Friday, December 23, 2011

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 4th.  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 25th J And I’ll call on the 25th 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 25th 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)



Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

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