Week 47 Legal Resident

So this week was just something else! A lot of work, and traveling, a bit of sickness, and even some drama! All of the characteristics of a good week!

So lets start by talking about the work. This week we worked like dogs. We were out trying to find people and teaching the people that we have! It was actually really fun. We talked to our mission leaders and we came to the conclusion that we could have like 5 baptisms this next Saturday if we work hard enough. I mean like 3 will be some niños but souls are souls right!! And on the 18th we are planning another 5!! I would lose my mind if we were actually able to get 10 baptisms this week! it would be so great!

Also this friday I got to spend the whole day out in Tegucigalpa! We got to get our residencies that say that we are legal people in the country. Before I was an illegal immigrant!! haha but now I am 100% catratcho!!! I feel it in my blood now!! I only crave beans and eggs with tortillas! I do all of the weird Honduran things and even talk all ghetto like they do. I've come to the conclusion that Hondurans speak like the equivalent of east St Louis. It is the same language that every body speaks but just more slurred and really no one understands of them. Every person who comes here says that they all speak weird and now I am one of the people that speak weird! I love being Honduran! hahahaha and when I was in Teguc, I got to eat at Denny's!! I had some real pancakes with real syrup!! I mean it was delicious. It is the little things that make me happy. I don't ask for much. Just real pancakes and syrup haha

And this week I have been a bit sick. Starting last Monday i had some really bad stomach pain. I was in the house the whole day on Wednesday. And I had to go to the doctor that day. Turns out I have parasites!! But it is chill because the medicine is supposed to be excellent to kill those guys. Only problem is that I am poor, and I can't buy the medicine right now so I am just suffering until I get money to buy it. But I mean it is all about the experience so I am not even mad.

And finally the drama. So I gave my first district meeting class on setting goals and achieving our goals. It was really good too!! I bought a snickers bar and threw it up on the basketball hoop and told them that they had 3 minutes to make a plan and get the snickers bar. The sisters were chucking water bottles at the back board for like 5 minutes and couldn't do it!!! It was golden. And the elders were like jumping and nothing. Until I told them that in life sometimes we need to change the plan to accomplish the goal. So the elders just got lifted the others up and grabbed the snickers. It was great. Then we went back in the class and I taught the rest of the class. Then I ended it by saying that to me the numbers don't matter but the investigators matter. I told them that if they cant do a lot of contacting in the week but they do a lot of lessons then that its a perfect week to me. I guess the zone leaders didn't like that I only focus in the people and not the numbers and they called me that night a bit grumpy. I told them that to me the investigators will always come first them the numbers. And that I 100 percent defend what i said and that I don't take it back just because they are grumpy with me. And he was like elder but you cant say that !! So I just told him that contention is of the devil and that we wont fight about it haha fun times here in Danli like always.

I love you all!!!


Elder Garry

Week 46 District Leader

So this week was one of the biggest in the mission for me hahaha lots of hard work and a curve ball added in calls for a fun email!!
Let us begin....

So I have kind of figured out my companion.. like more or less... just a bit.  He is like a bipolar hypocrite hahaha he will randomly have huge spurts of "I wanna work!!" and then be in the street like "Elder, I dont want to do ANYTHING right now".  Then he will sometimes be like "Elder we need to be the most obedient in the entire mission if we want blessings!!" Then I will find him asleep during his study time.  So I just kind of let him talk and just let it go in one ear and out the other haha he is really great! Like a good teacher, he can be fun!  It is just the little stuff he does.  But I pray every night and we get better and better every day!! We get a long fine though!! And I enjoy being with him.  He helps me and I help him so it's a win win!!

Also this week we had a lot of luck with the investigators!  We found a guy that is in 4th Nephi in the Book of Mormon.  He got it as a gift a while back and has just be steady reading.  He was never an investigator of the missionaries though!!  The only bad part is that his dad is a pastor but he told us that if he gets an answer to his prayer, he will be baptized!  And we worked and found some even more people who are solid.  We have 4 people who are really positive with a baptismal date. And even more that we will put a date this week.  I mean I know that we are doing something good because we had 9 investigators in the church yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have never had so many!!  My whole district had 17 together and we had 9 of them!!  It was incredible!! and they are so great and only a few are kind of iffy.  I'm way excited to work this week with those people!!

What else.  My whole zone had some crazy changes.  Like the whole zone except me and my companion and the zone leaders had like emergency transfers within the zone.  So my district leader left and went to another area.  His old companion is training now.  Then a ton of other people got moved around too.  I didn't know any of this until Elder Pickron called me screaming with the news haha his companion got moved to the office to be in charge of immigration and so now he is senior comp and was so excited.  He called and said that my District leader moved to his area and now is the district leader out there.  So I was like what the heck "who is my district leader" and he was like "you really dont know? You are!!!"
So after about 5 days as senior companion I just got moved to disctrict leader hahaha
That is basically like a regular missionary just with more responsibility, If there is a problem in the district it is my fault, I teach a class every Thursday, and less sleep haha.  Like last night I had to call for the stats of all of the missionaries in my district and I was up for so long adding numbers and calling the zone leaders haha

So in summary
We are teaching like crazy,
and I am now a District Leader who doesn't get to sleep
Good times in Honduras!
The Church is true!
Elder Garry

Week 45 New Comp & Sunburns

So another week has went by!  I think I only have like 7 weeks until a year in the mission!!!  Look at ya boy!

But this week was definitely different.  So Elder Juarez had transfers randomly so he is now in Tegucigalpa.  He loves it because he can buy all of his little knick knacks before he goes home.  So he left and my new companion is Elder Martinez from Nicaragua.  He has 6 months in the mission. He is still new.  Like so new it hurts me.  I hope I didn't act like him when I had 6 months hahaha.  He is different though.  I can already tell that I will learn patience with him.  Mostly because the first thing that asked me was if I was a patient person.  Yep, he asked that before my name hahaha.  I was like "ohhhhhhh noooooo......".  and I know exactly why he asked me that.  This guy is crazy!!  He is a full 20 years old and still acts like he is 14.  But he is super excited to work and to find some new people so that is great!!  Especially since my last two companions weren't the most "motivated".  Our first day we went and dropped off the bags and then he was like alright lets go! So we left and we only contacted the entire day.  We didn't visit any investigators, we didn't visit any members, we only knocked on doors.  And it is what we did the day after  and the day after  and the day after and probably this whole change.
         
But yesterday I sat him down and I went papa on him and explained some things.  I guess he has only been with people that ONLY contacted.  They only focus in the numbers and because of that he is so worried about having numbers.  I told him that we are working hard to find souls and not to have numbers.  I also told him that he needs to calm down and kind of act his age.  But since that day we have actually gotten  along really well.  I can tell that he and I will actually work REALLY well together and I am actually really excited to be with him.
         
I was praying all this week to know what to say and I was definitely blessed.  The spirit was really strong and he didn't take any of it as an insult but took it as advice.  He is a good guy!

What else.  So we actually found some really good people.  Some people that have read the entire Book of Mormon.  They have gone to church a bunch.  They have a ton of family that are members. And we have appts with them this week so I am excited to work with them this week and to not contact as much!!!  Let me just say that it was VERY hot this week and I got very sunburned from being in the street hahaha  also we gave service for 7 hours in the morning on Saturday.  They all said I looked like a shrimp because I was so pink haha. We literally mowed a ridge around a hospital with machetes and rakes!!!!  I've got some nice blisters!! hahaha  But that night we celebrated with the most awesome church activity I have ever seen!!!  The church hired a professional dance team!!! They came and did some cool native dances and even had like those giant doll people things and those were dancing too!!  I was so tired that I almost slept through the entire thing though.  It was funny to see all of the elders in the back almost passed out hahaha  We are working hard here in Danli!!!  We brought 5 investigators to the activity as well!!!  It was awesome!  And then at church we had 4 investigators with us!!!

This week was just a week of hard work and hot sun!! But it was worth it!

I love you all!
Elder Garry

10 Months!!

Hey what is good in the hood!!!
So I already told the family what happened in my week but I know that the rest of you are just dying to know how Elder Garry is doing down here in the 504.  That's the area code.
So let us begin:

So really just one fun story.  Our house never has running water.  But every once and a while in the morning the water turns on.  So what we do is just leave the faucet on so that when the water comes, we know.  So it is what we did.  Usually if it is past like 8 30 the water just wont come.  So that day we also had district meeting.  So we are waiting for the water and it never comes.  So we finally shower with freezing cold water from a bucket.... yay!  and then we leave to go to district meeting. We are there.  We are learning.  Great.  Then we go to eat.  Great.  Then we come back home.  Not great... we live upstairs.  The downstairs was just super wet.  And the stairs to go up where also wet. The hall was wet.  We open the door to our house and in every part of the house was just full of water. There as like a solid inch of water in every part of the house.  So we go to the bathroom to look and when we opened the door, the water just rushed out like a flood.  Turns out that the water came at like 10 and that it just ran and ran and ran.  So we spent the rest of the day cleaning the house out of water.  It was terrible.  My companion just looked at me and said "well we can either be upset, or we can laugh about it."  So we just looked and started laughing and crying a bit hahaha I guess we even flooded our neighbors house and ruined some of his stuff. He was nice about it and even offered us some mango. Honduras!

And the transfers have come out!!!  My companion asked President Bowler himself if he could have his last transfer with me and he said yes.  Then today he called us and said that my companion was actually going to go to Teguc.  So i am going to get a new companion on Wednesday.  He is named Elder Martinez from I have no idea.  I guess he is new.  So I am the senior companion now! Responsibilities! haha ha ha... but it is all good!!  I am always excited for the new companions because I always learn something new from them!  I am sure that he and I will get along great!  And Elder Anderson will be in my district now!  So that means that 2 of my best friends from the mtc will now be in my zone!

Other than that the week was very normal.  We went to work and didn't have as much success as we had hoped.  We had big plans for Saturday in Jacaleapa but there was literally a town meeting for like 5 hours so the entire time we were there, everyone was gone.  So we just tried to contact everyone we saw.  But this week will for sure be better!!

I love you all!
have a great week!
Elder Garry

Week 43 Jacaleapa

Hello!
So this week was a really good week!  It didn't have any fun drama, just a good week with hard work and success!
Let us begin...

So we had another zone conference where President Bowler came and taught us some things and gave some talks.  It was really good.  We learned how to do another way to contact.  We learned about dropping investigators for their good and because it is a waste of time for us.  We actually did it with an investigator named Leticia.  She was my birthday miracle that said she wanted to get baptized.  and after all of this time, never went to church.  Turns out that the reason why is because she now has a boyfriend and doesn't want to change her life.  She just wants to be a party animal I guess.  But anyways, the conference was really good. I left feeling like I only wanted to preach the gospel.  I had no desire to do anything else, but be the best misionary i could be.  It was a great feeling.

What else.  So we have an area called Jacaleapa.  It is a little place like 30 minutes out.  Normally there has always been missionaries there but when I got to this area, they took them out.  So we are now in charge.  About 2 weeks ago, we did a stake activity there and we received 38 references.  Like super positive references.  We spent all day on Thursday and yesterday after church contacting the references.  I seriously feel like there could be like 20 baptisms in that one area.  The goal is to put a branch there because it is too hard for the members and investigators to go to church because it is about 15 minutes out on bus and 3 hours out on foot.  So now we go there a lot to contact the area and teach.  We have contacted 16 of the references and 14 actually want us to keep teaching them.  If I wasn't there, I wouldn't believe it.  I love that area now.  We did divisions there with our ward mission leaders and after the day they just were praising us about how great we are.  And then they went on to say that they had heard some things about my companion and now they don't believe any of it and will now fight for him. So now we have two of the most respected people in the entire stake on our side if someone starts saying stuff.

Over all, just a good week.  I feel so excited to go and work.  I love you all so much!
Elder Garry