August 17, 2015

I don't know if my standards are dropping as to what I consider interesting or It's actually interesting, but this week has been real

First of all, yup, back in the money. No problems there. Got the light turned back on and life is good again. I feel bad for complaining so much but...I'm just glad its over. 

Back to school! How's everybody's first day? And Seminary? Have a good breakfast? Who are the students I'd know? Also, way to go on the suburban, that poor car. That cracked me up, did you hit it in the same spot as usual? 

I'm glad you got to talk to Mrs. Voke, I always really liked her. Tell her I said hi. I still remember some of the stuff we did and learned in her class. And I'd highly reccomend wrestling or water polo, but why not football? And he is gonna be tall, and bigger around too. 

I'm also glad sterling likes flag football, who does he play with? 

And I can't answer your question about the commas, pure coincidence, I'm just typing a mile a minute and thinking in spanish and writing in english. (I'm so deep into the language now sometimes I can't remember for the life of me if a certain word is an english word or a spanish word. It's fun too, sometimes I'll be talking with another gringo and we'll just switch into spanish, flawlessly, and then back into English) 

And thats a sweet picture of the kayak off of New Smyrna, looks like a blast. We're gonna have a blast with those kayaks one day. What did you all do and whod ya go with? 

And Rosibel's wedding is this Friday, baptism next thursday. It's gonna be sweet, we're going way up into the mountains to another river. And her son Luis is gonna baptize her, I'm gonna see my convert baptize the third member of his family into the church! Next step is the dad. He's reading the book of mormon and always recieves us and we get along great but he's real shy on committments and he works on sundays but he is a really good husband and father. He'll be a bishop here one day. 

And that is really interesting about Chanel. That's one thing I've noticed on the mission, is how different some people's lives are. And how rare the traditional family unit is sometimes, and how necessary it is. I've been blessed! 

Sarah's BYU schedule sounds solid, its gonna be challenging! I'm so excited for her, and excited to return to the Y! Also excited for football games in provo. Keep me posted on that. Get an all sports pass! Well worth the money and will greatly enhance your social life. Good luck on the horse sale. Where is your roommate from?

And tell me more about this orchestra thing that kates doing? Congratulations! 

Anyways, as far as my week goes. On friday we went up to plant pineapple again, but it was like a dream-we'd had several good farmers rains and the earth was soft and easily workable. One hit with the bar and you had a nice pineapple sized hole. This time we planted 1,000 pineapple. I loved it, working with my hands-it was hot and the sun was hitting us hard, but there was a good breeze and the skies were blue and it wasn't too humid. And we had a view in just about every direction. Felt like a pioneer, I'm always surprised how much I like the whole agricultural life even though its so dang hard and even harder to make a dollar. (I told Javier that joke about ranching-"How do you make a small fortune in ranching? Start out with a large fortune" and he thought it was pretty funny, I was able to translate it alright) He'll make about 1k with what we sowed this week (which is a ton in Honduras, but still...thats if everything goes right) and he lost a bean crop this year. Also made me think about the Book of Mormon, I felt like a nephite up on the mountain. And I've heard people spout off foolishness like how the book of mormon couldn't have been written in central america because its always wet and rainy and there's never droughts nor famines. Absolutely false, Honduras is in a drought right now and farmers are losing everything and the cornfields are drying up. Javier planted corn this year and it never even sprouted its so dry. Thus the switch to pineapple. There are sure enough droughts and famines-we're seeing a literal, honest to goodness famine right now because everyone grows corn for their personal use-if there's no corn, their diet just got reduced by about 50%. 

 

I decided to cook dinner the other night. Rice, beans, and platano. Typical honduras food. I actually really like plain old rice and beans and platano I just hate the other food they make. 

 

in the process. It's nice cooking because my comps always hovering around waiting for the food and I can put him to work washing dishes. Just so you know, the dryer in the background is not ours nor do we use it. 

 

playing farmer boy again - left to right is Rosalina Ramos, my comp, Javier Ramos, me, and a cousin of Javier. 

 

 

 

 Also this week, we were on the bus headed to a zone meeting and I always conk out the moment the bus gets in motion...so I'm just sleeping away and then I hear the conductor shout "Santa Rita"  and that's my stop so I wake up and lo and behold, I'm basically cuddled up with this girl. She had sat down next to me, also fallen asleep, and ended up on my shoulder. I jumped a little, she woke up, and just about died of embarrassment, but we had a good little laugh and made an appointment to visit her in her house. 

Then, later that same day, we encountered a drunk man stumbling down the street. Normally I just let them be, but I thought I should be a good samaritan and bring him to his house. So we're walking him back up the hill, after a couple of falls on the hillside, and he tells us that he's out to go find the man who stole his bicycle. About this time I notice he's got a knife hidden on him and that made me real uncomfortable plus he was probably en route to kill somebody, so I took his knife from him and made him lie down on his bed and I counted to three until he took his shoes off and climbed into bed, and then went and hid his knife in his house. 

Later that night, we were dodging a rainstorm and wholed up in a little open air bar/pool hall, and a man started talking with us about religion, as is quite normal, and telling us all his near death experiences and how's he's a drug addict but still covered by the blood of Christ. So we whipped out the Bible in the bar and had a little lesson right there, focusing on the epistle of John and how are salvation (or, as it says in the verse, the blood of christ) is dependent on our obedience and all that. I'm not one for machetying or thumping the bible to preach to someone, but it was fun. 

It was a real honduras kind of day, lot that happened in 24 hours. 

Also, as far as spiritual things go, someone told us the other day that the year mark is the time when one really decides what kind of missionary he's gonna be. Had some experience, fluent in the language, seen lots of examples, good and bad, and is at more or less full operating capacity. So...it's time to go. Time to really go to work. I'm losing myself in the work and it works. Talk to anyone, no fear, work hard, always go go go. Conditions suck all over honduras and central america, I have to be independent above all other circumstances and not let outside circumstances affect me. I'm focused on others-my comp, my district, my investigators, losing whatever selfishness I have. And I no longer feel the least bit of desire to impress leaders or others, I know I'm working and doing what I need to do and that's what's important. I'm self confident in my work and my abilities. And I'm really growing as a leader too-learning how to motivate and how to lead, and how to lead instead of manage. Now, I'm only the DL of 6 missionaries, its no lofty calling, but I'm learning alot. I'm trying my hardest to put the district on my shoulders and be the example and motivator.  My missionaries know I love them and that I'm more worried about their happiness and well being and overall success than I am about the numbers. Work, determination, rolling with the punches, effective study, and positive thinking does wonders. All this sure didn't come at once though, I really struggled at first as you would all remember. It's been a long process and something that comes step by step, slow progress with 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Feasting on the Book of Mormon really works too. I just want the boys to know that it's gonna be really hard at first, and that they can't expect perfection in anything-not in the language, not in obedience, not in teaching styles-they just have to try. My advice is first, to work-as far as I'm concerned, work compensates for just about any lack of ability in the mission field-and don't try to be perfect and don't expect it from others. Just do your best, rely on the Lord, and remember that the spirit is the most important part of your missionary character. I've seen it so much-missionaries that are native spanish speakers and are absolutely brilliant and can give sermons and preach and know the scriptures up and down-but they are less powerful than a simple testimony from a humble missionary that has the spirit. The Gospel isn't something logical that we can present scriptures, show evidence, and expect them to feel the need to change their lives. So I'm always working to have the spirit, as its always been kinda hard for me but getting better. 

Branch president still sucks, but I don't care, we'll build the church with or without him. Although we're trying to do everything we can do to improve the relationship. 

Also, little cool experience, the family of the branch president all got sick. First the daughter, so they called us and asked for a blessing. She was healed that night. Then the husband got sick, so we gave him a blessing, and was also healed almost immediately. Then the wife got sick, and we participated in the blessing when her husband gave her the blessing, and she was healed immediately and got up and went on with her life. Blessings really work here because the people have such faith. 

Also, little thought I like from a LaVell Edwards devotional I was listening to the other day-the commandments are to condition us for heaven, so that we can be comfortable there-we're not trying to earn heaven, we're trying to learn it. It's something we have to practice, because, like section 88 says, we will recieve the glory that quickens us, or in other words, what excites us. If wordly things, or telestial things, are what excites us, that's what's we will recieve and in a sense we will be happy, or at least comfortable. But if we want exaltation we have to practice for it, and be excited by celestial things. 

I've waxed long and I'm working on carpal tunnel syndrome. Love you all, have a great week, and I'll be here for a little while longer if you want to chat!