Oct. 22

Dear Mom,

I did get your package. I got it just barely, right before I read your email, and opened it up, and had a couple of Elders swarm over to see what it was so I shared with them. But its good that inside it has been disguised in a Bible box, so that everyone else thought that I just got a book, and isn´t asking about what it is more...

I didn´t have to pay anything as far as I know. It is possible that when it got to the mission office, they had to pay and just took it out of my account, which is fine, but I´m not exactly sure right now. I think that I can get most of the things that I want here, if there is ever any time to go shopping-Pdays are already pretty busy... But I don´t want to waste a lot of your money in sending big packages. A couple of things that I can´t get down here that I would like is the Thorlos socks, which I know are expensive, but honestly they are the only socks that I will wear, even if I have to repeat days with them now. Other socks don´t feel good with sunday shoes, and start to hurt my feet if I wear them. Anyways, yes I am now a huge fan of the Thorlos socks now, and I would like a few more pairs of them, so that the ones that I have right now don´t get too stinky from wearing them all the time. That also might be something to pass on to like James and some of the other people who you know are going on missions. They are worth the extra money to save your feet from getting all beat up from walking all day every day in uncomfortable shoes. The socks just add protection and comfort to any of the uncomfortable shoes that you wear. Anyways, so that was my big long story about how much I love my socks... haha. Also, I might want my old Camelbak from home that I had. I haven´t seen any good backpacks here, and I think that I will need a good one for when I go to the southern areas of my mission. But I´m not dying for either one of those things, just thoughts of things that I might want. I´ll try to think of more, and maybe sometime I could just get a bigger package of all the stuff that I want at one time to save some money on sending packages. Umm, and also, I was wondering if you could try to find a talk that Elder Bednar gave in the MTC I think it was the Christmas of 2009 or 2010. It is called ¨The Character of Christ¨. I watched it when I was in the MTC, and I really liked it, so I was wondering if I could get an attachment of the article in an email or something of it. I tried to find it on LDS.org in the MTC, but I couldn´t, so I don´t really know exactly where you could find it, or if there is even access to the general public to talks given in the MTC or anything like that. Another thing that I wouldn´t mind that could be sent through email is piano music. Sometimes we have free time when we can practice, but I want to learn other stuff than just simple hymns. I was wondering if there was some sheet music that you could like scan onto the computer and email to me to print off and practice. One in particular that I was wondering if you could send to me is ¨Winter Wind¨. I don´t know why, but I wanted to learn that one recently... Anyways, that´s all that I can think of right now that I can´t get down here.

So anyways, life is good here. Just continuing to learn and teaching and talking to people and normal missionary stuff. My companion and I get along pretty well, its working out pretty well to be with him, and I am learning a lot from being with him. We normally walk everywhere. Our area is pretty small, but it is on a hill, so its getting me in shape a little bit more. I´m trying to exercise more, but sometimes I just dont have time or motivation in the mornings. We occassionally, if we are going somewhere else in the city out of our area, like for district meetings, zone conferences, pday, shopping, if we need to go to the mission office, etc., we will use a taxi or a bus.

It´s crazy to think that its already Halloweentime. They won´t celebrate Halloween here, I was talking to this kid who was probably about 6 years old, who was trying to talk to me in English, who was telling me about how Barack Obama celebrates the day of the witches (Halloween) and that Halloween is the birthday of the devil. It was interesting, and confusing to try to comprehend his English, haha. He then went on to ask me about the soil of the US, and was talking to me about how the soils were different between Honduras and the US, and was talking about the soil levels in Miami Florida, specifically, and how it changed the ways that the trees grow in the US. It was super random that he was telling me about it, and went on about it for a good 5 to 10 minutes while we were in his parents car, who they didn´t understand what he was saying, they dont speak English. But after talking to that kid, I began to wonder if in the English classes they were teaching the kids geology classes in English, it was very strange, so that was interesting. I think that most of the nicer schools try to teach English here, but not too many people learn English here. A lot of the people that I talk to, especially all of the teenagers talk about how they want to save up money, learn English, and move to the US. Like, a lot of the people. I think that it´s crazy. We have been talking to some teenagers who we are teaching about this, and have been teaching them a little bit of English, along with the missionary lessons. They came with us to play soccer today too. I just think that its crazy how many people want to leave here.

lot of the other things here are similar or the same. I was telling arissa today in an email about how a lot of the labels on the foods at the store are in English, and that the music they play in the stores are all in English, and songs that I know, and were popular in the US. I think that it will be fun to go to the South part of the mission, and not have any of that, and be in like mud huts and some of the other stuff that the missionaries talk about living in in their other areas. But I´m sure that that time will come.

Anyways, I have to go, but I hope that everything is good there in Utah!

Love,

Elder Ward

Dear Arissa,

I wish that I could have gone to Moab with all of you too, that would have been fun! I enjoy Goblin Valley especially and all of the other hikes and stuff that is there. Utah is a cool place, very different from a lot of places in the world, you are lucky to be in such a cool state. I´m sorry that school is difficult and that you are so busy with your schoolwork... But if you are learning a lot then that is good too. The weather here is very nice. I am in the city part of my mission, so the temperature is pretty nice, most of the time. We have 2 seasons: dry and raining. Right now it is in the raining season, so we get wet every once in awhile. It´s a little bit hot right now, but not too bad. It will be weird not having any winter though... The stores are good. They are very similar to the United States. There are a lot of products that are imports from the US, and so a lot of the stuff in the stores are in English. Some is labeled in both English and Spanish, and some is just Spanish, but I didn´t really expect to see stuff like Cap'n Crunch and name brand stuff like that here, just like from the states. Also a lot of the music here is the same music that you could listen to back in the US. Especially in the stores, they will play american pop music, which surprised me at first. They don´t mind that they don't understand the lyrics, they just like the music. Anyways, everything is good here.

I hope that all is good at home!

Love,

Elder Ward

Oct. 15

Hi,

I have not heard of James´ call! He better write me if he hasn´t already, although it is possible that it´s still coming, especially if it isn´t a dear elder. I sent him a letter to your house that I want you to give to him when you see him next. I wrote it last monday, but I sent it Thursday. All of the mail goes through the mission office, and then it jumps back and forth through the zone leaders and district leaders, and a whole bunch of random people just try and get their right mail from the mail pouch that bounces around in each zone, so it´s possible that it is here and just bouncing around. Most of the time I will only get mail when I see the zone leaders, which is normally only Mondays and Thursdays, so those are also the days that I can send out mail. So normally I write mail monday, and send it Thursday. I did get a letter from Quinn today, so my address should be right, and eventually I will get the mail, hopefully. 

I do have a lot of stuff here, and I probably could have bought a lot of it here, but it´s okay, we don´t have a ton of time to go shopping, a lot of my Pdays are spent playing soccer with the zone, and then with emailing too...

This week has been good, not too different than last week. We went to church this week, and our church has like 3 buildings in the fenced enclosure. 1 building is for Sacrament Meeting, another is for the baptismal font/bathrooms, and the other is for the general meetings. Church was nice though, even though it was hard to understand anything in Spanish. Also, we went to the next class, and my companion told me that we were teaching! So we found some scriptures really fast, and got a small lesson ready, and it went pretty well, I think. So that was good.

We got to go to some of the higher parts of the hill of our area, which we had to hike to get up to, which was good. I enjoyed the hiking.

Love,

Elder Ward


(from a letter to Arissa)

Honduras is good, I like it a lot! It is very different, but it is very interesting. My area is on a big hill, and we do a lot of walking up and down the hill on dirt roads. We´ve been to a couple of the farther parts of area, at the top of the hill, which we´ve had to do little hikes to get up to them. It has been nice to go on these mini hikes, because I have missed hiking. It was a little tough to go up, hiking all dressed up, with a shoulder bag full of books, but today (p-day), we went up to the top of the hill to play soccer, with the other elders in our zone, so we got to go on that hike in normal clothes. And on the way down, I jumped down all the rocks, just going a little bit crazy, how I normally do, so that was good. Soccer is the only thing that anybody talks about here. It´s huge. So we will probably be playing it a lot, which is good, even if I´m not very good at it right now. My Spanish is doing alright, I can understand most of the conversations we have about the gospel, but I still have plenty more to learn, but I´m not too worried about learning Spanish, it will be cool when I can talk perfectly with the people here. There is not a time difference right now, because we don´t have daylight savings time here, which I wish that we did, because I wake up before 6 every morning because it is too bright in my room before even my alarm clock goes off, and then it gets dark at like 5-6 in the afternoon, so we have to work in the dark until 9. And then I can´t fall asleep because the dogs here go crazy barking at night. Mostly just one dog thats nearby, that I hate. But other than that, it´s good.

Hope that all´s good!
Love,
Elder Ward 

Contact info

He can get mail through dearelder.com.  You need to select the Honduras, Tegucigalpa Mission (there are no codes).  You need to send your email to him through dearelder.com by midnight Sunday night/Monday morning to go out in that week's pouch. 

You can also write directly to SLC to have something go in the pouch:

Pouch instructions:

Pouch leaves Church Headquarters each Friday.  Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes) written on one side of the page may be sent through he pouch.  Notebook or other lightweight paper will not process through the USPS machines.  Photographs are not acceptable. 

Letter folding instructions:  Lay the letter blank side down.  Fold the bottom of the letter about one-third of the way up the page and crease.  Fold the top of the letter to the bottom of the first fold and crease.  Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch in from each end, but do not seal the ends.  In the top left corner write your name and complete return address.  Affix first class postage in the top right corner.  In the middle write the missionary address as follows:

Elder Matthew Bradon Ward
Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150

Here is his mission home address:

Elder Matthew Bradon Ward
Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission
Colonia Florencia Norte, Contiguo a SEAR
Entre boulevar Suyapa y PriceSmart
Edificio Plaza America, 3er Piso


(In Matt's mission packet, they didn't include this, but I wonder if you need to put this line on too:  Tegucigalpa M.D.C. HONDURAS C.A.)

Here is the address for packages:

Elder Matthew Bradon Ward
Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission
Colonia Florencia Norte, Contiguo a SEARS
Entre boulevar Suyapa y PriceSmart
Edificio Plaza America, 3er Piso
Tegucigalpa M.D.C. HONDURAS C.A.

Oct. 8, 2012

Well, alright. I´m in Honduras now. The first 2 days, we stayed in the mission president´s home. Now, my companion, Elder Evans and I have gone to our apartment in the city Teguz (Tegucigalpa) which is pretty nice. We have running water and electricity. We don´t have warm water, so we boil water for our showers. I explained the laundry in my pictures that I have sent to Averi today. The apartment is fairly nice, for Honduras. The houses here are very simple. They have either cement walls, or poorer with like wood. The roofs are almost always tin, sometimes they are nicer, like in our apartment. We have windows, but not like actual panes, most everybody just has screens, or just open windows. Although we don´t have bugs in this part of Honduras very bad. I haven´t seen any mosquitos yet, and have only seen like ants and stuff. I did see a spider today too, but it was tiny. I hear that the city really isn´t too bad for heat, bugs, and having nice houses and stuff like that.. The south part of the mission, or more to the east I´m sure will be worse. The weather here is pretty nice, I thought it would be worse. I have lost my sense of telling exactly what temperature it is, but most days it´s pretty nice. We are in rainy season right now, and it rained really hard one day, and a little bit another day. It is hot here, but not awful. There is humidity, but not really bad. Sometimes I get back at night covered in sweat from walking up the hill in the heat and stuff, but not always. Again, I have it pretty easy because I am in the city. My companion is from Utah, and has been here about 7 months, so he is pretty new too, which is good for me, because I can understand most of his Spanish, it´s not too complicated yet. He´s a good guy, he did parkour too before his mission and stuff. General conference was good, we all went to the church, and all of the english missionaries (about 8 of us) were in a little room with a TV in English. It was a good session of conference. It was crazy the announcement about the different ages for missionaries. That will make things so weird, not only here in the mission, knowing that I might train an 18 year old, but also for the differences in stuff after I get home, everything will be different in school and stuff, the new social change that that will make is crazy. But it is good. I´m sure that that will have a huge effect on who/when people are going to college/getting married/going on missions up there. Other than that, things are pretty good here, just teaching investigators and stuff. The investigators and members feed us a lot here, so I have been trying new foods. It is very offensive to turn down any food, so much so that my companion and I broke our fasts to avoid offending our investigators, but we fasted the next day to make up for it. The food is mostly pretty good. It´s mostly tortillas, rice, beans, and eggs. It´s normally pretty good, although sometimes you just have to choke something down to be polite. We can´t drink anything from the tap, so we buy big containers of clean water to drink, but when we visit members or investigators, they like giving us either some type of juice or soda. I hate when I have to drink soda, but it is like their best drinks, so they give that to us, which I´d rather just always drink water. The soda is going to kill my body. I hate soda, just in general. So, for food, all we really buy is breakfast, and the rest of the time we either buy some type of food while we are out any about, or get stuff from the people we teach. In the stores, about half of the things have just been exported down here, so all of the labels and stuff are in english for half of the items in the store, which is a little weird. I can buy most of anything that I could before here. They have name brand stuff too, like Cap´n Crunch or 5Gum or stuff like that I can buy here... My Spanish is okay, I don´t know what´s going on most of the time, but I´m getting there. It´s hard to explain how it´s progressing, but eventually I´ll get the language down. I have only been here a week, but I feel like I know a lot about Honduras already, and it feels pretty normal now, it´s exciting to do something new in my life, to have all of the customs, styles, and people be different than before. I´m sure it would have been even crazier if I had gone to one of the little village missions in the south, with a native companion, like most of the Elders from my group did, the mission president likes to put the new Elders with native speakers, so I´m one of the few with an English companion. That´s about all that I can think of about how it´s going here. It´s good though, it´s definently different than I expected a mission to be. Idk how to describe it well. Anyways yup, that´s life here.

I did get your Dear Elder (letter) this week (I, Tiauna, submitted it on Sunday, Sept. 30). I think that that might be the best way to talk to me. Mail and Dear Elders, after they get to the mission office, are just given to the zone leaders and eventually sometime in the week, at like church or P-day zone activities, or in zone meetings they will hand out the mail they got. I don´t know how long actual mail will take to get here though. This ldsmail email is supposed to be only for my immediate family, so my friends can either use dear elder, or snail mail to talk to me, and then I would use snail mail to reply back to them. 

I´ll talk to you all later,

Love,

Elder Ward

Note from Tiauna:  He called us from the SLC airport, but it was really hard to hear him, he couldn't hear us, and he seemed to be in a hurry, so it was frustrating.  But he called us the next day from Honduras, and it was wonderful to talk to him!  We could all hear each other!  He said it is really green there and the houses have been spray painted in bright colors.  He said there are McDonald's, Little Caesar's Pizza, Burger King, etc. in Tegucigalpa.  He told us the mission home is really nice, and he likes his mission president.  He flew out with 6 elders I think he said.  It was great to hear his voice!  He sounded really good!