OK! This week was really bad as far as lessons go. Just cause it’s Christmas and either the people are gone, or they have tons of family and don’t want us at the moment. Our main investigator is in Tegucigalpa right now proposing to his girlfriend (whom we haven’t taught yet). But he is straight up gold. He’s progressing extremely slowly by the standards of this mission (we´ve been teaching him for almost a month and a half now...) and his baptismal date is for the 10 of January, but we’ll probably put it off so we can teach the spouse and baptize them both. We have another investigator that was going to be baptized this past Saturday, but hadn’t talked with her husband about it, so we waited. Yesterday we taught the husband and mother and cousin, and they are all pretty interested so we’ll see how that plays out.
OK, houses are way, way smaller than in the states. "Big houses" here are half the size of ours (in Arizona) and I’ve only been in two that have airtight seals on the doors. Our apartment is a one bedroom with a baby sized bathroom attached. It’s a little bit bigger than Megan’s room. But in our mission its against the rules to have more than one companionship living together, so it’s a big deal when we get to have a companionship spend the night (which happens every now and again cause the bus we take for San Pedro is at 4 am and no one wants to walk from the other house in our district down to the terminal).
I can’t wait for the ties and candy.
Love you guys!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
12/23 E-mail
Yeah... about that box.. No, I haven’t gotten it yet. But every one got tons of packages yesterday (we had a multizona hence as to why I’m using email today) so I know it’s safe to send them. It just takes time. Elder Fernandez said his family sent him the package he got over two months ago. But I did get Leah´s small package yesterday, and she sent it on the 10 of December, so it’s doable. Also in that Christmas package could you put tons of Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish? They don’t exist here...
OK. So for this last week we had a baptism of two girls who are 12 and 14. The rest of the family is progressing slower. Way slower, but the girls were the reference and the rest of the family was a reference from the girls (named Merly and Mayra (pronounced my-ra)). We found a bunch of people and I’m pretty confident that they will all be baptized, but at different paces.
This last week during divisions Elder Fernandez and I were just about attacked by a pack of dogs. We were walking to an appointment and all of a sudden we were surrounded by 6 or 7 dogs all nippng at us. So we walked coolly through them and then took off. When we got to the house no one was there so we prepared ourselves (with rocks and a sling...ok no sling, but rocks) and walked back through the dogs. One of them charged and the rest followed suit. I threw my rock (which missed) and the vile dog in front decided the moment the rock hit the ground next to it that it would attack the other dogs... so we ran the heck outta there! hahaha. Yesterday was out Christmas multizona where we had a huge tie trade and all sorts of fun stuff. But it went late so we missed the last bus to Santa Rosa. So we got a p-noche in the secretaries house with our whole zone! (p-night as opposed to p-day for those of you who don’t speak español...) and on the way here this morning our bus got a flat. So the normal 3 hour trim was closer to 5. But its all good!
Love ya!
OK. So for this last week we had a baptism of two girls who are 12 and 14. The rest of the family is progressing slower. Way slower, but the girls were the reference and the rest of the family was a reference from the girls (named Merly and Mayra (pronounced my-ra)). We found a bunch of people and I’m pretty confident that they will all be baptized, but at different paces.
This last week during divisions Elder Fernandez and I were just about attacked by a pack of dogs. We were walking to an appointment and all of a sudden we were surrounded by 6 or 7 dogs all nippng at us. So we walked coolly through them and then took off. When we got to the house no one was there so we prepared ourselves (with rocks and a sling...ok no sling, but rocks) and walked back through the dogs. One of them charged and the rest followed suit. I threw my rock (which missed) and the vile dog in front decided the moment the rock hit the ground next to it that it would attack the other dogs... so we ran the heck outta there! hahaha. Yesterday was out Christmas multizona where we had a huge tie trade and all sorts of fun stuff. But it went late so we missed the last bus to Santa Rosa. So we got a p-noche in the secretaries house with our whole zone! (p-night as opposed to p-day for those of you who don’t speak español...) and on the way here this morning our bus got a flat. So the normal 3 hour trim was closer to 5. But its all good!
Love ya!
12/15 E-mail
OK. Yeah, I have lots to report. First off... the evening that you last received an email from me we got a call that Elder Flores had emergency changes... so I got a new comp. As of the 2 of December I have had a new comp. He’s from Nicaragua and speaks zero English. Well... he taught himself a lot during the course of his mission but he’s a little afraid to actually speak. So I’m on my second comp in my first change... a little strange. But it’s all good.
We worked really hard that first week and now really have the trust of the members. It was a little hard at first because Elder Mejia´s teaching style is a little different from Elder Flores, and he didn’t trust me for the first week or so, so I didn’t teach as much as I would have liked. But we’ve conquered that so it’s all good. Last p-day we went to the Copan ruins, and I have tons of pictures, but I think I’ll end up sending them another time. They were so cool though!
And after that we had an appointment where we put a baptismal date for two girls of 12 and 14 (the rest of the family isn’t so keen on the church right now...) for this Saturday, so that’s the big plan. Because we’ve been working so much with members, we’ve been receiving some serious good references of family members and friends, so this week we’ve got a lot of references to visit. Oh! Also in the emergency changes Elder Fernandez (my comp from the MTC) got moved into my district, so that’s pretty cool. Today for p-day we rented out this really sweet field to play fútbol, so the whole zone came to my area.
Well I was gonna ask for one thing from you guys for Christmas. Remember how I brought like 60 ties on the mish? Yeah, now I have like 20. So a great gift would be to buy a bag of ties form Tiedmann´s family thrift store and spend a family home evening sorting them! And then send them on down here!
This past week we found a family of 8 that is totally ready for the gospel (we had been praying to find a family of 8 that is ready), but they didn’t come to church this last week, so we´re gonna see what happenes...
Everythihg is going great! Hope you guys are enjoying a break (or soon anyway) love you!
We worked really hard that first week and now really have the trust of the members. It was a little hard at first because Elder Mejia´s teaching style is a little different from Elder Flores, and he didn’t trust me for the first week or so, so I didn’t teach as much as I would have liked. But we’ve conquered that so it’s all good. Last p-day we went to the Copan ruins, and I have tons of pictures, but I think I’ll end up sending them another time. They were so cool though!
And after that we had an appointment where we put a baptismal date for two girls of 12 and 14 (the rest of the family isn’t so keen on the church right now...) for this Saturday, so that’s the big plan. Because we’ve been working so much with members, we’ve been receiving some serious good references of family members and friends, so this week we’ve got a lot of references to visit. Oh! Also in the emergency changes Elder Fernandez (my comp from the MTC) got moved into my district, so that’s pretty cool. Today for p-day we rented out this really sweet field to play fútbol, so the whole zone came to my area.
Well I was gonna ask for one thing from you guys for Christmas. Remember how I brought like 60 ties on the mish? Yeah, now I have like 20. So a great gift would be to buy a bag of ties form Tiedmann´s family thrift store and spend a family home evening sorting them! And then send them on down here!
This past week we found a family of 8 that is totally ready for the gospel (we had been praying to find a family of 8 that is ready), but they didn’t come to church this last week, so we´re gonna see what happenes...
Everythihg is going great! Hope you guys are enjoying a break (or soon anyway) love you!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
12/1 E-mail
OK, big email time!
After I was done emailing last week, I had the rest of my p-day in a different area. It was pretty sweet! Elder Tzuban and I pretty much just wandered around and ended up at a really cool member’s house and just chilled there. The members had lived in the states for 9 years so they spoke perfect English and perfect Spanish. So I understood everything. Haha. Then we worked his area for the next two days. We had a reunion de zona and Elder Flores got back Wednesday, but was still entirely sick (and still is). So we’ve been having divisions almost every day so I don’t go crazy just sitting there. So that’s ok.
This week has flown by for sure. Yesterday before church another investigator was baptized. His name is junior and is the greatest guy. As soon as we found him he realized that he wanted to change his life. He had problems with things but dropped them all cold turkey because he knew the church is true. Love the kid. Oh, and he’s only 17.
Yesterday was elections here and as such we weren’t allowed to leave the house after church, which meant we cooked for pretty much the first time. We are pretty sure that Elder Flores is going to have a change to be closer to the capital and the doctor’s office, and we might do a week long division with one of the assistantes del presidente so Elder Flores can recoup and Dolores doesn’t die in his absence and mine. Hope everything’s good at home!
Love, Elder Arntsen
After I was done emailing last week, I had the rest of my p-day in a different area. It was pretty sweet! Elder Tzuban and I pretty much just wandered around and ended up at a really cool member’s house and just chilled there. The members had lived in the states for 9 years so they spoke perfect English and perfect Spanish. So I understood everything. Haha. Then we worked his area for the next two days. We had a reunion de zona and Elder Flores got back Wednesday, but was still entirely sick (and still is). So we’ve been having divisions almost every day so I don’t go crazy just sitting there. So that’s ok.
This week has flown by for sure. Yesterday before church another investigator was baptized. His name is junior and is the greatest guy. As soon as we found him he realized that he wanted to change his life. He had problems with things but dropped them all cold turkey because he knew the church is true. Love the kid. Oh, and he’s only 17.
Yesterday was elections here and as such we weren’t allowed to leave the house after church, which meant we cooked for pretty much the first time. We are pretty sure that Elder Flores is going to have a change to be closer to the capital and the doctor’s office, and we might do a week long division with one of the assistantes del presidente so Elder Flores can recoup and Dolores doesn’t die in his absence and mine. Hope everything’s good at home!
Love, Elder Arntsen
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