Week 61

Hey family,

Another goood week out here in Guaimaca. Its been really really hot lately and pretty miserable to be walking around out in the street. Lots of sweat. It hasnt been raining too much this week which is a nice break from all the mud. But i guess the huricane and storm season is in October so there will be a lot more to come. Things have been going pretty well in the zone too. We have been traveling a lot to different areas in the zone to work with the missionaries there and help a companionship out with a few problems. But it gets pretty expensive traveling and we dont get reembursed for travel so weve been eating a little less ha. 

This week was pretty hard with finding people in their homes because everyone was at the stupid fair haha. and a lot more drunk people in the street that like to bug us so thats been pretty annoying as well, but hasnt been too bad. On friday we did some service for one of our investigators. We went to his house to dig a big hole for a latrine in his back yard. It was pretty hard work out in the hot sun but it went by pretty quick...while i was digging with a pickaxe i was standing on the wood covering of the old latrine, which was just covered with some old wood planks, then all of a sudden where my right foot was placed collapsed and i fell on my butt and my leg into the latrine...LUCKILY I didnt get dirty at all, if i would have fell just a couple more inches it could have been a lot worse. It scared me to death. The only injury i walked away with that day was a really really bad sunburn. I would like to send you some photos of everything but my SD card has a virus...i hate these computers here. I cant open my files with this virus and it always puts a bunch of innapropriatley titled folders and files on the memory. Im not sure what i can do to fix that.

There was another baptism this last weekend as well of a family here. It went really well and it was a cool baptismal service to be apart of....luckily the lights didnt got out this time. But on our walk home we were walking on the side of the road and we heard a horse coming up behind us (which is normal) they usually just pass us but luckily my companion pulled me out of the way just in time before the horse wouldve trampled me. The guy riding the horse was going way too fast and los control...probably because he was drinking a bottle of liqour while riding the horse and was really drunk. But everything is fine so no need to worry.

Well that is about it for this week. How is everyone doing back home? thats awesome about bretts new job! what will he be doing for adobe? that will be fun to have everyone close by in provo. How did matt and alis trip go in germany??

alright well i gott run! 

Con mucho mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 60

Hey there family!
   well i dont have a whole lot of time to write...but it was a pretty normal week here in Guaimaca. This week has been pretty tough as far as the work goes because the yearly fair is going on and hardly anybody is home and there are a lot of drunks in the streets...it will be over next week though so thats good haha. It has been some reallly intense weather here too. It is blazing hot and sunny during the day and then at night some huge storms roll in and it rains so hard... Which means lots and lots of MUD. and our roof has about 10 leaks so its hard keeping dry. Also ive been sick the last couple days, I think i ate some food that wasnt very clean. Im hoping its not a parasyte.
   On tuesday President fortuna and the assistents came to visit us and worked with us that night. It was a good oportunity to split up and get more done. President has a big focus on working with members and references so we have been doing that a lot lately. That night the assistents stayed in our place and we got up on wednesday to go to Talanga for our Zone Conference. Elder Quiñonez and I had an hour to teach chapter 13 from preach my gospel and i went really well, president said he was really happy with how he went. We invited some members to come to the meeting and help us with our practices.
   Other cool story, so we are teaching this lady whos mom got married to a member in the states about a year ago and she got baptized around the same time. Anyways, her mom got here a couple days ago to visit and came to church on sunday with us and we have some plans to go visit her daughter and hopefully we will be able to help her progress. The mom was really happy from what she has heard from her daughter about us and so she brought 2 ties with her from the states to give to us. It was really nice of here to do that.

Anyways, everything else is going pretty well here. Thank you for everything!
con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 59: Second week in Guaimaca

Hey fam!
     Well it has been a really great week out here in Guaimaca. its so different from all of my other areas. Oh and i forgot to tell you about my companion last week.. His name Elder Quiñonez and he is from Guatemala City. He has 20 months on the mission and has been a Zone Leader for the Last 3. He is a really chill guy and is a lot of fun. Im really looking forward to this change with him. We get along really well. He was in the office as a secretary for awhile too, actually he was actually in the office when i arrived here in Honduras.
    Anyways, We had a good pday last week, we just went shopping and then kicked a soccer ball around for awhile. There isnt a whole lot to do here in the zone so im gonna have to get creative to find something to do that is more fun than just playing soccer every week. On tuesday we had our first Zone meeting of this change and it went really well. Its kind of hard for our zone to get together though because everone is pretty far apart. Thats the problem with the zones outside of the City. Anyways we just talked about how to make real goals and commiting to them.
    On Thursday we had a branch activity. We watched a short video and gave a spiritual thought and then we played some games. Elder Quiñonez and i were in charge of the game that we would play so we went to the store close by and bought a bunch of eggs and waterballoons. We did an egg toss with the eggs and then when we ran out of those we used water balloons...and that turned into a water balloon fight (not a good call on our part). And of course everyone thinks its HILARIOUS to throw water balloons at the missionaries. so we got soaked. good news is that it was a pretty big success, about half the branch showed up and a lot of nonmembers as well.
    Friday we had another activity in the branch. The branch presidency made a dinner for all the couples in the branch and they spoke about marriage. it was a pretty good success too, about 30 people showed up and we got a free dinner so we cant complain. Also kind of randomly one of the missionaries that served here about 9 months ago came back to visit with his dad. His names Elder Kimball from CA....That got me thinking about after my mission, i really would like to return and visit my old areas afterwards.
    Saturday the other companionship here in Guaimaca had a 2 baptisms but they kind of dropped the ball and didnt realize that they didnt have baptismal clothing and didnt let us know til that morning. So my companion and I had to take a bus to Talanga which is about 45 minutes away to pick up the clothes. While we were there we visited the missionaries in our zone that are there and studied with them for a little while. Then we got back on the bus and went back to Guaimaca. When we got there I did the baptismal interview with the investigators...it was the first interview ive given, but it went really really well. After that we continued with the baptismal service...a lot of people showed up so that was nice. Then right as the first person was about to step into the water...THE POWER WENT OUT. perfect timing haha. And when the power goes out here its usually for a couple hours at a time and it was pitch black because it was dark outside as well. Instead of canceling the baptism my companion and i ran to this store that luckily was open, and bought some candels. We brought them back and lit a bunch so we could see and then we continued with the baptisms and everything turned out well....looking back at it im not sure if thats okay to do with the candles...but the good thing is that 2 people got baptized. Afterwards they gave their testimonies about how satan is always trying to put obstacles in our way but we have to carry on and obey the commandments...even when the lights go out.
    Well thats about it for this week! thank you so much for your letters and your prayers. I got all the pictures that Ali sent me. Rosie is so big! Luella too! its crazy how much theyve grown up in just 14 months. Well thats it for me. until next week...


Con amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 58: Guaimaca

Hey everybody!
    Well im writing you from Guaimaca now....pretty far away from Tegucigalpa. The last couple days in the office were pretty hectic; just was trying to make sure that i could help Elder Livingston figure everything out before i left. Its really tough starting as a new secretary so i wanted to help him out as much as i could in that short amount of time. On Wednesday some church employees came in to perform the audit. It took forever and was really boring, theres no way i could do that as my job haha. Everything went well though, the didnt find any embezaling or anything bad like that haha. A few hours after that i drove myself out to my new area with the assistants. It was the wierdest feeling going out there haha. i felt like i was going camping or something. When we got there i got my stuff out of the truck and the elder who was there went back to the office. The area is super pretty though. Lots and lots of green and mountains. Theres not too much out here, theres one small store to buy groceries at but thats about it and the majority of the streets are just dirt...which means lots and lots of mud. It has been raining so hard out here the last week so my clothes got dirty pretty quick. And its back to cold water and bucket showers again haha. Luckily it wasnt too rude of a wakening. Im getting used to it again. The area is huge because its an entire city, we share it with another companionship here. The other elders in the district are about an hour bus ride away and the rest of the zone is about an hour busride to the other direction. 
   On friday we went back to the office for a Zone Leader Council with president...so it really did feel like i took a camping trip and just came back to the office haha. It was nice being in the office without being a secretary. Anyways, Hermana Fortuna made us a really good lunch after the meeting and then we took the busride back to Gauimaca...but there werent any seats on the bus so we had to stand the whole way...my legs hurt so bad by the time we got there haha.
     On Saturday we had a baptism of this girl named Angelica. She has been living with a member family here ever since her dad died about a month ago. She really loves the church and wanted to get baptized really soon. The baptismal service was kind of dramatic because she didnt like the baptismal clothing so she locked herself in the bathroom and cried until her aunt brought her a white dress haha...it was pretty wierd. Everything went well on Sunday too with her confirmation. Gauimaca is a pretty big branch of about 100 members that attend regularly. The Branch president is a really awesome guy, really excited about mission work. Im excited to get to know the rest of the members and the area.

Well thats about it for this week. Thanks for the emails, ill print them out and read them after i get off.

Con mucho amor,
Elder Archibald

Week 57: Me voy!

Hey everybody,

     First things first, there were some pretty interesting changes in the mission this last week...Ill be leaving the office this wednesday! nuts, right? I only have one week to train my replacement financial secretary, poor guy haha. Its tough learning how to do the job and it takes awhile to get into the swing of things. The new finance guy is Elder Livingston from Newport Beach, CA. He´s a cool guy and its been a blast being able to be with him this last week. Its funny because i recieved him here in the office when he first got to Honduras 5 months ago and now he´s taking my place. We both were studying at BYU before the mish and are going into finance. It feels really reallly wierd knowing that i will be leaving the office...I´ve got all my stuff all over the house from the last 7 months so íts been pretty hard to pack haha. I´m going to this Area called Guaymaca, the zone is called Talanga. From what i´ve been told its a smaller city (pueblo) with not much there. Its pretty far out from Tegucigalpa...maybe an hour and a half. almost in the department(state) called Olancho. They dont have ATMs but they jsut got a grocery store...so its going to be a big change from being here in the office haha. Im really looking forward to it though. Its going to be a really good being able to be in the field all the time...ill be "roughing it" again haha. I was pretty sad to say goodbye to the ward though, it has been my favorite proselyting area so far in the mission. The members are amazing here and treat the missionaries really well. I bore my testimony yesterday in church to say goodbye and it was actually pretty hard for me.

    There are two investigators that we have that are doing really well, Joseph and Kevin. They both are 20 years old and are studying in the university here. Anyways, a couple days ago we were teaching joseph and he except a baptismal date for the 11th and the next day we were teaching kevin and he excepted a baptismal date as well for the 11th. Im really excited for them, bummer that im not going to be around for it but its all good. Im really happy because it will get the ward excited too...in the last 9 months there has only been 1 convert baptism.

   Well short letter for this week, im sure i will have a lot more to write next week. I love you all! thank you for your love, support, and prayers.

 

con mucho amor,

Elder Archibald

Week 56: Transfers week

Hey familia!

 

     Well this has been a pretty great week out here in Loarque. Its been fun because we have been getting to know the members a lot better and working with them a lot more closely. On Wednesday we spent an hour with the Ward mission leader who is this 70 year old guy and works for the government...we just sat there as he told us one hilarious story after another. For example, He said that he left Honduras  all alone to go to Mexico when he was 15 where he worked being a handyman and sleeping in the streets and then after a decade or so he became best friends with the then future president of Mexico Vicente Fox. He also told us that when he was a young boy living in Olancho he used to play in the house of Martin Böhrman (Hitler´s right hand man) becuase he fled form Germany to Honduras in his submarine that he kept parked in the river by his house. And also while he was there in Olancho he grew up with Pepe Lobo the president of Honduras right now...then he showed us that he has his number saved in his phone as "Pepinillo"...then he tried calling him right there to say hi but he didnt answer. oh yeah, and it was his idea for the military ku to overthrow Mel Zelaya the old President of Honduras 3 years ago...and says that if he had 5 million dollars he could overthrow the government in 24 hours and 25,000 people would die. He always carries around 3 knives on him too because you never know who wants to abduct you to get information. I like to believe his stories because it makes life way more interesting.

 

    We had a really great activity on Saturday that we have been planning for the las couple weeks. We had a fireside and dinner for part member families where we talked about the temple watched a short video then we ate a chicken dinner. We made really nice personal invitations with the bishoprics signatures and handed them out to the families. It ended up starting an hour late but it was perfect because our investigators showed up late too haha. gotta love Honduran Standard Time. There were 40 people in all and 5 investigators so for me, i think that was a great success. A part member family we are teaching where the dad has been investigating the church for the last 7 years showed up and really enjoyed it. Also the mom and sister of a young man in the ward came and it was really great because they hadnt been to the church in a really long time. we are going to start teaching them soon. And also marcial and Yadira (the cubans) came, i was really surprised about that because they told us that there kid was sick and couldnt leave, but the kid got better! It was their first time in the church so we were super excited about that. At the end of the activity they thanked us for inviting them and that they loved it. They told us they needed us to come over on monday(today) because they have "exciting news" for us...i have no idea what it could be. Maybe she´s pregnant or they want to get baptized. We´ll find out!

 

     We have been able to see quite a few of our investigators progressing and showing that they have a desire to learn more...which is really where it all starts. We have one investigator named Joseph, he´s 20 years old, that came to church for the first time Yesterday. His mom was a less active lady in the ward and just started coming to church again recently...but some people are suspicious that its for ultirior motives (like for financial aid) because she always is asking us for money for medicine or things like that. But Joseph is a lot more sincere becuase he always get really embarassed when his mom talks about that kind of stuff and tells her not to do it and that he knows we arent supposed to help out with that stuff. We were really excited when we saw him, he wasnt able to come last week because he was taking care of his brother who has a lot of seizures. He has accepted the invitation to be baptized but he needs to attend church more consistently.

 

oh other story, I got pulled over the other day by the Honduran police...i guess our car matched the description of a car that was a part of some drug deal killing and so they searched the car and didnt find anything.

 

 I GOT A PACKAGE FROM MOM AND DAD! thank you! The chocolate was pretty melted so its in the freezer right now, one of them exploded ALL OVER haha but i cleaned it up alright. but dont let that discourage you from sending more chocolate in the future...near future. and i love the tie!! thank you!

 

Well that is it for this week! i hope youre all doing well! I LOVE YOU ALL! the time is flying by so fast and it is freaking me out. We have transfers this wednesday and then we´ll see if my replacement comes in the next couple weeks to start training and then if come this next change in september, i will only have 6 changes left in my mission....not that i´m counting.

 

Con mucho MUCHO amor,

 

Elder Archibald

 

ps. i also went on exchanges with Elder Martinez here in the office this week and it was pretty cool thinking about how brett and martinez´ older brother taught together as well about 5 years ago.

Week 55: El Picacho

Hola Familia!

    ¿Que tal? hows everyone going? im going to first start off with saying congrats to David, Whitney, Jonas, Miles, and Abel for their brand new baby!! thats so exciting! she is beautiful. Claire is a very fitting name. How did everything go? are the boys excited?...any other pregnant people in the family that i dont know about yet? haha.

    Things have been going okay here in the office. Its been really really stressful though...just a million things that can and do go wrong haha. All the missionaries are having problems with their debit cards and other really exciting things like that. Just some of the difficulties about being the financial secretary. President Fortuna has also asked me to make a bunch of reports and analysis about some expenses over the last year or two and is asking my opinion about increasing the missionary allowance and other things i think the missionaries would need help with.

   As for the area ill give you an update on my investigators. Christopher is doing well, he gave a talk in church yesterday which was pretty cool because its something that he´s wanted to do for awhile. We met with him before to help him prepare the talk and everything turned out really well. It was kind of a bummer that his mom didnt show up to support him though. We were hoping that that could have been a turning point. The cubans are doing pretty well. we havent had much time to meet with them this week, but we are inviting them to a ward activity for couples and we´ll talk about the temple and eternal marriage. Then afterwards we are going to have a dinner...we are hoping that it will get some part member families and investigators inside of the church to break that first burrier. We have been trying to do a lot of finding and we have a lot of appointments for this next week. Im looking forward to it. There are also a lot of opportunities to do service, the bad thing is we dont have service hours to go do that. I would like to go some saturday on our pday to be able to do it, but my companion doesnt want to. Maybe we can find sometime during the week.

     We had another sweet pday on saturday too. We went with President and his two sons to this park called Picacho where they have this giant statue of Christ on the mountain that you can see from everywhere in Tegucigalpa...a lot like the one in Brazil, only not quite as big. We took some great photos and ill send them next week to you because i have to get them from the other missionaries´ cameras because i didnt bring mine :(.  It was a lot of fun to go see that and its something that we havent been able to do before because its outside of our mission.

   Other than that things are doing great here in Honduras. I miss you all and am praying for you. I hope youre all staying safe and enjoying life. Ill be here holdin down the fort in Comayagüela.

 

mucho amor!

 

Elder Archibald

 

Ps. What happened in Aurora? every single person (not kidding) i talk to, when they ask where im from, start saying how sorry they are for what happened there. There was a shooting in a movie theatre or something right? anyone we know involved in that?

 

PPS. I FINALLY GOT MY SCRIPTURE COVERS! the guy dropped em off. i attached pictures. they turned out great.