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