Week 74

Dear family!

   Another great week out here in Piedras Bonitas, Comayagua. I am honestly loving it out here. One of the best areas in the mission in my opinion. The branch is doing great (except for some gossip between leaders which is really immature and doesnt help anyone). But I think ill be here for another couple changes...at least i hope so. Haha you never know in the mission.

   Ill try to be quick because i dont have a whole lot of time but we had a pretty cool adventure on wednesday. We  had to go to this tiny little village to take out some wedding papers for the san pedro sula mission. Its called ojos de agua and its like an hour in a half from the city in car, we got a member to take us out there. The road was pretty ugly so it took us a really long time...we crossed this really sketchy bridge thats like help up with cords and wood planks. Luckily we made it across safe and sound with the car and all. then when we got to ojos de agua we had to go to another village about a half an hour further out but we couldnt make it in the car we had...then miraculously we found the only members in this place (there isnt even a branch there) he is the mayor actually, and they lent their motorcycle to the member we were with and he went to get the other papers. About an hour later he got back and we went back home in the car. We were gone ALL day doing that and we were so tired when we got to our house. I really hope this family gets married and baptized for all that stuff we had to do haha.

  Sunday was great we had a few investigators in church. An investigator from the military base came and we got to talk to him for a little while. Right now we are organizing an english tour of the temple during the open house with all the soldiers and military that want to go. We were really sad though because la familia guzman didnt show up to church, we went to their house in the morning and were getting dressed to go to church and said they would show up a little later but they never did. We are still working really hard with that family. They are amazing. They think im so funny haha, like everything i say they laugh so hard haha its so funny. Like someone knocked on their door during a lesson and i said it was probably their dog (not that funny) but they laughed for a good minute straight haha. Their kids are so great. Pray for that family please! 

   Also on saturday the whole mission did service for the bishops and branch presidentes. We showed up to the branch presidents house with machetes and we cut his lawn and cleaned it up for him. He was really appreciative.

So im pretty sure that ill be able to call at like 1 or 2, illl let you know next week the exact hour and see if i can use google or skype and to see if its skype 5.0...i still have to find an internet cafe that will be open on the 25th...most places are closed so ill see what i can do.

   Alright well thats about it...I love you all! thank you for your prayers and support. Have a good week

Con amor,

Elder Archibald

ps...sorry if parts of this letter dont make sense, i was writing really fast :)

Week 73: Piedras Bonitas, Comayagua

Hey family...
   Well Im not in Barrio Lempira anymore haha. CHANGES! crazy right? i
was SO surprised...and really sad honestly. i was not happy about
leaving the 15 baptismal dates we had there :(. The Zone leaders told
us the changes during the district meeting on tuesday so i was busy
all that day packing my bags and saying good bye to everyone that i
could. I really loved that area and it would have been nice to be able
to stay there longer than just 6 weeks...but anyways I went to the
transfer meeting the next day in my church in lempira and waited to
see where i was going to get sent. now im in an area called Piedras
Bonitas in the city of Comayagua. Its a really really pretty area
about 2 hours from tegucigalpa. Its super touristy and really clean
and beautiful and safe! Ive actually wanted to come to this area my
whole mission. My companion`s name is Elder Gillespie from Utah. He is
a really good guy. i just have 1 more change than him in the mission
so we are about the same "age". we are The Zone Leaders in the zone
comayagua...its HUGE. its the whole department of comayagua and its
got 12 companionships.
   On friday i went back to the city for the zone leader council in
president fortuna`s house. Sister Fortuna is always SO happy to see me
haha i love it. we learned a lot of great stuff about how we are going
to start using the book of mormon more and how we are going to be
working more with the members and we are going to be talking about
baptism with EVERYBODY. We have are zone meeting tomorrow so im
excited to communicate this to the rest of the zone. Also, i think you
already know, but the temple has a dedication date! March 17th! open
house starts on feb 7th. its so nice to finally have a date to tell
people. its going to be such a huge help with missionary work. I just
hope my branch is going to be well organized to help bring people to
see the temple.
  Im really loving the area though, we have a few great families. The
most special family right now is la familia Guzmàn. They are
absolutely incredible. They have a pretty nice house and the dad is a
politician here in comayagua. they have 8 kids! 6 of them are older
than 8. They all get really excited when we come to see them. They are
also really intelligent and are all reading in the book of mormon and
really understand the restoration. The only hard thing is its hard to
find them all together. this sunday only the dad and a nephew could
attend, but next week i think the dad and the rest of the family will
come too. They have a lot of friends in the church too so that helps
so much.
  I really love the branch here. Its actually pretty wealthy...its
funny in elders quorumn because everyone has their ipads out like i
imagine it is in the states haha. In our branch there are quite a few
military servicemen from the states that are stationed in a military
base right close by to the city. We are going to go to the military
base one of these days because elder gillespies dad is air force and
he has like a military ID that lets us get on the base..pretty cool i
know haha.

haha well thats it for now! thank you for everything...still waiting
for my christmas packages ;) haha

con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

btw, we had a baptism on saturday of a family that just got
reactivated. their daughters got baptized.

and im attaching pictures of some of the families i left in lempira
...and some other pictures...that i took with the new camera

Week 72

Hey everybody,

     well its been another great week here. First things first, La familia Zamora got baptized on saturday and confirmed on sunday. It was a really pretty baptismal service and was well attended. They looked so happy after their baptism and you could really see a change in their countenance. It never gets old seeing that. Right now we are working with a few other families. One is called la familia irías, they are a really young couple and are already married! they have been to church twice and really love it. they have also been to a couple activities in the church during the week. They say they want to get baptized but they say that this saturday is too soon for them, so we are going to see what date we can work towards. They always give us food when we go over there...so thats a good sign haha. Im pretty sure that they will get baptized this december. Also la familia landes is doing great, they all attended church for the third time and loved it. The 3 kids want to get baptized as soon as possible but we have to marry the mom and dad and he has to quit smoking. We have been struggling a lot with that. before he was smoking about 20 cigarettes a day, now hes down to about 4. We are trying to keep him excited about quiting smoking and making sure he has a lot of support from his family. 

     On friday we were in the chapel and there was a multistake seminary graduation and the torocagua stake was there (my first zone) and i got to see a bunch of families from San Rafael that used to give us food and visit with us. It was really cool to see that they actually remembered me and were really happy to see me...especiall now that its been about a year since ive been there. They remember me but say they dont really remember my companions...haha. 

    On saturday all the missionaries in the zone went to one of the wards here to do divisions with the members and meet with the less actives for 2 hours. While i was walking with my partner for the day i ran into one of my first converts from San Rafael (juan jose avila)! he was selling oranges on the side of the road, and i saw him and went up to him and gave him a big hug haha. he says that he will be going to the temple in guatemala next week to recieve his endowment. That was so good to hear.

   Sunday was great too, we had 7 investigators in church and we are trying to keep finding new investigators. My companion and i are really starting to gain the trust of the members and it makes the time a lot more enjoyable.

The only bad news is that i got REALLY sick last night. I was throwing up all night and have bad diarrhea. I couldnt even keep water down...im still feeling pretty terrible so im looking forward to wrapping this letter up and going back to the house.I still have lots of body aches and my stomach is still queezy. Im not sure whats wrong with me, i dont remember eating anything strange but keep me in your prayers so it goes away as soon as possible.

Alright well thats it! i love you all and hope you are having a great week.

Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 71

 Hey family,

This was another great week. On monday we went to the main market in downtown comayaguela and looked around at some pretty cool stuff...a bunch of leather work, wood work, knock off soccer jerseys and all that cool suoveneir stuff. It was a fun p day. Im really enjoying my time here with the this zone, there are a lot of cool missionaries that are fun to be around.

   on tuesday I had exchanges with a missionary here in the district that has been having a lot of problems, not really about disobedience or anything, but he just wants to finish his mission and go home early. we had a really good time and found some really great investigators and had a heart to heart talk about how he can start to enjoy his mission more...he said at the end that the 14 months left that he has isnt really all that much and that he should finish.

   I also had exchanges with the zone leader Elder Jeff Luna from el salvador. It was so much fun because we have been really close friends throughout the whole mission. We went to visit the families that have baptismal dates and he helped out a lot. He has a great way with people and they just naturally want to follow him.

   On friday la familia zamora got married! we got to go to this small town far away called ojojona where weddings are cheaper. a member from the ward drove us out there and it was really pretty. This next saturday the family will get baptized.

    We had another amazing sunday as well. La familia Landes showed up about 10 mintues late to church but walked in and we sat with them...and we were worried that la familia zamora wasnt going to show up because they need to attend church one more time before getting baptized...but they showed up about 20 mintues late. and then la familia Irias showed up about 40 minutes late and then another familia came later too. in all we had 13 investigators...it was so funny to see the bishop smile as one family after another came into church...and the cool thing is that they all have plans on getting baptized.

well thats about it! i love you all! thanks for all your prayers.

Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 70

Hey family, this week has been another great week. We are keeping really really busy with all of our investigators. Its been actually pretty hard to make sure that we stay focused on each and every one of them so that things will go as planned. Right now we have 10 baptismal dates for november and december. Sunday went really well again, we had 9 investigators in sacrament meeting. A new family of 5 showed up that we have been teaching. They are called la familia Landes and are going to get baptized on December first. They came early before church started and we gave them a tour of the chapel before the meetings started. Then we talked about baptism while we were showing them the baptismal fount and they said they would pray about it. Later that night we went to their house and they said that they LOVED church and want to get baptized. Now we just need to start working on their wedding papers. The family that was going to get baptized on the 17^th (familia zamora) didnt show up...i was pretty sad about that. But we just moved the baptism back a week. They are still going to get married this friday. We just have to do a couple food selling activities to raise money. The dad makes tourist t shirts and sells them the the touristy spots...he says he`s gonna hook me up with some shirts haha.

On other news, we tried making baleadas from scratch...we tried making flour tortillas and they turned out okay.

Well thats about it for this week family, sorry for another short week, but we have not have a lot of time to write. I love hearing from you all though.

 

Talk to you later!

 

con mucho amor,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 69

    Happy birthday heather! and happy late birthday to jonas!

 

     This week has been amazing. I really think it could have been one of the best weeks i have ever had in my mission. I feel like I am becoming the best missionary i have ever been on my mission and i am LOVING the work. This area is absolutely amazing...it kind of had a bad reputation before for not being able to baptize here, but now i realize the the missionaries before me just werent being really smart about how they were working haha. We are teaching about 8 families and a few individuals and they are ALL so positive! we are working really well with the members and are trying to have the members invite the investigating families to get married on specific dates rather than us extending the commitments. and its working! we have a date for the 17th with la familia Zamora...and we have about 3 other families that want to get baptized, we just have to teach them the doctrine of the law of chastity and they will come around. Ive never loved my investigators so much and i know they can feel that love too, and that makes it a lot easier to talk really directly to them and they can trust in what we are teaching them. we had 12 investigators in church yesterday too! everything just seems to be falling into place. My companion and i are really able to compliment eachothers teaching skills. Elder Weaver is a great listener and asks really good questions. i wish i had more time to write about each of the families, but ill keep you updated in the future. Im having the time of my life.

   before i forget, I got the package from dad! thank you! im trying to make the chocolate last as long as i can...those strawberry things are SO GOOD. Im really liking the zone here. its great to be back in the city actually...theres a lot better shopping and a lot more things to make life a little more comfortable. The ward is really great, we have about 3 or 4 times a week when we eat with the members. My favorite is on thursday night, there is a lady that has a bakery and she gives us really good food and gives us a bunch of freshly baked bread and cake to take home. Her son is in the tampico mexico mission, his name is Elder Pineda...not sure if Cole knows him.

    On tuesday we did exchanges with the zone leader Elder Harding from pleasant grove. I didnt know the area very well so we spent most of the day contacting, but it we still had a lot of fun with each other. I didnt like contacting before in my mission, but i realized you just have to enjoy meeting these people and you can hear a lot of funny stories while doing it.

 

 Well my times up! sorry for the short letters, ill try to write more next week. I love you all.

 

Con amor,

Elder Archiabld

Week 68

Hey family!

 

     well i am writing you from my new area! its called Lempira and its the Comayagûela Zone. We got the phone call on tuesday letting us know that I had transfers. Elder Quiñonez is staying there in Guaimaca for another change. I was honestly a little sad to leave to be honest with you; we had a lot of investigators progressing families...but all well! gotta keep on keepin on. Im excited to get to know the new area and new people.

    we had to wake up really early the next day to catch the bus from guiamaca to tegus. There werent any mototaxis that early in the morning so we had to walk with my stuff SO far to get to the highway where we wait for a bus to pass by on the side of the road. Then we had to stand up on the bus the whole way to the city. Then at the meeting i found out that i would be in Lempira, which is where we have the change meeting every transfer. The area is right in the heart of the city again, i can see the office from the window in our house. The house is actually pretty nice, we have a washing machine!!!! but the only bad thing is that there isnt running water :( haha so we have to fill up our big concrete tub thing with water to wash dishes, shower and everything. Im the district leader here and so that will be a good new experience. My companions name is Elder Weaver from Cedar city and he will be going home in January.

   So far the area is pretty nice and im really excited. It is a super nice chapel that is brand new it has an elevator haha.

 

alright well im out of time! ill talk to you later. Love you all

 

con mucho amor,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 67

Hey there everybody,

    Well this change is coming to an end, we have the transfers meeting this wednesday...and i STILL dont know if im leaving or not. Its been kind of frustrating that they tell us with less than 24 hours before so there really isnt time to pack well or say goodbye to people. They are going to call us and let us know all the changes in the zone tuesday morning. I don´t think im leaving, we are pretty sure elder quiñonez will be leaving....but then again no one really ever knows what will happen. We keep working hard though. Although its kind of frustrating not knowing if it will be the last time we will see some of these people or not!

   Our families are doing pretty well. It has been a slower week though because it has been so hard to find them at home! One of the Fathers in the family left to the states on friday for work (legally) and the son isnt home during the week because he is studying at the university in tegucigalpa so we cant enter the house because there arent any men. Same problems with another family, the mom is gone in the morning and the dad is gone at night...so we can never find them together except for on saturday. But its okay! we just have to be creative and find a way to make things work out for us.

   Church attendance was kind of low this sunday because it was raining and people dont like getting wet and muddy walking to church. It was kind of sad during priesthood because there were only 4 men there and then us 4 missionaries, which is really low for this branch. We are going to meet with the branch president today to talk about how we can help and maybe do divisions to maybe make some home teaching visits with them to less actives or part member families. And while meeting with them its a great opportunity to ask for references (but we never use the word reference because it terrifies the people here haha) we have also been trying to knock on as little doors as possible...meaning we want the members to knock on the doors of their friends for us. Its a lor more efficient for us and we dont have to waste so much time with people that say we can come back another time but dont really mean it haha.

   On friday we went to set up a couple like picnic tents and chairs for an event at this rehabilitation center for kids with disabilities. the mom of one of our families that we are teaching is the president of the organization and always likes us to help out. So we take a few minutes every once and awhile to go see if she needs any help. She is a really great lady. Her name is Pati Casco, and her husband is a teacher here. they are such an amazing family. We have had some really powerful lessons with them with some tears and a lot of the spirit...the only hard thing is that they are pretty involved with the catholic church so its hard for them to investigate another church for social pressure. But they are VERY interested in temples and that families can be eternal...im so excited for the temple open house here because i think it is going to help SO much with the work. Like entering into that holy building, there is no way people cant feel the spirit. And also there will be people that come from really humble conditions living in adobe or wooden houses that can come and see the grandieur and beauty of the temple. It will be a pretty shocking contrast im sure, and comforting for them to know that anyone worthy person can enter, doesnt matter how much money you have.

 

Well thats about it for now, I love you all so much. I loved the photos of everyone at BYU! haha there are SO many little kids running around in are family i love it haha.

 

les amo muchísimo,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 66

Hey Family,

    Well its been another interesting week here in Guaimaca. It has been a little slow to be honest with you. We are trying to not let the rain get us down, although it does make things a lot harder...Not really for getting wet or things like that, but people for some reason are a lot less receptive haha. Members dont want to leave to visit with us and I dont know if i really blame them...I dont know if i would want to do that either before the mission. But we are working with 3 or 4 families that are progressing. We really hope that one of them will be able to get baptized by the end of the month. All the families are so special and i love them so much, i really hope that they will keep progressing.
  
     There is the one family who´s kids got baptized about 6 months ago and the mom wanted to get baptized as well but she is not married to her husband...and like most families, the man doesnt want to get married. they say they want to "get to know eachother better" even after 15 years or more of being together haha. But anyways, we think that some things have happened that might soften their hearts. One of their sons, he´s 9, passed out one day and start having convulsions and that was going on for a week or so. He would have convulsions almost ever few hours. They brought them to this small hospital here but they didnt have the money to keep him there or do any examens, so they sent him home. Then luckily the branch president recieved permission from President Fortuna to pay for the examens and hospital care, which came out to 12,000 Lempiras (about 600 dollars). And the boy was fine for a little while, but the convulsions started again a few days ago and the hospital here says that there is nothing they can do and that he will need to go to tegucigalpa to a hospital there. We went to their house yesterday to give him a blessing, it was so sad to see how skinny he is because he is not eating and he cant keep his arms still. So keep Angel Gabriel in your prayers.
 
     This is the last full week of the transfer, we have the changes meeting next wednesday. We´ve heard that there are a lot of crazy changes going on in the mission so we dont know really if we will stay. I could be leaving, or my companion...but we are gonna keep working as if we were both staying for the next change. I really would love to stay another change with Elder Quiñonez and president said its possible, help me out and ask for that in your prayers!
 
     It is pretty exciting about the age change with the missionaries. In Honduras and most of central america, Elders could leave when they were 18 already, but its new with the age for the sisters. I think that we will be getting a lot of new missionaries in these next few months. Im grateful that i left when i did, It was nice to get some college under my belt and be able to live away from home for a little. I think it would have been a lot harder to get used to the mission if i hadnt.
  
     I hope everyone is doing well back home! Im excited to get back to BYU and be able to be close to Heather and brett and ashley. I thought i was going to be alon at BYU a few years ago haha but that is not the case. Its funny how we always end up close together.

Alright, well thats it for this week. I love you all! i hope you have a great week.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 65

Hey family,

     another great week here in Guaimaca. Conference was amazing! things worked out perfect; we had investigators that came and had spiritual experiences and recieved answers to questions and i got to watch all the sessions in english. no complaints! General conference for missionaries is really the best...its that extra boost we need every 6 months to focus our minds on the work and really just get more excited about it all. Im really grateful to mom and dad for making it the culture in our family to watch ALL the sessions and not just the ones on sunday. they really are all of equal importance and i was so sad that the people missed out on the amazing talks on saturday! only a few people showed up on saturday, but there was a good turn out for the sunday morning session. Some people brought their friends and families who arent members and we were able to meet with them and set some appointments with them. One that came is the sister and niece of a deaf and mute member named Dimas. Its actually so uplifting to be with him, even though he cant hear or speak, he can feel the spirit of being in the chapel and comes every sunday in his white shirt and tie and all the time during the week. I sent a picture of him a while back when i was "eating" that grass hopper.
   Also, on wednesday we went to visit the investigators that showed up to church last sunday, they live pretty far away so we went with the branch president in his truck to visit them and a few other less actives that live out there. but in order to get over there you have to cross this river (well its really not big enough to be a river). i thought we would just cross on the walking bridge but president thought his car could make it...and we almost did! haha we reached the bank of the other side but got stuck in a bunch of sand and water and the battery died as well haha so we called his son to come bring a new battery and fix the car and we just left the car with some kids that were there watching haha. We had some really good lessons, the new family is really great and i think they could be getting baptized this month! its just hard that they live kind of far away and in a dangerous area that we dont like to go to at night. But anyways, we returned back to the truck and president´s son had it running, but still stuck...we were about to tie it up to some oxen haha but a huge truck came behind us and wanted to pass but they were gonna pull us back to the other side of the river. As soon as the huge truck pulled into the river in got stuck too haha the back tires were completely under the sand so they had to call a tractor to come dig them out haha. mean while there were like 30 people just watching us there stuck in the water trying to get out. then some nice people decided to help us so there were like 8 of us in the water trying to pull and lift the truck out then finally got it unstuck and turned around but it got stuck AGAIN as we tried to cross to the other side where we came from. But there was a 3rd truck that pulled us out haha. Now we are kind of famous in that area and everyone knows who we are haha.
   On friday we went to Tegucigalpa to a zone leader meeting in president fortuna´s house. It was a really good meeting and the fortuna kids were happy to see me. we got to talk about all the success we had last month and our plans for this month. I really love these meetings. afterwards we ate a really great lunch that sister fortuna made us. And then my companion and i left to go to that one store Pricesmart thats a lot like costco because i still have my membership from when i was in the office and we baught some peanut butter and nutela haha we also brought some pizza back with us because there isnt any pizza or fast food out here.
    Well thats it for this week! i hope everyone is well. congrats to david on his bike race, that is so cool.

con mucho mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

ps. so i bought some shoes awhile back that cost me 1600 lemps (80 dollars about) they are nice and will last me til the end of my mission but i hardly wear them out here in guaimaca because its too muddy and i dont want to destroy them. so im wearing my other shoes til they are completely dead. I wear my boot type all the time here.

and i bought a suit as well, but i dont wear it eather haha. Its a light grey and looks really sharp. I think ive sent pictures home of it. Im using my other suit here.

Week 64

 

 

Hey family!

     the power has been going out a lot the last few days, its kind of a miracle that we have power right now but it is going to go out pretty soon im sure so ill try to make this as quick as possible. It will go out for 6 hours or more at a time and come back on for about 15 mintues.

     Wow, september is over. This month has gone by incredibly fast. We had a really good month in the zone and we were able to reach our goal. Things turned out really great. This week was pretty busy for us as usual. And yes, we have had lots and lots of rain lately. There are some really cool electrical storms that come through. but we have to keep working through it all. We were traveling a lot to do interviews because we had 11 baptisms this saturday (in our zone of 6 companionships so that is a lot for us). We were in Talanga a lot and went to campamento just once for our district meeting. Anyways, we finished the month with 24 baptisms in the zone, averaging 4 per companionship which is the "standard of excellence" so we are really happy that we were able to reach our commitment. The last time that happened in the zone was 2 years ago, but back then they had 7 companiships. I think what helped us was setting realistic goals that we feel we can actually reach and that way we work harder to reach it. And we have a new Motto in the zone, "Just Do It. Sin Excusas" haha it seems to be helping.

     Basically everyday this week we were teaching Sara and Gabi (the 2 daughters of the family we reactivated) preparing them for their baptisms. They are really bright little girls and were so excited to get baptized. Everything turned out really well and the baptismal service went smooth and the spirit was present.

   We are pretty excited for General Conference this weekend, but im not sure if im going to be able to see it in english. I really hope i can.

   Also our neighbor made us sopa de cola the other day, its soup with a fat piece of cow tail in it..haha it wasnt that bad. And we had a chile eating contest, this guyhas a chile plant and it is SO spicey. So we all ate chiles and took a video...im trying to figure out how to send it to you, but these internet cafes keep giving my viruses.

 

well im gonna send this off before the power goes. i love you all! have a great week and enjoy conference!

 

con amor,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 63

Hey family,

   Well its been a really fast week this week. We had a lot going on so the time flew by. This Tuesday we had a multi zone conference here in Talanga with 3 other zones. Elder Duncan from the first quorum of the 70 came to visit us. It was a really awesome opportunity to get to talk to him and learn from him…he really knows his stuff haha. He basically just taught us a lot about how we can be more efficient missionaries. We learned a lot about how to reactive and baptize at the same time. He suggested that we mark where all the less active members live on a map of the area and work in areas and get to know them by knocking on their doors and just sharing a spiritual thought with them and then working with the references they have of their neighbors…it’s a pretty simple but has really worked for elder quiñonez and I these last couple days. This family that we just reactivated has been coming to church consistently and their daughters want to get baptized and now we are teaching their friends who live next door.

    On Friday we had our zone conference to talk more about what we learned with Elder Duncan and we talked a lot about creating a vision for our area and zone. In our area we are working towards splitting the branch into 2 branches. And that is also helping us work towards the vision of the zone which is to become a stake rather than just a district. After the zone meeting we started exchanges. I went back to Guaimaca with Elder Mejía who just finished his first change in the mission and my companion stayed in Talanga with his trainer Elder Robledo. It was a good opportunity to remember what it was like to be a new missionary, im really glad that im not in that position anymore haha.

    On Sunday we had the district conference with all the branches so we traveled back to Talanga for the 3^rd time. We had 3 buses to take all the members from Guaimaca. It was a really good turn out, 3 of our investigators came and quite a few less actives. President and sister Fortuna were there and gave really good talks and Elder Martino from the 70 spoke as well. He talked about putting gods will above our own will. It was a talk that the members here were really able to take to heart and learn from. After the conference we were in the parking lot and I went to say hi to president and Sister fortuna and after I shook their hands their oldest son, Ricardo (he´s 11), came up and jumped on me and gave me a big hug and yelled “Archibald!!” haha he was really excited to see me and said he missed me going over to his house. Haha that made me feel pretty good.

   And those are the highlights of my week. I hope everybody is doing well!! I love you all. The church is true. Read the book of mormon. Obey the commandments.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 62

Hey everybody,

    Well another fast week here in Guaimaca. This transfer is over this week, we have changes meeting this wednesday...we still dont know who is leaving or staying. We are hoping theyll let us know tonight, if not it will be tuesday morning. Im hoping that Elder Quiñonez doesnt get transfered, but its pretty likely that he´ll be leaving. Either way it´ll be good.

   This week was pretty busy for us. We had to travel a lot to different areas in the zone to do interviews and bring baptismal clothing and a bunch of random things like that...it can be pretty frustrating not being able to work in my own area sometimes, but we just have to manage our time well. We have a few families that are progressing but still have a long way to go.

   Last Tuesday I went to this area called campamento for our district meeting. Its in the state called Olancho...its a really really pretty area. It was cool to go there and get to know it a little better. When we got back from the district meeting the branch president had invited us over for lunch...But i kind of wish he hadnt haha. His wife made us Mondongo, which is cow stomach soup. Ive eaten it a lot before and its not all that bad because the cut up the stomach pretty small and it has a good flavor. But this time the mondongo had huge pieces and you cant really cut it apart so you have to put it all in your mouth and chew it forEVER. The worst part was that the branch presidents wife was watching me the entire time...just staring at me haa. But i managed to eat it with a smile on my face!

    We´ve been teaching one of our neighbors lately, its an elderly couple that lives with their daughter and grandaughter. They are very humble people and have been going through a lot of difficulties. The grandma has diabetes but she doesnt take very good care of herself and now she has an infection in both her kidneys and is in a lot of pain. She cant walk and isnt supposed to eat but she eats fried chicken anyways and that just gives her more pain...its really a sad thing to see. Anyways they are really positive, but havent been able to come to church for that reason. We gave her a blessing and we hope that she can get better, we will see how she is doing today.

   Well thats about it for this week. Thanks for everything! oh i got the dearelders that mom sent. Congrats to Alex and Tyler that just got home. its crazy how fast time goes by. Alright well until next week..love you guys!

 

Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 61

Hey family,

Another goood week out here in Guaimaca. Its been really really hot lately and pretty miserable to be walking around out in the street. Lots of sweat. It hasnt been raining too much this week which is a nice break from all the mud. But i guess the huricane and storm season is in October so there will be a lot more to come. Things have been going pretty well in the zone too. We have been traveling a lot to different areas in the zone to work with the missionaries there and help a companionship out with a few problems. But it gets pretty expensive traveling and we dont get reembursed for travel so weve been eating a little less ha. 

This week was pretty hard with finding people in their homes because everyone was at the stupid fair haha. and a lot more drunk people in the street that like to bug us so thats been pretty annoying as well, but hasnt been too bad. On friday we did some service for one of our investigators. We went to his house to dig a big hole for a latrine in his back yard. It was pretty hard work out in the hot sun but it went by pretty quick...while i was digging with a pickaxe i was standing on the wood covering of the old latrine, which was just covered with some old wood planks, then all of a sudden where my right foot was placed collapsed and i fell on my butt and my leg into the latrine...LUCKILY I didnt get dirty at all, if i would have fell just a couple more inches it could have been a lot worse. It scared me to death. The only injury i walked away with that day was a really really bad sunburn. I would like to send you some photos of everything but my SD card has a virus...i hate these computers here. I cant open my files with this virus and it always puts a bunch of innapropriatley titled folders and files on the memory. Im not sure what i can do to fix that.

There was another baptism this last weekend as well of a family here. It went really well and it was a cool baptismal service to be apart of....luckily the lights didnt got out this time. But on our walk home we were walking on the side of the road and we heard a horse coming up behind us (which is normal) they usually just pass us but luckily my companion pulled me out of the way just in time before the horse wouldve trampled me. The guy riding the horse was going way too fast and los control...probably because he was drinking a bottle of liqour while riding the horse and was really drunk. But everything is fine so no need to worry.

Well that is about it for this week. How is everyone doing back home? thats awesome about bretts new job! what will he be doing for adobe? that will be fun to have everyone close by in provo. How did matt and alis trip go in germany??

alright well i gott run! 

Con mucho mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 60

Hey there family!
   well i dont have a whole lot of time to write...but it was a pretty normal week here in Guaimaca. This week has been pretty tough as far as the work goes because the yearly fair is going on and hardly anybody is home and there are a lot of drunks in the streets...it will be over next week though so thats good haha. It has been some reallly intense weather here too. It is blazing hot and sunny during the day and then at night some huge storms roll in and it rains so hard... Which means lots and lots of MUD. and our roof has about 10 leaks so its hard keeping dry. Also ive been sick the last couple days, I think i ate some food that wasnt very clean. Im hoping its not a parasyte.
   On tuesday President fortuna and the assistents came to visit us and worked with us that night. It was a good oportunity to split up and get more done. President has a big focus on working with members and references so we have been doing that a lot lately. That night the assistents stayed in our place and we got up on wednesday to go to Talanga for our Zone Conference. Elder Quiñonez and I had an hour to teach chapter 13 from preach my gospel and i went really well, president said he was really happy with how he went. We invited some members to come to the meeting and help us with our practices.
   Other cool story, so we are teaching this lady whos mom got married to a member in the states about a year ago and she got baptized around the same time. Anyways, her mom got here a couple days ago to visit and came to church on sunday with us and we have some plans to go visit her daughter and hopefully we will be able to help her progress. The mom was really happy from what she has heard from her daughter about us and so she brought 2 ties with her from the states to give to us. It was really nice of here to do that.

Anyways, everything else is going pretty well here. Thank you for everything!
con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 59: Second week in Guaimaca

Hey fam!
     Well it has been a really great week out here in Guaimaca. its so different from all of my other areas. Oh and i forgot to tell you about my companion last week.. His name Elder Quiñonez and he is from Guatemala City. He has 20 months on the mission and has been a Zone Leader for the Last 3. He is a really chill guy and is a lot of fun. Im really looking forward to this change with him. We get along really well. He was in the office as a secretary for awhile too, actually he was actually in the office when i arrived here in Honduras.
    Anyways, We had a good pday last week, we just went shopping and then kicked a soccer ball around for awhile. There isnt a whole lot to do here in the zone so im gonna have to get creative to find something to do that is more fun than just playing soccer every week. On tuesday we had our first Zone meeting of this change and it went really well. Its kind of hard for our zone to get together though because everone is pretty far apart. Thats the problem with the zones outside of the City. Anyways we just talked about how to make real goals and commiting to them.
    On Thursday we had a branch activity. We watched a short video and gave a spiritual thought and then we played some games. Elder Quiñonez and i were in charge of the game that we would play so we went to the store close by and bought a bunch of eggs and waterballoons. We did an egg toss with the eggs and then when we ran out of those we used water balloons...and that turned into a water balloon fight (not a good call on our part). And of course everyone thinks its HILARIOUS to throw water balloons at the missionaries. so we got soaked. good news is that it was a pretty big success, about half the branch showed up and a lot of nonmembers as well.
    Friday we had another activity in the branch. The branch presidency made a dinner for all the couples in the branch and they spoke about marriage. it was a pretty good success too, about 30 people showed up and we got a free dinner so we cant complain. Also kind of randomly one of the missionaries that served here about 9 months ago came back to visit with his dad. His names Elder Kimball from CA....That got me thinking about after my mission, i really would like to return and visit my old areas afterwards.
    Saturday the other companionship here in Guaimaca had a 2 baptisms but they kind of dropped the ball and didnt realize that they didnt have baptismal clothing and didnt let us know til that morning. So my companion and I had to take a bus to Talanga which is about 45 minutes away to pick up the clothes. While we were there we visited the missionaries in our zone that are there and studied with them for a little while. Then we got back on the bus and went back to Guaimaca. When we got there I did the baptismal interview with the investigators...it was the first interview ive given, but it went really really well. After that we continued with the baptismal service...a lot of people showed up so that was nice. Then right as the first person was about to step into the water...THE POWER WENT OUT. perfect timing haha. And when the power goes out here its usually for a couple hours at a time and it was pitch black because it was dark outside as well. Instead of canceling the baptism my companion and i ran to this store that luckily was open, and bought some candels. We brought them back and lit a bunch so we could see and then we continued with the baptisms and everything turned out well....looking back at it im not sure if thats okay to do with the candles...but the good thing is that 2 people got baptized. Afterwards they gave their testimonies about how satan is always trying to put obstacles in our way but we have to carry on and obey the commandments...even when the lights go out.
    Well thats about it for this week! thank you so much for your letters and your prayers. I got all the pictures that Ali sent me. Rosie is so big! Luella too! its crazy how much theyve grown up in just 14 months. Well thats it for me. until next week...


Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 58: Guaimaca

Hey everybody!
    Well im writing you from Guaimaca now....pretty far away from Tegucigalpa. The last couple days in the office were pretty hectic; just was trying to make sure that i could help Elder Livingston figure everything out before i left. Its really tough starting as a new secretary so i wanted to help him out as much as i could in that short amount of time. On Wednesday some church employees came in to perform the audit. It took forever and was really boring, theres no way i could do that as my job haha. Everything went well though, the didnt find any embezaling or anything bad like that haha. A few hours after that i drove myself out to my new area with the assistants. It was the wierdest feeling going out there haha. i felt like i was going camping or something. When we got there i got my stuff out of the truck and the elder who was there went back to the office. The area is super pretty though. Lots and lots of green and mountains. Theres not too much out here, theres one small store to buy groceries at but thats about it and the majority of the streets are just dirt...which means lots and lots of mud. It has been raining so hard out here the last week so my clothes got dirty pretty quick. And its back to cold water and bucket showers again haha. Luckily it wasnt too rude of a wakening. Im getting used to it again. The area is huge because its an entire city, we share it with another companionship here. The other elders in the district are about an hour bus ride away and the rest of the zone is about an hour busride to the other direction. 
   On friday we went back to the office for a Zone Leader Council with president...so it really did feel like i took a camping trip and just came back to the office haha. It was nice being in the office without being a secretary. Anyways, Hermana Fortuna made us a really good lunch after the meeting and then we took the busride back to Gauimaca...but there werent any seats on the bus so we had to stand the whole way...my legs hurt so bad by the time we got there haha.
     On Saturday we had a baptism of this girl named Angelica. She has been living with a member family here ever since her dad died about a month ago. She really loves the church and wanted to get baptized really soon. The baptismal service was kind of dramatic because she didnt like the baptismal clothing so she locked herself in the bathroom and cried until her aunt brought her a white dress haha...it was pretty wierd. Everything went well on Sunday too with her confirmation. Gauimaca is a pretty big branch of about 100 members that attend regularly. The Branch president is a really awesome guy, really excited about mission work. Im excited to get to know the rest of the members and the area.

Well thats about it for this week. Thanks for the emails, ill print them out and read them after i get off.

Con mucho amor,
Elder Archibald

Week 57: Me voy!

Hey everybody,

     First things first, there were some pretty interesting changes in the mission this last week...Ill be leaving the office this wednesday! nuts, right? I only have one week to train my replacement financial secretary, poor guy haha. Its tough learning how to do the job and it takes awhile to get into the swing of things. The new finance guy is Elder Livingston from Newport Beach, CA. He´s a cool guy and its been a blast being able to be with him this last week. Its funny because i recieved him here in the office when he first got to Honduras 5 months ago and now he´s taking my place. We both were studying at BYU before the mish and are going into finance. It feels really reallly wierd knowing that i will be leaving the office...I´ve got all my stuff all over the house from the last 7 months so íts been pretty hard to pack haha. I´m going to this Area called Guaymaca, the zone is called Talanga. From what i´ve been told its a smaller city (pueblo) with not much there. Its pretty far out from Tegucigalpa...maybe an hour and a half. almost in the department(state) called Olancho. They dont have ATMs but they jsut got a grocery store...so its going to be a big change from being here in the office haha. Im really looking forward to it though. Its going to be a really good being able to be in the field all the time...ill be "roughing it" again haha. I was pretty sad to say goodbye to the ward though, it has been my favorite proselyting area so far in the mission. The members are amazing here and treat the missionaries really well. I bore my testimony yesterday in church to say goodbye and it was actually pretty hard for me.

    There are two investigators that we have that are doing really well, Joseph and Kevin. They both are 20 years old and are studying in the university here. Anyways, a couple days ago we were teaching joseph and he except a baptismal date for the 11th and the next day we were teaching kevin and he excepted a baptismal date as well for the 11th. Im really excited for them, bummer that im not going to be around for it but its all good. Im really happy because it will get the ward excited too...in the last 9 months there has only been 1 convert baptism.

   Well short letter for this week, im sure i will have a lot more to write next week. I love you all! thank you for your love, support, and prayers.

 

con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 56: Transfers week

Hey familia!

 

     Well this has been a pretty great week out here in Loarque. Its been fun because we have been getting to know the members a lot better and working with them a lot more closely. On Wednesday we spent an hour with the Ward mission leader who is this 70 year old guy and works for the government...we just sat there as he told us one hilarious story after another. For example, He said that he left Honduras  all alone to go to Mexico when he was 15 where he worked being a handyman and sleeping in the streets and then after a decade or so he became best friends with the then future president of Mexico Vicente Fox. He also told us that when he was a young boy living in Olancho he used to play in the house of Martin Böhrman (Hitler´s right hand man) becuase he fled form Germany to Honduras in his submarine that he kept parked in the river by his house. And also while he was there in Olancho he grew up with Pepe Lobo the president of Honduras right now...then he showed us that he has his number saved in his phone as "Pepinillo"...then he tried calling him right there to say hi but he didnt answer. oh yeah, and it was his idea for the military ku to overthrow Mel Zelaya the old President of Honduras 3 years ago...and says that if he had 5 million dollars he could overthrow the government in 24 hours and 25,000 people would die. He always carries around 3 knives on him too because you never know who wants to abduct you to get information. I like to believe his stories because it makes life way more interesting.

 

    We had a really great activity on Saturday that we have been planning for the las couple weeks. We had a fireside and dinner for part member families where we talked about the temple watched a short video then we ate a chicken dinner. We made really nice personal invitations with the bishoprics signatures and handed them out to the families. It ended up starting an hour late but it was perfect because our investigators showed up late too haha. gotta love Honduran Standard Time. There were 40 people in all and 5 investigators so for me, i think that was a great success. A part member family we are teaching where the dad has been investigating the church for the last 7 years showed up and really enjoyed it. Also the mom and sister of a young man in the ward came and it was really great because they hadnt been to the church in a really long time. we are going to start teaching them soon. And also marcial and Yadira (the cubans) came, i was really surprised about that because they told us that there kid was sick and couldnt leave, but the kid got better! It was their first time in the church so we were super excited about that. At the end of the activity they thanked us for inviting them and that they loved it. They told us they needed us to come over on monday(today) because they have "exciting news" for us...i have no idea what it could be. Maybe she´s pregnant or they want to get baptized. We´ll find out!

 

     We have been able to see quite a few of our investigators progressing and showing that they have a desire to learn more...which is really where it all starts. We have one investigator named Joseph, he´s 20 years old, that came to church for the first time Yesterday. His mom was a less active lady in the ward and just started coming to church again recently...but some people are suspicious that its for ultirior motives (like for financial aid) because she always is asking us for money for medicine or things like that. But Joseph is a lot more sincere becuase he always get really embarassed when his mom talks about that kind of stuff and tells her not to do it and that he knows we arent supposed to help out with that stuff. We were really excited when we saw him, he wasnt able to come last week because he was taking care of his brother who has a lot of seizures. He has accepted the invitation to be baptized but he needs to attend church more consistently.

 

oh other story, I got pulled over the other day by the Honduran police...i guess our car matched the description of a car that was a part of some drug deal killing and so they searched the car and didnt find anything.

 

 I GOT A PACKAGE FROM MOM AND DAD! thank you! The chocolate was pretty melted so its in the freezer right now, one of them exploded ALL OVER haha but i cleaned it up alright. but dont let that discourage you from sending more chocolate in the future...near future. and i love the tie!! thank you!

 

Well that is it for this week! i hope youre all doing well! I LOVE YOU ALL! the time is flying by so fast and it is freaking me out. We have transfers this wednesday and then we´ll see if my replacement comes in the next couple weeks to start training and then if come this next change in september, i will only have 6 changes left in my mission....not that i´m counting.

 

Con mucho MUCHO amor,

 

Elder Archibald

 

ps. i also went on exchanges with Elder Martinez here in the office this week and it was pretty cool thinking about how brett and martinez´ older brother taught together as well about 5 years ago.