Week 54

 

 

Hey Familia!

   Well this was a pretty fun week. In the area we´ve been trying to get to know some other parts that we havent been to and get to know some members that live in those areas. The area is actually pretty huge so there is a lot to do. It was pretty sweet this week too because we got to use the car in are area a few nights and we really took advantage of that...it really helps the work a lot. We have also been working in this part that is a little but more humble circumstances than the rest of the area, its called Los Altos de Loarque. Its pretty crazy to see how much nicer the people are and willing to talk to us and treat us like humans haha. When we contact in the wealthier areas its pretty hilarious how angry or scared people get just by us wanting to talk to them.

   We had a sweet Pday on saturday. In the morning we decided we wanted to go to this place called Valle de Angeles which is this really touristy small town where they have a lot of artesian stuff with museums and cultural stuff with a ton of little shops around. there were so many white people there! it freaked me out. They tried avoiding us though. Anyways, it was cool to get to see a pretty part of honduras. I took some pictures of the drive up there and a couple cool paintings that they have on the walls. I also bought a machete for 300 Lemps with a sweet leather case.

   Today we went to President Fortuna´s house to eat lunch, Hermana Fortuna made us some typical Dominican food and we played foosball haha. We are also planning a baseball game hopefully soon; president loves baseball...he says he knows Sammy Sosa haha.

   hey well i´m out of time. Let me know how everyone is doing! I LOVE YOU ALL

 

CON MUCHO AMOR,

Elder Archibald

Week 53

 
Hey familia!
     This has probably been the fastest week of my mission so far. We have been so busy with helping President Fortuna out with getting adjusted. This last week he went around the whole mission have mini Zone conferences where he and Hermana Fortuna and the rest of the family were introducing themselves to the mission. I LOVE THE FORTUNA FAMILY! I am really excited to be able to get to know them really well these next few months. I think I will be leaving the next change on September 15th...well lets hope so at least. The thing thats been keeping me the busiest these last few days is the change of missionary debit cards, the church changed banks for all the missionaries outside of the US. So its been pretty crazy getting all that squared away (really really exciting i know). And other than that, there are some changes in the finances that pres. fortuna is doing (he is a really smart guy) so we are working with that. He really wants to make the missionaries lives a lot more comfortable. before all the missionaries paid their own light and water bills and all their transport, but now pres. fortuna wants to reimburse us, which is awesome. and he is thinking about getting small washing machines for the houses and maybe microwaves too haha. I think that would be pretty sweet.
   Other than all that boring office stuff things have been great. We played basketball on saturday for Pday at this park by our house and a little crowd of honduran kids showed up to watch us play haha. The stake presidency challenged us to a basketball game next saturday so we are going to see if we can get permission to go play with them.
    Things have been goood in the area...a little hard, but good. We have been having a hard time finding new people, we try talking to people, but the majority just slam their doors in our faces or yell at us. I guess once they get a little money their hearts get a little harder too. But we are trying to work a lot more closely with the members. We are planning a dinner for part member families and we are going to have a fireside about the temple and we have asked some of the couples that have been sealed in the ward to give their testimonies...we are hoping that we it will help those families out.
   also a short crazy story.. We were teaching the cuban family a couple nights ago and we had a good lesson and they fed us some cuban food afterwards and i said a not so funny joke saying that I`ve never tried the food because its prohibited in the States...nobody laughed. i guess its a touchy subject ha. anyways after the dinner as we were leaving the mom stood up, passed out, and completely fell on the floor really really hard. Luckily we were there to help her husband position her and lay her out. after a few minutes she came back but was in a lot of pain from when she fell and hit her knees and head. You could tell she was a little embarassed but im glad we were there to help her out. We stopped by the next day to see how she was doing and they were really glad that we came by and cared that we cared. We have another appointment with them right after this, we are hoping they will commit to come to church with us this sunday.

how are things back home? how did the move go for David and Whitney and the boys? anything cool going on in the world? Well i love you all and youre in my prayers. have a good week!!! until next time...

con MUCHO amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 52: One Year Mark

Hey everybody!
    This has been a pretty incredible week. It was pretty crazy all week getting things ready for President Flores to leave and President Fortuna to come. On thursday Sister Ray cooked a thanksgiving style lunch for all of us in the office and for President and his family....Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy...all that good stuff. It was delicious. It was fun being around president flores these last few days. You could kind of tell that he was ready to go home haha I imagine its gotta be pretty exciting to go home after 3 years away from home. Also Tuesday and Wednesday We had some zone conferences so that president and sister flores could give us their last testimonies and say good bye to the missionaries. afterward we all gave president and hermana flores the "goodbye handshake". it was a really special meeting and i learned a lot...but it wasnt really goobye for us in the office because we still had the rest of the week with him in the office.
     On Friday we went over with president flores and his family to the house of President Hernandez (mission president of the Tegucigalpa mission) and his wife cooked us a big lunch so that was really cool as well, afterward we hung around just for a few minutes playing ping pong with president flores. I also reached my one year mark in the mission which was pretty exciting. Its pretty crazy thinking about where i was a year ago during these days. I remember my first days in the MTC like it was yesterday...and it feels like it was only a month ago. The time has FLOWN by. its really crazy. Im over the hump now and im expecting it to go by even faster, so i have to work even harder.
     Later that night on friday we went to the airport to welcome President Fortuna. We were there for about 20 minutes or so before the plane landed. We were there waiting with President Flores and his family and Elder Laburiel who is an area 70 here. First off the plane was Elder Amado from the first quorum of the 70 so we got to meet him, i shook his hand and gave him a big hug. then a few minutes later President Fortuna came through the gate with his family and we greeted them and helped them with their bags (half their luggage got lost and arrived a day later). At that point President Flores took of his nametag and wasnt our mission president anymore...haha it was kind of weird to see that. After the airport i drove all their  bags to their house and we helped them get a little settled in. The next morning we had a meeting with President Fortuna as a mission office. He told us a lot about his life so we could get to know him better and then we explained a little bit about ourselves. He is an amazing man. I already look up to him and am so excited for the opportunity i will have to work with him so closely. He got baptized when he was 20 years old in the dominican republic and a year letter (1992) left on a mission to the Santo Domingo East mission. He got married a year after his mission and was called to be bishop right then, a few years after he was called to be stake president, and then just recently he has been a counselor to a mission president in the dominican republic. He is an accountant and his wife is a lawyer, he was in charge of all the buying of church properties in all of the Carribean. They have 3 kids, the older is 11, another 8, and the last is 3 years old. REALLY young kids to have as a mission president. Im really looking forward to getting to learn more from another mission president.
   Later on Saturday we went to the airport to say goodbye to Pres. Flores and his family. It was really good to be able to see them off. Hermana Flores started crying as she said goodbye to us and gave us all hugs. it was a memorable experience...I was really able to understand a little bit better how much mission presidents and their wives love their missionaries.
   Since then we`ve been with president fortuna basically all the time helping him out with the transition. Today He took me with his kids to their school so he could show me where it was so they could sign up for classes then we went out to eat and he had his first Baleada in Honduras. Its really cool being able to get to know him so well .

well i gotta run! lOVE YOU ALL

Elder Archibald

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