December 23, 2013

umm, how about I just try to call the home phone before I get on skype for 2 seconds, I think that my companions going to get a phone chip to call the US, so I can just warn yall before I get on. I imagine that it will be between 1 and 2 here, so between noon and 1 there (i think, I don`t remember how to do that math). but yeah.

we were looking at apartments for some of the sisters in our zone. we have to approve of any missionaries changing houses before they move.

yes, divisions are splits, just for a day.

for the christmas party we just sang and had a meeting, ate lunch, and I did some extra paperwork that I hadn`t finished from yuscaran and then we watched the santa clause.

alright, I don`t have much to write right now, because I`ll talk to you all on wednesday.

love,

elder ward

December 16, 2013

mom,

okay, I will call on the 25th, sometime in the afternoon. just get on and stay on all day and ill call

[as zone leader] we normally run errands like bringing stuff to other missionaries or working with lawyers to get the investigators married or do baptismal interviews or do divisions with other missionaries. stuff like that. we did divisions twice this week with missionaries in our zone. we also had a mission christmas party in tegus, so we had to go all the way up there again, but it was good. I also met bethany`s (my friend from snow college) fiance today. he served his mission here and came back to visit.

we found a gairobo today in an apartment we were looking at, so I took a picture of it. it`s like a big iguana.

we played soccer this morning, and we ordered jerseys as a zone that should be pretty cool.

My trainer is going home this week, so I said goodbye to him today. that was a little weird.

Well, i don`t really know what else to say. I guess i`ll end.

I hope everyone`s still doing well,

Love,

Elder Ward

December 9, 2013

Mom,

my time to use the computer each week feels much shorter now. we`ve done a lot of stuff today, so now its late, but i`ll try and write a little bit to you right now.

yes, I know who the new branch president is, i`ve called and explained some stuff to him, but it will be very hard for them starting without any experience, but maybe they`ll have some new ideas for how to improve the area without too much prejudice or anything.

I don`t know why it`s so hot here, it`s not all that humid, but it is definitely hot. here the whole city of choluteca is really flat and dry. it did rain this week and after that it felt really humid. it is very surprising the difference that you feel when you walk into an air conditioned room. our house just has fans, but the church and a lot of public places have ac.

For christmas, i can call the 25th, (or the 24th maybe, latin american christmas) but i don`t know at what time yet. if you have a preference just let me know. we already figured out where we can use a computer with some friends of ours. The rule this time is use skype for just 1 hour, so it will be shorter than last times. i`ll keep you updated on that in the coming weeks.

no, im not sick anymore

we have meetings in tegus every month for the zls

as a zl we just run errands for other missionaries in the mornings and go on divisions and stuff sometimes. we just have no free time, and it`s hard to squease studying in in the mornings with all the stuff that we do.

that`s about it this week. we are working hard, we are always busy. we are definitely always sweating and dirty, but it`s good not to have any dead time. time is going by quickly without any breaks or any stops.

love,

elder ward

Dad,

i`ll definitely send some of this hot your way. id love to have some cold. at least we found an internet cafe with ac here. they have nice computers too.

my new area isn`t huge. there are a lot of missionaries in this city, and each ward has like 2 or 3 sets of missionaries. our zone is pretty big, we have some elders that are like an hour away, but most of the others are within walking distance. in my zone there are 13 elders and 8 sisters, but one elder is going home next week (that`s why there`s an odd number, they`re in a trio) there are like 14 or 15 zones in the mission. my companion has like 4 or 5 months as a zl. zone conferences are what the mission president and the aps set up. i`m only in charge of watching over district meetings and zone workshops, once a month.

zone conferences are every 3 months

we have some investigators, but it`s hard to get everyone to church. we try to get everyone to a place in our area where they can all get in the back of a members truck who will take them to church, but we (as missionaries) can`t go in the back of trucks here anymore, so we have to walk like 20 extra minutes to get to church after visiting and inviting our investigators.

I am feeling better. My stomach has been adjusting to eating members food instead of just buying whatever i need. it`s weird not to have to buy food, we just eat with others, and we will get super fat this christmas from eating with so many members and people.

I think that`s all the news I have right now. we are working hard and getting exhausted every day, but its good to always be super busy.

love,

elder ward

December 2, 2013

This week I had 2 exciting events happen that I´ll explain in this email.

First, we had the most amazing Thanksgiving dinner that any missionary has ever had in Honduras. Second, I finally had changes and left Yuscarán!!

Alright, well I´ll explain a little of my week: the last weekend of november for the elections was when we stayed inside for 3 days straight. Then we had pday a day later (tuesday) and wednesday we worked for the last time in Yuscarán. Then, thursday, we went like 2 hours out to this area way far out in our zone and had an amazing thanksgiving with some members that live there. We went and had our district meeting in the morning there, and after, we went and they had cleared away a spot for us to go and play football there. I´m not referring to spanish fútbol like soccer, we brought out the real american ball and threw it around and played a little bit. They were really trying to adapt the american culture for us that day. After we threw the ball around a bit in the morning, we went into their house and we helped prepare the food a little bit, but it was a ton for just us. They had 3 turkeys, a huge thing of mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, jellos, salads, rolls, yams and marshmallows, and every other thanksgiving food that we would need. Plus all of the desserts, we had cookies, cakes, bars, and apple pie. It was an amazing meal that our whole zone got for free. This family is super rich, and they just offered to do this for us, just because they wanted to share with others who would apreciate it. it was so cool!

Then, thursday night, we got the phone call. They told me that my companion was leaving, and that the other elder from my branch was leaving, I was starting to get worried that I was going to stay in yuscaran because I had thought that my companion was going to be the next branch president, but then they told him he was leaving. But at the end they told me that I was also leaving. I came to one of the southern parts of honduras called Porvenir, Choluteca. It´s about 3 hours in bus south of tegus, unless you´re in a slow bus like ours, which took over 4.. The south is super hot, but it´s full of a lot nicer people. I´m in a really nice ward now too, and a good area. Yesterday in church it was weird because I just sat there in the back with my investigators and realized that I didn´t have to do anything in the meeting but listen. I didn´t conduct the meeting or the hymns, I didn´t bless or pass the sacrament or anything. Everything just worked without me having to do anything. Our ward is in the stake center down here in the south, which the building is massive, it´s bigger than my home church or my home stake center even. I´ll have to take a picture to send sometime.. We had like 130 people in church yesterday, which felt like a lot to me. It was nice to go to church with a lot of people again.

My new companions super cool too. I´m with the elder who was my DL about a year ago. He and I get along well and he is a great missionary. He´s from Riverton, Utah and has 20 months in the mission, so he´s pretty close to finishing. I just got called to be a Zone Leader this change, so he´s teaching me how to be a ZL. I didn´t think that I would be a ZL because most of the time you have to be a DL for a little bit before they call you to be ZL. But it´s interesting. I will have to learn a lot, because there are many differences between here and yuscaran. Choluteca feels like a completely different mission because everything is changed and it has its own kind of atmosphere. Our zone is really big now too, we have 21 missionaries in our zone and 8 of them are sisters, which is a lot. But it´s been good to get to know everyone here and learn how everything works here. I´ve been sick a lot this last weekend too. I got some stomach sickness that has been annoying me. Saturday we had to stay home because I really couldn´t go out. Sunday I felt a little better and today I´ve been doing pretty good, but it has not been fun being so sick.

I´m excited to be here and to start doing something new. I have a great area, a great ward, and a great companion and plenty to do, so I just need to start working like crazy. We´re going to always be busy now here, we have to work in our area, organize all the zone stuff with our big zone, we have a leader meeting in Tegus this week so we´ll have to go all the way back up there, and I imagine that we´ll be going on quite a few divisions with the people in our zone soon.

I hope that all of you everywhere are doing well and that my family can all recover from their sicknesses. I know that it´s not fun at all, but hopefully it´s just for a little bit.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Ward