Letter from the Editor (Dad)

Since I have had a few people respond with concerns for Steven I feel the need to give everyone a little more detail. We were able to speak with him for a little over an hour on Christmas day and the overall tone of the conversation was very positive and upbeat, in spite of the illness and difficult companion. We could still hear the genuine love of missionary work, Honduras and the people, so those are all very positive things. He laughed and joked on the phone as if he had only been gone a short time and did not appear to be homesick in any way.

Simply put, he really has a strong desire to work hard and do the right things, but is frustrated by not knowing how best to handle the situation since he is still very new to the mission. He knows that things can’t continue as they have been, but at the same time doesn’t want to be branded as a snitch or tattle-tale among his fellow missionaries. He mentioned that someone told him that the local congregational leader was aware of the problems and would be talking to his companion on Sunday, but unfortunately that didn’t happen as hoped for. Maybe it will happen this week and help snap his companion back into shape. You can see from Steven’s letter that this is what he is hoping for.

Those of you who know Steven well will know that he is a very kind and mild-mannered young man. He is non-confrontational and not one to voice his concerns or emotions openly, so this situation is challenging that part of his personality. As a father, I am grateful for the opportunity that this is giving him to stretch and grow, as I am sure that things will eventually improve and that he will learn some important life-lessons from this experience.

Any words of encouragement that you want to send him will be greatly appreciated, I’m sure. His email address is Steven.Neher@myldsmail.net. Since he has a very limited time on the computer each week (less than an hour), please don’t be upset if he cannot respond in depth to each email.

Thanks again for your continued interest in and support of Steven on his mission.

Greg Neher

Week #19 - Feliz Christmas (Bellavista Branch)

Hola amigos and Familia!

Well to update all on what we did this week was basically nothing. Nothing at all, no lessons, no visits with members and I feel terrible about it. I know we are losing the trust and confidence of the members here, which is kind of frustrating because I love them all so much. I really can’t do much because I’m "not in charge of the area" so there’s nothing I can really do. One of the members at the cook´s house told me that the members think we don’t care about them anymore because with most of them we used to pass by at least once a week and now we don’t. Nothing happened at church yesterday like I thought it would and I haven’t said anything to my leaders yet either. I want to wait and see what happens this next week after New Years.

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas back in the states and that its nice and cold over there :P haha! Well tonight my cook is going to kill an iguana to cook, which sounds really good! I picked it up last night thinking it was dead, but it was still alive! It was super cold, and its tail is huge! Of course I took pictures of it, haha it was awesome! Well I don’t really have much to write today, like I said, we have basically done nothing. It seems to me that many of the Latin elders here think they’re on a vacation.

I got sick this week, I’m sure because of my disobedience, along with my comp, who hasn’t been up to par either. I talked to Hna. Soto who is a nurse and she said she could get some medicine for me, but I highly doubt I will get it because we probably won’t go over to her house. I do feel better though, so I’m just gonna wait it out. Hopefully next week will be better, after all the festivities.

I hope everyone back home had a great Christmas and that you have an even better New Years! I promise to write more when more stuff starts happening here!

Elder Neher

Week #18 - La Ceiba Multizona (Bellavista Branch)

Hola familia y amigos!

Well this week has still been kind of interesting. I kind of don´t really know what to talk about because not much of anything happened, and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. We started off the week good by working a bit harder, but then we had to put all the work on pause on Wed. because we had to go to a little town up in the mountains to get a Partida (something so people can get married here) and this town was a 2 hour drive from Olanchito up into the mountains, through fields and fields of bananas. I have never seen so many banana trees in my life! Also, I don’t recommend ever taking a school bus into the mountains… absolutely uncomfortable! It’s like a full body vibrating machine and I could barely walk when I got out! haha Anyway, we stopped in a town called Arenal, got the Partida and took the bus back home, but this time through Coyoles, which was a 45 minute drive, so I wonder why we didn’t take that route in the first place, but whatever. That day we did about no work because we spent so much time getting the Partida.

Thurs was the multizona activity in La Ceiba with the La Ceiba Zone. The city of La Ceiba is absolutely beautiful. I didn’t see much of it, but what I did see I loved. It’s really beautiful and I hope I can go there again sometime soon. The multizona was great! None of us like getting “macheted” by the AP’s, but I love it when President talks, he is so caring and compassionate and he truly is inspired to be here in this mission. It was a good day and I even got my back adjusted by Pres which was amazing. We also had a Christmas dinner there with the other zone, so now I know a couple more people in the mission, but still not many, but that´ll change for sure. 

 Zone Skit

 Colon Zone

 Colon & La Ceiba Zones

 Strike a pose!

On Friday we finally taught some lessons. We taught someone named Isaac, who came to church last Sunday and wanted to be baptized. He had been taught previously but couldn’t get baptized because his parents wouldn’t give him permission. Fortunately now they finally gave him permission and we baptized him yesterday, and I got to do it! That was really cool to do, even if the water was cold! haha We are teaching another guy who has had an interest in listening to us but has many questions and we can never get to the point of our lessons, but its fine because at least we are helping him. Saturday our branch had a Christmas dinner consisting of beans, cheese, tortillas and carne asada, but there wasn’t enough food for everyone which obviously caused some problems, but it was still fun to be there with the ward. The rest of Saturday and yesterday we didn’t do anything because my comp is "baggie" (basically he misses home because its Christmas time). I miss home too, but not to the point where I don’t want to work, and we are still spending a lot of time at my cook’s house, but I hope after Christmas it will get better. Finally, I haven't really gotten many letters from friends recently. I don't know if you let them know my email address or not but it would be nice to get some every once in a while.

Everything is great here. Hopefully we can find more people to teach and get more baptisms. I hope everyone at home is doing great as well! Talk to you on Saturday!!

Feliz Navidad!

Elder Neher

Week #17 - Tempermental Temperatures (Bellavista Branch)

Buenos Dias familia y amigos!

Well this week has been interesting, and by the title I hope you can kind of tell how it's been, hot one day, cold the next, and it keeps flip-flopping like that, but it’s all good here. Well I have no idea if we are doing a Christmas dinner as a mission or not, but I don't think so, cause everyone is so spread out. We do have a multizona meeting on Wednesday in La Ceiba, so that might count, but I have no idea.

Well I thought it was weird they took out Elder Elison too. They sent him to SPS again, opening an area called La Primavera, the richest part of SPS. It used to be the AP's area, but now they don’t have one, so we'll see what happens there. Well it’s been interesting trying to get used to my new comp. He's cool and basically he’s been raised in the church, but from what it sounds like he might have fallen away at one point.  But now he's here and we are going to be working hard this week, I can tell. This week has been kind of  hard because we have been contacting like crazy, putting citas with people, but then we forget where they live so we can’t teach them. Also, we still have been spending a lot of time at our cook's house, but I guess that’s changing too. I expressed how upset I’ve been recently because we’ve been spending time over there instead of going to the citas we had planned for the day, and one of the cooks daughters told him, so we had comp inventory today and he's going to be super "Fletch" (haha, mission term!)

Alright, so there are basically 3 types of missionaries: a Fletch, a Pilas, or a Planch missionary. Fletch basically means that they obey the rules so much that it becomes a nuisance to others, where he sits there and basically tells everyone what they're doing wrong. A Pilas elder is one who follows the rules, but doesn’t sit there and "give the machete" to those who aren’t as perfect as he is, like the Fletch would.  Then there's the Planch, an elder who basically doesn’t obey any of the rules and does whatever he wants. At least this is what I’ve come to understand of these definitions. Well at first I felt my comp was Planch, but now he's going to be Super Fletch, but hey, as long as we get work done, right?

Well I guess we've dropped most of my investigators too because we haven’t been to see them in about a week and a half =/ so looks like we might have to start from scratch, because Ingrid finally got baptized! haha, Well what ended up happening was we visited her and she didn’t want to get baptized one day and the next day do something stupid or something bad, and we tried reassuring her, but it didn’t seem what we were saying was helping, until we had divisions and my DL could come out and interview her. He said that after baptism we get the Holy Ghost who is our constant companion and will tell us what we should and shouldn’t do, and this reassured her to continue with the baptism. When we asked who she wanted to baptize her she said my DL because he fixed her problem, which is fine, because at least she got baptized!

Something cool I got to do this week was shake a monkey’s hand! haha When divisions started I went to the other side of Olantchito so my DL could do an interview with someone over there and we passed a house that had a monkey in a tree. Another elder has a pic of me with it, but its weird because if the monkey belongs to the family it will have a string tied to it and the tree, but this one was just doing whatever. It was pretty funny!

I have no idea how Christmas is going to work, I’ll let you know as soon as I figure something out, and I figured you might ask something about my physical state! Well, I am definitely losing weight! :P and I think I’m getting more muscle in my legs, but I need to work on my arms too, haha! My arms and face are getting tanner while everything else is about as white as snow, and my body is somewhat used to the food and climate, but I think it will still take some time to get used to it. Everything is going great here and I hope all is well with everyone back home!

Hasta luego!

Elder Neher

Week #16 - Turkeys, Changes and Wendy's (Bellavista Branch)

Hola todos!


Well I'm gonna start off first with the questions before I forget them, I try to write letters when I get the chance, but I’m running out of envelopes and need to find out where to buy more. I’m trying to take more pictures, but I don’t want that off chance I get robbed and its gone. My area is pretty safe, but we never go in the dangerous area, ever, everything is still in development there and it’s just not smart, and we try to stay with the light at night so that there isn’t an opportunity for a sneak attack.


Alright, well if you want a little insight on Honduran buses, you can take anything on them, and I mean ANYTHING. There are 2 kinds, school buses for closer towns, and ones that connect through to SPS or Ceiba are coach buses, with the compartments under the bus. Well, Tues. Elder Elison and I went to Tocoa and as we were getting on the coach bus I saw someone putting a live turkey under the bus. Its gotta be the funniest thing I’ve seen since I’ve been here! haha Man I love it down here! It’s all new and different, but I really don’t feel like I’m in another country at all. The members here really try and help and they’re really nice, especially considering the circumstances.


So last Monday after I sent my letter we found out who had changes. We thought only 2 from my district were going, (Elder Denning in Olanchito, and Elder Gracia in Coyoles), but they ended up leaving Elder Denning, white-washing Coyoles, (both E. Garcia and E. Staples), and Elder Elison. I was in complete shock! I didn’t think he was going to leave as early as he did! I still feel a little lost with what I’m doing right now, but I hope all goes well. Well so Tues. we went to Tocoa to drop off those that were leaving and I went on divisions to Aguan (another part of Tocoa) with Elder Osoy and Elder Merriman, waiting for my new comp. Our zone is so far that we don’t go to the change meeting if we don’t have a change.  While I was in Tocoa I finally got to go to Wendy's! haha It’s the only fast-food restaurant in the whole zone, so it was nice to eat there, but like typical Honduras they sell Baleadas, nachos, and fried chicken! haha

Anyways, my new comp is Elder Contreras, he's from Guatemala City, and he's been here for about 15 months already. So far he seems alright, he deep cleaned our house the first day we were back in our area and we spent 3-4 hours at our cook's house doing nothing, but I hope this next week we can start working harder. He says he wants to work hard but have fun at the same time, but he's been changing almost everything, and I feel he doesn’t want to work with members much. Granted a lot live far from our house, but I don’t know, we'll see what happens. Oh btw, I was at Wendy's again today and they were showing the game of River vs Colon! I left a little after half time so I have no idea how it ended, but it was 1-1 when I left.
 
In other news, Ingrid came to church! She's planning to get baptized this weekend if all goes well. I’m so glad she finally came to church, she has been progressing greatly, and I guess I’ll share her story. Elder Elison and Elder Vasquez (right before I came in) had contacted someone who said they lived on this certain street, they went back to go find her, but couldn’t find her and asked a house if she lived there, the owners looked a bit confused and brought out Ingrid, so they contacted her and I was here when we taught her the second lesson, and she has been progressing so much. The only problem was that it’s been hard for her to go to church because she works at this home and she watches one of the kids. She's either visiting family in Saba or she's at home and has to watch all the kids that are there because the rest are out doing something. She was pretty sad when Elder Elison left, and she told me when I visited with my new comp that she's believed everything we have taught her so far. We’ve taught her everything so now we just talk about some of the other things about the church, like temples. She and the others present loved the lesson and Ingrid made it a goal to go to one. She has been great so far, and I’m hoping we can find more investigators because we might have to drop a few, but we’ll see where it goes.
 
Everything’s going good down here. I got the first package, but like I said it takes forever for me to get stuff out here. I’m enjoying the work and enjoying it out here and I hope everything is going well state side!
 
Tenga una semana maciza!
 
Elder Steven Neher

Week #15 - Sweatin' Up a Storm (Bellavista Branch)

Buenos días familia y amigos!

Well to start off I want everyone to realize how... not terrible, but slow the mail is here. I just barely got a letter from Mama dated Sept 26th, Pooda's last letter dated Oct 17 and DearElders from Chase and Kortni Greene. The DearElders get here quick, but my area is so far outside of SPS that we barely ever get mail, because in order to get it our Zone Leaders have to go into SPS and they only get it when they have to go there.  So just so everyone knows, I’m sure when I get put in an area closer to SPS  I’ll get everything quicker and respond quicker.

Well this week has been hot!!! Almost all week the sun's been out and I’ve been sweating like crazy and this isn’t even the hot season yet!  They say April is the worst so I’m thinking I’ll melt away when that comes, haha!!  Well this week’s been really slow as it relates to the work. We only have 2 or 3 progressing investigators and we had to drop some, well I guess they dropped us, but it’s been pretty hard to get new investigators lately. My interview with President was good, he gave me some advice on how to get more investigators and to help reactivate as well. For Thanksgiving we went to a restaurant here in Olanchito and Elder Staples and Elder Garcia had chicken with tajadas (basically french fries made out of guineo verde) and my comp had pork with tajadas and I had shrimp and french fries. It was good to just sit and relax for a bit.

Not your traditional Thanksgiving meal!

One thing that was pretty big this week happened to a family we are teaching. They can’t get baptized yet because they still have to get married and the husband still isn’t divorced from his last wife but they both do want to get baptized. What happened was a week before I got here the husband, Carlos, got in a really bad car accident. The driver died and he got stabbed in the chest with a stick and broke his right femur.  I don’t understand how he can bear it, but he manages to pull through. They showed us the x rays and he broke it in 2 places, so there's a chunk of bone not connected. They put a metal plate and screws in to try and hold it together and told him to walk on it so he could strengthen the muscles, but that made it worse and a tiny chunk came out of the plate, so he had another surgery on wed to tie metal wires around it. (The hospitals here aren't the greatest, I can imagine mom getting angry now haha) Well needless to say he almost died, but now he's doing fine, but this entire process has taught me patience because he has withstood through sooo much pain, and it taught me to have patience with everything, even if it does hurt like crazy, eventually everything will turn out for the better.

Well what we do for fun on P-days is play soccer for about 2 hours  and I’m getting back into the swing of things, haha! I was so terrible at first but now I’m a lot better. Afterwards we email, eat, relax and we usually have one or two appointments at night, but not many cause it takes so long to walk from one to the other. Well yesterday at church we had none of our investigators show up, including Ingrid. She wanted to go but something came up and she thought we were mad with her, but we explained that Heavenly Father understands that she wants to and things come up, so hopefully next week she will be baptized. We did have Mauricio, an inactive member, come to church which was great. We just need a couple more priesthood holders and we can be a ward! Our other investigator Alejandra seems to be progressing good, she had the elders over about 2 years ago and now she seems interested, so we still pass by with her. Sorry if this letter isn’t too long, but the days seem to mesh together here and I can’t remember all the details of every day, but we do have changes this week, but we're pretty sure me and Elder Elison are staying so nothing to worry about. Hope all is well back home and that everyone is enjoying the cold!

Con cariño,

Elder Neher

Week #14 - Spiders in My Sink (Bellavista Branch)

Hola todos!

Well this week sped by, holy cow! Well to start off we had our first district meeting last Tuesday (it was our first because we have had random zone meetings the couple weeks before) Anyways, after the meeting we had divisions and I went with my district leader Elder Staples to Coyoles, the only area in the mission with a wooden house and bikes! It was awesome, but I was dead afterward, and Tuesday we didn’t even go that far! Something interesting about Coyoles is that the only way to get out to where the investigators are, and basically everything else, you have to cross a wooden rope bridge, straight out of Indiana Jones, and it is stinking far up there, but it was fun riding on it.

(Found this on a Google search for Coyoles...assuming it is the one he was talking about)

Elder Staples is a really cool leader, he´s from Olathe, KS so we talked a lot about KC Masterpiece :) It was fun going on divisions with him. The entire district did divisions just to give everyone something new and to make it not seem so repetitive. While I was gone, Elder Elison and Elder Diaz found some new people that we are teaching now, and one seems really receptive. His name is Mario and so far he´s accepted everything, so we´re hoping next month he can get baptized!

Still no luck with Ingrid, however, we would have had her baptism this week, but she still hasn’t gone to church a second time. She has legitimate reasons to stay because she works for the owner of the house, but I almost want to say that the boss doesn’t want her to go, so we are hoping she will go this Sunday. She is really awesome, she accepts everything, she´s read and prayed, she continues to read and I can tell she loves the gospel. We shared a message about temples and took a Liahona over for her, and she, along with the others who were listening, loved looking at the pictures, and one lady said she would be baptized, do anything, to go in one, so we´ll see how that goes, haha!

This Thursday our district is doing our own little Thanksgiving! We are just going to a restaurant here to eat, so it’s not turkey, but it’s something! Well my Spanish has been improving but I need to study more so I can improve, but everyone says they understand what I’m trying to say, so at least that’s a plus, it’s all the grammar stuff. Elder Elison and I are getting along great, we just talk about random stuff. He´s a huge history buff and I’m a music nerd haha but we just talk about whatever. The people here in Olanchito are a lot nicer than in SPS, but I think it’s because they don’t know as much and aren’t as close to all the protesters, but they are still nice here for the most part.

Everything is going great here, we have the occasional pest in our home, like a spider in our sink, or a tarantula just walking around on the floor haha, but I love it out here, the time just flies! We have interviews tomorrow with President so I’m excited for that, but everything else is going great out here and my cook promised us awesome food for Christmas, so I’m super excited for that! Well I hope everything is going great back home. Grandma said someone in her bishopric is coming out here to do dentist stuff, and I would go…if I had any problems, haha! But oh well, until next week!

Elder Neher

Week #13 - My Body in Revolt (Bellavista Branch)

Hola Familia y amigos!

Well this is the second time I am trying to write this letter (the first draft got erased) anyways this week has been kind of a downer. We tried to get more investigators, since we only have one progressing, Ingrid, who can be baptized next week if she goes to church on Sunday (she could have been baptized this week but she didn’t show up to church). So we have been putting in a whole bunch of citas (appointments) and they all basically fall through, even with members, so it’s really hard. We asked for references and the ref’s aren’t home or something so we have a hard time actually getting a hold of anyone, and to top it off my body has been attacking me this week!

First it started with allergies to something, then my ear started hurting and now I’m coughing like mad and I got a huge blister on my toe! Also, my legs are killing me, but at least I’m gaining muscle! This next week should be much better, at least we have hope that it will be. We are trying to reactivate a lot of people here as well, and a couple weeks ago we had a drunk who came up to us and said that he’s a member and wants to change and get back. Then his mom walks up to us and says "do you remember me?" We both looked at each other and had no idea what to say but apparently she is from Comayaguela and she talks to the missionaries a lot over there. She is super Catholic though, but loves the gospel, loves the message it brings, but doesn’t want to change from what she has been doing. But through her we met another less active family who we pass by to see every once in a while so we hope something good can happen from there.

The days are long, but I push myself to stay positive, to keep walking when it feels like I can’t, and have hope for a better tomorrow. My area is huge and by now we have probably walked 55 miles or so, I am going to be toned when I get home, haha! I’m already starting to get a tan too, a nice missionary tan!

But anyways what I’ve found is that the Spirit really can guide you to places you need to go and helps you with what you need to say, or what to share for that night, and that only through the Spirit can we work miracles.  Oh, another thing,  out of our little branch here there are 3 people who are preparing for missions, 1 guy and 2 sisters. Isaias got his call already, but he's waiting until tomorrow for his dad to get home so he can open it. What patience!

Well my zone is Colon, which includes Coyoles (only area to have bikes in the mission) Olanchito, Bella Vista, Tocoa, Aguan, Sonaguera, Trujillo, and it’s the biggest zone of the mission. In the mornings we study until 10 here, but then at 11 everyone goes out to eat so we stay and get ready and eat lunch at 12noon. Everything is going well here. This week will be better I’m sure of it! Oh and Chase, if you have any questions about Honduras don’t be afraid to ask, haha! Well I love you all and I’m glad all is well back home. The temple looks super nice, thanks for the pics! I’m sure that was an amazing experience! Oh by the way, this computer has no open USB ports so I can’t send pics, sorry! When we have time we will look for some somewhere or send pics tonight at dinner.

Until next week!

Elder Neher

Week #12 - Olanchito (Bellavista Branch)

Hola familia y amigos!

Well I do apologize for last week, the zone activity was way out of the way and the buses here move so slow and when it´s on dirt roads it doesn’t help either! Well anyways, I better get started relaying what happened over the past two weeks! My comp left to SPS for a training meeting for 3 days so I went to Olanchito on splits with Elder Denning, which was fun. There is a bakery out here that is amazing! I only wish it was in my area. My area takes half of the main street and everything to the west, which is all residential.

Well that Saturday we had a baptism with Erlin, a 14 year old who lives with his inactive grandparents, but he didn’t come on Sunday to receive his confirmation so we had to remind him to come, and thankfully he came yesterday. It’s been kind of rough here; all the investigators we have already have dates for baptism, so now we are doing a lot of contacting and asking for referrals. Hopefully we can find some more people to start teaching. We have one investigator, Ingrid, who came to church yesterday and is planning on coming next week, which means she can get baptized on the 20^th. She also came to Erlin´s baptism and said, “So, I’m next?” haha yup! So things have been going good here, now to answer the list of questions.

I actually have one of the nicest houses in the mission apparently. It’s pretty nice and compared to the others I’ve seen, I can tell! We eat lunch and dinner at the cook's house, and for breakfast we usually go to a pulperia (small neighborhood grocery store) to buy something. We do not have hot running water, but we do have a stove we can heat the water if we want. It’s  just me and Elder Elison in this house. We wake up at 6:30am and go to bed at 10:30pm and we leave the house around 12noon, depending on the day, and get back at nine, unless the power fails, in which case we go straight home. That reminds me, Erlin´s baptism was in the dark, no power all night long! We have district meetings Tuesdays at the chapel in Olanchito.

Elder Elison is great! He teaches great, his Spanish is great and his hobbies include running, running, and more running. He's also a big history nut, especially with military history. When he had to leave, it was for a training meeting and our area/zone is the farthest from the mission so he left for Tocoa on Monday, left there at 2am Tuesday morning to get to SPS by 7am and then had meetings there all day Tuesday and part of Wednesday. He went back to Tocoa Wed. night, then back to our area on Thursday, but I stayed on divisions in Olanchito that day.

The bus rides here are long! Depending on the type of bus it can take 6 to 8 hours to get to SPS. The buses are either a school bus, or a charter bus, and they aren’t as crammed as the ones in Argentina. These buses go long distances everyday and they are made to carry luggage and stuff, but my comp says they are bad in SPS, so I would assume there they are just like the colectivos in Buenos Aires.  Yes it is ok to give out my email, I checked and doubled checked with my comp. (Steven.Neher@myldsmail.net).

Regarding computers, it depends on where you go, but an average is 20 limps (1 dollar) for the hour, connection depends as well, and I don’t think I can print out letters. After we got off the computers last time (2 weeks ago) we rested for a while, but today we plan on helping a family move some items, and maybe go look for some cheap soccer jerseys. I am 1 of 4 Barcelona fans in my district, the rest are for Real Madrid. The other day I saw a car with a Barça and Boca Jrs. stickers…blasphemy!!

Our area is absolutely huge! We don’t even go to one part because the elders got robbed twice down there. We haven’t really been outside of our area much except for the zone activity last week in Trujillo (oh btw, those pics you put up on my blog don’t really represent what it’s like here, the streets are much dirtier, especially in my area where there are no paved roads, chickens, dogs and trash everywhere). The food has definitely been the hardest adjustment so far, but I’m getting used to it. Guineo verde isnt the greatest thing, it’s a green banana that tastes like a flavorless potato. The people here are awesome, they are very open to letting people in their homes and the members are willing to help. The climate is interesting, it was pretty hot to start with but now it’s super chilly at night! I actually have a reason to use those sweaters, haha!

I have learned how to walk for hours on end, I have learned how to push myself even when it gets tough, and I’ve realized how humble the people are out here. I love it out here! It’s a new experience and I love it. Our cook says I’m already half Honduran cause I can speak Spanish! It is great down here and I can’t wait for Christmas and New Years when everyone is drunk and shooting off firecrackers, haha! Hopefully this next week I will have more stories to tell, until then, hope everyone is doing great back home!

Love,

Elder Neher

** All of the pictures were copied from his Mission President's blog. Still no pictures from Steven!

 Arrival in Honduras

All of the new missionaries from the US and Guatemala MTC's

 

Breakfast in the Mission Home

Breakfast in the Mission Home

Week #11 - Olanchito (Bellavista Branch)

Well today has been a weird day. We spent 10 hours total on buses today, going to Trujillo and back for a zone activity. We didn’t get back until just a while ago (8pm local time). We are at a members house and the power is failing a bit here, so I can’t write much, but just to say that I’m safe and all is good. We might write tomorrow, but if not I will write a detailed letter next week!

Love,

Elder Neher

Week # 10 - Olanchito (Bellavista Branch)

 Buenas!

Espero que todo está bien en casa!

Well there´s my Spanish for the week, haha! Sorry I couldn’t call from Miami, we had a bit of time there but my phone card ran out of minutes, which really stunk, but whatever. Well, I don’t know where to start! Our first night we stayed at the secretaries house and they bought Baleadas for us to eat, and they are good! The cheese is kind of strong, but I really like them, we got in pretty late here so we didn’t do much that day, oh but I did get to find out my shampoo exploded in my suitcase and ruined the iPod dock =/ oh well.  My comp has one that we're using. Well on Tuesday we had breakfast and dinner at the Presidents house. President Veirs is awesome! I love him already, he is so fun and just full of energy, and Sis Veirs is so nice. I did get the Argentina connection in there, so don’t worry, haha! 

 

Well Tuesday we were in the office most of the day going over rules and safety stuff, and from what others have told me, other people can email me. That night we went and contacted people at a park in San Pedro Sula and that was interesting! There were a couple that were interested, a lot of people were yelling at us for being gringos, and I didn’t understand why until they came up and yelled at us all together and I heard Arizona. So, to play it safe I’m saying I’m from KC haha! San Pedro Sula is pretty run down, but not as bad as my area, which I’ll get to in a sec.

On Wednesday we had the cambios (changes) meeting, and I was completely lost, I just had no idea what was going on! Oh, I did meet Toño, the guy from down here that added me on Facebook earlier this year. He served a ´mini mission´ and has been called to Panama. Anyways, during the meeting, anytime someone was assigned somewhere crazy or something, everyone started talking and I couldn’t hear anything! The same happened for me. President had told me that I was going to a tough area, but with a great comp, and that’s all I knew. When he called my name, I barely heard my area, and I didn’t even hear my comps name but I saw someone waving to me so I went over there. It was my Zone Leader. Turns out that my comp was still in my area because it’s one of the farthest areas in the mission! So after that we got loaded up, went to the bus station, got cussed out, and took a nice 6-7 hour bus ride to the ZL´s house where we stayed for the night.

On Thursday I met my comp, Elder Elison. He´s really cool, he's from South Jordan, UT and he's been out here for 13 months. Oh and while traveling my suitcases broke, one wheel on both of the red ones! Anyways, my area is the Bellavista Branch in the town of Olanchito (pop. 33,000) and it´s in the boonies! It’s crazy, our area is one of the biggest in the mission too and there's a lot of walking! We were going to speak with members, but most of them went to the temple. Well we came out here and there are a couple progressing investigators, but not much, my comp was here before and they had to leave a lot and couldn’t do much work, and now he has to go to SPS for a training meeting so our area won’t have anyone here for three more days!  The members here are really cool though, one of them cooks for us and their family is crazy, but I love it!

The accent here is a bit hard to understand, but I’m getting it for the most part, its either they speak too fast or clip their words, but it’s coming along. My Spanish is better than before, and I hope I can teach everything effectively. Well the other day we were teaching Erlin, he is 14 and lives with his grandparents who are members. He´s been to church, believes everything, and we put a fecha (baptismal date) with him for this week! We just need to make sure his mom knows so there isn’t a problem there.  Another investigator, Ingrid, has been progressing as well, we've taught her most of the lessons already, and on Friday we left her the assignment to read 2 Nephi chapter 31. When we came back yesterday she said she read it 3 times! She believes everything, and she just has to give up coffee (which is a bit of a problem here) and go to church for 2 weeks, but she said she wants to be baptized! She wanted to come yesterday but we think her boss had her work during that time. She lives with some people and works for them.

Oh, another big problem out here is teen pregnancies and such. There are a lot of young mothers out here, and a lot of the couples who don’t get married because it’s expensive for marriage and divorce. You would think somehow they would want to even though they may have been living together for 35 years! But anyways, it’s hot here, and this is the cold season haha!! It rained all day Saturday and I was soaked by the end of the day. Also, I met my first “lactivist” (slang for a woman breastfeeding uncovered) yesterday while teaching! It was a lady in her 40's with a kid who was probably 3 or 4. Apparently that's not as bad as other stories I’ve heard, like doing it during confirmation in church or while riding a motorcycle, haha!

I love it out here! The branch is tiny, but the members are strong. Lots of walking, dogs, annoying roosters and no traffic laws, but it is awesome! I hope everything is well back home! I don’t know how much time I have but if you have questions send them! Oh and pics, I can’t find my USB port. I’ll look for it for next week, sorry!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Neher

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Since he didn't send us any pictures, here are a few that we found from other blogs or from the Internet. Enjoy...

 President and Sister Veirs

Elder Elison (Steven's Trainer)

 Cerro Pacura (NE of downtown Olanchito)

 Downtown Olanchito

 Downtown Olanchito

 Fields outside Olanchito

 Rio Aguan, near Olanchito

 Panoramic View of Olanchito (from the south, looking north)

 Downtown neighborhood in Olanchito

Catholic Church, downtown Olanchito

 Pedestrian walkway in downtown Olanchito

 Downtown Olanchito

 Downtown Olanchito

 Street Vendor, downtown Olanchito

Rio Pimienta (NE of downtown Olanchito)