Week 31 (August 4th-10th): Changes!

Week 25 in Honduras

Hola, this past week was another good week in Honduras. 

We had changes on wednesday and... I am in a new area with a new companion!

companion: Hna Castellanos (from Guatemala)

area: Guaymuras (a neighborhood in Tegucigalpa)

So the day before changes was a big day. We went and met with all our investigators (as many as we could, anyway. Taught a few lessons, and packed up all our stuff. Both my companion and I had changes (they're putting Elders in Yusguare). After all that we went to a baptism for the other hermanas and then we came back to get our stuff and move it to their house, where we spent the night because it would be easier to get to the bus for changes in the morning. Leaving all our investigators and all the members was a bit sad because I've been in Yusguare for a long time, ever since I arrived in Honduras. But I know that the new Elders who are there will do great. At changes I got to see Hna. Saldate and Hermana Bleak! it was great. 

My new companion came to Honduras at the same time as me but I have four more weeks than her in the mission because I was in the CCM for six weeks and she was there for only two. But we are pretty much equal and it's been really fun because we are both learning together.

This new area is very different from my first area. the people are different and the lifestyle is different too. but the work is the same. The missionaries before us in this area were Elders, so my companion and I are both new to this area and are opening it to Hermanas. It has been a week of getting lost and talking to everyone. one person we talked to on our first day, Roger, lives right in front of the church and we started teaching him and invited him to be baptized and he said YES, but only if he feels comfortable and ready by the date we challenged him for. He said that he wants to make sure he has quit smoking for good before he gives us a definite yes. We can really see his desire to learn and understand the Gospel. He wants to know for himself and that is the best.

Tegucigalpa is very fast paced and everyone is always busy and is almost never home, which is the opposite of Yusguare. but it is nice because everyone so far has been willing to make an appointment for another day. Our area is full of college students because there is a University really close. So it is hard to coordinate times to meet with a lot of people because they are at school, at work, or studying with their time. But we have been handing out a lot of folletos to people and inviting them to church. haha. it's better than nothing, I guess. But this new area is super fun. I am really enjoying it.

Everyone says Tegucigalpa is hot, but coming from the south, it has been really nice. and its actually cold at night!

it has been a good first week here in the city and my companion and i have been getting along really well. We have a lot of similarities and we are always talking about video games haha. 

love you!

(prep yourself for a lot of pictures)

clockwise: with Ana and Waleska on my last day in Yusguare, all packed, on our way to Teguc

My first and second companions (they are now companions with each other)

HERMANA BLEAK!

My new companion and me

in our new area of Guyamuras

we found mcdonalds

happy to be writing home (DO YOU SEE THE HARRY POTTER POSTER?!)

clockwise: first morning in Guyamuras, a present my companion made me on my 7th month anniversary, our study room, writing home, a cool poster, and us with ronald mcdonald

Week 27 (July 7th- 13th 2014)

Week 21 in Honduras

Hola! 

I didn't get to write yesterday because I traveled to Teguc and back (3 hr bus ride there and 4 hrs back) to fill out all the stuff for residency. We were in the immigration office literally all day and it was exhausting. haha. But everything went smoothly. 

The past week was hard, because hardly anyone was home and everyone else didn't want to take time to listen to us. but we talked to a lot of people on the streets. oh and on Sunday literally no one wanted to give us any time to teach because it was the FIFA World Cup finals. We could hear it literally from every house. it was kind of cool. everyone here loves loves loves futbol. 

Last week was a really normal week; a lot of teaching, walking, and sweating haha. but we did have a service project on friday (at the same house where we destroyed the walls a few months back) and this time, they had a completely new house built and it was great. we helped clean the floors and the kitchen and repainted the walls with new adobe. 

i miss you guys!

love, sam

(i have pictures but this computer isn't showing my memory card so maybe next week!)

Hello! I'm so Kawaii

Their NEW HOUSE is AMAZING!

Outside of the rebuilt house (it is so much bigger!)

On our way home from Tegucigalpa

Week 25 (June 23-29, 2014)- Cambios!

Week 19 in Honduras

so i recounted all the weeks this morning and this is my 19th week here in honduras which means its my 25th week in the mission. i think. haha. but yeah i will have 6 months on the 8th of july. eeeeep. what. yeah it feels like a long time. time has gone slow, im not gonna lie.

but yeah this past week was good. we had transfers and so hna saldate and i took te long trip to teguc to changes. and i got a new comp. her name is Hna. Osorio and she is from el Salvador and does not speak very much english. fun times are had by all in our companionship. by that i mean that there are a lot of language and cultural barriers. but its okay. its been good. but i feel like i've learned so much in just these few days with her already. 

work in our area has been hard. we don't have many investigators even  though we are walking around talking to people all day long. its okay though. it will happen soon enough.

i taught the lesson in sunday school on sunday and it was crazy. kind of a disaster in my mind but other people said  i did great and that my spanish was good. there were a trillion people in class because it was ward conference so more people that usual came. i think i did okay. the lesson was on sacrifice. 

hope everyone is doing well. love you!

love, sam

Info de cambios:
Area: Yusguare (still)
Companion: Hna. Osorio =]

Hna. S's last day in Yusguare

Crush chillin like a villain 

bus ride to cambios

I saw Hna. Young at cambios

Week 17 (May 5, 2014)

Week 11 in Honduras

Hola!

On Monday, before we returned from Tegucigalpa, we helped out at one of the ward buildings. American dentists were there to do dental work for future missionaries around this area of the country! and since we were already there and just waiting around (our ward was there getting work done and they were our ride home) we helped translate. Translating from Spanish to English was easier for me than translating from English to Spanish, it was great practice though. Of all the doctors, doctor AJ really helped me a lot by having me translate for him...even though he already knew how to speak Spanish. Dr AJ I was a new missionary and wanted to help me out by throwing me in the deep end haha. Also, he loves Hawaii and wanted to talk about Hawaii the whole time ha-ha.

The rest of the week, we focused our teachings on temples! Because as a zone, we took all of our investigators to visit the temple! we had activities and lessons prepared for our trip to help them feel the spirit and learn more about the temples and about the gospel. The trip was great, and a success for all the people who went. Our zone had three yellow school busses, full of people! At the temple we had four lessons and rotated in groups around the four sides of the temple for each lesson. Our Mission President, President Hernandez, came and gave a talk and helped motivate all the people who were there.  Overall, I really enjoyed the trip and I know our investigators could feel the strong Spirit and love de nuestro padre celestial on the temple grounds. 5/2

The next day, Saturday 5/3, one of our investigators, Luis, called us early in the morning and said that he wanted to get baptized on Sunday after church. We have been teaching Luis for a long time trying to prepare him to be baptized. He has had a lot of challenges in life and changing his lifestyle has been a long journey for him. But I know he has a strong Spirit and a testimony of the Gospel. We were so happy that he finally felt ready and willing to be baptized. The Baptism went really great! We had it after church yesterday. I gave a talk about the Holy Ghost. I wrote it all out but I didn’t even end up looking at it while giving my talk. Cool. After he was baptized, Luis looked so happy walking out of the water. He bore his testimony afterward and everyone could feel how genuine his testimony was. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to help him progress and learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ. This week was really good.

It rained for the first time on Tuesday! and almost every day afterward. The night we got back from the temple it was raining so hard while we were walking to drop people off at their houses and to our house, by the time we got home we were soaked. Even though it was storming it was hotter than ever. Haha.

I love you guys, and I think of you always! Thanks for always being so supportive and loving!

Love, Sam

Temple with Investigators:

Luis' Baptism:

Haircut this morning:

so ready for this

oops

realizing i made a horrible mistake

I GOT MAIL:

the happiest sam in all the land

Week 16 (April 28, 2014)

Week 10 in Honduras

This past week we have been in Tegucigalpa, my companion had to get her wisdom teeth removed. She had them removed on Tuesday and then for the rest of the week we stayed with a family from her former area. Their house is in the mountains near Tegucigalpa.

Hermana Saldate needed a lot of rest so while she rested, I studied. Lots and lots of studying, it was really nice. Especially having the opportunity to read the scriptures; which is hard to do on a mission, because we hardly ever get free time. In the mornings we usually study specific things so we can be prepared for the day, so just getting to read the scriptures was really nice.

On Friday we went to a chapel here in Tegucigalpa, there was a fleet of American dentists doing dental work for future missionaries. Wards from around this area of the country are coming and getting work done. It was really really cool. We went for a check-up since my companion was having a lot of trouble and pain. It turns out she had dry sockets and they helped her out. It was good because here in Honduras they don’t have a solution for dry sockets. Just wait it out ha-ha. It was really lucky that the American dentists where here when she needed them, she had a much easier time and could talk and eat. We had to stay over the weekend because she has another check up with them today, later this afternoon. Our ward from our area is visiting the dentists today, so we have a ride home! Really convenient!

One of the more interesting and things I enjoyed this week was that we got to use the computer to watch this past conference....in English! I was so grateful for this opportunity! We only got to watch a few talks, but hearing them in English was really great. I just hope I have another opportunity to either listen to the rest or even read the rest.

We also got to watch a little bit of other conferences and talks from the past and one talk I really enjoyed was "safety for the soul" by Jeffery R. Holland. I really enjoyed this and if you have any time, you should go to the lds.org site and watch it.

So instead of giving a day by day update like usual, I’ve decided to just talk about mission life and what I think overall so far of being on a mission:

Before I came on my mission I had no idea what to expect, and I don’t even think I had any expectations. I was just really nervous because I was going to be leaving home and leaving my family and living in a country that I hadn’t heard of before I got my call. And on top of all that I would be learning a different language, not even a language I had studied in school before. Six years of French classes would be useless.

But then I got on a plane on January 8th and flew to Mexico all by myself. And I met some other missionaries in the airport and we all stumbled our way through customs together and stumbled all the way to the CCM together. And then we all stumbled our way through six months of training together. Some of us became best friends. And we learned so much about how to be a missionary and how to speak Spanish.

We felt ready to go out into the real world. So we did. And I flew to Honduras but this time not by myself. I had two companions and we all leaned on each other for help all the way to Honduras. and when we got here we were introduced to a new culture and a new completely different world from the one we had grew up in. and we all realized what we had learned in the CCM was nothing. Then I got a new companion. Who knew so much more Spanish that I did. She seemed comfortable and flawless in life as a missionary.

My first six weeks in Honduras were rough. I didn’t know any Spanish and I couldn’t say much. But I stumbled through our lessons with the people of our area over and over. Slowly, I started to understand conversations. And every day my Spanish has gotten better and better as I just listen intently and try my hardest to understand the culture here. And I was homesick beyond belief and I thought a lot every day about how much I wanted a real shower.
I am just starting my 11th week in Honduras and things are already a lot easier. I can understand almost everything people say to me and I can figure out how to say what I want to say with a limited vocabulary. And most of the time people can understand me. During the days it can be hard to see all the progress I have made, but I know I have made a lot. And I am so much stronger in my knowledge and testimony of the gospel as well.

One thing that teaching others requires, is that you really know what you are teaching, and also that you understand the importance of what you are teaching. Every day I learn more and more and my understanding grows and is tested. But I don’t think nearly as much about how to say things I want to say or about how much I wish I could take a real shower. And somehow, well through el espiritu santo, I am given the strength to teach and to bear testimony of what I know to be true. So overall, I love being a missionary. It is challenging and sometimes complicated, but I love it in a way that it is something that I have never experienced before. And helping others in this way is something I’ve never felt before. And even though I think about home all the time even though I have over a year left, I am excited to experience more and more each day and help other people grow closer to the gospel.

Thanks for being a great example for me in my life and for always encouraging me in everything that I do.

Love, Sam

teguc mountains on fire

the doctors we translated for

translating at all hours of the night (waiting for our ward to leave...they were the last ward done)