Zika - yuck!

Halooo!

 

So what a freaking crazy week was this one. First off, so this was the last week of Elder Johnson, he is sitting down next to me writing his last letter to his family...weird...  Other than that, this week has been off the wall crazy. So on monday yes i got sick, and not just normal stomagh flu. Yeah, i got zika... it sucked...  So that put us out a few days. We still worked, just not as hard. After that, on tuesday, we had a planchero (look it up) misionary go home in the zone, so with his companion, they stuck him with us. So we rolled in a trio covering two areas this week. We were with another of my good friends Elder Kratzer. on top of that, we had a wedding to plan for. Holy cow, it was so stressfull, but everything turned out to be beautifull. It was very very nice. We have high hopes that the family will get baptized the next week. I have a ton of pictuers to share with you. Other things, is that my new companion is going to be Elder Martinez. He is one of the chillest guys in the mission. Well get along great. Honestly everything is going great. No complaints whatsoever. This has been the best decision that i have made. The church is true!

 

Love yall

Elder High

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th of July

Happy Fourth of July!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Gringo Day, says the honduran... hahaha

 

So, yeah, you could say im proud to be an american hahaha

So I do not know where to begin. This week has been crazy, and the next week will be even crazier. So this is the last week of Elder Johnson, next week he will be eating chik fil a haha. Being the last week of Elder Johnson, we want to get done as much as posible so he doesnt go him with any regrets. We have been working with an awesome family named familia Reyes, the king family. They love the church and know that the church is true, but... they are not married. Very common problem here in honduras, it is insanly expernsive, and very hard to get the paperwork, for that reason, no one is married. If someone isnt married, they are living in sin, and henceforth have to get married to get baptized. Well, we had the crazy thought that maybe we could take out all of their papers, work with a lawyer and marry them before Elder Johnson leaves, or in other words 1 week. We talked to them, and they are all in, the only problem, is they are broke, another common problem with hondurans. Everything will cost arond 3,000 limpiras to marry we as misionaries every 15 days recieve 2000 limpiras. So... we cant just give them money, because we aint got any either. Thats when the fourth of july plays in. What a huge blessing it is that the fourth falls on a monday this year. Me and my companion had a blast of revelation, and on thursday we had an idea. We had the idea to have a barbeque and to sell food to the missionaries on the P-day. We took the risk and invited quite a few zones of misionaries to the barbeque. Spent all morning cooking and stressed out that we werent going to get enough support. And guess what, almost 50 misionaries showed up, each plate of food sold at 60 limpiras, almost 3000 limpiras of food we sold!! Puro milagro, pure miracle. So yes, we will be marring a family this week. Elder Johnson has never married or baptized a complete family, but heck he still has a week left, theres still plenty of time for him to have his dreams. The church is true, dont forget it. 

 

Love yall

Elder High

 

So this is what i was talking about. So there is a member that carves wood, and makes these carving. He can carve anything and he charges around 50 dollars.

 

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