Week 104

Hey Family,

     Well its been another great week. The end is getting closer. Only 2 more weeks...pretty crazy. The weeks feel like days. first things first, I got the $100 from elder hamilton, (2000 lempiras), I also have the card in my possession now. I though the letter from Brooke from US bank was pretty funny. Hand written, "hi tyler, i hope youre enjoying your time in honduras..." good customer service haha.

    Also i have no problem speaking in the 2 sacrament meetings on the 4th when i get home, im glad they both want me to speak.

    On tuesday i was pretty sure that america one the soccer game, because nobody said anything to me about it, so that was kind of a relief that we one to not have to listen to people talk about it for the next few weeks haha.

    Things are going really well with Allan and Angel and Cristian. We brought them to mutual with us so they could have a little more help making friends. They are making models of temples for a multistake youth activity that theyll have soon. At first they were kind of just sitting in the corner, but later on they were right there helping everyone cut and glue and laughing a lot with the youth in the ward. Its awesome seeing your fruits remain. 

    On thursday we had the soccer tournament, we took our investigators and recent converts and they had a lot of fun. It ended when somebody kicked the ball over the fence and went down a really steep and long hill...they looked but couldnt find it.

    On friday the zone got invited to the birthday dinner of one of my old investigators in Lempira. They have a really nice home. She studied in the states and her husband was a less active return missionary. Anyways, we ate a roasted pig leg which was delicious and met a bunch of her friends. She said that she wants to get baptized on the 6th before i go home. Ill have to see if i can go to the baptism.

   Theres a family here in the ward, familia flores, They have been investigating the church for the last 5 years now and go almost every single sunday. They havent gotten baptized because they were both married previously but hadnt been divorced. They have about 20 years of living together, the wife, leslie, got divorced from her first marriage a few years ago, but the husband has had more legal problems with his divorce because his legal wife wants a piece of land that he owns and he hasnt wanted to give it up. But lately we have been talking a lot with him about sacrifice and the blessings he is missing...he decided that he will give away the land so that his legal wife will sign the divorce papers. Its amazing to see his sacrifice to obey the commandments. The papers and divorce should be done next week. Then they will get married and baptized very soon after. I doubt ill still be here for the baptism, but im glad that they will be able to finally get baptized. There son who got baptized a few years ago will be leaving on his mission this december.

   The missionary broadcast was amazing. I loved it. I felt like a lot of it couldnt really apply exactly to the work here in honduras, because we are a few generations behind in the church. But its good to have a vision of how its should be and help the members get to that point. But more than anything it made me excited to get back home and to be a good member. 

   How is everyone else doing? thank you so much for all your prayers and support. only a few letters left. Im sad to be leaving Honduras and ending my time as a missionary, but it makes it easier knowing that i have a great family to come home to.

con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 102

Hey family,

    Things are great here in Tiloarque, Comayagûela. In week 9 of the training progress...its kinda cool to be able to review all these things to polish up before i finish. I really love the ward here, making some good friends and people are really excited to help us out. Ive never seen a ward get so excited about missionary work. Next week we have a stake activity in the chapel of the temple. We are inviting all investigators, recent converts, and less actives. President Fortuna will be giving a message and then we will be able to walk around the temple gardens with our investigators. We have a few families that we are teaching, and i think that would really help them a lot. There is a family that is really great that we are teaching...they are our neighbors. The son is 20 years old and got baptized a few months ago...the bad thing is they kept it a secret from the dad. The dad, Rafa, wasnt to keen on the idea of his son getting baptized into the mormon church, but he has chilled out a lot and really likes when we visit him. He said he couldnt connect to the sister missionaries that were visiting him before. But the mom and son are still trying to figure out how to tell the dad...pretty uncomfortable. im afraid that if he decides he wants to get baptized with the family and he finds out that his son already got baptized then he might get mad and upset with the church or i dont know what else could happen. The mom, Jenny, Comes to church with her son every sunday almost and is really positive. Right now we are just working on getting the dad to church. He opened up a lot to me when i asked him about his work and talked a little bit about soccer. I think that in a few weeks we`ll be able to get him to church...especially because they only live like 50 yards away from the church.

    Alan and cristian are getting baptized this saturday. Yesterday, Alan didnt go to church, we went to his house with his friends that go to church and went to wake him up in his bed haha but he didnt want to wake up. So that was pretty frustrating because the day before he had really really really committed to going. But he can still get baptized, so we are gonna be visiting them every day this week. its pretty frustrating/funny because they cant have us in their house at night from 7 to 9 because they watch a telenovela (soap opera) and i guess its getting reeeeally good haha because almost nobody wants to open their doors during that time on the days that its on. Same thing when Honduras is playing soccer haha. Tomorrow jamaica comes to honduras to play...so we are gonna have to find something to do. The city literally shuts down. They close schools and work to watch the game.

   Thanks dad for figuring that out with my card, ill be waiting for the card in the mail, and ill be taking money out with elder hamilton soon. Hes a really good guy. we have a family reunion in august? where? let me know what my topic is for my talk on the 14th so i can prepare a good one ;) haha. heathers basement looks like its coming alot great.

 

   I love you guys, thanks for EVERYTHING. trying to finish strong these last 4 weeks.

 

con MUCHO amor y cariño,

 

Elde Archibald

Week 101

Hey family!

    Well another pretty normal week. Changes meeting was last wednesday, we didnt go because we dont have changes. So its official, im ending in Tiloarque. Im on my last change now and have about 5 weeks left...pretty crazy. they just sent me my flight plans. its getting a little more real now. im actually going home. Im really happy about how im ending.

   Its been raining a lot all week, on thursday night we were leaving our apartment and walking down the stairs in the dark and i fell down the stairs. it wasnt too far, but i still scraped my elbow and twisted my ankle pretty bad...i heard a pop, but i dont think it was anything bad. It got pretty swollen. now the swelling has gone down and its just purple. but it doesnt hurt that much and i can still walk fine.

   On friday we went to teach Alan and Cristian. Alan hid from us, but his family let us in and we found him haha. he was eating and didnt want us to interupt his meal. We talked a little bit more with him and he says that he wants to get baptized on the 15th. There are lots of his friends there that are neighbors that want to go to church and even get baptized, but their parents dont allow them to go. So we are using that to find some more families and clear up some misconceptions. 

   There was a baptism on Saturday of an investigator of the sisters. It was a really great service with lots of help from the members. a drunk less active guy that i talk to sometimes in the street showed up randomly to the baptism and was a little drunk and he sat next to me so i got the job of trying to keep him under control...its the worst when drunk people want to whisper to you, horrible breath. 

   Thats awesome that you saw the brother and sister Ray at janet´s funeral. Send me pics of heathers house! i want to see how its coming along.

    alright, thank you for the pictures and the updates. im glad everyone is doing well. youre all in my prayers. 

les amo mucho,

Elder Archibald

Week 95

Hey fam! 

   Things are going great here in Tiloarque. Im continually impressed by the ward here...they are really far ahead of the rest of the wards that ive been in. A lot more maturity in the culture of the church. the really get how the church is supposed to work...starting meetings on time, not participating in gossip, etc. We are working with the ward mission plan and everything seems to be going great. The bishopric and ward leaders love us and we love them. They keep giving us a lot of great references that theyve been holding on to. Lots of the investigators went to the temple open house but hadnt been contacted by the missionaries so we are getting on that. There was a 12 year old kid that was coming to church every sunday, his name is emanuel, he isnt a member but he went to the temple with his family and their neighbors are really strong members in the church. The mom and uncle and brothers and sisters are all really receptive and said that they would love to go to church with us, so we are working with them.

  There is also another family of less actives called the familia Coto, the son and his wife had gone to church to present their new baby, but arent members. before the husband Marvin could never go to church because of his work, but how he has a better job and has weekends off. We visited him yesterday and he says that he really wants to make changes. He and his wife have a baptismal date  for the 25th of this month.

   We are going to the temple tomorrow! its been soooo long since ive been to the temple. Im really excited. we are going to the morning session at 7 am. but we want to get there about an hour early to watch the sunrise. My temple recommend expires at the end of this month so ill have an interview with pres. fortuna to get it renued. I will get to go one more time my last day in the mission with my group when we leave. 

    Well thats about it. Our pday is actually tomorrow now because of the temple trip, we are just writing today. Let me know how everyone is doing. Love you guys. Im excited to talk to you next week. the last phone call...crazy!

Con mucho amor y cariño,

Elder Archibald

Week 94

Hola familia,

    Well another good week here in tiloarque. We are gettin into the groove of things, its pretty tough opening an area but the ward has made it a little easier...lots of references that the members didnt want to give to the sisters haha. This week we found 17 new investigators and 5 new families...it has been pretty good. Lots of contacting in the street and references. Its been kind of cool to see how much easier missionary work is now than it was at the beginning of my mission. Its been a good experience training so far. Im really able to polish up and take advantage of good companionship study. There are lots of good families progressing, just have a few problems with divorces and weddings...as usual. But we have also been working a lot with less actives who have family who arent baptized..ive never been in an area with less actives that loved the missionaries. 

   So for mothers day i already found a place to skype. so let me know when you guys can let me know whats going on over there in the states and what will work out for you.

   How is everything going back home? sorry i dont really have much to write or much time to write it. Im sure i will have more to write when we get more investigators. oh yeah, next tuesday on the 7th we are going to the temple!! im really excited.

well let me know how everything is going at home. les amo mucho!

con amor,

Elder Archibald.

ps...i had a dream last night about working at the MTC haha any prospects there? also Zombies were attacking comayagua in the same dream

Week 94: Tiloarque

Hola familia!

    Well Im writing you from the Chapel in Lempira where i was about 3 changes ago. Im back in the Comayagüela zone but im in an area called Tiloarque. I have a feeling that im gonna like it here a lot.

    I was pretty sad to leave Comayagua. We went to visit la familia Rivera on monday and they decided they wanted to get baptized the next day. So we got to the chapel early to get everything ready...BUT, there wasnt any power or water...dangit. So we had to go to the other chapel in comayagua. La familia rivera wasnt too excited about changing the place...but we just got in there car and drove a few minutes to the other chapel. They didnt want to make a huge event out of the baptism so there were just a few people there. It was a very special baptismal service, the spirit was really strong. Brother Rivera was a little worried about it because he wasnt sure if he was going to be able to get baptized because he lost part of his leg from the knee down. but everything worked out great. They were pretty sad when they found out i was leaving. Luther Hyde got baptized on Saturday, I am really happy that he got baptized.

   Wednesday morning i got up early to travel to tegucigalpa to the changes meeting. My new companion is Elder Hernandez, fresh out of the MTC, he is from Guatemala City , Zona 18. He is one of the 18 year old missionaries. I feel kinda old haha. We are opening the area so its kinda hard to get started. The house is really nice...all new stuff. but the ward is AMAZING. its a really great bishopric. there are 30 return missionaries in the ward and they are all pretty excited to help with mission work. There havent been elders here for a year so the whole ward is like ´´yes! elders!´´ haha. We share the area with the sisters...well thats about all thats new for this week. still trying to find new investigators.

   Well thats about all the time i have for today. love you guys! the church is true!

con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 93

Hey family,

Another good week here in Comayaguay is still really hot. You cannot escape the heat.

Its been a pretty eventful week. Monday we did the usual playing soccer and shopping. On Tuesday we went out to the military base for our family home evening group. We had a pretty good turn out. We are getting a lot of support which is pretty cool. We have a few investigators and less actives coming pretty consistently. We are making quite a few friends out there. Our investigador lance gives us rides in his military police hummer pretty cool haha. He wanted to take us out to the shooting range to watch them do target practice haha pretty sweet.

On Wednesday i got a phone call from the zone leaders in my last area telling me that carlos, one of the sons in la familia landes that got baptized, died a few days earlier. He was 12 years old. He got hit by a motorcycle and had some head injuries. He was in and out for a few days in the hospital until his lungs collapsed the doctors weren't too focused on anything else but the head injuries. The dad, Juan carlos, had gotten the melchisedek priesthood a week earlier and one night while in the hospital with carlitos he woke up and saw his son struggling. He gave him a fathers blessing telling him that if it was god will, that he pass on and start his mission on the other side of the veil. 20 minutes later he died. The family is doing pretty okay considering the circumstances. I wrote them a letter, and the dad sent me a pin of the temple that he had made (he is a jewler). Im really grateful that carlos was able to receive a baptism before passing away. A few hours after the zone leaders called me we went to the church for interviews with president. One of the first things he asked me was are you ready to train?创 haha i was pretty surprised. I wanted to finish my mission training and that exactly what ill do. On Friday i went to tegus for a meeting for people who will be training. There are 4 of us from my group that will finish training. Pretty cool.

On Thursday Rima Rusnac bought us a bunch of beef jerky and Swedish fish and other stuff from the PX on base love that place.

On Saturday our friend Matt Moss from the military base took us out to the run way and flight deck to see all the blackhawks. IT WAS SO COOL. We got to sit inside and he showed us how to fly a Blackhawk felt like a little kid. He had just gotten back from a mission in Belize burning marijuana crops. Pretty cool stuff.

On Sunday I bore my testimony in church and was able to say goodbye to the branch. I really loved it here. Then at 1600 we went to the service on base. It was a good day. We got to talk with the chaplin and some people from other churches that wanted to know more about us.

Well that about it for this week. Transfers on Wednesday so it sounds like its good bye Comayaguay next email ill be writing you from some other place. I love you all. Take care.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 92

Hey Family,

First off, my schedule looks pretty sweet. Im excited about classes this fall and to do well in my classes. Its nice to know ive got good brothers sisters and parents that take care of me. Its a relief to know things are ready for after-mission life. Thanks again.

Conference was AMAZING. It could not have picked a better session than that for my last conference in the mission. I got to watch it all in English. I loved Pres. Uchtdorfs talk about light and darkness, we cant just wait sitting in a dark room waiting for someone to flip the switch of our spiritual light. Elder Holland`s about help thou my unbelief, we need to believe first, or want to believe and the lord will work with what we have. Elder Christopherson`s about redemption, we need to help redeem others when we can...and of course Elder Kopischke´s talk was great. Haha i bet john was really excited to see his mission president talk. Mom and dad met him too right?

 We had quite a few investigators show up too which is always great. We found an older gentleman on friday named David. He lives here and comayagua and also in a house right by the temple in Tegucigalpa. He said he has been jumping from church to church and feels like he hasnt attained anything in his life spiritually. He went to conference sunday morning and was touched. It was cool to see how he attended church so soon after us meeting him. He says he feels lost and wants to make changes. I hope that he will continue progressing. Also one of our investigators from the military base, lance, sent us a text asking if we wanted to go get lunch with him that day. We told him we couldnt, but we invited him to watch the afternoon session of conference. He and a recent convert friend of his, Rima from Maldova, came right at the beginning of Elder Holland`s talk. Perfect timing. That was the perfect session for them to go to. He comes pretty regularly to our FHE group and sunday service on post when he isnt working. Last thursday we did our group on base and we were walking and he ran out after us to say hi, and said he wasnt working so we invited him and he came with us.

On friday we traveled to President`s house for ZLC. Most my friends in the mission are ZL`s now so its fun to spend some time with them. still bummed that we arent allowed to go to the temple yet...

Remember Luther Hyde? Well he finally got back home from the coast and we met with him on 2 days and now he has a baptismal date for next saturday on his son`s birthday. His son passes the sacrament every sunday and is a really great kid. Now a year from then they have plans to get sealed as a family in the temple. The missionaries have been struggling with him for YEARS but now he is finally ready. I really hope everything goes as planned. We have also been working SO hard with la familia Rivera. They are like hardly ever home when we go over there, but everytime we do meet with them, they are excited about baptism. We are working to get them baptized this weekend along with Luther. If i get transfered that will be a great way to end my last week in this area. Transfers are on the 17^th

Im absolutely loving my time here. I love the members. Even the members i didnt really like that much before are really starting to grow on me haha. I feel really loved here.

How was march madness for brett and dad? Oh, happy belated birthday brett haha. I ate a cupcake in celebration. Heather`s house looks SICK. 

also...my electric razor ran out of batteries, so ive been shaving acoustically. I dont know if someone could send me a charger for a phillips electric razor? it saves me a lot of time in the morning. i would buy one out here but, im pretty sure it will be impossible to find...stupid thieves, why did they have to take that? nobody will even have an electric razor to use it. 

alright well that is about it for this week. Less than a 100 days left...haha im trying not to count. i love you all. take care!

Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 91 Semana Santa

 

 Hey familia,

   Well let me start off by wishing Grandpa a very very happy Birthday. I Sent a postcard in the mail...but i have sent a few postcards in the mail, but i dont know when they will arrive. But it sounds like mom and dad are having a pretty fun time traveling around making the rounds to all the family. This week was nuts. Lots of crazy stuff happened. Some good, some bad. 

   Last monday after writing, we went to buy some groceries at the supermarket and took a taxy back to our house. I tried opening our front gate but it had the lock from the inside turned...weird... so i reached around and unlocked it from the inside, then again from the outside. Then I walked in through the front door to see all my stuff on the floor and stuff on my desk pulled out and looked through. Went to the other rooms and saw that my luggage had been moved and a bunch of other stuff looked through...and a LOT of stuff missing. We got robbed. We have a big wall around our house with an electric fence around top, but they cut down the fence behind the house and climbed in. Then they chiseled away at the wall so the could pull the bars off the window and climb in through there. Then they used the bars to climb out and over the wall again. They stole one of my wallets with my money in it, but left all my cards and stuff that was in it on my desk. They stole our irons, chargers, a few usb/ SD cards...They stole my electric razor charger but not my electric razor...but now my razor is out of batteries and those chargers dont exist here. And as the days went on i discovered lots of other little things that they stole. It was pretty frustrating. We called our landlord right away and he called the police. Then the next day some people came to fix the electric fence...but if it didnt work the first time i doubt it will work a second time. Luckily I had my camera and the memories that have all my mission pictures on them.

   Tuesday we went out to the military base to start our Book of Mormon reading/ Family Home Evening group. We are having a decent turn out of 5 to 10 people. There were some less actives that we have met in our time there from Utah that came and were participating and afterwards they asked for copies of the book of mormon because they wanted to start reading on their own too.  We also have a few investigators coming pretty regularly. They get pretty bored on base haha so its pretty easy to get people to come, when the alternitave would be to go drinking. We went thursday as well for the reading group and kept seeing new faces.

   On Wednesday, The other companionship here in our branch were walking and a guy came up to them on a bike, pointed a gun at them then shot the gun between them, and then asked for their money and other things. It was pretty scary. We were headed to that same place where it happened right when it happened, but i decided to go to the bathroom before. The other elders called us and told us what happened, we called president, and he just told us to hang tight and stay in the house for the day.

   On friday, They had a celebration in centro for good friday. starting thursday night people start to make these "carpets" out of colored saw dust, rocks, beans, rice, and lots of other things, and make really cool decorations on the streets around the cathedral and the central park. Then Later on a procession comes through with "christ" carrying his cross over the carpets. Which i thought is kind of cool. the whole idea of wanting to pathe his way with precious things. But before the parade thing people just go around taking pictures of the carpets. This was the 50th year anneversary of it. We also talked to a catholic father from england for awhile. He says his job is to keep his members from going to our church haha. 

   Sunday La familia rivera came to church which we were really happy about, and they said that they are ready to get baptized this week. We are gonna go meet with them tonight. Sacrament meeting was kind of weird...i think the branch president forgot it was easter, and assigned talks about the word of wisdom...and then he remembered and like stood up and started giving this rant for about 30 minutes and was like yelling in the microphone like an evangelical pastor...saying how its satanic to wear crosses and things like that...while my investigators are there with cross bracelets or necklaces...it was pretty uncomfortable. especially when they come to church on easter sunday...i was hoping for something different. I hope that that doesnt affect their progress in the future.

   Im really excited for General Conference this weekend. It will be my last one as a missionary...I just completed 21 months. pretty crazy.

Alright well thats it for this week, im gonna attach a few pictures. Les amo mucho, espero que todos esten bien. Cuidense mucho. La iglesia es verdadera.

Con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

ps. oh, also another cool story. Stephany, the girl we baptized last month, Well her boyfriend here in the branch just proposed to her. They will be getting married in december and sealed in february.

pps. getting robbed was not an april fools joke

Week 91

Hey family,

    Its been another good week, but it is blazing hot. Its been above 40 degrees C about every day this week, i think thats like above 100 F…its pretty exhausting. Unfortunately la familia Rivera hasn’t gotten baptized yet. The whole family has been pretty sick the last few days and have had been in the hospital. So that has been pretty hard for us and them. We have been finding some new people as well which is keeping us busy.

    On Tuesday we had a meeting In the city with the mental health doctor of the central American and carribean areas. He was the mission president here in Comayaguela in 2003 to 2006. The cooler part was that there was a guy that my companion met in his last area who came to visit his family here in Honduras but he lives in Pleasant Grove, UT. And He wanted to take us out to lunch that day because he was here for the dedication. He was also accompanied by his old mission president and the presidents wife. He was the mission president here 30 years ago. President Bingham from Mesa Arizona. He is like 90 now. But it was awesome to get to hear him talk about how much the church has grown since he was here. He was telling about when he created a branch in Comayagua…and now it’s a stake! He was really excited to talk with us so we could tell him about what is going on in the work now. He said that he would have loved for us to be serving in his mission when he was serving haha. Then they drove us all the way back to Comayagua from Tegucigalpa.

   We had stake conference on Sunday too. Elder Duncan from the area presidency, Elder Laboriel from the area seventy, President Fortuna, And President Ocampo the temple president were there and all gave really great talks. There were lots of people in attendance and we were glad to have some investigators there too.

    We have been able to go out to the military base a few times this last week. The capt. That normaly holds the sacrament meeting wasn’t going to be able to be there so he asked us to do it. It was pretty cool to be able to serve the members in that way. There are a few investigators coming on a regular basis and a lot more recent converts that were baptized in other bases. They seem a lot more excited about it now that they are able to be with missionaries. There are lots of people that kind of fall through the cracks when they get moved and they don’t know who is LDS and don’t have a support group and that means that a lot start doing things they know they shouldn’t be doing…but in that environment its probably pretty hard to avoid temptation without a really strong base. We have some pretty strong members too though. There are 3 return missionaries, one is a black hawk pilot and he says he took a bunch of his pilot buddies to the temple open house and they loved it. We are going to start visiting them as well. The guys name is Matt Moss from Logan UT….he just got accepted into the Blackhawk special forces unit…remember the pilot that dropped the 6 navy seals in osama´s house? He will be doing that stuff…pretty sweet haha. He says he will take us out to the run way to go look at the helicopters and airplanes. There is also a lady from Romania that is American military now that is helping us out a lot with teaching her friends.

   Well that’s about it for now. I love you all. How is life back home? Are you getting the house ready for me? Haha. The time is going by wayyyy too fast.

Con mucho amor y cariño,

Elder Archibald

Week 90

Hola familia!

   How is everyone doing? well it has been an event filled week. First off, It is blazing hot right now. And it should only be getting worse for the next few weeks. it gets pretty exhausting. First off, unfortunately La familia Rivera did not get baptized. We had their wedding on friday and everything went great, but the mom, leily, got really really sick and couldnt make it to the baptism...so it will be until next week. Also Luther did not come back from work in the north coast so he didnt get baptized either...it was pretty hard week for that and i got pretty sad to be honest with you. I really hope that the baptisms come through for the next week, even though they will have to wait a week to be confirmed because we have a stake conference. They will be calling a new stake president. Elder Duncan from the 70 will be coming to organize the stake. mom, did you say we were related to him some how? 

   On Saturday night we went to the stake center here to watch the broadcast of the Cultural event which was held in a stadium in Tegucigalpa. President Uchtdorf, Elder Holland, Elder Martino, Elder Amado, Elder Duncan, and one other 70 thats shweizer? i cant remember the name. Pres. Uchtdorf started off the meeting saying how he had met with The president of Honduras a few days ago and that he would have liked to come to the event but that he was going to rome to meet the pope. And then president uchtdorf made a shout out to the pope haha. He wished him luck and it was really respectful. The first stake to present their dance was from Comayagua. They did something with Nephi`s vision of the americas in the future. It was really cool. The rest of the stakes did lots of Mayan and Lenca Dances and the stakes from the north coast did some of their like tribal dances and drums and stuff. It was so cool. Also all the youth signed a book committing themselves to serving fulltime missions and gave it to president uchtdorf. It was way cool seeing a bunch of youth from my other areas and some adults that appeared too.

  On Saturday we went to the three sessions of the dedication. It was amazing. There were some really really inspiring talks by Elder Holland and Elder Uchtdorf. Really helped my desire for other people to have temple blessings. For the last session we went to go pick up some members from the base, they loved it. unfortunately the mission president told us that missionaries will not be allowed to go to the temple...he says we dont have time to do that. I guess he´s right, we should stay more focused on the work...but still im sure we could find time on a p day to go. That would be better than playing soccer. I really really miss the temple. 2 years is a long time without going to the temple. I just want to be able to do at least one session before i go home.

   alright well thats about it. thank you for EVERYTHING. I have the best family in the world. The church is true.

con amor,

Elder Archibald

ps. I got the package from mom and dad! thank you! last package from germany (sad face)

Week 89

2 years of using these keyboards, and i still dont know how to do a semi colon...

 

Hey family!

    ill start off with the good news...Im still here in comayagua! and im loving it. Monday a family took us shopping for groceries, but i didnt buy much because i wasnt sure if i would be leaving or staying. Then on tuesday morning we got the phone call from the asistents saying that we didnt have changes. YES! i was so happy haha. We went to the changes meeting on wednesday. 40 new missionaries came to the mission! 5 are from brasil and 1 from ecuador which is pretty cool...unfortunately none of them are in the zone haha so i wont be able to practice my portugues. The were some changes in the zone, we lost a district in a city up north called Siguatepeque, which was a bummer because i loved doing exchanges up there and one of my good friends just got made the district leader there, but i wont be seeing him much anymore. But president put a lot more missionaries right here in the city so we still have 4 districts and 13 companionships. There is another companionship here in the branch with us now.

     Friday we went back to tegucigalpa for the zone leader councel in President Fortunas house. He told us that we can go to all the sessions of the temple dedication if its broadcasted in our church building...and thats good because we are in the stake center. And no missionaries can go to the cultural night which is pretty sad, but we can at least watch it in the chapels where it will be broadcasted. Right now we need to be working a lot with the references from people that went to the temple. Unfortunately in my area there arent a lot of references...only 1. but in other areas there are more...but there were a lot of people that came on the first trip that didnt fill out information cards in the temple so that we can contact them because the sisters in the temple kind of dropped the ball the first few days and didnt do a good job at directing people to the info tent. But we still have a list of everyone that was on our bus and we´ll go around to the members asking who they invited. 

     There are a lot of people who have been attending church for awhile now but for whatever reason havent wanted to get baptized, but we are using the temple dedication as incentive for baptism. Theyll get baptized and have permission to be confirmed the same day this week so they can go to the dedication on sunday. The parents of la familia rivera (johnson´s parents), and Luther Hyde will be getting baptized this week before the dedication. and there are about 8 other people that we are going to visit with that we are pretty sure will want to be able to go to the dedication. We have lots of work to do. There is one family that we still have to meet with that is a reference from the branch president. The dad was less active, but his wife and 4 kids are members but they went to the temple and the rumor is that they all want to get baptized now...theyre called la familia Paz. We´ll see what happens. We have an appointment with them tonight.

   On saturday our investigador miguel from the base invited us to a boy scout thing he was sponsering because he knew we were eagle scouts. So we went to the bonfire they had and made some smores and got to know some other military people that want us to come visit them.

    On sunday we had quite a few investigators in church, including some from the military base. They were remodeling the church so all the ceiling was missing...so that was pretty ugly. but they are getting it ready for the dedication i guess. Saturday at 1800 hours we went to the sacrament meeting on base, it was pretty small, but we helped with the sacrament and i gave a talk...it was horrible haha i could NOT do it well in english. More people came that day because they heard we were coming so they got excited. There are a lot of recent converts there. Tonight we are having a family home evening on base with them too. They are really great people but just need a little more spiritual attention...it has to be pretty hard to avoid temptation in their situation. And now all these recent converts want us to meet their friends. So we´ll see what happens in the future there. Its pretty cool because we are friends with some pretty high rank people. The guy who runs the group on base is Chris Parker from Blackfoot ID...does the name ring a bell dad? he says he knows grandpa. All these guys have pretty sweet stories from Iraq, and they love it here in Honduras. we are just trying to figure out how the members here can go to the dedication because they dont have their records here and not very many are endowed and have recommends.

   Congratulations mom and dad for finishing your mission. Im so proud of you for dedicating that year and a half completely to the lord. just dont leave on your next mission before i get home! unless you come here to Honduras haha. Those pictures from Croatia look sweet. 

    Any news on class registration for fall? any suggestions of classes that i should take?

I love you ALL, thank you for your prayers. youre in mine. The book is blue, The church is true.

Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 88

Hey fam!

   Well we are here anxiously waiting the phone call from the asistants to see who stays and who goes. There´s a possibility that i will leave to open a new zone that is being created...i dont really want to go. Its been kind of frustrating how often i get changed haha. 2 changes in loarque, 2 in guaimaca, 1 in lempira, only 2 here so far...so im praying that i will stay. There are some new really positive investigators that have gone to the temple. We are hoping to baptize 3 families this month. 1 of them went to the temple and wants to get baptized now. The temple is blessing the country already. The last trip to the temple went great. my companion and i went early because we had to go renue my residence card, then we went over to the temple to meet up with the branch. Only 2 buses came from the two wards, but it was still a good turn out. It was SO full in the temple that day. Some news castors were interviewing elder Amado in front of the temple, and then we talked with him for a few moments after. it was really nice to meet him. I had met him once before in the airport when president fortuna came. So after friday 185,000 people had gone to the open house, the goal was 200,000. On saturday 35,000 people went to the temple so they met the goal! the dedication will be soon, and the cultural night will be on the 16th. We arent allowed to go. but it will be broadcast to the chapel, so we will go watch it in the church. it should be really cool. We´ll see how well the members in Colorado can do with the new temple in Fort Collins. 

   The investigators are great. We went to the military base to teach miguel and he is pretty receptive. Its really different teaching in english. La familia rivera is doing great. They want to get baptized but we have to marry them first.

thank you for getting my housing all squared away! any ideas on classes i should take?

i love you all, thank you for your prayers. the church is true!

Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 87

  Hey everybody,

   It is so hot here. and its going to keep getting hotter. the sun is suuuper strong here. Im sure its worse somewhere else in the world though haha. Welp, im glad you all enjoyed the bus story, and luckily there was not a repeat this friday. But unfortunately not as many people wanted to go this week, we only had 2 buses between the 2 wards. I got the blood out of my white shirt, i used oxigenated water which worked really well...a good tip for the future haha. On friday i got to talk to the guy in charge of the temple construction (he`s from utah) he was explaining to me how basically everything in the temple is from honduras. The wood they used (mohagany?) is supposedly the best in the world..its what rolls royce uses in their cars. The gold in the temple is all from honduras. and the windows on the outside represent a famous waterfall here called Pulhapanzak. I would love for you guys to come see the temple with me and other parts of honduras, and especially the people. I am going to miss it here. a lot. I get a little sad but excited when i think about that i only have a few months left.

   We had house cleaning inspections. Our house was suuuper clean, and president and sister fortuna were impressed...no big deal. We have a garden of Cilantro and sister fortuna took some to use in the dinner she cooked the zone leaders in a meeting we had. all of our neighbors come over to ask for some haha.

  I had a great birthday. It was pretty low key... normal missionary birthday. I opened my package from mom and dad! thank you! those finger puppets will be fun during sacrament meeting to keep my investigators entertained during boring talks. That talk you sent me was awesome too. loved it. Then our investigator on base invited us to watch him perform a surgery haha, we didnt go though. Then for lunch my companion and i went to pizza hut to celebrate. Im a little poor now...Then on saturday i got invited to a little birthday party, A guy in the ward had the same birthday and so he had a nice party. Good food, cake, and a mariachi band! it was sweet. I took some videos. Thank you for all your birthday wishes.

   There will be some changes in the mission soon. We are getting like 36 new missionaries this change. Here in the zone they are opening 5 areas. We already have 26 missionaries so i imagine they are going to divide the zone. Theyre going to open two new zones. And thats pretty cool about the new mission in Honduras. I wonder if they will change bounderies in ours. Im pretty sure ill continue as a zone leader here. I hope they dont take me out of the area...im kind of tired of packing every change haha. This change ends on march 6th. And i know president said that ill be home on july 9th, but i think thats just my last day in the field technically. The change meeting will be on wednesday the 10th. and then my flight leaves from Toncontin thursday 11th around midday. so ill probably get home around midnight.

 

alright, well thank you for everything. I love you all! the church is true.

 

Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 86

 

 Hey family,

   I recounted and i think im actually at week 86...haha. Time is flying by. Well it has been quite an eventful week. We`ve been finding a lot of random people that could be getting baptized very soon so we are really busy and excited. We were anxiously waiting for Friday the entire week to go to the temple open house. We were busy handing out invitations and making sure everyone knew about it. We showed up on Friday to the church abou an hour early before the buses left. I was really disappointed with how unorganized the leaders were about this. People just showed up and were running around chaoticly trying to find seets on the buses and there were 2 less buses than they had promised and so people were jam packed on the buses..which turned out to be a real problem. It was really irreverent and took away from the spirit of the event. But we are happy that we had LOTS of investigators that went...about 15. and all of them had seats. So we were going on some really sketchy buses to the temple and an idiot bus driver was racing our bus driver down the highway weaving through the lanes. I was sitting towards the front of the bus and i got up and told the bus driver to slow down. He did. But the other bus kept driving and racing too fast. We were behind the other bus entering into the capitol. The other bus was tailgating a semi truck very close at a high speed. The semi hit a truck broadside and stopped and i looked up and saw the bus full of members and investigators right in front of us crash into the back of the semi. and then swerved down into the ditch on the side of the road and dropped down pretty far into a retaining wall at a pretty high speed. Our bus stopped in time. My companion and i and some other men got off the bus and told the rest of the people to stay. We hurried and opened the emergency exit on the side of the bus and started helping people down. The bus was completely totaled. There was lots of blood as we were helping people down off the bus and walking them to the side of the road. there were mainly head wounds...broken noses, bloody lips, a few broken jaws and cheeks, and a couple broken arms and legs. Nobody died. But we were just helping people put pressure on their cuts to stop bleeding. People said that the bus driver was going down the hill in neutral and obviously couldnt brake in time because was way too close. He saw that he was going to hit so he abandoned the wheel and went back before it impacted and that is why he couldnt stop the bus before it went down the bank. About 20 minutes later the ambulance came. only about 5 people had to go to the hospital. we got the rest of the people that could back on the buses to go to the temple. There were 2 missionaries on the bus that crashed, but they are fine. We left with the people that could and kept going to the temple. the temple comittee sent another bus to pick up the injured. We left and went the rest of the way standing. Luckily non of our investigators got hurt but lots of are members did. I felt so sad on the bus ride there and felt like crying. When we got to the temple there were lots of people there to meet us and attend to us and made us feel very comfortable. People were still very positive about the situation and kept saying things like " the pioneers had it worse". so that was a good attitude. So as we got to the temple we went into the chapel and they showed us a video about temples and the history of the church in Honduras. It was beautiful. then we left the chapel in small groups and took our tour throughout the temple. It was absolutely amazing. The temple is so beautiful. you really felt like you were out of the world for the few minutes that were inside. It was really cool because i got to see a lot of members from my old areas. it was really good to see them. When we left the temple we got to walk around the temple grounds and take pictures. it left a really big impact on our investigators and now they have an even greater desire to be baptized. After the tour we had a long wait to get everyone that was injured examened by the doctors at the temple. we ended up leaving at 10pm and got home at about 12:30. then people had to walk home really late which was really dangerous...our ward mission leader got robbed walking home and got cut a few times with a knife the thieves had, but he is fine. Despite all the horrible things that happened it was still a beautiful experience. And people are ready to go this friday again. But we need to be a lot more prudent this time. Better prepared. The temple is such a blessing for this country. i am so excited for the dedication and to be able to go through and work in the temple. Any word on the Fort Collins Temple?

 

well thats all i have time to write this week. I love you all. The church is true.

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 82

Hey family,

    Well we just got back from a good Pday adventure and so that is why im writing you so late. Ill send pictures next week. Things are going really well here in Piedras Bonitas Comayagua. We are getting prepared for the trip to the temple open house. I am SO excited for this haha. You have no idea. I have been waiting for this since almost a year and a half ago and FINALLY the temple will be ready to bless the lives of all the people in Honduras I just hope they will be ready for the temple. They have been running a lot of coverage on it on the news and they have commercials playing every hour on a lot of channels here. 

   Great news, Johnson Rivera got baptized and his parents were there to see it, and they all came to church the next day. They know that the church is true and i have seen huge changes in them in such a short amount of time. Now they just need to get married. Also the Girlfriend of a return missionary here in the ward got baptized. Her name is stephany, she has been taught by a TON of missionaries...but non of them asked her if she wanted to get baptized. So we asked her the first time we met with her and she said yes, and that she wanted to do it that weekend. We are still working with a few other families and seeing lots of progress. I would have no problem ending my mission here. I hope i do actually.

   We have been working on getting on the military base still to teach some investigators haha. Seems like they dont want the mormons around there, but the new commander over the whole base is a member, and will be attending our branch so that should be a big help. 

   keep me updated on everything thats going on back home. i dont have much time to write. Love you guys!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 81

  

 Hey family,

    Another great week here in Comayagua. Things are really coming along well with the investigators. The Hyde family is ready, the dad Luther`s grandpa was from england so thats why they have that name haha. Anyways the hardest part is that he travels a lot for his work to the north coast but we  think he will be able to get baptized this month. Familia Rivera are doing great...we`re talking about marriage with them. The husband wants to get married but the mom is scared because she thinks that if they get married theyll just get divorced or split up...even though they have 21 years together. But they both recognized that they have made HUGE changes as a family in a very short time. The husband is drinking anymore and they started praying together. they are so grateful for what we have helped them do. The sad part is that the son whi is 15 is going to the united states to new york. He wants to get baptized this saturday before he leaves next week. He wants to go to church up there. Gus is doing great, he is reading the book of mormon and is already going to finish mosiah. He says that he is willing to make changes to get baptized. He was planning on going back to NY soon, but he likes it here so he is going to stay a little longer. Things are going will with the temple, We are getting a bus from the military base ready to go. There are some members there that are helping a lot (all recent converts or recently activated) but their are a few that dont like the idea of it because they want a separation of church and state...but its just a temple open house and is a cultural activity and a lot of people want to go. The guy who doesnt want to let us on the base or bring people to the temple is a return missionary (go figure) and from blackfoot. He says he knows grandpa. His last name is parker...maybe they can get someone to talk some sense into him haha. All of our other friends say that there wont be a problem. We are going to go on the 23rd with them i think. and we will go with the stake on the 15th, 22nd, and march 1st. We want to go to the cultural night but its later and night and we dont know if we can make it back in time. But they will broadcast it here in the chapel.

well thats it for this week! love you all

con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald