Happy Thanksgiving - not!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

 

Alright, so this week was a tough week in some aspects, and a wonderfull week in others. It was really hard to be away from home this past week. This week of Thanksgiving always has been one of my favorite weeks, but yes, somhow I feel so thankfull to have spent a thanksgiving here in Honduras. it was a really rough thanksgiving but Im a misisonary, so it wasnt all that bad. So this thanksgiving, I had to go on interchanges, so I was not in my area, And i got to spend the day with a Elder Schotborgh from Columbia. And do I ever have a story to tell about this day. So first thing first we were on a bus going from Campamento, my area, to Guiamaca, Elder Schotborghs area when my bag got stolen. I didnt really have anything valuable, just some pajamas, my sandals, and my debit cards. Me and my scriptures are safe, so thats whats most important hahaha. So we start working throughout the day, and at about 5, the power went out, and it started raining hard. The rule here, is when the power goes out, we have to go home and wait for the power to come back. So we started to work our way home down this muddy slick dirt road without light. I felt really bad, because Elder Schotborgh didnt have verry good shoes, and it was really slick. I essentially walked him back down the road. The one time I stopped helping him walk down this road, He slipped and fell right into this giant muddy puddle, ruining his pants and his backpack. The lights did not come back till the morning, so for our thanksgiving dinner, we had bread and butter, because no one could cook anything, and we could not leave our house. All this made for kinda a rough day, but in the grand scheme of things, everything was all good.

 

The reason why this week was good, is because we worked hard, and we had two baptisms muchly needed for this branch. We have been working really hard with less actives, and we have seen some fruits. We baptized two kids who are both sons of less actives. They are really good kids, and I was blown away when I found out a few weeks ago that they arent members yet. Before in my mission, Ive never really worked with much less actives, but now, that is almost all that we are doing. When a less acitve comes back to church for the first time in years, it is such a great feelling. There is alot of good going on, and I dont see it coming to a halt any time soon. Really I am greatfull to be a missionery. At times it is hard, but the hardships are totally worth it when I see the joy that people get from this gospel. I like always will keep marching forward, I love yall soo much. have a good week, and also, Happy birthday Mom!!!

 

Elder High

Hooray for Mondays

Alright alright! Good Morning!

 

What a week I have had. I do not think I have ever felt so tired in my life before, because I do not think Ive worked harder in my life before. The good thing, with good hard work, brings good hard results. I feel great here in Campamento Olancho and I feel great about this past week. So much good has hapened this week.

 

 So I think I have said before that I am not in the city anymore. In the city, to get from lession to lession, it would only ever take 5 minuetes to walk, 10 minuets max. Here in the country, we have investagators that live more than 30 minuets away. Haha at least 3 times a week we have to cross a decent sized river to get to part of our area. its a lot of fun, but it is different work. Because people live really far away, we have to be really efficient with our time. We have came up with a new way to teach here. For some reason, there is this bad disease in the city, that every lession has to be more than an hour long. There is multiple problems with that. First, after teaching for an hour, Investagators get bored, Investagators start to forget what was in the first part, and typically we start to run out of things to say. I think it is a terrible way to do things, but that is essentually what I have been doing during my time in the city. Here in the country, we can not afford to do that. We have been teaching in a completly new way, different from most missionaries. We have called it the Spirit Bomb. It goes something like this. We go to the house of our investagaotr, sing a hymn, share a 5 minuet message, invite the to read the book of mormon, or pray or something like that, and then we get out and leave. We hit them with the spirit hard, and then we leave, leaving them wondering what just happened. So far, it has been extremly succesfull. Almost all of our investigators feel the spirit strong, and then they desire us to come back so they can feel the same spirit. It has really helped our investagators keep their commitments and have helped them to really gain a real tesimony from the spirit, not from us. I say this has been succesfull, because we have brought countless less active mimbers back to church from this technique, and countless investagators to church. Also, if everything goes to plan, we should have 2 baptisms this week, and countless more should follow. 

 

That has been one of the biggest things I have learned this week. Sometimes the things that everyone else is doing, may not be the best way to do things. We have to be bold enough, and courageos enough to look for the best way to do things. We need to be inventive, and we need to always have the spirit with us. We are nothing without the Holy Ghost. We are not anymore converting people to us or to the church, but to the holy ghost. When we took ourselves out of this work and replaced us with the Spirit, we started to see more poeple growing spiritually more quickly. That is my goal as a missionery from here on out. i have learned a ton this week, and I am way ready for the week to come. 

 

Love you all so much, Have a good Thanksgiving, and try to save a little of sweet potatoes for me haha 

 

Elder High

 

 

 

 P.S. So there is a funny story about this guy who called you. I forget his name, but He is somewhere from the south. I want to say thursday we walked out of our house and started to walk down the street when we heard someone yell Elders, getchall over here. Me and Elder Storrs just looked at each other and went what did we just hear! haha We went back over and sure enough there was a decently sized white guy speaking to us in english haha. He also is a member and a returned missionary. He served a mission in Portugal almos 20 years ago. I guess he is out here in honduras heading up a Gold Mining company. I bet tanner would like to hear that one. I asked him if there was any gold here, and he said heck ya. I guess these lands are filled with gold that has never been mined. Kinda cool. We talked a little and then he asked for our parents numbers to give yall a call to say we are doing great. Kinda odd but kinda cool haha.

 

 

 

Internet problems are the worst

Well yeah! So first off, Happy birthday to Tanner, I sent him a email so tell him to read it! There is no way that he is already 16 and in those dating years, but hey maybe he is haha. Im not going to lie, Im in a really good mood today. Things are great here, actually things have never been better. I am writing a little bit later than normal, because there has not been any internet in this city for about 5 days, and it decided to come back just a little bit ago. I guess this is a normal problem. I will always try to write on monday, but dont freak out if I dont send an email untill later on in the week. Freaking Honduras.. 

So I do not know where to begin with what has happened this week. Alot haha. So we have brought a ton of people in and have had a filled scheduale everyday. I have never worked with so many people before in my mission. The work here in the middle of nowhere is so much different than the work in the city. One thing that is hugely different is the church. This week, 12 members decided to go to church. Me and my companion ended up blessing the sacrament, and passing the sacrament, giving sacrament talks, and teaching the sunday school and pristhood lesson. It is alot of work out here in the country,but there is so much good. Other things, my companion is the best. I have yet to have one companion that I havent gotten along with. Everyone is different, but everyone is excellent. These past few weeks also, I have had he opportunity to know a lot more missioners. Being the District Leader, I have gone on a few interchanges with all the elders. Every person is so different, but I have learned something from every Elder. Every day there are opportunities to learn and opportunities to be better. Thats one thing that keeps me going. The thought that in every day there is different expieirences waiting for me just gets me excited. Im kinda stripped for time like always, but the church is true, dont forget it.

Love you all

Elder High

I don't know why he is in the water

Honduran snowman??

It's Monday!

Alright. Muy buenas días familia High, Estoy alegrado a hablar con ustedes y a ver que ustedes están bien. Thats enough spanish for yall today haha. So, we are putting in work here in campamento! Things are great, really just great. I always am stunned whenever the lord does his part in this work. It never fails. We do our part, and the lord does his. For example, This week, weve been teaching a family. The mothers name is Gilma, and she has a son Carlos 10 years old, Maria 6 years old, and Genisis 4 years old. They live a good 30 minuete hike away, so its sometimes a pain to visit them. There was a night, I want to say thursday, when we were dead tired, and we didnt feel like visiting them but we told them wed stop by. So we just felt like we have to be men of our words, and we have to just forget ourselves and do what the lord wants us to do. We took the what seemed forever long hike to their house in the dead of night without any lights to guide or path. ( A good 60 percent of the houses here do not have electricity yet, and there isnt any street lights, and at night, weve been told not to use flashlights, because it draws attention to us.) When we got there, we taught a much needed leccion about Jesus and we went on our way. yesterday, we were sitting in the church waiting for some investagators to show up, and sure enough, Carlos, Maria, and Genisis showed up without their mother. We were worried to death because its not neccicarily the safest here, and it is a long hike from their house to the church, but somehow these 3 little kids made the hike by themselvs to be in church. The lord protected them and had to have guided them because theyd never been to our church before. It just blows me away how the lord can work.

 

So other things, we had a conference with Elder Kevin Duncan, the area presidency this week. It was a real eye opening expierience. He talked alot about alot of things ive been thinking about alot. There is so much that I need to do more, but in the lords time. One thing really interesting that he talked about, was our vision. If ever we are going to do anything, we need to have a clear vision. When we teach someone, we need to have a vision of them in white ready to make covenats. Whenvever we talk with someone for the first time, we should try to imaginge them in the way that God does. Also we should have a vision of what our ward or brach will become like. Elder Duncan was talking to us and a Elder Tualatamelelagi who is in our district, and Elder Duncan said that one day there will be a stake in Campamento, and in the other elders area of Guimaca. This is a little hard to belive because yesterday, there was one priesthood holder in church, not even the branch president came to church. But that is our vision. We as of now have the vision of Stake Campamento. With this vision, we can put goals, and then work to meet our goals, and then one day fulfill our vision. I am pumped up to do everything possible to help everyone come to church, members and those who arent members yet. Other than that, things are going great, we are going to just keep working, but now I feel like we have dirrection which should help out with the work. I love you all and I am always praying for the best for you all. Have another good week

 

Elder high

 

 

 

 

 

 His companion hit his 1 year mark so they burned a shirt.

 

 

Good day from middle of nowhere Honduras

Good day from middle of nowhere Honduras hahaha

 

Campamento, Olancho, Honduras

 

Yeah, so you remember when I opened my call, and I showed you the map of my mission? There was a good chunk of land without any cities or anything. Yeah, Im there... haha. Campamento means encampment, and thats what it feels like im doing. I feel like Im living in Island park during the summertime. Im really extremly happy to be here. Im nestled back in the mountains, and it really feels like home. It takes my back to my scout days living here! This area is also gigantic, more than 40 miles long. It is the one of the biggest areas in the mision I belive.  Im in just a small little brach of 20 members strong. Yeah, its kinda been a culture shock because ive been in the capital city for all of my mission, and now im in backcountry of Honduras. Other news, I finshed training Elder Espinoza this last week, and now hes training in my loved area. And i was made a district leader, out here in Olancho. The closest Elders in my district live more that 40 miles away from here, which makes things kinda difficult haha. I also have a new companion, and get this, hes white too!! My new companion is Elder Storrs from Nampa Idaho haha. Yeah, I feel blessed to be working with a fellow eagle scout from Idaho out here. 

 

Other than all that, from what ive seen these last 6 days, Things here are great. The work is a little slower here, but there is alot of good going. We are working with well over 10 people who are practily ready to be baptized. One thing Ive seen here, is that people live a very slow laid back life. They dont do alot, but they are always willing to talk, and even willing to come to church, and willing to be baptized. Its kinda weird, but hey, I aint complaining. I am way ready for the future here. Im going to keep working and Im going to keep doing misionary stuff. There is really alot that I do not know yet, but I will let you all in when I know! Take care back home, and have a good week.

 

Elder High