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!

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!