Week 12

The numbered paragraphs are in response to some of our questions to Cam:

1. I don't know the actual size of the ward, but we have had about 120 people in sacrament the last couple weeks. There are a lot of in-actives here though, so I'm sure the ward is actually pretty big. One of the big problems here is keeping people active in the church. We meet at 9 in the morning, and the church is only 3 blocks from our apartment.

2. The apartment is pretty nice, other than being a little dirty. And we have ants too. We haven't had to cook once cuz we either have our cook make us food or go to a different member's house (we pay our cook so don't worry). The members are always willing to feed us though. There's a lady in the ward that lets us use her washing machine, so that's not a big deal either. The bed isn't that great, but I'm so tired that it doesn't matter. And the bathroom is tiny!

3. My companion is ok, but the language barrier makes it really frustrating to communicate. He does some things that annoy me, but nothing really serious. And generally he's a really nice guy and patient with the language issue.

4. I heard about the peace corps thing too! Apparently there are some issues right now, and we were told to pack some clothes and leave if we saw anything bad. We have heard gunshots at night a few times, but it's always when we're back in our apartment. Still not very comforting though.  Also, we walk everywhere. We've gotten like two rides in cars from members since I've been here, but every other time, we walk.

Anyway, this week was pretty frustrating with the language issue. I can tell that I'm learning it, but it's tough to stay patient. During lessons, I pretty much know what's going on. But any other time, I'm quite confused. The members are really nice about it, and try to include me in conversations and sometimes speak a little English too. It really helped this last week where we had an exchange for a day, and i was with Elder Gonzalez from Nicaragua. We went contacting for about 3 hours and talked with quite a few people (everyone here is willing to listen to us for the most part). Every once in a while, he would stop talking and just look over at me, which forced me to talk (or try to talk). It actually helped quite a bit, and made me feel better about the language. Plus Elder Gonzalez was always talking with me when we were just walking between appointments, which really helped me with the language.

I forgot to mention this last week, but no one here can pronounce my name. It's always Beert instead of Birt. I've even started introducing myself as Elder Beert haha

We have another baptism scheduled for the 18th of February! It's a 9-year old boy named Fernando in a less-active family. The hard part has been getting him to talk to us because he's one of the shyest people I've ever met. But we had a breakthrough on Saturday, when we took a couple other boys from the ward. They struck up a friendship really quick, so Fernando is a little more willing to talk to us now.

Ok I've been working on a couple random talents this week while we walk around in between appointments. The first is that snapping thing that they do in Central America (you hold your thumb and middle finger together, and whack your index finger against them). I can actually do it now, but it's not too loud yet. I'll keep working on it. And for the first time in my life, I can roll R's! I can't use it in speech yet, but I can definitely do it. So those are my insignificant accomplishments of the week :)

For all mail, just send it to the mission home or use dearelder. They bring the mail to us once a week on Tuesdays. DearElder is the fastest way to get in touch, but will still take about 2-3 weeks to get to me. And then I have to send a letter back, which usually takes 3-4 weeks And a special shout-out to Zach Jones for sending the first letter that reached me in Honduras!

Mission Home Address:

Honduras San Pedro Sula Mission

12 Calle, Avenida Circunvalacion, S.O.

Edif. Yude Canahuati, 3 Nivel, Oficina 4

San Pedro Sula, Cortez

Honduras