After serving 7 1/2 months in Montecristo, I got transferred to El Progreso, an area closer to San Pedro. My companion's name is Elder Perdomo and he's from Panama, Panama. We live with another companionship in the same house, which is nice. Our District Leader now was my DL in Montecristo, so its nice to already know someone I'm living with. Our house is DIRTY, and hard to clean because dust always comes in from the street, and especially in the summer, it'll be really dusty. And my bed sucks, and ther is no pillow so I use my Comforter as a pillow, but overall it's fun. We have access to more water because we have a pila that collects water during the two hours of the day when our water line gets turned on.
Our ward has a building, and the attendance is around 100, and half of them are in the Primary. we pay the same for lunch, and we have to buy dinner a few nights during the week. laundry is a little more expensive, but we still have a member that can do it all for us. so right now, I just have a nice fresh feeling from having a lot of new things around me. The challenge now is getting to know everyone, and getting the same vision of what we want as a companionship in our area.I've already gotten to see some amazing members here, but I'm just getting to know everyone and the area so I'll tell you more about things later.
Adventure in San Pedro
There was a two mission conference on Saturday in San Pedro and I got to go a day early. I went with another elder in my district because we had to go to Immigration and deal with our residency (totally normal for all missionaries once they have 7 months in Honduras). So a group of 5 missionaries, none of whom had been to that part of the city before, got on a bus headed to the murder capital of the world on Friday the 13th. The good thing about being missionaries is that we don't have a lot of fear about going up and talking to people, so we were able to figure out how to get there. The buses there are different (faster and more dangerous) and they HUNT for people. seriously, if you're standing on the side of the road and a bus passes, they honk and yell at you telling you to get on, then get mad when you say no. And there are vendors that get on the bus and wave candy, peanuts, creams and pills literally in front of your face to get you to buy something.
But anyway, we got to the place with other missionaries and got to talk and get to know the missionaries that I'll be going home with. I didn't get to know any of them in the CCM because I went to the other CCM in Mexico. For the Immigration, they just took a picture, got my fingerprints on a scanner, and had me write down my parent's names. Then we took a bus, walked through the CENTER of the city to another bus that took us to a suburb of the city. we had awesome chicken and a smoothie made of fresh local fruit: pineapple and orange
we used the afternoon to go door to door in an area. I felt super excited to get to work in a different area, so it was fun for me. we had some really good lessons, and It was good to get to know the teaching styles of missionaries that have the same time out as me. Then, we went to the secretaries' and the AP's house to sleep with two zones worth of missionaries who came a day early because they had to travel so long. That night was fun, I got two packages including an awesome Seahawks shirt!!
I was smart and took a shower the night before. I got a hot shower!!! The secretaries have hot water so I got to take my time and take an amazing hot shower, haven't done that since the CCM! Then they gave us dinner and we went to bed. I was lucky and snagged a mattress on the first level of the bunk bed next to the fan. I used someone's towel for a pillow, and my dirty white shirt as a blanket. in the mission, sometimes you sleep like that!
We got up in the morning and took a rented bus to the other mission's territory to a brand new giant stake center where we got to listen to Elder Maynes, Bishop Davies, Elder Ochoa, and Elder Anderson and all their wives. we got to shake their hands!!!!! fun fact is that Elder Maynes and Bishop Davies were companions in the Uruguay/Paraguay mission! Everyone spoke Spanish except Sis. Anderson. E. Anderson served as mission president in France, and he has lived in Brazil, so he spoke Spanish like someone that speaks French and Portuguese. Some words were wrong that he said, but we were able to figure out what he said from context and it didn't get in the way of him delivering his message, it was just interesting to hear his accent.
So After the conference, we took pictures and visited for a while. E. Mendieta and I saw each other and we just gave each other the best hug I've given or gotten in a long time. That was probably the happiest part of the day. Then, we got on the bus listening to nice EFY music which I hadn't heard in a long time. We stopped in Progreso (at the same Burger King that I ate lunch at today) for lunch. Then we went home. The total travel time was about 4 hours, and I loved to just sit and relax and talk with other missionaries. Then we went home and it was too late to go out and do any work, and my comp was tired from a round trip to and from San Pedro in one day, so he slept, and I read the letters I got.
I really loved the talks you sent Mom and Dad, but what I LOVED the most was the family history stories you sent Grandma! I sat on my bed and read for an hour the story of my relatives. It was so refreshing to get out of my own head and be in a story that I knew had a happy ending. But then It hasn't really ended, I'm a part of it!! That's so awesome to think about. I felt so at peace to know that right now I'm in the right place at the right time to make those people proud of their posterity. Right now I'm living my story and it has just as much value as theirs. I felt kinda sad when the papers ended with her death and burial, it felt like I was saying goodbye to family, like when we say goodbye every time we leave Grandma and Grandpa's house. We say goodbye, but it's only for a while. That feeling was the best part of the day, and I think that was the manifestation of the spirit as the spirit of Elijah. I wrote 3 pages in my journal that night too. So thank you Grandma and Grandpa for giving me the best day on my mission!
But anyway, we got to the place with other missionaries and got to talk and get to know the missionaries that I'll be going home with. I didn't get to know any of them in the CCM because I went to the other CCM in Mexico. For the Immigration, they just took a picture, got my fingerprints on a scanner, and had me write down my parent's names. Then we took a bus, walked through the CENTER of the city to another bus that took us to a suburb of the city. we had awesome chicken and a smoothie made of fresh local fruit: pineapple and orange
we used the afternoon to go door to door in an area. I felt super excited to get to work in a different area, so it was fun for me. we had some really good lessons, and It was good to get to know the teaching styles of missionaries that have the same time out as me. Then, we went to the secretaries' and the AP's house to sleep with two zones worth of missionaries who came a day early because they had to travel so long. That night was fun, I got two packages including an awesome Seahawks shirt!!
I was smart and took a shower the night before. I got a hot shower!!! The secretaries have hot water so I got to take my time and take an amazing hot shower, haven't done that since the CCM! Then they gave us dinner and we went to bed. I was lucky and snagged a mattress on the first level of the bunk bed next to the fan. I used someone's towel for a pillow, and my dirty white shirt as a blanket. in the mission, sometimes you sleep like that!
We got up in the morning and took a rented bus to the other mission's territory to a brand new giant stake center where we got to listen to Elder Maynes, Bishop Davies, Elder Ochoa, and Elder Anderson and all their wives. we got to shake their hands!!!!! fun fact is that Elder Maynes and Bishop Davies were companions in the Uruguay/Paraguay mission! Everyone spoke Spanish except Sis. Anderson. E. Anderson served as mission president in France, and he has lived in Brazil, so he spoke Spanish like someone that speaks French and Portuguese. Some words were wrong that he said, but we were able to figure out what he said from context and it didn't get in the way of him delivering his message, it was just interesting to hear his accent.
So After the conference, we took pictures and visited for a while. E. Mendieta and I saw each other and we just gave each other the best hug I've given or gotten in a long time. That was probably the happiest part of the day. Then, we got on the bus listening to nice EFY music which I hadn't heard in a long time. We stopped in Progreso (at the same Burger King that I ate lunch at today) for lunch. Then we went home. The total travel time was about 4 hours, and I loved to just sit and relax and talk with other missionaries. Then we went home and it was too late to go out and do any work, and my comp was tired from a round trip to and from San Pedro in one day, so he slept, and I read the letters I got.
I really loved the talks you sent Mom and Dad, but what I LOVED the most was the family history stories you sent Grandma! I sat on my bed and read for an hour the story of my relatives. It was so refreshing to get out of my own head and be in a story that I knew had a happy ending. But then It hasn't really ended, I'm a part of it!! That's so awesome to think about. I felt so at peace to know that right now I'm in the right place at the right time to make those people proud of their posterity. Right now I'm living my story and it has just as much value as theirs. I felt kinda sad when the papers ended with her death and burial, it felt like I was saying goodbye to family, like when we say goodbye every time we leave Grandma and Grandpa's house. We say goodbye, but it's only for a while. That feeling was the best part of the day, and I think that was the manifestation of the spirit as the spirit of Elijah. I wrote 3 pages in my journal that night too. So thank you Grandma and Grandpa for giving me the best day on my mission!