January 9, 2016

 

 

This picture is the Puerto Merlo family. On the left is Andrea, then Mitcheli, then Irene. Irene we helped alot, she's going through a divorce and she absolutey adores us. You've already seen these people when we were skyping. 

 

 

This is the Aguero family. We activated them and at first they didn't want anything to do with the church. We just spent time with them and laughed and joked and loved them and they came back on their own. 

 

More with my favorite family here. Familia Miraz. Half of them aren't even related but they all live there. Anne is on the right. 

January 9, 2016

 

Working with Hodson. Having a gringo comp is sweet. We live in a house with 6 missionaries and its so cushy. Hot showers, a car...It's like a stateside mission except there are armed guards outside the house 24/7. It's really gonna be a different side of the mission. I'm not out in the jungle anymore, now I spend three days out of the week in the office and doing trainings and working the rest of the time. As cushy as it is though, I still prefer the field I think. Bucket showers and mosquitos and pure lamanites and all...feels more like the mission. It's cool though-now I'm gonna live more comfortably and be more healthy and be able to be more obedient, so it will be a new experience. 

 

Hated to leave my old area though. I love Las Colinas. I have a ton of pictures to send you. Lots of rough goodbyes, love those people so much. I didn't baptize a ton there but I sure made a difference and changed quite a few people's lives. I miss Navas too haha he may not be the best missionary I know but he's one of the best people I know. 

Our area is cool though. I never wanted to come to san pedro or the surrounding areas but its actually a great city. The wards and stakes are strong, everyone lives close together and missionary work is easy, and its safe...i always thought it was dangerous because of all the cartels here but they keep the peace. People are out on the streets with children and walking babies in strollers, little cobblestone streets, palm trees, old cathedrals, fruit stands...It's like I imagine honduras was 20 years ago. the cartels and organized gangs keep the peace and as long as you don't cross them life is good. Every now and then they'll be a pile of bodies without heads dumped in the middle of the street but its pretty much always because they deserved it. 

But putting two gringos together with a car is asking for trouble! I've never recieved such attention from girls in my life. It's disgusting. Just cause we have a car and they think we have money. And their parents encourage it too. Honduras.

And as far as AP goes...it's really not that prestigious. We just go to meetings more than anything. When president cant go to area meetings, or when we have trainings with zone leaders and district leaders or trainers...not all that glorious. 
 

But yeah, that's where I'm at. Hope I get to hear from you all! 

January 4, 2016

 

alrighty, explanation. First off, Anne did get baptized! Honestly it was one of the best baptisms of my mission-one of the most meaningful. She's come such a long way and she gets it. The other night we assigned her a little reading just to review the restauration before baptism and then she read it and was just like "I already know this is all true, I already know Joseph Smith was a prophet and that through him God restored his true church, when are you gonna teach me deeper things?" alrighty Anne, as you wish. Super solid. But yeah. Single mother. Typical honduras. She lives with my favorite family here. Her situation is this-the older woman in the picture is her "mother in law". She lives with her. The womans son was the ex boyfriend, and they were shacking up in the woman's home. She was inactive and her children weren't members. Step by step, she's been getting active and is now ready for a calling (she's the one that is wanting to get endowed) and her children have got baptized and have been excellent converts. After a while, she and the boyfirend (the son) split up, and the family decides that they like her alot better than their son and they have her stay with them while her son gets the boot. So she's there, with the baby's grandmother and other recent converts. 

 

 

Aside from that, I have transfers...I'm bummed. I've always been ready to leave my areas and now that I want to stay I'm getting sucked away. I love this area and the people way more than any other area. It's hard actually, I honestly got really depressed and just wanted to quit and hang out with members but I muscled up and we kept on working but today and tomorrow is gonna be just pure party mode saying goodbye to everybody.  I've always said I wouldn't visit honduras but I'd come back here. The interesting part is that they're transfering me to the heart of san pedro sula. The big deal. President called me last night and told me I was going to be the new asistant, together with Riley Hodson. Being AP is cool and all but holy cow...now's really gonna be the time to man up and go hard. I feel so inadequate haha I was talking with President and I gave him my humble opionion that there are a heck of alot of other missionaries better suited for this and I could give him a list if he wanted but he just laughed it off and said too bad. It'll be cool though but definitely new responsibilities, new stress, and new things to learn. I'm excited to be with Hodson though, first time having a gringo comp. And I love giving trainings which is basically what the AP's do aside from working normally and doing divisions and managing the material aspects of the mission. But, I'm gonna have hot showers!  

Other pictures-went to pico bonito with missionaries from two zones. It's a little national park with waterfalls and all that. I bought an american flag up there with me to take pictures with the nortes so that was kind of fun. 

 

 

 

 

 

Other picture-new year's eve. Looking back it was definitely against the rules but we went out and bought a bunch of fireworks (dirt cheap here) and set them off (another reason I feel inadequate for being AP!) We just did it in the street in front of the house, a few members stopped by, and we're throwing firecrackers and shooting roman candles. Fun stuff, todo tranquilo. It was kinda funny because around 11/30 at night President Reyes from the stake drove by and was just like "happy new year elders!"and kept on driving. I feel like we would have got the machete for that if we were in the states. Just different here, and I love it! 

 

 

December 28, 2015

Well, not a whole lot to tell this week

Just kidding, actually had a great week after we talked. I didn't get that homesick, we had stuff to do so we just geared up and left and everything went well.  I got recharged without getting too baggy. I probably would have gotten homesick as all get out if it werent for having such a great couple of days afterwards. 

Great videos too! skimboarding and boxing. You'll have to send me a surf video too. And as always I love seeing the truck get used out at Julies. 

And for Sarah's classes-looks pretty good to me. Is there anyway she can get Shane Reese for stats? 

And with the DNA, do you have specific information yet? I wanna know exactly which Eurpean countries and all. 

That's cool about gary Apfel. I know who he is but have never met him. I've always kind of wanted to go into the military but I don't know if I can make the sacrifice-like, I could give up my life for the country, but I couldn't give up my salvation, ya know? Not like its mutually exlcusive, there's lots of perfectly active and faithful servicemen, but it would sure be hard. Good for the boys to see though! 

And this week! Birthdays are actually a huge deal here and I have no idea how everybody knows but holy cow they treated me well. I had two families call me over for cake (one of them is in the picture, thats the hna Norey) and I got about 4 eggs broken over my head. Absolute blast. Its a tradition here, throwing eggs at the birthday boys and its so fun because you know its gonna happen in every house but you're just waiting. One of them was really funny because it was two kids, with their hands behind their backs, standing there, and they're like "hansen, come here! We have a secret to tell you!" ok. And then its a big party and everyone is running around throwing eggs and I'm chasing people getting egg on them too. Its a mess and normally I'd be a little bothered with people filling up my only clean shirt with egg yolks but its out of love. Fun day, american birthdays suck. Just wish everyone knew how much I hate cake so I'd be able to quit eating it. 

And I don't know if you remember the girl I told you about that's going to get baptized? Her name is Anne and she's the white looking girl in the family picture I sent you all a while back. We'd just been struggling with her for a while-she didn't want to accept a date-she always read, usually went to church, and wanted to get baptized but was afraid of the committment. So we backed off a little and focused more on her salvation than on her baptism-focused more on preparing her for eternal life rather than for her baptism, didn't talk about baptism for a week-and then on friday night she sat us down and just said "I want to prepare myself to be baptized this saturday". Right out of preach my gospel. And then we're just like "yeah, I think we can arrange that". We focused on her needs instead of just getting her baptized and then the spirit got to her and told her what she needed to do. It was just a cool moment, one of those moments that keeps me on the mission. The spirit is the real teacher. She will easily be one of my favorite baptisms. And then, another sister in that same house that we had been activating, out of the blue, just tells us "I want to prepare myself to go through the temple". We hadn't even talked about the temple with her. The spirit tells us what we need to do in spite of what we do as missionaries. 

Good week. Good lessons, found some new people, didn't get robbed, christmas, birthday-all in all pretty good. 

And Dad-what did the manager tell you about the sale of the ranch? How do his job prosepcts look once they cut the ranch in half? I want his job one day, run a business and still get to play cowboy. That would be fun though, I think you should do it. And I think I've been to the Ocala range, it's good. Wait for a good cold front and go! 

I think that's all I have for you all, Love you all and It was sure great to talk with everybody!

December 21, 2015

(I asked if Scott received his package)

I did! And I already opened it too...I waited about an hour and all that willpower I´ve been practicing on the mission went out the window. Navas freaking loved his package. He was like a litle kid on christmas morning (oh wait, he was!) but really, he was incredibly grateful. I was too, thanks so much for sending that. Made his christmas. We opened them one by one just having a good old time, after setting up our tree and everything. I was giving him a hard time for the stuff you sent him, I told him that you sent him so much hygene stuff because he´s latin and you all are racists and think he doesn´t bathe, we had a great time. And Lemus...he was grateful too. Really surprised. It was actually a pretty tender little moment haha he was so happy to have a package. Worth every penny you spent on it. 

And my package! You remembered everything I asked for haha! Perfect gifts, couldn´t ask for more. I gave the rubiks cube to Navas though, he got a kick out of it and I´d never touch it. All in all, great package and well done! Even got the christmas smelling tree, lots of candy to share with people, all kinds of good stuff. And Saunders loves his shirt. You all are making lots of people happy here in la ceiba!

Navas and I with the tree, and the zone in our multizone

Hope president klein doesn´t get too much of a surprise when he sees we ruined his zone picture. I´m holding it with saunders

my area, in the mountain part

 

I´m doing well. A little stressed because the zone is falling short a little bit, but besides that I´m great. I´ve been real happy lately, no problems, enjoying the mission, and just feeling comfortable. I know what I´m doing and its just normal life now. And our ward is something else...it was pretty chilly when I got here but now we´re part of the ward, I love it.

December 14, 2015

 

Send the email to me, I´ll tell ya if it made sense haha. And lemus....yeah, I know him, thats cool, all the missionaries are good or they wouldn´t be here. 

Was the party fun?? I´m glad everybody mingled well. Catch any kids making out? 

Curtis-why the heck did you ask for a machete?? I´m so sick of machetes...that´s cool though, good birthday? How tall is he now? 

And yes, our zone conference is wednesday. Still haven´t prepared :( Wish me luck. 

And yesterday we actually had a meeting with an area seventy and all the stake presidents and bishops and the zone leaders-it was excellent. Talking about working with members and missionaries. Same thing I´ve been preaching for a month now but now all the bishops are on the same page and some things are gonna change, and I´m excited. And on the car ride there President Klein actually asked me about some concerns (not the things I mentioned, but other concerns) and I told him and then he brought up those points in the meeting, so that was kind of cool. He´s a good leader, getting input from everybody. 

Get the surfboard! What´s everyone wanting for christmas? 

And talking about scouting-what could kids do to not be soft? Go fishing and hunting! And diving and work on cars and hiking! That´s why I´m always preaching that kind of stuff! Plus, scouts is super soft. Get them outside, find some trouble to get into, get hurt a little bit, get lost, whatever it be. Good thing our family is good though, let the world do what it may. 

Sounds like a stellar christmas break though. I talked to Julie the other day, it was nice to hear from her. 

And yeah, Jason emailed me and told me all about it. I´m excited, I´m happy for him. Good luck on the hire. And Jason told me that Connor is working a lot better now and is pulling his own weight. 

And Honduras is beautiful when you get out of the city. I´ll do better about sending pictures. 

And holy cow, snow in SJ! that´s a ton of snow. I want snow. 

And no, I´m good. I don´t really need anything except a usb port to charge my mp3 player, and as always contact solution. But nothing urgent. Also, always can use socks and shirts! 

Here´s my update-

First of all, I just love Honduras sometimes. I mean, I definitely have my days of frustration and disapointment but I just love how laid back everything is. Honduras is just like white-trash redneck in spanish. Anything goes. For example, the bus drivers. Early in the week we´re traveling on one of the buses, and all of a sudden the driver looks up at the clock, and then at his watch, and-oop, his shift is up-and he gets up and hops out the door, while still going 20 miles an hour. He hit the ground running, while in the meantime his assistant is sitting there looking at the empty seat and thinking ¨well, I guess I better drive this thing¨ so he sits down and we´re happily on our way. Navas and I are just dying of laughter. And then on saturday we get on the bus and our driver is reading the paper-like, a newspaper, as in, obstruct all of the windshield and drive with your knees, and he´s just honking hoping to avoid horses and cows and old ladies crossing the street. Anything goes. It´s sure growing on me though, really makes you redefine what are needs and what are wants. I could be perfectly happy with a cinderblock house with a tin roof with some wires pulled through holes in the wall attached to some bare light bulbs (and robbing energy from the powerpole down the block). I love unwinding in the night time washing clothes by hand and a washboard under our tin roof porch listening to some mission appropriate country music. 

Also, another thing I´m learning-I´ve really learned what it means to love the sinner and hate the sin. To love somebody and work to help them and preach repentance  and tell them what they need to do to fix it.  To be able to love them and respect them in spite of what they do. Love them to death and ask much from them-have high expectations. 

But yeah. I just feel good about everything right now. I always have struggled with feeling inadequate, like I´m not doing enough, worrying if I´m fulfilling my calling-all that kind of stuff. I remember that basically the only thing Mom ever told me about Dad´s mission is that he was ¨a good missionary¨. Never told me if he was a leader, lots of baptisms, obedient, etc-just told me that he was a good missionary and told me a few stories that showed me he made a difference in people´s lives. That has always been my goal. To be a good missionary. And I think I´ve made it. I love people, I serve them, I have fun with them, and I´m exactly who I want to be as a missionary. Plus the members love us. I´ve always said I´d never want to come back and visit but I´d come back and visit this area. 

So, Honduras. Things are getting hot. Lots more crime. We´re seeing more bodies. When I was off on divisions Navas almost got robbed again but a taxi parked between him and the robber and they were able to run away, by pure coincidence. But no worries, I´m still as calm as a summer´s morning. I still have no other logical explanation for my lack of fear-it´s gotta be the hand of God, pure and simple. The blessings of the temple, the temple garment, and the simple fact that I have the faith I´ll be protected-We go where we want to, we´ve been called to preach the gospel and that´s what we will do and the little honduran thugs that rob us can go to hell. 

On sunday, we came back from our meeting in San Pedro with President Reyes, in the stake presidency-easily one of my favorite men here. He´s got a small business and a small farm and he´s just a good guy. He reminds me of Ken Roberson and Dad. And he´s got some money, he wants to do business with me after the mission haha and I´m in. Anyways, we´re riding back in his truck and we stop to eat (on a sunday, ox was in the mire) and we walk into the restuarant and every single bishop and stake president from the norhern coast of honduras is in the same restuarant. Cracked me up. It´s like the Cirlce K in St Johns after church on sunday. And then we saw a nasty wreck coming back, bodies in the street and everything. It´s kind of sad how stuff like that doesn´t even phase me even more. There´s just so much death that it´s commonplace. 

Another insight-I´m working like never before. I´m seeing what it is to be completely dedicated-more than just leaving the house on time and doing our visits, but being completely dedicated to a cause, with no other distractions-totally focused on the work. 

I feel like I understand things a little better too now-I had always questioned how someone can start a business and sacrifice everything else to establish yourself and work around the clock and put in 80 hours a week but I get it now. Not like the mission is a business but the same principles of work and dedication apply. Waking up at 6 and going to bed at midnight, burning the midnight oil to plan, prepare, troubleshoot, whatever it be-it´s fulfilling.

But that´s all I got for you all, I´ll be on a little while to chat. 

Have a great week, love and miss you all! 

 

December 7, 2015

 

And how come Kate is the one that has the party this friday, she´s still got the whole month to go! sounds like a blast though, go big or go home. 

What´s going on now that everyone is at home? I´m still waiting on some river pictures. Still wishing I could have gone on that trip, sounds like it was a success all around! 

And yes, please get a garden planted! That´s cool with the banana tree, hope the cold doesn´t kill it. Or, better yet, forget about the garden and plant more citrus and peach trees. 

I´ll have to see on the shoes. Not sure if I threw them out or not. But yeah, the jerseys turned out good! Navas is just super gay in a latin way-always shaving himself, his legs, eyebrows, and takes an hour to get ready in the morning-he bathes before I do, and then I bathe, and then I´m dressed and packed before he´s even got his pants on. It´s not that weird for a latin. Love him to death though, no complaints there. 

And yes, we have a mormon street where everyone is LDS and then up in the mountains one of the valleys is all LDS or investigators. 

You all liked what Elder Anderson said huh? He came to the mission and I remember not being particularly impressed-I mean, its an apostle, but I just didn´t feel the same from him that I did with other apostles that have visited. That´s interesting about scouting though. I hope they get their eagles too but...I´m not real worried about it. If scouting was not affiliated with the church I would never do it, and the non-lds scouters are, on the whole, pretty weird. Too bad though, the worlds changing! In Honduras personal progress is pretty strong, and duty to god as well but there´s no scouting-like program. 

And I honestly don´t know how missionaries like Nuñez do it. If I had an iffy family I´d be a real iffy missionary. 

On the shop stuff, how are connor and jason? I hope you find a good installer. Say hi to everybody for me. 

Have fun decorating the tree...that´s one of my favorite christmas memories. I think the things I remember most about christmas is the tree decorating, the alan jackson and josh groban cd´s, potpurri, Christmas Eve, oranges off the tree, christmas movies, tamales, christmas breakfast, going fishing or hunting in the afternoon...good stuff, keep the traditions going! 

I´ve got really few things to tell you all! This is gonna be a good month though-we´ve hit our stride as leaders and we´re more relaxed with better results. Slow and steady wins the race. 

With President Klein- One thing I´m kind of questioning though is some of the methods/focuses of the mission-some of the things and methods that are asked of us are just not supported by what I´ve seen in my time on the mission. In other words, what they ask of us is not what works best in the long run. I´m real hesitant to bring this up and I fully realize the improbability of a 21-year old knowing more than the president, but I´ll be meditating on that one for a while and see if I can´t talk to him about it in one of our private meetings. 

But yeah, we didn´t get robbed this week! Saw a body in the street on saturday night-someone stopped him in his truck and then shot him through the windshield-but besides that the week was pretty uneventful. Kind of frustrating, really-all of our work, all of the hours we spent working in the rain, all week making committments to go to church and talking about how much they´re changing and how excited to go to church they are and then on sunday morning they´ve got laundry to do. granted, laundry in honduras is an endeavor, but my gosh...and then, all of a sudden, people we´d given up hope on showed up to church and we find new people to teach. I shouldn´t complain, we had 6 investigators in church including Anne, who´s going to get baptized on saturday (she´s the white looking girl holding a baby in a picture I sent you with the familia Zelaya a month ago) but still...lots of letdowns. Some people just aren´t willing to sacrifice and you can´t force people to have the desire. But, we´re moving right along, the church is growing, and everything is allright. 

Our service project turned out pretty cool though-we went and visited the hospital here and brought gifts to the children, that was fun. One of them we gave a nerf gun and made a little shooting gallery and told this little boy with a broken leg that if he shot me he could have another toy. He shot me right in the chest so we let him pick another one, made his day. I also found some toy six shooter pistols in walmart and bought those to give out, and in hindsight that may not have been the best idea but the kids loved them. 

Sorry this is such a boring email! Don´t even have pictures. 

Not even any spiritual insights, I think I studied once this week. There´s just no time! In other missions if the missionaries don´t have time to study in the morning they have them study later, but here we´re straight off to the field ASAP. On the job training. I´m sure glad I´m not in another mission. In the limited time that I have had though I´ve been enjoying the New Testament. Surprises me every time how much solid doctrine is there and how much restored doctrine is there if we read it with the proper eyes. 

Anyways, love and miss you all! Anxiously awaiting my package! This is my favorite time of year and I hope you all are enjoying it. 

Love you all!

November 30, 2015

 

You guys are killing it with the pictures, as usual. I loved the pictures! The wood pictures, thanksgiving pictures, everything. Everyone´s looking so grown up. Curtis looks like me now, Marcor looks huge, Sterling looks like a miniature Ty Detmer, and the girls are too pretty for their own good. And Mom and Dad are looking young! Dad´s growing the facial hair out again huh? Me too, we´ve got three days without water and I´ve got a meeting with President Klein tomorrow. How´s Mike´s family? Loved seeing everybody, and I´m glad Jessica made it down, what´s she doing here?  And the picture with Russel made my day, as did seeing Kendall swing an axe. Still got it. And the slow mo video of sterling splitting wood, and of curtis driving were both quality. Forget Florida, Arizona´s looking pretty good right now! (just kidding...kind of) And the boy´s coyote hunt, did sterling have a good time too? Tell me about it when you get the chance. That´s a really pretty coyote, gonna do anything with the skin? Orrin was real impressed with how the boys carried themselves-he said they listened well to instructions, did what he told them to do, and were just competent all around. Wish I coulda been there hauling wood, and made me laugh to see the pepsi bottles making an appearance in the picture. I can outdrink all of you now in pepsi. Like its water. Looks like a great vacation though. Funny how the best vacations are just chopping wood and walking in the mountains. I´d rather do what you all are doing than go to a foreign country or do something exotic. Next year! 

And yeah, it´s getting pretty christmasy actually. Lights, trees, everything. On a way smaller scale because alot of people just can´t afford, nor care about, christmas decorations but it´s still getting everybody in the spirit. And a honduran ornament...that´s gonna be kinda hard, hondurans just want stuff from the states and I´d have to go somewhere touristy to find something like that. But I´ll try! And the weather has been great too...not chilly, but I don´t have to use a fan at night now and last night I actually got a little bit cold and put on socks (I don´t sleep with a sheet so its not chilly, but its sure a nice break from being hot). Nice breeze and cool in the shade. 

And yup, still with Navas! It´s possible I´ll be here til februrary but the next change is in january. At least I´ll be here for christmas. And I´m excited for that because this is my first area that the people truly love us-everyone invites us over, everyone gives us references-navas and I get along so well we just have a good ol time with the members. 

And about what Mom told me, about the offended family-I´ll look for that talk. That´s good advice. At the end of the day they are the ones that have to choose what they want. Also, on that same vein the other day we were talking with a less active sister that was criticizing the bishop up and down, just tearing him up, and we finally got it out of her what happened, and what happened was that the bishop came to her house, knowing that she was a single mom, and asks her if there´s anything she needs-how they´re doing financially, things like that-and she told him no, everything is good! And then she went inactive because she got mad at the bishop because ¨the bishop should have known¨ that they were out of food and money and should have helped them, even though she said no and refused help. There´s more to the story but still, holy cow! Another problem here is that the people live too dang close together. There´s one street where everyone is a member and the houses all touch-you would not imagine the gossip and busybodying that goes on in that street. I know it happens in the states too but at least in the states you go a good week without seeing the other members and when you see them you´re actually glad to see them. 

But yeah, really the only thing to report this week is the role of the spirit. I´ve been realizing more and more how subtely the spirit works but how vital it is. For example, yesterday I was just walking and I thought ¨we ought to call Carlos and Iris, see how they´re doing¨ so we called them and they´re like ¨come and visit us, we´ll be home in 5 minutes!¨ and it turns out that they had been talking about how they felt a little abandoned by the church and that the missionaries don´t visit them anymore and as soon as they had said those words they got a phone call from us. Small and simple things. Just acting on the impressions that pop into my head has done a world of good for me and our work, and I´m just now starting to realize and recognize the frequency of them. Just my little thought for the day. 

This week has been filled with work and projects. We´ve got alot on our plate right now-monthly meeting tomorrow, service project in the hospital on friday, we have to arrange our multi-zone christmas conference with catering for 80 people, training meetings for new missionaries, ward counsel, stake conference, wedding papers, meeting with lawyers, fundraising projects, doing divisions with the missionaries in the zone, and that on top of our regular meetings and missionary work. I´m juggling! 

Also, they opened up a wal-mart in ceiba...I´ve never been so happy to go to walmart. It ended up being pretty crappy, walmart honduras style, but I took out some money and bought stuff I´d been in need of-toiletries, some food, things like that-so I´m in pretty good shape now. 

And the robbery-no, nothing. I wouldn´t even know where to go to talk to the police. And they wouldn´t care-when there´s killings and gang wars every day they kind of have their hands full. According to the word on the street the people that live up above in the hills are getting together to form a vigilante group to get rid of one of the gangs up there, so that could be interesting. But, the good thing about the gangs-the organized gangs-is that they protect the missionaries. The problems are the little street thugs that couldn´t get into the gangs but want to make a quick buck. But this is still a really calm area, no worries. 

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures, I´ll be on for a while yet. 

 

Nuñez con Navas. Navas is on the far right

My buddy Nuñez from El Salvador, I was pretty bummed when he got transferred out of the zone last change. Great kid, convert of two years and the only member in his family. Sometimes I get worried when missionaries baptize teenagers without family support but...a solid 20% of the latino missionaries here are teenagers without a single member in their family. 

 

the mountain part of our area. Half is in the city and the other half is up on the mountain. We´ve got three little valleys to our name and one of them is pure mormons. 

Here´s Yohanna and her boys, Emilio and Acner, our recent converts. Their dog is the coolest thing. At first she always growled at us and went and sulked when we arrived, but we made friends and now everytime we pass by their house (which is like 200 yards from the road) this little dog is running down to greet us, jumping on us and peeing herself from excitement.

Today we rented out the stadium here in la ceiba to play against the other zone and we went and made jerseys for the zone (in la ceiba there are two zones, we´re zona miramar) My comp -  I love him to death

Love you all and enjoy your last day in AZ and the flight home! And go back to FL and go fishing for me, december is the absolute best time to be on the river

November 23, 2015

 

Looks like a blast, great pictures. Cold, dry air, mountains, I´d love to be there. Keep those pictures coming, everyone is looking so big. Especially Kent and Jennifer´s kids, holy cow! Tell everybody I said hi and that I love and miss them. How´s Orrin doing? He told me he´s pretty excited for the coyote hunt as well, how do you all think he´s doing? we still talk pretty regularly. 

So, I´m short on time, been running zone leader errands all day, so I´ll just go ahead and shoot you the update. 

Kinda been struggling this week. Not personally, but as a leader. As in, the zone is struggling. Kinda feeling inadequate. Actually, inadequate isn´t the word, cause I´m relatively capable-this week kinda just sucked because I didn´t do everything I could have. I didn´t go hard. I´m always working, but I just feel like I could have done more and it´s not a really good feeling. But, at 6 pm I´ll be starting a new week and i´m ready to go. 

Also, this week I´ve really seen how the mission is more about baptisms and growing the church. It´s also about being a friend to the friendless, taking interest in people´s lives, truly listening, supporting people, and kind of being the hands of the lord-trying to bless people´s lives through our visits and interactions. This week was terrible numbers wise but I can honestly tell ya that we made a big difference in the lives of a grandmother who is divorcing, a little boy named fabrigas, and a woman from tegucigalpa who found us by chance in the hospital and needed a blessing for her mother. 

Also, by the calm tone of your emails I´m guessing the mission never called you all! So we got robbed the other night-no biggie, we shouldn´t have been walking up that street late at night-just a quick incident, man with a gun says give me what you´ve got and we give it to him and he´s gone, no worries (and I was just starting to get over my racist tendencies). The problem is that the AP´s called us to give us the transfers and the robber answers and says ¨mira puto, we already killed the owners of this phone¨. So, the AP´s freaked out and started calling up the stake presidency and they mobilized the ward and the whole ward is driving around looking for us, while we are continuing with our nightly visits calm as could be. And, as luck would have it, our last appointment ran late and we end up getting to the house at 10. We round the corner and there´s a bunch of trucks and people outside our house and we had a little ¨oh shoot¨moment. Even our cook was there looking for us (her name is mercedes btw and I love her to death). Then we talk to everybody and everything calms down. It was weird though, I loved the experience. It was one of those rare moments that I absolutely loved the mission and wanted to stay in Honduras forever. It felt like a privilege to be robbed-a privilege to suffer a little bit. I know it sounds strange but walking home that night I wanted to be a missionary forever and save the whole country. 

Also, the mission´s rough sometimes. This week I washed my clothes with dish detergent and then set to thinking about how far I´ve sunk. 

That´s about all the interesting we´ve had for this week. Also went to a birthday party, and we had the job of manning the piñata. Lot of fun. 

Also, I want some advice. We´re working with this really cool family-the wife is a member, the live-in is not-they´re a riot and they´re always just bothering the heck out of us, making fun of eachother and all, and we have a good time together. I love their kids to death. The wife is a great woman that has had some bad experiences with the church, and for these experiences the husband doesn´t want to get baptized. What happened was that she, about a year ago, started fornicating with her boyfriend-in her house-and the bishop came to visit her to call her to repentence and her mom kicked her out of the house-so she shacked up with the boyfriend and they feel that the ward members ignore them and exclude them and they didn´t recieve economic help when her mother got sick and her family (including the stake president) doesn´t approve of her live-in because they´re not married. Shocker. The problem is, they feel so offended, so wronged-they even cried in front of us about how much they were hurt-that they truly struggle going back to church, much less baptsim. What should we do? We are very clear with our purpose, that we are there to call them to repentence, and we have talked about their situation from every angle. We started off on their side and consoling them and then when we learned more and figured out what pendejos they´re being we got pretty blunt-but nothing changes. What should we do? The goo thing is we won´t damage our relationship with strong words (and if we do, we´re not here to make friends, we´re here to save them) so we can be pretty blunt. Love hasn´t worked nor has fire and brimstone. 

That´s all I got for you all. I´m gonna get some pictures of Mercedes and some other friends here next week. 

I love you all and am thrilled you´re having such a great time back in old zion. We´ll have to repeat that vacation one day. Be safe and keep the pictures coming!

Love, Elder Hansen

November 16, 2015

 

Yes, I did recieve my package, thank you so much! Contact solution was much needed as were the vitamins and peanut butter. And Navas´s first name is Jose. I think. And the marriage papers are a headache. Really we do everything. The Honduran government is such a joke. bueracracy. It´s horrible. And the lawyers we work with are terrible. I want to chew them out but they´re working for free so I can´t. 

What´s wrong with skip? Poor guy, find somebody good to watch him. 

Already going out to AZ huh? Sounds like fun, that´s funny about the clothes. What other activities are you gonna do? I guess you won´t be bringing the guns since you´re flying? Don´t ruin my clothes, I need them for BYU! 

And hey, how´s my truck doing? Anybody driving it? 

And curtis, way to go! First in the school, that´s pretty good! Is he working out? Fishing? And ster is looking great in the picture. The next Ty Detmer right there, I hope he´s really gonna play. 

And I´m glad Kirk is in St. Johns. Good for him and good for dottie and kendall. How´s Kirk doing? 

Glad Seminary´s going well. I know how you feel-every now and then we´ll get into some heavier stuff with long time investigators or members and I just wanna tell them to go to the temple and then they´ll get it. Have fun in St. Johns. I wrote them a letter and never sent it, maybe this week. And hey, go find me a girl in St. Johns. 

And washing his sheets every 6 months...haha that made me laugh. 

How´s the ward doing? Bishop Garrett hanging in there? What´s Adam doing? Any gossip, new families? 

And I know, I´m so excited for christmas. We´re gonna die. Every house gives us tamales-everyone wants to feed us. I´m talking filling the fridge and eating 2 or 3 in every house, and multiply that by 50 lessons a week...woo. 

Also, what´s going on with the church´s new policy? We haven´t heard anything, hondurans couldn´t care less, I just saw it on the internet when we were sending dats this morning. 

Alrighty, here´s my updates. 

This was just a long week. Rain every day. I don´t mind working in the rain but when you don´t have dry shoes and your clothes don´t dry it kinda wears on ya. My agendas always get destroyed, and we´ve quit bringing books-another week of teaching with people´s family bibles and hoping they´ve got a book of mormon. Made me really appreciate the Book of Mormon and how much we need it to understand the gospel! It was kind of just a dark week too. All the news about the terrorist attacks (and by the time the information had made its way down the grapevine people were telling us about nuclear bombs planted and all out war and who knows what) and lots of deaths and accidents among our investigators and members. Add in all the depressing news with rain and grey skies every day...for a little while there felt like we were on the brink of the second coming. And when the world gets dark, the gospel is always a small, shining light-something to hang on to. 

We´ve still been working like crazy-I think this week we only pulled out 40 lessons but I´m not complaining. One thing I´ve really learned is how much easier it is when we´re truly dedicated-fully given to the work. I´ve talked alot about our will and surrendering our will and being fully consecrated in the work and all that-I don´t ever expect to acheive the complete submission of my will but its sure a whole lot easier when I can quit fighting between my will and God´s will. I no longer have to question, I no longer have to have an inner battle about what action I should take-I just do the right thing because its what I do and it´s who I am, especially regarding my work habits. My favorite quote from preach my gospel is something like this ¨The secret to missionary work, is work!¨ from E. T. Benson. I´m a believer in that for sure. 

I still find myself growing more and more conservative every day. I´m seeing how poorly  Honduras´s left leaning programs are ran, and I (and a surprising number of Hondurans) wish that Donald Trump would just buy Honduras and run it already like he joked about doing. Not that I like Trump but he´d sure do a better job than the current group of narcos and puppet politicians. 

Another thing I´ve been thinking about, is how the church really is guided by the Lord. For example, when the Family, A Proclamation to the World came out, nobody was even thinking about gay marriage or that even being a problem, and now, thanks to those revelations, we have the firm doctrine on the subject and have something to guide us. What I think will be interesting is all this talk about religious freedom-what´s gonna happen in the coming years to make the church´s focus on relgious freedom necessary. 

Another thing I´ve learned! Be part of the people. Hondurans are really sensitive about feeling inferior-if there´s any hint of snobbery or superiority they´ll cut you out real quick. I´ve just learned to take it. Eat what they eat. Dont´get bothered with dirty things or unpurified water or breasts or dead people or gangsters. I´ve gotten real comfortable with having a ton of dirty naked children hanging off of me. I really have a blast with the people, probably too much fun. They´re good people. 

And they have given us so much food this week! multiple dinners, snacks, soda-I threw up on sunday night coming out of a house, got out just in time-A big lunch, then someone else gave us pizza with soda, then someone else gave us cake, then then we ate a huge dinner, then we go to the last house and more cake and soda-just shoving it down our throat. 

Oh, and our baptism! Super solid. We started working with a less active family, got them actived and headed towards  a temple sealing, and they present us their nephew who recently came to live with them. He was super solid from the begining, and always went out to make visits with us even before he was a member. His uncle baptized him and I couldn´t be happier with the progress the whole family has made. His name is Kevin Mungia. 

 

 

I think that´s all I got for you all, I´ll be emailing for a little bit more If I think of anything more. Love you all to death and I´m excited for AZ pictures and stories! 

E. Hansen

November 9th 2015

 

The house is going up...well shoot. That really puts a cramp on things. There goes our little field. Time to move? You all just gotta find a cool lds family to buy it. 

 Answering questions! Yes, theres always 4 missionaries in the office. Do not want to be there. There is a senior couple in the mission but they work in another city inbetween here and san pedro. And nope, haven´t got a package, maybe tomorrow. 

And what are the thanksgiving plans? Where, with who? Tell me about the football games, is sterling still playing? BYU plays Mizzou right? That should be a great game. I heard something about the racial problems at Mizzou, are they gonna end up playing? 

What did they talk about in the fireside? I think I´d find that fascinating too.

Also got a nice little letter from Kent and Jennifer, great to hear from them, I miss them. Miss everybody actually!

And you guys are the best. Sending packages to Saunders (and yes, the shirt is perfect)  and Navas and adopting a missionary. Way to go. 

And about my calling-we still do far more proselyting than administrative work.Aside from days that we have to travel and go to meetings, we work in our area normal and then do our administrative tasks at night time. And when we do divisions we almost always leave one of us in the area so it doesn´t get abandoned. 

What´s going on in politics? Any hope for a garden?  I still think you all just need to put in a good garden and make a nice border of citrus and peach trees around the perimiter. Any fishing reports?

And now for my update!

We had a great sunday this week. It was our ward conference and we were able to get 133 people to church, which was excellent. The best part is that the members got a fire lit under them and went out and did their visits. We have a solid bishop-on saturday we ran into him twice on accident; we walked into the house of an investigator family and he and his wife are there on the couch talking to the family-how cool is that? He´s visiting our investigators, much less all the less actives. First time I´ve had a leader in honduras that actually works. I also just love the church-the themes this week were perfect for our investigators. We gave the class on the eternal family and it was a great class with everybody participating and our investigators are getting ready to get married. Then in priesthhod we talked about the welfare programs of the church and work and self reliance and it was just solid all around. Two of my favorite topics, work and marriage, in the same sunday. 

And our zone keeps on having success. After our last leaders´ meeting our zone is officially the best. Not like its a competition but I do like to know that our methods are working. Not to mention we have a great area geographically and with good members. If everything goes well my companion and I will have 7 baptisms in November-we´ve been working with a big group and have finally gotten all the kinks and problems and papers worked out. I´m real sick of lawyers and government workers but we should be able to do 3 marriages this month. 

And to answer your question-I absolutely am protected. I have no fear. And I don´t mean to say that I´m a brave, he-man John Wayne type, but I just feel calm, always. Like when they broke into the house on Roatan. We were protected, no doubt. You couldn´t pay me to go outside without my covenants on, but I can certainly feel divine protection. So yes, don´t you worry one bit. I´m safer here as a missionary than I am doing dumb stuff back home. 

And yeah, supposedly there are areas that we shouldn´t go to but we´ve never had any problems. There are areas in san pedro that I wouldn´t mess around with but nothing really worries me here in Ceiba. 

So right now our main investigators are Byron and Vilma (getting married this month, they´re as golden as it gets-they´ve made huge changes and they really get it, and we´re a part of the family) and Arnulfo and Siliva (also getting married this month, already finished the BoM) Carlos and Iris (marriage...again), Kevin (16 year old that was gonna get baptized in San Pedro but then moved here-he makes visits with us, even though he´s not even a member yet) and Eduardo (15 year old in the same situation) and Anne (family with Byron and Vilma, real sweet girl) and a ton of part member families and less actives. I remember thinking in the begining of my mission that acheiveing 35 lessons a week was a huge deal-and I was proud of it. Now we´re working with a goal of 50 and this week was marginal because of meetings and stuff and we had ¨only¨ 38. Funny how your perspective changes. 

I´m tired though. I´ve got raccon eyes from being tired. I´m going strong but I will be ready to go home when its done. Thats my goal though, just go hard til the whistle blows. And I think that working hard makes up for alot of shortcomings on my part. 

I´m also getting excited for christmas! Apparently here in La Ceiba they go pretty big on christmas. People are already putting lights up. People that can´t pay the light bill all year suddenly have the house strung up in lights and multiple christmas trees...Can´t be responsible but I´m not complaining, I like it. There was one lady, the mother of Byron actually, that had her light get cut on her last week, so we bought her some candles to help out, and then last night we went to visit them and they had the whole house decked out in lights like temple square, made me laugh. 

No pictures this week, but in the group photo the other day? the other guy crouching with me is Navas. 

Anyways. Love you all!