Week 24

Dear Family;

Well since there isn’t any time to write e-mails I’m gonna  try this; write a letter by hand, take a picture and send it to you.  I feel bad that I haven’t been able to tell you all about what’s going on here, and now some lucky member of the family gets to type parts of letter to post on the blog or forward in e-mails to people.

This last week has been great though.  Monday we had an awesome p-day.  A few of us in the zone took a bus ride to a place called Zambrano about an hour away.  It’s this pueblo (town out in the country) and is super pretty.  I was amazed to see how pretty it actually is in some parts.  I’m used to being in the city where it’s really ugly and dirty.  Once we got to Zambrano we walked to this park/zoo thing, where we had a BBQ and then checked out the animals.  It was sweet because we were the only people there.  They had a bunch of monkeys, a lion, some leopards, parrots, beavers and other random animals.  It was pretty funny because the cages that they’re in don’t look very well-built and I’m pretty sure that if it want to, the lion could break out pretty easily.  But yeah, it was awesome to hand out with the missionaries because most of them were in the group that came with me into the mission, and also one of my best friends in the mission was there too, Elder Luna from El Salvador.

Tuesday I had exchanges with the zone leaders, I left to as to their area, Cerro Grande.  Is was a good day and I learned a lot, but I like working in my own area more because we have a lot of awesome people we’re teaching.  The Medina family are still waiting to get married.  We got money from the Bishop to help them out, so that’s going to be a huge relief that we don’t have to do an activity right away and raise the money before .  They are an awesome family though.  They come to church pm tjeor own every Sunday and study for the lessons before classes and go to the firesides and devotions during the week.  I really want them to be baptized this month, because it’s most likely that I’ll be leaving San Rafael January 4^th.  When we taught the word of wisdom the dad told us that he quit smoking a week earlier, just because it seemed like the right thing to do and he felt like it was something that wasn’t in accordance to what God would want of him.  I was pretty amazed to hear that.

On Sunday I got a call from the Bishop at 7 in the morning and he told me he needed me to give a talk in Church that day.  HAHA.  I didn’t have much time to prepare anything because Church starts at 8.  But everything went pretty well and I filled up all the time that was needed.  It would be one thing to have to in English, but I was pretty nervous to do it in Spanish.  It was hard, but I did it HAHA.

Well that about it for this week, I love you all.  Thanks for all the Christmas packages!  I’ll open them on the 25^th J And I’ll call on the 25^th too.

Con Amor

Elder Archibald

Here’s a list of random things and requests….

1)My USB that has a virus, I took it to a member in the ZL’s area and he cleaned it up for me and saved all my files and put on a protection, but the mini SD, I didn’t bring with me so it still has a virus.

2)I love getting the “Dear Elders” from Dad of the missionary letters!  I get them every once and awhile (like once every 3 weeks).  But it really just depends on when people go to the office to pick up mail.  The only dad thing is that sometimes they get mixed up because there’s more than one to a page and the pages aren’t in order and it takes awhile to figure out how to put them together.  It might be a good idea to send your letters to me through “Dear Elder” so I have time to read them.

3)My MP3 player died again! Gah! That design is really crappy, I think.  The same thing happened, I was listening to music, it froze, and then just turned off, and now it won’t turn on.  I feel bad always asking for an MP3 player, but if some could send me another that would be awesome.  One that can play mini SD cards and can support a 16 GB card … and probably a different model or brand that the last ones.

4)Okay, the call home for Christmas.  How they normally do it here, is on the 25^th they make the call.  We buy calling cards here and borrow a cell phone from a member.  It usually pretty cheap to call the states from here.  And as of now I’m planning ton calling the Vonage number 720-842-7232 … Right?  And I’ll call after 1:00 pm my time.  That sound alright?  Probably around 3:00 pm my time actually.

5)I got all the letters from the McKay Lake Ward on Monday.  That was really nice to get those.  Read some really nice and encouraging works from some of the families in the ward.  Its good to know I’ve got a lot of people praying for me and that I’ve got support.

6) Well it turns out my MP3 player actually works it randomly turned on and resurrected, then died again and wouldn’t turn on.  Then the next day it turned on again… The other one still doesn’t work.  I am a little nervous that this one will crap out.

7)  Also, about the “Dear Elders”, Elder Grover’s letter take up a lot of paper because it only goes to the middle of the page and start a new line, it doesn’t fill the margins.

8) Alright, so the temple in Honduras, I’ve heard that its not going to have a laundry and that it doesn’t rent temple clothes.  So at some point I think I’m going to have to buy temple clothes here.  That’s how it is in the San Salvador Temple which is almost identical to the Tegucigalpa.  Any news on the Fort Collin’s temple???

9) I have some letters written for some people, but I don’t have addresses.  I need the addresses of … you guys in Germany, Grandpa, Elder Wood, Elder Gonsalves, and Elder Lontine.  I don’t have a way to get them.

Week 24 - Letter to Mom & Dad

Mom and DAD

I love your letters, it’s too bad I don’t have time to read them. HAH  It’s really interesting to compare the mission in Frankfurt with the Comayagüela mission.  Makes me realize how much of a blessing it is to be having all this success.  But the hard part here is retaining the families.  The first family I baptized, the Zepeda family, already stopped coming to Church.  But the other people and families that I’ve personally taught are all very active.  The Amdino family, the Nuñez family, Gerrordo, Juan Jose and Carlos all come every Sunday and activities during the week.  We are working with Gerrardo a lot to help him make the decision to serve a mission, He is 22 yrs old.  It’s one of my goals to have a convert that leaves on their mission while I’m on mine to be my replacement.  Also Juan Jose comes early to Church every Sunday, goes to every fireside and devotional, goes to all of the baptism, and he spent a large portion of his money to buy the scriptures with the leather cover and indentations of the books inside.  It was incredible to see his conversion process.  I don’t know if you know much about Seventh Day Adventists, but they are very very faithful to their religion.  Jaun was Adventist for 50 or 60 years.  He even was a missionary for them for a period of time.  But after only a week or two of reading the Book of Mormon he knew it was true and he knew that he needed to be baptized under the correct authority.  Also another one of y goals it to baptize 50 people in my mission and see 5 families sealed in the temple.

Well some other news, there’s quite a few new rules in the mission.  One of those is the 30 minute internet rule, 15 minutes to write president, 15 minutes to read and write letter to our families. I’m not a big fan of that rule.  But I’m trying my hardest to support president.  Also some other rules are that nobody can go to malls, and we aren’t allowed to teach people younger than 18 unless their parents are being taught too.  So in the future if I have to buy clothes, I’m not sure I’ll be able to without going to a mall.

From what I’ve heard, President Flores has a reputation for being a really strict mission presidents. At  least compared to the others in Honduras.. But It doesn’t matter, I have to be obedient like Nephi, not like Laman & Lemual.

What is your mission president like?  The Missionaries?

Oh yeah, you wanted to know more about my companon.  He is a convert of 4 years.  The only member in his fmily, 24 years old.  We are actually getting along really well.  He only has two months here in Honduras.  Before he was serving in Uruguay, but got sent home for 6 months andnow he’s here.  I think president is trying to teach us something with this companionship.  I’m not sure what he did to get sent home, but I don’t really care to know.  All I know is that both of us have a lot of desire to be extra obedient.  The onley things in which I’m struggleing to have patients with is that he’s pretty cocky.  But I think its just to compensate for some self esteem issues.  But as time goes on its getting better. And also he blew out my speakers by playing the nusic too loud, so now it makes an annoying buzzing crackling sound.  That’s a bummer.

But that about all that’s going on here.

How are things going at the institute?  Are you making friends?  How’s dad’s calling with High Council?  How’s the language.

I love you both, thaks for everything.

Love

Elder Archibald

PS  The spanish isn’t msuper different between the latinos from other countries, just the workds they use are different.  But withmy experience, I’ve gotten along better with El Salvandorenos than Guatemaltecos.

PPS to buy an hour long calling card to the sttes cost 100 lempiras, which is like $5.  I can get a good deal because there is a member that works for a cell company here.  So I’ll by the card and borrow a cell phone to call the Vonage number.  Or would it be better to call a different number?  Or Elder Ray in the office says that he might be able to invite me to use his skype.  But you’d have to talk to him again to set it up and then he cal call me, and then I can call President Flores to ask for pemission.  W You can tell Elder Rayhat do I do?  To tell me during the week.

Can we conference in everybody? (nobody has internet in my area HAHA)

Week 23

Hey family,

    Ive got 7 minutes to write this. not a big fan of this new rule. ill just try to answer the questions that i read in dad;s email. i didnt have a chance to read all of moms...or from last weeks either. but as far as the phonecall goes, i think how it works is that im going to buy a calling card from here, they have good deals, like 60 minutes to the states for 30 lemps...or something like that. i think we will call on the 24th. ill try to call after 1 oclock my time to your vonage. also some requests, there is an awesome song, nearer my god to thee by kyle henderson that you should listen to, and come thou fount my sufjan stevens, also if someone could send me music of dustin kensrue if he does any hymns or any other good music like that. also if there is anyoway to make a dvd of the new church christmas videos that would be sweet. also the computer i use gave my usb flashdrive a virus and lost all my photos, luckily i have them on my camera still...but theres no time to clean up my memory on the computer. same thing that john sent with christmas music

 

time's up

love you

Elder archibald

Week 22

 

 

Hey family,

    not much time to write today...or from hereon out. theres a new rule in the mission where we only have 30 minutes to email. and 15 minutes of that has to be used writing to the mission president. and then it takes awhile to read all the letters from the family. so i have about 10 minutes to write you all haha. kind of a bummer. but anyways we had a baptism last saturday, Carlos Garcia. He has been coming to church with his friend who is a member for the last month and a half. it was hard at first to find time to meet with him and teach him but we finally found time to meet with him. He has such a big desiree and testimony to follow what god wants for him. also we are teaching a family, but its been hard becuase they have two kids that are absolutely crazy. they just start ripping pages out of the books of mormon we use and throw a tantrum if the parents dont give them what they want. but the family has come to church 3 times already and want their kids to grow up in the church. also they have to get married but the process is tough and like always the difficultad is the money. But we are hoping that they will get married and baptized this month, possibly on christmas eve.

and also thanks so much to john and kelli! i got the package! its funny how a stocking can make things feel like christmas,,,and about that news headline, im not surprised haha. and i also got the letter from mom and dad and the thing dad sent in the package of john and kelli. thank you so much. also not sure when we are gonna call home, but ill let you know soon. most likely you guys are gonna have to call a lan line here.

well times up...ill try to write more next week...didnt get a chance to read the emails that mom and dad sent. sorry :/. but i love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Archibald

Week 21

Hey there everybody!

    Great week this week. So on tuesday Elder Perez had to leave for transfers early because he's going to work in the office. So tuesday I was in a trio with some other elders in my district in the Area, Torocagua. It was pretty fun to be in a trio, but i was a little frustrated because there was a lot of work i wanted to do in my own Area San Rafael. We had some new investigators and other people with baptismal dates that I wanted to meet with. Also i spent the night with them, and i thought i was going to have to just sleep on the floor because there arent really extra mattresses around in Honduras haha. But those elders live with this amazing member family and the mom found a mattress for me to sleep on and she made the bed up for me and everything. i was super grateful for her help.

   Wednesday we had the changes meeting, it was cool to see all the missionaries that i came with in my group again after our training was over. reminded me of when the sons of Mosiah and Alma the younger found each other again. but anyways i got a new a companion his name is Elder Beltran. He's from Santa Ana, El Salvador. Im excited to get to know another companion and start to take more of a lead in the work here in San Rafael. But he seems like a pretty nice guy. he runs EVERYWHERE  so we are pretty tired and show up to every appointment super sweaty hah.

   but anyways we had a baptism this last saturday of Hermano Juan Jose Avila. He is older, like 71 years old. he has been seventh day adventist his whole life so the first few times we met with him he didnt really want to listen to us, but he started reading the book of mormon and there was a huge change. he started coming to church, mainly because hes a lonely guy, his wife died a few years ago and he sold his house and just lives in this small room by himself. then for a couple weeks he stopped meeting with us for some reason, we couldnt find him. but then after a couple weeks we found him again and he told us that he knew the book of mormon was true and needed to be baptized again with the correct authority. it was an incredible thing to see his testimony grow. it was sad though, because basically nobody came to his baptism, everyone said theyd come, but they didnt show up. during the baptismal service it was just the bishop, his councelor and elder beltran and I. Bishop started to apologize that nobody came, but Juan stopped him and said that it really didnt matter who was there. it was just between him and the lord and thats all that mattered. I was the one that got to baptize him and it was a great privelage to do that. He was confirmed the next day, and he gave a really powerful testimony during sunday school.

    Hows everything going in the states? germany? howd your thanksgivings go? mine was just like a normal day haha i had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some kiwi and crackers and cheese...super exciting i know.

 

well i love you all so much, youre in my prayers. welp thats it until next week!

 

Con mucho amor,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 20

 

 

Hola Familia!

    Wow Im officially trained haha. 12 weeks in the field already done. We also got a call last night that Elder Perez is going to be changed out of the area and im going to stay another 6 weeks here in San Rafael. Im glad that i get to stay because we have a lot of investigators that are progressing towards baptism and I love the members here so it will be awesome to spend Christmas and New Years with the people that I've already made these relationships with; it'll feel a little more at home. This week we've also been putting a lot of focus in finding new investigators. it was our goal to find every day...and we almost did, we found new people to teach every day except for on friday. its tough though because in the nights EVERYONE goes to bed super early and they get mad when we knock on their door at 7:30 or later because they say its super late...but its not even because they have to get up early, they sleep in late too haha.

    Monday after we were at the office we got permission to go to the Mall right by the office...it was such a weird experience for me haha. The mall was super nice, just like in the States...clean, safe, same stores, people in nice clothes and all that stuff. It was such a big change from what i'm used to being in ghetto San Rafael. I actually didnt really like being in the mall, I felt awkward and the people bothered me haha. I feel a lot more comfortable in my poor and humble people.

    Tuesday we did service and helped this familiy in our ward build a house. we just moved a ton of rocks and stuff to prepare the base and then started laying brick, it was a lot of fun actually, always good to be able to help out. that day we also got our laundry back from the lady in the ward that washes and she put some nice big holes in one of my shirts haha. all well.

    Wendesday we finally put a baptismal date, well have a baptism this saturday hopefully. ill tell you more about that next week.

well wow im already out of time...they are kicking us off the computers and we've only used a half hour when we usually get an hour.

 

but hey i love you all so much, thank you for your prayers,

 

Con Amor,

Elder Archibald

 

 

 

ps HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!! I ate a hostess cupcake in honor, on thursday haha.

 

also for christmas, tide to go pens, moleskine notebooks, patches of colorado and Honduras flags, nutela, beef jerkey, maybe some ramen haha, and if mom and dad are up for it a germany national soccer team jersey (black) haha itll probably be too pricey to send.

Week 19

Hola Familia!!

    wow yet another week here in HONDURAS. sometimes i still cant believe it haha. but good news is that the spanish is coming along great...somedays are rough and i have a hard time understanding people without teeth...and there are a lot of people without teeth here surprisingly haha. the ward mission leader i can barely understand either so im gonna have to work on that. but today we went to the office again so we road the bus to inner Tegucigalpa. its actually super pretty on the otherside of the city, and i feel safe haha. im in office depot right now...i feel like im in america haha. i think it would be pretty sweet to be able to work in the office in the future...maybe a little boring too. but anyways, this week was great. this month overall has been rough. we havent baptized at all this month, its my goal to baptize every month so im working really hard to baptized someone the last weekend of this month, theres a few people that definitely could be ready, but its just if they have the desire and want to put in the effort. this last week we have been putting a ton of focus in finding new investigators so we have been knocking a ton of doors...im getting better at starting up conversations with people but im still sooo awkward sometimes.

   on tuesday we had a Zone conference in our stake conference with 3 other zones from the mission. President flores came to talk to us and teach us. it was from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon....it was super long but we learned a ton. also i felt pretty good becuase He recognized me and my companion for all the sucess we have been having these last couple months and that the other missionaries should ask us what we are doing to have success. we were 3rd in the mission this month in baptisms. and i didnt know this before but the area im in hasnt really baptized in the last 2 or 3 years...well really ever. only about 1 baptism per month, and weve had 13 in the last 2. it really shows that you can baptize wherever if you just have faith you can do it.

  this is the last week of my training, a week and a half until the next change. Im pretty sure ill ve staying in my area for another 6 weeks and elder perez will be leaving this change.

 

i also got the packages from heather!! thank you so much!! sounds like it actually didnt take too long to get here. thank you thank you thank you. the mail has been pretty reliable for me so far.

 

also mom and dad, pretty sure that my thanksgiving will be just like every other day in the mission...maybe ill fix myself a turkey sandwich or something haha.

and also ive been thinking about you guys a lot and learning german...i just wanted to give you some advice. first off, never be content with your ability in the language...become a master in the language. this is the only time youll have to learn a language like this so make the most of it...dont just be average. something that helped me alot is even the times where you can speak english like in the apartment, dont. limit yourself to use no more than 100 words in english a day, even if people want to talk to you in english. force yourself to speak the language.

 

love you all so much, youre all in my prayers.

Elder Archibald

Week 19

Hola familia,

   i dont have a whole lot of time to write this week so ill try to write as much as i can. first off happy birthday to Heather and Jonas!!! the weather here as been pretty crazy, somedays its pretty chilly and other days its freaking hot...almost reminds me a little bit of colorado, except not at all hah. This last week we pretty tough, we ran out of minutes with our phone so we couldnt call anyone to confirm appointments or ask people to accompany us during lessons. we couldnt really find anyone in their houses who we had set appointments with. It kinda bugs me how we set firm appointments with people and we show up on time and everything but they are nowhere to be found. The majority of our teaching appointments felll through so we spent most of our time just knocking on doors. We are focusing on finding new investigators, but we are haveing a pretty tough time. we had a fundraiser to help get some more money to pay for the marriages for our investigators...one of our baptismal dates fell through because they dont want to get married til june so i have been pretty sad about that. friday night was pretty fun, we got to go to the ward talent show. there was a bunch of dancing and traditional Honduras stuff, it was a lot of fun and a good break from just knocking doors. in the future we are gonna try to go to some waterfalls as a district on our pday and also sometime soon go see the temple in honduras here because it just got the angel moroni put on, so that would be pretty cool to see.

Week 17

 

 

hey there family,

 

already passed the 4 month mark. cant believe it. its gone by so incredibly fast and i hear that its just going to keep getting faster. This week went by pretty fast too, i try to make notes in my agenda of stuff that happens so i can have something interesting to write home but i didnt do a great job at that this week haha. but ill try to remember.

Monday we got to go to the mission office. We took a bus to get there, it took a pretty long time but its way cheaper than taxi. its only 3 lemps to go by bus and about 100 to go by taxi. it was pretty crazy, the buses here are all like American school buses that they pimp out and theres like people hanging out the sides. but we were on the bus for awhile and started getting deeper into Tegucigalpa where the mission office was, but we got off a little too late from the bus and got a little lost, but we eventually found our way to the office. it was cool to get to leave the mission boundaries to do that. The other side of the mission is WAY nicer haha a lot more money and a safer. We got to the office and picked up some of the stuff our house needed and then i also had quite a bit of mail. i got mom and dads postcard! that was really cool. is that where you guys are? its gorgeous. i also got a letter from jonas and miles, that was the best haha. i loved their drawings. after that we went to this store across the street that sells a bunch of american stuff. We bought a bunch of food because its cheaper there and i also bought a pillow....finally a pillow haha. its been really awesome to be able to sleep finally.

     Tuesday i had exchanges with the district leader Elder Silva, it was a lot of fun, we are pretty good friends. its always good to see how other missionaries work and to get a break from the same thing everyday. their area is nicer than San Rafael, but not by much. but when we were teaching everyone kept complimenting my spanish and still didnt believe i only had 7 weeks in Honduras. I dont think my spanish is actually that great, i think i am just good at pretending i know whats going on haha.

     Wednesday we had english classes...basically it was just the ward primary that showed up haha. we are hoping to get more adults to come and maybe get more references out of that. but it was still a lot of fun, i love the kids here.

    Friday we had the wedding of the Nuñez Carias family, it was really cool to see. they have been recieving the missionaries for about 2 years and never wanted to get married, but a few weeks ago they decided they wanted to and that they also wanted to get baptized. before the father was a really dark and cold person but as time went on i could see a real change in him. the gospel truly changes the lives of those who put in their part to recieve the blessings.

Saturday that family was baptized along with another young guy, Gerardo. our goal this month for baptisms was 7, we had 8. i was looking at the numbers from previous months in this area for the last year...they would average about 1 baptism a month, and in my 2 months here we reached 13. its been amazing to see this success. i hope it can carry on throughout the mission.

 

brett and ash, ive been thinking of some names for you baby...we are teaching a guy named Faustino and another guy named Cecilio...i think those would be pretty sweeet...or Tyler. thats a good one too.

 

John and Kelli, oh my gosh! katie is gorgeous!! thank you for the pictures. im glad that everything turned out great and that she is healthy.

 

mom, ive been trying to eat more haha, i weighed myself at the office and i way 155...so i gues im just losing weight around the waist and building muscles in my legs from climbing these mountains haha.

 

well i love you all so much, thank you for the letters.

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 16

 

 

Hey there family!

     well another crazy week over here in Honduras...sometimes i still cant believe im here haha. the other day i was standing on the back porch of our house just looking out and i was just laughing to myself a little bit thinking "wow...i am a LONG ways from home". And still getting used to being the only white person in an entire area haha. when tell people that im 19 they are super suprised and a lot think im like 26 because im so much taller than them haha. my spanish is also improving...a little bit day by day. i still have NO idea what people say over the phone though haha so that makes for some awkward phone calls.

   Lunes...haha monday i mean. Monday, pday was awesome. played soccer and spent some time with the zone. its always nice to be able to spend a little bit of time with Americans haha. after that it was back to the apartment to wash clothes the entire day...it takes FOREVER to do them by hand. i definitely miss the washing machine haha. but im getting better at washing them haha. Honduras is pretty 3rd world...at least the area im in. one thing thats been tough is that NOBODY is married and before they get baptized they have to get married and it costs quite a bit of money (about 50 bucks) so we have to do fundraisers for them to earn the money. we sell tamales or baleadas or bread or whatever they can make.

   On Tuesday i had exchanges with the Zone Leader Elder Medina. I went to his area, Cerro Grande. it was a really good day. it was funny, the houses there are so much nicer than in my area...well because theyre actually houses and not shacks. the houses really werent that nice compared to The States, but it was still weird for me to see. it also has one of the best views in the whole mission, i was mad i didnt bring my camera. maybe ill be there again and can take pictures. but it was a good esperience to spend time with a different companion and learn more. my spanish was a lot better that day too for some reason.  people i talked to literally didnt believe that i only had 7 weeks in Honduras...they thought that i had 8 months or something. made me feel good to hear that.

   Wednesday morning was awesome. i got to take a hot shower!! the house in Cerro grande has a shower head that heats the shower...i remembered Matts experience with the sparks flying down on him while he was showering so i was a little nervous at first haha. but it was sweet because its actually been pretty cold the last little while around 60 degrees in the mornings and at night...it SUCKS taking showers haha. its sooo freezing. i think im going to start boiling water and just take bucket showers with warm water rather than real showers with ice water.

    thursday the district came over to our house in San Rafael and we oredered a pizza. we were so stoked and super excited to get the pizza. we were waiting for a long time and then they called us and said that we had to walk to the other neighborhood because the driver wouldnt come to the house because the area is too dangerous or something. so we walked all the way up this giant hill, got the pizza, walked back, got to the house and opened the box....where we saw that we got pepperoni like we ordered...but they also decided to throw on some anchovies...we were so mad haha. it was pretty gross and it wreeked. and its not like in america where you can call and complain and theyll do something about it. its more like "well...sorry" haha.

   Friday there was a TON of military a policemen patroling in San Rafael, i think they were looking for someone...i think they found him, because they all were walking with a guy in cuffs when they left haha. avout 20 of them, he must have been a pretty important guy to catch.

   anyways that was basically my week! we are going to baptize 5 people this saturday so thats really exciting. its this family we{ve been working with for a long time and also another guy that we found and has progressed super fast.

 

thats crazy that dad got called to be on the high council in your stake in Germany haha.

 

 

i love you all so much. i atttached a few photos.

 

con mucho amor,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 15

 

 

Hola Familia!

 

this week flew by, also my first 6 weeks are done! it has gone be pretty quick actually...and i hear they just keep getting faster and faster. well 2 elders from my district got transfered, elder Dunlop and Elder Polamalu. i was kind of bummed to hear that they are leaving because we are pretty good friends. also they told me and Perez that we had to go to the transfer meeting even though neither of us were getting changed. We had to go to bring another companionship to our apartment. they are gonna live with us for about a week while their house is getting ready or something like that. its been fun to have some more people around the house and change things up. they arent working in our area, but the area that is right next to ours, their area is closed to white people hah.

but weve been having more success this week too, we are finding more people to teach and we have 13 with baptismal dates. we have 3 families that we are teaching and its been cool to see them progress because theyve been investigating the church for years and years before, some since 2007, and are finally deciding to make the decision to move forward and be baptized. its been really awesome too see that the families that ive taught are starting to integrate into the church really well and i really hope that they continue and stay active. in one year ill get to go through the temple with them. also my spanish is improving...i can understand the majority of what people are saying to me...but i still get super confused sometimes. at least the people are super nice with me about my spanish and dont make me feel bad.

funny side note, the mom of one of the families we are teaching was wearing a 3OH!3 shirt...the band from boulder, CO. haha i asked her if she knew what it was, but she had no idea. she told me later that she liked the music though hah.

also these last few weeks ive been losing a lot of weight, i think its a combination of constantly climbing the mountains here in San Rafael. i{m on the last hole in my belt and there is still space hah...i need to figure out how to put on some weight so i dont have to keep pulling up my pants.

 

well sorry another short letter, but we dont have a whole lot of time to write, i{ll try to write a longer one next week. love you all!!! youre all in my prayers.

 

Love elder archibald

 

ps. feliz cumpleaños Mateo

 

pps. i{m glad to hear the boys in florida got my letter

Week 14

 

 

hola familia

 

Dont have a whol lot of time to write this week. monday for pday we got to leave the zone to go shopping. we went to this market place called mayoreo where the sella bunch of fake rolex and jerseys and all that fun stuff. it was pretty cool to see. reminded me of when we went to he place with brett in mexico city. on wednesday we had a meeting for all the newbies in the mission. it was awesome to see all the missionaries that i came in with me. it was fun to share stories and see some famliar faces. also i had an interview with president flores, he says i need to be ready to train at the end of this next transfer...its not a sure thing that i will be training but i guess it is likely. also later that we were teachin one of our families that has a bptismal date. they put up their daughter for adoption a long time ago and just recently they got her informtation. she lives in hawaii and doesnt speak any spanish so they had a hard timecommunicating. so that night they had me translate over the phone between them. it was an awesome experience. the daughter and the mom were both crying...i was just glad that i was able to understand enough of the language to translate. on saturday we had a baptism of la familia Andino. it was an awesome experience. this was the first baptism of a family that i found, taught, and baptized. im super grateful that i have been able to see this much success in my first area, 8 bapisms in my first 6 weeks.

 

We are putting more baptismal dates tonight, and are hoping to have a total of 9 baptisms this month. Its really amazing to see how the gospel changes lives. Today isnt going to be that exciting, we just have to clean the house really good for the new group ofmissionaries coming in. it is going to be nice to not be in the newbie group anymore

 

 

hey well i love you all so much! talk to you soon

 

Elder archibald

Week 13

Hey family!!

This week flew by. it was pretty rough as far as success goes because most of our appointments fell through, but it was still a good week. ive been trying to think more positive haha. Every day should be a good day, even the bad ones. But anyways dad asked about the house i live in so i'll talk a little about that. My place is actually SUPER nice...compared to the other houses here in San Rafael haha. our place is huge. 2 stories, 2 bathrooms, 2 showers, bedroom, big kitchen about the size of the one in our house, and big living area...but it looks so empty because we have nothing haha. we have our table where we study and thats about it haha. i'll take some fotos to show you next week...and about the photos i dont know how to shrink em down. i could change the quality on my camera so they are smaller, but they look really really blurry when i do that and i want to keep nicer quality. sorry about that. but anyways, we live by this evangelical church. they are always playing SUPER loud music and it echoes through all of san rafael. when were teaching in houses, the music is always in the background...every night. and theres also a few other churches that play music a lot and its so loud haha. also the people who live below us blast american 80''s music every morning haha. its mainly really epic 80s love ballads. their favorite is the song is Total eclipse of my heart..or whatever its called, it goes "and i need you more than ever!" but they play that every morning almost so its been stuck in my head haha.

oh and random thing, for whatever reason everyone started dumping there trash just on our street about 50 yards from our house. it reeks. i dont get it, the dumpster is just further down and it would be so easy for them to throw away their trash there. makes me mad because we have to smell it in our house haha. i imagine that thats a little different from germany haha. Tuesday was pretty rough. ALL of our plans and back up plans fell through so we contacted for 4 hours straight...in the pouring rain. we only got a couple positive contacts, but hey its something at least. Wednesday was my 3 month mark...wow. i thought the first 2 months went by pretty fast in the MTC but compared to this last month they were like years. this month FLEW by. its pretty crazy how days go by so slow, but weeks and months go by fast. days feel like weeks, weeks feel like days. Thursday we had a little adventure. there was this giant wasp nest outside our back door. and a ton of GIANT wasps. so i put on my jacket and gloves, got a broomstick and knocked it down and then ran back
inside...unscathed!

 
Friday night was super rough; we had 4 dinner appointments. we met with a less active lady who gave us some rice and bananas and pork...the pork was gross and im pretty sure it was from the pigs that are always eating the trash down the street from my house. but it was a lot of food. then we went back to the house to eat our own dinner, but as soon as we got there we got a phone call from a family telling us that they made dinner for us and taht we had an appointment with them. so we ran over there and had some more rice, beans, meat, and tortillas. it was pretty good. then after that we went to pick up this member who was gonna teach with us that night, he invited us in to eat dinner with his family. we couldnt say no because earlier he said how some missionaries turned down dinner with him and he got mad about it. so we ate this weird mixture of sweet potatoes and uncooked chicken. i had to choke that down. at this point i was about to throw up because we had eaten SO MUCH. then on our way home this member told us to come in and she gave us a bunch of this pasta stuff that was pretty gross too...haha it was so much food haha. its funny though because we NEVER have dinner appointments, but for whatever reason they all landed on the same night.

Saturday and Sunday were awesome. conference was amazing. the morning session on saturday i had to watch in spanish, afternoon they had a gringo room where we watched it in english online, priesthood session was in spanish. the sunday i got to watch both sessions in the gringo room. its really cool watching conference as a missionary because you pay a lot more attention to all the mission stories.

Well thats waht happened this week! we have a baptism this saturday. La familia Andino. they were golden investigators. my favorite family so far. they really were prepared to hear the gospel. there wedding is saturday and baptism right after that. its tough because nobody is married and they have to use what little money they have to pay for it.

well i love you all so much. youre always in my prayers, thank you for your prayers. until next time!

con mucho amor
Elder Archibald

Week 12

Hola familia,

 

yet another week down. it was a pretty good week, the first without a baptism though haha. its funny how i'm used to having baptisms every week, the work is really progressing here in honduras. well let me think what i did this week...we have 9 people with baptismal dates next month...possibly 11. we'll see. its been amazing to see how much success we have been having. its really what keeps me going. although we are having a lot of trouble finding new investigators though. any suggestions for door approaches from my brothers and brother in law? im not really sure what to do haha.

 

last pday was alright. we just emailed, then went shopping, then went back to the house and cleaned a bunch. did laundry too...it sucks without a washing machine, my knuckles were like raw after cleaning all my clothes on the concrete wash board haha. the rest of the zone went to go hang out somewhere but i guess elder perez didnt want to go, so we just sat around in the house all day. we were super excited though because we finally got a fan that we were waiting on from the mission office for the last 3 weeks because out other one broke, but when we were putting it together we found out it didnt have a motor...haha. this week ive had a pretty bad cold and little bit of a fever, and it doesnt help that im not really getting any rest either. we only take 15 minutes for lunch and 15 minutes for dinner every day. and then its back to climbing up these sides of mountains.  the spanish is coming along slowly but surely...i have my good days and i have my bad days. but everyday it gets a little better. im understanding more but its still super hard to formulate how im going to respond in spanish in my head. oh and i should probably explain the new training program for the mission field. before i th ink it was only a 6 week training program but now its 12 weeks with an additional hour of companionship study everyday. But with the new training, supposedly the new missionary is supposed to be able to be a trainer after. the zone leaders told me that they think that i might be training in a few more transfers...im not sure what to think of that. i can barely speak spanish, i dunno how i could train someone else haha.  but last thursday was pretty fun, there was leadership training all day so i went on exchanges with elder polamalu and i showed him around San Rafael, when we contacted with him we got a lot of positive contacts. then on sunday we had 5 investigators in church, it was a really good sunday too. the stake president spoke and really recognized the investigators and made them feel super welcomed. also there was a family that has been innactive that we got to start coming back to church. the family has 13 kids with their single grandmother so it was pretty cool to see their effort to get to church.

 

anyways, what else is goin on at home? well...i guess john and kelli are the only ones at home. wow thats weird to think about haha. how was aidens birthday? oh and i also just got moms package with the ties today! thank you!! when did you send it? well we dont have much time left. sorry no pictures today ill try to send some next week. btw thanks everyone for the letters and emails. i got matts dear elders and also a few letters from friends.

 

i love you all. youre in my prayers.

 

Elder Archibald

Week 11

 

 

Hey family,

 

first off thank you so much for the emails from everyone. i love you all so much. the mission is hard, thats for sure, but i know that ill get through this rough time.  but anyways, its been raining A LOT. rains every day SUPER hard. and there is sooooo much mud. ive been using my goretex shoes pretty much all the time and my feet have been kept pretty dry so thats good.

 

last pday was awesome, we came to the church and emailed (the keyboards are really weird and thats why i hardly put in punctuation haha) after that we played soccer, americans vs the natives haha. it was really fun. after that i got a haircut and a shave at a barber shop here. it only cost like 35 lemps (which is like a buck fifty i think). then we went shopping for groceries...its really hard to shop because i dont know what good prices are yet and i dont really know what the food is haha...so its a learning experience.

 

the 15th was independence day here. it was NUTS. everyone was lighting off these homemade fireworks (bombs) and they were SOOO loud. it was sweet. but the funny thing is that the next day, after the local soccer team won there match, there was more fireworks lit off than during independence day.

 

this week weve been eating a lot more authentic food. i had my first baleada...they are soooo good. we get them a lot more often now. and i still really havent gotten sick yet so thats really good (knock on wood) but im sure its just a matter of time.

 

on friday i had exchanges and went to a different area. i went to Elder polamalu"s area and spent the day doing work there. it was pretty nice to get out of San Rafael. it is SOO ghetto there haha but the area i went to was actually pretty nice (nice for honduras). it was fun to be with Elder P because everyone loves his personality and he gets into a lot of houses. when i was with polamalu my spanish was a lot better because i wasnt nervouse to talk to the people when i was with him because his spanish isnt that great. but i was able to really talk and have a conversationn..it was so awesome.

 

on saturday i got to baptize Edwin Zepeda, the son of the family we baptized last saturday. its awesome that ive got to get in the water twice already. but it was great to be able to complete that family. Edwin says that he wants to serve a mission and be like me...he really warmed up to me which is cool to make connections like that.

 

also...the animals here are crazy..animal planet needs to come film here. theres packs of dogs that all fight each other in the streets, and then a gang of pigs came in and started fighting the dogs and then some chickens got thrown in there too somehow. i wish i would have gotten a video haha.

 

anyways, i love you all so much. i love the letters. i get emails more often than dear elders so emails are probably better.

hope youre all doing well. Im so excited for mom and dad. i want some pics of them. they are gonna be awesome in germany. i cant wait to hear their stories. sorry i dont have more time to respond to everyone, but know that i lvoe you all so much.

 

con amor

elder archibald

Week 10

HEY FAMILY

alright, i dont have a lot of time so ill try to fit in all that i can
quick. some thigns i forgot to mention last time is that pres. flores
doesnt really speak english so thats another reason i have to learn
spanish quick. Elder Perez mumbles when he speaks spanish so its super
hard to understand...even the people here have a hard time
understanding him.
  Something thats pretty cool is all the missionaries getting trained
get DVD players to watch preach my gospel training videos. I love my
district here. there are a bunch of cool elders. one is Elder
Polamalu, his cousin is Troy Polamalu that plays for the Steelers. i
guess theres a video about him in the MTC by espn..you should check it
out.
   last pday was pretty crazy, being out shopping and all that in a
completely spanish world...its gonna take some getting used to for
sure. Its rains every day here so ive been pretty soaked most the
time. also there are gross pigs and dogs EVERYWHERE. i hate them haha.
BUT i still havent gotten sick at all yet. i{ve been good about the
water i use...mom would be proud. also my work for Colorado mosquito
control has paid off. i was washing my clothes in the pira (this
concrete tub) and i saw all these little things swimming
around...mosquitos. my companion had no idea what they were.. so we
are going to buy some stuff to kill them.
   Teaching is going great. lots of families progressing. we baptized
a family on saturday. the Zepeda Family. i got to baptize the Dad so
that was a really cool experience. there are also a lot of other
families progressing towards baptismal dates. the lord really does
prepare people to be taught.

Week 9 from Honduras

hola familia!!

   alright, strap in, i have a lot to write so there might be some errors haha. The flight to tegucigalpa was pretty good i couldnt sleep much but it ended up being alright. The landing into the Toncontin airport was CRAZY. super short and super hard. it was cool lookin out the window as we were flying in and seeing how the city sprawls out everywhere...it wasnt quite like mexico city but it was still pretty cool. Some parts of the city actually looked pretty nice, others were SO GHETTO. when we got off the plane we went through to customs. i was the first to get through and president flores and the APs were there to meet us. we got in the car and drove to the mission office. the streets are nuts here. so many dogs and crazy driving. When we got to the mission office we had a meeting about rules and all that other stuff for a few hours. I also had my first interview with president flores. he is awesome, i can tell that he has a lot of love for the missionaries and the work. I also ran into moms second cousin Elder Ray! that was kind of cool to meet him. After that we went to the mission home to meet president flores family and sister flores cooked us dinner. on the drive there, it was crazy, every single store had at least 1 or 2 armed gaurds out front with big shotguns or other kinds of rifles. After dinner we went to the APs house where all 13 of us newbies stayed the night. (all of these buildings so far arent in my mission boundaries haha). the next morning we got up and went back to the missio home to have breakfast and then we went to a stake center some other place to have the transfer meeting. There was a slideshow showing where everyone was going. my picture popped up in the San Rafael area in the Torocagua zone. and my companion is elder Perez. from guatemala...he speaks NO english haha. so family, your prayers were answered haha. After that we took a taxi to my area...it is one of the most poor areas in the whole mission...its nuts. we got to our apartment and then i unpacked and then we started teaching right away. San Rafael is set up in this valley with 2 cliffs. hills on either side and the houses go up these steep hills so it is a LOT of climbing and hiking...legit hiking. there isnt concrete or anything. we climb up these steps carved into the side of the cliff but a lot of the area doesnt even have steps. most of the houses have dirt floors, all of them have tin rooves. some are made out of concrete, and a lot are just pieces of wood nailed together...these people have basically nothing. the area is soooo poor, tons of dogs and pigs and chickens in the street... and soooo ghetto...AND I LOVE IT. its crazy to look out the window and see all these shacks. its so different and this is exactly what i wanted! we dont have any dinner appointments though because the people barely have enough money to feed themselves...so i havent had a native meals yet...just pb and j every day basically. im going shopping today to buy more food. Everyone here is so nice though, i definitely feel very welcomed. the bishop is an awesome guy and really cares about his ward. but there{s this one guy that we see all around. I{m pretty sure hes homeless and he is always drunk...he always comes up to me and shakes my hand and hangs on for way to long and gives me a big toothless smile and calls me amiguito...haha its weird. i always use hand sanitizer after. but its still so surreal to just look out and see this village in the jungle, and its home for the next 12 weeks.

    and as far as the missionary work is going, we had a baptism on saturday! Natalia Mejia, she is this 60 year old woman and is so nice. we have a family of 4 we are baptizing next weekend. and then we commited a family to baptism last night in their first lesson. The people here are so ready for the gospel. i love it. well i dont have much time so i{m gonna attache some photos. i love you all!!!!

Week 8 & Pictures

HOLA FAMILIA!

     I can't believe it! i'm almost done here at the MTC. The time has flown by. its crazy. this will be my last email from the united states in a very long time haha. This time next week i could be in some jungle somewhere speaking broked spanish to some Hondurans...i cant wait! It still isnt quite real for me yet...but i guarentee that it will be once i land in the Toncontin airport in Tegus. I'm really wondering how my spanish is going to be; when i talk to natives here i can understand about 90% of what they are saying and i can reply most of the time with something that might kinda sorta make sense haha.

    Alright well it's been a pretty normal week as far as the first few couple days go. On sunday it was elder snow's birthday and we had a little party for him, it was a ton of fun...i'll just have to send home some picture of it haha. 

     last monday i think it was, my old teacher Hermana Pete ate lunch with my district and she brought her friend who is also a teacher at the MTC to eat with us too. I forget his name but he is from Tegucigalpa. So i talked to him a lot. it was cool, after the first 5 minutes or so he asked where i learned spanish and i just said "uhmm...pues..aqui." (well...here) and he was really surprised at how well i spoke...i dont know if he really meant that or if he was just trying to be nice haha...either way. But i was talking with him more and he told me some really cool stuff...first off, the Tegucigalpa temple is for sure going to be in my mission boundaries (Comayaguela)! and secondly he told me that my mission home is in the Tegucigalpa mission boundaries which means that our mission has permission to go basically anywhere in tegus. He also was teaching me how to understand how Hondurans speak, they use this weird conjugation called vos...not vosotros. but i guess its a little weird to listen to at first but i'll get an ear for it after not too long.

     on Tuesday there was a devotional from Claudio D. Zivic from the First quorum of the seventy. it was awesome. he is from argentina. He basically talked about how we need to imagine ourselves and what we want to be two years from now and do everything we can to become that. Our life is like an echo, we get everything back that we put into it. Reminded me of the Avett Brothers' lyrics "Decide what to be, and go be it." Anyways that was a really good night.

     On Wednesday i hosted again and showed the newbies around haha. I hosted one missionary from Cherry Creek and then we ran into his friend here who is going to be on my flight to Honduras. He seemed like a really cool guy so i'm lookin' forward to getting to know him better. There are 11 people in my travel group going to comayaguela. Its a really cool group of missionaries... the ones that i know at least.

     Today we went to the temple and that was awesome as usual. and then i've just been doin P-day stuff since. I need to write some letters.

Mom- so i'm not sure if you've sent a package already, but i think i'm set on everything i need...I got the floss things from brett and ashley and then i bought those stickers at the bookstores here. Thats crazy about the new bishopric, they are going to be awesome. i wish i could've heard YOu and dad speak in church.

Dad- I got your letter with the calling card and church news. thank you so much! so i land in ATL at 6:30 am...which i think is 4:30 am in CO...but i'll be in the airport for 4 hours so i can wait a couple hours for people to wake up haha. also i did get that package with the DVD of my pictures in it. Im going to ahve to wait til i'm in the field to transfer the pics onto my thumbdrive...but thats only in a couple days...WOW.  I'm so excited for you and mom though. I've been praying that you guys will be able to get everything you need to get done taken care of and beable to have some peace in the final moments before you leave! It seems like quite the list of things to do. Oh, i also met 2 elders going to Frankfurt while i was hosting, i had them write down your names and to keep an eye out for you in the institutes and such. I'm sure the ward is going to miss you a lot too as bishop...it was the refiner's fire...a cool quote from a devotional here from Dennis Simmons from the seventy "Sanctification is the process we take to be cleansed from the world. It is cleansing, purifying, changing, repenting, recognizing, suffering, growing, accepting, seeking, avoiding, thanking, appreciating, laughing, crying, choosing, exalting, opening, understanding, abandoning, submitting, regretting, giving, striving, and loving. This is your sanctification process; this is your refiner's fire."

Ali- Thank you so much for the pictures! NYC looked like it was so much fun. Kenzie Rose is gorgeous, i miss her! i laughed so hard with the pictures you photoshoped Jonas and Miles into haha. i bet they LOVED that. So are you all settled in into your place in LA? how's matt liking getting out of NY finally?

Well I love you all so much, youre in my prayers. The gospel is true. the book of mormon is true.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

ps. someone should send me a weather report for Tegucigalpa :)

Pictures from Elder Archibald

 

Week 7

Hola Familia!

     This week FLEW by. wow. I think if i counted right I only have 10 days left until I should be on a plane headed to HONDURAS. My district is supposed to get our planes de viaje (travel plans) sometime today, i'll send another message once I find out when my flights are and such. Chances are i'll have a lay over at some point and be able to call home, so i'll let you know when that might be...who knows, maybe i'll have a lay over in Denver haha.

    Anyways, i'm tryin to remember the happenings of this last week. it was a lot like most of the other weeks here...they kind of all run together. But i did find out that Elder Briggs and my friend Elder Deyoung are travel companions and they leave this wednesday or tuesday or something so i introduced them. i'm super excited for both of them. Also i had a friend Elder Vasher leave to the Tampa FL mission so David and Whit should keep an eye out for him. Which mission is Brock Avery in again?

     I also sent my SD card to the house last Saturday...have you gotten it yet? And i also sent mom a letter in the mail back to the house. I got the email that dad send to all the missionaries announcing your mission! They are going to be so pumped for you. Did you announce it over the pulpit last sunday or is it this sunday? 

     On Tuesday for the Devotional, Elder David F. Evans from the first Quorum of the seventy came to speak to us. He spoke on the importance of teaching our investigators who heavenly father is. In a lot of cases we will be the first to teach them that they are literal spirit children of god, their father. He didn't really include a whole lot of new info, but it was a good reminder nonetheless. I'm gonna miss the firesides here every sunday and the devotionals ever tuesday when i'm out in the field.

     On Wednesday I got to do hosting and show the newbies around. It was a lot of fun to welcome all those missionaries in to the MTC. lots of tears. haha. It was also just super nice to do something out of the ordinary from our regular schedule. That took a few hours and i got to hang out with the friends that i've made here. I'm pretty sure i'll get to do it next wednesday as well.

 

David & Whitney: It was so awesome to get your letters! It sounds like the location of your condo is so nice; close to the ocean, right by the pool, lots of fun stuff for the boys to do. That sounds super fun about David being able to ride with all those bikers and be a part of a peloton...i bet its way different. Thats also good that he'll be able to start at the hospital soon. is he going to be doing more reconstructive surgery there than cosmetic? I LOVED whitney's letter too haha her spanish is really good...its cool that i'm actually able to understand that stuff now. And, of course the stories and quotes from the boys are awesome. my district loves the 'Jonas says' portion :) ahhh i miss those kids. Tell them that the pictures they colored were awesome and tell jonas thanks for the note and song. it was fun getting 3 letters 3 days in a row. oh and the articles are the BEST to get. that article about hospice care was suuper interesting. i also loved that talk from elder cook....the clippings of the random stories were super intertaining too. I definitely would enjoy some more of those in the future. YOU ARE THE BEST!

 

Well thats about it from me this week. i love you all so much.

 

Con Amor,

 

Elder Archibald

MTC picture

Elder Archibald with he's cousin Elder Wood

 

This is the only picture we have of Elder Archibald in the MTC. We had to steal it off of his cousin's facebook page. Hopefully he'll get the photo kiosks figured out so we can get some more pictures. 

Week 6

Hey family!
Well its been a great week...the time is FLYING by. Its crazy, I have a little more than 2 and a half weeks left! My expected departure date is on the 29th, i think i'll be getting my travel plans a week from today. i cant wait to actually be a missionary haha.

I got the package yesterday and let me just say...THANK YOU SO MUCH! that was such an awesome package to get. Basically all the candies i've been craving, and the ties are always fun to get. I needed some extras to give away as parting gifts to some of my friends here.

Well it feels a little like a groundhog day week, but there are some random things that were cool that happened. We got a new teacher for my district to replace Hermana Pete, her name is Hermana Staib. She's a really great teacher and super nice...but it made me realize really how amazing my other teachers are. Not that staib isnt good, but my other teachers were just that good.  Also there has been a pretty big change in curriculum here at the mtc and how class is structured. rather than just teaching once a week at teaching resource center (TRC) where we go to teach mock lessons, we are teaching everyday in class with "investigators". and then once a week we go to the TRC to teach volunteers, except they dont pretend to be investigators, its basically like we go and just talk with them about the gospel and share a message based on what their real needs are as a real person. I like it a lot more.
Also for the devotional on tuesday Cecil O. Samuelson spoke. he talked about how we need to always need to be on our best behavior as missionaries because you never know when your actions could turn soemone away from wanting to hear about the church...and besides, god is always watching anyways. also almost everyday for about an hour, for my language study, i go and just talk to some of the advanced elders in spanish. it is really amazing to me how well i can understand what they are saying. we'll see how much i have down by the time i'm in Honduras. hopefully it wont be a huge adjustment. also ms. bradley sent me a dearelder yesterday. it was a surprise but really nice to hear from her. it was really thoughtful of her to send me that note. It was very encouraging. 

 i see elder briggs quite a bit, i'm so jealous he's leaving like next week haha. i also havent seen my friend  mitch winter though.

Another cool kind of analogy we were talking about in class is about faith. Faith is like when you're walking up an escalator thats going down. If you keep a steady pace in working and moving up you'll stay still right where youre at. if you start moving slower or stopping all together then you move backwards and down. In order to progress in faith you have to walk faster and work harder than the world is bringing you down. Don't ever quit!


matt and ali, Comó están! gracias por su carta. Quiero ver los fotos de nueva york! solomente dos más semanas hasta matt vuelve, si? la pregunta sobre, si yo teneré un compañero y una area que son muy dificil, comó yo actuaré? Es una buena pregunta y debo pensar lo que haré. Estuvo raro con las otras personas que fumar y beber en nueva york? Mi español esta yendo asi asi, pero es mucho mejor que antes el MTC. No puedo hablar y escribir muy bien, pero puedo entender mucho cuendo estoy escuchando a los avansados y cuando estoy leyendo. Pues, necesito practicar más! me escribes en español el próximo vez y podemos practicar la idioma. Brett tambien.

well i love you all so much. you're in my prayers. i look forward to hearing from you. the church is true. joseph smith was a prophet. the book of mormon is true.

con mucho amor,
-Elder Archibald

ps. still trying to figure out how to get pictures home. i tried to make a cd today but the kiosks were out of order...like always. its frustrating, but i'm just gonna try to go everyday and see if i can do it.

Week 5

Hola Familia,

     So to start off thank you so much to dad for sending me that package with all the ties socks and reese's, that definitely made my week haha. I love getting stuff in the mail :) and also i know that mom said she sent me a letter before awhile ago but i havent gotten anything in the mail, if she hasnt sent it yet then all well haha. I also paid for my typhoid pills it cost $48, and there's a thing in the mail that i'm supposed to send home for insurance stuff so i'll be sending that today most likely. also i got a letter from the DMV about my driver's licence extention sticker, it said something like "we regret to inform you that the extention was unable to be processed..." it needed a $3.00 fee with it. i can resend it in with a check for $3.00. it'll my last check i have... i'll be back on email in a couple hours while i'm doing laundry so hopefully you get this and can tell me what i should do about that.

I've seen taylor a couple times now around, he seems like he is doing awesome. we saw each other on our sunday walk at the temple and took a picture. i'll have to either mail home my SD card so you can get pictures off or i can burn some CD's i think of the pictures and send them home. It seems like the photo kiosks are always out of order though, its kind of frustrating. I also saw scott this morning, he got in yesterday. we ate breakfast together and he seems like he is so happy to be here. he is going to be an aweesome missionary. Mitch Winter gets her next wednesday on the 10th, i want to try and host and possible get to welcome him into the MTC. i'll let ya know how that goes if i'm able to do it. i think that would be so much fun. usually they dont let you til you are in your 7th week or something, but i still think i might be able to.

Gym is fun as always haha, i'm getting better at soccer. i play with all the missionaries from central and south america...its so much fun. its also fun to hear all of the different accents from different countries. i've been trying to practice my spanish a lot with them, most are from Chile or other places around there. but there's this Elder from puerto rico, and he has the coolest accent haha. I also play a lot of sand volley ball outside, i've made some good friends, Elder Deyoung (he's going to the Lubbock Texas mission like Scott) and Elder Bowman.

Every tuesday morning my zone has service. it starts at 6:00 am so we have to wake up and 5:30 which is kind of a bummer, but its alright. we clean another residence hall...just do vaccuuming, sweeping, trash...etc. we were at another place before, but we got switched and i like it so much more. the other people that we worked for that worked at the MTC were these really sarcastic rude ladies, but now we work under these really nice older men...it makes such a difference and makes me happy to do service when the people who tell me what to do are actually nice and say thank you.

There are a TON of new missionaries in my zone/branch now. we get about 2 new districts every week. we have about 4 districts of native spanish speakers too which is AWESOME. i love being able to practice spanish more. i think there is like a total of 95 missionaries in my branch. its a lot. I can't believe that pretty soon my district is going to have the most seniority; only 4 weeks left. its been flying by. my last p-day feels like it was yesterday.

Last tuesday for the Devotions Elder Geruld N. Lund from the first Quorum of the Seventy came to talk to us (he wrote The Work and The Glory) anyways, he talked about faith. He gave 2 preconditions for recieveing faith: 1. Must have a soft heart and 2. must be tought truthful things. then he went on to  tell the three steps to recieving faith: 1.must have a desire to recieve knowledge and faith. 2. action. When we have hope we need to act on it...that is our trial of faith. 3. and after we act on our hope then we recieve a witness from the holy ghost and our faith will be built. I cant wait for mom and dad to get to come to the Firesides and Devotionals. there hasnt been one boring one yet since i've been here.

Whats goin on in the outside world? Sports? any big events? Whats going on in the family? How are david and whitney liking florida? the boys? Heather liking work? any hot dates haha? Glad to hear john and dad got back from Vegas and that they had a good time doing gagglesoft stuff. How are brett and ashley and luella liking St. George...hopefully it starts cooling off there soon. only another month of summer haha! How was ali's trip to NY to see matt? i sent her a letter to the house, i'm not sure if she got it. I also got Kelli's dear elder. good to hear athlete is continuing to progress. and i wish i could see aiden around mackenzie, i know he's going to be such a good big brother to his little sister. He's such a good kid. I miss him so much! any ideas for names yet for the baby?

Well i love you all so much. hope to hear from you soon. Write back :)

The gospel is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet. The Book of Mormon is true.

con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 4: Hi Again

Hey there, I just finished my laundry and i have a little bit more time to write so this will just be a really random letter. So before i forget, do you think someone could send me the rest of my Brother bott and mission prep notes that i had in that file on the mac desktop? also, i'm just sitting here chilling with Elder Collinsworth...from the BYU basketball team haha. He's a cool guy. We're just talking about Mark. He says that his older brother loves coach Pope and that he's so excited to get back from his mission and play for him. He's headed to Russia, and has been here for 10 weeks and has 2 more. i'm glad i only have to be here for 9 weeks haha.   I keep meeting more people going to my mission with me, i'm really excited they all seem really cool. My spanish is coming along pretty well too, its pretty incredible how much we learn in just a month...but having said that...i have SO much more to go. I can understand everything my teachers say when they speak spanish, but its pretty hard for me to understand some of the other native speakers in my zone. but i keep trying to talk to them as much as possible because its really really good practice. Also, i like getting those missionary letters your forward to me. I'm glad brock is doing good...kind of a bummer about his companion always having to sleep though.  well...love you lots. miss you.

 

love,

Elder Archibald.

Week 4

Hey everyone,
     Another week gone here at the MTC. It was a pretty good week, i'm back to 100% health. A lot of missionaries have been passing around a cold but i've been trying to stay clear and wash my hands a lot. that hand sanatizer you sent me in the package is coming to good use. I also thought i felt a little bit of a cold coming on, but i took a couple zicam throughout the day and felt a lot better. And i've also been eating really healthy...mom would be proud haha. A salad with every meal, and lots of fruits and veggies. I'm wondering if i'll have to let out my pants like Brett had to in the MTC haha.
     Lots of missionaries in my zone are headed out to their missions, lot's of my friends left on monday. I'm pretty jealous. I just want to get out there and start working! I've been meeting a lot of other missionaries headed to my mission, and i'm really excited; they seem like some really cool guys that i'll like to be around. I've also met missionaries going to the Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula Missions. Which brings me to some bad news, i think that the temple is actually JUST outside my mission bounderies...BUT I'm pretty sure that the comayaguela mission will get to visit the temple a lot because i think its only like 5 or 10 minutes outside of our boundaries. I was kind of bummer when i found out, but either way, i'm super close to a temple and its really exciting.
     I'm in a threesome companionship now that Elder Daniels is gone, his old companion Elder Crist is with Elder Snow and I. He's from Gilbert Arizona. I get along with him pretty well and he is helping me out with the language pretty well.

     I ran into Rich and Leanne Call the last few days, it was really nice to see them. They got to meet my district and Rich was talking to us in spanish, I was impressed at how good his spanish actually was! We were just talking about random stuff and how they liked the first few days, from the sounds of it they are loving it.

     here's a fun story, so yesterday i was eating dinner in the cafeteria with my district just like a normal day when someone came and sat next to me. I looked up and saw that the president of the MTC, Pres. Brown came and sat down right next to me in the seat to my left. He read my name tag and said "Hi Elder Archibald! how are you doing?" i responded saying hi and exchanging pleasantries like that haha. Then he asked where i was going on my mission and where i was from and things like that and we were having a great conversation. and then things got a little more interesting...He asked me to give him 10 scriptures on the atonement from the book of mormon off the top of my head. i drew a blank at first but then started listing some off with the help of some missionaries in my district. Then he asked me to give him 6 scriptures on baptism...then 3 on the Holy Ghost...then to tell him "my purpose" as a missionary word for word in english and spanish haha...then told me to tell him D&C 4..i couldnt do it in english but i told him in spanish haha. Then he told me a passed the test haha. He said that he was preparing for a talk he's giving in a conference and needed some scripture references from those topics haha. He shook my hand and told me that he made note of my name...so this means that i might have to either say a prayer during a devotional or sometimes he calls up random missionaries to talk on whatever subject during the devotionals haha. speaking of devotionals the last one was great. elder simmons from the 70...former 70 i think actually, came to talk to us about how this mission is our sanctification period and it is our refiner's fire. Another thing i love to do is on sunday nights they show movies and usually they have a talk from Elder Holland, if they do i always try to go to that one. He is amazing. I love listening to him when he talks to missionaries. He knows how to inspire and always talks about how his mission meant EVERYTHING to him.
     class is going great as usual. it is our teacher Hermana pete's last day on saturday because her 3 years are up. so our district is still kind of bummed about that. hermano Wheeler is stickin'around though so i'm happy about that. 'He's my favorite. I think i figured out that his dad is an area 70...Richard Wheeler.
     today has been an awesome p-day so far. we woke up and did some personal study and then as we were leaving to go to the temple i saw taylor! He lives in the building right accross from mind. i could only talk for a minute or two because we were on our way to do a session at the temple, but it was great to see him. i'm sure i'll be seeing a lot more of him. He seemed happy and like he was doing great. The temple was awesome today too, this was the first week we could go because its been closed for cleaning and stuff.
I havent got the package from dad yet...but i'm really looking forward to it haha. who thought i'd be so excited about ties? also i'll be lookin for my driver's licence extention sticker in the mail, thanks so much for doing that for me...i know how busy mom is with her to-do list.
     So how's everyone in the family doing? Whats the latest with David, Whitney and the boys? any interest in their house? how do they like floriday and the new job? How's heather doing? Dating life? work? other fun adventures? how's John and Kelli and Aiden and the little sister to be? How's brett, ash, and luella? Thats fun that Ali is going to visit matt in NYC. there are a bunch of elders in my zone going to the NYC missions. Hows mackenzie?  Also thanks to ali for doin that thing on my facebook asking for addresses. It would be nice to get everyone in the family's addresses too.

well i have to go get my Hep A2 shot. i miss and love you all! youre always all in my prayers.

Love,
Elder Archibald