A true testimony of Christ

ba ba ba Im... Dreaming... of a white.... Cristmas.... Haha

 

 

Yeah, I know its christmas time, but it sure doesnt feel like it! I do kinda of miss the snow, and the cold weather, and the traditions and everything, but I wouldnt change what Ill be doing this christmas for anything in the world. I love what I am doing here. I love why I am here. I love every single aspect of this mission that I am in. What a privlidge I have to proclaim the truths that Christ was born to Mary more than 2000 years ago, that through Christ we can be made whole, that there is much to hope for, and that those who still seek after christ will have victory over death. What a blessing it is to be a missionary at this time of the year. I remember back to a quote that I read before my mission. Simply it states "Wise men still seek after Christ." The wisest men that I know are constantly seeking to find Christ in  every aspect of life, in every person, in every way. There are many plain and simple truths that can be opened when we put in the effort to seek after Christ. 

 

I have also spent a good amount of time pondering the blessings and the miracles that I have in my life. First off, every day is a miracle, and is given from God. I have the blessings to have the best parents in this life, and the best family. I have the blessing to have this gospel in my life. I have the blessing to be engulfed in the service of God, and in the service of my fellow man, wherever they may be. I have the blessing to have the best companions in the mission. I have had the blessing to help many to understand how to help themselves. I have seen the miracles of life given, and of life taken. I have seen the miracles of many being healed due to their faith. I have seen and witnessed countless miracles that prove to me the true power of God. I have had the blessing to have been given hardships, and to have been given weaknesses. I am a stronger person due to them. I have also heard a quote from a seventy I want to say who said "A saint is not someone who is perfect, A saint is someone who keeps on trying." I have had the blessing to be a saint in these later days, and to have been blessed to keep on trying.

 The Christmas spirit has overcome me. I may not be who I was last christmas, but God doesnt care about who I was, only who I am now, and who I am becoming. I am becoming a deciple of Jesus Christ. I am learing how to seek after him. I am really coming to learn the real meaning of Christmas. Christmas is not for me, but is for others. Christ was born to give his life to others, so thats what ill be doing this christmas. I love you all so so verry much. I wish I could be there with you, but God has already made my plans this christmas. I wish that every one of you will have the merriest little christmas posible.

 

With love

 

Merry CHRISTmas

 

Elder High

A smile is worth a thousand words!

Muy Buenas dias!!

 

So yes, changes were last week... Luckily I am still here in Campameto!!! I really love it here, I am convinced that it is the best part of Honduras. On the kinda sad side, Elder Storrs had changes, so that means I am here with another companion. I am chilling here with the wonderfull Elder Efigenio! This guy literally is the best! I have had such a great week with this man. He comes from Queens in NYC. I am positive that he is the only missionary who is from New York, or the East coast in this mission. He is such a chill dude. One other really really great thing about him is that he is really dedicated. He came to work, and he knows he is here to do what is expected. He really does understand really well that he has been called to represent Jesus Christ. I am way way way excited for this next change!!

 As for the work, I dont even know if I have to tell yall. THINGS ARE GREAT!!!! Even when things go bad, things are great. Just everything about being here as a missionary is great. I learn so much everyday from every experience. Literally, I feel like a new person!! Funny story, this past week has been a difficult week for an interesting reason. I have had a sore on the corner of my mouth, and everytime I smile, my mouth just burns. This has been a huge obstacle, because litterally, I have had a 24 hour smile on my face for about the last 5 or 6 months. Before my mission, I never used to smile, I didnt even know how to smile haha, but now, I dont know how to stop smiling. I just feel so happy just all the time. I get such a good feeling when I meet someone new, and I can see they are a little shy or closed, and I just smile at them. More often than not, they cant help but smiling back at me. I feel like this christmas, I really dont have a lot to give to anyone, I am kinda a poor missionary haha, but I have been giving out free smiles to everyone!! It does not sound like much, but I have seen how much a smile can mean to someone. I remember my first day in Honduras. I was so nervous. We had a small little welcome to the mission meeting, and there we recieved our companions. I swear I have never felt so nervous in my life. When president Fortuna said Elder High will be with Elder Chirinos, Elder Chirinos gave me the biggest smile, and I immediatly knew that everything was going to be okay. The Power of the smile is real. Just a smile can change the world. I am convinced of that. 

 I dont really know why I went off on that, but I did! haha. Just like always, have a excellent week!

 

Love you all so so much

 

Elder High

 

 

 

Ya entonces esta tiempo por los magnifico fotos de el guapo Elder High jajaja! 😁

 

 

My wonderfull companion Elder Efigentio!

 

This is Campamento. Really really really pretty! This last photo I think is pretty cool haha.

 

 

 

 

 

Haaaaaalooooooooooo!!!!

Ya, entonces ya.. 

 

So today, I feel great. I feel just really happy and in just a really really good mood today. I think it could be partially due to it being almost Christmas. All I know is I feel good! I have oficially been here in campamento for 6 weeks, or one change. Tomorrow is changes, and well, who knows what is going to happen. I should not be leaving, but there is a good chance that my companion is out. Well have to wait and see. Everything is great here, like always haha.

 

So this week, I didnt get to spend a lot of time out in my area working. On tuesday, I had to take a 2 hour bus ride to Tegucigalpa to take out my residency. So yeah, I am now a legal hondureño. My companion was sick a little, so we took some time to rest up, and I spend a good chunk of time in area Guimaca, the other area in my district, helping out the other Elders down there. It seem like alot of my time gets eaten up by doing things I dont really want to do, but which are necicary. I am sure yall can proably realate that to the gospel in some way haha. For my and my companion, efficiency is hugly important. We didnt get much time to do work, but the little work that we did was very effective. We are working with a ton of really really great people here in Campamento. 

 

There has been this one family that we have been visiting named family Ponce. They are great, just the father is a little sick. The father has some problem with his leg that makes it hard to walk. We visited them this week for the first time in about 7 days, and in those last 7 days, he has not been able to move his legs to get out of bed. He thought his body was shutting down and that he was dying. Well, we came in and immediatly got the impresion that we need to give this man a blessing. So we did. Immediatly after, My companion suprising to me said out of the blue, ¨ Alright, get up and walk, youve been blessed and youve been healed.¨ Sure enough, he got up and walked around the floor of his little house. It was pretty neat. We visited them yesterday, and the father wasnt there, because he was working, for the first time in months. A blessing of faith heals the sick, and yes it really does. 

 

Really, we are 100 percent fine here. Please please do not worry about me. We are protected by the lord, because we are servents of the lord. If the lord can make  a sick limp man walk, he can keep us protected. 

 

I am like always, looking forward to the future with hope. Things are verry bright in the future. 

Love ya lots and lots

 

Elder High

 

So we kinda decorated our house the best we could for Christmas haha

 

 

 

 

and a selfie with the new camera!

 

 

 

District meeting, and a monkey jaja

 

 

The Baptisms

 

 

 

 

 

So when you told me about dad and his harmonica, I about died haha. the reason being, one of my zone leaders gave me a harmonica and a hymn book for it. So ive been learning the harmonica too haha. Actually, in these last baptisms, I played a musical number on my harmonica haha

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

Do what is right

Well, Im done with another epoca of my mission. Tomorrow is transfer day. I have been living, teaching, and learning from Elder Espinoza for the last 12 weeks, or the last three months, and tomorrow, everything is going to change. But im not worried, or anxios, or scared of whats going to happen tomorrow. I just feel calm, and at peace. I feel like ive done all that I could do to make my area the best area in the misison, and that ive done all I could to train Elder Espinoza. Today doesnt feel any different than yesterday, and nor will tomorrrow feel any diferent than today. Im doing all that is expected of me, and than a little more. 

 

Thats what Ive found the secret of life to be. The search for peace, happiness, tranquilidad, are the great desires of everyone. And in my personal expierience, I feel the most at peace, when Im doing what I should, what is expected, and than doing just a little, not much, but just a little bit more than what I did yesterday. Its really simple, but yet its so difficult for many to understand. For example, we had an investagator who had a smoking problem. He was always tense, and he voiced his worry and concern for the future. We made it real clear to him, that he needs to stop, and obey the commandments of God, the word of wisdom, to feel a sense of hope for the future. He understood fine, but he didnt do anything to make today better than yesterday. He never stopped little by little. He would always say, tomorrow ill do more, tomorrow ill smoke one less cigarette, but when tomorrow became today, hed reuse the excuse, and put off his comitment till the next day. We tried all that we could to fill him in on the secret, that his future is quickly coming, and he can not prevent it from coming. His worrys and concerns for tomorrow will shortly become worrys and concerns of today. He understood perfectly what we were telling him, but he would not make that change today. In other words, he was procrastinating the day of his repentance. And one day in the very near future, we will not have any more time to make changes to our lifestyle. Ive learned if there is something I want to change, someone I want to be like, like for example Jesus Christ, I have to make that decion today to change, and then and then make that change today. By doing things tomorrow, nothing will get accomplished, no one will change, and Satan will win. If Satan wins, there will be misery in every corner of the earth, and no one will be at peace or will have joy. God created man to have joy, and we have joy when we are doing what he expects from us, and when we are changing little by little here a little and there a little every day. That is the secret to life, to do our work and change today, and then to do even more tomorrow. This I can testify of, because, I can feel myself changing everyday. I may not look any different today then yesterday, but im changing in the heart and in the mind. Everyone should and needs to feel these changes of heart and changes of mind to fell the joy and the peace that God can give us. Dont worry at all about me, Im doing fine, but also dont stop praying for me. Pray always, and ill always pray for you all, and dont worry, and I wont worry about you all.

 

Elder High

Carry on

Hola de Honduras

 

Hope yall had a great week, because I sure did. Things like always are going good. Weve had some rough moments this week with a few investagators, but all is well. We have lost a few investagators this week due to various problems, but weve also found some new positve investgators. I may not be a witness to the baptism of many that I am teaching right now, but it is good enough to me knowing that ive played a part in the conversion of many souls. 

 

As I said, there has been a few moments when things have gone rough, but its incredible, because almost whenever things go bad, the Lord always does something to bring us up. It was I want to say tuesday, we lost 3 real hopefull investagators in the day. I was a little disapointed, butin the night, our zone leaders called and said they had just came from the office and had packages for us. I did get your packege, so dont worry any more, and it really lifted my spirits. On wednesday, we spent a whole day knocking doors, and didnt find anyone. Again I was a little disapointed, We went home, and found on our doorstep a plate of food, and a note from our house owner saying that she just for no reason decided to make us dinner. Again, that made my night. And all through out the week, has been expieriences like that. We would have a rough day, and then something would happen to change our spirits. One thing ive learned, is the lord does not want us to feel disapointed, the lord does not want us to get down or feel sad. The lord wants us to look forward with hope, pressing forward through advisity singing all is well, all is well. Ive done some study on the pioneers, and they are a huge huge huge exaple. They were given the hardest trials one could expierience, and they never stopped singing all is well, all is well. In a way, we are all pioneers, and we all will be given our tasks and trials, but the lord will want us to continue onward singing all is well. Carry on Family!

 

Elder High

 

I guess he wants us to see his nametag??

 

 

Elder Chavis - his crazy zone leader

 

 

Elder Espinoza - Bradin's companion

Life lessons

Muy buenas dias!!

 

So things like always are going absolutly perfect here in Honduras. There is so much going our way that it is very difficult for me to put it into words. I feel like we are not really doing a whole lot, but yet everything and literally everything is going our way. I guess thats what you could call the help from the lord. It is really incredible to see how much really the lord is helping us in his work. 

 

So theres some things I need to say. I have the best companion that a missionary could ever pray for. Elder Espinoza is an amazing misonary, and person in general. He has become my best friend in this country. This past 10 weeks have been the fastest 10 weeks of my life, and I have yet to have a bad day with him. Today is his birthday, so we are going to party in a way that only missionaries can, but nether the less, we are going to party. I literally am so blessed to have had such a great companion for nearly 3 months. Presidente Fortuna once told me that I have my tie to baptize, I have my shoes to baptize, and I have my companion to baptize. But my tie is a tie, my shoes are shoes, but my companion is a son of god, a loved son of God. I feel proably just a portion of this love for my companion, but ive never felt so much brotherly love for one man before. 

 

Often times this mission is called a model of life. We are born into the mission, knowing nothing, and then die and go home to a better place haha. Those trainers are often called fathers, and those trainees are often called sons. I have been given the chance to be the so called father of a missionary. I have in aspects felt the pains and joys that you guys as my parents have felt as raising me. At times my ¨Son¨ is a little rebellios, at times he doesnt learn as fast as i want him to, at times he isnt as assertive as i want him to, but at times hes way more, and at many times he exceeds my expectations. My role as a so called father is to love my companion, and do all that i can to prepare him for the rest of his mission or the so called misison life. I do not know how prepared he is to have a new companion, but Ive done all that i can to love him, and it is going to be a sad day when I leave, and send him off to the rest of his life. I can hardly explain everything that is in my heart, but Im learning. I feel like Ive learned how to raise a son, how to love, and how to serve. Things I was never expecting to learn in this misison, I have learned, and I am blessed. The church is true, thats it, the church is true.

 

Elder High

 

Post conference thoughts

Muy buenas Dias!

 

Yup, so like always, I had another absolutly excellent week. Things are great as always. I literally love everything that is going on right now. I love my companion, I love this area, I love the ward, I love my district and my zone. The thing that makes me sad, is that i only have 2 or 3 more weeks here. nothing has really changed for me in almost 6 months, and ive already been told im having transfers in the next transfer day. Oh well, thats the mission. Really, everthing is incredible here. Again, I am without complaints. 

 

So the highlight of this week definitly was conference. I had the opportunity to go to every single session, and we didnt go solo. People here are great, so we brought investagators to every session. I can not even explain how happy i am to have had the opportunidad to listen to the prophet, and the apostles, and to help more people know that there is a prophet on the earth. I think for me my favorite talks were in the priesthood session. THe talk by Neil L Anderson, y Kenneth Bennet were some of my favorite. The talked about the importance of walking by faith, which is something that is fist hard to learn, after hard to folow, but in the end is so worth it. Really i could talk all day about all the things I heard in conference, but really i dont have time for anything.. Its all good though. Things are going great like always here!

 

Elder High

 

Here are some pictures I borrowed from the mission blog.  It's always fun to see pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

2 conferences down, 2 to go

Ola Ola Familia!

 

So yup, Im still a missionary. Haha This week has flown by, It is crazy to me that at the end of this week we have conference again. My verry first weekend in this country, was the weekend of conference in april. This conference will mark 2 in the field. Me and my companion are way excited for this weekend, and for the opportunity that we have to bring our investagators to conference. It is one of the best opportunitys that we are going to have to help our investagators know that this church is true. We have been teaching everyone about the importance of prophets, and that we have a living prophet, and on saturday and sunday, our investagators can know that what we teach is true, and that there really is a living prophet who speaks for our day, and guides us. It is a grand opportunity that we have.

 

Other news this week, not alot. The work is still going like the work always goes, Great! We are working with all sorts of really intersting people with all sorts of interesting problems. We are working with a man who smokes 15 cigarettes a day, a man who is 85 years old, and cant walk, a women who recently had her son killed, and alot of other people with all sorts of interesting situations. That is one thing ive come to love. Everyone has different circumstances, everyone is different, and everyone has different problems. It is so fun for me to get to know so many different people with so many different problems, and then find solutions to their problems. One thing that ive learned, is that there is a solution to everyone. The solution isnt always easy, or obvious, but there is always always a solution. For the man who smokes 15 cigarettes every day, the soloution is to support him, give him confidence in himself, and substitute the bad with the good. For the man who is 85 years old, we made really good friends with a taxi driver, and this taxi driver accepted to visit this old man every sunday to drive him to church. For the woman whos son recently got killed, the wonderfull news that we carry that life carries on after the death is enough to soothe the aching heart. Everyone is a son or daughter of God, and there is a solution to everyones problems, everyones challenges, and everyones doubts. This I can testify of, because I am a living witness of this. The church is true, and please, go to conference this week hahaha

 

Elder High

A proposal

Okay, Muy bueno día familia!!

Yup, Im still here in Honduras doing what I do. This week has been another good week. Ive had a few neat expieriences and opportunities this week that were pretty great. So right now, our work is better than ever before. We have about 10 investagators that have gone to church this last week or 2 weeks ago. We have some real great investagators who are really doing that, investagating the church. Weve had a good opportunity to help those less actives work their way back to the path, and numerous are back on the path. Weve also had great opportunities to help those that we have baptized. We have helped them have friends in the church, weve made them feel important, and weve been to this day visiting them still and showing them that thay are important to us. I have felt better knowing that I have helped over 8 people in this ward enter the waters of baptism, and that they are still coming to church and doing all those things that they should be doing. I dont know if its right to say im proud of them, but its true, I have the best converts. My converts are literally the best. Other than that, theres been some interestingly funny expieriences that weve had this week

 

So I want to relate an expierience of a man named Otto. Otto was baptized about 3 months ago, so hes been kinda new to the system, but hes known about the church all his life. Because hes a new convert, me and my companion visit him various times in the week. Hes one of our best friends here. One night we were just walking down the street, knocking doors, looking for people to teach, and we ran into Otto. he was walking down the street with a girl who he said was a friend. We walked and talked, and then I asked him, "so whos your friend". Otto didnt hold back and straight up said, "yeah, shes my chastity sin." I chuckeled a little and said "oh really, thats great Otto.. at least you know its a sin." We talked a little more about really what is the law of chastity, and he understood perfectly, and I told him he should really think about getting married to get out of sin, and he really thought about it. Then next day we visited him and his family. We were just talking with his mom and his sister and Otto, and out of nowhere, Otto said, "Mom, I have something to tell you, Im getting married." Me, my companion, his mother and his sister all at about the same time just went, "What are you doing!?" Out of the blue, he announced that he wanted to marry his girlfriend. This was one of the craziest things ive seen on my mission. He called her up, as we were still there, and told her to come over for a brief moment. She came over, and we just talked, and ate some tacos together. Then out of nowhere, Otto got down on his knee and proposed to her. I could not believe what was happening, the mom was yelling at me to get my camerea to take pictures for rememberance, because she couldnt belive her eyes. It was freaking great. Otto out of nowhere proposed, and she said yes, and now we are going to marry the hopefully next month. Also, Otto took the girlfriend to church on sunday, and after their married, shes getting baptized. It was a crazy experience that came out of nowhere, but God works miracles. Its cool stuff. Theres so much more I want to say, but thats All I got time for today. Love yall con todo mi corazon.

Time sure flies...

Ola ola

Yup. another week here in Honduras. Work is going great like always. Im still here doing what I do, missionary stuff and all that. Its been crazy how fast time has gone. This week has been so fast, This past change has been so fast. Tommorrow is changes again, which is soo crazy. This past 6 weeks has flown by. I highly doubt ill have changes because I am in the middle of training, but thats fine with me because I love my area. 

 

Weve spent alot of time contacting this week and finding new investagators to teach, and weve been very sucessfull. We found all sorts of people, and we ended the week by bringing multiple investagators to church for the first time. Weve been working hard and have been putting in good work. My companion is starting to get the language little by little, which means hes starting to contribute and is starting to put in a good effort in lessons, and things are going excellent. Im really without a complaint in the world right now. Im not full of crazy expieriences this week, but I dont need crazy expieriences to have a good week. I am just going to keep trucking along, and ill keep doing what im doing. Ill do ill I can to keep moving foreward, and not back. What ive learned is the best way to move forward, is by looking up, and the best way to move back is to look down. Take it and interpretit as you will, but thats just one of the many things that ive learned so far. Im sure ill have another productive wonderfull week this week too.

 

Things like always are going great, this is my report.

 

Elder High

The Week of the Storm

Hey Fam!

 

So this week was the week of the Storm. This past week there was a little rain storm that destroyed the city. This city was not built to withstand a storm, of any magnitude. On wednesday, it was a little cloudy, and just a little breezy,(theres hardly ever wind here) and I was lovin it, for once it was a little cool. Then in the afternoon, the wind picked up, and it really started to blow. For about 30 seconds, I felt the strongest wind Ive ever felt before. We were knocking doors in one of the more popular streets at the moment. In these 30 seconds of wind, houses just got wrecked. All of the houses here have thin tin roofs, that often times arent nailed to the upper beams. Almost every house was deroofed. Me and my companion nearly got nailed by multiple flying tin roofs floating around in the sky. After the wind, came the rain, and it rained hard. It was absolutely pouring, and almost no one had roofs, it was a rough week for a lot of people. We spent the rest of the day helping people put their roofs back on during the pouring rain. It was really sad to see, because people dont have much here, and after this week, everything that people had just got soaked. Luckily our house was built decently, and we didnt lose one single sheet of tin. The aftermath of this storm is still affecting us and everyone else. This storm knocked down almost every power line in the city, so weve been without lights for the good part of the week. 

 

That was the effect of a natural, physical storm. This week, we have also been dealing with internal storms also. As i said, our house is great, but we are being kicked out... The owner of the house is having problems with her husband, and she decided it would be best if she moved into our house. This has really kinda thrown a wrench in the work. Weve spent a good portion of our time this week looking for a new house to move into. Also without lights, we have to enter our haouse at 6 pm before it gets dark. Our days have been shortened sigificantly. This has made this week very hard. We have essentially baptized everyone that weve been teaching, and we really have had no one to teach. Whenever weve had time to get some work in, weve been doing all that we can to bring investigators into our teaching pool. Weve met some great people, but with the lack of time, its been real difficult to plan for lessons further on. Its been storming in all sorts of different ways this week.

With every storm, there is a brighter future. After every storm comes the sun. After every storm comes beautiful rainbows. Storms test our patience, test our strength, and test our willpower. It is difficult to accept storms, and no one wants to live in storms, but those who live through the most storms are typically the strongest. From every storm, theres something to learn, to make our next experience with our next storm better. There will always be storms, but there will always be bright sunny days too. Im living through a storm right now, but I know in the future, we will find someone to teach, we will find a house to live in eventually, and the lights will come back on. When the storm settles down, we are going to have to do some rebuilding, put our roof back on the work, but then we will be stronger, and happier than ever before. I testify that God is watching down upon us, and upon the work. Hes thrown storms at us to test us and help us grow. You know, storms really aren't that bad of a thing.

 

Con Amor como siempre

Elder High

Oh happy day!

Muy buenos día familia!

Its a happy day indeed! There is no other way to describe this last week that I had in any other words than incredible. This has been one incredibly crazy, incredibly stressfull, flat out incredibly amazing week. So much has happened in this week in so little time. My and my companion had the great privildge of helping a Family Acosta get married, and get baptised. I have spent a good chunk of my time this week going from office to office in the city taking out papers, working with government, and the family to have a wedding in the church this week. Typically the proccess to marry someone in pretty simple, but this family wanted to be married in one week, which made things a little difficult. Difficult, but not impossible. I have used help from almost every member in the ward this week, the help from countless missionaries who have connections with the government, and alot of help from Family Garcia. Ive never married anyone before, and definatly not in this country. I felt at the beging of the week, that this was a task imposible to do in the time span that I had. Other missionaries said it was impossible to marry anyone in one week in this country, but we were all wrong. We had a beautifull wedding, and a beautifull baptism this past saturday. 

As I said, I felt like this was an impossible task to take on. I felt at many times in the week that we were stuck at a standstill with the government, and we were going to have to wait 4 or 5 weeks like every other family waiting to be married. I spent countless houres in prayer this week, calling upon the support of the lord to help push things through. I have never felt so stressed in my life, but somehow, someway, things worked out great. I have never felt so happy in my life before. I learned countless lessons this week from this expierience. I learnt, the importance of using those who know more than me, have more connections than me, and who can help more than me. I really learned the importance of patience, and relying upon the lord. Among other things, I really felt love for this family, and more than anything, I am extremly greatefull for the opportuninty I had to help them become worthy for baptism. Not alot other that that has really happened this week, but yes, things have been happining this week!! The church is true, yall already know that, but just dont forget it!

 

Su Hijo 

Elder High

 

 

Pictures from the baptism!

 

 

This is from the wedding, they are signing the papers to verify that they are married!

Aloha Hawaii

Aloha Hawaii...Thats a thing that Latinos like to say down here hahaha...

Alright, so this week was one hectic week. Almost every day this week we had meetings. Zone meetings, district meetings, and Multizone meetings, Stake Conference, and yes, a meeting with Elder Nelson. It was a pretty good week, and we are setting up to have my best week yet. This week we didnt have a baptism, but we are set to have 4 baptisms this week, and a marriage. This week is going to be even more hectic than before, but im so ready for it. Everything in the work is going perfectly smooth. My companion is slowly starting to learn spanish, Investagators are all coming around and coming to church, and the members have been starting to give us food every day. I am without a compaint in the world. Theres alot of work to be done, but really, I am in the best circumstances imaginable right now. The future is as bright as ever right now. 

 So as I said, we had a conference with Elder Nelson this week. Mission Comayaguela and Mission Tegucigalpa were present in the meeting, and every mission in central America was watching via satalite, Technology is cool. It was an incredible expierience for manu reasons. Reason 1 the meeting was in the Cañada, Monterrey, my first church house. It was good to walk down the streets of monterry again. I ran into a few members, and some old investagators, and after the meeting, our zone even ate in Burger Chicken! hahaha. Reason 2, Elder Nelson is the president of the quorom of the 12, and all the missionarys present got to shake his hand. Reason 3, I was just sitting in the congregation with all the other missionaries, and the president of the Tegucigalpa mission stands up to start the conference and says "we will start with a hymn, and then a prayer offered by Brandon Troy High of the Comayaguela Mission." They never say my name right, but yeah, I offered the opening prayer in the conference with president Nelson, it was pretty cool. Also President Nelson cut pretty deep and is changing the work. He straight up said, There are more less acitive members in central america, than active members, and God Is Not Happy Right Now... Freak........ Esentially, we are to stop knocking doors, and we are to start looking for the less actives, and focus on reactivation. This is hard, because the work is almost always centered on baptisms, but now, baptisms are not the focus. There are things to be done, but President Nelson Trust in us as missionaries to save those soles that have gone astray. I have learned a ton this week, and I am ready for the future of this work. Stay safe and have a good week at the Fair, and have a good week back in school!!

 

Con animo, y con un montón de Amor

 

Elder High

Am I really in 6 months?? Holy cow...

Wow, so another week down. Im not going to lie, this week has been stresfull, but has been really really good. We have incredible investagators who are progressing faster than we were expecting. We have investagators who have been doing all that we ask them to do plus more. Weve been baptizing and confirming. I have never felt so busy in my life, but the work has never been so rewarding before. 

We had one investagator named Gladys. We started teaching gladys about six weeks ago when I was with Elder Huanca. She was an old investagator that we got referenced to from the other Elders in our area. The other Elders felt like she was impossible to work with and that she had too many problems. Me and Elder Huanca were ambitios and we took her on. The first day we found out that she had problems with drinking, and with smoking. That was the problem with her. She is really positive, and really accepting, but she felt like she couldnt stop her problems. For about a week we tried all sorts of different things to hlp her quit, but she had addictions, and nothing was working. This was tough, and we thought about dropping her. For some reason, we didnt drop her, and we just kept going with her. She would come to church, but she still had her addictions. We felt hopeless. Then one day, we just started to testify firmly. We testified of blessings that she will recieve, we testified unwaivering. I do not know, and I can not explain what happened, but she just said, alright, Ill stop, and she did... She hasnt smoked in 4 weeks, and she hasnt drank in 4 weeks. Best of all, I had the privledge to baptize her on saturday night. 

Again, I can not explain the ways of the lord. I can not explain the power that he has. People can change. When people feel the spirit, people change. There is no other way to explain this experience in any other words. People can change. Really thats all I have time for today, but the work is incredible. Love yall with all of my heart. 

Elder High

 

 

Illnesses- So, yeah, my second week here in Honduras I had Chickengunya, which wasnt too fun, but I made it through it. Im still going so dont worry .

 

Books-  All right, so about the books. Whatever church books you can find would be awesome. I do not know if it if possible to load up the big history of the church books, Articles of Faith, The Joseph Smith Papers. Really an book is better than anything, but alot of the more real indepth stuff, orthe bigger more profund books would be really be great. Like I said before, I love Jesus the Christ because its a little more profund, and a little bit bigger. For the languege, English is awesome. I can speak Spanish fluently and smothly, but I have a verry small vocabulary right now, so for any type of reading formore in depth stuff, english is a lot better. 

So this picture is from the baptism of Gladys

 

This is my zone leader from a service project that we had