Week 67

It was a challenging second week in Las Lomas. We had a ton of lessons fall early in the week, but got back on track during the last part of the week. But the biggest disappointment was what happened yesterday. We went to the house of five different investigator families, and all of them made excuses about why they couldn't go to church. And most of them had promised us that they would. Also, our potential March 9th baptism, Claudia, just disappeared! We still don't know what happened, and she won't answer her phone. Let's just say we dealt with some pretty frustrating things this week.

But even with the difficulties, the Lord blessed us with some minor successes. Also, I've learned that in the most difficult times of my mission, I've learned the most and grown the most. So I'm optimistic that will happen again in this situation. After all, the members are still great and really involved in the missionary work. And we have some solid investigators as well- they just need that extra spark to keep our commitments.

Here's the quick recap of our investigators: We're working on two weddings right now for families that want to get baptized. The Hernandez family is super legit, the Urquoia family just needs a little extra push. The hard part in this situation is that it's a nightmare trying to get the paperwork to marry families here. Who knows how long it will end up taking... We have a plethora (big word!) of other investigators, but each have their own challenges and need a little more work to get baptized.

Also, today was a sweet P-day! We went to the Lima zone to play soccer and drink licuados in this famous licuado shop. And you guys know how much I love licuados! I got a chocolate banana combo that was excellent! The soccer was fun as well!

Week 66

Well, we had the change meeting last Wednesday, and what a change meeting it was! There´s all kinds of craziness going on in the mission, and everyone´s head was spinning with all of the new stuff going on. Here´s a quick bullet list of what happened, and specifically what happened to me:

- I'm in a new area! It's called Las Lomas, and I'm in the Satelite (sa- TAY- lee- tay just so you guys can sound more Latin) Stake. I'm about 15 minutes outside of San Pedro in a pretty nice, suburb area.

- I have a new companion! His name is Elder Sweat from Heber, Utah, and he is on his second change in the mission! We get along great so far, but it has been a bit of an adjustment as far as teaching goes. I have a bigger responsibility since he is still learning Spanish and doesn't really know what's going on sometimes. It reminds me of a year ago when I was going through the same struggle. Good times...

- My ward is TOTALLY AWESOME! Ironically, some of this has to do with Elder Hebert, who was here right before me. He pretty much dominated and left the area (and the ward) in really good shape. The members are super stoked about missionary work because of him, and because of a recent visit from a member of the Presidency of the Area to the Stake. Also, the members are taking their friends and family to the open house of the Tegucigalpa temple, the first in Honduras. So I kind of inherited the perfect storm :) Basically, it looks like I won't knock on doors the entire time I'm here because of the insane number of references we're getting. Also, if everything goes well, we could hit double-digit baptisms in March. That's just the potential of this area, and I'm super excited about it!

- I was called as a district leader.

- Our mission is being divided into San Pedro East and San Pedro West. Right now, I would be in the East mission, but it's still not sure when the mission will be officially divided. They might place us in the two missions at the next change meeting, or they will wait until July when two new mission presidents come (both gringos). It's an exciting time regardless.

- They divided the old zone I was in (Ceiba zone) into two zones, another example of the crazy growth we're experiencing right now.

- My new house is awesome too! We have two companionships living there, and it's HUGE! By far the biggest house I've had in the mission.

Ok, so that's pretty much what's been going on the last week. It's been a lot of craziness, getting to know the new area, new comp, and new ward. But it looks like I'm gonna be in a pretty awesome situation for the foreseeable future. Thanks to everyone for your love and support! And hope you guys have a great week!

Week 65

Hey guys hope you had a good week! I don´t have a whole lot of time today, since I have to pack, and my zone leaders told me I have to leave tomorrow instead of Wednesday. But It looks like we´ll have a split of the mission this Wednesday at the change meeting. Hebert told me Elder Duncan from the Area Presidency told his zone a couple days ago, so it seems more than just mission gossip. It looks like it will be SPS east and SPS west, but no one knows yet how they are going to split it. And since I´m 99% sure I will have a change (they still haven´t called me for a confirmation yet, but everyone says I will), I have no idea which mission I would be in. Add that to the fact that 36 new missionaries are coming on Wednesday, way more than any other time. There´s just a lot of things up in the air right now.

Until next week with the big news! Adios!

Week 64

Howdy y'all, hope everyone had a good week! Ya, I know the "howdy y'all" sounds kinda weird, but my comp and I have been having some Texas pride lately. And how cool is it that two Texans are together in Honduras?! I figure I gotta take advantage of it while I can ;)

Anyway, it was a fairly average week here in Utila. We made some progress with some of our investigators, but I don't know if we'll be able to have any more baptisms during my time here (which is looking like it will be about 10 days). I'm hoping to at least set up a baptism or two for the time after I leave, but we'll see how it goes. We're having some decent success on the activation front as well, but it seems like none of the inactives will become fully active. They make me super happy one Sunday, and then disappoint me the next one. It's kinda frustrating sometimes, but at least we're getting them to church every once in a while. That's better than never, so it's at least a slight improvement.

One of our investigators, a 13-year old kid named Preston, has started hanging out with us quite a bit. He went with us to the gym one morning, and we even played some games of Foosball with him on a table in his neighborhood. In case you guys don't know, I LOVE Foosball, so it was cool to play again. Nobody has beat me yet, but Preston has come close, and he says he's going to practice every day so he can beat me haha

Also, my zone leaders are coming to the island today! It will be the first time I've been with other missionaries for about six weeks! I'm super stoked, and we've planned a pretty epic Utila tour for them. So it should be a good P-day! And then they will stay to work with us tomorrow. So I'm hoping the two-companionship attack will have some positive results for the work here in Utila. We'll see how it goes, and I should have some exciting stories for next week, including whether I will be going to another area or not (although President already told me I am, so I'm feeling pretty confident about it). Have a good week guys! Adios!

-Elder Birt

Week 63

Another week, another baptism! This past Saturday, I baptized Janiva, a little girl that we've been teaching for about two months. She's really awesome, and I just hope she can get some support from her family to keep her active. Her brother and grandma are members too, but they're both less active. We're going to continue teaching the whole family, hopefully set up some more baptisms, and activate those that are already members. That's the plan anyway...

There probably will be a bit of a baptism drought now, unless we can convince some people and/or moms of kids. But the church is growing here, which makes me happy! We also found this guy a couple weeks ago that I haven't told you guys about yet. His name is Brian, and he's one of the craziest people I've ever met in my life. First of all, he just looks like a hippie because of the long hair and creeper mustache. But he also says some of the most ridiculous things in our lessons. We gave him a Bible for him and his wife, but he refused to share it with her for some reason. Also, he has a baby that was being really loud one time in our lesson, so he got up and said "Let me get her something so she shuts up." He says all this jokingly, and is actually a really awesome guy. But he's good for a couple good quotes every time we visit him. And there are points where I can't even hold it in and just start laughing because of the stuff he says. Let's just say it's one of our more unpredictable appointments whenever we visit him.

In other news, there is a new store in Utila that sells cheesecake! I did not realize how much I missed cheesecake, but I did. That place is now my favorite Utilian store, and it happens to be right across the street from the baleada place where we normally eat dinner! It's awesome all around!

Here's an awesome joke that my comp had the other day: In this kindergarten class, the kids were learning about colors. So the teacher asked them to make a sentence/story with the words green, pink, and yellow. The first boy Andrew said "My family saw the green grass, while eating some pink watermelon under the yellow sun." The teacher said good job and moved on to the next boy, a Latino named Pedro. He obviously wasn't prepared and had to think for a while. Then he said, "The phone went 'green, green,' I pink it up and say 'yellow.'" Haha I don't know if you guys will think it's that funny, but I thought it was hilarious. Well anyway, I hope you guys all had a good week and enjoyed the Super Bowl a little extra to make up for my absence. Haha jk but have a good week guys!

Week 62

I'm not sure if it was the best week ever, but it was one of the better ones on my mission. It was actually pretty incredible how many awesome things happened this week!

First, we had another baptism! My comp, Elder Russo, performed his first baptism, and everything went perfectly! It was one of the smoothest baptismal services I've ever had. And most importantly, it was a great spiritual experience for everyone there. The next day was CRAZY busy in church because we had to do even more than usual. I performed the confirmation of Maria, we advanced a boy and a girl from the Primary and gave the boy the Aaronic Priesthood, we did the sacrament, gave talks, and then each gave a lesson. And we had 39 people in church with 7 investigators! That might not sound like much, but to us, that basically means the whole island went to church. But maybe the thing that made me most happy was that three guys came to church! And one of them was this awesome guy named Alex, who I've been trying to get to go to church for the last 4 months. We had an AWESOME lesson on the Plan of Salvation/temples on Saturday, he came to church on Sunday, and he and his wife are excited to go to the Tegucigalpa temple open house next month! It's amazing how the gospel can completely change someone - I just hope they keep it up!

We also will have at least one baptism this coming Saturday and perhaps two, which will be pretty sweet. Keep that in your prayers, and hopefully we can lock up the second one!

And as if things couldn't get any better, we had an epic P-day today! In the words of Elder Russo, "it was the best P-day I've ever had in the mission." We ran a couple miles to hike Pumpkin Hill, the highest point in Utila. The view there is incredible! You can see the entire island from there! Then, we went down the mountain and went to the beach! Obviously, we couldn't swim, but we walked along the beach for a while and enjoyed the view. And then, my companion (a former stud Cross Country runner) almost killed me when we ran back to our house. We finished it off by going to a surprisingly amazing Mexican restaurant and coming here for Internet. It was a great end to a great week!

Special shout-out to the Jones Family, Dyer family, and Kimber for your letters! I think it took them a while to get to me, considering two of them were Christmas cards. But thank you so much! I love letters (hint, hint). Haha have a good week everyone!

Week 61

I have a shocker for you guys... it's actually cold here! It's legitimately the first time I've been cold in Honduras, and it's not fun at all. It's been raining for about the last 4 days, and it's supposed to continue for another three. Let me tell you, it's not fun walking around in the rain all day. Also, there's nothing in our house to make us warmer. My companion and I realized that Hondurans are only focused on making themselves colder since it's always so hot. I guess that makes sense though, since the first time I was cold was almost a year into my time in Honduras. Isn't that crazy?! This Wednesday is my one-year anniversary in Honduras! Ok, I better not get ahead of myself... here's what happened in the week that was:

- We had a record-low in church yesterday, with a mighty attendance of eleven! That includes me, my companion, the two ladies we take the sacrament to who don't actually leave their house, and two tourists (more on that later). So that means only five Utilian people actually came to church. We only ended up having sacrament meeting because so few people came. I guess that's what happens when it rains 3 days straight in Utila.

- Incredibly, one of those five people was Maria, our awesome investigator! And since she went to church again, it means she will be baptized this next Saturday! I'm gonna have another baptism! In the ocean! I'm so happy for her, and how she has progressed over the last couple months. I think she'll be one of my strongest converts so far :)

- So we had two Mormon tourists visit us in Utila! If I haven't mentioned this before, I LOVE Mormon tourists that come here and find the missionaries. They went to church, and we spent most of our P-day with them since they had a golf cart. We rode around the whole island, visited some freshwater caves (they were sweet!), saw some cool sights, and ate a delicious lunch. Pretty awesome P-day in my opinion.

- In super exciting church news, the temple in Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras) opens in March! It's not in our mission boundaries, so I'm almost positive we won't get to go. But all the missionaries and members are really excited for the first temple in Honduras! This past week, the entire Presidency for the Central America area came to San Pedro. And as Branch President, I was able to watch two broadcasts with the members of the branch! It was excellent, and got the people even more excited for a temple in their own country. Just more evidence that the church is growing :)

Ok, that's it for this week. Hope everyone has a wonderful week. And a special shoutout to Ashlee, who reports to the MTC on Wednesday! Good luck in Norway!

Adios!

Elder Birt