Week 83

Well, it was a pretty crazy change meeting! I'll have to go bullet list for interest of time, and start from the beginning...

- We got the news on Monday night that I had changes. I spent part of Tuesday visiting my favorite families, converts, etc. That part is always really sad :(

- The mission officially got divided, and I landed in the west mission. Apparently, the APs of the two missions had a big battle to win me for their mission, but Elder Hebert (AP of the west mission, my MTC companion and very good friend) won out haha

- President and Sister Veirs finished their mission and said good-bye at the change meeting. The new mission presidents for both missions come today or tomorrow.

- My new area is called Puerto Cortes in the Choloma Zone. We're about an hour and a half north of San Pedro, right by the beach (hopefully you guys can find me on googlemaps with that description haha) It's one of the biggest zones in the mission (11 companionships), and I've been called as zone leader.

- In the biggest shocker, my new comp is Elder Skousen, who was my comp before in Utila. That almost never happens, but I'm stoked about it because we're really good friends already :)

- We spent all of yesterday helping two sisters open an area and move into their new house. The sisters will work in our same area, but have the special assignment to work only with the inactives. Sadly, it was my P-day and I didn't have the opportunity to write. So that's why I'm writing today, with limited time since we have to plan for the week in a few minutes.

Thanks for all the love and support! And congrats to those are getting engaged! Have a good week everyone, and talk to you next Monday!

-Elder Birt

Week 82

Hey folks! It was another great week in Las Lomas! And sadly, it could be my last P-day here in this area :( Next week, P-day will be on Wednesday, the day of the changes, so I'll have all the new info about where I'm at and who I'm with (or maybe it will be the same, who knows?)

We're still progressing with our recent converts, and some of them will make their first trip to the temple this Friday! We're super excited for them, and we're still working on getting a few more people to go :)

We found a new family recently, and the dad is a boss! We met him on Wednesday, and he already went to church! We might baptize a lot here, but it's always hard to find a good man that's interested in religion. Plus it's a family of 4! I'm really excited about it. Not that teaching single people is bad, but families are what the church is all about!

Also, we might squeeze in a baptism this Saturday before the changes! It's still up in the air though, so we're kinda playing the waiting game right now. The investigator, Annie, wants to get baptized, but is a little unsure about the date. Plus, a couple of her sisters are inactive members (and I mean WAY inactive), and she has the fear that she won't stay in the church after her baptism. We told her to pray about the specific date of the 22nd. If she does it, I feel pretty confident we'll have a baptism this Saturday!

Funny story of the week: We had an AP come yesterday to help the elders in the branch to bring people to church. So the elders from the branch decided to play a joke on their Branch President. One of them hid, and the other one told the Branch President that his companion got sent to another area for punching a drunk guy in the street the day before. The new elder (who was really the AP) was here to replace him. They went on with it for a good 10 minutes before the other elder finally came out and told him the truth. But the really funny thing is that some of the members of the ward heard the story (just passing by), and started spreading the rumor! So now, about half of the ward thinks that an elder got sent away for punching a drunk guy. This is how gossip spreads guys! Be careful haha

Well, that's all for this week! Talk to you guys next Wednesday! Nos vemos!

Week 81

Hey folks! Hope everyone is doing great! It was another awesome week here in Las Lomas! It's really gonna be a bummer to leave this area when the time comes. It's been fantastic!

We had another baptism this past Saturday! I can't remember if I told you guys last week, but her name is Andrea. She's the oldest daughter of a member family that just became active recently. Again, it was amazing to see the change with her. She's SUPER shy, and the first time we visited her, I don't think she said a single word to us the whole lesson. We asked her questions, cracked some jokes, tried to chat about non-gospel stuff... nothing. We decided to give it one more shot, and visited her with a member friend her same age. And what a difference it made! She opened up, started participating in the lessons, agreed to baptism in our third visit, and the rest is history! :) Looking back on it, I think the difference was the help of the members and obviously the help of the Big Man upstairs.

Also, we're having some great success on the recent convert front. Wilmer, who got married and baptized a few weeks ago, received the priesthood, blessed the sacrament, and is the new secretary in the YM presidency! Carlos will receive the priesthood next week, and already brought a friend to church! And a bunch of my converts are preparing to go to the temple for the first time at the end of this month! It's wonderful to see people get baptized, but it's equally amazing to see them progress and thrive after their baptism. Hopefully, the progress continues...

On an extremely sad note, the son of one of our investigators committed suicide yesterday. He was only 17. She and the rest of the family were a wreck. Keep them in your prayers.

-Elder Birt

Week 80

Hey guys! Can you believe it's already June? Crazy how the time flies right? Well, we had a wonderful start to June this past Saturday with the baptisms of Carlos and Yoany! It was a wonderful baptismal service, and tons of members showed up to give them support. I even got involved in the baptism mix again by baptizing Carlos! And I'm happy to say that I'm not rusty. Everything just went really smoothly, and we even got a cake for the refreshment!

Making the baptism even more special, Elder Hebert showed up to see his old pals from Las Lomas. He baptized the mom and sister of Carlos, and they wanted him to come for Carlos's baptism as well. And somehow, Hebert was able to get permission. So he went to the baptism, spent the night at our house, and then helped us bring 11 investigators to church Sunday morning!

In a stroke of brilliance, I came up with a great nickname for my son, Elder Nimatuj. He is now known as Pikachu! Hahahaha his last name sounds exactly like Pikachu, right? Also, some people have started to call me Ash, since I'm training Pikachu. Others call me Pajaro, which means bird in spanish. There were some people that knew a little english, made that mistake, and it kinda stuck haha. We have fun with the nicknames though, and everyone is a good sport about it.

Hey, have a good week everyone! Talk to you next Monday!