Week 79

Another week has come and gone, and the work continues to move along here in Las Lomas! I have to admit, I really love this area! It's been my best so far.

So I guess I wasn't very specific last week because my parents thought Carlos (the 20-year old that quit smoking and wanted me to baptize him) had a baptismal date for this past Saturday, but really it is for this coming Saturday, June 1st. We did, however, have a baptism scheduled this past week that we had to postpone because our investigator, Dayana, got sick.

This coming Saturday, we will have Carlos's baptism, which should be amazing! And possibly, we will baptize two young women, Dayana and Yoany. I say "possibly" just because of the parents' permission. They both want to get baptized, have a ton of support from the members, understand all the missionary lessons, and have gone to church and seminary. But it's a little dicey with the parents.

Also, we were celestial zone for the month of April! It was kind of anticlimactic to be honest, especially since we're celebrating it at the end of May with a completely different zone than the one that did all the work. But hey, we got to eat at President's house today, so I'm not complaining. If you want to see pictures, there should be some at http://veirsblog.blogspot.com/.

Hope everyone has a great week, and is doing well! The mission really is like the best thing ever, so I don't have any complaints here! Haha adios!

Week 78

Hey folks! Hope everyone had a great week! It's been a wild week here in Lomas getting used to the changes.

First of all, my first son, Elder Nimatuj, is pretty cool. He's definitely new, and needs to learn a lot, but he's very humble and has a desire to improve. So I feel like it will be a good experience for both of us to be together. Also, it's amazing how his experience seems so much different than mine. The language thing is just such a big factor! I was pretty much useless for a couple weeks because I had no idea what was happening. But with a Latin, we can still do everything together :)

Second, we FINALLY had Wilmer and Selina's wedding and baptism! It's a bummer that we couldn't do it before Elder Sweat left since he and I did all the work. But the important thing is that it happened. And as an extra bonus, Elder Nimatuj is pretty stoked as a result of the early success. We'll also have a baptism this Saturday, and most likely two the following Saturday!

 

So I normally share a funny story, but I'm gonna switch it up this week, and share a more spiritual story about our investigator Carlos. The story begins before I even got to Lomas, when Hebert baptized Carlos's mom and younger sister. They're great converts, but Carlos was always the typical rebellious 20-year-old that didn't have any interest. He partied, smoked, drank, etc. But about a month after I got here, he started to join us in the lessons with the rest of his family. We invited him to church for three straight weeks before he finally went. And after he went to church, he decided to change everything. No more drinking, partying, smoking, nothing. We hadn't even talked about that stuff yet- he just had the desire to change it all! And now, he's preparing for his baptism on June 1 and wants to serve a mission next year! We also had a funny conversation yesterday in church:

Carlos: Can you do my baptism?

Me: Normally we have a member do it, but...

Carlos: But it's my decision right?

Me: Yes.

Carlos: Ok, I want you to do it.

We've had members do all of our baptisms here, but apparently, I'm gonna be busting out the baptismal clothes again haha.

Ok, that's all the news from this week. Thanks for all the love and support! Have a good week! Adios!

Week 77

So... another change meeting has come and gone with plenty of surprises. Actually, I kind of predicted what was going to happen to me. I'm a trainer now! I'm the proud father of Elder Nimatuj (Ni-muh-TOO) from Guatemala. He seems to be pretty cool, but I really have no idea since we've only been together for three hours. In another news, Elder Hebert is an AP! My old companion Elder Sweat went to the island Roatan! And the mission will officially be divided the next change at the end of June. So basically, there's all kinds of excitement going on.

It was a tough good-bye for Elder Sweat on Monday and Tuesday. He was a great companion and missionary, and there were a lot of people in the area sad about him leaving. But that's the way the cookie crumbles. I know he'll do great in Roatan and for the rest of his mission.

My zone leader and I did an incredible six baptismal interviews on Friday for three different areas. We had two wonderful baptisms on Saturday! Sunday, I got to talk to my fam and it was great! And then Monday, we found out about changes! So all in all, a pretty crazy week! Also, things are looking good for a wedding/baptism this Saturday! The family is ready to go, and the papers are finally with the lawyer :)

Well, that's about all for this week! Hope you all have a wonderful week! Adios!

Week 76

Hey folks! Hope you all had a good week cuz I sure did! It was one of the better weeks of my mission so far actually! Remember I was talking about us having 20 investigators in sacrament meeting a few weeks ago. Well, we almost got there yesterday with 18. Sweat and I think it's gonna set up a bunch of baptisms for May and June, so this week we gotta get to work on putting baptismal dates with all these people.

 

It's still questionable how many baptisms we will have this Saturday because we're still working on collecting some papers for the couple that's going to get married. But if all the papers come in time (which is a possibility), we should have 4 baptisms! With Mother's Day on Sunday, that would be a pretty great weekend! Time to make it happen!

In a random story of the week, one of the other elders that live in our house bought a chess set for some reason. So after planning, we usually try to squeeze a quick game in before going to bed. We all suck at chess, but hopefully we get a little better with our one game a night strategy. Who knew that I would improve at chess on the mish!

Also, for a P-day activity, we went to the Estadio Olimpico this morning. It's where one of the Honduran soccer league teams plays and also where the Honduran national team plays their games! It was fun to go sightseeing there, but it would be even cooler to go back for a game sometime.

Well, that's it for this week, but here's hoping for some good news next Monday!