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