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