balleadas.

We´ve been fed every night this week! The relief society really pulled through for us this week. It´s such a huge help for us. And we get to know the members too.

I have all those pictures you want but I forgot my camera...next week!

Our house is small and ugly but we´re only there to sleep so it doesn´t matter too much. I just live with my comp.

But yes, I´m so excited for conference. once we get all our investigators comfortable and settled in I´m off to the bishops office to watch it in english with all the americans.

And yeah, we´re still meeting with Omer. He´s got a baptimsal date but the challenge is that he fell in love with a member and then she left him and she still attends church here so that´s complicating things for him.

And the Mt. Timp thing is funny...speaking of marriage, I´m really learning what I want in a marriage partner. And its still not a returned missionary, if you were wondering.

 I´m gonna have to ask sarah about lake powell, holy cow! sounds like a blast, I´m jealous. Have you seen her grades? How is she doing? You´re just paying her to party! I´m glad she´s doing so well though, seems like she´s pretty happy with her choice.

 And Kate makes me laugh. Typical. I can´t wait to hang out with everybody after the mission.

Do you ever talk to your cousins and extended family? That´s too bad though, are they all sealed and everything?

And about my comp...haha I don´t even want to talk about it. He´s just a terrible human being. That´s all you need to know. The worst part is that he´s a short little guatemalan and I literally have to restrain myself from hitting him. Not even kidding. If I wasn´t a zone leader I would have left him hog tied in the closet.

And packages! I will always want...little LDS bookstore things but not cheesey things, good things-little cards, pictures, stuff like that.

I´m still waiting on a picture of the orlando temple! Also, just for fun, I want some florida stuff too-even if its just a tiny little gift shop florida flag. Tshirts are always good. And ties! I´m running out quick. Honduras is real rough on ties. And protein bars. Just so you know. Not that you need to send all that in the next package, but just so you have ideas for future packages!

And are you exercising and dieting? You look downright fit and young in that picture!

And yes, I´m safe and healthy. I have some foot problems but I´ll be going to the doctor this week, I´ve got a really bad ingrown toenail.

But my weight/stomach problems are over, for now!

And you all are only gonna get two more phone calls from me! Any more cold fronts coming through?

Anyways, I´m gonna write my update now. Love ya!

 

 

September 21, 2015

Still alive!

And only 11 months to go! shoot that´s going by fast...two more months and I´ll be in the single digits...but rest assured I´m making the best of my time, making hay while the sun shines! 

And woah, you guys are old! 47 and 53! But yes! Do the 80´s party! Clothes and everthing. I can just picture you guys walking out in a cloud of fake smoke with a solid 80´s song on in the background. I don´t know what else you could do to make it an 80´s party besides music, dress, and people of your age, but I think that would be sweet. Gotta throw in a dancefloor though, with some good 80´s love ballads. 

 Also, please send me contact solution with every package! I´m back to wearing glasses again and I hate it. Always fogged up, I´m blind all day because of the rain, and they´re always falling off my face. 

And nope, I didn´t get sick! I´m becoming resistant, my body is conquering Honduras! I´m putting on weight too. And we have a gym close by that we hit a few times a week so I´m improving there. Now I just need to get rid of all the weird things wrong with the skin on my legs and arms. 

and no, there´s no AC here. Just fans. It´s not bad, it really doesn´t even bother me anymore. And no, no other rules. Just that when the power goes out we have to book it back to the apartment. The city has been having serious power and water shortages recently so that´s been a struggle. We really don´t have problems-my buddy Gillens has been robbed like 10 times and almost got kidnapped but I haven´t had a single thing happen to me. Just got lucky I guess. Or I just look scrawny and malnourished and poor and they all can tell I don´t have any money. 

Yup, young men´s law of chastity stuff. Always awkward. Just gotta be real open about it, so that there´s no shame or desire to hide the sin when a problem pops up. 

 And that´s a really cool experience with your grandpa and all. That´s something I´ve never felt, I´ve never had a loved one die. But I do feel the security, and that´s a huge strength. I don´t have to worry. 

Tell Orrin hi for me, and that I want to see a picture of his girl in Flag.

Also tell Chenel hi for me. That was really depressing reading that, how sad would that be. I just wanna get married haha. Also, you guys are great for helping out Chenel so much. Are the other ward members doing pretty good at helping her out? 

And yeah, in BYU? I wasn´t quite the party animal but yeah, there were several times that we stayed out all night. Not that I reccomend it because midterms are gonna come real quick, but, I wouldn´t be too worried. Sarah´s really good at keeping me updated and with lots of pictures! And yes, get in touch with BYU please! BYU student wards can be a ton of fun. 

How´s seminary? what are the struggles? What goes well? 

And grammie´s a glutton for punishment. I wrote a letter to them today actually, should get to them in a couple weeks. And the stokes side? Everyone pretty excited about Devin´s wedding? 

Anyway, quick update! Had my first zone meeting this week, and it went really well. I´m very comfortable as a zone leader. Weak things have become strong. And then afterwards we had to deal with problems with the sister missionaries and it ended up being a huge cryfest. And my freaking comp is whipping out scriptures about charity and how we need to follow the example of Christ and I´m just trying to do my best to give practical advice because I can pretty much gurantee you that the last thing a hysterical, crying sister missionary wants to hear is how she needs to be more christlike. Long story short, if you girls want to serve a mission, you better be 100% sure you really want to do it!

We found a really cool investigator this week-we were out knockin doors, which we almost never have to do, and he invited us in, we get to chatting, and then he whips out two church books someone gave him and tells us how much these books have helped him. Then he tells us that he was about to get baptized a long time ago but chickened out. And he also had a profound spiritual experience when praying to know if joseph smith was a prophet, and his mother had the chance to travel to the united states and had the most spiritual experience of her life visiting the Smith Family log home in Palmyra. And he´d been praying that God would send the missionaries to his house. The lord is preparing people, we just have to open our mouths and find them! 

That´s about all I got for you all. Working hard, eating well, and learning alot. The section on leadership in the Ezra Taft Benson manual is my inspiration lately. I was reading that today and it was like ¨freak, that´s exactly what I do!¨It was like learning something I already knew. Basically my examples in leadership (and life in general) are you two-I really didn´t have to learn anything cause I´d already been taught it my whole life. And everytime I want to do something good in the zone my comp shoots it down and makes up something like ¨oh, president said one time in a meeting that...¨ and all kinds of foolishness. He gets jealous I think. He´s jealous of my good relationships with the other missionaries. Things have only gotten worse with him. Wish me luck! I know everybody is the way they are for a reason but there´s still no excuse for rudeness. Actually it´s not even rudeness, its the whole holier-than-thou false piety that drives me up the wall. Jesus loves him but at the same time he had some pretty strong words for the pharisees. We actually have pretty good lessons but its still not the same. Our lessons with my previous comp were excellent-cause we had an incredible amount of unity. It makes a big difference. 

I don´t have time to respond individually but I´m proud of you all! I´m proud of Sarah for adjusting to Provo so well (but take it easy!), of Kate for being an all around success and socialite, of Curtis for being a good kid and reading a land remembered and just being a Hansen, and I´m proud of Sterling for playing football and being a winner all around and I´m hoping he doesn´t get too markham woods'ish and that he can make time to go surf every now and then. And I´m proud of all of you for your spiritual growth and church activity! The ward needs you all, and you all need the ward! 

How´s the new bishopric doing? 

I heard BYU lost, that´s too bad. Was it a good game? who do they have next? Did they make the top 25 after the loss?

 

Anyways, have a great week. I love you all and your letters and updates are a huge strength to me. Happy birthdays, and keep me posted!

 

 

walking a dog. Did divisions with sandoval and their landlords left a dog behind and we had to take it to its new home. Walking a dog in honduras is awful because every dog in town knows there´s new meat on the street and wants to kill the poor dog we were walking. We had to fend off like 4 packs of dogs, it was the worst. I no longer have any kind of sentimental feelings towards dogs that aren´t skip. I rocked so many dogs that day. Almost killed one I think, Sandoval and I both hit the same dog with rocks at the same time and it set to crying and staggering back to its house, and I didn´t even feel bad. (actually, I did a little bit, but hey, gotta defend yourself)

also, happy mexican independence day

 

 

September 17, 2015

First things first-I've lost a ton of weight. Every one asks me what I've got. The good news is that I'm on the up and up and really eating a ton. I'm coming back.

Loved the pictures too! I love seeing how good everyone's doing. Might make me a little homesick, but I don't mind.

I've got some sweet pictures coming, if elder Sandoval comes through for me and sends me the pictures. We went to a waterfall today for a double zone pday. Another great part about being zl is that I have a ton of friends in my zone. My area is called Las Colinas. It's pure mountain. All of la Ceiba is nice and flat with the exception of our area.

 

one more. I drank from the river today. We were really high up and there's nothing above to contaminate, so we'll see if I get sick or not. Wish me luck.

 

And fall...I'm drenched in sweat as we speak. I love winter in florida so much. Deer season and football games and crisp air.

I'm also so proud of everybody-sarah at byu, kate exercising and socializing and doing the whole violin thing, Curtis working out and fishing, sterling playing football, you all are keeping it real. Tell Curtis to not be dumb.

How serious is this Jared thing? ship her up to BYU and she finds the first kid from st. Johns she can. Sounds like a good kid to me though, I'm in favor. Tell me more about him. I want her to send me pictures, send me what she's posting on instagram!

And Curtis, tell me more about the fishing. What gear are you using? Tell me about the tackle, where you were fishing, everything! Taking good care of my gear? Put it to good use but take care of it! Wash and lubricate!

So Devin's getting married huh? That's awesome. What does his mom say about his reactivation and temple marriage? Or has she been pretty silent?

And BYU...that's awesome. This would be the year they start doing well! Thanks for keeping me posted, its like I was there...kinda.

So, here's my update. Honduras is still doing its best to kill me, it's the little things that build up and wear on ya. Like waking up every day covered in bug bites, all kinds of skin rashes from the heat, not to mention my extreme weight loss. A mouse crawled on me last night, and I had one of those "what the heck am I doing here on a sweaty mattress in Honduras" moments and then remember how the same thing happened to me hiking the appalachain trail last year and how we did that for pure enjoyment. Perspective.

But yeah, the zone leader life is pretty cool-I love doing divisions and being able to work with the missionaries. This week we went with a companionship in an area that struggles a little bit and has an elder that's going home in a week. We show up to their house on a surprise visit because my comp is on a huge power trip, and they're all sitting around in their garments at three in the afternoon lounging around in their filthy apartment. Got a good laugh out of that one, they had a quality "oh s__t" moment. We went our separate ways and worked, got everybody moving again. The best part though is that I was able to make friends with them, gain their confidence, show them I wasn't here to wring them out or quote the white bible to them, and then, at the end of the day, we were able to talk real openly about what's going on, what they need to improve on, and they themselves put goals and plans to carry it out. I'm all about being obedient, but when someone's not being obedient, they already know they're in the wrong, the spirit takes care of that-they just need a little a little love and motivation to do the right thing.

Little favorite scripture for the week, 1 kings 18:20-If The Lord be God, then follow him. Loosely quoted, but there you have it. It's simple. If something is right, do it.

Honduras is really growing on me more and more every day. The members here are stellar. They fellowship our investigators, feed us, and actually work. Our missionary leader is great, we have a good relationship with the members, and they practically jump on our investigators to make sure they're comfortable.

The other night we had a baptism and a talent night, and at one point an old member gets up and just starts preaching with the microphone in hand, it looked like an evangelical revival meeting. Just starts preaching pure apostasy. After hearing so much of it in the mission, it doesn't even bother me anymore, I kinda just sit back and enjoy it. Enjoy the awkwardness. The old members know he's off base and the new members aren't gonna remember it. Just gotta roll with it. There was also a young woman that got up and did a musical number in a little short dress that was definitely not church appropriate, but hey, Honduras. Just gotta roll with it.

Also this week has been making me think about the freedoms we enjoy, and how one such freedom is the freedom to live without fear. Fear rules here. We live in a house surrounded by a concrete wall with razor wire above, bars on the windows, bars on the doors, completely sealed in. People are afraid to go outside at night. Had a real disappointing experience the other night when we asked a grown man with a car to take a pair of investigators home-women, with babies-and he said no, because he can't put his life in danger driving up to where they live. I got real mad at that one. Like, what, you want that they walk back alone? We walk those same streets every night. If that had happened back in the states there would have been an army of men in pickup trucks and guns in the gun racks volunteering to make sure they got back to the house all right.

And another thing I've been thinking about this week is how effective Mormonism is-there are so many good people of other faiths, people that are doing the best they can and will no doubt inherit a place in the celestial kingdom, but...no other system can teach and guide us with practical, moral principles like ours can. It can't teach about the family because for them the family ends at death. It can't teach about morality because the pastors are all living in fornication. It can't teach about life eternal because life eternal is to know God and his son, Jesus Christ, and to them God, Christ, and the spirit are one being, a spirit, without form or figure. I love evangelicals but I abhor their doctrine.

Oh, and our young men's quorum this week was a trip! First of all, its awesome, because we filled a room (and we actually have a room-and a chapel-and a ward, a huge improvement!) but they just have no filter. We heard a little discussion about the skin color of the lamanites and how ugly they were and how the lord made them dark and ugly so the white, pure nephites wouldn't be tempted to mix their seed-I got uncomfortable, and all the 5'8 dark skinned men in the room are nodding, like "this is good stuff!". We also touched on the subject of wet dreams, and how masturbation is just as bad as abortion. Another moment of sitting back and enjoying the interesting parts of a new church in a third world country, love it.

Also, my comp drives me up the wall. He's the most prideful person I've ever known. He's all about numbers, loves to machete people, can't feel the spirit with him, teaches like a robot, not real honest, and if I've got an idea (even if he was about to say the same thing) he's got a better one and a page from the mission manual to tell me why I'm wrong and he's right. He gets on a high calling people out for issues of obedience but he doesn't do the right thing himself. He was joking the other day about me introducing him to my sister, and I just thought how it would be a cold day in hell before I ever let him talk to any relative of mine. And I've got no idea how to love him! Even with Villegas, the most difficult comp anyone could ever have, we still had a warm relationship and there was love and we had our good moments. Anyway. Enough griping.

The mission is great, I'm trying my best to cope with my comp, but I love our investigators and I could not be happier with them and the ward. Also, our cook is the best-real, good food, and lots of it. She likes me because I always eat all of her food, and I eat it well. She only makes us lunch but we have dinners every now and then.

also, love you all, love reading about your lives, and I miss you all! Wish I had more time but for the forseable future my times gonna be quite a bit shorter. Bye now!
 

September 7, 2015

I always told you all how I wanted to serve in La Ceiba right? I love this city. It´s beautiful, right on the carribean, not too hot, and the church is strong. It´s like being in the Longwood ward. We actually have a ward, a bishop, a ward mission leader, and ward missionaries...I´m in heaven. The work is on fire here. Here families get baptized and go to the temple. Our investigators don´t have baptism goals, they have temple sealing goals. It´s not quite as great as it sounds, its still Honduras, but it´s a huge improvement.

 

 

 I miss Morazan though. Saying goodbye was hard. got emotional. Few people cried, I´d been there for a long time and hope I was able to make a difference. 

Mario and Rosita. The first converts to get sealed here when the church opened the area two years ago. Love them to death. Never forget them, they got all emotional and thanked me for making them into a branch. 

 

I broke the rules and gave her a hug, one of my favorite people here. She´s the wife of the man that plays the guitar with me. She always welcomed me in with open arms and treated me like her own son. 

 

 

The best goodbye I got was with the familia Reyes Castro. I got there, said goodbye, and they´re like lets throw a party. We took some pictures, ate tamales, and had the time of my life singing mariachi with the hermano again, and the whole family. Love that family. Part member family, but I´m a big fan. 

Ceiba is a real interesting place. It´s a big city, split in two by a green mountain jutting up out of the valley floor. There´s always a good breeze off of the ocean, and the palm trees are always laden with coconuts. It reminds me of Roatan, but a whole lot better. There´s a little more money here than the rest of Honduras, and our area actually has a pretty big group of mansions built up on the hill, with big balconies looking out to the ocean. I´m real glad to be within seeing distance of the ocean again, I really did miss it. Our area is kind of far away, but at least 3 or 4 times a day we´ll crest a hill and be able to see it. The cultural makeup is pretty unique too, the vast majority are regular hondurenans, but there´s still quite a few blacks here, descendants of the slaves brought in by the spaniards to work the sugarcane and coffee plantations. The typical home of a wealthy family, that has a good job, is about 1500 sq ft, small yard, palm trees, mango trees, hammock out front, and an old jeep cherokee in the driveway. 

The members are excellent here, one of the best stakes in Honduras. Our ward is small but strong. The members like us, help us, and they work! I´m loving the area. We also have a cook, who is also the primary president, and she makes great food. I hope I can put on some more weight here cause I´m still wasting away. 

I´ve also really been seeing how the Lord is in control, and I´m in exactly the right place. I´ve found people from Roatan, lots of fishermen, and just lots of people that I have been able to reach with my certain set of abilities and personality. 

I´m also really developing my missionary personality too. I´m proud of who I´ve becoming and still developing it. I definitely have my faults in the mission, but I get along so dang well with everybody. I don´t know what happened but I feel so at home here, I finally just mastered the honduran personality I guess and people love it. I´m myself, loving people, and I´m really developing a knack for pulling people up, developing close relationships, and all that good stuff. 

Also doing the same thing with the other missionaries here. They up and made me a zone leader, and I´m taking my leadership inspiration from Spencer W Kimball´s talk about ¨Jesus, the Perfect Leader¨ and how we shouldn´t be afraid of close personal relationships. It drives my comp up the wall but I love calling all my missionaries and just talking. I´ve got some real good friends in the zone, and a couple new gringos I´m watching out for. My goal is working hard, putting the example, and get along with everybody. One on one leadership works real well. 

About my comp though, I´m getting real sick of guatemala. He´s a good guy, just kinda weird. Real robotic. I don´t feel the spirit with him at all. Still working on feeling the love for him. Feels lots of pressure to perform. Works really hard, and I respect him for that, but not real effectively. Running around like a chicken with his head cut off. We´ll see how that goes. But yeah, being ZL is cool. We don´t sleep but somehow I´m being blessed with energy to cope. To bed at 12 sometimes and up again at 6¨30. Not feeling too tired though, coping well. 

I´m gonna try and send some pictures. Still haven´t got your weekly email but loving the pictures! what happened with BYU? Real short on time but hoping to upload some pictures. 

soccer game, multi zone pday, and the view from our hill. 

 

 

Sept 1, 2015

its official, Im gone!

I don{t have any time, I just wanted to upload the picture that I couldn't yesterday.

 

Rosibel's baptism - Luis her son baptized her

 

August 31, 2015

A baptism and changes

Yup, Rosibel got baptized! It was definitely one of the better baptism experiences I've had on the mission. We filled up Rigoberto's bus (real convenient that he's a bus driver, we didn't have to pay anything) and headed up to the mountains. Filled it up real good, no seats for the missionaries, so we're standing up in front with Rigoberto driving, down in the doorwell and everything. Had to cross a few rivers to get up there, and everyone had told us that we needed four wheel drive to get up there but nope, Rigoberto just plowed on right through, and we've got water coming in through the bus door but we made it through, several times, and I can't say that I have ever before offroaded in a school bus. We get wayyyy up in the mountains, up in the clouds, and then take a little hike to a big pool underneath a rock ledge. We have a short, and very simple service-hymn and scripture, honduran attention spans are pretty minimal and all the kids are just dying to jump in the water-and then we turn the time over to the actual baptism. Luis helps his mom down into the water, and with us up above them on the rock ledge, baptizes her and she comes up out of the water absolutely beaming. Then as soon as she's out of the water all the kids jump in and we set down to eat yucca and chicharrones (pig skins, pig cracklins, I forget what they're called in english). 

But yeah, my time in Morazan is up. I've got changes. It'll be interesting to see where I go. The rumors, which are usually pretty accurate because president loves to gossip and let secrets slip, is that I'm headed for satelite, right in the heart of san pedro sula. Big city, big wards, lots of members, and lots of baptisms. Also dangerous-there's no sisters there and I'm gonna have to learn to be careful; we're still in Honduras here but It doesn't feel like it, I've never once felt threatened in Morazan. It'll be a change for sure, no more agriculture! I also won't be training, so who knows what I'll do. I'm really over the whole aspiring for leadership positions thing, I'm halfway hoping they just let me be a regular missionary for a little while so I can tear it up in my own area without worrying about other missionaries and all that stuff. 

Morazan has been great though-I'm really proud of the work we've down here and the difference we've made. Lots of solid converts, and we've really grown the church. I'll be sad to leave. I've grown a lot here and I feel like I've really come into my own here. I'm a whole lot more confident, I know what I'm doing, and I've learned alot about how the mission, church, and the spirit work. 

We've definitely had some success this week-Wilmer has given up coffee, Denia got permision to take sundays off and come to church (and came, and was the first person there-I wish I could be here to see her baptism) and we found some good new people, including one hermana that was really interesting-we talked alot about her relationship with God and helping her not feel dead inside as pertaining to religious things and actually feeling like there's someone out there-and we got her to pray and she started out real timid at first but then she got going and by the end there were tears coming out of her eyes. She still didn't go to church this week, but we did our job. 

I'm noticing that more and more as I spend more time here-we can't convince anybody, the Lord knows who he wants in his church and its his work, not mine-we just have to do our jobs and open our mouths and give them the chance to listen to what the lord is saying. We have to rely on the spirit. And if people don't want to listen, that's their choice, que le vaya bien. I just keep thinking more and more about how little the outside world actually matters. I know what's true and I know what I know, and I can stand independent above all other influences. I just want to raise my family in the right way and I'll do that, the world be damned. At this point I feel like the whole church could apostasize and fall away and I would be just as spiritually sound sitting in sacrament meeting with just my family and president Monson. It's still incredibly frustrating when people don't want to change, when they let laziness get the best of them, when they listen to what their neighbors say, when they don't want to act on answers they recieve, and when they let their heads get filled up with all the drivel and stupidity and outright lies that the other churches spew out of their chapels. (sidenote, I love catholics, as in, the people, but the catholic church in general...I have never encountered so many outright lies, falsehoods, and brainwashing as I have in the catholic priests here). 

And, my struggles with the other companionship are over! both he and I are out of here. One less stress, til I arrive in my new area and have something worse. The other night they came over to spend the night (they were there waiting for us, in street clothes, calling us at 9 oclock asking us where we were-just not the right mindset. It was a sunday night, they were checked out, party mode-just not centered in the work) so I started to unlock the gate and then asked them how many contacts they have (we made goals in the zone to talk to x amount of people every day in the street) and they were two short of the goal...So I shut the lock, turned around, and said "alright, lets go contact!" 9:30 at night, they're in street clothes...they just about died, my comp is laughing himself to death, just loving it, they're grumbling, but we walked the streets and ended up contacting two groups of high school kids-kind of fearful situations but we did it anyway and helped them lose some fear and not be such bums. I'm just glad we get along so good or they'd probably hate me. 

That's all I got for you all, I wish I had some more spiritual thoughts but it's been an incredibly busy and stressful week and I haven't had much time to think about writing anything down for you all. 

Most of all, I want to hear about provo! What's it like? And send me better pictures! People, mountains, stuff like that! Sarah's thoughts? I'm glad she's already loving it so much, I think she's gonna have a great experience. 

Also, I don't have any internet, I may have to send you the pictures another day. I'm trying. 

Anyways, say hi to everybody for me, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about the trip! Love and miss you all! 

August 24, 2015

Not much to write about but I'm sure excited for your trip to Provo!

Our 1 year picture

Good week. Rosibel did get married! It was very simple, we walked down with their family and a couple witnesses to the county office, signed the paper, said the I do's, and yup. They were absolutely radiant though, Rosibel looked so happy. Both of them did. I have pictures and will get them to ya one of these days. And when it came time to kiss the bride Rigoberto grabbed her and kissed her like a man and everybody clapped, they've come so far. And I couldn't be happier with their progress. And their baptism is all schedule for 1 o'clock on thursday at a big river pool way up in the mountains. 

Had a special meeting this weekend with Russel M. Nelson-well, not with him, but a satelite broadcast  from tegucigalpa. Good meeting, and the best part was seeing all my old buddies from the CCM-had a blast shooting the bull with them. 

And then today two zones rented a soccer stadium in Progreso and we went out and played soccer and ultimate frisbe and turned out to be really fun, and I'm extra tired now. Fun getting back together with people and getting dirty and playing hard.

 

Also, one of our investigators (wilmer) that we were about to drop had answer to the book of mormon and totally turned things around. Real happy about that one. 

Also, Denia, the best investigator I've ever had, recieved permission to take sundays off at work-she was so excited to tell us that she's gonna be able to go to church! 

I'm really trying to think of stuff to tell you-all that's happened this week was work, work, and a wedding. 

What did Rowdy talk about? I really like when people talk about their struggles. Honestly gets me much more than anything else. Glad it was such a good church meeting, I'd love to be able to feel the spirit in sacrament meeting again! In a year. Church is so different here. 

And you got demoted huh? That's gotta be a change. 

Tell me what all you're gonna do in Provo?? and the laptop stayed on my desk normally, occasionally I'd carry it to the library. i actually did a fair amount of studying in the library, get away from the distractions. Suggestions...get an all sports pass, talk to everyone possible-everyone is from somewhere else and everyone wants to get to know everybody. keep your door open when you're unpacking and people will come in and introduce themselves and you'll make friends. I think she'll get there and wonder why she was so worried, she'll do way better than she's thinking. I imagine. That's the great thing about BYU, with the state schools everyone just stays in their high school friend groups. I wouldn't worry too much about clubs, if something really calls your attention go for it but don't join clubs just for resume/experience. yet. Get the first semester out of the way first. Use your TA's! They're the ones that will grade your papers, with the big classes, and if you're always participating and asking questions in the labs, trying, they'll keep that in mind as they grade. Also, don't get a boyfriend, you got lots of time to date around and find a good one. preferably Elder Gillens in a year when he get's back home from his mission. I think she'll be surprised how much she misses florida once winter rolls around-when I went out I was all sold on living in utah up until winter came, and then I missed spanish moss and greenery more than ever. And I don't know, just...stay unique. Keep it real. Do intramural sports, you'll have a blast. Talent isn't required. Have fun, don't stress, And hiking the Y...haha. Classic. Gotta do it once but no more. Leaving is sad-I remember my last few days very vividly. And taking off from Orlando and seeing all the houses and lakes and forests below, that was hard. But then flying into Salt lake city, and seeing the mountains and the temple...that was cool. It's so exciting. You'll love it. Whirlwind of emotions but worth it. don't spread yourself too thin, slow and steady wins the race. Also, study. Freaking start your papers the day you get the assignment. There's no such thing as good writing, only good re-writing. Give yourself lots of time to re do, edit, and make corrections. The whole high school skating by by pure intelligence doesn't fly in college. Also, get yourself a whiteboard and put assignments and due-dates. 

Answering your questions-the green stuff was either the platano or bell peppers. the cooking? peel them, clean them, and dump them in oil. Pretty simple. Ripe ones are my favorite because they come out a little bit sweet. Recreation? Honduran recreation is drugs, alcohol, and the soap opera. In the cities they have everything you could find in the states, but here...no movie theatre. Soccer is huge here, there's always people playing in neighborhood courts and neighborhood leaggues and stuff. Really it's extremely boring. People go to the river to swim too. And even though its a small town and rural, there's nothing of the stuff that makes small town life fun. No hunting cause they already killed all the animals, no fishing cause they already ate all the fish, and no imagination to create your own fun. They usually just sit down and watch TV. I can not express how simple, basic, and mentally dull these people are. I hate to say it but its true.

Short on time and short on imagination, but loving and missing you all! Working hard, doing well, and motivated. Have a great week and I expect a ton of pictures from the trip to Provo!  

Love, Elder Hansen