Happiness

Happiness is when what we think, what we say, and what we do are in harmony one with a another.

 

So this has been a fun week! We have had some pretty good miracles and some pretty sweet experiences. This week we had the baptism of Axel. He is literally the coolest kid, who has had a really rough life. He was born with miniture arms, and only three fingers, but he has such a positive outlook on life. Almost his whole family is members other than his mother. He has been going to church and has recieved tons of misionaries for the longest time, but he could never be baptized because his mother wouldnt give him the permision. Well.. three months ago, his mother got sick with a diseseas called Chiqungunya. Normally chiqungunya just causes alot of joint and body pain, but every now and again, there are bad cases, The mother of Axel was one of those bad cases. She got chiqungunya bad, and was hospitalized for a good month, and then after a month, she passed away... We found Axel 2 months after the passing of his mother, and we taught him all about the plan of salvation, and what happens to familys and individuals after they die. He had a ton of questions, and was so desperate for answers. This whole experience with him I have felt bad for the kid, he is just a 13 year old kid. He took the choice to be baptized, and what a neat experience it was. His dad is a member who hasnt gone to church in a really long time, but he came to his sons baptism. Thats what this work is about, giving people hope. Axel got baptized because we gave him hope than he will see his mother again one day. Axel gave hope to his dad whos also trying to recover for the incident. That hope led them to action, and that action led them to having a peace of mind and being happy. I love this work for that reason. that people can have hope for the future. This is the true happiness. The church is true, live it and love it. Take care Friends.

 

Elder High

 

 

Photos

 The baptism and some of Axel

 We found some sick painter who painted us a painting

 A snow cone cart.

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday

Heloooo!!!

 

Yes, this was a good week. Im still keeping on keeping strong! Me and Elder Johnson have had some real crazy experiences this past week that just sort of happened. So I think ive mentioned before that there is a little of apostasy in Santa Fe. There has not been a Bishop in the ward for almost a year now, and the members are starting to get a little frustrated and a little irratated. To be short, not having a bishop causes problems in a ward. Yesterday in church, out of the blue showed up a seventy, Elder Ocampo. Lets just say that he burned our eyebrows a little. haha. He said and I quote " This ward and Honduras in general is filled with FALSE TRADITIONS. Stop thinking that you men are better than the women, because you are not...." Honestly, this ward needed to hear what he had to say. Other things, this ward is kinda famous in Honduras because posibly the most important member of the church in Honduras was brought up in Santa Fe, and his family still lives here. His name is German Lavoriel. He was a seventy and now he is the Mission President of Mision Costa Rica. Yesterday, we were kinda just looking around for people to teach, and we were led to knock on a big black door, so we knocked. Two very nice, very funny old Ladies lived there. We talked, taught a little, and then they asked us if we knew Elder Lavoriel. We were like no, but we have heard of him, and they were like " Yeah, hes my son in law," and the other was like" yeah, hes my brother in law." hahah They are not members, and suposibly a few misionaries have taught them, but not a ton. They are going to be our next project, the mother and sister in law of a mision president. They invited us to a lunch appointment on wednesday, so well see how that goes!! Other news, im old.. Other news, HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!!!! LOVE YA!!!! Yes the Church is true!!

Love each and everyone of you

 

Elder High

 

 

 

 

Patience is a virtue...unless you're waiting for your missionaries letters!!!

“Patience is Heavenly. Obedience is noble. Forgiveness is merciful and exaltation is godly; and He that holds out faithful to the end shall in no wise lose his reward.  A good man will endure all things to honor Christ, and even depose of the whole world, and all of it, to save his soul.” Joseph Smith.

 

So grandma sent me this quote, and I love it!! I feel like in many ways this quote applies to what has been happening this past week. At times, it is verry difficult to hold out to the end, but that is what all good men do. This week has been  a verry unsetteling week. So much has happened that realy has tried our patience and our trust and faith. This has just been a crazy week. 

So everything was just going great. We were teaching, preaching, seing miracles, we were loving the work, and we were just flat out happy, but...... theres always a but... Everything was fine till friday. I dont know why, but when things are going good, it is so much easier to study and think about the topic of trials and hardship, so friday in our companionship study, we study trials. We had lesson plans for every hour of the day on friday, there honestly was nothing that could possibly go wrong. We started out okay, and then around 3ish, we got a phone call from one of our investagatos who called to cancel the lesson. no biggie, then within 5 minuets, a member called us to tell us that he couldnt leave with us to visit. Than within the next 30 minuets, ALL of our investagators called to let us know that NOONE was going to be home. No problem, its happend before. Literally 5 minuets afterwards, the father of one of our investagators who has been progresing soo much( he has givin up drinking for more than 2 weeks) calls, saying that we have to come by. We visit, and Dario, our investagator is totally drunk. We were so confused because he was doing so so good. We tried to talk to him a little, but it was impossible, he brain was fried. We left him and just decided to visit a surere than sure less active who we knew would just let us in, we needed a break. We walk to her house and her, and her whole family was outside, wierd. We walk up to her, and when she sees us, she just started to cry.. She explained that her 15 year old daughter ran away, and she was almost positive that she left to live with the gang here. That sucks.. We tried to comfort her, and then we left so emotionally lost and confused. literally we turned our back away from her, and wihtin 5 seconds some dude in the street starts yelling at us. We were like now what?? He just about ran up to us and asked us the wirdest question, he asked if we knew how to tie ties.. We were like, yeah, we wear ties everyday haha. He was like, I need yall to tie me some ties, come to my house, so we followed him. He led us to a freaking house of a less active that we knew, and the craziest thing is this less active man was outside just looking up to the sky, doing literaly nothing. We found out that they were counsins, entered, tied the ties, and taught them the gospel. After we left we just sort of ran into miracle after miracle after miracle. Honestly, in one freaking day we went from the worst of worst to being blessed beyond imagined. At times, all we need to do is endure, good things go to he who waits.The church is true for many reasons. It is nesicary that things are hard, so that things can get easy. The Patient always win out. Take care and have a great week!

 

Elder High

Changes

YO Whaz Up!!??

 

So yes, I am now in the land of the holy Faith i guess haha. Ive left back my Mexican Gringo companion in Monterrey, and im now with a whiter than me utahan!! Elder Johnson is the bomb. THis past week has been such a freakin blast with him. One very intersting point about him that makes me admire him, is that he has been here 23 months,. and goes home in 5 weeks. The thing that normally happens with most missionaries is that they become what we call baggi or trunky, just words for they just want to go home. Elder Johnson is the opposite of normal missionaries, he has promised the lord that he will work his butt off up till his last day. I came in knowing that he is going home this change so I was expecting him to be a little lazy. Adding on it, he had to get an ingrown toenail removed one day before the changes. I thought we wernt going to be doing anything this week, but to my suprise, we worked our buttts off. Due to the toenail of my comp, he couldnt wear shoes for a decent amount of the week, but that didnt stop him. He worked in freaking CROCS!! I dont want to scare you or anything, but Santa Fe is one of the more dangerous area of the mission, and there are two whities here, and for a good chunk of the week, one was in freaking crocs. There may be a lot to fear, but we arent afraid. I am so pumped to be here, and I had such a miraculous week. 

The ward right now is in a little bit of apostasy, but we continue. There is no bishop, the elders quorm president is less active. There are more than 1000 members registered in the boundraires of the ward, but yet only about 100 came to church. Besides the problems, when there are difficulties there always comes blessing. In the ward, between 2 companionships, we brought 17 investagators to church on sunday. There is so much people ready for this gospel jammed packed into every nook and crany of the area. I think I have a few pictures of how densly populated is my area so you get an idea. We got work to do, but we are willing to get er done.

I have a ton of photos to show yall this week so accept them. Like always, the church is true!!

Love yall

 

Elder High

 

Photos 

1.  My new area 

2. All of those houses is my dominion

3. My new Comp hes huge and white

4.Elders of the Zone

5. Some really great investagators. It was the little girs birhtday so we baught her a piñata

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buenas Dias Familia!!!!

 

So changes are real.. I honestly dont know how to feel because Im leaving Monterrey. After 8 months here, im finaly out. The Interesting thing is that I am going to the area Santa Fe, Zone Country. It is located in Tegucigalpa, heart of the city.  What is interesting is that I have already been in this zone. Laureles is in this zone, so again I am going to be the zone leader of my old zone haha. I am going to be with and Elder Johnson from Utah.. He is a legend in the mision, Im pumped to be with him. Im excited for the next change, like alwalys, with changes comes new opportunities to learn and to improve.

 

So this week here in Monterrey has been a pretty normal week. This past week we have been focusing on building trust with the members. We got a new ward mision leader who challenged us to go  out and really get to know the members on a personal basis. So thats what we have been doing. Preach my gospel states that when we build a good relationship wiht the members, the results will improve. Preach my gospel also says that we need to look for ways to serve, love and teach the members. Its been a fun process, and after 30 something weeks here in this ward, I finaly feel like I can say that I have a good relationship with the members. These are things that I have learned here so that I can take them to my next area. Im excited. Really I dont have a lot of experiences this week, just hopefulness for the future. Take care Family!!!

 

Elder High

 

Sombreros

Yeah, so mabey this time, this would be my last week in Monterrey.. hahaha Nah, I love it here, but 31 weeks in a very smal area is alot of time. Who knows, mabey God needs me to spend even more time here. So changes are next week just so yall know. So other cool things that I found out is that in my mission, we the elders are authorized to wear sweet hats now haha. Me and my companion are going to go on a hunt to find some Sombreros today! yeah, things are pretty good right now.

 

So this week was a pretty fun week. On wednesday, out of the blue, President Ferman called us. He wanted to know every street of every neighborhood in our Zone. For the first time in my mission, I got to use a car to show President our Zone. It was different hahaha. On thursday we got to go take Julie and Omar, two of my recient converts to the Temple. It was really cool. Honestly, there is nothing better as a misionary than seing your converts in white in the temple. It was a special expierience, Julie is working in family history and her goal is that in the next few weeks, she want to go and do baptisms for her grandmothers. Neat stuff. This week was honestly a great week. I hope that you all also have a great week!!

 

Elder High

 My future hat hahaha

 

My companion, a parrot, and a chocolate bannana

 

My companion and the lights of Tegucigalpa

 

 

 

 

 

Perspective

Sup Fam!!

 

So this week was one of those stressfull weeks that happenes every now and again. Ive learned this week about the power of optimism. Everyday there are good things that happen, and everyday there are bad things that happen. We can choose if we will focus on the good or on the bad. Focusing on all the bad will just stress us out and make us depressed. Focusing on the tender mercies, the little miracles of life can fill us with hope and joy. Its easier to live when life is good, but really the way that we look at life makes it good or not. 

As I said there has been dificulties this week, but there were some huge miracles. We hardly had any time to work this past week because there were so much problems that we were trying to correct and take care of, but nevertheless, God blesses the dilligent. When we had time to work, we worked. We would have mabey one free hour so we would thank God for our one hour of work, and then we worked. My whole mission, in one hour, i could mabey teach 2 lessons if I tried my hardest. This past week we were teaching 3-5 lessons in our one hour. We couldnt afford to waste time. It was tough, and when the week ended we were tired, but God took care of us. We had multiple investagators in church on sunday. One Investagator recieved his answer to be baptized and will be baptized this saturday. One other decided after we visited him that he will quit drinking coffe so he can be baptized. God is good to those who take advantage of their time. My 2 years that I have to be a missionary are not my 2 years. My life for 2 years is dedicated to God. This time really is not my time, it is time God has given me to do his work that he alone cannot do. I love my mission. I love being here. I love working and serving God. Seek for opportunities to serve, and then serve selfeshly, and God will take care of the rest. Love you all.

 

Elder High