Capìtulo 12 - When you have the sudden realization that you're in Honduras

Wow, and just like that, my first 6 weeks change in the field is done. I've only got 15 more to go haha. This last week wasn't my favorite of weeks out here.

   We started off having 5 baptisms set for saturday. We were super excited and getting everything ready for them. Then, starting wednesday, each one of them fell through. On friday, we were thinking that we were going to have 2, but when we went with the Zone Leaders to have their interviews, they told us that their parents won't give them permission to be baptized, and since they're 17 and 14, we couldn't do it without their permission.

  Other than that, the week was really good. It's always really confusing when you're about to walk outside, and you see the sun just doin it's thing and shining outside, and you're thinking that its going to be a million degrees out there, then when you walk outside you realize that it's pouring rain, then you get happy because rain means cooler temperatures. Then it really hits, when you have the sudden realization that you're in Honduras, it'll be a million degrees, super sunny, and somehow pouring rain. Like, what even is logic? haha

  The other day, this group of kids came up to my companion and I, and in whatever english they've learned, they ask me for money. So i just looked at them, and pretended not to understand them. Then, with whatever spanish i've been learning, i convinced them that i was from panama. And of course, the vocabulary i know is all church related, so i taught them about our church, gave them a card of Jesus Christ, and gave them our number, so we can visit them.  That was the mistake, they call us all the time haha. And the days that my companion answers the phone, they always say " give the phone the Elder Case" Then, not being able to understand a single word of spanish over the phone, i just tell them that we have to go.

  Also, when people get really drunk out here, they speak english. And i just think that it's funny because you always hear stories of people mumbling random things when drunk, so out here, when they get really drunk they speak english, and the things they say make almost no sense, but it's very clearly english haha.

 

Exhausted!!!

Money! 

Capítulo 11 - Duckzilla!!

Well, there goes another week out here in Honduras. It started off with going to get our hair cut right after writing home last week. We walked into this barber shop, my companion sits down and starts talking to the guy, and i'm just sitting there thinking about what the heck is going on. Then the other barber tells me to come sit down and i'm not sure what the guy was saying but i was pretty sure that he was asking how i wanted my hair to be cut, i had no idea how to answer that, so i just said a few things, a few numbers, and he just started cutting. I have never had someone take such good care of my hair like that. I mean, this guy cuts my hair with the machine, then with scissors, and then after that he gets one of those old barber one sided blades and starts trimming up everything. It was the coolest thing ever. Then he asked for the equivallent of about 2 and a half dollars. I was shocked.

  Then during the week we walk into the house, and what I saw still shocks me to this day. First I see the normal 2 or 3 roosters walking around, but then out of nowhere this gigantic dinosaur looking thing walks in too. I'm just sitting there shocked, and i look a little closer and the freaking thing was a duck! It was like the child of a duck and a dinosaur. So this duckzilla thing, while i'm minding my own business, starts coming over to me. I make a gesture for it to walk away, and that thing literally grew spikes from like the top of its head down the back of his neck. I can't explain how it did that, but i swear, this 2 or three foot tall duck, grew spikes. now at this time i'm just like, i'm not about to be eaten by a freaking duck today, so i just started backing up, until the spikes went down and it resumed it's normal duck life. Then i felt it was safe to return to my normal missionary life.

  Also this week, we had splits with the zone leaders, and i had an actual SHOWER THAT HAD HOT WATER. I forgot how much i missed those, it was amazing. I definitely had taken a lot of things for granted when i was home. anyways, that's all for this week.

-Elder Case

Capítulo 10- We officially got our new missionary daily schedule

 I really don't even know where the time went this week. It's crazy to think that it's already been a week. We had a big reunion of the new missionaries, and i got to see all of my friends from the MTC again. Then... we officially got our new missionary daily schedule. First, President asks us who has a hard time waking up at 6:30am, and of course, just about every missionary rose their hand. Then he says, that's okay, because you won't have a problem with that in this new schedule. We all got so happy thinking that we would be waking up at 7:30. Then the disappointment strikes when he hands us our new schedule. As missionaries in the Honduras Tegucigalpa mission, we now wake up at 6 in the morning. it's only a 30 minute difference but wow... it makes the biggest difference. i'll get used to it soon, hopefully haha.

  We eat with members often out here, and something that always happens every single meal, is the family, laughing their heads off, pushes the hot sauce over to me and asks me to try it. then it gets super quite when they see me put it on my food... and eat it like it was nothing haha. Then they just say... woah, Californians can really handle spicy foods. Then i just tell them that my mom always ate spicy foods, so i guess it just runs in the family.

  also, with the new schedule, we leave the house at 9 in the morning, and we have to do the rest of our studies at a park or somewhere in your area. well my area doesn't have a park, so we just sit outside by the road. anyways, while we're studying, the bishop sees us and asks me to give a talk on sunday. It was saturday, so i had one night to prepare for it. i mean, i probably would have ended up waiting till i had one night left to start anyways, but i like the choice of having more time haha. I don't know how i did it, but i got up there and gave a 15 minute talk about missionary work in nothing but Spanish!  After sacrament meeting there was someone i had never seen before, he was just a random guy who came to church. anyways, he comes up to my companion and i and asks us how he can be a missionary, because he wanted to go on a mission. then we told him he had to be a member first, so now we're teaching him the lessons haha.

That's all for this week.

-Elder Case

Capítulo 9- The animals here only understand Spanish

This week was a great week. Zone conference was great, and it was combined with like 5 other zones, so i got to see a lot of people from my district in the MTC. I've learned a lot about this place in this past week. for example, the animals here only understand spanish. i was telling this dog to leave, and after like 5 failed attempts, i switched to spanish and the dog left after the first try haha.

  Also, the people here absolutely hate Trump. Every year, for the new year, they make gigantic piñatas of people, stuff them with firecrackers, and blow them up in the middle of the city. This year they made one of Trump, and two other people. anyways, they're stuffing these gigantic piñata like things with firecrackers and fireworks of all kinds and something happens. All of the fireworks start going off, everyone who was stuffing the piñatas gets badly burned and the piñatas start blowing up. After the craziness, they notice that the Piñata of Trump was perfectly fine and untouched. Think that's a sign? i don't know jaja (Spanish laughter)

  I had my first baptism this week, we had to go to the church and set everything up, so i thought that it was going to be a relatively easy day. i was so very wrong haha. we get there, and i started sweeping and mopping because the entire building is tile. anyways, i'm mopping and i turn around and notice that the ground was filthy because my shoes had dirt all over them. everything i did just made it more dirty haha. eventually i gave up and started mopping in my socks. which worked, but my socks were gross. we had set everything up by 5:30 and we start waiting for people to show up for the baptism that starts at 6:00. nobod showed up until 6:30 and the person being baptized didn't show up until 7! and she had forgotten her baptism clothing. running out of options, my companion and i started running, yes, i ran... i ran my heart out haha. all the way to the top of our area and back to the church building. we got to the church building at 7:30and started the baptism. I literally almost died haha i am not a runner, but it was all worth it in the end.

that's all for this week.

-Elder Case

Fast Sunday:) 

Some Of Elder Case's friends 

First baptism! 

Elder Case and Elder Ceuvas, He's related to friends at  home

Elder Case's favorite thing about Honduras

Statue of Christ 

Capítulo 8- The week started off greatly

I dont even know where to start this email. i guess ill start off by saying that the keyboard im using should never be used by anyone, and im sorry for my terrible spelling.

The week started off greatly, with 6 people accepting our invitation to be baptized, for a total of 17. i thought that was insane, but my companion told me that most people flake on their baptism, so i guess thats not so special haha.

When we were on our way to the top part of our area, we ran into a super drunk guy. or i guess i should say that he stummbled into us. im still not close to having the laguage down, but for some odd reason i could understand thisdrunk guy perfectly. it was a quick conversation, he told us that he loved us and then he lost his balance, fell, caught himself on me, and then hugged me again stating that he loved me.

Sometimes during lessons, i can understand spanish perfectly. its crazy, but one night during a lesson i was asking one of our investigators some deep questions, and she just responds with "wow, your spanish is so cute!" i was just like "no, this is for your salvation, stop flirting!" of course i said that in my head, in actuallity, i just ingnored it and asked again, but my companion thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Today, we had our p-day and we went up to some waterfalls, which was really cool. my campanion and i made an appointment during the day today because our invetigator asked us to a few days ago. i just thought "she's going to be baptized on tuesday, so im willing to make that sacrfice" however she lives at the top of a mountain, so we hiked up there and she just told us that she doesnt want to be baptized tomorrow, so that hurt quite a bit. i think itll all work out though. it always does. thats just how our church is.

that's all for this week.

-Elder Case

MTC buddies

P-day waterfall hike

Welcome to Honduras

Capítulo 7- I get to shower with 2 buckets!

Wow... I really don’t even know where to start. so many things have happened just since i got here. I guess i'll just start from the beginning. 

So right after getting my companion, Elder Hernandez who is from Mexico, we find out our area, and we head out to our house. After taking a taxi to the middle of nowhere, we walk on a dirt road for a while, and then we get to our house. I set down my suit cases, and my companion says "alright, lets go work" so without unpacking my stuff, we left for the day. also, my companion literally just finished being trained, so he's been out here for 3 months, and is now my trainer. he's also district leader, he will be receiving many blessings haha.

So the first house we walk into, right in the middle of the room is a rabbit, and i didn’t really think anything of it, just a little strange. we sat down and started teaching, and all of the sudden the rabbit came over to me and starts nibbling on my shoe. i just tried to ignore it, but then a few minutes later, i feel a different feeling, i look down and there was just a random chicken pecking at my foot, in this persons house. then the rabbit left and laid down in the corner. then the chicken followed and just started jumping on the rabbit. the chicken and the rabbit were like best friends or something, then i thought, "the beginning of two years starts now" haha.

My area is called La Honduras, and is in the middle of the city, on a sort of mountain. everything here is hilly, everywhere i walk is either straight up hill, or straight down hill. also, they don’t speak Spanish here. or at least, thats what it feels like. the missionaries say that the best Spanish is in the city, and once you get outside the city, the accent gets a lot worse. when they talk, the don’t use the letter "s" and i just have no clue what they're trying to say, sometimes. then we get back to our house, we plan for the next day, and then in the morning, I get to shower with 2 buckets! not one bucket, TWO haha i have one to hold the water and the other is a smaller one to pour it on me. its the coolest thing ever!

The food here actually isn’t bad at all. Baleadas are absolutely amazing. but something I ate the other day got me a little sick, i’m not sure what it was, but it was only a slight fever of 39 degrees Celsius and its gone now, so don’t worry about that. all is well out here, this will be a hard yet amazing 2 years.

-Elder Case

Elder Case and Elder Hernandez