No Branch President!

Well, to start.. you need to realize how difficult this branch is! haha I love it, but its not easy. 
The members are not pilas at all. There is only about two families that really go to church. The branch president´s family(Mamá) and the District President´s family. We try the best we can every week to help the members get to church, or at least have a real testimony, but its not easy. But our Branch President always did a great job of maintaining order and control in the branch. But guess what? He left! He has to go do a church course in San Pedro Sula, so he just kind of said: Peace Out! And we´re just here like... what?! your going to leave us! So we are in charge of this branch now. We have to direct the services, and well, do everything. Like... everything! But its cool! Its a new adventure!

We had 3 investigators at church! (That doesnt sound like much, I know...in reality its not, but in this area, its alot!) We had one investigator that we are helping get married and helping him with his addictions. We also brought a family!!! Mom and dad, and the kids! SUPER POSITIVE! You know they are positive when they invite you over for homemade baleadas as well! ;) Our investigators are doing great!We´ve been working super hard and its all paing off! Elder Harris and I get along soo well! He is definately one of my best companions! We are always having such a  great time! But guess what...Changes!

I cant believe its been 6 weeks together already! And well, we had interviews with our mission president this week and wow, he is honestly really happy for the work that we have done here in this area and in the zone! President needs my companion to help another zone in Choluteca and is leaving me in charge of Valle Verde! This is barely my first change here!! haha but thats alright! My new companion will be Elder Poquioma from Perú! We have... different personalities. We´ll see how it will work out! I am going to do my best to make the best out of it! I hope he is ready to take on alott of responsibility especially now that there is no branch president! haha We have to make sure our investigators keep progressing as well as keep visiting the member so that they actually keep going to church!! 

This is our little gym that we have in our house! We have THE mission´s American flag, the gringo leader companionship are always in charge for his flag. I´ve had it when I was with Elder Carter as well, but now I have to give to another companionship. Elder Harris and I always used the TRX straps, theyre super awesome and always give us a really good workout!

There really isnt much to do here in Valle Verde, so for Pdays, Elder Harris and I go to the restaurant in front of our house and order some baleadas, and have the best chess games ever! We usually get a crowd of people around and watch! haha (Thank you to the Stoutner family for the chess set! :)

Monkeys!!

Who owns Monkeys?!!! 
So,  we went into this one house and guess what?... It turns out that they have monkeys! What?! 
They were super awesome!

Well this has been a great week! Alot better than last week! Last week was a little hard on us because we worked incredibly hard but not find anyone too positive. But since last monday night nos pusimos las pilas and looked for people! And we have found some INCREDIBLE investigators! Thats about all thats new this week, so Ill talk a little about them.

So first of all, Angela. Like I said, we didnt have much success last week so we said, well, lets try something new. And so we decided to look in the Area Book. Its a book that every area has that is updated by missionaries. Thats where we register all of our investigators that we find, teach, or drop. Well we looked but there wasnt anyone too positive still. But we went way back to older registros and we found a few people and then we went out to look for them. We found most of them but most of them didnt really want anything anymore. But then... there was this certain investigator that took sooo long for us to find! We started in the morning. It took us down a road that we dont usually take to get to this certain area. But as we were going we were asking the people if they know her, and of course, they all gave us different addresses, so it was a little complicated. But we also took so much time finding her because as we asked the people for her, we would also contact them. And guess what, they were almost ALL really positive! It got to the point where we just wanted to find Angela for once and not get caugtht up teaching other people! hahaha just kidding! I know that these amazing people were put in our way for a reason. So that was awesome! So then, we finally show up to her front door. Her door is open and she is there sitting down. Of course she easily lets us in. She is an older lady and is really nice! Well we got to know her more and she tells us that the missionaries used to visit her alot, and she was to the point of being baptized! But then all of a sudden she had to live in Teguz for a while so they lost contact. Well guess what! We´re here now! She says that she truly believes in everything that we teach, and she accepted a baptismal date. But, the problem is that she goes to Teguz like every 15 days. But then we asked where is she living in Teguz, and shes ´por el San Miguel´! Well guess what? Thats the area of the APs fo the mission! And theyre super dope! So I talked to them and they are going to visit her and take her to church while she is in Teguz and while she is here we are going to teach her and teake her to church as well! Ahhhh! I love the mission!

We found this other investigator who we contacted and she was not positive at all. Like, at all. She was very catholic and was giving us those teasing remarks about our church. We knocked on her door and we said that we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and she said nooo, you guys cannot come in because your god is este Juan Smix! (We clarified that he is not our god, and his name is Joseph Smith!haha) But she saw that we didnt want to do any harma and she let us in. She wanted to know more about this Smix person and ´our bible´, we taught her about him and the Book of Mormon, and she changed COMPLETELY! We finished the lesson with her really wanting to read it and know the veracity of it! 

We found this other investigator that we felt that she really needed Christ and this gospel in her life. She has about 9 kids and is with an abusive husband! So we tried to help her understand who she is and that she has a purpose in her life and Wow! She changed completely as well. She really opened up to and she was really positive. We are really excited to see how these investigators progress this week! 

We´ve seen a lot of miracles this week! 

The dogs in Honduras think its cute to sleep in the middle of the road so they can almost get run over...

We got to hang out with Elder Garry and my sipote Elder Guerra today! We rode around in MotorTaxis, which are even scarier than regular taxis...

Big changes in the mission!

This is our Branch President, Liniker. he is 24. He is so awesome! He is Mama´s son also, so we always see each other. He helps us out so much!

Well do you guys remember when I talked about that transmission hat we had from Salt Lake City? Well the whole mission, (and the world) got a bunch of new changes. Such as the Key Indicators, we dont have like 10 anymore, just 4 now! So thats different, but also the missionary schedule changed! We used to get up at 6:30 and do our exercises, now we wake up at 6! We used to leave to go out and work at 10:30, now we leave the house at 9! heres the best part... we used to go back home at 9...now we get back at 8:30! Woohoo! hahaha 

Well there isnt that much new this week, this week has actually been kind of hard on us. We´ve lost a bunch of investigators, but we´ve also found a bunch of new ones! They just kind of come and go here, but we really hold on to the positivie ones. I found out this week that while our President of the mission has been doing interviews with the other zones he´s been mentioning how much the Valle Verde zone has been changing for the better because of the excellent missionaries that are there! That made us feel awesome of course! And it just gave us more motivation to work, because, well im not going to lie it is really hard here. This is probably my hardest area. The people are really different. Not trying to be mean or anything, but it seems like the people here just cant learn. lol. The thing is that they think they know about God, but we ask them who they think God is and they have no response! But because they used to go to a church 20 years ago their hearts are closed and they dont want anything to do with any other religion. We are in a small branch, with only about 20 people that go to church. But its pretty much just 3 families haha! But, we are NOT going to give up! Sometimes, when challenges like these happen, I get really excited... because when I leave this area I know I will be able to say that I did my best to help this area and the branch, and see the results. This is just the beginning!

he cool thing about La Villa is that they have public pilas and water for everyone. The water comes about every 3 days and its never enough, so this little park is always filled with people washing their clothes and dishes, or bathing... lol

                                            Here in the Villa there are ALOT of cowboys riding horses and donkeys!

 Oh! And I totally forget to tell you guys about what happen when I went to the temple! (I just recieved the pictures thats why) But while we were at the temple last change I got to see Jim Fields!! He was working at the front desk and he was super happy to see me! (My family went to go visit them in Utah!) I obviously dont have a picture with him because he was working in the temple.  

When we  were about to leave, I heard someone yell Elder Madero!! And i look towards the parking lot and I see Hermano Suazo!! He was my ward mission leader in Miraflores!! He was soo awesome!! He cared soo much for us! And thats Hermana Vargas, she served in Miraflores as well, and thats some of the Danlí squad!

                                  The cool thing about La Villa is that they sell really good donuts for only 10 lempiras!! :D

We got to see some of the Danlí family at Zone Conference! :´) 

Since we make our own dinners every day, its kind of nice to be able to choose what i eat haha. And most of the time it is something like this. A typical plate back in the AZ house, un burrito de carne molida! :D