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