Beware Of Pride ... And The Scary School Buses.

Hey Friends!!!

I have an hour and a half to write about a very busy week. I'll see what I can do XD.  Sadly, I don't know how to start this email or really how to even name this email. So much happened this week and none of it really stood out to me as week-defining. I do think I will start out with a warning: There may be some repitition between this email and the previous email, but I'm sure that will be fine. I also want to share a fun fact about my mission right now!

Fun Fact: My companion has a list of my debts to him. Just a few hours ago it was sitting over 300 Lempira (Over $15)

Monday - Aug 21st

I likely already talked about much of today in my last email, but Mondays are my P-days (for this year).  From 6:30am to 6pm us missionaries have time to relax, enjoy, and prepare for the rest of the week. This means chores (lots of laundry), emails, phone calls, and other overall preperation stuff.  Today was really needed as I was feeling overwhelmed with all the new stuff of Honduras, and of the new responsibilities I have. It was so nice to talk to my family and send out a bunch of emails. I want to send personal emails to each of you, but that will take time so you may need to excercise some patience.

Today was one of three rainy days in this week, but this one was the calmest of the three.  Funnily enough, because we don't have running water in our house right now (the water was cut before I came here so a street could be built next to our house ... we're still waiting for them to work on the street) the rain is the closest thing we have to a shower.

Every P-day morning my district (which is composed of Me, my companion - Elder Miles, my District leader - Elder Van Dyke, and his companion, my ex-district leader - Elder Porter) goes out to eat or to do an activity. This may be the part I look forward to the most each week. This P-day we went to a restaurant that specialized in Baleadas: Heaven!!!

P-days will likely be the only day where I will have internet because today is really the only day where I need internet, and to get internet I need to connect to my companion's hotspot and use mobile data.  You guys will be able to hear from me on P-days, and I will be able to hear from you guys then to!

Shout out to my parents, who had their anniversary today! I love you guys!

Tuesday - Aug 22nd

As Elder Miles and I were wrapping up the day we were walking back to our house when we heard a bunch of loud, but short honks from around the corner. All of the sudden, a SCHOOL BUS came veering around the corner at MACH speed. The drivers here are kinda crazy sometimes!

Today was the day I could finally get money from the bank to spend here in Honduras. I've been having trouble these past few days and I'm glad I could finally have some way to help pitch in for my companion.

Speaking of my companion, Elder Miles had a stomach bug today.  I won't lie, when I got ready for the day at 6:30 and was hard working, but saw my companion sleeping-in till 8:30 I was pretty annoyed with him, but when I learned that he wasn't feeling good I felt bad for even feeling that way.  Remember you guys: There is always something you don't know, and that something can make a big difference in your perspective of a situation. For me, it was learning that my companion was feeling sick.

Wednesday - Aug 23

Two special things to break up my Wednesdays: District Meetings and Ward Councils. 

For district meetings the two Mochito areas (Mochito 1, which overlaps the bulk of Las Vegas and Mochito 2, my area, that covers the towns south of Las Vegas) report their progress with the members, inactive-members, and investigators and make plans for the next week.

For ward councils, the leaders of the ward (Bishop, Elders quorum president, Relief society president, young men and young womens president, etc) all meet together to plan how to include members in activities and such for the week. There we shared the baptisms planned for the week (4 for this weekend) and petitioned for some members to help pick up the people to be taken to the chapel for their baptism. The biggest problem with my area is that it is away from the big city and there aren't too many active members here, so it's hard to get members to work with us for proselyting, teaching, or transportation.

Fun fact about the ward I'm in: There are about 1000 members in the ward, but only about 100 are active. That means that 90% of members here are inactive, but there is still so many people who have been baptized.  

Bryan is going to be baptized this next Sunday, so we decided to visit him to hype him up, answer questions, and do some service. Elder Miles and I helped him and his family harvest beans (of which there is a ton).  Their family harvest beans most weeks to feed their family and have an income. This week they have harvested about 30lbs of beans, and they go through about 5lbs each week as a family, so they have about 6 weeks of beans. WOW.

Thursday - Aug 24th

I'm not sure about how I feel about the events of today, they were certainly amazing, but there are some caveats that I will mention in a moment.

Today I had to wake up about an hour early so I could catch a bus to Rio Lindo.  The reason to catch a bus to go to a city an hour and a half away from my area is because we had ZONE CONFERENCE today. This happens one time per transfer (once every 6 months), and it was amazing to see all the missionaries in my zone. There are about 3 sister missionary companionships, and 4 Elder missionary companionships, that makes for about 14 missionaries in my zone. 

It was very cool to meet new missionaries, see old ones (relatively speaking), to hear about the gospel, practice teaching in a fun way, and sign flags (or in my case, the back of my personal Book of Mormon).  I'm so glad I could go and see them. My area is about the farthest away from the bulk of the area, so we got up early to make it to the meeting point, but we ended up being the first missionaries at the chapel with nothing to do XD.  Our zone is doing great and I'm sad that I will only see them once for these first 6 weeks because I didn't get most of their autographs.

After the conference my district stopped by a restaurant in Peña Blanca called Happyzza. There we bought Pizza and BBQ wings. There was so much pizza afterwards that I still have some left-overs in my fridge as I'm writing this paragraph (I'm writing this on the 28th of August), and the BBQ wings were so covered in my favorite sauce in the world! I'm definentally coming here again for more wings.

In the afternoon Elder Miles and I went out to preach and I had a feeling to grab my umbrella, but I shook off that feeling and went out to preach. BIG MISTAKE.  It was pouring from 4 to 9 and we were absolutely soaked the whole time.  The people were so nice and offered jackets and umbrellas for us, but we declined (regret declining) and suffered. Now I'm never going to leave without my umbrella. Too risky.

One nice thing from the rain storm though. Because we were so cold and wet at the end of the day, we decided to try boiling some water for our bucket showers and discovered the wonderful blessing called HOT SHOWERS.  I don't think I can go back to cold showers now, though I may have to when I move to a new area.

Friday - Aug 25th

There were a few lessons I lead today. They were lessons where we didn't really have anything planned for the members we were with so we just followed our impressions (good way to start learning how to teach, I think). I met many cool members today and was able to see their faith and feel the spirit with them.

For a specific example, I shared Jacob 2:11 with the ward's next primary president. The verse talks about temples, and that prompted the member to share her experiences doing proxy baptisms for the dead (including doing one for her husband). It was amazing to see her faith and love of the gospel, and of her family, and I could feel the spirit with us there.

Teaching will be hard because I don't have very many scriptures prepared to share with people, but I will do my best for now, because my repository of usable scriptures will only grow with time and experience.  For now I will try to rely on the wisdom of my companion to direct which scriptures are good to share.

To end off this day I will mention that my body has not been handling the new physical excersion (or the increase in wetness) very well. I'm starting to get some blisters and rashes, but I'm trying my best to treat them and build up resistance. Hopefully this is a good thing and proof that I'm working hard.

Saturday - Aug 26th

There were three baptisms and (at least) one marriage today ... all of which I missed. It is amazing to hear about God's work progressing, even if I can't participate in it directly. Congrats to the other companionship in my district for their hard work!

We did weekly planning today to set goals and make plans for what we'll try to do, what we'll try to improve, and where we should focus our service in our area.  We set goals for the week, and my companion made many goals for me to have. My pride does not like that he is making goals for me, but I have to recognize that he just want's me to improve and become a better missionary. Because of my lack of knowledge, I don't feel very helpful during the planning (weekly or daily) sessions we have, but I just need patience and hopefully I'll be able to pitch in more and more as time goes on.

We visited a family that lives right next to Bryan and his family. They are so kind and they fed us Baleadas too! We were able to help make the torteas (mine were more square than circle) for the baleadas and eat baleadas with meat in them, which is a first for me.  I don't think I'm ever going to get bored of baleadas...they are just so good plain, and there are many ways to vary them making each baleada a new experience!

Sunday - Aug 27th

Very successful Sunday in our area today.  We had 9 investigators join us for church today, the most my companion of 13 months has ever seen.  There were so many new people joining us for church that we did not have space in the bus for them all, and we had to pay a mototaxi to take some of us to church.  We were able to watch 3 confirmations during sacrament meeting. 

Fun fact: While in Utah, most baptisms and confirmations happen at the same time, in other countries baptisms and confirmations take place at different times, because the whole confirmations take place during sacrament meeting instead of during the baptism service.

We also had one baptism today. Everyone welcome Bryan Castellano to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! He was baptized today and will be confirmed with the Holy Ghost next Sunday.  It is so cool to see someone from my area get baptized, though I can't claim very much participation in his conversion because he was taught every lesson before I came here.

Elder Miles and I had to stop by a member's house to confirm that they were baptized because the ward had LOST their records!  We discovered that he was baptized almost 30 years ago, and found records of his baptism on our missionary tracker app. We sent what we learned to the bishop and leared that he definentally does NOT want to be baptized again (I wouldn't either if I had already been baptized.)

I learned an awful truth today. The ward has been losing an awful lot of records and a ton of members are needing to be baptized again because of it.  In fact, many of the baptisms in the past 6 months have been those of members who had their records lost. Something fishy is going on🐟, especially because most of the members have photos of their baptisms with dates on them, proving that they were already baptized and don't need to be baptized again.

I've been frustrated with my companion for the past few days because of little things that don't really matter. I was struggling to understand Elder Miles and why he didn't do things the way I see is best, but while personal study today I came across the realization that the reason I had problems with my companion may have nothing to do with him, and everything to do with me. Guys, beware of pride, it really is the biggest sin as it makes you rebel against those who want you to succeed. After that realization I decided to try humbling myself and try listening to my companion and working with him instead of against him.

Guess what. Elder Miles is a really cool and spiritual missionary. Things that bugged me are making more sense, and rules I thought he was breaking are actually things he has been very responsible about and something he gets approved to do before acting on (for example, he asked the Assistants of the Presidents for permission to talk to his family during the evening of our p-day rather than during the 6am-6pm time span).  It's much easier to get along with him and understand with him now that I am trying to be more humble and do my part in the companionship.

Monday - Aug 28th

New p-day, new email for you guys and some time to relax for me!

This morning we met up with the other companionship in our district to go to a place called Los Naranjos. Similar to the Ruins in Copán, Los Naranjos are ruins of a civilization here in Honduras from about 800BC, and they are close enough for us to visit! (With permission from our zone leader, of course).  These ruins are close to a lake, that is likely the caldera of a volcano.  To be honest, the ruins were kind of boring, but the sights of the lakes and the jungle were very cool, and it was fun doing this activity with other people!  This trip did not go without a cost though, over 1000 Lempira was spent on this trip, that is about $50, and almost all of the rest of our funds for the next few days.  Every 15 days we can pull out more money to use, but we are not quite there yet and my companion is broke, and I'm almost out. Hopefully we can make it the next few days without having to spend more than 500 Lempira.

We also had lunch with our other companionship in the district, this time in a place called Benbo's Pizza. Can you guess what we ate here? That's right: Hamburgers. They were out of power and out of pizza when we came, so we settled on yummy burgers instead.

I forgot to mention that there was a storm yesterday, and it was probably the worst one we've had so far. Over 1 hour of a harsh downpour and lightning, and we had to walk from Las Vegas to Mocho Arriba, which is about a 1 hour walk, in the rain.  The rain was so harsh that the power cut out in the whole valley (with the exemption of the Mine nearby, which likely has it's own power source).  For the evening we were without water and power!

Luckily today we have power, but Las Vegas, where the other companionship is, is still without power.

Guys, there is so much I can share, similar to what the bible and book of mormon says, only a 100th part of my story can be written in these emails, but if you guys ever have questions or specific things you want to know about, please let me know.  

To help tie people over in the mean time, here are some Fun Facts about Honduras.

#1: Los Naranjos is one of the most expensive places to visit, costing $10 per person, or 250 Lempira

#2: Transportation here is very cheap, for short travel, such as inside a city or between nearby cities, you can pay 20 Lempira or 80 cents in a mototaxi, regardless of the distance. For more distant travel, such as between cities farther apart, it costs 25 Lempira, or $1 in a bus to travel there, regardless of distance (as far as I know)

#3: School buses are the main form of long-distance transportation. It is the craziest thing to see school buses barel down a street with horns a'blazing, but I find it really neat as well.

#4: The most common shop you can find is a pulperia, which is basically a small convenience store that are run by families who need extra cash, there is a pulperia on every neighborhood.

#5: If you like Takis, then you'll like Taqueritas even more. Look for a Honduran convenience store near where you live to find them.

#6: You can't really find American products here in Honduras, but you can find the Honduran version of each American product! The only exception to the can't find American products are Cheetos, Doritos, and Gatorade

#7: Everyone here in this valley works at what is called "La Empresa" or "La Mina". There is a precious metals mine in our area that employs nearly everyone. Most of the people we teach are youth and grandparents because they are the only ones not working there all the time.

#8: There are 3 shifts in the mine, a morning shift, an afternoon shift, and a night shift. We can teach someone if they don't have the afternoon shift, but the shifts change every week so sometimes we can go weeks without teaching an interested person.

#9: There is a school right outside of our house that has been playing the same music for the past few days. They have marching bands here in Honduras!!!  It is really neat to see a school practice for upcoming events, and the drum - xylophone combo works really well too!

#10: September 15th is Honduras independance day! I wonder what that will be like, to experience celebrations everywhere!

Okay. It's time to be done because I still have a few more chores left to do before the hard work continues.

Spanish Word of the Week

First, I have to repent from last week, because I spelled the word wrong! (Forgive me, this word is local and doesn't exist in the translators)

Masizo - Cool (As in something interesting, not something cold)

Now for the actual word of the week. 

Bautismo - Baptism (I bet you could've figured that out without the English translation)

Scripture Quote

Ether 12:6 - "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith"

It is very important to have faith, but moreso to act on your faith, for you will not know if you do not act on that faith. Something we've been teaching a lot of people is that we need to put effort in to grow spiritually as a person, and to reach God. 

To make this extra special I also have a general conference talk that I want to include.

General Conference Talk

To be honest, there are so many amazing talks out there, but something I learned about this week was Pride. Pride is a very dangerous trait, one that is very common and hard to get rid of, but something I'm trying to lose and replace with humility.

I recommend reading Beware of Pride by Ezra Taft Benson during the April 1989 general conference.

Okay. I need to wrap this up now. I'm so sad that I can't write more because there is SO MUCH I can share with you guys, but I need to tidy up my apartment because the mission president is going to be coming sometime this week. I also need to do laundry XD.  

If you ever need to message me, you can reply to this email, making sure to reply to me instead of someone else or to everyone (unless you want to reply to everyone). Alternatively you can send me an email directly to my email account at mgrant@missionary.org

Thanks so much for your time and I hope you all have a great week!

 - Élder Grant