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