Week 51 Pictures

I'm pretty sure that when Lehi and his family were coming to the Americas to hangout in the promised land, they 100% did not pass through Choluteca, Honduras.  There is nothing "promised" about it, just a crazy sun burn and heat stroke.  It is literally so hot here.  But I feel so free.  There are like no rules here.  The girls all have kids at like 14 years old, the guys are stoners until like 100 years old, no one is married and I think the best part is that like no one sleeps in a bed, they just sleep in hammocks because of how hot it is. I mean it is really something different here.  But there is a Wendy´s and Burger King and KFC here so I will not complain.  I cant even tell you how much I missed a hamburger haha

So my new companion is Elder Hernandez from Copan Honduras.  So now I am only mission a companion from Costa Rica and Panama to complete the whole central america list!  He is so funny.  Let me just say that his process to become a missionary had to have taken longer than most peoples.  Like if you name a drug, he has 100% done it.  It is hilarious listening to his stories.  Like now he is more mature and a stellar missionary.  I thought he was going to be super rebellious but he is so awesome.  I guess his last companion was finishing the mission and just didn't want to do anything at all so for the last two transfers he basically hasn't done anything.  I walked in the house for the first time and dumped my bags down and he grabbed his stuff and was like "You ready to go?".  So I already know we are about to go and work like crazy.  And our area is literally HUGE.  My last area used to have 3 sets of missionaries, my area now used to have 4 sets.  And it is all like little tiny towns with houses made of sticks and mud.  I love it!!  I feel like I am back in my first area and I loved it there!!  So I love it here already!

The only problem is that my district just doesn't do missionary work.  I guess Pres. Bowler just threw me a curve ball and gave me this mess.  Last week as a district, the contacted 34 people.  There are 8 people in the district.  that means that they each did about 2 last week... and they had a combined 10 lessons taught...  if I tried, I could beat those stats in one day.  I did the verification on Thursday in District Meeting and not one district had a progressing investigator.  I had a class prepped, and instead i taught a class on setting goals and accomplishing the goals like I did for my first class.  And I like had to bite my tongue a lot because I wanted to just scold all of them.  But I will love them all and together we will make this district the best district that there is!!

Another cool thing is that my whole group from the MTC is down here in the south!  Elder Anderson, Pickron, Baller, Boucheger, Hernandez and Sister Saldivar.  So we all got to see each other for the first time in like a year!!  It was like a really fun family reunion.

Lets see.  Funny things about my area you ask?  There is a lady here named Martha, She is like 50.  When we went to go visit her, she was watching TV with this dude who is ancient.  Like one swift wind and he is gone.  He is 98 so you know.  So trying to create small talk, I asked about her family.  She told me that she was married, she has kids.  And I asked if he was her dad... nope.  Hes the husband.  So I was like trying to justify it in my mind.  Like maybe they knew each other when she was like 20 and he was ....68.  And I just gave up and realized that Honduras is the best country ever and I never want to go home hahahahaha

I love you all!
Elder Garry

That's me with the freaking dopest 12 year old you will ever meet named Axel.

My girl squad!

 My two best friends in the mission.  I almost cried when I said goodbye to them.

Elder Anderson(middle) and Elder Pickron(right side)

Week 50 Headed to Choluteca

Alright so we have some new items to discuss this week!

To start off lets just talk about my week in the mission.  So it has literally been raining here like crazy. Like we get back to the house and it looks like I got pushed into a pool.  So my agenda got totally destroyed because of the rain, all of my money got soaked, my wallet soaked through my pants and even left a wallet stain on my undies hahaha my companion laughed so hard when he saw that.  Also it ruined my temple reccomend so now I am not longer worthy haha  I had to call President Bowler and he was laughing so hard.  He just said "well I'm glad to know that you are working in the rain!"... he thinks he´s funny hahaha.  We had a family home evening activity where like the whole ward was sopposed to go and bring investigators but literally like only me and my companion came.  Then like an hour later a family came so my companion and I just played a game with the members there and called it good.  I feel bad because I was soaking wet and the member told me to sit on her couch. And then we had another activity the day after and we were told that the whole ward was going to bring a ton of investigators and that the plan was to have 100 people. Because it rained like 30 came.  We walked in the pouring rain with 3 investigators!!  It was so funny because one of the investigators is the sister of a recent convert so she and I are like buddies.  She was talking on the phone the whole way and I was holding the umbrella for her while the rain was falling down on me haha #missionarywork

At that activity we were finally able to bring an investigator named Marlon Flores to an activity.  This guy is 17 and loves talking to us and loves the doctrine but he just is afraid of going because he says that if he goes, he wont like it and wont want to talk to us after.  So after like 3 months of working with him, he finally went to an activity.  I think we won him over with the free food haha but he loved it and I know that he will now start to progress and we will baptize him and his sister!

We also had interviews with Pres. Bowler this week!  I love him so much.  I only had one question in my interview and that was how can I use my time wiser because I work super hard every day and I just feel unsatisfied after every week with what I did.  And President really helped me with that.  He looked at all of my dats over the past 6 weeks and tells me that we are working really hard.  His only advice was to just contact more.  So we did it a lot more this week and I feel more satisfied but still I feel like I could give more.  It is tough because I dont know where I am losing the time.

And now the fun part.  The transfers have come and I am going to Choluteca!  It is like the hottest part in all of the world.  And there is like no food, no paved roads, no electricity so I will literally be like camping in my new area!! So it has been a pleasure knowing you all.  I will see you in the next life..... but everyone says that my area is really cool and that there is this lady that will cook for us and the food is delicious so I guess that is a win!  Only bad part is that once again, I am getting a very rebellious missionary.  I get one good missionary after like a year and then they just throw me back in with some crazy guy.  And the worse part is that I already know him.  He and I were in the MTC together and in the same zone so I feel like he will just get comfortable with me really quick and start to try to be lazy.  I swear President is just testing my patience hahaha but it will be good!  I know that he and I will work really hard and have a good time down there in the inferno!

I love you all so much!
Elder Garry

11 Months!

So this week wasn't the best in the world.  Like it wasn't awful just wasn't that great either.  We had planned on having a lot of baptisms for the 11th.  But I guess people have agency and decided they just didn't want to haha dumb agency.  We had a lady named Cinthia.  We had all thought that she was a witch but I'm pretty sure shes not because i asked her if she wanted to see a magic trick and she didn't seem too excited.  But she loved my tricks!  Anyways, so she had a baptismal date for the 11 and she was 100% ready to do it!  We had planned the interview for the Thursday at 3:30 and she was all good for it.  The only problem is that the Zone Leaders went and did divisions with the Assistants to the President.  And because of that they had to go to teguc the whole day.  So we were trying and trying to call Cinthia to tell her that we couldn't do it.  But she never answered.  The whole day.  Until Friday the day after and she wasn't a happy camper.  My companion talked to her first and she was like "yeah I don't want to do it anymore" and hung up on my companion.  then i called her because she and i are closer.  and she tells me "I don't want to do it anymore, I will just get baptized in another church.  and don't bother visiting me anymore" and hung up on me!!!! Allllll because we couldn't do a tiny interview we lost a baptism.  It isn't anyones fault but it just sucks that it happened.  So tomorrow we will go and visit her with her friend and try to figure out whats up with her.

And right now there is this really cute niña that is watching me write haha she is 6 and her name is Alexa.  She and I are best friends now.

Continuing haha
I also did my first divisions as District Leader.  I did Gringo divisions.  Elder Anderson and i went and worked and Elder Samayoa and my companion went and worked.  It was actually a really fun day!  we got back to the house at 8 to eat dinner and we played cards and ate pasta all night!!  It was like a missionary sleepover!  I thoroughly enjoyed it!  I love my district so much!!  I call them District Alpha because they are really the best.  The hermanas are working so hard and they are so awesome.  And the elders are so cool.  Every night I have to call my district and ask how they are and see what they need.  And I talk to my district for like 20 minutes each just talking and getting to know them all.  I just love them!  The only bad part about being District Leader is giving the class on Thursday but even that is fun!  Like this week I taught about how to be a good missionary, we need to have a perfect balance of Love, Obedience, and Work.  I thought I killed the class.  It was really powerful!!  I just love these guys so much!

Well I love you all!!  I hope you all have a great week!!  It is raining here like crazy so while I am soaking wet in the street talking to people who sometimes curse at me, I hope you all are enjoying your summer break and living it up!!!
Elder Garry

Week 48 Ticks and what nots

This week was good but a bit crazy!  But it was full of success so that is always a win!

So as you all know, I went to the water falls last week.  We were literally in the jungle climbing a mountain to find monkeys and see some cool waterfalls.  We were climbing trees and falling over in mud and everything.  So just keep that in find as I go along with this next story.  So this whole week was just tough.  I had parasites, and the medicine was just wrecking my stomach.  I was like sickly the whole week for that but now I finished the pills and I should be clean.  And then I noticed that every once and a while, I would get these weird like vibrations in my heart.  It was weird and I was just ignoring it.  Then on Wednesday I was like okay this is getting a bit ridiculous so i called the nurse and she was like oh don't worry your just stressed and I was like nope I am perfectly fine. and she was like no you are just stressed and I told her again, no I am fine.  And she just insisted on it and I was like NO I AM HAPPY!  and she was like okay well tomorrow (Thursday) Pres. Bowler and Sister Bowler will be at your district meeting so just talk to them when you are there.  I was talking to them all day and Sister Bowler was like I just don't understand what you have.  She checked my pulse and everything and no problems.  So she set an appt in Teguc for today.  So I was just like in the mind set of im going to die.  Also, side note, I didn't have any water this whole week.  I have gotten to bathe twice this week.  So on Friday, I finally rolled into the shower.  It was raining so I scraped enough water from the pila and the rain water to go ahead and bathe myself.  While showering, I found a tick on my thigh!!  And I realized that it had been there since Monday!  So I pulled that off real quick called the nurse and she was like "OH I think that is why you felt so sick!"  And since Friday I haven't had any heart problems nor felt sick!!  So, I am not dead, nor am I dying now!

Lets talk about the work this week!  So we had planned on having like 6 baptisms for this Saturday and they all might have just fallen.  No one went to the church yesterday and all of the niños that we were going to baptize want to do it in July for some reason.  I wont fight with them about it haha  but we found 9 new investigators for this week!  And they are all so positive.  Like excellent!  We were able to teach them all and they loved the lessons!  And the best part of it all is that yesterday when I was giving the weekly numbers, the leaders got angry because we didn't meet the goal of contacting. And so I taught them a little lesson on the phone. I was like why do we contact? To find people to baptize.  And I was like and what is the goal for finding people every week? And they said 8.  And I was like then why are you mad at me for using my time more efficiently than you?  I just think that this mission is like a little backwards.  All they want are numbers and they don't focus in the people that we are actually teaching and helping.  But it was a great week for us really.  I really feel great about the lessons that we had and all of the new people that we found.  We were even able to go and visit a lot of the investigators with members and they now all have friends.  We even found our investigators in the street days after and they would call us over and ask to talk to us!!  They weren't even scared to do it in front of their friends!  It was just so great!  I love my investigators.  They all are starting to give us food and everything!

AND the fun story of the week!!
So last night I was talking to my comp and I was like we need like 2 more contacts in the street to meet the goal for the day and it was like 9 so i just said lets do it real quick and then go to the house. So we contact one person and then move on.  They didn't want anything.  And then we see this chick who looked like a hooker.  and I was laughing and joking to my companion like hey lets go contact her with the law of chastity and he was like NOOOO!!  But they she came up to us!! And was like "heeeyyyy do you cute boys know where the town San Miguel is??" And I was like no.  And she was like okay that's fine and left.  then suddenly this pick up truck comes zooming at us in reverse.  and then this dude just starts screaming at us in English like "heeyy what the, you got a problem bro? what the" and i thought I knew him so I started screaming back like "nahhhh bro!! you got a problem though" and then I see that I don't know him and I was like oh shoot!!  And he is like "that's my girlfriend!! go get your own" and then more curse words.  And I just start laughing and I was like nahh dude she came to talk to us!! And then he just zoomed off.  I was laughing so hard from it all and my companion was like shaking in his boots!!  I love Honduras.

So I mean, over all this week was great!!  We found a ton of great people, and taught a TON of lessons.  I mean it was just so great.  I feel so content with this week!!  I taught some lessons, found some great people, almost got into a fight.  I mean what else do you ask for!

I love you all!
Elder Garry

The littlest one is Natalie.  I will probably come back to marry her when she is not 5 years old.  I just love her so much!  And then the other niña is Gabby!  She is hilarious!!!  She always has the best stories.  And then the lady is Mirium and I called her over to take a picture cuz I wanna baptize her but she doesn't want to go to church so I am trying to become friends with her so she wants to go!