Capítulo 42 -The members where saying that Guapinol was crying, because I was leaving

Well this week was a little saddening. We had just gotten out of a lesson, confirming all of our baptisms for next week, when we got a call from President Chase.  He told me that I would be leaving Guapinol and heading over to Tegucigalpa, because he needed me to be the Executive secretary of the mission. So only having one Transfer in my beloved town in the middle of nowhere, im leaving.

 It might be the dreaded area of the mission, but Im really going to miss it. I really didnt want to leave, but this is what the Lords wants of me, therefore I will go and do. Right after the phone call, it started to rain, and it started to rain hard. And it hasnt stopped raining ever since. The members where saying that Guapinol was crying because I was leaving. That just made me even more sad.

  My last sunday was a success! We've been doing activities, and visiting a lot of the members do get the to come back to church. This Sunday we had almost 60 people in church! it was insane! and we even had the ENTIRE branch presidency. From my first sunday with 12 people in church, to my last Sunday with almost 60, was an amazing difference, and a good way to end my time here.

  My next area wont be as crazy, we wont be killing iguanas and chopping down coconut trees, we wont be eating shrimp whole (legs, tail, and shell) or eating chicken feet, but there's always a reason for everything, so I'll be looking for those reasons in this next area with my new assignment. 

  Speaking of chicken feet...Have you ever tried to eat a chickens foot? like, not the leg, but the foot. Who even takes a look at a chicken and says "Im gonna eat that foot" let me just give you a heads up and tell you, dont eat it. Because between ripping off the skin and sucking out the tendons, there isnt much to it, and it doesnt taste good haha.

Capítulo 41 - The week of the pink eye

 Well, This week will be a famous one in the mission; the week of the pink eye. It all started out in a small hut in the area of Buena Vista. They passed it to the Elders of Buena Vista, who then came over to Guapinol for some divisions. They gave it to the both of us. Then, it goes on and on, until almost everyone in the entire southern section of honduras has pink eye. I kid you not, you cant go anywhere where someone doesnt have it. I even got it in both of my eyes, and it literally looked like I was crying for a week straight.

  The funny thing was, that we had a big conference with all of the missionaries in the southern section of the mission and one of the members of the quorum of the 70. And well, A LOT of the missionaries had pink eye. they walked in, and were like "What the heck is going on down here??" It was even worse because my pink eye didnt look like I had pink eye, it looked more like I was doing drugs, so it was a very awkward conference haha.

  Church this week was pretty good. We had an asisitance of 40 people! A lot better than the 12 we had when I first got here. We've just been trying to find a balance between meetings, investigators, and members, because that's a lot to have to manage and maintain. We still did everything, except this time we didnt say the opening and closing prayers. but man did we regret that when the person saying the closing prayer put their hands in the air and STARTED SCREAMING TO BABY JESUS. It might seem like Im joking... but Im not haha. Then I gave just about the greatest talk about trials and tribulations known to man kind... just kidding. It was an okay talk haha

Capítulo 40 - A rather large tsunami was heading for my little town of Guapinol

Well this week was... interesting. I was sitting there on a normal Friday doing my personal study, super tired, and almost falling asleep, and I get a call from my zone leader asking me if our church building (house) had insurance. I thought that was a weird random question, but I called some poeple and they told me that the church had insurance. Then I get another call, from the AP's, telling me that a storm was coming to the area, and that we shouldnt panic. I mean, I wasnt pamicing before, but at this moment, I starting panicing a bit haha. Then the mission president calls. In that moment, the panicing got real. He told us that there was a huge earthquake in mexico and that a rather large tsunami was heading for my little town of Guapinol, and we needed to get out at that moment.

  So thinking about how dangerous a tsunami would be in my little town built on sticks, we got the heck out of there, warning other people to get out too. They just kind of thought we were crazy, and didnt listen to us. We went pretty far inland, and we waited for another call. We got another call from the AP's telling us that the tsunami probably wont hit Guapinol anymore, but we should still wait a little bit longer to be for sure. In the end, nothing happened, but it definitely woke me up, and I wasnt tired at all that day haha.

  Another problem we have down here, is that we dont really have help from the church. By help, I mean money. Well... I guess I mean any help at all too, but in this sense, im just talking about the money. We had 4 baptisms planned for this Saturday, but the problem is that the church couldnt help us pay for any transportation out of Guapinol to have the baptism, because we cant baptize out here. So Elder Farias and I put our own money, borrowed some boats from some members, bought some gasoline, got permission, and had our baptisms on an island!! it was super awesome!

  Also something crazy this week, church lasted all three hours this week!! that was so much better than the 40 minutes last week!

Making soup to raise money for the baptism

boat ride to the baptism

Capítulo 39 - The biggest storm hit

This week, we spent most of our time helping two of our investigators get married. One of the biggest problems that missionaries face with the investigators down here, is the marriage. Nobody ever gets married down here because it's so expensive, relatively. Two of our investigators have such a great desire to be baptized, but they can't because they live together and aren't married because it cost too much for them.

  This week, we spent our time, and some money, to do a mini fundraiser for them. We woke up at 3 in the morning one day to go to Choluteca to buy the meat and everything to make a bunch of soups to sell to people. We made all the soup, and within one day, we sold enough to help them to get married! This wednesday, we're going with them to help them do all the paperwork and everything.

  Although we did it all in one day, we spent many days planning everything out. One day we were outside their house, and we were talking about what we would be making to sell, and the biggest storm hit. It was like movie status crazy. The black clouds were seen from miles away, and it literally looked like a crashed wave was coming at us. I cant even do it justice in the explination. The clouds all started moving in circles around the small town, The dogs started barking like crazy, the pigs started going nuts, and naked children were running around ALL OVER THE PLACE. Then the rain and wind hit. It was crazy, and we ran into the house with everything we could grab, and waited with them for a bit. I honestly thought the house was going to blow away, and the lightning was hitting right next to the house. 

  We start english classes again this Wednesday, and I couldnt be more excited. The people down here tell us that anything to do with the education is really dificult down in my area, because well, it costs a lot to travel, and they still have to pay to go to the school. So when they heard that we were going to be starting classes of english down here for free, they were so happy, and super excited to go. We'll see how it turns out. Until next time.

Capítulo 38 - There was a coconut tree

Well this new area is full of new experiences. Church was pretty much the same this week, but we had a few more people show up. During the week, we went to go visit as many members as we could, and it turned out well. Our branch president actually came today, but as normal we still had to do everything. It's kind of fun though.

  This week, there was a coconut tree, and on theis coconut tree, there were approxamately a million coconuts. The problem was that the tree was full of ants, so nobody wanted to climb it to get the coconuts. So... we cut it down haha. There was an iguana on the top of the tree too, and when it fell, the iguana jumped off, and I caught it! then the tree fell, and a huge swarm of wasps comes out of the tree, and everyone took off running. We didnt realize that there was a wasp hive there. After the wasps went away, we went back and ate the coconuts, then we skined the iguana, and ate it for dinner.

  I dont mean to be mean, but I dot know what the elders have been doing in this area before I got here, but I can tell you that it did not include missionary work. When I got here, I asked my companion which investigators we were working with, and he just said "well, we dont have any" So we've really been trying to go around and find new investigators so we can actually work. We've been really busy with bringing the inactives to church and finding new investigators.

  The misisonary work is great, but the living conditions are a little.... interesting. Like when I went to the bathroom the other day and had to kill 3 tarantualas. Ive actually gotten pretty good at killing them. I still hate them, and they give me goosebumps, but hey, at they die after a few hits.

That's all for this week.

Short videos of the area, its really fun, I promise!