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!