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