New Assignement!

The Madero Generation!

                                                                                -Elder Madero (AP)

                                                                                -Elder Guerra (ZL)

                                                                                -Elder Alvarado (DL)

                                                                                -Elder Rowe

My new assignment, im not gonna lie, is pretty awesome. We work alot with our mission president! I now have alot more responsibility than what I usually do. This coming week we are going to have two zone conferences in which we have to teach the whole mission! I always admired the AP´s classes throughout my mission and I am really excited to give back to the mission now! You know what the best part of this assignment is? My new companion is literally one of my bestest friends of my mission. Ever since I started my mission I became friends with Elder Akubeze from England. And now, we are companions! We are literally always having the greatest time ever! The area that I am in now is called La 30 de Julio, it is literally directly behind the Villa Olimpica! So this area is pretty awesome too! Im back in a strong ward! (Its about time!haha) The ward members are pretty sweet! Our area is pretty dangerous (so they say) nothing too bad yet from what Ive seen. It is a really big change though, compared to my last area. I´ll share an experience from my second day in this area. We were out contacting and my companion was showing me around, we go to a house and guess what? When we went inside and I introduced myself and everything, and they were really nice. And she said that she could not attend us because she was cooking, and then she invited us to eat! She was making fried fish! I love fried fish!! So she said to come back in an hour and she will make us lunch. When we left I asked my companion, who she a member? He says Nope! I ask, Is she an investigator? Nope! Shes the wife of the investigator, someone that we only taught once! What?!?! That did not happen once in La Villa de SF! haha so I was honestly really surprised to get a free lunch from people who are not even members! Thats when I knew, I am in a good area! :) Its so wierd because alot of the members here and actually willing to help us! They come out and visit people with us!! what?! haha Well I dont want to write too much so that I will have something to write for next week, but I want to share two cool experiences. 

1. The first happened a few days ago when we were on our way to an appointment and then as we were walking I see an older lady, and then I think....wait, I know her. But I do not know who or where she is from......... It drove me insane! But then, it hit me!! She is Angela!!! The invesitgator from LA Villa de SF that we found in the Carpeta de Area! I totally forgot that the previous APs were teaching her and that now I am here! I completely forgot! So I ran over and talked to her and she says that she is now not only visiting here, but now she living here!!! What!?! Awesome!!

2. This experience was honestly one of those mission impacting stories, it was incredible. So last week we were contacting, and right by the area of the Villa Olimpica, but on our side, we find some inactive members. So we got inside their house. Which was a one room house with a whole family living there. They are 5 total. They were really nice. They were all baptized except for the dad and the daughter. We asked why they stopped going to church and they said that they just felt disanimated and stopped. They started going to another church. The dad even told me that he is now a pastor! Honestly, we were happy, at least they still had Christ in their hearts right? We talked to the members of the family how long ago since they were baptized and then we go through that whole story and then we ask why the dad didnt get baptized. The dad tells us that he was recieving the missionaries for a long time and went to church alot! He really liked it. But he wasnt fully convinced. So the day of the baptism came, and he didnt feel ready and he decided that well, he had to lie so they he doesnt get baptized that day. He looked up online excused on why not to get baptized and then he decided to say that he killed someone recently and that he wasnt worthy!! What!? Woh goes to that extreme?! So of course, it wasnt true. Well anyway, this family wasnt positive at all. The members had zero desire to come back to church, and the daughter and the dad had no interest because they already go to another church and everything. But the dad did say, he guys can come back whenever you want, you are always welcome. We put an appointment a few days back and that day it was raining like crazy and too late, we couldnt make it. So last night we were in that area, and we decided to see how they are doing. This time, only the dad and the daughter were there. We werent that excited to visit them honestly. But we felt that we should visit them. We go into this one room house and we start the lesson. We try to gain his confidence and in time he starts to trust us a little more. I dont want to go over exactly what we said but we mostly focused on the scriptures Matthew 4:18-22. We focused on Following Christ in general. We focuse on just testifying that JesusChrist lives and loves us, and we let the Spirit do the rest. and Wow! He immediately started crying. A grown man starts crying right in front of us and tell us everything. He tells how much of a hard time that he is going through right now and that he has been praying to God to know the truth. Yes, he is going to a church right now, but he doesnt feel right. He feels like something is missing. He tells that he feels better singing the hymns that we sang with him in the beginning of that lesson (All Is Well) compared to how he feels in his church. He continued talking about that he really thinks that we have been sent to his house in this very time in his life. For the second time. He recognized that the first time that the missionaries visited him was an opportunity to learn the truth, but he rejected it. And he feels bad and he told us that he truly wants to learn the truth. He wants to learn the correct way to serve God. And then he bring out his Bible and says, please help me understand this chapter in 1 Corintios Chapter 7 about marraige. What he couldnt understand is why in the churches that he has been to they do not emphazise Families. We helped him understand that he is correct. Every religion should tesifity of Christ, and help families be together forever. We gave him the Plan of Salvation booklet and he noticed that on the cover was JesusChrist, and on the first two pages was pictures of happy families. Once again, he gets into tears. He tells that recently, weeks before our first visit. While working in San Pedro Sula, he has been having the desire to be part of the true church. And he told us straight up, Ive been thinking, and ive came to the conclusion that I know that the church of Latter Day Saints is the true church. 

It was truly a miracle. 

Big News!

Well, this is probably going to be the best blog post ever written in the history of history. I do not know where to start.

 But I´ll try my best!

1. First of all, we´ve seen some success in La Villa de San Fransisco! We´ve been working super hard to try to get some of the inactives to come back, which of course has not been easy. But we finally saw some fruits! Ill share my favorite one that just happened last night. Well we´ve been visiting this inactive named Sonalí, shes pretty cool. She is like in her 50s. She has been to the temple and everything. Been she went inactive because she listened to the District President´s son, who has his own church here and told her a bunch of lies. So throughtout thetime we´ve been visiting her we taught her everything we know, testistfy with all of our heart that this is the true church. After a while, she felt it. We know this because when we visited her yesterday we watch the Restoration movie with her and at the end, she had tears in her eyes. And she said, Well I feel like I should do something. The other day I was thinking to go talk with my pastor and tell him that I am going to return to my church. And I told her,´but you do not what he is going to tell you right?´ and she said, ´Yes I know, he will give me alot of reasons on why to stay there. but I cant waste anymore time. I cannot just leave either, I want to leave but the same that the members of the church always cared for me even when I assisted this church, I want to follow the same example and leave thiss church but with a good relationship with them.´ We were shocked! I really felt that her idea was revelation to her especifically because we never thought of that. We know that she is definately going to be an amazing member and leader in the church, along with her family!
2. As we´ve been working with the less active and inactive members we helped this other family come back to church! A family of 5! All because this teenager wanted to get baptized! Sharon found us and she told us, we visited her and her family and then about a month later, splash! They´re adesome! So we had a really spiritual baptismal service this past saturday. Last year there was only one baptism, and I am happy that we started this year off right with our first baptism! The branch was realluy happy and supported us.
3. I had to go to Migration again and renew my citizenship thing to be here in Honduras. I told the front office chick that I wanted to stay here in Honduras so I think that really sped things up with the paperwork! haha We went to go eat at Johnny Rockets (#tradition)! It was super good! Everytime I go it gets me baggy and I miss the state´s burgers! Sooon.....
4. So there are changes! I am leaving La Villa de San Fransisco. I am not going to lie I am little sad and a little happy. I am a pueblo type of guy and I am going to miss this place. But another part of me says, no your not! haha This zone is awesome though! We really did bond alot and have good chemistry within us. We were on the informativo of the month with the zone that most baptized in the month. Being one of the smallest and difficult zone in the all Honduras...jk, just this mission! haha so we were all super happy! I am going to go an area in Tegucigalpa! I am going to be in an area called La 30 de Julio. It is literally directly behind La Villa Olimpica!!! Woohoo! 
5. Elder Guerra, my kid, just finished training his kid. and he now has 6 months. And guess what? He is going to be Zone Leader in the best zone in the south!!! He is one of the youngest ZLs ever!
6. Elder Alvarado, my grandkid, just finished his training in El Paraíso, and now he is going to be District Leader and training! at only 3 months! I´m going to have a great-grandkid! What?!
7. Elder Madero, is going to be the new President´s Assistant.
8. Check out this coco! Its coco time and it is super delicious! 

 This is my Mamá and the family. (Except for the branch President Liniker, hes in Cortez right now)

Sorry the pictures are late. I cant upload the pictures through the chapel´s internet...too slow

This is when we went to Johnny Rockets! 

This is the Valle Verde zone. 

We really got into solving the Rubik´s cube, thats all that we do when we are together!haha seeing who can do it faster.

ts sad saying goodbye to these awesome guys!

wasn't General Conference amazing!? The talks were incredible!

      Man, wasnt General Conference amazing!? The talks were incredible! 

This has been an incredible weekend!
 Why? Because it was General Conference! But we are in the District of Valle Verde.......The power frequently goes out, or there is no signal in the District Center. So our Mission President called us in the middle of last week and said, Well, round up your zone, and come up to Tegucigalpa and stay the night here so you guys can watch General Conference without any trouble. So of course, we were all really excited! And it all worked out perfectly! Saturday morning we went up to Teguz and we were assigned to go to the Esperanza building. There we had a little room for the gringos haha so we can watch Conference in english. But then guess what? People from the Church were there and were recording us for some MTC videos for other missionaries. So that was pretty fun! Were´nt the Conference talks just incredible?! I loved them soo much! It was so much fun! We went and ate at Pizza Hut after and it was funny because there are alot of missionaries in our zone that have never been to Teguz and they were really surprised that they make real american food here! haha  And then we stayed with the office elders in the mission house. The plan was to go back home after the first sesson on Sunday, so that we can make it back home in time, its like a 2 hour drive, but after the first sesson we realized that the buses will not go back to the villa until 5. So we said, well, we can go to to the church right by the bus terminal and watch the last session and then leave. So we went to the Kennedy building watch it there. Then we went home and everything was awesome!

But, this weekend was really meaningful to me more than just because of conference! If you guys remember, I used to be here in Tegucigalpa. It was my first area and my second area. In Miraflores and La Villa Olimpica. And in BOTH areas I got emergency changes out of there. So I never got to say goodbye to some important members. And guess what? Everything always works out!!!!! Guess why? Because more than a year after those changes, I finally got to see them again! When we went to the Esperanza building, It just so happened to be that the in the Villa Olimpica they lost their power, so they came to this building to watch it! So I got to see all of the Villa´s families! And you know what, it feels so amazing when members that you havent seen in a year barely glance at you and then they instantly remember you and have a smile on their face! It was awesome!! While I was in the Villa, one of my favorite families was the Stake presidents family. But when I got changes they went to Costa Rica so I never got to say goodbye! So it was so nice to be able to say goodbye and to the other members there as well! (They are going to go El Salvador soon because he got called to be a mission president there! But wait theres more!! When we were at the bus terminal we decided to go to that church building right next to there, of course all of La Kennedy´s members were there, but you know what?! It just soo happened to be that some Miraflores members were there too!!!! WHAT?!!? Especially one person in particular! Jose Luis Molina. This guy was my ward mission leader there along with Freddy Suazo (Who I ran into on the last temple trip) Jose Luis is a returned missionary from Belice English Speaking. This guy has always been my hero! Like for real he is literally my brother!! He always took care of us and helped us so much! And I never got to say goodbye because of emergency changes. But of course, everything always works out, and we were reunited.

 I didnt even recognize some of the members but they recognized me!!

 Man, what a weekend! :)

Check this out, one day we were walking down a street in La Villa and, like always, we see a bunch of houses that sell Ropa Americana, but this particular house really caught my attention... do you see why?
 #PhoenixSuns

Enduring Afflictions in La Villa!

Well this has been a great week!
 Well kind of, its been really interesting... we have been having some problems with the people here. We realized one of the reasons why this area is hard. First you need to know that lately we´ve been finding some incredible investigators! Like, super amazing!! People who were really determined to change their lives and possible baptisms. But you know what? Since there are alottt of inactive members here in this pueblo, alot of them have gone to other churches or formed their own church, mostly evangelical churches. And when they realize that we are teaching these people, they go and talk bad about our church. They are inactive obviously because they dont have a firm testimony of the church, and they have doubts. So the things that they are teaching them are completely false! This is my first and only area where this has been a problem! We hate it! Do you know how hard it is to find and baptize people as it is? Now imagine doing all of that, and having one of the pastors go around to your investigators and teach them a bunch of lies! Uugghh!! But, we´ve talked with some of our investigators and we clarified all of them, although with some, it was too late. But it was really interesting, this week I was reading in 2 Timothy 4. And in verses 14-15,

1.  Paul is talking about a certain Alexander which made his mission dificult because Alexander the coppersmith was did him ´much evil´. So I felt like we compared to him in some way. If we keep reading in verses 17 it says ´Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.´

  In this epistle in talks about how Paul withstood all aflictions and hard times, and he invites Timothy to do it as well. We´ve really been trying to put this into practice. We´ve learned that we cannot control everything, people have their agency. 
We just have to do our part and the Lord will bless us. And we saw the blessings as we kept working hard and having a postive attitude. This certain morning we were walking around contacting... and at this moment there we were knocking on this door, and the person inside saw us and said ´No hay nadie!´ and hid. Great. But as we were at this door there was this guy to the left of us, like half a block away, and he is just kind of leaning on his house wall watching us. And he yells and says if he can ask us something, and he calls us over. Of course we go and he asks ´We dont people believe in Christ?´ This was definatly an inspried question. It was interesting, and this guy was interesting. (Why? Well mostly because I heard CCR playing in the background in his house!) So we talked to him and tried to respond his question as carefully as possible. This guy is Alberto. Who is about 32 years old, he has some addictions and doesnt really beleive in God, well he said that he really felt like he needed to talk to us that day and they he wants to change. Well, so far, hes been progressing and is really making an effort to change! This guy is incredible! We lost about 3 investigators because of this pastor (ex-member) was talking bad about us and then as we kept working hard we found some incredble people like Alberto!
 This area is rough. The mission is rough. But I love it! I am learning so much! My companion and I are doing great, we are really different but I am doing the best that I can to make the best out of it and its working out! haha 

like these little stickers that they put on the doors, we just kind of laugh and say, ´We´ll see about that´. You´d be surprised how many houses with these stickers actually let us 

We had Zone Conference this week. This are the missonaries from my group! You may remember them from the pictures of the CCM.

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