Week 103

Hey everyone! It´s finally coming to an end... two more days, and I´m done with the mission. Next Monday, and I´m back in the States. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that supported me in any way during the last two years- packages, letters, reading the blog, prayers. Thanks so much! It helped me get through the tough times, and made the sweet times even sweeter! I love all you guys! Until next week! I´ll be back on Facebook, and I want to talk with EVERYBODY and catch up on EVERYTHING! Que les vaya bien!

-Elder Birt (for a little bit longer ;)

Week 102

San Pedro Sula Mission Leadership Conference Nov 2013

Hey folks! Can you guys believe its November? Yeah, me neither. Everybody keeps telling me I'm old and about to leave. But no! I still have another full week to do work! Haha here are the highlights (and lowlights) of the week that was:

- The far-and-away biggest lowlight was getting that strange Honduran sickness yet again. I won't go into details, but it wasn't pretty. I didn't get any sleep Thursday night because of stomach pain and frequent visits to the good old bano. Then, I had to get up early and travel by bus Friday morning to the zone leader meeting in San Pedro. After getting back (and feeling like death), I got permission from President to rest for the day. I just had to get that sickness one more time! But luckily, I've been pretty much fine since yesterday.

- Other than being sick in the last zone leader meeting, it was pretty fun to see the whole gang. A ton (8 to be exact) of us finish the mission in nine days, so it was more a celebration than anything. Still cool though :)

- I also had my final interview with President Dester, which went really well. He gave me some good after-mission advice. If any of you see me after the mission, make sure I'm reading my scriptures EVERY day cuz that's the goal we put together.

- Today, we took the whole zone to Omoa, where we saw the castle and went to eat fish on the beach! It was the third time I've gone (it's kind of the main attraction in this zone, so we go pretty much every change), but I hadn't had fish on the beach before. It was delicious!

- Rosemary will FINALLY be baptized this Friday. It's probably the baptism I've fought for most in my entire mission, but it's well worth it. She'll be a great member, and the ward loves her. We also have three more baptisms the following Saturday, which, if things play out right, my parents and I might be able to see...? We'll have to wait and see with that.

- So on what has to be like the 15th try of my mission, I was somewhat able to make flour tortillas! They still weren't that great, but I was kind of able to do it the Honduran way. They basically take the dough, and slap it between their hands a bunch of times (kinda like pizza), and it creates a perfect flour tortilla. Honduran women can do it in about 3 seconds. I do it in about one minute, and they're not nearly as good. But hey, it's a start haha. Maybe I can try to make some tortillas when I get back (trust me, tortillas here are WAY better than any of that crap they have in the States)

Anywho, thanks for all the support guys! Can't wait to see you all! Love you! Adios!

Week 101

Hey everyone! It's almost Halloween! Which sadly, means next to nothing here in Honduras. They don't celebrate Halloween! How lame is that? Anyway, here's the update, bullet-list style, on the week that was:
 

- We had 12 investigators in church yesterday! It was one of those weeks where a lot of things went right. We found some people that were legitimately interested, had some people go that have been off and on for a while, etc. It was my highest total in Puerto Cortes, and should result in some baptisms, but sadly most would come after I leave.

- We did divisions twice this past week, and I really dodged a bullet when I left my area. Why? Because our cook gave the elders yuka (this horrible, tasteless, vegetable), chicharron (pig skin) with hair on it, and pig feet. That's about the worst Honduran meal I can think of. Only slightly better was the mondongo (cow stomach) soup which we had the next day. Needless to say, we might change cooks hahahaha.

- Ok, time for one of the CRAZIEST stories of my mission. So we've been teaching this 23-year old girl named Rosemary for about 4 months now. She's super awesome, and always has kept all of our commitments... except baptism. What I haven't told you guys is that her and her mom fight... like a lot. It's been getting progressively worse for the last few weeks, and apparently it reached it's breaking point yesterday morning because her mom kicked her out of the house! We called her after church to find out that she had gone to one of the member's houses to stay. She'll be there until she can find somewhere a little more permanent. The members are being super nice about it, and giving her all the time she needs to figure something out.

- Also, it's been raining a TON the last week, and we got pretty wet. I once again dodged a bullet, and missed the day with the most rain when I was out on divisions doing 5 baptismal interviews :)

Thanks for all your love and support guys! Have a great week, and I'll see you all soon!

-Elder Birt

Week 100

What´s up everyone? Hope you all had fantastic weeks! For lack of time, I´ll just start with the list of highlights from the week...

-Carlos and Jade got married! It was awesome! She actually cried a little bit during the wedding. To be honest, Honduran weddings are really simple and somewhat lame most of the time. But the most important thing is that they made the commitment and are now obeying another of God´s commandments. We can save all the fancy stuff for the temple marriage (hopefully). They still have to clear a few hurdles (he works on Sundays, they both drink coffee) in order to be baptized, but that´s coming soon!

- We did a crazy service project on Saturday morning, where we helped a family that the sisters are teaching to move a GIANT heap of dirt and rocks to fill in a hole under their storage shed. It was pretty brutal work, and I have a nasty-looking blister now as a result. But the family went to church on Sunday, so it was worth it!

- We had a sweet zone activity this morning where we watched Rise of the Guardians (watch this movie if you haven´t yet because it´s excellent!) and ate some brownies! I hadn´t eaten brownies in sooooo long. I plan to never go that long without brownies again hahaha

Anyway, that´s it for this week. Apparently, it´s set that I´m coming home on November 18th, so I hope to see everyone when I get back! Love you guys! Adios!

Week 99

Hey, guys! Hope y'all had an awesome week (I included the y'all because I'm trying to convince my comp that Texas is the best state haha). It was an... interesting week here in Puerto Cortes.

First of all, it seems like every drunk person in Puerto Cortes (which is actually quite a few) wanted to talk to us this week. We had some of the strangest conversations of my entire mission this week... it seemed like all the craziness just came at the same time. The highlight though, was when a 104 year-old lady called us out in the street to give her a "Biblical answer" as to why her potatoes had spoiled. Ya, you just can't make this stuff up.

Ok, I lied, there were two highlights. The second was when an ex-convict got up to bear his testimony in church. Apparently, he was baptized as a kid, and just got out of jail recently. His testimony was very Evangelical, with a lot of "Hallelujahs" and "Gloria a Dios." It was probably the strangest testimony I've ever heard.

In good news of the week, Rosmery FINALLY has a baptismal date! But for some reason she wants to wait until the last week I'm here in Puerto Cortes, the 9th of November. In that time, she'll probably read a good chunk of the Book of Mormon and be the best-prepared convert I've ever had.

Also, we are FINALLY marrying Carlos and Jade this Friday. The sad part of that news is they're not quite ready to get baptized because they both drink coffee, and Carlos works on Sundays. But I feel like the marriage thing was the biggest hurdle, so we're making some good progress!

The biggest news in Honduras is that we're (I now refer to Honduras as "we" haha) almost for sure going to qualify for the World Cup! We beat Costa Rica this past Friday (absolutely everyone was in their house and we couldn't teach anyone) and just need a tie or win against Jamaica on Tuesday to qualify! Go Catrachos!

I love all you guys, and thank you for your support! We're ready for another week of success, and I hope you are too!

 

Elder Birt

Week 98

Hey everyone! What an awesome conference right? It seemed like it passed by so fast though! My personal favorite talk was from President Uchtdorf, whose talk helped me with some questions I had about my investigators and why people should join the church.

It was an extremely busy week for me! First, I had what I call the "victory tour" with Elder Polendo on Monday and Tuesday, where he said goodbye to everyone from the zone and area. Wednesday was an awesome change meeting! It was really weird to see so many good friends go home, and think that the next group will have me in it!

My new comp is Elder Williams, from Bountiful, Utah. He has 15 months in the mission. I was actually in his zone when he entered the mission, so it's really weird that we're together as zone leaders all these months later. I still thought of him as the young buck that just entered the mission, but he's changed a lot over the last year.

They whitewashed one area and opened another in my zone, which meant I was running around like a chicken with his head cut off, trying to help the missionaries get situated and learn their areas. That took up a good chunk of two days this past week. Also, there are now 25 missionaries in my zone, with 11 sisters. The mission is growing super fast, and like they said in Conference, God is hastening His work!

We had a really good lesson yesterday right after the last session of General Conference, where we went on a visit with our bishop to an investigator family we've been teaching for a while. We were finally able to sort out all the problems, and agree on a definite plan for them to get married. We'll be turning in the papers this Wednesday, and they should get married in a couple weeks. It's really gratifying because I've been teaching them almost my entire time here, and they're a special family for me.

Well, that's about all for this week! I hope all you guys enjoyed Conference and that you have a wonderful week!

-Cameron

Week 97

Hey folks! There´s not much time this week because it´s my comp´s last P-day in the mission! So we´re gonna be doing some exciting things today. We already watched a movie with the zone and ate together at Wendys.

I obviously will have a new companion this Wednesday. I still have no idea who it will be though. And there are tons of changes in the zone. We´ll end up having 7 companionships of elders and 5 with sisters. It´s really exciting but sad at the same time because I really grew to love the zone that we have now.

We should finally be able to have a wedding here in a couple weeks. Turns out the sister was just hesitant because of money issues. If she would have told us a month ago, they would probably already be married. But she said she felt guilty telling us about it. We were able to get it out of her though haha. Anyway, we should turn in the papers this week, and then they have to wait 2 or 3 weeks for the government offices to prepare their papers. So that´s what should happen, but you guys know how Honduran marriages usually are pretty difficult.

Well, that´s it for this week. I love all you guys, and I´ll hopefully be able to write more next week about my new comp and the zone and all the other changes! Thanks for everything guys!

-Elder Birt

Week 96

This week flew by! To be honest, all the weeks are starting to blur together, so I'm sorry if I repeat stories or something. Elder Polendo and I keep so busy that it's just a constant whirlwind of awesome missionary work. Here were the highlights (I think they're all from this week haha)

- We had a sweet P-day today where the zone got together to eat carne asada and watch a movie! It took some serious preparation though! And honestly, if we didn't have sisters in the zone, the whole thing would have been a giant disaster. Thank goodness for sisters! Honestly, I've learned that the church absolutely cannot function without the Relief Society. So thanks to all you women out there for your hard work! Anyway, now that I'm off that tangent, it was a really successful activity (a little stressful though so I don't know if we'll do that again).

- To be honest, Elder Polendo and my greatest joy comes from the zone's success. And being with the other missionaries are the best moments of the week! I really love the whole zone, and we're working amazing together! We should have about 15 baptisms this next week and October looks really good!

- It looks like we might have had a breakthrough with Rosemary, the investigator we've been teaching for a couple months now. We had been giving her a little space recently with the whole baptism issue, but we prayed, fasted, and put a date with her for the 28th. She kind of accepted. But then she came to church again yesterday, and between classes, I showed her the baptismal font, and explained a little about how a baptismal service is. She seems a lot more comfortable with the idea. We should get a definite answer from her tomorrow. Whenever it happens, it will be one of the best baptisms of my mission. She'll be a leader in the church one day :)

- My comp, Elder Polendo, is hitting that realization that he's finishing the mission in 10 days. I think he's starting to freak out a little bit, but he continues working really well. Also, Elder Hebert, my old MTC comp, turned in his application to BYU! He tells me that something I told him made him change his mind, and he feels really good about the decision.

I hope all you guys had a great week, and that you have an even better week starting today! I love you all! Adios!

Elder Birt

Week 95

Hey everyone! This week just disappeared! I can't believe how fast things are going now!

Elder Polendo and I are focusing a ton on helping the zone these days, and we're seeing some great results! I think we had the most successful zone (as far as numbers) for the second straight week, so that's reason to celebrate!

This past Thursday, I was on divisions with one of our district leaders when it started POURING! I've never seen it rain so hard here in Honduras. We got drenched, but the worst part was the flooding. We had to wade through this one part where the water was almost up to my belt! And there were a bunch of cars that had died and the owners had abandoned them. It was pretty crazy!

Yesterday, was Independence Day in Honduras, which basically ruined everything at church. For some reason, the schools make it mandatory that the kids march in parades. Anyway, our attendance got cut in half yesterday (a mighty 63 in a ward), and we only had one investigator show up :( The majority of the zone had similar results.

We had a couple really sweet experiences yesterday! First, we set up an appointment in the morning with a member family that we had never visited before. This family is active and everything, but we'd never really talked to them before and they're not that involved with the ward. But we went over a few hours after church, and they had their non-member neighbors waiting for us in their house! We taught a simple, powerful lesson, and set up another appointment for this week. But for all you members out there, there's nothing that makes the missionaries more happy than doing something like that. I would know because my comp and I were high-fiving after leaving their house haha

Also, we showed up at one of our investigator family's houses the other day, only to receive the news that they had gotten married the day before! This is after we had been working on getting papers for them for about 2 months. Apparently, they just took matters into their own hands and got married themselves! Now, we just have to help them get baptized, which will be another project.

Thanks to everyone who still reads my blog! I'm impressed with everyone that's hung in there for 22 months. Heck, I don't even know if I would have done it haha. But seriously, thanks for everything and I love all you guys!

Week 94

Hey everyone! Sorry if anyone was waiting for my blog entry last week (mainly my mom), but we had an activity that went a little long. We´re keeping SUPER busy the last few weeks, and today is actually the first time in a while that I´ve been able to rest a little bit. Here´s the breakdown:

- Tuesday, we had a zone meeting. Instead of the district leaders controlling their own meeting like normal, Elder Polendo and I planned a totally beast 2 hour meeting! We felt like it was time to machete the missionaries (that´s what we say when leaders scold their missionaries for crappy numbers haha). For those of you who know me well, you probably know that´s not my personality at all, but that´s what the situation called for. And I think we did it in the right way too. Then, we had a little church tour after that turned out to be super spiritual! One of the sisters in our zone even started crying because the spirit was so strong. All in all, it was a sweet meeting.

- That same day, we did divisions. Elder Polendo went to another area to go dominate, while I held down the fort in Puerto Cortes.

- Wednesday morning, we finished divisions by playing basketball in the morning at the church. I´m a little rusty, but actually not as much as I thought I would be. Also, just a fun fact, we have an elder in the zone that has a basketball scholarship to go to University of San Diego, so he´s pretty dang good.

- Thursday, we did weekly planning as a zone (we´re basically trying to get the zone together as much as possible to help the unity). And then we had another division, where I left the area with Elder Madsen to dominate and my comp Polendo held down the fort.

- Friday, after doing a church tour with Madsen, the office called us, saying that Polendo had to go to San Pedro so he wouldn´t get thrown out of Honduras for being illegal haha. That lasted pretty much all day. It was super boring, but I got to catch up a bit with my friend Elder Bergquist from my MTC district

- Saturday, the APs called us on short notice, telling us that they were gonna visit us in our area. I got to do divisions with Elder Hebert again! It was a blast! And then the four of us tried to sleep on two mattresses in our house. It was pretty uncomfortable - I´ll just leave it at that.

With all that effort, the zone improved A TON! Seriously, I´ve never seen numbers in my entire mission as good as the ones we got last night. It´s extremely satisfying to see an entire zone buy in to what we said and improve so much. Elder Polendo and I just have to get even better next week though!

Funny (and stupid) story of the week: On Saturday, we started a fast with the APs, and prepared to break the fast Sunday night by buying a ton of junk food. So after church finishes Sunday, we race back to the house, finish our fast, and start going to town. We drank a couple cups of water each, ate a whole box of Vanilla Wafers (thanks for sending that mom!), drank a 3-liter of soda, and ate a bunch of other snacks. Turns out after, we felt pretty terrible. And even more terrible when we went to our lunch appointment, and the lady gave us soup. Hahaha looking back on it, we were pretty dumb, but hey, it was fun!

We´re working on 3 weddings in my area right now, but they´re all getting held up for various reasons. Also, Rosemary (I talked about her forever ago) is still going to church (9 straight weeks, I think). But she still won´t get baptized, although it gets closer in every visit. So there are baptisms coming, but we just don´t know exactly when :(

Thanks for all the love and support! You guys are awesome! Love you all! Nos vemos!

-Elder Birt

 

Two points that Cam wanted me to put on the blog from our questions to him

We do have a cook that makes us lunch every day, and a different member makes us dinner every night. We pay for the lunch - the dinner no. It´s pretty much the same honduran food as always, and I don´t think I´ve eaten fish the whole time actually. I did, however, try sopa de mondongo (cow stomach soup) for the first time a couple weeks ago. It´s probably the most infamous dish in the mission, but I actually didn´t mind it that much. It just tasted a little rubbery haha

The Honduras-Mexico soccer match was all anyone was talking about this week. It´s crazy here- it´s like a national holiday every time there´s an international match. As missionaries, we literally know the score of the game just from walking in the street and hearing the cheers (or cussing) after every goal. There´s also some fireworks and the occasional gunshots when Honduras scores. Everyone´s making fun of my comp because he´s Mexican haha

Week 93

Time kind of got away from us today with a zone activity, and there was an issue with the computer. But I love you all and hope you're doing great! Sorry, I'll write more next week!

Week 92

Hey everybody, hope everyone had a great week! From what I've heard, there's a lot of excitement with school starting up! Good luck to everyone who's starting up! For me, there was a TON of change this past week, so I'll try to hit the high points for you guys.

 

- My new comp is Elder Polendo, from Chihuahua, Mexico. He has 23 months in the mission, and yet again, I will be someone's last comp (for the fourth time). He was AP for the last 8 months, so he's regarded as one of the best. We're firing on all cylinders right now, but we need to incorporate some of our ideas to help the zone.

- We'll have a baptism this week! Her name is Reina, a lady in her 60s that heard the missionaries before. She's a little crazy- she doesn't have any filter, so it's anyone's guess what she's going to say. She's already made a few offensive comments, so we are going to try to fix that problem before it gets worse.

- Skousen and I found a sweet family about 3 weeks ago that have gone to church the last two weeks. As usual, the woman wants to get married, and the man doesn't for some reason.

- We should have a wedding/baptism for Carlos and Jade, but it probably won't happen until the second or third week of September. They're on board, but he has work on Sundays, which is the only thing in the way.

- We went to a place called Omoa today for a zone activity! It's kind of a touristy place, and there's this sweet castle we visited. Then we went to the beach after (to be honest, I don't know why we go to the beach as missionaries. We all just wanted to get in the water, but couldn't haha). And we ate at Pizza Hut after! So it was a sweet little activity.

- Elder Duncan from the Area Presidency will be visiting this week! We'll have a mission conference on Thursday, and then a leadership meeting for the ZLs on Friday. I'm looking forward to it a lot!

- Crazy story of the week: We saw a dog sleeping in the street one day. He got up and there was a car coming toward him pretty fast. For some reason, the dog didn't do anything and got nailed by the car! The collision was surprisingly loud. But more amazingly, the dog just got up and ran away after. Everybody that saw was just like "Did that really happen?"

Well, that's about it for today. Hope y'all (decided to be Texan today) have a great week! Adios!

Week 91

Hey folks! It was a wonderful week this week, and thanks to everyone who sent birthday messages or packages! I can't believe I'm 21 now!

Well, my comp went home yesterday, so I'm currently with Elder Taafua, an elder finishing his first change in Honduras. We'll just be together until Wednesday, when we'll have changes for the whole mission. But for three days, I'm the only zone leader for the biggest zone of the mission! Yippee! But I'll be e-mailing you guys next week with another new comp!

I gotta tip my hat to Elder Skousen, who worked until the very end. Heck, we had three people go to church for the first time yesterday (and six total), despite some challenges here in Puerto Cortes (more on that later). The APs just came yesterday, and whisked him away to San Pedro though. Amazing how it all finishes so fast!

The members tried to throw a surprise party for Elder Skousen on Saturday. They told me about it Saturday morning, so I could get him to the church at the right time. It was all going perfectly- he didn't even have a clue what was going on. And then, we were visiting a member in the afternoon, and she let it slip. Skousen ended up finding out, but more than anything, he was just glad they were throwing him a party. Also, the surprise would have been foiled anyway when we showed up at 5 (the time they told me) and hardly anyone was there. Latins are great, but they have a thing for being late for ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING.

Also, there was like a 2 week-long party here in Puerto Cortes these last two weeks. Apparently, it was for some Catholic holiday; no one here even knows, they just know they celebrate with parties. It was pretty cool actually! Every day, there was a party in a different neighborhood. And then, they had a parade for the whole town on Friday and "Carnaval" on Saturday! We passed by a couple of these parties during the two weeks they had them- not exactly the most Mormon of parties... I'll just leave it at that. Also, our attendance almost got cut in half because people all stayed up late on Saturday for Carnaval. What can you do?

We have a baptism set up for the 31st for a lady named Reina. She's actually kinda crazy. When we first met her, we thought she wasn't all there, but it turns out she's just a little odd. But she's super smart and knows about our church from when the missionaries visited her in Belize. Plus she's super nice! She gives us some kind of dessert every time we visit her! So we're happy about her baptism, and hope it inspires others to follow.

That's about it for this week! Thanks to my parents and grandparents for the packages! I love them! And I love all of you guys! Adios!

Week 90

Hey peeps! Hope everyone had a great week! There was a little bit of everything this past week, so we´re gonna go at this bullet-list style.

- First, we had a stake conference yesterday! It started at 8:00 though! Whoever made that decision did not think it through. It made it pretty much impossible to bring people to church (Honduran people really love sleeping), so we only had 2 investigators yesterday. It was similar luck for most of the zone as well. Also, they're splitting our zone in October!

- Second, we had a multi-zone conference on Friday! It lasted five hours, which is a little longer than usual. President gave some good advice, but the highlight for me was Elder Hebert's great training class.

- Third, we just went on a little shopping spree! Normally, that doesn't excite me that much, but I just bought tennis shoes for 11 bucks! No Honduran people have size 12 shoes, so they sell them for dirt cheap haha. Also, I bought a machete to cut the lawn when I get back (I'm just kidding, it takes forever and really sucks. But it's still a cool machete).

- We continue to bring people to church, but NO ONE will accept a set-in-stone baptismal date. It's driving me insane! We should be marrying and baptizing a really awesome couple soon (hopefully by the end of the month), but the Honduran government office isn't giving us the papers we need to marry them. We always leave that place pretty annoyed actually. Just imagine the driver's license office in the States, but like 500 times more inefficient. Yeah, that's what we're up against :(

Well, that's my update for the week. I'm surrounded by bagginess (trunkiness) lately! My comp leaves next week, and my best friend Rory Jones is finishing up this week! Congrats to them for finishing with honor! Adios y nos vemos la proxima semana!

Week 89

Hey folks! Hope everyone had a great week! It's already August! What has happened to 2013?

Anyway, we had a sweet zone activity this morning! We had a water balloon fight, played some soccer, and then cooked up some hot dogs! I think it was the first time I've eaten hot dogs in Honduras haha. Go America!

This week, the zone recovered and got back on track! We basically got back to the old numbers we had before all the disasters of 2 weeks ago.

In meetings news, we had our zone leader council this past Friday. This Friday, we will have a multi-zone conference with President Dester! And Saturday and Sunday, we have special meetings because they're dividing our stake! That's just evidence of some good missionary work over the past few years, so everyone is stoked!

So we talked with this drunk guy a few days ago. He was one of those friendly drunks that says outrageous things, so it was a fun conversation. Also, it seems like every Honduran drunk person knows a little bit of english, so they always try to talk with us in their terrible english haha. Anyway, this guy thought he was a sniper, and even started to do sniper moves with an imaginary gun. My comp and I just egged him on a little bit because it was hilarious :)

The challenge we're facing right now is setting baptismal dates with our investigators. We have a bunch of people who go to church and want to get baptized. But when we try to set a date, they get scared and say they're not prepared and a bunch of other excuses. It's frustrating, but hopefully we'll have a little success before Skousen leaves in a couple weeks.

Thanks for all the support! Love you guys!

Elder Birt

Week 88

Hey folks! Hope you all had a great week! As for me, things have calmed down a little bit with the zone and our own area. Things are getting back to normal! At least, that's what I hope...

- The problems from last week are being resolved, and to be honest, it's about the best we could have hoped for. There haven't been any issues after we and President Dester had separate interviews with the one elder. And the companionship that was having problems had a good week, and it seems like the elders are at least putting up with each other.

- President Dester, his wife, and the Johns (missionary couple) came to our sacrament meeting yesterday! It was kind of a shock since they told us Saturday night. But it was great! We ended up looking really good, because the attendance was the highest it's ever been, and we could barely fit everyone into the chapel!

- We found a sweet family this past week! The woman, Jade, has gone to church for quite a few years, but has never gotten baptized because she lives with a guy and they're not married. The problem was the guy was usually out of town for work. But he came back this week, and it seems like he has changed completely! They told us they were already planning on getting married, and the guy, Carlos, is even thinking about baptism!

Ok, I gotta go guys! Espero que tengan una buena semana! Sigan adelante! Les quiero! Adios!

Week 87

Hey folks! Hope you all had a lovely week! As far as mine goes, it was pretty insane. It seems like we´ve been running around everywhere, trying to clean up messes that other missionaries are causing. Fun, right?

- First, we got a call last week about an elder that wanted to get emergency changed. He and his comp hate each other, they never even talk, etc. So Elder Skousen and I sat them both down on Tuesday, and basically forced them to talk it out. It was awkward, but at least they´re communicating again. And then, Elder Skousen worked with both of them on Tuesday, while I went with two other elders. That means we just completely abandoned our area all day Tuesday to try to help the zone!

- Then on Thursday, we heard an Elder´s mom had called the mission president, complaining that her son´s companion was up to some shenanigans (telling girls he loved them on his own cell phone, not wanting to work, etc.) So we went to interview both of them Friday morning. Turns out the accusations were true, and it was actually worse than what we had heard. The mission president ended up interviewing the elder afterwards, and he´s apparently going to change and start with the repentance process. He's on a pretty short leash for the mission now though. Oh, I forgot to mention that this elder is one of our district leaders :(

- Another district leader is super bummed about the work, and it shows in his numbers. And another still does not have a phone, meaning we can´t call him at all during the week.

With all these problems, we didn´t have a whole lot of time this week to be in our own area, but we did manage to have a decent week. Rosemary went to church again, and should get baptized at the beginning of August. We had an awesome Ward Talent Show on Saturday night (the sisters in our ward really came through to put that together). And I´m really blessed to be with Elder Skousen for all of these problems. It´s good to know that I don´t have to worry about my comp and we can be united to face all this stuff together.

Hopefully, this was just one of those crazy weeks, and things will settle down again now. Personally, I´m doing great, but I´m pretty worried about the zone. Apparently, they´re splitting the zone soon, so that should relieve the pressure. Thanks for everything guys and have an awesome week!

Week 86

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great week! For me, this was probably one of the most tiring weeks ever. Not necessarily in a bad way. It just felt like we were running around EVERYWHERE doing errands... probably because we were.

Anyway, here's the quick day-by-day rundown:

- Tuesday started with a district meeting! And actually, two of our elders gave their testimonies because they were leaving the zone. It was weird considering I only knew them for two weeks. Also, in preparation for a new pair of missionaries coming, we had to prepare a house by moving in beds, mattresses, table, chairs, etc. With the new companionship, we now have 24 missionaries in the zone and 4 districts.

- Wednesday was the change meeting, which we didn't end up going to. And we ended up getting to work our only normal day of the week.

- Thursday, we had to deliver the money to the elders who moved into the new house. The owner was already getting mad that they didn't have the money, so we had to go save the day! Also, we found out the new elders don't have phones, meaning that 3 of our 4 district leaders have phone problems. That's been kind of a disaster :(

- Friday, we had a zone leader council in San Pedro, where we presented our ideas and "vision" for our zones.

- Saturday, there was a meeting with the 4 zone leaders of the stake along with the stake president and bishops. We basically had 5 minutes to present what we thought was most important as far as the members helping the missionaries of their areas.

- Sunday, we had church, so I guess that would be considered a normal day too. We were still able to get 5 investigators to church, and the attendance raised to over 100! Although, I gotta admit a lot of that was due to the sisters in our area, who had an excellent week with the less actives.

Rosemary went to church again, and she loves it! She says she wants to get baptized, but she is still unsure about a date. Apparently, she feels like she needs to learn more. The good thing is that she's reading a lot in the Book of Mormon, prays, and goes to church. So... that's pretty much the formula to get baptized. We also have a handful of other investigators who go to church, but have other issues that need to be fixed before baptism.

The sisters and us are pretty stoked about a missionary activity we're going to have this Saturday- a talent show. Thank goodness that the sisters have taken the lead in preparing stuff for Saturday. The plan is to get the members more pumped about doing missionary work. And for all you members that read my blog, GET PUMPED ABOUT MISSIONARY WORK! As missionaries, we LOVE working with the members. It's SO much more effective. Ok, rant over.

Hope you all have a great week! I love you all!

Week 85

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a good week! For me, this week was pretty nuts. Here's the most important stuff, and hopefully I remember everything...

- We had a baptism! I think I somehow neglected to mention this last week because it wasn't completely set in stone yet. It was an 11 year old boy, Darwin, in a family that recently became active again. His 8 year old sister, Kristen, also got baptized. She didn't count for the mission, so we weren't quite as involved, but it's still awesome!

- Our zone had a total of 8 baptisms last week! For all you women out there, you'll be proud to hear that the other 7 were baptisms of the sisters in the zone. I have to admit, the sister missionaries are tearing it up!

- This past week, we found what will most likely be one of my favorite investigators of the mission. On Friday, we had an appointment fall and were left with about 30 minutes to kill. So we contacted a little bit... and struck gold on the second house. I didn't think it was anything special, I just felt like contacting a house we passed. A 22-year old girl named Rosmary answered and invited us in. We found out that her father is an active member that lives in the States, she's been praying lately to find a church to go to, and she felt that us contacting her house was the answer to her prayer. We invited her to church, she accepted, and Sunday morning, she was waiting for us when we got there. Turns out she's also friends with the bishop and his family! Also, she read our entire pamphlet, knows everything about Joseph Smith, and wants to know about the Book of Mormon. And... she invited us for lunch tomorrow with her and her mom. So basically... she's the perfect investigator! :)

- We have changes on Wednesday! This is just to get us on the right schedule, and Skousen and I most likely won't be affected, but we'll see.

Well, those are the coolest stories from the week that was! This work is true! I see it every day! Thanks for all your love and support, and talk to you next week :)

Week 84

Hey what's up guys? It's been a bit of a hectic week with all the changes, and it seems like this week will be no different. Let me just say that I'm glad Elder Skousen is my comp and that things are getting back to normal at least a little bit.

First, I'll start with my own area. It's almost like we're starting from scratch because Skousen and his old comp were working almost exclusively with less actives (there's a HUGE problem with less actives here, so it made sense). However, sisters just came to work with the less actives, leaving basically nothing for us. The senior companion for the sister missionaries is kind of a Nazi, but she's whipping the members into shape. It's slightly annoying, but we think it is what the ward needs.

Second, the zone. We ended with 29 baptisms and 2 families for the month of June. None of that had to do with me, but that's the baseline I have to work with. It's pretty solid, but there's room for improvement. It looks like we'll have a few problem missionaries in the zone, but we also have a couple solid district leaders to help us out.

Third, the new mission President! We had a meeting with him as the whole mission. To be honest, it seems like he was pretty nervous, and is a little uncomfortable with Spanish. But he seems like a really great guy, his wife seems awesome, I think we'll be able to do some good work with President Dester.

We have my first district meeting as a Zone Leader on Tuesday, and interviews with the new mission President on Wednesday. It'll be a ton of traveling because my area is super far away from everything.

Thanks for all the support guys! All of you are awesome! Have a good week, and talk to you next Monday!