January 20, 2014

Mom,

here`s the update I sent to dad this week:

I am doing well, weve been pretty busy this week doing random stuff, but we haven`t had much time to visit our investigators or teach lessons. Monday we went up to tegus and stayed the night and tuesday morning we had our mission leadership meeting. Then wednesday we travelled to a different part of honduras to get some papers for a wedding that some of the sister missionaries in our area had this week. Then thursday, we went back up to tegus to go to the temple, and that was nice. I finally got to see the new temple video and it was good. Then friday we had our zone meetinga and then we went around and did interviews for missionaries in our zone`s investigators. Then saturday we started working a little bit, but we also had to help with some of the baptisms and the wedding of the sisters. So we didn`t have a great chance to work in our area this week, but we had a couple of investigators in church yesterday. We will probably still have a baptism this week, next sunday, so that`ll be good. It is for a youth. She is pretty positive, and we`re still working with her family to get baptized. Other than that, we don`t have a ton of investigators. 

We are working with a lady that has been an investigator for a long time, but was an investigator of the other elders in our ward. We challenged her and she may want to move out instead of getting married to the guy that she`s living with. We`ll see how that goes..

Things with my companion are good. We`re working well together and we`ve stayed busy like I`ve said.

Yeah, I was on a bus way too many hours this week. Probably a whole 24 hours of bus rides. It was painful. But at least there were no chickens, I`m not sure to which movies you would be referring.

Other random thought: yesterday we ate pigs foot with some non members, that was a little gross. They also accidentally gave us tea, because they thought that iced tea was okay. we just tried a sip of iced tea mixed with pineapple juice, but then they told us so I stopped drinking it. haha. pig feet is gross though.

I guess that`s the news for this week.

I`ll send some random pics for the last few weeks, I don`t remember if I`ve already sent some or not...

Love,

Elder Ward

January 13, 2014

Alright everyone, I guess I`ll send another group email out to keep you all at least a little updated about my life and stuff.

This week we had changes and my companion left to Tegus to end his mission. I learned a lot from him and he was one of my best companions.

My new companion is cool too, and we`re going to keep working hard together. He is from Ephraim, Utah and he has a change less than me in the mission, so like 16 months.

We`re staying busy here in porvenir, choluteca, were trying more than anything to get people to come to church, but we have a few investigators that are progressing and we normally have at least a few that go to church each week. We`re also busy running around helping the zone out with everything, there are lots of weddings and stuff that we have to get ready before the families can get baptized.

That`s about all I`ve got for this update. Sorry it`s short.

Love,

Elder Ward

Mom,

Sorry about not wishing you a happy birthday last week. It`s hard to remember when you only have like an hour a week to write you.

I hope that you did have a good birthday though.

Thanks for your pictures of Mexico, It looks like fun work.

Our investigators are like 20-25 minutes walking away from the church. There`s buses too, but sometimes people don`t want to pay.

Today we`re going to go up to tegus for a leader meeting. I went up last week too for changes, and I`m sick of the 4 hour bus ride both ways.

That`s about all the news I have, this keyboard I`m typing on hardly works to type with, so I`ll finish I guess.

Love,

Elder Ward

January 6, 2014

Mom,

That´s good that your trip to Mexico went well and that you were all safe. 

Things here are about the same. as always. we´re working hard, but it´s not easy to bring our investigators to church every week. nobody wants to go because it is so far away. This is probably my last week with my companion, which is sad. Changes are this wednesday, and we´ll see if we have big changes with the zone and stuff.

I´ve been on divisions a few times this week and been away from my area for a bit, but it´s been good. New years there were a lot of celebrations and they lit of a ton of fireworks. They sell big dangerous fireworks really cheap here, so new years day was loud, but it was cool.

That´s probably about it for this week, but here´s some pics.

Love, 

Elder Ward

(to Averianne)

well, things here in honduras go well. This morning we went and played baseball with our zone, which was alright. I also jumped off of a roof that I climbed onto, I keep wanting to do more parkour stuff already, but I guess I´ll just have to focus on working out to get huge so I can do even cooler parkour later. I twisted my ankle playing football today too, and I thought that it was going to be pretty bad, but it very surprisingly got better as soon as I tried to walk on it and now I haven´t even noticed it, so that was cool.

I think that that´s about it for this week.

-ME

December 30, 2013

Mom,

I ate pig skin soup and chicken throat this week with some members. I didn´t like the pig skin soup. it felt really weird, and I was already full, so I was like gagging while I was eating it.. We´ll see if you guys can find anything weirder to eat while you´re in Mexico. ;p

Well, I hope that your Mexico trip is cool and that you all stay safe.

Love,
Elder Ward

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