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)

Week # 9 - Off to Honduras!!

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR (Dad):

Well, I started writing this post on Monday Oct. 18th hoping that during the week we would receive a a letter/email/phone call from Honduras telling us he had arrived safely and where he would be assigned. Now it is Friday and unfortunately it looks like we will not be getting anything until P-day :(  This post will be to review the events of Monday, Oct. 18th as he left for Honduras.

The day started just as he was hoping for because his Abuela was able to meet him in the Salt Lake City airport to say goodbye and fill his backpack with milanesas! Apparently the missionaries got there about 30 minutes before she did and not knowing if anyone was going to show up, Steven went ahead and put the extra clothes and things to send home back in his suitcase and checked in. The extra things caused his bags to be overweight and he had to pay a $100 weight penalty! Not what we were hoping for, but oh well.

He was very excited to see his Abuela and especially for the milanesas! They were able to talk for a few minutes and Steven even spoke in Spanish with her (which he was always very reluctant to do before). She said that his accent sounded good, which is encouraging. We are hopeful that it means that he will be able to hit the ground running in Honduras! Steven was able to give her his last memory chip from the camera, and some of the pictures from it are included here in this post! After a brief time together he had to go through security and off to catch his flight.

Here at home we received a call from Abuela with all of the details of their meeting in the airport and that got all of us excited to hear from him later in the day. At 10:45am Arizona time we finally got the call from Steven. He had arrived safe and sound in Dallas and made it to their connecting gate where all of the missionaries started making their phone calls home. I can imagine the scene with a huge bank of phones occupied by missionaries calling home! He sounded so happy and upbeat! We talked about how the morning had been so far and found out that there were 12 missionaries going to his mission that day and that he had been chosen to be the travel leader. He talked about some of the missionaries coming to Arizona that he hopes we will meet, as well as the goodbye's that they had in the MTC. He also shared something that made all of us feel really good. He said that their last night in the MTC, as the guys in his room lay in their bunk beds getting ready to go to sleep, that his companion told him that he really hopes that they will have the opportunity to be companions again in Honduras. That is saying a lot considering where things were just a few weeks ago! We could tell that the comment really made Steven feel great.

He talked about what a wonderful Branch President they had in the MTC and how much he admired and learned from him. Of course we talked about his experience singing at General Conference and he asked how many people saw him. He acted genuinely surprised to hear how many people had mentioned seeing him.

He also said that many people in his branch thought that he was the most popular person there because he went out of his way to get to know everyone. He said that he was probably the only gringo who took the time to get to know the Latinos and try to speak with them. That made us all feel great! The fact that he is losing his fear of speaking in Spanish is comforting (he even said a few things to his mom in Spanish, but we didn't push him to say too much). I could hear that his accent sounded natural and that his pronunciation was very good.

Of course we had to share with him the big news about his buddy Chase Hall's mission call. When we told him that the call had arrived he got really excited. We gave him three guesses, and without telling him if it was foreign or domestic his guesses were Brazil, Lithuania and Chile. When we told him to think closer to his mission his voice got really excited and he guessed Nicaragua. When we told him how about Honduras Tegucigalpa he about lost it!! He just kept saying..."Are you serious?" "No way, are you kidding?" When he finally believed that we weren't kidding he calmed down but kept saying..."That's incredible, I can't believe it!!" To hear the excitement in his voice was just awesome!!

Of course he asked a lot of questions about home and how everyone here is doing. Mom, Dad and Andrew did most of the talking and Ana Maria said a few things, but unfortunately Jonathan felt a little embarrassed and didn't know what to say. After we hung up he started crying because he hadn't said anything. We talked for a while and he said that it was just that he misses him so much and he was nervous (I think that he didn't want to cry on the phone). We were hopeful that he would be able to call back from Miami so that Jonathan could say something to him, but his flight out of Dallas was 1 hour and 15 minutes late and he was not able to call us back. Come to find out that Jonathan was not the only one who was very disappointed not to speak to him again. Turns out that Isabel felt really bad too because the conversation ended so quickly with him saying that they were boarding the plane and that he would call from Miami, that she didn't say goodbye like she wanted to, or even to tell him that she loved him. I tried telling her that he knows that she loves him, but it is just not the same.

We found out from a few other blogs that his routine after arriving would be something like this. Arrive at 8pm local time, go eat a quick dinner at Wendy's (not sure why there), go to the home of the mission office staff and get to sleep. The following morning (Tues) would be interviews with their mission president in the morning, followed by lunch and then a trip to a local area near the offices where they would pair up with older missionaries and spend the afternoon contacting on the street. That evening would be a formal dinner at the mission home and back to the same place as the night before to sleep. Wednesday is the day that they would receive their new companions and travel to their new area. Their mission has a great program where all of the missionaries who are affected by changes come into San Pedro Sula and meet at a local chapel where they have a quick meeting and then say goodbye to their old companions and head out with their new ones. Sounds like a lot of fun being able to see everyone so often!

We are sure looking forward to that first letter next week to find out where Steven is living, who his new companion is and what his first impressions and experiences have been. Should be fun! Stay tuned...

More Pictures from the MTC!

Week #8 - MTC

Hola familia y amigos!

Well we got our travel plans on Friday of last week! I leave from Salt Lake City to Dallas at on Monday, Oct. 18th at 8:25am on American flight 1429, then to Miami, and from Miami to San Pedro Sula and I will arrive at about 8 pm their time. If  Abuela is coming, have her make me a milanesa sandwich ;)

I’m travelling to Dallas with some people in my district which should be super fun, so I’m super excited to leave. I have met quite a few missionaries who are going to Mesa and Tempe! My companion's friend (Elder Ricker) actually got reassigned to Tempe because he has Krohms disease, and two people in my district are going to Mesa (Elder Hernandez & Sister Arias). The sister is going to serve at the Mesa Temple, take her some Argentine food, she's from El Salvador and really misses authentic Latin American food, haha. She is pretty short so you won’t miss her and she is leaving the same day that I am.

Well this week's been kind of weird. I’ve realized how completely opposite me and my comp are, and how little things in my district can explode into epidemics. One elder in my district keeps telling us how completely opposite we are, I love culture and meeting new people and my comp hates anything that isn’t just like the US, and just other tiny things here and there, but everything is all good.  My district can be fun at times, but other times people want to kill each other, and so it can get pretty heated here. The weird thing is we are like a family, so we have internal disputes but as soon as someone else gets harassed or something everyone comes to their defense.  I get along with everyone ok in my district. I tend to be the butt of most jokes, but oh well, I get along great with the sisters, but sometimes people just go too far. Usually when people get mad it’s over the dumbest things that get blown up, like the other night our District Leader shut the door to our room and knocked (as a prank…he does it all the time) but then he realized no one was in the room. We got upset and asked him to go get a key but he said he wouldn’t, so it blew up into this huge yelling fight between him and another elder in my room. Two other elders (who are not companions) went and got a new key for us and got chewed out by the DL for going on an "unauthorized exchange". It was just a mess, but it all worked out. Sometimes the problem is that some people tend to be hypocritical and no one keeps up with our goals, it’s pretty terrible, but other than that we all get along just fine.

It’s been a crazy week. I almost passed out last night before the Health and Safety meeting, my head was spinning all night. (The Health and Safety meeting was basically about how not to die on your mission, just a whole bunch of stuff cause we were going out of the States.) I don’t know what started it but I just got super dizzy last night and a bit this morning, but I took some ibuprofen and I’m totally fine.

I honestly can’t really remember all the things I’ve learned here, it’s so much! The days mesh together so it’s hard to remember what just recently happened. One devotional we had talked about how to be a successful missionary (and here at the MTC they say baptisms=success, which has some people worried because they are going to low baptizing  missions and think that means their missions won’t be successful), but Elder Neuenschwander told us, first thing, is that I am the one that makes my mission successful! Not once did he mention baptisms (yes I understand that baptisms are important), but sometimes some people make it sound like that's the only thing that determines success on a mission and a lot of people are upset by that.  The other points he said were to simplify my life, be teachable, be obedient, stay w/the scriptures, respect the title we hold, and keep a proper perspective. I really enjoyed his talk and took quite a few notes on it.

I can’t really think of much else to write, sorry! Its crazy how fast time flies, and yet it feels like I’ve been here for an eternity. I’m super excited to get to Honduras! I will be there in a week!

Con mucho amor!

Elder Neher

Week #7 - MTC

Hola familia y amigos!

Well before I go into detail about conference I just wanted to say how things are going here. My comp is doing much better, we are working a bit more, and he's actually trying with Spanish. The sick elder, elder May, was sent home yesterday. He might be able to go back out but he has to be able to control his blood sugar level first, and when he was here it was everywhere, so I really hope he is able to get down to his mission.

Alright, conference, well that morning everyone in choir went to one room together to watch the first session, we had lunch (which was mayhem here during conference) and our buses left at 1:30. All the buses were charter buses, expect for mine, it was a school bus so we called it the humility bus. Well I went to conference with Elder Pugmire and Elder Irwin from my district, once we got there we went into the little theater to watch a part of a talk, and then we started practicing. A lady from MoTab was there and she was jumping up and down after each song, you could tell she loved it. Elder Irwin and I brought our cameras, and I took a couple pictures, in our seats and elsewhere. Elder Irwin took video before and after as we were walking in and out. Before priesthood started we had to line up by height, and I wanted to stay with my comps so they hid me between them (they are both taller than me). We all wanted to be next to Elder Pugmire because his brother-in-law is part of the media people or something for conference and promised him a close up (which was awesome because he got it, and it zoomed out to me and Elder Irwin and stopped, it got all three of us!) The tabernacle looks so much smaller in person than it does on screen! I couldn’t believe it was that tiny! Well they gave us a restroom break and as we were waiting for Elder Pugmire, Elder Irwin and I saw Quentin L. Cook walk by! We were too far away to say anything, but it was awesome to see him that close. Well the entire time I was there I didn’t really think I was going to be singing to the world, I knew I was, but it didn’t really feel like it, but when we sang, it was amazing! Granted there were some elders there who weren’t singing right, but overall it sounded great. It was amazing! It gave me goose bumps when President Eyring commented on us, and after the session was over the 1st Presidency waved to us, gave us thumbs up, and President Uchtdorf gestured he loved it. When we were singing Called to Serve all the General Authorities sitting directly in front of us turned around and watched us the entire time. They all loved it and gave us thumbs up and everything too, it was incredible! Richard G Scott came up and talked to one of our conductors and did the same as the others. Richard G Hinckley (who spoke at the MTC a while ago) also came up. It was just incredible! When we left we walked through where all the Seventy sit, and going to the MTC I felt so good about it, everyone commented on how good we were, when they saw us, and all that good stuff.

Sunday night we had a fireside and that was when I was able to watch our first song. The entire devotional was given by the Breinholt's (they are in the MTC presidency here) and the entire devotional was on music and the effect it can have with us. The MTC Presidency (except Pres. Breinholt’s son took the place of Pres. Clegg) sang a song for us, and President and Sis. Breinholt asked some people to come up and share their favorite hymn, and then sing a verse from it. I was chosen and I picked Nearer My God to Thee, I absolutely love that song. It was an awesome weekend here! I loved conference and found so many things that could apply to missionary work, it was crazy! I loved being able to have the opportunity to sing in front of literally millions! it was an awesome feeling that I don’t plan on forgetting anytime soon! If it hasn’t been put up yet, post the videos on my Facebook so others can see them. I love you all so much and appreciate everything you do for me. May God be with you in all your doings.

Con muchisimo amor,

Elder Neher

 HARK ALL YE NATIONS

GO YE MESSENGERS OF HEAVEN

 CALLED TO SERVE

Follow up email to questions sent in reply to his morning email:

That is so awesome that Chase put in his papers! That makes me super excited. I hope he gets called to Argentina, that way we have a reason to travel there other than for food haha! Ok well I'll just start answering questions…Yes I got the camera on time and I took that one to conference because of how small it is, and yes I like it, although I took a video the other day, it wasn’t in focus, so the entire video was that way. I just need to get used to it. For the devotional they asked who would like to share their favorite hymn and everyone together would sing a verse from it, and I got picked. It was funny because every time an elder or sister said a song there were whispers of agreement of how good it was, as with mine. I will try to send the other camera back as soon as I can, I have no idea how much it weighs so I will check tomorrow, I've been taking more pictures, but not a whole bunch, I'll keep trying though! After I sent the email this morning I forgot to mention this, but we get our travel plans this Friday!!! I think they let us call home when we get them so be prepared! My Spanish is getting better, this week our goal is to talk completely in Spanish, which is kind of hard when others in my district don’t try, but I will push through! Conjugations are getting somewhat easier, but it’s just hard to know when to use them all! I think the personal relationship with my comp is getting better, I don’t know if it’s a temporary thing while we are here or what, but it doesn’t matter to me, I’m just glad he is trying. I can’t think of anything else I might need for Honduras, and I don’t know where to put all the stuff I don’t need to give to Abuela. I could try to get a trash bag, but we'll see.

Hasta Luego!

Elder Neher