Week 51: Casi a la mitad

Hola Family!
     Yet another week down here in Honduras. This last week has been a lot like the rest except we were able to find some more people to teach. We have been talking more with that cuban family and they are really awesome people, they are super nice to us and want to feed us and everything but they still are struggling with their desire to attend church. They have had a hard time trusting missionaries in the past that have been really overly pushy and they didnt really feel any love from them. It helps a lot though to have a ward that is willing to work with us and help us out and visit their friends. We met a 20 guy last week, he is the son of a less active lady in the ward. He just moved in with his mom and we have been talking to him quite a bit...he accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of July...he still isnt 100% sure about how he feels about everything, but he says that if he feels he recieves his answer before that date, he will absolutely get baptized. Its been really interesting working in this area, its so different, but i love it.
   We had a great p-day on saturday! So the guy that is in charge of doing all the painting inside of the temple is in the assistants` ward. He is from Murray, UT and is just here for a few months in Honduras. Anyways, he invited all of us 6 elders from the office to go check out the temple...but INSIDE! IIm pretty sure he wasnt supposed to do that, but we went anyways haha. It is absolutely beautiful on the inside. it was one of the coolest experiences ive had on my mission haha. Everything is almost ready, the only thing thats left is to put in the carpets, put up some mirrors and paintings, and they are waiting on some giant windows that way a couple thousand pounds each to get here. Im so excited for the open house, I think its going to be in November and the dedication in december. I really rreally hope i stay in the city when i leave the office so i can be close by when all that is going down. It is going to be such a big help in missionary work with people being able to see the temple and feel the spirit inside its walls.  It will be interesting to see how involved the missionaries will be during the open house and everything else.
  Anyways, how are things going at home? Some guy told me that Colorado is burning down, whats up with that? Im about out of time so ill wrap up. Thanks for everything hope all is well.

Con mucho mucho amor,
Elder Archibald

Week 50

Hey there family,
    Time keeps flying by here in the office. I really can`t believe that i`ve been here for 5 and a half months already. Things have been pretty hectic as always...but a little more these days. The office got remodeled, not sure why...it seemed fine how it was. But they knocked down a few walls and put up some others and it took about two or three weeks for the construction to get over with. It was pretty hard to keep any order in the place. it was just a huge relajo. Its changes week this week, this change went by suuuuper fast. hard to believe. Today all the new latins come from the MTC in Guatemala, the gringos come tomorrow in the afternoon...its kind of fun to think about where i was about 10 months ago when i was getting ready to leave the MTC. President has hardly been around lately, he`s been getting his house ready for President Fortuna. They are all moved out and living in an apartment now. President Flores leaves the 30th in the afternoon and president Fortuna comes the 29th at night. We are all pretty excited to meet him, but sad at the same time to see Pres. Flores leave. I have learned so much from this man and he has had a huge impact on my life. I am eternally grateful.
   On Friday we had a ward activity, we watched 17 miracles in the church. It was a decent turn out, about 30 people showed up. We told everyone it started at 5pm but were werent planning on starting til 6...and it everyone showed up exactly at 6...i call it la hora catracha...basically Honduran standard time is to show up an hour late haha. The activity went really well though, everybody was really impacted by the movie and the majority had tears in their eyes. A couple nonmembers showed up so it was a success from the missionary point of view. All the people who showed up want to do this activity again. It was really really cool how it all worked out. We were planning on borrowing the projector from the Stake, but the Stake pres. wouldnt let us so we had to scramble around and we found a member that lent us her Projector (i think that this is one of the only areas in the mission where someone in the ward just happens to have something like that laying around and are willing to lend out haha) and we also borrowed some speakers from other members...The people here are really blessed to be able to have this kind of economic stability. It has been kind of tough finding new investigators this week, but we are really working hard and trying to be creative about it all.
   On saturday we went over to play basketball at president`s basketball court for P`day. its the first time i have played basketball in a really really long time haha. I am horrible hahh.
  ALSO, i got the package from john! thank you so much! the speakers are so sweet. its really nice because my other ones had this annoying buzz all the time. I am very content.
  Anyways, thats about it from down here in HONDURAS. thank you for all the support, your prayers are felt. casi no puedo creer que ya tengo un año de estar aqui en la misiòn. el tiempo està volando y todos dicen que el siguiente año es màs ràpido aùn. Les amo mucho y epero que todos estèn bien. Que dios les bendiga y les cuide.

ADIOS!

con mucho amor,
Elder ARchibald

Week 48: La fiesta que salio de mi boca

Hey family!
   Well I had a really great week this week. We have been working a lot with the members here helping them get more excited about missionary work and we have been able to meet and help a lot more people that way...Its a lot easier and more fun this way. It helps that the members have cars to take us around to their friends or family members. We just started teaching a family from Cuba that is really interested in what we have to say. They dont really have a strong testimony of or relationship with Jesus Christ. They said that with the communism in the country there are very few people who actually believe in god and go to church. Pretty crazy to think about how a government can make a huge difference in that way.
    On friday our investigator Santos got baptized. It was a really special night. He came home from work late so we had to push the service back a little bit, but it was good because more people showed up to the baptism. It was really special to see the change of light in his countenance before and after his baptism. He bore his really humble testimony afterwards and the spirit was present. I was really grateful i got to be part of it.
   Saturday was a pretty average P-day, we went shopping and what not. For lunch we ate at this one Mexican Restaurant and i ate this giant burrito that was way good but it made me a little sick. Then after that we got a phone call from this less active member we have been visiting. He was really excited to call us because he said that he had gone 4 days without drinking. He had been drinking everyday for the last few months and was just destroying his life. We stopped by 4 days earlier and shared a message with him and it must have really touched his heart. Anyways, this guy is from El Salvador and he wanted us to come over so he could make us this food called Pupusas. I was already full from the burritos, but to make him know that we appreciated what he was doing we went and ate the pupusas...but he just kept making more and more and more and would not stop giving them to us. I was SO full...and it started to look like a replay of what happened in Jesus de Otoro when i ate too much. then after that we had another dinner appointment with this lady who said she had made a special dinner for us...turns out it was just a lot of beans and rice and sausage. I did NOT want to eat, but she would have been hurt if we didnt so i shoveled in as much as a possibly could..then i could not eat anymore so i did this thing with our cell phone where it has a fake call...haha i know it wasnt super honest but it saved my life. I "answered the phone" and told her we had to go meet the other missionaries right then. So we left and everything was good. Later when we got to the house i felt terrible, i layed down after planning and right when i was about to go to sleep, my stomach said no, and i ran to the bathroom and out came all the food of the day...it was quite the fiesta. A little bit of Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras all at once.
    Sunday was great too, we ate with the same family that made us the great dinner last week, and it was another great one. We had some investigators in church and also some inactives that came for the first time in a long time.

Well my time is up, i have to run! i love you all so much!

Con mucho mucho amor,
Elder Archibald

ps the pictures are of my new area.

Week 47: Loarque

Hey family,
    Well, I just finished my first week in the new area Loarque. Its been a really good week...this area is a lot different than any of the areas I´ve been in before. Half of it is really wealthy (well...comparatively) and the other half is really poor. We have spent the last week just getting to know a lot of members...Thats going to be really important for us in this area. In the wealthy areas are gated communities so we cant really contact like normal or just get to know the people, we have to have appointments. The other part that is really poor is called Los Altos de Loarque, Most of the members live in this part...but everyone tells us not to come around later than 6 or 7 o clock at night because its dangerous...but thats when we start working in the area, so we will see what we can do. We have an investigator there that has a baptismal date for this friday, his name is Carlos Santos. He is a really humble guy in humble circumstances. He lives alone in a small room made out of cement blocks about 12 ft by 12ft, he works as a security guard and has 24 hour shifts. He works 24 hours and then gets 24 hours off then goes back to work again...its a tough life.
     The members here are great though, its so much different from my last ward. The members are really kind and not so depressed...but some of the leaders are still lacking a little faith. They say that its too hard to have success here for one reason or another. This used to be the Zone Leaders area and they havent baptized in 7 or 8 months...really that doesn't matter to me. If people can open their doors and see the need of this in their lives in Germany they can do the same in Honduras. We have 2 other investigators as well. One is the husband of a lady in the ward, he has been going to church every now and then for the last 7 years. He used to live in Mesa, AZ working for a software company doing finances for them. We are praying to figure out what he is going to need to have the desire to progress. We also have a young guy who is 15 years old who has been going to church for the last 2 years, but his mom wont let him get baptized. For Christmas and his Birthday he just asked for his mom to let him get baptized as his present. We arent sure why she is so against the idea, but we are going to see what we can do to help. The kids name is Christopher Stanfield, his Dad is from England and lives in Miami working for British Airways...he a really sharp guy, and i really hope that something can touch his moms heart. This is all a completely new experience for me teaching people like this hah. On sunday I had my first real dinner where we sat at a table as a family and ate together haha...it was amazing.

anyways, ive got to run. i love you all, keep me updated on whats goin on back home. MISS YOU!

con mucho amor,
Elder Archibald

Week 46: Adios Jardines!

Hola familia,

   How has everyone been doing? Things have been really good here in Honduras. This has been a pretty awesome week. It was my last week in Jardines de Toncontín, my last day was yesterday actually. I was there showing one of the Elders who will be there around the area and where our investigators are and everything. I was pretty sad to leave to be honest with you, i really loved the area. I was there for about 4 and a half months, which is how long i was in San Rafael, but the time went by ten times faster in this area...not sure why. I was expecting to be here for 8 months haha but now I´m in an area called Nuevo Loarque. Us 4 secretaries will be working there, its a big area and its a wealthier place from what i´ve heard. Ive actually never been there yet, tonight will be my first time in the area. I think i´ll be here for another 3 or 4 months.

    Things ended really really well in Jardines though, we invited Yesenia and her son Alexis from la familia Zuniga to be baptized on monday and we set the date for Saturday. They were both so excited, even though the rest of the family wasnt going to be able to. We had a really great baptismal service on saturday, about 25 members showed up to support them. Thats the most people ive ever had come to a baptism, it was really great and the spirit was present. After the were baptized, Alexis and Yesenia bore their testimonies. Alexis said that he wants to be a missionary and that he is going to start preparing now. The kid is really really smart and is going to be a huge help to the youth in the ward, and the mom has such a strong testimony in the restoration. I was really grateful to be able to participate in their baptism and conversion.

   Also monday in the morning i went to the Honduran DMV...it was a really weird experience hah. the instructor kept calling on me to answer questions and explaining how things are different here from in the states. During the written test he was like reading over my shoulder and it was pretty funny because he would give me the answers in broken english. Everything turned out well though and i will be able to drive starting tomorrow. Its going to be crazy driving in the country...but dont worry mom, ill be safe and check my mirrors haha.

   well thank you for everything! i love you so much! let me know how everyone is doing.

Con mucho amor,

 

Elder Archibald

Week 45: El tiempo esta volando

 

 Hey everybody,

 

     Another quick week here in the office and Jardines de Toncontín. The time has been flying by really fast but not fast enough, I´m ready to get out of the office to be honest hah. These 4 months have been wayyy too tiring and stressfull. I really miss the normal missionary life. Sounds like I´ll be leaving in September, so another 4 months...its weird to think that i´ll spend a third of my mission in the office. Im sure that when i final get out of this place ill be a lot more excited to go work and get stuff done. I´ll really appreciate the proselyting side of things a lot more.

     I love my area though, I try really hard to leave the office early at like 2:30 or 3 so we can eat a quick lunch and get to the area at 4 or so and have a good 5 hours if we skip dinner to visit less actives and investigators. We have a lot of potential here in the area to have a lot of success really soon. We have 9 investigators that have enough church attendance to get baptized as soon as they make the decision. Santos Matute has been going back and forth a lot...its been frustrating. We were at his house Saturday night and we had a really powerful lesson and he was so excited to get married and get baptized, but he didnt come to church the next day...his "wife" Ninfa came to church and said that he just didnt feel like going. Ninfa has a grandson named Sergio that wants to get baptized so i think we will baptize him this Saturday. Maybe Santos will be able to see the example in a child and that might touch his heart.

   Last night we went with La familia Zúniga and had a good lesson. The Dad carlos didnt really want to be there because there was a soccer game going on so he left and was just watching TV in the other room...I want to just tell him really directly, that if he really doesnt want his wife to leave him he has to start putting in some effort and actually care about her. It makes me really really sad to see that she has this HUGE testimony and wants to make covenants, but can´t...She´s been to church 5 or 6 times in a row, she goes to institute every friday, and all the activities in between. we told her to not lose hope and to be humble and have lots of patience. SHe still has plans to leave at the end of this year, but we are hoping things can patch up in their family. Really all they have to do is start with the little things like a family prayer every night and i know it would help them...they just have to put it in practice. But we did invite her sister-in-law, Yessenia, to be baptized with her son Alexis this Saturday with her niece Wendy. They are all really excited, except wendy isnt 100% sure yet...so we are going to be working with her these days.

    I did get kind of bad news i think, while president was signing some checks for me we were talking about my area and he says that i need to baptize my investigators as soon as possible because i think that he is going to be taking us out of the area and putting us somewhere else. Im really sad about it if that is really what is going to happen. I love this area. But we will see what happens. He said that we´d be opening an area, and thats always hard to get things going the first couple weeks especially if it is just recently closed which i think is the case.

    How are things going back home? I miss you all a ton. thank you for the support and prayers. HAVE A GREAT WEEK! until next time...

 

Con muchísimo amor,

Elder Archibald

 

 

PS. the pictures attached are my new honduran resident card...IM OFFICIALLY HONDURAN! also the view from the office, and our walk through some trees in the middle of the highway to the office every morning. The picture of all the houses on the hillside is probably the richest part of Honduras...its actually pretty haha.

 

 

 

Week 44: Feliz dia de la Marde

Hey familia,

     Well, not too much to write this week since we talked just yesterday haha. But it was really great to be able to talk to you all and see your faces. Everytime before i call home i get really nervous and almost dont want to call haha because i am really comfortable with the mission right now and I was worried that the call might make me homesick or get distracted from what Im doing here, BUT it was great, it gave me the little extra burst of whatever it was that i needed. I was glad that i was able to meet Avett and Katie and that I got to hear Luella talk for the first time! its going to be nuts when I get back home and everyone is grown up haha.

    After tha call we went to the area and had a few lessons. We went with this one family for the second visit...it was a really awkward lesson. About half way through the grandpa comes in without his shirt on (thats not the weird part, nobody wears shirts here) and asks us if we wanted to perform surgery on him. We were so confused, but then he turned around and showed us this giant pimple/cist thing on his back and told us he wanted us to cut it open. We laughed and told him no, but then he got really serious with us and said if we were really men of god we would do it for him haha. So we just told him to go to the doctor because hes the only person with authority to do that, we have authority to teach about christ haha. Then he went on forever about he was in the Honduran army 50 years ago back when "compasses didnt exist" and they had to use the sun to guide themselves, and how the army now adays have the best technology...now they have compasses. haha.

   We also went with la familia Zúniga (Esther, Carlos, Yessenia, Wendy, Alexis, Poleth), It was a really intense lesson, Esther and Carlos kind of got everything out in the open with the relationship and their feelings and they were arguing a lot...it was really sad at first because both of them were saying that it would probably be best if one of them just walked out and left the family. The Dad got up and wanted to give us a handshake to say goodbye because he might be leaving the next day, thats when the daughter left the room crying, but i didnt shake his hand and told him id see him the next day...he smiled and said okay. But we explained how no family is perfect, everyone has their problems, but they need to have hope, patience, and faith and things will work out for their own good. Both need to humble themselves, look for the good in eachother, and forgive one another. We explained that true happiness comes only through obedience to gods commandments and how living the gospel will make the family more united. We invited them to start kneeling down and praying as a family every night and we promised them that if they did that, and that if everyone came to church this sunday that they would feel the presence of the spirit in their home and the contention would leave. They commited themselves to do it, but it wasnt very firm...so we will see if they did it when we visit them tonight. I love this family a lot. They have the potencial to be an incredibly strong family and leaders in the church...they just have to humble themselves and start working on the little things...  that really applies to all of us. Its through the small and simple things that big changes and miracles come to pass. ie. prayer, reading the scriptures, service, etc.

Well I love you all so much, thank you for being a great example for me. I hope everybody is doing well! write me and tell me how your missions, work, kid raising, and everything else is going!

 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald