Happy Thanksgiving

Familia!

 

Pues here i am again in the land of the slow internet hahaha. I have taken so many photos this past week, but it literally takes 20 minuetes to upload them, so youll just have to wait a few months to see them haha. Well, this was a slow week haha. Everything is going great here. Im still pumped up to be in Campamento. Im positive that this is the slowest, calmest town that exists in central america. No one gets moving until 8 or 9 in the morning, and everyone shuts down at 7 or 8 at night haha. The work also moves pretty slow here, but sometimes its better that way, sometimes one needs to slow down to speed up. Well, we are still looking for investagators, and we are starting to find a few people who are open enough. At this time of the year, honestly its dificult to find people to teach. Right now is prime time to cut cofee beans. About half of the town is up in the mountains cutting coffe. This town is small enough as it is, without the majority of residents, this town is verry quiet at this time of year. Essentially there is just a buch of old people that are to old to cut coffee here in the town. Its all good though, the old people always have some interesiting stories.

  Well, for thanksgiving this past thursday, didnt do anyting hahaha I ate some beans hahaha. Honestly it was fine. What i was able to do is medatate about the importance of giving thanks. The scriptures say " And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more." Dyc 78 19

  I think its prety clear what the scritpure says, He who is greatfull will only recieve more to be greatfull. Well i dedcided to make a list of things im greatfull for: 

• My mision
• Honduras
• The gospel
• Hot water
• Pine trees
• The Fam
• Pte. Ferman
• Campamento
• Ties
• Hot Chocolate
• Dust
• Silence
• Bananas
• Old People
• Tiredness
• The Restaracion
• Iona 3rd
• The Future

And lastly Beans. I dont know where id be without the beans. But honestly there is a lot of things to be greatfull for. God has created so many marveles things just for us. Ive seen that God is in the details. His hand is in everything. Everything testifies that there is a God. Give thanks. Be Thankfull

 

Love yall soo much

Elder High

My last area

Oy!!

 

Well, here i am again in Campamento. Im in my last area with my last companion. Ive been thinking about how weird of a mission ive had area wise.

list of my areas

1. Monterrey

2. Laureles (Stake Country)

3. Campamento

4. Monterrey ( again)

5. Santa Fe ( Stake Country again)

6. Campamento ( again)

 

Honestly ive had the oddest mission, but at the same time ive been blessed to be able to go to all of my old areas excatly one year after i was there. I have been able to see how every area has progressed or how they have digressed. They always say the second attempt at things is always better than the first. I believe it. I believe that God hasnt made any mistakes sending me back to all my areas. I guess ive left unfinished work that needs to be completed. I Honestly have no clue why im in Campamento again, but im sure in a few weeks i will find out. All I know is the church is true.

Well so i am going to finish my mission training. I am training Elder Giraldo from Cali Columbia.  He comes from a very big city, and Campamento is the smallest little backwoods hidden town in the mission. He is very social, and the people in Campamento are very reserved. But honestly i feel great. I dont feel at all like the mision is ending. I have plans to work my butt off, and come home completly dead. Im just gonna keep on keeping on.

 

Love yall so much, Have a great Thanksgiving!! and also tell Tanner happy Birthday!!!!

Elder High

Going back to Campamento!!

Im Going Back to Campamento!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im gonna finish my mision training!!!!!!!!!!

Familia!!

 

So.. Im happy. Tomorrow i get to return to my old area of campamento. I am going to finish my mision there training a newbe. My new companion will be Elder Giraldo. Dont know anything about the dude, just as of right now, hes chillin in the CCM hahaha. Im pumped. I feel like im going to go out strong. Other than what is going to happen in the future, in the past, I had a great change with Elder Viera. He is such a cool kid. We had a blast here in Santa Fe. We worked our butts off, and we got to see the fruits of our labor. Last saturday we had the Baptism of Rufino Cabrera, and his wife Epifania Cabrera. They have been a huge miracle for us. Me and Elder Viera started the lessions, and finished the lessons. They have been a huge miracle for our companionship. Ill send you a picture of them dressed in white before their baptism. It was a very happy moment. 

Other news, this past week we had a visit of a 70 named Elder Ochoa. He is in the area presidency, and he also served in the general young mens presidency. We had a 6 hour round with him on wednesday, and then on friday we had a leadership council with him. He is a very humble but firm man. He spent alot of time talking to us about faith. I dont have my notes with me right now, but he shared some awesome messages. On thursday in the night, Pres called us asking us if we could quickly prepare a musical number for the leadership council the next day. We accepted, so also we sang in front of the leaders of the mission and in front of Elder Ochoa. I

sent the video of what we sang in an earlier email. It was really a needed week in the mision. We were able to put a ton of new planes and we were really able to open our minds and come to see what is possible. Mayeby next week ill bring my notes to share with you what i was taught. Honestly everything is great. Im pumped .

 

Take care and have a great week!

 

Elder High

Finally, A Bishop

SANTA FE FINALY HAS A FREAKING BISHOP!!!

 

After a very long time, a recent convert is called to be a bishop. His name is Olmer Martinez. He is only 28, and he was baptized less than 2 years ago. He is such a good guy. Honestly it was kinda a suprise, but it was very cool. More than a year ago the old bishop of Santa fe moved. When he left, the ward had an asistance of 200 normally. Now, we struggle to hold 100. We hope that having a bishop will help to lift the ward back up. Its kinda crazy because i have been here for about 6 months, and in what most likely will be my last week here, they give the ward a bishop. I was very happy yesterday.

 

Well so also, i guess that halloween happened, no one here cares about halloween, but the first of November was the Day of the Dead. El Día de los Muertos. Mainly the day of the dead is celebrated in Mexico, but here and in all central american countries the lightly celebrate it. Here they treat the day of the dead like we treat memorial day. Everyone just goes to the graves and puts flowers. Thats about all they do here to celebrate the day of the dead. In mexico i guess they have all sorts of crazy traditions, like cooking the favorite meals of the dead and then just leaving the meal on an empty table.. here there is none of that. Here in Honduras its more of a day of respect for the dead.

 

Other things, next saturday we gonna be baptizing a family. The familia Cabrera have been progressing so perfectly. Its a family of 7 kinda like our family, but for now we are only going to be baptizing the parents, Rufino and Epifania. They were a reference from an old member of the ward. Since we found them 4 weeks ago, they have gone to church every week. They are already married. Rufino used to be addicted to alcohal, but he says that since he has met us, he has not even had desires to drink again. yeah.. they are a pure miracle family. They just have to pass the baptism interview, and then they are all set for saturday. Honestly, it was a blessing that i got to stay here another change. Me and Elder Vierra started the work with this family, and now we will have the pleaser to witness their baptisms. yeah, the church is true.

 

Love yall fam

 

Elder High

 

Pics

1. the rain looming in tegus

2. Yeah we bought a spongebob pinata for the zona

3. breakfast

4. Baptisms bro. So this guy has had a rough life. He has been very addicted to drugs and even has ran around in some pretty scary gangs. Well, he decided to change his life and get baptized whooo

Happy Halloween

Sup fam, Happy Halloween!!!

 

So for this halloween, i think ill just be Bradin, pretty spoky right!? Well so this week was incredible. Umm where to begin. So first off, on Tuesday, we had the privledge to have a conference with Elder Oaks. It was incredible. Elder Oaks talked with such power and love. His eyes just were filled with light. He touched many subjects in his talk that stirred my soul. He stated 

 " As misionarys many times we will  feel disapointed and frustrated. Well, thats just part of the plan. Throughout our lives, we Will expierience disapointment. We just gotta get used to it." 

" We have been called to be full time misionarys. Anything that takes the focus off of our missions, makes us part time misionaries. We need to be better full time misionaries."

 "The importance of comitment is an eternal principal. The thread that thies the plan of salvacion together is the thread named comitment."

" The only thing that makes a misionary greenie different from a misionary more experienced, is that a misionary more experienced understands who he is, and why he is here." 

" The only thing as misionarys that we can do to influence the desires of those we teach, is to teach with love, and to testify."

At the end of the meeting, he left us a blessing. He blessed us from the pulpit even as if his hands were lain upon our heads. It was a very spiritual expierience. In our zone, we decided to show up super early, actually we were the first misionaries who arrived. We got to sit on the third and fourth row, and we were able to make memories that we will never forget. It was great. 

So also on thursday, I had to get my residency renewed, had to spend the whole day waiting in immigracion. On friday i had interchanges with Elder Harrington who is the Asistent to President Ferman. Yesterday on Sunday, the Familia Cabrera went to church for the third week in a row, and the have a baptism date planned for the 12 of november. 

Umm.. honestly there was a lot that happend, and little time to explain. But, i feel good. 

 

Love ya.

Take care 

Elder High

Embracing the Suck!

Familia,

 

 So.. this was again, a very tiring, but very good week. It has been raining a lot. We are starting to feel the effects of the tropical storm that is passing by. I guess it is what is left of the Huricane Matthew. We have gotten very wet haha. Our companionship slogan has kinda been, Embrace the Suck. Some times the mission throws everything at us, but we can either pass through them with a bad attitude or with a great attitude. Honestly the rain sucks, but we are embracing it and loving it! We have been walking around sopping wet, and freezing day after day, but yet we make the best of our circumstance. In place of just hiding or sitting down and doing nothing, we have been knocking doors, and when the people see that we are wet and cold, 99 percent of the time the feel bad and let us in. That leads me to the other point of meditation in my week. As a misionary, I have been called by God to preach the gospel. That is my calling. I was not called to know the country, and i was not called to live in this culture. I was called to preach the gospel. Yes, there are many blessing that come from my calling. having being called, i get to know this country, and i get to live in this culture. Heck a huge blessing is that ive come to speak the spanish language. But all of these blessing have come from the origin of me being called to preach the gospel. I have been thinking a lot that ultimatly, my calling is to do nothing more than preach the gospel. Well this week, that is what we have done. in the example of the rain, we turned the circumstance that god gave us to magnify our calling and to preach the gospel even under less than ideal circumstances. Having magnified my calling, God permits me do his will,and in turn, he blesses me, in the example of the rain, most people let me into their house, and in turn I do not get wet. I could stand in the street all day sopping wet, or I can preach the gospel and be dry. Intersting meditative point.

 

So other crazy news, umm, so on wednesday Elder Oaks is coming to Tegucigalpa. Yeah, the whole mission in kinda on high stress right now. It kinda wasnt a planned visit. Elder Oaks out of the blue wants to visit just the Misionarys in Honduras. I also heard that he is also going to El Salvador, but we will see what revelation he recieved.. haha. He also told President Ferman that randomly he is going to chose one missionary to give a short 5-10 talk about how faith IN CHRIST leads us to repentance. ill let you know how it was next monday. So thats about it, didnt take a lot of pictures this week due to the rain, but im sure ill have more next monday

 

Love yall

 

Elder High

Cut some weeds and planted trees

Waz up Fam!

 

Holy cow, so this week was very good! My comp is still the bomb. We have had a really fun week. So this week was a little more normal than the last week. We have had quite a few really crazy expierinces. So first off, Dont know why, but we planted some trees on saturday with some memers of the stake, also we cut a ton of weeds with a machete (the most effecient and fun way to cut weeds). We had interchanges on Friday, i got to spend the day with Elder Uitzil de Mexico. We also have been working with some incredible investagators. On tuesday A member gave us a reference to a family. We started visiting this family early in the week and we visited them 4 or 5 times this week. They came to church on sunday, and accepted baptism. They are such a great little family. They are one of the few honduran families that is married, so we wont have to worry about marrying them. We are going to continue to work with them, but they are doing so good. Also a few weeks back another member gave us a reference to her cousin. The crazy thing is his name is Elder.. hahaha. Supposivly his mother was really close to some Elders when he was born.. haha. He has come to church the past 3 weeks and most likely he will also be baptised very soon. We are doing very good here in Santa Fe. This is still one of my most loved areas. Every week we have some crazy miracle that happens in this area. Also today Presidente Ferman wrote the mission letting us know that on the 26th of October, Elder Oaks will be coming to the mission. We are going to be preparing to recieve teahcing from an apostol of the Lord. Me and my comp are also trying to influence Presidente to let us do a musical number hahaha. Oh well, just take care and have a great week.

Love yall

 

Elder High

 

 

 

 

 

Week after transfers

Sup Fam

 

So this was one great week. So Elder Martinez is now in Juticalpa, and now im with Elder Viera. Elder Viera is the bomb! He is dynamite! Honestly hes just a real genuine great guy. He comes from Danville California up by the San Fran bay. Ive actully been realy close to this Elder Before, and the thought never crossed my mind that id be his comp. Ive actually been on a pair of interchanges with him. One really neat thing about Elder Viera is that before he came out to the mision he was studying up in BYU, and he actully was the piano player for the Young Ambasadors. He is insanly musicly talented. He was studying music and plans on being a music producer. This guy sings like a freaking angel! in every lesson that we have had this past week, we have sung a hymn. Honestly music has power. Hymns sung good can calm any circumstance. We are having a lot of fun together. 

 

So this past week was very normal. We have been doing very typical misonary stuff, but there was some crazy experiences. On thursday, we got invited to a stake presidency meeting with all the bishops of the stake. We had to give a report of the work in the stake and plans that we have to make things better. I have never had to speak in front of a stake presidency and 9 bishops before. I was very suprised because i really didnt feel nervous at all. We presented our report, colaborated, and left with the respect of the stake. it went good. On Friday, out of the blue President Ferman showed up to the distric meetings. He helped us a ton to understand how we can better work with the members. And on sunday we had Stake Conference. It was a very intersting week, but it was great. We are still working with the ward without a bishop, but we are honestly helping this ward out a ton. Just take care and have a great week!

 

Elder High

 

Alright so some of these are of Elder Martinez when he was saying goodbye. One is of Elder Viera, and one is of some bananas in the back of a truck.. yes this is honduras..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conference

Buenas Tardes Familia

#Blessed

 

So.. yeah, some things have happened. SO today we recieved the news of the changes, and Im staying here in Santa Fe, and my companion Elder Martinez is out. Honestly I was really supprised. I felt like I was leaving, but I guess the Lord has different plans for me. Im honestly fine with the change. I love my area. I love the people here. Tomorrow leaves Elder Martinez, and comes Elder Vierra. Its really crazy becaue I was his zone leader when Elder Vierra started his mision. To me he is still pretty new, but he is really good. He has a very ture pure testimony. He comes from Danville Californa, so yeah another american companion haha. Its kinda funny because ther is verry few americans in this mision, but almost all my companions have been from the states. Im really looking forward to this next change, itll be a good one. So funny story.. umm so i think i have told you before, but in my area is one of the biggest markets.of this city. So in the morning I thought I had changes, so I took advantage of having a huge freaking market in my area, and I bout a bunch of soccer jerseys and souvenirs and alot of stuff. Then I found out that Im staying, so when i actually do leave, ive got what i need. haha. 

 

So this past week was crazy. We had leadership council, Zone meeting, a Stake Presidency meeting, Interchanges, And to top it all off, General Conference. It has been a hugly spiritual uplifiting week. I honesly feel rejuvinated. I am so great for the apostols and for the prophet. They are men called of God. We are honestly really blessed to be members of this church. #Blessed. Many conference talks touched my heart, and realy made me think. Highlight talks, Elder David A Bednar, all of Elder Uchdorff, Elder Balard, Elder Christoforson and Elder Oaks. Also I was blessed to listen to the conference in english with the other american misionaries of the zone. There is nothing like listening to the real voice of the prophet. The church has to be true.The next conference ill be with you all.

 

Love yal

Elder High

A Week of Service

Familia,

 

Poocha, this week was crazy. Honestaly, not alot happened, but yet so much happened. So this week was the big festive week in honduras. This past thursday was independance day, and everyone had the week off. Literally everyone took off to celebrate. Our area was left pretty empty. Having everyone gone, we had to find something to do... so we did a lot of service haha. I mean a lot a lot of service. Literally everyday we were doing something. We painted houses, helped people move, helped peole cook, cleaned a television graveyard, cut weeds with a machete, made a mask for some kid, just a little bit of everything.. hahaha. Yeah, i have a few videos and photos. Other than that, the work continues. We are hoping that everything continues to go smoth like it is right now. Honestly, i feel great!. I get along really well with Elder Martinez, and the zone that we have right now is very unified. We have the ward working with us, and all is well in zion.

 

I just want to let you know about one other experience that i had this past week. So on Saturday, we had to help out the stake and go and visit less actives in a ward of the stake. I had no problem, because we were asigned to visit Laureles, my old area.. We showed up and in the church were alot of members that helped me out alot when i served in Laureles. It was really really incredible to see those that I have served with before. Were were asigned to visit a few members, and one of the families that we were assigend to visit, was the Familia Garcia. I helped the Familia Garcia get married and get baptized when i was there with Elder Espinoza. To just be in their house again almost made me cry. This family is so good. They are working to get sealed in the temple soon. Really great experience. It was a little weird having to tell various people that i went to visit that ill stop by in just 5 months bejore i go home. Gosh, the mission goes by so fast. More than i year ago I was in laureles. Just this expierience made my reflect about my mision. The mision is an incredible expierience. The church is true.

 

Love yall

Elder High

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you find the temple?

 

A few videos

The door to nowhere

 

 

The television graveyard

 

Cutting weeds with a machete

 

 

 

 

138 days

En aquel tiempo se acercaron los discípulos a Jesús, diciendo: ¿Quién es el mayor en el reino de los cielos? Y llamando Jesús a un niño, lo puso en medio de ellos,y dijo: De cierto os digo que si no os volvéis y os hacéis como niños, no entraréis en el reino de los cielos. Así que, cualquiera que se humille como este niño, ese es el mayor en el reino de los cielos.Y cualquiera que reciba en mi nombre a un niño como este, a mí me recibe.   Mateo 18:1-5

So, A lot has happened in this past week. We have been working with the kids and this week, 7 of them decided to get baptized. Herson, Henry, Josi, Astrid, Nahomi, Adan, and Luis. Honestly, it was super crazy. We had to run around making sure that all of them were good to be baptized, have the interviews with them, and plan the baptism service. On top of all that, we have been having to work alongside Presidente Ferman with this project. Baptizing 7 kids without baptizing their parents normally doesnt fly, but these kids have a diferent circumstance. Presidente has called this project excepcional. Also we have had to work alongside the ward which really doesnt help much. much to our suprise, the ward was all willing to help us. Everything turned out miraculously. We help the baptism on thursday at 2 in the afternoon, the only time that all the kids could be together. We were honestly expecting no one to come and support the baptisms, but more than 50 people showed up. I have never in my mision seen so many people in a baptism service. Ill send a Pic. And then the baptisms were incredible. Honestly it has just been one giant miracle these kids. If you could only see the faces in person, and hear the voices and laughter of these kids, itd bring you to tears. Yeah, it was a good week.

But, the work goes on. We still have more projects to do. There are so many people to help here. We are going to keep going forward. 

Love Yall

Elder High

Also, This was my sunday dinner yesterday! Fried fish fried in a bat a lard. Almost fair quality hahaha Also a better picture of the baptisms to see the faces of the kids

Also, not to freak you out or anything, just something that freaks me out is... suposivly, everyone has been telling me that my release date will be the 7th of Febuary....  Tomorrow, i will only have 138 days left of my mision. Me and my companion leave the same day, so starting tomorrow, we are going to read together every day, one chapter in Doctrine and Covenants. When we finish the book, we finish the mision... I cant believe how fast this time has gone..