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