I`m finally in Honduras!

I`m finally in Honduras? 
You must be confused... well I guess i`ll start explaining myself. Last week I didnt write to the blog as you can tell, I wasn`t feeling good at all. But now I regret it because I have to catch up a bunch lol. Well I am having a greatttt time with elder Espinoza! He is such a great guy! We`ve been working a bunch with the members lately because of the Stake Plan. And its been a success! We`ve gained the trust of the members! Well its sad that most of our most positive investigators are gone, and not coming back until September because of vacations now. I remember last week emailing my mom saying `I dont want to be in this area anymore if all of our investigators and half of the population here are going to be gone until septmeber...` Well anywayyy... This week we had Zone Conference and we went to the Temple! They were both super awesome! Especially the Temple trip! :) The Honduras temple is so beautiful inside! 

Lets take an intermediate pause... do you guys remember how I came here to this area in the first place? Emergency Changes. One night I got a random phone call saying I need to pack my things, I need to be at the office in the morning, I am going to the Villa Olimpica because the elders there are having problems with each other.  Ok lets resume...

Last monday, P-day, rolls around. And the P-day activity got cancelled, so we had time to go to Central and shop for things. I do not know why, but I randomly felt like I needed to buy shoes. I even kept telling the Prados elders, I need sturdy South shoes, that can withstand mountains and heat. They teased me about it, also because changes isnt until another 3 weeks at that time, why did i need shoes then? But I still bought them, Not knowing why. Well I also wanted to print some pictures out, pictures from emails. But I also felt like I should print out pictures of me to give out for when I leave some day. My companion said Why are you already printing those out? You may even stay another change! I said Yeah, your right. I dont know, I might as well now that I am here. I didnt even feel like I should buy groceries for the week. Well the last couple nights we`ve been having some of the greatest times with the members, mostly with Family Home Evenings. We even started doing NDHs with some of the YSA to get them animated with the obra misional, so they invite their friends to activities and its been working! Well, anyway, we were supper happy! I fell asleep Monday night, woke up, and immediately receieved a phone call from `AP Rosario` (Remember Elder Rosario? Look back at the march time blog posts around there. lol) Anyway, he says, pack your things! You are going to THE SOUTH! Emergency changes again! My new companion will be Elder Saucedo! How did I feel? Superrrr Excittteddd!! Finally! Everybody always talks about the south area. How hot it is, how the people are, the food, the crazy adventures, the pueblos, and now I get to experience that! What sucks was that it is my second emergency changes! I havent gone to a new area normally yet lol I guess I am President`s first responder when things suddenly happen lol. Thats fine! :) Saying goodbye was soooo sad! Sadder than my first area honestly. Ive grow so close to the people in this area! I took a lott of pictures!! And then, well time to get on the South bus! the South bus is a whole nother story!! I got on and it was steaming hot already...and it was fresco outside lol so that didnt make sense! The trip is about 3 hours. Enough time for a good nap right? wrong! The whole bus ride everybody is praying! (well mostly me and my comp) I thought we were going to crash soo many times! Its a two lane road, and the bus driver thinks he fits anywherrre and he thinks its a good idea to pass cars one blind curves! haha it was sketchy but still a lot of fun! So we made it! Once you get off the bus, you can feel the heat smack you in the face! The first days heat was pretty bad, I wasnt used to heat anymore! But now I am, now its not even that bad! It honestly reminds me soo much of Arizona heat, except its more humid here, which I hate! But anyway, my new area is in Las Unidas. Its like 10km before the Choluteca bridge. The ward is about 6km away, so the ward used to be divided in two different missionary areas. But now they are divided. Now there is a ward and small group. Guess where I am? THats right! The grupo!! I was soo happy! I went from having two of the most powerful wards in the mission (Miraflores and Villa, with about 180+ asistencia) to this new group, last sunday we had 22 people at church! We as missionaries have to do everything pretty much!! I love it!! My new companion is Elder Saucedo. He is from Columbia! He is supperr awesome! Its funny because Las Unidas is also called Mini-Columbia, because it is really dangerous and they make and sell a lot of drugs here, thats what it is known for. The area is like a small pueblo, really poor. With nothing. No stores, no traffic, just a small school, a couple billares every couple blocks. little tiny stores around...and well, thats about it

Complete change to where ive been my whole mission! I love it here! I am not a city boy! My roots are from a small town! haha I truly feel like I am in Honduras now!! Well next week I will talk more about the area, and how the people area, and the kinds of things we eat, stuff like that.

I love it here :)

My CCM group at Zone Conference!

The last time I`ll be on this street. In the back, to my right is our apartments, and to the left is the Stake President`s family. I`ll miss them a bunch!!

I took a lot of goodbye pictures with members, but this one is my favorite! This is the dog that would always attend us at the pulperia! haha I`ll miss you Rogelio!



My last Family Home Evening was with Jimmy, our ward mission leader. Great ending to a great 4 and half months here!

Service Project!

Well its been a great week! 
The Univserity is still taken so that really sucks for us, I attached some pictures of how the Univserity looks while its taken lol. But yeah, not much new this week. Probably just the service project that we had! So, like I said last week we`ve been working in the 28 de Marzo lately and we love it!
We have some recent converts that live in the downtown area of the colony, they own a pulperia there (a little tiendita) and well there is road that goes intersects the main road there, and it was always a dirt road, but lately theyve been working on paving it. And they finally did it! Well, we figured that one of the best ways that we can help earn the trust of the members is letting them see that we are literally wanting to work. And so we just `happened` to show up when the mom (owner of the pulp, and kind of the jefe of the area) needed help. We know it was no coincidence. She told us later that her sons were not willing to help, as well as some of the people from the colony. And so we were walking and we see her shoveling! And I run up and take the shovel from her and start shoveling! She was really happy and relieved haha. 
So we had to shovel a huge pile of dirt and move huge bricks that were going to lay the foundation of the road pretty much. Honestly, I was having a greatttt time! Using that energy and certain muscles again brought me alot of happiness! haha
 I remembered the days working at my aunts fencing company, I knew all of that digging will come in handy one day! 
Well like I said, that area is really high trafficated. From the picture you cant see the main road, but its on the other side of the dirt pile to the right. And as we were shoveling and working, a lot of people were walking and driving by making funny (sometimes rude) comments about us haha which is truly nothing new! But we also received a lot of compliments. Mostly just people walking by and saying Elderesss! and they give us a smile and a thumbs up. 
The family of the pulp were really happy for the help! Well everyone ended up happy. We stopped by the next day and they were pretty much done, as you can see from the picture. But that is probably the most exciting thing of the week.
 Today for Pday we played soccer at the canchas with the Teguz zone, lots of fun as well!

The University

 The riots from the university

Happy 4th of July!!

Well its 4th of July today! 
Everybody is celebrating!!! just kidding...Only the gringo missionaries lol. We celebrated as a zone, we went to the Stake Presidents house (my neighbor) and has a great time there! Then we went to Chili´s! We had pretty good burgers! :) Anyway, not much to report on this week! Its been kind of hard because their is literally no one left here, all of the students left because of all of the riots from the university. But thats alright, we are still looking and trying to do the best we can.
 So we started working with the colonies where there isnt so many students, like the 28 de Marzo. Its like the ghetto part of our area, but honestly, its one of my favorites! Yeah, its really dangerous, so its best to not be there at night. But the people are super awesome! Really humble and actually receive us. We heard there are alot of inactives so we´ve been working hard there looking for them, and i guess people are noticing we are showing our face there more often. For example, the other day we were walking through there and a joven talks to us. So first, there isnt many youth in this ward, but there is always that alpha wolf youth right? Well this guy is 18 and he is super ´cool´. And so mostly all of the guys look up to him, but maybe he isnt the best example. But anyway, All of this time I was with Agren he never talked to us, but this day he did, and he kind of opened up to us and asked when we are going to visit him and his family, so we made a cita because I could see it in his eye that he wanted help. So we visited yesterday and one of his friends were there, who is also a member, and we talked to him and stuff and then the mission got brought up. Whether he is going to serve a mission or not. When you meet him you´ll probably think that he is ´too cool´for the mission, but honestly he does have desires to go, but its kind of hard for him. So we committed to help him, and then he left the room for a little bit and he came back with his empty mission papers, and he said ´Hoy voy a empesar a llenarlos.´ We were´nt really expecting that, but it was awesome, also because right after that his friend made little jokes like Yeah Whatever, your not gonna go, stuff like that,but he didnt care. We motivated him to work towards that goal and Im sure he will go! We really had to let him know how much the Mission blesses us, and does not bring us down. For example, most people (Like I did at one point) thought well, I currently have a job, friends, education, money, life is good, if i go on a mission i will lose all of that. But we made it clear that it is not like that! I look back at the Julian from before and sometimes I even cringe. I cant believe that was me! I feel like the mission so far has helped me x10 more than anything else! The mission does not bring us down at all! And so he knew we were telling the truth. He even came out worked with us the rest of the day, his friend was really surprised. But he was kind of like, well if hes doing it, then I guess I should probably start working on the mission papers too. So we are dedicated to help them, because if we help them be motivated in the obra misional, it will help us find new investigators and inactives, as well as helping them. Its a win win! haha I love the mission so much! I wish EVERYONE will just go! Its the best decision Ive ever made!

I love this picture.

My new companion, Elder Espinoza