Monday, March 18, 2013

Wow, so this was a crazy week. Keep your bloomers on folks, you´re in for a ride.

Monday, I went to teguc. normal. We go practically every week. I hate it, but we have to. 

 

Tuesday, I did divisions with a gringo from Idaho. being all my time in the field with Latino´s has killed me being with gringos. I never struggle here with Spanish, and this kid is the same as me....not with Spanish, with the whole has one Spanish grandparent. but, no Spanish. Esparza had to go to Teguc for a dl council with Pres and he had to go with the other dl in our zone, asi que I stayed in our area and worked. We went to our one family that was SUPPOSED to get baptized this week, but we have more details later on. Tthen he went with me to another cita with another family that had been chatting with missionaries in Teguc, they seemed mostly positive, and I think this guy could be the next bp. Anyway, we taught, or I mostly taught, the second half of the plan of salvation- from death to the kingdoms- and the importance of marriage and baptism inside that part. The spirit was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I wouldn´t ever do that, cut the spirit, him being godhead and all, but its a figure of speech. Anywho, you could feel it. They agreed!!!! 30 of this month. Crazy day. I had to go the half hour drive to the Entrada of Yuscaran, its pretty far, once at 7 in the morning and again at 545, but I had to come back both times. Didn´t get much done that day and most of it was done hitching rides in truck beds, and one of the hitches killed a dog with us in the back. Sad day. But it was good, and all worth it, just for making the date with the family.

 

Wednesday. We started to get all of the stuff together for the wedding and the baptism that was going to be this weekend. well, we went to the city hall, and they told us that if we wanted to do the wedding there, we had to turn in a whole bunch of papers that we didn´t really need and wait fifteen days for them to do the lawyer stuff. Well, that wasn´t going to fly, considering the wedding was in three days. or four. Anyways, we ran and visited a lawyer. I wanted to HIT THIS GUY IN THE FACE. The first thing he asks the gringo was ¨Me entiende cuando hablo?¨ (Can you understand me?")  presumptuous little son of a biscuit. Then he has the nerve to ask me if he is talking to fast. I just about lost it, but then I remembered I was a missionary, and with a little sarcasm, said, No se preocupe, yo le digo si esta hablando demasiado rapido. ahorita estoy bien. (No, but I will let you know if you are talking to fast.")  Angry. Anyway, he told us he would need a week and 6000 limps to do it. We immediately knew it wasn´t going to be with him. So that leads us to

Thursday. We had to go to Teguc to drop off the wedding papers. the ZL´s were coming to do the interview, but there was no way we were making it back in time, so they went with the other missionaries here. Well, one of the pair didn´t pass it. For things in the past that she said happened 22 years ago, but our ZL is positive she said last week. So, we have to wait till the 30. The good part is our goal for the month was 5 baptisms and 1 family. We would end with 5 and 2 families. IF they both get married and baptized. the bad part is that it´s the last weekend of the month, and if we lose that, we have to wait till April, and we lose our goal. Do not want that to happen.

Friday....we had district meetings and spent like four hours doing interviews with those elders for baptisms. My comp being DL, we do a lot of interviews. and that area is an hour away, so we didn´t get much done that day either.

Saturday was the cultural night. It was sort of long. pretty cool, and I learned a little bit about Honduras, but it was super long. That took a while because they were apparently only doing it via satellite, so we drove in rented bus the hour to the district center to see it, and then learned it had been on tv. So, we wasted a good part of the day with that.

Today was the temple dedication. WOW. I went fasting, because I feel like we have a lot at stake this month, and I need some help to get stuff done. Holy crap. The spirit was sooooo strong. I couldn´t believe it. It was incredible. I felt the spirit and received some inspiration and help that I had been needing. Being in the mission, and understanding what apostles do, what the priesthood really is, and what temples really make possible, makes having a temple, or temples, so close to home in Utah almost seem like a joke. Like it´s too easy to just go and do stuff, but we never do. Elder Scott said something so profound in last conference that just came to my mind, ¨put to the side those things in your life that don´t really matter, and do something that will have eternal consequences.¨ That is what we do. He also said that if we want to get rid of the influence of the adversary in our lives, we need to get involved with the work for our ancestors, inside and outside the temple. Petey, that would be a great way to prepare for the mission. No, we didn´t speak with an apostle, or shook his hand: I just saw him on the screen. But what the spirit testified to me in those short minutes, and the peace and quiet serenity I felt, let me know that I was in a holy place, even just watching it on satellite.

¨¿Quien subirá al monte de Jehovah? ¿Quien estará en su lugar santo? El limpio de mano y puro de corazón, el que no levanta su alma en vanidad, ni jurado en engaño.¨ Psalms 24:2-3. Its scripture mastery, and I realized that having a scripture memorized and understood are two different things. It means so much more now.

So, it was a nuts week. tomorrow we have to get stuff moving for the weddings, the 30, and find new people, because after we baptize the people we have, we have nobody.

Also, some side notes.

They chose the new pope this week. and when I say they, I mean the other 100 and some cardinals. You should really research How they do the conclave, it´s fascinating. a cardinal said something very interesting. He said that God already has the new pope chosen, now they just have to find him. So different from how the apostles, and by definition Christ, did it. They do it by the spirit, not by voting, like in conclave, which is Latin for with key, fun fact. And another thing. They picked him while we were eating lunch on Thursday, and all the tvs in latino america had that playing. And when they announced the new pope, he came out, and everybody was cheering, and shouting, and yelling. praises of the world, you could say. But compare that to what happens when we have a new prophet. We all just raise our arms to the square. No cheering, no shouting. he doesn´t wear fancy robes or hats, and when he is in the temple, he wears the same clothes as everybody else. Just that he has a different calling than the rest of us. I am so grateful for the many wonderful people in this world of all faiths, but I just realized more and more everyday how much it means to really have the fulness of the gospel.  Because, if we go back to the temple, no matter how hard he tries, the pope will never ever be able to marry somebody for eternity, and yet the temple workers will. It is truly amazing what we have on this earth, and how blessed we are to have it.

The change in SPS will be effective in June. Crazy, huh??°!!?!?!?!?! with so many leaving, it makes sense. When I got to the field, we were at around 170ish. By June, mission Honduras Tegucigalpa will have 250 missionaries. When I got here, there were 11 zones. Now, this next change, there will be....14. and with plans to have about 17 shortly. Everything is just growing and expanding so fast. I can´t believe it.

Petey, Congrats!!!!! I remember that weekend and day with great clarity, and I am still so glad that you were a part of it with me.

My guess.....I am going to take two. Fantasy would be TEGUCIGALPA HONDURAS.

My other guess would be Mexico. Yucatan. Just remember that wherever you go, you have a friend waiting for you. I have already found one of mine. I know you will be sent to the place where the Lord knows you will be best.

I love you all. This work is true. I love every minute of it.

And of course, I love all of you, my family and missionary friends. Work hard, all of you. Never forget why we are here.

Its the most important thing we will do with this time in our lives.

ZACH

Should be Monday, March 11, but really, Thursday March 14

I can´t think of a subject line, but it´s not really that important anyway.

This week was one of the most interesting I have had in all of my mission. Seriously. Some crazy stuff happened.

For starters, we found this great family that had been listening to the missionaries in Teguc. ZL´s. one of those zls is ap right now. So they knew some pretty darn good missionaries. I was wondering what we would find, and I was thinking that they would be pretty close to baptism. They are.....sort of. We still have to get them married, they have 5 kids, and are super great. The dad´s name is Luis, the Mom is Suyapa, and three of the five live with them. The other two are older daughters.  The other three are great! One that is ten, a little girl that is 2, and a baby of less than a year. The little girl is the CUTEST thing EVER!!!! Her name is Anyelee, pronounced Angielee, and she still thinks that we are the other missionaries in Teguc. So she calls me elder Prows. haha. And Esparza is Ramirez. But it´s okay. They seem pretty positive, and even came to church today. We have a ridiculously busy few weeks, with the dedication, then district conference (where they will probably split the district and put half into one stake in Teguc and half into Danli) and then one weekend normal and then general conference. Seeing as how we have to have attendances to baptize, 3 times in church or 2 and one activity, that will make baptisms super hard, we half to transport people to the district center, and that requires more sacrifice that more people, even members, aren´t willing to make.  It is difficult but we will be working with them, and they should be baptized. They would be a great help for the branch, and we are looking at the father as the potential branch president.

The family we had for the 23?? We moved the date to the 16.  But then the ----- didn´t come to church today, so we can´t do it until the 23 anyways. What scares me is that he left for work yesterday and didn´t come home, and his wife hasn´t seen him since 6 yesterday morning. So she is worried that he is out drinking, which he had left behind, because this was his pattern when he was super bolo. But I haven´t seen or heard him yet, so I don´t want to pre judge. But I am truly scared. We even went to their house this morning to get them here, to make sure. We walked for 25 minutes and nothing. So we walked back. We had these as sure baptisms, and if he drank, I don´t think they can get baptized this month. The wife can, but I don´t want her to baptize without him. They have a daughter that could possibly be baptized at the beginning of April, but we shall see. She went to the temple, and said she wants to get married there, so maybe that will motivate her a little bit.

And I had the most incredible experience. There is a lady here that cuts missionaries hair. Has been for about 2 years. Her name is -----, and she attends another church. Like, is group leader, stuff like that. Imagine a young women's president, but for all the youth in the congregation. Big stuff. Super metida in her church. Well, she has a boyfriend who lives in Teguc, and is an RM. super pilas, this guy. They want to get married, sort of, but he told her that he wouldn´t get married in her church because her pastor can´t seal families because he doesn´t have the Melchizedek priesthood. She asked us what all that meant. I was with Elder Guzman, who is in his first change in the field, and super chill. We started chatting with her. Like, it took her 45 minutes to cut both of us, but we were there for an hour and a half. She told us that she had never let the missionaries teach her because she didn´t want to become confused. Well, we started to talk to her, and she just opened up. She told us that when she goes to church, she goes just so that people don´t wonder where she is, and that she comes home feeling empty inside. She thinks that church should be more than that, but she can´t leave her congregation. I told her that we would make a deal. She would listen to the discussions, all of them, and cumplir with all the compromisos. Dad is going to have to help, I can´t think of how to say that in English right now. And that if that didn´t fill the emptiness that she had, then no worries. But if it did, then she had some changing to do. She agreed!! We had a lesson with her on Friday night. I was super anxious to go. She is super smart, which is a lovely change, because we can explain things to her in a way that we can´t to others. She asked all sorts of questions, to which we had all the answers. She was super astonished because she had had these questions for a long time, and nobody could ever answer them in a way that satisfied her. for example, ¨what happens if a woman is going to church, her boyfriend doesn´t want to get married or baptized, but she is faithful to the religion?¨ I explained that even though the woman is making an effort, that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can´t apply to the lady because when you repent, you leave the sin behind. If she is still living in fornication, she hasn´t repented. So, in the day of judgement, she will have to suffer even as christ suffered. (DyC 58;42-43, DyC 19:16-19) She had other questions, and at the end of the lesson, she said it was all good because we all worship the same god. I said that we didn´t.

Think about it.

The world perceives God in so many ways nowadays. The catholics have the trinity, and evangelicals and baptists that he is spirit, and others believe (even though they would tell you otherwise) that we should still be living the Law of Moses because they worship Jehovah.

How many people actually believe that Christ and God have flesh and Bone???

She asked where in the world, or the bible, it was written that Christ is flesh and bone. LUCAS 24. 36-39. KNOW THAT REFERENCE, PRE MISSIONARIES. she had never read there before. And then she asked where it says that God has a body. ACTS 7:55-56. On the RIGHT HAND of God. How did Steven see that Christ was at the right hand of God if he couldn´t see god because god was a spirit??? Doesn´t make sense. And in Genesis 1:25 and 26, The Gods say IN OUR IMAGE....if they didn´t have an image, how did they create us with image, and them being spirits??? It doesn´t make sense.

I can honestly say that I felt the spirit so strongly during that lesson. The problem is is that she is super scared to leave her church. Her pastor told her that she would go to hell if she apostatized. She asked what we thought of that. Esparza said that he had no place to say that, because Christ will judge us in the end, and that if she fixes her life and repents, he will be judged with the same judgement with which he judged. I responded by saying that she hasn´t apostatized and can´t apostatize because to apostatize, you have to have the fulness, which she doesn´t have. I told her that. She was a little taken aback. We explained the Apostasy again, to try and help her see what that meant. I am pretty sure she got it. I think what will help her a lot is the Plan of Salvation. Lots of her questions have to do with that theme, and I am so happy to teach it to her.

Other than that, it was a good week. We had 30 in church today, which was super bomb, and even though me and the comp keep finding problems, we fix them. We are figuring out slowly that all of this comes from the fact that we haven´t been communicating well and that when Satan knows we can do a lot of good, he tries to ruin us, because if he can ruin us, he can ruin all that God has planned here. So we are working a lot harder at doing better with each other.

I saw in one of the ensigns that a missionary wrote to New Era a list of things to do to prepare. I couldn´t read it, but it was mentioned in the ensign. What does that list say?? I would guess that elder is serving in the states. IF that is the case, he is having a totally different mission than the rest of the world. I would like to know what the list says, and I will have to make some changes to it. Most likely.

Well, that´s about all for this week. I am just thinking that after this conference, I only have two conferences left here. Crazy.

Love you All!!!

Have a great week.

Zach

Monday, March 4, 2013

Well hello family and fellow missionaries. Hope that you are all good, and that you have good weeks and keep working hard. I have a little written something for all of you, so scroll down.

All the way down.

Fam, it has been a good week!!!

First, to answer dads questions, reactivating is a fickle, fickle thing. It can go wonderfully, or it can just make you wonder why the person got baptized in the first place, and if most inactives are meaner than investigators. But, it is the work of God, and they will one day answer for everything. We found one who has been inactive for like 20 years, and takes care of his 94 year old parents. He came for an hour last Sunday!!! Two Sundays ago. I was super impressed. He would be awesome for the branch, he is so thoughtful and deep, and I feel like still has a fire going inside, but for his two parents, he can´t be out of the house for more than like an hour.

On the flip side, we found an inactive woman who told us she had one name, Carla, and then when I asked her what relation she had to the inactive, Paola, she told me that she was Paola Carla, and wanted nothing to do with us, so if we would do her the favor of just leaving her alone, that would be great. Thanks and don´t ever come back. so, in some cases, it is harder to work with inactives than investigators.

Speaking of investigators, we had our family at church, and it was great!!! Tthey will be getting married and baptized the 23!!!!! And their other daughter hopefully soon after. We are also working with another family that just moved here from Teguc, and was meeting with missionaries there, so it was super great. we also had a cita with another family that we were hoping to start working with, but I will explain what happened here in just a sec.

Well, not much other than that work wise this week. Our family lives like 20 minutes missionary walking, which is faster than Nelson Glassett walking, from the town. So that eats a good chunk of our day. but it´s worth it.

Now, for the non work but just as important stuff.

We had a wind storm and the temp dropped AGAIN. it was so cold. and to make matters worse, the wind knocked over a pole of electricity, and in Yuscaran when one person doesn´t have power, NO ONE has power. We went for 26 hours sin luz (without lights)  and that means no hot water. Or cooking, but we were fasting, so it´s okay. when we got done fasting, there was still no light, so we made a fire at the church and cooked tortillas, beans, and rice. HAHA I am pure CATRACHO!!!!!! Beans rice and tortillas. Never gets old. But it all came back, so it´s okay. (Note: I think he means, the power came back.  I have not idea what Catracho is.)

Then today, we had to go to Teguc to buy groceries. We stopped on the way there to get gas for the bus  and I noticed that as they were filling the tank, they were pushing the bus to shake it- to help the gas SETTLE. Do they not realize that gasoline is a LIQUID, and for it´s properties of matter, will automatically fill all the cracks and small places?? Better yet, do they not realize that gas tanks have NO cracks or small places??? I was laughing and got some weird looks from passengers around me, and my comp. but it was just too funny.

I also got the package for Valentines day, mom.TThank you for sending that. I think I will wear the tie this week, if it matches my pants. If not, it has to wait until black pants week. But thank you!!! I loved the calender and all the photos. I realized that we are all nuts, the Glassett clan is just nuts. except Mom, who is really Adams, but she got guilty by association. 

 

That's really it for this week, I will work with the recipes. I brought brownie mix this week!!! I am stoked to use it. I hope that they are good.....

I love you all fam!!!! I hope that this week warms up and that you continue to see God´s hand in all your lives!!!!

Love you ALL!!!!

Zach

Monday, February 25, 2013

"So before Hurricane Mitch... "

So this week was good!!! Good stuff happened, but it was a little long.

Well, to start, Nothing really happened Tuesday. Or Monday. We had a zone conference on Wednesday, which involved a two hour bus ride to the city and 5 hours of instruction and then two hours back. Didn´t get much done. Sort of hard. But we have been trying to find people, seeing as we are still pretty new to this area.

We found a guy who fixes shoes whose name is NELSON. haha. I told him that is my dad´s name, and we shortly found out that he had chatted with missionaries in the past. We will be teaching him, hopefully. We also found a family-yes, a family- of a mother and father. pretty much all their kids are gone, and one is a member. Anyways, the mom walked the 45 minutes to church on Sunday. She was only there for third hour, but she loved it. she went with her husband and one of her other daughters to the temple with us today, and they absolutely loved it. I hope it helps them to move stuff along, We have to keep the dad from drinking and smoking.....but we have a really good relationship with them. They were scared to get married, but they have been together for 22 years. I asked them why, and they said that everything changes with marriage. I sort of laughed, and asked how. They couldn´t respond. I then explained to them that the only changes are that they are complying with the law of the land and of God, and after 22 years, not much was going to change, they were just going to have a piece of paper certifying all of it. I think it made sense, the mom told the branch president that she wants to get married and baptized quick. We will be making that happen.

We also got a letter from the inactive who told us that there had been a misunderstanding, and that she was now Catholic. haha. I sort of had to laugh. like it or not, once baptized, always member, it´s written here and in heaven. She still apparently believes that we worship ¨José Mitch¨ like they say here, and that it´s wrong that we don´t worship Mary. ayaiai. that whole Mary thing really gets my Lenny. (my goat) Look up Luke 11:27-28, Christ even said not to worship her. but whatevs. We will keep visiting her.

In the ZC on wed, Pres said that we shouldn´t worry about playing any type of sports during the week, because we wouldn´t have time with all the references from the temple. I didn´t say anything, just let it lie.

No, the packages still haven´t come. or they could have, and I just don´t have them. We shall see. Still no letters, either. but I could just not have them.

Also, about that lathrop family. Okay, so the lady said that her grandfather wasn´t born in Kansas, but that is where the inheritance of her father is. She mentioned a Marion something. So if this Virgil has a connection to Lathrop, it could be. Also, it would most likely be before 1900, because this members father was born in 1912. yeah, he is old. oO some connection to the year 1912.

Two fun facts about Honduras. Normal world measures time BC and AD.  In Honduras, they use BHM and AHM. Before and after hurricane mitch. I literally hear all the time, ¨no we have a lot of time living here. We moved here before mitch.¨ or ¨We were baptized after mitch, so just a little while ago.¨ I heard a four year old use Mitch as a reference, and I thought, you weren´t even alive yet!!!! You can´t use that!!!!!

Second, is this.....

Thanks to Jarvis, my amado comp from the MTC, I learned that they will be diving SPS into SPS OESTE and SPS ESTE!!!!! Four missions here in honduras!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!

Also, we went to the temple again today. I noticed something interesting. On the chairs in the second ordinance room, the chairs have inlaid in them what appears to be chains. ´how fitting,´ i thought. ´chains on the chairs, and what we do is eternal.´ we chain families together forever. I had not noticed that before.

thats pretty much it. I think nothing else really happened. sorry if that's a boring letter. but it is what I got going on....

Anywho, love you guys, and see you in 16!!!!!!

Zach

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Well, my new area is intriguing. To answer some of Dad´s questions, the branch has about 80 registered members, but today we had an asistencia (I forgot the word in english) of 19. That is counting four missionaries and a district presidency member. So there is much work to be done. I am finding out that a lot of the inactives had a lot of problems with the prior branch president, and in place of fixing it or asking for forgiveness, they just inactivate. Oh well. I am learning a lot about how to teach primary. I taught both hours because the 22 year old assigned to be the primary president who also had third hours lesson didn´t show. We officialy had two primary girls. Luckily, you learn very quickly to just prepare both lessons, so i had no problems. I am slowly learning that the point of being here in branch has to deal with making the members and the branch grow. I am helping these people to not depend on the missionaries. That being said, We have a very, very, very long way to go. For the dedication of the temple, President Hernandez said that only those who have been paying tithing consistently for four months seguido can have a recommend, so that officially qualifies one member of the branch. I told the president, Elder Gomez, about back paying, but then I realized that nobody here has money to do that. haha.

This week we had dedicated to meeting members, inactives, and trying to find investigators. My comp is Elder --------, who was in my zone in Choluteca. We are getting along okay. He is very much about trying big exorbitant things to find little amounts of investigators. For example, he is trying to start a five week soccer tournament that includes about 100 people and paying refs and stuff, just to have the people supposedly come to church and lessons on nights that they don´t have a game. In his last ward, it bore one fruit. One of 100. I am completely opposed to the idea. I told him it was a waste of time, and that one in 100 is not using our time or efforts wisely. Then he told me that I didn´t have any faith, because I wasn´t willing to act. I replied that I have plenty of faith, I just don´t use it in stupid endeavors. We dropped the situation so as to not lose the spirit, but you get the picture. And I have a feeling that I am changing a little bit. I can´t give ground to him, because if I do, he takes the mile of the inch I gave him. So this is just a straight up no. I will say that he always finds a way to help me stay animated and excited, and I am constantly ironing his shirts and shining his shoes to help me to not kill him when he tells me I have no faith.

We also last Monday bought pancake mix, and I have had pancakes all week. Krusteaz ones. Not bad. I have not received any packages or letters, but I have to go to Teguc tomorrow to hand in diezmos and ofrendas (tithes and offerings), so we are going to the office, and I imagine they are there because there is money gone out of my account. They have to pay to get packages from the airport, so they use the account money of the Elder who they are for. On that note, speaking of money, I am going to be taking out of my gringo card more often here, because we are forty five minutes away from the nearest cajero (atm), so I can´t run out of money here. That would be bad. Buses start at like 30 limps and I don´t like hitchiking.

Well, for spiritual stuff. I have been reading last conferences talks every night before I go to bed, and I love one of them by President Monson. Called Consider the Blessings, its from the Sunday morning session. It talks all about how we can respond to promptings and be the answer to prayers. Well, I prayed to be able to understand the spirit better, and then I read my patriarchal blessing. It says (more or less) that I am blessed to understand the still small voice. Wow. So I doubled my praying efforts. And just yesterday, I was walking with my comp. We saw a little alley that we hadn´t seen before, and I thought- or had the thought, it wasn´t mine.- that we needed to walk that road. So we did. I just started down it, and comp had to come follow me. Well, we didn´t see anyone, no houses were occupied, so I started to think that we had just given the biggest turn in the world, as it was a detour out of our way. We then saw a group of people all looking at the HUGE fire that someone lit right by some houses, most likely to burn trash, that threatened pretty much everything here. We started talking to some of them, and really talked to a señora that was there. She was super smart and super friendly. super involved in like save the planet and keep kids out of smoking and drinking stuff. Well, come to find out, she is a MEMBER!!!!Iinactive from years. From San Pedro Sula. She went inactive there because the buildings were all in the most dangerous parts of the towns, and when she moved here, she went a few weeks before she had problems with some members but has been thinking about coming back. She is MARRIED, which never happens, and has one son that isn´t a member, and neither is her husband. I walked away from meeting her just thinking, Wow. I listened to what I thought were my own thoughts, and they definitely weren´t mine, and was led to someone who God needs back in church, back to help build his kingdom. She would be a HUGE asset to the rama (branch) right now, and so we are working with her. Or we will start to this week. Strengthened my testimony about listening to the spirit so much, and I am working hard to be better at it.

We also went to the temple on Monday!!! it was so cool!!!!!! That building is one of the prettiest temples I have seen. It really is what is said in psalms, ¨for who will come up to the mountain of the lord?¨ it is up on a mountain, and just emits a feeling of quiet power. I don´t know how quiet is a feeling, but there is no other way to describe it. And inside is so ornate and intricate.  This land will truly be blessed by this great building here in Tegucigalpa. I will send pictures soon. There was a just a calm, peaceful feeling inside. I understand better now, after 8 months here, the importance of the temple, and the importance of family. It talks about my family in my blessing, and I truly appreciate the chance I have to have the family I do. Really, in comparison to where I have been for 8 months, That is one of the main things I have realized. I will never take for granted what it means to be part of a family ever again. I can really see here how Satan works against the families. And the sad part is, he doesn´t even have to work that hard. After studying about the celestial kingdom, and having been to the temple, and realizing what it really is that we do with the priesthood, and the commandment that God has given us to have a family, I look at it differently. To be able to say that my parents are sealed,.....what a blessing. You remember when we all promised to make it back to one another in Sharon?? Well, when we made that promise, I didn´t make it with the intention of keeping it. Just to keep you guys from asking questions about where I was as a person and spiritually. But I can say that Now, I intend to keep it with everything I got. Everything. Venga lo que venga, sea lo que sea, with everything I got. Love you all.

That´s really it. I will tell that lady you found an ancestor, but if you could let me know where he was born, that would be great. Find out if he was ever in Kansas, or if there was a Lathrop in Kansas, please?? She would appreciate it. Ever since I told her about this, and that I have a line to this guy, she calls me Primo, which is cousin. everybody else is Hermano, but she calls me Primo. haha. makes me laugh, 

I really don´t have much else for this week. We went and visited some waterfalls, that were totally lame. TOTALLY lame. Ran through a bunch of tall grass, checked myself for ticks, found a ton in my clothes and none on my body. made me think of the brad paisley song Ticks. Look it up.....tomorrow. it is not a Sunday song. But singing the chorus in the shower made me laugh.

That's about it. Read D&C 19 when you get a chance, and then listen to the forgotten carols song Arise and shine forth. Thought about that this week. Don´t know why, but I did. And the lesson I taught in primary was all about Jesus being tempted by Satan, so no coincidence there.....

Love you all!!! have a fantastic time in Mesquite, and don´t let Cody drive home.

ZACH

Monday, February 11, 2013

HOLY CRAP!!!!!! I had some crazy intense changes. But first if you are wondering why I am writing on a Sunday, I have permission. from our branch president, Elder Gomez. We are going to be going to the temple on tours for the next three Mondays, so we probably won't have time to write.

Well, I am in a place called Yuscaran. I am in Valle Verde district. I am junior comp to Elder-------, who was with me in Cholu Este. He is DL. We are opening an area. HAHA. So much fun!!!!

We are in a branch of about 20. There are two other elders here, Gomez and his kid, Guzman. Gomez is Branch Pres. Right now, we are living in the chapel, and they have an apartment, but seeing as how he is BP, we are switching tomorrow. Don't worry I took pictures.

I am definitely on quite the adventure in this place. Yuscaran was founded for mines, and has tons of gold and silver still in them. It was the first city in Honduras to receive electric lights, and is super colonial like. But there is just one problem. We sit about two hours out of Teguc, and there are hardly no buses that go in or out of here. District meetings are like half an hour away, and we end up having to get rides in truck beds most of the time. There are also two factories of alcohol here in Yuscaran. So remember when we went to Salem in Mass. and we walked past that brewery and it smelled awful? Imagine waking up to that in the morning. Its terrible. Also, there is the river where they dump all the excess and waste from the factory, and that is in our area as well, so we have to cross it. and it smells even worse. But I am super excited to be here. It's cold here, like I have to use blankets at night, and i love it!!! After coming from the south and dying all day, its super fresco here. Also, both houses have hot water, because the apartment is super nice and the church used to be a hotel. so, it's all dandy in the morning showering with hot water.

We are trying to find more members to fill gaps. for example, I am temp. sec of branch, and training the primary president how to teach a class of 3 niñas and 3 babies. Harder than you think. She practically just reads them the primary manual. So, I am going to be helping her a lot. Also, we are trying to find more priesthood, and more families. The advantage is that there are a ton of non actives that live here, and a lot of them have families, so we are focusing to trying to find all of those to teach them, because then we accomplish both goals with less work.

Also, mother., you will never believe what happened this week. I FOUND SOMEONE WITH THE LAST NAME OF LATHROP. IN THIS LITTLE COLONIAL TOWN: Yeah, I know. Her grandfather is a gringo, from Kansas, and came here to mine, and had one child-her father. her grandfathers name is David Lathrop, and her great grandfather's is Virgil Lathrop. They are from Kansas. And left an inheritance for her Father that they will sadly never probably be able to claim. But I explained to her who John Lathrop was, and she is dying to know more. Please see what you can find.

I know you all probably have a million questions. I will answer a few quickly.

Our apartment is DOPE!!!!! It is easily the nicest house in the mission. We have a washer, dryer, stove, oven, microwave, blender, and tapwater we can practically drink. It is a really, really, really nice house. Like, states standards nice. I would live there to go to school no problem. So, can you put together some easy recipes, and send them my way?? I started the Sunday tradition of cooking a big meal for the three other elders and myself, and made homemade burgers today. Even made french fries and fry sauce.and put eggs on the burgers. But like, the pancake recipe that we have, easy pastas, meats maybe even some dessert stuff. like, i don't know. just see what you can find. That would be more than helpful. THANK YOU.

Umm...I don't know what else you want to know. Ask me this next week, but if you can send the letter earlier than Sunday, that would be great. I will send pictures next week, I hope. Hope.

Well, just one or two spiritual experiences.

I was thinking about it today while my comp was speaking in sacrament meeting. This town is full of precious metal. Makes me think of D and C when God says that if they go to a certain town, which I am pretty sure was Kirtland, they would find great treasures. Something like that. and I was thinking about what we are going to do to find all that treasure. Like, its probably hidden. We don't know anybody, or anything, we are going to be lost, the area is huge, and yada yada yada. I was thinking about that today as I was reading D and C 124. Jjust flipping through it, trying to find something else. Then I read verse 44. I don't know it in English, I was reading in Spanish, and the Spanish is ¨Si trabajáis con toda vuestra fuerza, yo consagraré ése lugar para que sea santo.¨ Pretty much, if you work with all your might, I will consecrate this place, so that it is sacred. I think that is pretty literal. But holy cow, that got me. I realized that I just needed to work, and if I worked hard, with all my might, and gave it all 110% of me, and more, that the lord will sanctify this town.

Sanctify it.

I prayed then to thank Him, and to let him know that I would do everything I possibly could to sanctify myself, so that He could work wonders through me. Joshua 5, I think. but that's for sure in Joshua. By me working hard, and sanctifying myself, he will sanctify this town. And That's what I plan on happening.

I love you all!!! I hope you all have had a great week, and that this next one is even better. I am going to the temple tomorrow, so I will let you know how it is.

Zach

Monday, February 4, 2013

Hola familia!! y todos.

I hope that you all had a fantastic week, and that the super bowl party was a blast. I don´t want to know what the food was, that will only make me jealous. I had chorizo, beans, eggs, and cheese with tortillas and some orange juice. I am sure that what you had was better.

Well, the weather up there sounds crazy. I am a little jealous, I want to see some snow so BAD.

So, this week was good. A little sad, but good.

This was the hard part of the week, and then I will talk about the good.

This week I learned what it means to be stiffnecked and heardhearted.

Heardhearted.

Well, we had a cita with the half family we are teaching. we watched the hour long restoration movie with them, hoping that that would change or soften the mother´s heart just a little bit. and it didn´t. Not that I can see. She won´t pray to get an answer.  She is sure that her answer will come just at some random moment. She also got mad at us because she doesn´t like it when we say that this is the only true church. Well, she is sort of angry at us for the main point of our message, my comp apologized for it sounding like that, but I didn´t. Christ never apologized to the Pharisees or the Sadducees that they couldn´t accept his message, and that they were in the wrong. So, I don´t apologize for saying truth. She was sort of offended, but I wouldn´t take it back. She asked me if her mother would be saved (her mother is a baptized Jehovah´s witness.) I said that she hadn´t been baptized by the proper authority, and in the correct manner, and so as of right now, she couldn´t enter god´s kingdom, following Juan 3:5. Well, she then asked me if that meant her mom was wasting her time. I said yes and no. I said that she wasn´t looking in the right place, she didn´t know where to find the truth. She got more offendded, and then we left. She won´t ask God. She talks about this great faith she has, but I have yet to see evidence of it. James 2:17-18

Stiffnecked.

We were teaching a staunch ------- about the restoration, and we got to prophets. The words that came out of his mouth, and I quote, were ¨I don´t know if I can believe in prophets, it seems too confusing.¨ Really?? No offense to -------- reading this, but you believe in Trans-substantiation, superogation, praying to Mary, indulgences, papal line of authority, beatification, the trinity, and that God is a mystery, and Prophets, something outlined in the BIBLE very CLEARLY is too confusing?? Amos 3:7, Ephesians 2:20 and 4:11-14, Exodus 33:11 and hebrews 5:4. And then the fact that God has been the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8. Well, we asked him if God had changed, and he said of course not, so then we said, sir, you just contradicted yourself. If god hasn´t changed, then prophets still exist. If you don´t believe that prophets exist, then you are saying that God has ceased to be God, due to a change. He responded with something irrelevant, and then we brought up the plan of salvation. He was a marriage counseler for the ------- church, but doesn´t believe in marriage past the grave. So we asked that if God had put families together, why would he give Peter the power to seal on earth and in heaven if there was nothing in heaven?? He said that we were just going to be spirits, but I said that if Christ said to be like his father who is perfect, and Christ has a body, and is perfect, and is the SAME as the father, then the father has to have a body, and by default, we will have bodies. He just said, well, the priest said it wasn´t like that, soo.....it can´t be. So entrenched in his own stuff that nothing can possibly ever change.

Now, the good stuff.

We found new investigators!!! We set dates for the 16 of February, and are working with them. Seven and two would be a family, so it´s good!!! I will include more about them next week, or when I have sent you pictures with them. So next week, hopefully. Don´t have a whole lot of time left.

Also, the bishop invited us over for dinner,. we got there, and there was nobody home. WE WAITED FOR 30 MINUTES AND NOBODY SHOWED. and we went back at 830 and still noone. Then, they show up at our apartment, with obviously bought food, and the wife says, ¨So why didn´t you show up, elders?¨ Excuse me? I waited for 45 minutes, knocked, and nobody. I told her that, and she didn´t seem very happy. Oh well. When you tell four elders to come over for dinner, and then nobody is clearly home, and then we have to go invent food because we were planning on eating something good, you have four unhappy elders.

I know that it sounds like I was sort of angry this week, but it´s quite the opposite. I have actually been really happy, just sometimes I need to vent to people. So that was this week. I LOVE being here, and working and doing the things I am doing. I am so excited to be moving on to a new place, even though this is going to be hard to leave. I wouldn´t want to be doing anything else with my life. Its sort of weird. I am pretty much happy all the time, but the times when I get frustrated or angry are so few and far between, and generally make pretty good stories. I learn alot from looking back at myself and recalculating. It´s something I learned from a talk by Elder Wirthlin, or an article in the Liahona. To be better disciples of Christ, we have to be constantly changing and growing. The gospel is a gospel of progress. If we don´t progress, we aren´t living it right. And we measure progress personally, not against other people. If we do it like that, against other people, we are like mason driving in the car- always in 3rd or 4th or 5th place, and never in first. I am honestly in 1st place right now, because I am a better person than I was yesterday, a week ago, a change ago, 8 months ago, and a year ago. (its been a year since I got my call, fyi) So always try to progress. It´s what the Lord wants.

Oh, and Family. Isn´t it about,....time?? I thought that "Progress, it´s what the Lord wants" would make a good slogan for the church. So that´s where that comes from. And that, ladies and gents, is my blue coming out.

Tell everybody thanks for writing me a little, it was super great. I need some help from uncle dave.....As of late, people have been asking if I speak English, and I say yes, and then they talk to me in something that resembles chinese ( I think.). So, I am just going to tell people I am German. So I need German phrases in order to hold up the facade. A little help? Just some simple phrases. Thanks.

Love you guys, have a fantastic week, and see you in about 16 months.

Zach