Transfers, Elder Saucedo and hard work!

So lets get straight to the good stuff. I can skype on Christmas!! I have no idea what time so just be ready to go around like noonish I would assume. Not sure. But I'm way excited. I have a count down in my agenda of how many more days I have left until I can skype haha


So now some missionary stuff. We had changes and so I have a new companion. His name is Elder Saucedo and he is from Columbia. I never thought that by serving a mission I would have friends from just about every Spanish speaking country that there is. He is way cool. He is really good friends with Elder Reinoso also so we have a common friend. The only thing is that his accent is super thick. I mean he talks super fast and his accent is like the stereotypical latino super thick accent. So that makes it really hard to understand but by the end of this transfer I should be freaking fluent haha He and I work so hard. I seriously missed working. We are dead tired by the end of the day from just teaching and being on our grind all day. We alread have like 7 new investigators with baptismal dates and everything. Hes a stud. The only other problem is that he is the district leader and has no idea what he is doing. And because I have only been with district leaders in my mission, I am teaching him how to do it. It's really kind of funny haha
I'm super excited for this whole transfer. I am starting to feel really comfortable with Spanish, I can teach well, and people are understanding me more and more everyday. I have a ton of confidence in myself and a new determination to just get going. Elder Chichia was a really cool guy but he made me lose that desire to go out and find people and teach them. Now that I'm with Elder Saucedo, I'm just itchin to go and teach some people. Its a good feeling.
I love you so much and sorry for not writing yesterday, There wasn't internet in all of Cantarranas.
Elder Garry

Week 22 Good things and poop in a cup

Hello dearest family and friends!
Let´s just kick things off with the best news that a missionary can give! Our baptism went great!! I mean it was fantastic! She is so excited to start her new life and is so dedicated to the gospel it amazes me! I'm so happy to stay here for another 8 weeks to just see her grow! She has a huge family so I know that we will just sneek our way in and teach the rest of them too! One daughter already told me that she wants me to baptize her before I leave so that is great!! Baptisms just make all of your hard work and your crazy stressful life vale la pena! It's great! Xiomara even tells us that she wants to go visit people and share the word of God with us! She has an alcoholic sister and invites us over every time that she is there. The sister is literally crazy but I love her with all of my heart. I'm excited to work with her too. And Xiomara is in my Gospel Principals class and she answers like every question. It makes the class go my fast because I'm not just awkwardly standing there hoping that I get a response. She is just great. She washes our clothes for free and feeds us like every day. If we say jump, she would say how high. That's how much she loves us.
Okay, also we will have transfers this Wednesday which means that my ball and chain will be going home! I love him as a person I just hate him as a companion haha he made me really mad Saturday that I just started yelling at him in English. I'm sure I came off as crazy. We are fine now and later that day we were good to go as well but he really made me angry. I'm not usually one to get super angry either.
I'm excited to see who my new companion will be! I dont care who it is really. I hope its a Latino so I can speak Spanish more and get better but if it is a gringo I would be happy too! I want to train more than anything though. That would be so fun. Especially if my niño is like a 3 foot tall latino. That would be my dream. Maybe one day.
Another thing is that I was still sick all this week that I went to the hospital on Wednesday and had to poop in a cup. I've never been so ashamed. They didnt even give me a bag to put it in so I had to walk shamefully out of the bathroom with a cup of poop in my hand. Not fun. I go back again next Monday too. The first results said that I had nothing wrong but I clearly have something because I had been throwing up for like a week straight and every time that I eat I just feel sick. So that's why I'm going back. Maybe I will get sick and they will send me home for like 2 weeks to recover and i can be home for Christmas! haha quien sabe.
This week was just good. I was obedient and I felt the blessings of my obedience. We had old investigators ask us to come back and talk to them again and they are very promising. The Lord will bless you more than you can imagine if you just follow the simple rules. Its easy and I love it.
I love you and I look forward to talking to you all again!
Adios
Elder Garry

Week 21

Alright so this week was a good one. My companion and I were both sick all this week so we actually didn't do much but what we did was really good. We have a solid baptism this week on the 5 and I'm super excited! It is a lady named Xiomara and has been talking with missionaries for literally years and never even went to church or accepted a baptismal date. Elder Reinoso and I tried to go to her house so many times but was never there and one day with Elder Chichia we didn't have anything to do so we tried her house again and she was finally there. We had been teaching her and she even started going to church, reading the Book of Mormon and has a testimony of her own! She told us that she wouldn't be getting baptized if she wasn't 100% committed to the gospel. It just was a super strong testimony builder that Heavenly Father really does prepare people at different rates and that there are specific people who are meant to help them in these moments. So I'm really excited to see this baptism. Elder Chichia will be doing it and I thought that I would be bummed to not be selected to baptize her but it really didn't bother me nor phase me. It should be a good day.
We have another baptism scheduled for the same day with the lady named Andrea but I get the feeling that it will fall again. She is such a bum! It´s super frustrating but we will just keep working with her until finally she gets dunked. Her daughter is special needs and blind so Andrea is always preoccupide(I've been speaking Spanish too long, is that how you spell preoccupied?) with the daughter and can never leave the house and when we teach, the daughter just freaks out and starts screaming and yelling and then Andrea just gets angry and starts shouting like an angry Honduran. But the times that we do get to teach are way cool and she understands and loves the church. Just a matter of how we can get her to feel the spirit with her daughter so she can listen to our messages more often.
One thing that was really cool this week is that we got a new church building! Elder Reinoso and I just went crazy and reactivated everyone and our old church building wasn't big enough so they had to build a new one! It is so big and pretty. I mean it is a place where you can really learn and feel the spirit! Its nothing like what we have in the states but it is still 1000x better than what we had. I am still not satisfied with it. The church people said that if we get 100 active members in our branch then they will build a real real church building like the ones in the states so I'm ready to get to work. Right now we have about 50 who are real active and then 20 who are active every other week. but in all we should have about 180 members who live in our area so I want to try to reactivate as many as possible! I WANT A REAL CHURCH BUILDING!
Another cool thing that Elder Chichia and i have been doing is Insanity. Its like P90X but I'm pretty sure I wont get any stronger from it just that my endurance will get better. This stuff is so hard but I love it! I feel so refreshed when I'm done and the videos are only about half an hour so they fit right into our morning schedule.
I'm still struggling with Chichia because he doesn't want to work but I'm doing my best to keep him going until he dies in like 9 days.
I love you all and miss you all.
Elder Garry

Week 20 and we are back in business!

This week was so much better. Last Tuesday we had interviews with Pres.Bowler and I basically just confessed everything that I had been feeling and how Elder C and I haven't been the most obedient. I was expecting to just get yelled at and I was looking forward to it too so that I could just get motivated and he actually was just angry with Elder C. Elder C went in first and told him the exact opposite of what I told him. He said that we were exactly obedient, and that he had been doing everything right, then I went in and kind of told on him. Pres. told me that if I wanted I could get a new companion that day because he was worried that I would end up like Elder C and then I just told him that I will just be the man in charge. So that is what I have been doing with him. I wake him up in the mornings, drag him out to study with me, then I drag him out of the house so we can actually work. Yesterday, I basically dressed him. It's a bit ridiculous but because of it, I feel so much better. I'm remembering how much I loved to be a missionary like when I was with Elder Reinoso. We are having success again and I just feel so much better. So yeah, life is good again in Honduras.
Something cool that happened this week was with a guy named Manuel. Like my third day in Honduras we found him by jumping from rock to rock across a river and we hadn't been able to find him or teach him until this week. We found out where he lived a while back but he is just never there. On like Wednesday, we found him and he was actually excited to talk to us! We started teaching the restoration and he stopped us when we said that Joseph Smith was a prophet and he just looked me right in the eyes and said that he believed it. He was so excited to know that there was a prophet called of God again on the earth and that he wants to hear more and more. That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't made a change. Heavenly Father is know helping us out because we are doing everything right. If Elder C doesn't like it, I don't even care because I love it.
The Church is so true and im happy to be here.
Love you and miss you
Elder Garry

Week 19

So this week was also frustrating. nothing serious went down but I'm realizing that I do not know how to be a missionary. We didn't have changes so I am still with Elder Chichia and he goes home in like 20 days or something and he doesn't want to do anything at all. We actually worked for the first time this week because I kind of forced him into it and I completely forgot how to contact people because we just haven't done it. We have been focusing on all of our investigators that we already had that we just haven't contacted people and when we went to do it I just blanked and freaked out. It sucked.
I have days when I literally feel like I am fluent in Spanish and I can do it all but this week wasn't like that. For some reason, I feel like all of the Spanish that I have learned just got taken away from me until today. I speak fine now but this whole week was just chasta (lousy). I was teaching gospel doctrines yesterday and no one payed attention the entire time and at the end I was so mad that I cut it ten minutes early and told them to just talk like they had been the whole time and then this lady told me that she was talking because she didn't understand anything I said. Then like my mom from Honduras totally yelled at her and praised my spanish but it still sucked.
Investigators still aren't getting answers and we have had to drop a couple because they don't want to talk to us anymore because they don't believe it because they didn't get an answer. We challenged people to baptism and they all said yes. However, they need to get married first and here, they just don't do that so basically they will just be investigators all their lives. We did have one and she should get baptized but she needs to just go to church. She told us that she had talked with a ton of missionaries but that we are the best and that she really really wants Elder Chichia to do it so hopefully that all goes well.
Here are some funny stories that happened this week however.
1. We were teaching the restoration and how Christ did the atonement leading up to how he established his church. So I said que mas hizo Jesucristo. which means, what more did Jesus Christ do. Then the girl said ¨"ahh si, que macizo" and that means oh yeah, how cool haha she combined the words that I said and thought that I said that Jesus was just the coolest hahaha so that was funny
2. We were teaching about the word of wisdom and I asked like the kind of food to eat. Of course they said eggs and beans, then I asked what drink we should drink. And they said well coke, and if you don't have coke I guess you can drink water. It would be funny if they were kidding but they were dead serious. These people genuinely drink more coke than water. So I thought that was pretty funny too
Being a missionary is super tough. No one ever said that it was easy but i have never heard anyone say that they hated their mission so i am sure it will pick up. Just endure to the end right?
Love you
Elder Garry

Week 18 aka The struggle is real!

Being is a missionary is hard. Who was it that said that these will be the best two years?? I´ve got 4 months now and I'm just burnt out! So my week was sucky. Remember that lady that said those really nasty things to our investigators? Well she is back at it!! And pretending like nothing has happened. We thought that we could have been able to fix it but now it is probably game over. He told us he didn't want to get baptized this week nor does he ever want to go to church or talk with the missionaries. Not just our church but all churches because he decided that no matter how hard he tries, he will always be a screw up and can't change. So I'm assuming that stuff is all the work of that dumb lady. And the other baptism we should have had fell as well because I guess she did something bad. I dont know what it was, she wouldnt tell us. So this Saturday was baptismless and depressing. I feel like all of my efforts are just going down the drain. I work so hard and I have nothing to show for it. All of our investigators are falling because the can't get answers to their prayers and we can't find anyone to teach now for some reason. The last transfer all we had was success and now we have nothing. We can't even get people to wait five minutes so we can teach them something. We do a lot of walking now because we don't have any appointments so we tract a lot and go to members houses to try and get references. I am just so frustrated. However, its still all good. I´m still working hard and still just trying and trying. I know that eventually something will happen. Also turns out I will be in this area for 6 months now probably so I'm sure that something good will happen in that time period.
On a brighter note, there are apparently only like 4 movies from honduras and there is another one being filmed in my area!!! like every day there are people with cameras filming something! So when I get back in like 20 months, lets watch a movie about my first area!!
Elder Garry

Week 17

Well, like every week, this one was really fast as well. We really didn't do much this week, not because we are bad but because it is just how things worked out. We had district meeting on Friday so half of the day was there and then we had to do interviews for these people who are getting baptized in another area because Elder Chichia is the district leader. Got stuck in that area because there wasn't a bus so we spent the rest of our day there. Then Saturday we had district conference which is basically Stake Conference but for the branches all day. And same thing on Sunday. So our last three days have been really chill.  We still got some work done and talked to a bunch of people. We should have two baptisms this week. We could have had five buuuuut one of our members said some really not nice words to three of our investigators and now they want nothing to do with the church. We went to her house after we figured it out and she wasn't there. Which may have been good because we were both really mad at her and probably say some not nice words to her as well. So we will just go to her house another day. But that was really the first time I have really been really frustrated in my mission. Other times are just dumb things like I cant speak or I'm tired of eggs and beans but this time was for real. I was really angry. We talked to one of the people and they are now chill but 2 of the 3 are nowhere to be seen. We saw one in the street and she completely ignored us and the other today on a bus and she did the same. I am heated as they say in the states.
But life goes on and there are still good things about being here. I can honestly speak spanish. I can say what I want to say and without thinking too. I just can't understand it!! I dont understand how the words are in my vocabulary but when they speak it just doesnt make sense. I hear every word that they say but their sentences just don't make sense. Basically they speak like old English style. So in English it is ¨who am I talking with¨ but in Spanish, ¨with whom am I talking¨ it is so frustrating but I'm figuring it out. Elder Chichia and I have like real conversations now so that is fun. And I can teach a lesson but the second they as a question or say a comment, game over and i have to have Elder Chichia help me out.
I still love it here and I am so grateful to be here in Honduras. It is a really cool country!
I love you all!!
Elder Garry

Week 16

So before I said that I think I know what it is really like to be a missionary.... nope. I have been living in fairytale land for the past like 4 months. We are working super hard, in the hot hot hot weather, and no one is interested. No one is getting answers to their prayers, and we are just not having any success. I don't know why but I just feel like no one is progressing. We had some really solid investigators and now we have like 8 total. That is cool and all but none of them are getting answers to their prayers. Literally they are all praying which is really surprising for me to hear but none are getting answers. I just dont get it. I keep saying that we will always recieve an answers and sometimes we need to be patient but this is getting a little bit out of hand. Like 4 weeks and nothing. They haven't said that they got an answer that it is no but they are losing faith. I feel like it is me. What am I doing wrong. How can I be better? I pray and pray and pray all day everyday for our investigators but just nothing is working. I am not losing faith or anything but still I just wish that they could all get an answer and get dunked!
Also, our baptism for Andrea fell this week. I guess her daughter got sick and they had to go to Teguc for like three days so it is this week but this week is like stake conference but it is like district conference because we are just a branch and it is the day of her baptism so we will see how that goes. We have another on the 7th with this guy named Jorge. He is so sick. My first time with him he told me that he doesn't care what we teach but he will believe it all. Thats how much faith he has. It was seriously awesome.
Still the life is good here. I'm smarter with my money and not wasting it on CocaCola and chips like my first transfer. I figured out they have these things called semitas which is like this bread thing..... I have an addiction. They are a dime each and I eat about 6 for breakfast alone. Only 12 limperas which is basically trash. I am learning to love beans and eggs. Like I crave it throughout the day now.
People are still racist and think that Honduras is relevant to the world. They say stuff like the United States hates Honduras because they have better food and things are cheaper. After that I told her that before my mission I heard the word Honduras maybe 7 times in all my life and I couldn't even tell you where it was on a map until I got my call to serve here. She didn't think it was very funny but it made her stop talking about how great this country is(nt). Don't get me wrong, I love Honduras with all my heart, just don't ever say that it or anything else is better than ´Murica!!!
I love you all with all my heart and I miss you. This mission thing is not easy pero vale la pena
Elder Garry

Week 15

Time is literally the fastest when you are a missionary. Remember when I told you that time goes by when you are having fun so you need to go to Six flags every day for two years to make sure that I get back super fast? I dont know what youre doing, but keep doing it. I literally cannot even understand how fast it is going. This week I reached my two month mark here in Honduras. 2 months of only Spanish and eggs and beans. I cant believe it. I know I still have quite a bit to go but hey, its a good start. So this week nothing amazing happened but it was a good week. We should have a baptism this week if it all goes well so pray for that to happen. And we have a ton of really solid investigators but all of their baptismal dates fell because they haven't attended church enough times to be baptized so I guess we will just move it back and dunk them later. We found this really great restaurant that is super expensive so I am using my debit card to pay for it. Just every p day so make sure I'm loaded for those sweet moments that I have. I'm not gunna lie, I miss you all a lot but I really don't think about it very much throughout the week. Just until Saturday and then I'm like AHH P DAY! I HAVE A FAMILY I CAN WRITE. The other days I'm just zoned in on what I can do to help my investigators and how I can just be the missionary I know I can be. I love and miss you all so much.
until next week,
Elder Garry

Week 14 and Pictures!!!

This week was so fast! I cannot believe how fast the weeks are. Every time i have to stop writing and start working on Pdays, I just think about how I have another week until I can write you all and then I blink and I'm right back in the church writing. It's really incredible. Why didn't school go by this fast. I would have loved that. Anyways, this week was a good one. I feel like all of our investigators are progressing and I feel like we will baptize them all but what do I know, I'm still in training. I'm still just in the zone of lets talk to everyone and baptize everyone. We have 6 baptismal dates this month but only if everything works well. We finally have people praying about our messages and they are just amazed at how they received an answer. It literally is so easy and yet hardly anyone will do it. But our guys are praying and we are just ballin out here with investigators. We have about 17 people that we teach regularly and of those 17, 6 are just ready to get dunked. We had a dude tell us that he wants to be a missionary like us. We told him first step is baptism and he was so down for it. I mean we have to teach him first but still. super cool. And so my comp.... he doesn't wake up at the right time. Never studies. And when he does its in his bed. The thing is that we work really well together. Our teaching styles just work and because of it we are having a lot of progress. The only thing is that if he was more obedient we could be doing miracles. It's scary to tell someone that they are being a bad missionary. Especially when they have 22 months and are training me. It turns out that his trainer got sent home early for breaking the law of chastity with an investigator. He told me the other day that is a bad thing to be exactly obedient.... so that s my life. He is a way cool guy and we get along just fine. I'm still loving it and I'm still being the missionary that you would want me to be. I love you all and miss you all. But just remember how fast these 3 months went. I will be home in no time!!!

Week 13

This week was wild. Lets just start by saying that I have a new companion named Elder Chichia.... yes like the chichichichichichia pet haha hes got like 22 months so he's literally killing me with all of his going home talk. I felt bad because I didn't get to say goodbye to Elder Reinoso because I was too busy throwing up in the house to go with him. I am seriously sick all of the time. I have so much medicine that I take to help my stomach. The almost made me go to Tegucigalpa but they figured that I wouldn't really make it to Tegucigalpa without needing to stop like every 20 minutes so I stayed and they came to me and just gave me more medicine. I realized I've lost a bunch of weight too because every latino kept calling me delgado for like 3 days. Didn't know what it meant, means skinny. I've lost like ten pounds that I don't really have to loose so I'm just trying to eat and eat and eat but the food is not to great so its a struggle haha general conference is the greatest thing as a missionary. It was Pday weekend. Every missionary in the zone slept over with the zone leaders and we all just played cards and chess for two days in between conferences and then at night we contacted for an hour then played cards and chess again. I spoke a lot of English too which was better than you could have imagined. Did you see President Monson, he didn't look too good during his talk. Kind of sketchy. Que mas?... So I feel like I'm training my companion now because he doesn't have a huge desire to do much. He has regular music that he listens too and doesn't really act like a missionary. He told me that he doesn't want to train me at all but that's okay because while I train him, I will figure it all out too haha its all good. He's a way cool guy and has had a lot of success in his mission. We could have a ton of baptisms this month and I'm way excited for that. We've already seen a ton of miracles in just the few days we've had together. Two guys asked us to be baptized and the other said he wants to be a missionary like us after he is baptized. We could have three this month but we need to work hard and always be obedient in order for everything to work out. I'm also slowly figuring out this whole Holy Ghost thing. I thought before that I knew what was up but now it is so different. I am getting like real answers to my prayers. When I have a question, I ask and then wait a second and then I can see the answer in the my head clear as day. God answers our prayers through the Spirit. We just need to actually listen. It is so true. I am a witness of it. Se que la iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdadera con todo mi corazon y cada dia, mi testimonio es mas y mas grande. aunque hay muchas personas que no les gusta la Iglesia, y les gustamos salir, se que hay personas que nos necesitan y estan esperando para nosotros. cuando somos obedientes y hacer las cosas que Dios nos quiere hacer, el ponerase personas que estan listos para nuestro mensage. todo es verdadero y bien bonito. Les amo todo, y les extraño todos tambien. adios y cuidase



Google translation:

I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true with all my heart and every day, my testimony is bigger and bigger . Although many people do not like the Church , and want us to leave, there are people who need us and are waiting for us. When we are obedient and do the things God wants us to do, he prepares people who are ready for our message . Everything is real nice and well . I love them all, and they are strange as well . Bye and take care

Week 12

I did so much this week and I can't believe that it is p day already. So let's just start by saying that basically every church is out to get us apparently. Because Elder Reinoso and I have just worked our butts off, literally the other churches are ticked and are preaching apostasy about the church. We will go to investigators and they are asking the most random questions and turns out that the churches are going door to door like we do but they are telling the people to stop praying and stop reading the Book of Mormon and teaching pure anti. It's absolutely ridiculous but it just means we are doing a good job out here. I am getting frustrated with some of our investigators. We have been teaching this guy named Armando for as long as I have been here. We have been stuck with him so we just decided to teach the basics to him. Yesterday we talked only about prayer and it turns out that not one time has he prayed. I feel like some of our investigators just want to be friends with us or learn English from me. Armando has had pastors come to his door to tell him not to pray and that's why. I don't understand. The scriptures are clear. Ask and ye shall receive knock and it shall be opened unto you. And yet the other churches are saying that they should just believe in them and not pray. Literally if they just took like 20 seconds to pray, we would be baptizing every single day. Frustrating!


Something cool I did was climb a mountain to talk to people. It was so hot and so much of a climb I had sweat stains in my knees haha we have about 20 investigators in the mountains now. It's amazing when people are sheltered from the anti and hate for the church how much people love the messages. Something that was really cool was that two people said that they thought they knew me but they never leave the mountain nor have I ever been to the mountain before. Basically the church is true and I have a testimony that missionaries aren't just sent to where ever but that we are called to specific places. The people of Honduras need me. I mean they already know me from like dreams or something. It's amazing this work. I really love it. Spanish is coming a long and I'm having a good time.


The next time I write I will have a new companion because Reinoso is getting transferred. yo soy el jefe ahorita.


PS. turns out I had dengue fever when I was sick. Look that up, it's a good time. Oh and the people literally do whatever they can to get money. They will get a machete and cut grass all day for like nothing. The jobs here are just manual labor or they own a store or pulperia which is like a snack shop. No one really works for stores because there really aren't any. Just construction, farming, or something hard and laborious.

Week 11 Frustration and Sickness

Where do I begin with this week.... So I thought my problem this week was going to be my money but turns out that I should be like an accountant or something because I put a plan together for Elder Reinoso and my money so that we could see where all of our money is going and see if we could save a couple bucks. Turns out we just buy a lot of CocaCola and if we cut back we will have an absurd amount of money. So right now we are ballin with our water and fat wallets haha anyways... here´s the fun part. Someone is teaching this girl in our rama(branch) anti-mormon literature and she has basically denied God now. She asks us a question, we answer, and she says she still doesn´t believe. This went on for like an hour and finally i just stood up and told her that we could answer all of her questions but we cant give you faith in the Book of Mormon nor of God unless you act and pray to know for yourself what's true and false. Then I grabbed Reinoso and we left. Then went to another house and they started basically screaming that they won't pray to no Joseph Smith because they believe in God. That's always actually pretty funny because they feel really dumb after we get done showing them that our plaques say Church of Jesus Christ and not Church of Joseph Smith. And that we don't pray to Joseph Smith but only to God. That day was just filled of anger toward us and the church. Oh and i was super super sick Thursday to Sunday. I didn't even leave the house from Friday to Sunday. I had like a deathly fever that they almost sent a bus for me to take me to Tegucigalpa because there aren't any hospitals here haha but I'm alive and well now. I learned that although I get to sleep a lot when I'm sick, I would rather work because the time is so fast when you are out and about working. Anyways, I wouldn't say that this week was bad necessarily, just really ehhh. Our.... I cant remember the word in english. Like our stats for the week weren't good because we missed about half by sitting in the house waiting for me to die. But still, the work is fun and satisfying. October I'm going to be so tired from all of the baptisms I'm about to have!! Literally like all of our investigators are progressing and they all have dates for October. I. GET. DUNKS. lol and also I forgot to tell you that this dude straight up told me that he didn't want me to say the opening prayer because I cant speak Spanish haha that hurt super bad and I didn't say one word the entire lesson. Then after the lesson I started crying in the street haha but my companion is the best and really helped me out. Then later that night we contacted this guy on the corner and he looked so confused. He looked at me and asked how long I had been in Honduras and I said a little over a month. Then he asked me how I was so good at Spanish if I had only been there for a month!! It´s truly amazing how much Heavenly Father loves his little children and his missionaries. That guy didn't even live in Cantarranas and I have no idea what he was doing here. I truly believe that he was just put in my path to help me out when I needed him most. After that moment everything clicked and since then Spanish has been good. I am actually communicating with people in Spanish. Not just teaching but talking to people and joking around. Anyways, I love you bunches and I miss you all. I cannot believe how fast the time goes by. Hasta Luego


Elder Garry

Picture Time!

The white boy is there because he is the only other light skinned feller I've seen in like 10 weeks haha and the pics on the bus is my companion Elder Reinoso. The big dude in hulk mask is Elder Sosa. His comp tried to kill him. The little little kid is Josue who is the brother of Armando who is the kid I baptized. Then his sister Anjolic is the girl with the long hair in the picture and the other is a member but I don't know her. Then the pic of me with the zone is Elders Real, Huete, Priones, Rasmusen, Henriquez, Coe, Reinoso me, Limatu, and Linnick

Week 10

First things first, I'm the realest. So I baptized someone Saturday! His name is Louis Armando Velazquez Banegas. That was a really cool experience. I was so nervous but I got it on the first try. He didn't want to go all the way underwater so I gave him a quick last second shove and cheque. They really should call me Jon the baptist haha I cant believe that within a month of my time here in Honduras I'm already baptizing. Just goes to show that when you work hard every day and are perfectly obedient, you will be given success. So other than my first baptism, another cool thing that happened this week is that a companionship in our zone is getting emergency transferred because one of them literally tried kill the other one. Who says missionaries are perfect?? So the one missionary that was being attacked came with us this week so we had a tripionship. His name is Elder Sosa from the Dominican Republic. I thought Honduran Spanish was hard to understand haha. It's like if every person who lived in East St Louis spoke Spanish but with the same hood accent. That was what I was listening to for a week haha but because I grew up in the hood I understood him actually pretty well. Ooh and Elder Reinoso and I are literally dirt poor right now. We've had about 40 limperas between us for the past week. That's about 2 dollars. How we have survived, not sure but we are still kicking. We get paid but cant withdraw our money until tomorrow. And no place around here accepts MasterCard soooo i really am dirt poor haha its cool though, It's all about the experiences for sure. I cannot believe how fast time goes by on the mission. I felt like yesterday I was writing everyone and here I am again. I realized today on this bus thing (that is really just a minivan and they stuff about 30 people into it) that I really love being a missionary. Elder Sosa asked what my favorite part about being a missionary was and I listed just about every part. I truly love this work. Other than the fact that I cant understand very much and I always seem to lack the right word in the important moments, I love it. I love teaching and crossing rivers by jumping from rock to rock to find a random dude in a field and then telling him he can live with his family forever through the plan de salvacion. I love seeing peoples faces light up when they realized that it is all true. I just love it. I have no reason to be sad because I know that Heavenly Father is with me every step of the way and putting people in my path. All i have to do is say hola. I love you so and the fam so much and i miss you like crazy. We have a term here called being baggy and it means homesick. i am baggy but its all good. Love you and I will see you in like 22 months or something!

Week 9

Jon's mom here..I was headed to Hawaii when Jon wrote last week so I apologize to all his fans for getting this up so late!


So this week was tough. I'm starting to realized that Spanish is hard and sounds a lot like Chinese gibberish when you don't really know the language. I had kind of a mental breakdown of like anger for about 4 hours because I suck at Spanish haha but we are all good now and I'm still trucking along. So I bore my testimony in Spanish yesterday and blessed the sacrament in Spanish too. People kept telling me that my Spanish is getting better and at first i was like sweet! Then I started to wonder how bad my accent was before haha. Oh and I taught a lesson in Spanish for church. I'm a one man show with my companion here. This past week we had a ton of success. We taught 87 lessons this week! I don't even know how I have enough time for that. We have a baptism this Saturday and I get to do it! Only like 4 weeks in and I'm already dunking! They should probably call me Jo(no h)n the baptist or something! This week we had splits with the other Elders and I was with Elder Limatu from Guatemala and I was so nervous because I didn't know the area very well at all and I had to be in charge of it all since it was my area. So long story short I killed it. We taught like 12 people that day and I challenged everyone of them to baptism. All but like 3 said yes too! Let me tell you that I love to be a missionary. I'm famous here. Everyone knows the Elders and wants to talk to them or ask us for money for some reason haha. Well I love you all and I am praying for you all like every 4 minutes here. Peace out fam and I will see you all next week.

Week 8

I got your package a couple days ago but no letters yet. So we didn't have any baptisms this past week because one person needs to attend church a few more times and the other decided he wants to wait longer. We pushed his date to the 12th and he chose me to baptize him!! So that's pretty sick. Also we had some miracles happen this week. We were contacting and just walking along with this one kid named Daniel and he said that he has heard every discussion but never went to church. We invited him to go and he said yes! Then right when we were done talking to him this guy said hey elders!! We turned around and were talking to him. I didn't understand much at all but Elder Reinoso said to me at the very end, that he has read the whole Book of Mormon but has never met with the missionaries.... so he's finna get dunked real nice! Then later that day we needed to contact like 3 more people and we were on our way to dinner and I knew that we were about to go right, so I said ¨someone is ready on this next road". We turned on that road and there was one lady in the street. We started to talk to her and she just loved it all. At the very end, she said that she has been praying for someone like us to come into her life!! This church is true. I know that Heavenly Father is preparing everyone for our message and is putting the people who are ready in our paths. We taught about 70 something lessons this week and only about 3 people said that they don't want us to come back. We have I think 15 solid people who we are pretty sure will be baptized just this week. The work here is great but only when we are obedient. When we are even a few minutes late to something, we know that we are being punished because no one wants to talk to us. I love it here! Even though I was like dying of dehydration and like heat stroke or something this week, I wouldn't leave for anything. Don't get me wrong, I miss you all but I love every person I see here. It's a good trait to have because it makes me really persistent. I will do anything to make sure that the people invite us back. One day, this lady so that she doesn't want us to come back so I called her out on her faith. She had claimed to have a ton of faith so I asked if she knew James 2:17 which said "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." (Faith without works is dead) I then followed and said that if you really have faith, then you will pray. If Heavenly Father says that our message is false, then whatever but I promise He will tell you it is true. It was way sick! I love it so much. I suck at Spanish but its okay. Elder Reinoso compared me to Moses because he couldn't speak it very well and yet he was a great teacher. That's me! I am MOSES haha I love you so much and the whole family. Tell them i said sup!

Week 7

Let me start by saying how bad I am at Spanish hahaha I thought I was good until I got to Cantarranas which is this really small town slash village type of dealio. So basically everyone has like 4 teeth and I can't understand a single thing. Luckily I have a Latino companion named Elder Reinoso. He was a professional soccer player but came on a mission instead of continuing. He loves to talk so that's good because I literally have no idea what the heck these guys are saying. The first day was really tough and I was about to break down because I just had no idea what was going on. We would be teaching and then he would look at me to jump in but I didn't understand a single word that was said so I would just kind of panic and not say anything. After a week I still don't understand but but I understand my companion decently. He is so cool. And such a great missionary. All we do is work and work. Like we do not eat because we just work. I love it though. I literally love this mission thing I'm doing. I suck at it but I love it. I'm really good at asking questions and then having them not understand anything haha like yesterday this guy we were teaching named Ronald told me I spoke spanglish haha. I was offended and then I realized that I've been here for like 8 hours and I shouldn't care. At least he understood enough to know what I was trying to say. So the food here is hit or miss. One day I am eating the best tacos I've ever had prepared by a man who would like to be a lady with like four golden teeth and then the next day I'm eating crappy beans and eggs lol its all good though. Another weird thing is that there are just animals EVERYWHERE. Like I'm talking wild horses just galloping down the street and packs of wild dogs just chillin on the corner. I'm amazed how this doesn't strike anyone else as weird. So this work here is really good. We taught 79 lessons this week!! We've got like 20 investigators and they all have baptismal dates. This weekend we have two baptisms already!! They should call me Jon the baptist because all I get is dunks!!! haha the people here are so nice but kind of sketchy too haha check out this story. So we are going to teach this guy named Angel but he was kind of drunk so we decided to come back another time. We were at this dead end and then Reinoso goes, we need to keep going. I was like you mean into this jungle right here. And he goes, yeah, someone is ready for the gospel. So we did it and we are walking around for a while and find no one. He gets discouraged and starts to turn around and I did too then I just got this prompting to keep going. I told him and we turned around and kept going. We ended up finding this guy in the middle of a jungle!!! He's working in this field of something but there is this huge river in between us and him so we start leaping from these huge rocks and eventually cross it. We start to talk to him and he was 100 percent interested in the message. It was way sick!! We have a bunch of those experiences. It's amazing how the Lord will literally place people into our hands to teach. I love being a missionary. I want to go home like everyday but I love being here! It's freaking hot here but its all good. I really love it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Alison asked if he had dirt floors and if he could catch a dog and keep it as a pet:
 lol we actually have really nice house. No dirt floors just dirt on the floor. This country is so gross. So dirty. And I would catch a dog but I would literally die from its crazy disease haha there are puppies everywhere because the dogs aren't neutered and they just go at it. I love the dogs so much but Reinoso says we aren't aloud to have pets. Something about being obedient. Not quite sure, Spanish is too tough!

First day in Honduras

Jonothon didn't a chance to email this week since he got transferred to Honduras. This is the email that he sent the day he got in: So im in Honduras now. A day earlier than I thought I would be. Anyways, I love it here already. I do not understand a single word the people say but I can say some stuff. I've been here for about 4 hours and I already committed a guy to baptism. It was sick. Being a missionary will be a fun thing for sure. Especially when I can understand it all haha. I only am allotted about three minutes so I gotta go. P days are now on Mondays so expect me on that day now. And I don't think I will get to call so just put it on the calendar for Christmas. I love you bunches. Your baby is a real missionary now. PS I am using an Ipad to do this and I am so excited. I am not aloud to email others right now so just make sure they all know I don't hate them haha love you and I will talk to you later. Oh and the plane ride was ridiculous!

New Group Photo

Jon is in the front row!

Week 5

Alright so this week was not really any different. We had classes and did some learning. I came to the conclusion that when I can feel the spirit in a lesson, I am completely fluent and can say everything I want to say. Then when I'm just conversating, I don't know any Spanish lol It's kind of frustrating but cool at the same time. We had a member of the Seventy come and speak to us yesterday. It's the third one we've had in like three weeks so that's pretty sick. One thing that was really cool is that an Hermana asked me to give her a blessing of comfort!! It was seriously the coolest and just most nerve wracking thing I've ever done. Ii didn't know why she needed one but I didn't hesitate to say yes. She asked the AP if someone could give her a blessing and he said yeah, who do you want to give it to you? Then she asked if she could choose anyone and she chose me! Why me!! I was gonna puke I was so scared. I didn't even know what to say but I just had another Elder give me the paper that says exactly what to say and then I just dove right in. They say that you will know exactly what to say and I can honestly say that that is probably the most right and wrong thing I've ever heard. It wasn't like a voice in my head saying what to say but it was like being pushed toward a thought and then I just said it. In all honesty, that was life changing. I feel like a real man now. A real missionary now. Before I was just learning and then I had to exercise Priesthood! It was super awesome. I just want to go on a blessing spree because of how good you feel afterwards because of the spirit. Once again I love this church and this gospel. I literally crave this gospel and im so excited for next week to be able to actually go and teach people. I suck at spanish but it doesnt matter because when the spriti is there, I'm fluent. Also, I'm not really sure but there may be a chance that I dont get to email next week becuase I leave in one week but p days are on Monday so expect like next next monday to hear from me. I love you so very much and I miss you like cray cray. Hasta Luego

Week 4

So this week has been absolutely insane. Since last Tuesday, everyone in the entire MTC has been really sick. I missed 2 full days of class by just laying in bed because I was dying. We all had the two headed dragon. which basically means that I was erupting on both ends. It was absolutely horrible. I'm still suffering but I'm not throwing up anymore so that's good. My stomach hurts so much all of the time. The Hermana next to me had to go to doctor to get tested for like a crazy bacteria. It was just 50 shades of crazy down here. Anywho, there really wasn't much that happened other than everyone sick and dying. Oh this was wild. I made friends with this one latino from Quetzaltenango which is believed to have the waters of Mormon there. Like he is a Lamanite. his name was Elder Poroj and he was just a stud. On Sunday he came up to me and goes estoy triste which means I'm sad. So I struggled to get a conversation going and ask why he was sad and if I could help at all. It turns out that his older brother died that day at 4 o'clock from a heart disease. He had talked to me about his brother before and how he loves him so much. It's just him and his brother who are members and his older brother served a mission in Tegucigalpa. He wears his mission plaque everywhere to remember him. Anyways, his mom called and was basically demanding him to come home to be with the family to mourn. He told her no way because the second he is no longer a missionary, he can no longer be with his brother because he is wearing his plaque. He was crying but just stopped and was like thunder and goes I have a mission to do for him. He would want me to stay. Why cant I be like Elder Poroj. lets be real, if Xena died i would be losing my mind. He set an incredible example for me and so many other people on the floor. I love that kid and because of him, I am so much more dedicated to this mission. I'm so jacked to get out to Tegucigalpa and tell people like I told Elder Poroj that families are together forever. And even when you lose someone now, they aren't gone. But they are just watching you and rooting for you every step of the way. In that moment, my testimony of the plan de salvacion was real. I didn't just believe it but I knew it. I could feel his brother when I was hugging Elder Poroj. He was there because he isn't gone. I love this church so much. I'm so excited to be a missionary mom. I know that technically I am right now but lets be real, it doesn't fully start until the plane lands in Teguci. Then its game on.