I Finally Made It! (Long Email Alert!!)

Hello friends!

I've got many days to recount here, so I may be spending a lot of time writing these. It's likely that the rest of my time in the CCM will be highly summarized so I can spend more time writing about Honduras. I'm sorry for the very long email. For those without time to read a lot: TL;DR. I left the CCM and my friends for Honduras. I have new friends, am suddenly stuck in a place where I can only understand every other word, got the nicest area in Honduras to serve (not boiling hot like the rest), and am already falling ill (but apparently all new missionaries spend the first three months with stomach troubles *ugh*).

Friday - Aug 11th

I wrote my previous email in the afternoon of this p-day so I will mostly just be recapping what happened today.

Last P-day in the CCM, and last temple trip (at least until the San Pedro Sula temple opens). I got my haircut today so I'm now ready for Honduras. I wrote my previous email and called my parents and my grandparents (on my Dad's side only because I was almost out of time, I will call my other grandparents my next p-day to see how they are doing).

Some commotion came from my phone call with my grandparents, I'm not sure if I should write it here or something else. I might as well write it here.

About a day or two after my phone call my grandma visited my parents to talk about my phone call. While she was there she took a look at some replacement pants that my parents got to replace one of my broken pants. When my grandma looked at the pants she noticed that it was made in a bad way and the replacement would fall apart as quickly as the first (which was one week into the mission for the first pant).

Anyways, my grandma went 'Karen' on the store my family sourced my pants and I will now be recieving complete replacement of all my pants (of which I have six, so now I will have 13 total -  original, 6 replacement, and 1 replacement that would have fallen apart quickly). Thank you grandma!!! Now I won't have pant problems for the rest of my mission!

Saturday - Aug 12th

I downloaded some hour-long missionary videos (which I had to log into Gospel Library to get) to listen to. They are pretty good and I'll see if I ever have time to listen to them.  

I will be playing the piano during the devotional tomorrow so I had my final practice today. I'm feeling pretty confident about my ability to play the songs (Joseph Smith's first prayer, and Praise to the Man) but I won't be able to make it fancy like the other piano players. Maybe I'll try something, I need to talk to my district leader to learn some tricks for doing that.

I had a big practice for the E.I. test that I will be taking in a few days. My mind is spinning with Spanish. I hope I do well (future Elder Grant talking here, I did very well, I'll state my score on Wednesday)

Sunday - Aug 13th

Spiritually Fulfilled.

That is how I would describe today. Today was special, not only for me, but for my family because the Saratoga Springs Temple was DEDICATED today!!!! I'm sad I couldn't be at the dedication in person, but I could feel the increase of God's power in the world today because of it. Now I can look forward to the San Pedro Sula's temple dedication.

It's done. I played the piano for the devotional. I talked to my district leader and asked for tricks to make my piano playing fancier, and he recommended doing more arpeggios (which is taking a chord of notes [A chord being a bunch of piano notes played at once] and splitting it up into seperate notes played in sequence). I tried it out during Prelude and Postlude and it was SO fun and sounded SO much cooler than before. I'm not confident enough to do that for songs people sing to, but I will definentally try doing that more for prelude music.

The theme of the devotional, and for the whole day for that matter was Joseph Smith. Every scripture I read, talk I listened to, and what the devotional talked about related to Joseph Smith, and this devotional was a little special because there were three speakers for the devotional: Russel M. Nelson (Prophet), Dallin H. Oaks (President of the Quorum of the 12 apostles), and M. Russell Ballard (ACTING President of the Quorum of the 12 apostles). They each testified of Joseph Smith, and filled us with the spirit. I do need to clarify that we were only watching recordings though, and not a live devotional.

I won't lie, I am definentally on a spiritual high after today. Spiritual high meaning if the dreaded day of the Second Coming of The Lord came this week, I would jump for joy for the magnificence it would bring. (Sorry for that religious mumbo jumbo, but that is how I feel right now). Maybe it's better that we don't know when that will happen, that means I will be able to serve a mission in Honduras first.

Monday - Aug 14th

I got my flight plan for Honduras today! I will leave from Mexico City at 8:35am and get to San Pedro Sula at 11:10am. I can't believe that the day to leave is already so close.  Because we need to be at the airport 3 hours early for international flights, plus 1 hour for commuting to the airport, and we need to be ready for the bus 1 hour early, I need to get up at 3am at the earliest, but my zone leaders are in my room (and also going to Honduras) and they are planning to get up at 2am, so I will get almost NO SLEEP Wednesday night. Yay

We had our final workshop with all of the missionaries who started July 3rd. The teachers put on a play for us, acting out what it would be like on your mission. I'm not fully sure how it relates to MY mission, but it was fun to watch anyways.

Tuesday - Aug 15th

Last day of classes, and a few Saratoga Springs friends came to the CCM today. I spent dinner looking for Elder Dushane and Elder Chandler today, but I only encountered Elder Dushane. It's crazy how much we have changed, and I'm so glad that I could greet him to his mission right before I leave for the mission field. 

Classes were actually the same as normal. Pretty lame to talk about so I'm glad to be done with them.

We had a special devotional today. An apostle finally talked to us LIVE. But Live from the Provo MTC, not from the Mexico CCM. Regardless, Live is live, and Elder David A. Bednar gave the devotional for ALL missionaries in the WORLD today. A few days ago I listened to and read an hour long devotional (remember I mentioned those a few days ago) and I noticed many similarities with the talk given today and the talk given then. It was cool to see what they (David A. Bednar and his wife) believed and grow in my testimony of their role in the church today. 

The devotional was on repentance, which I'm glad I feel confident in. It is very important to repent, meaning to turn away from yourself, and turn towards God. I know that I will need to repent a lot during my mission (over mistakes, disobedience, and whatever...hopefully not over anything super serious like the Law of Chastity or Murder). I need to repent often so I can teach investigators to repent often themselves, after all, I can't teach what I don't know.

Wednesday - Aug 16th

Goodbyes were said today. Even though the classes I took were boring sometimes, I was very sad to be leaving my teachers Hermano Salado and Hermana Flores. They are very cool teachers and I wish the best for them. I will also look forward to Hermano Salado's marriage in 5 years (He's already got it all planned out with his girlfriend...talk about Patience).

I managed to find Elder Chander today and greet him, but he nearly gave me a heart attack when I said high to him and he ignored me. For most of the day I was certain that he forgot me! His sister, Alyssa would be very dissappointed (Hi Alyssa!) if that was true though. I managed to confront him during dinner and he shared that he was just super busy, but he did remember me from elementary school. I remember that the schedule for the first week was SUPER busy, so I can forgive him for that. It was cool saying hi, and then goodbye. I hope he has a great misison, and a great time with Elder Dushane in the CCM.

I said many goodbyes today, not all of them in person, and I spent most of the day packing, cleaning, and NOT sleeping. It's great to only get about 3 hours of sleep before the mission field. I'm so excited for it!

Thursday - Aug 17th

Woke up at 2am. Too early, and technically I woke up earlier than that because my companion had his flight an hour before me, meaning he had to leave an hour before me.

The commute to the airport was uneventful, but it was cool seeing Mexico City at night. We spent a pretty long time at the airport just sitting around waiting for our flights. I ran into some missionaries who had left for the airport before me, but were still waiting for their flights, it was cool to say final goodbyes there. We were supposed to be at our designated gate an hour before the flight, but our gate was a waiting room up until about thirty minutes before the flight - very stressful stuff, but we all made it to our flight on time. 

The flight to Honduras was short and peaceful, I decided to spend it reading my patriarchal blessing, as well as reading the Ricciardi Letter, which I believe I mentioned in the previous email. 

We landed in Honduras, and WOW is it humid. This isn't the first time I've left an airplane and gone into humid weather (it's happened in Ohio and Kenya) but the humidity always gets me. So far the trip has gone without the hitch, and that is mostly true for the Honduras airport. 

When we got to the Commons in the airport I answered a bunch of questions for the person at the desk, but when he asked how long I would be there I wasn't sure what to say. Should I say 30, 60 or 90 days? Should I look at what my ticket says? Should I be honest and say two years?  I went for the final option and confessed that I would be in Honduras for two years. 

The man's mouth dropped.

I knew I made a mistake when that happened, and he went back to talk with someone, and I was thinking "Oh man, I'm going to be put in prison on my first day!", but then the man came back, stamped my passport and had me carry on. 

I was very lucky at the San Pedro Sula airport, but not everyone was lucky. A person who came from the Brazil MTC WAS locked up for a short while. Ah, the stories we can all tell.

Lots of introductions were had once we got to the mission offices, and Sister McClellan (the mission president's wife) even told me that she had talked to my mom! I was given a short period of time to call my parents, but because my mom was working I talked to my dad to report to him. Hopefully I'll be able to talk with all of my family shortly after I finish this email and catch up with them because I miss them a lot.

Last year I went to Kenya and spent a month doing humanitarian service. Honduras is American Kenya. The number of flashbacks I've had and the similarities I've found between the two places is astonishing. One of the missionaries did a short Q&A session with us, and he was sharing experiences he had that ended up matching almost perfectly with what I experienced in Kenya!  I'm so glad I did that humanitarian trip now because I feel so much more prepared for this place.

One thing I discovered while I was in Kenya was that there is a KFC EVERYWHERE. I was in the middle of nowhere in Kenya and there was a KFC. Luckily for me, Honduras did not dissapoint and less than 10 minutes into San Pedro Sula we passed by a KFC (I will try to include a photo of this).

Our first meal in Honduras was Little Ceasars. And for dinner we had Baleadas (the dish Honduras is famous for, I recommend it.)  

I was able to meet about 20 new missionaries today, coming from the Provo, Mexico, and Brazil MTC's and it is sad that I will be leaving them (and my friends from District 13G) tomorrow. But my mission awaits!

Friday - Aug 18th

First day of missionary work! 

The morning was filled with orientation for the new missionaries and their trainers, and we discovered who our trainers and mission areas are. My new companion is Elder Miles, from Layton (or is it Ogden?) Utah. He has spent about 13-14 months here in Honduras. He is very fluent in Spanish and is ready to train me for the next 6-12 weeks. My area is called Michito 2. It is right next to Las Vegas, Honduras, in the town of Mocho Arriba high up in the mountains. This area has beautiful views, the most pleasant weather in Honduras (not hot like the rest of Honduras), and is one of the most successful areas in this mission. I've also been paired up with a great missionary who has about the same energy levels as me (not overly energetic, or too lazy) and am in one of the nicest missionary homes in the entire mission. I have almost no complaints for where I've been put. It's perfect!  The only imperfection is that the city cut off our water a few weeks ago to build a street next to our home, so we have no water.

The department I am in (department is what Honduras calls States) is called Santa Barbara, and we are right in between a large mountain and a lake. Our home is situated towards the top of the town so we walk downhill to reach everyone, and then have to walk up 500 stairs or so to get back up to our home.

Today I met with 3 families. We met Ana, and active member for 30 years, and Investigator, and Bryan, who will be baptized next Sunday (Aug 27th). He is one of three people who will be baptized this next week, and that is so special!

Because of my time in Kenya I have not been as surprised by what I have found than I believe I would be if I had not gone to Kenya, but here are a few things that I find pretty interesting.  

1) Instead of airports being pretty common, bus-ports are found all over. They are basically like airports, with large terminals, but with busses taking people all over.  

2) Tuktuks (or Mototaxi's as they call 'em in Honduras) are very common. This is very similar to Kenya, but these tiny taxis feel much safer and well built than the Kenya ones. 

3) Pensionistas are the people hired to feed the missionaries. I think I was most surprised by this because I was not expecting to spend time everyday at one person's house being fed. But the food is yummy and I'm glad to have food secured. 

4) Pulperias are mini shops that are absolutely everywhere. This was the same in Kenya, but now I actually have to enter and use them. The smaller space actually intimidates me quite a bit, but in reality they are just mini markets.

Saturday - Aug 19th

First FULL day of missionary work! And WOW is it a lot of work!

Our mornings are spent studying - solo, with companion, about language, about rules, about training, etc - and it takes up a surprising amount of time. I'm learning so much, but I know I have a long ways to go before I'm a master at anything here.

We met with at least seven families today, and I'm so glad my companion is very fluent in Spanish. He definentally carried me with the small talk and lesson giving because I can only understand about 50% of what people are saying. I've noticed that I can usually understand the gist of what people are talking about, but it takes to long for me to comprehend to talk back. Luckily my companion speaks Honduran Spanish in an American accent so I can understand about 95% of what he says.

Of the families I met, I was able to meet Joury, a recent convert who wants to become a missionary and likes to join us during lessons. He's probably about 11-12 years old and it's inspiring to see someone so excited to do the work. A lot of the kids here are getting baptized because their friends recommend them, but they frequently go to church so I won't complain too much.

Ana is a nice woman who is "Elder Miles' grandma". She is very nice and loves the church (she's been a member for 30 years). She hasn't gone to church for a while, but the nearest chapel is 1 hour away on foot in Las Vegas so I don't blame her too much.

Freddy and Nelson are two recent converts (4 months as converts) who, like Joury are wanting to go on missions. They are old enough to serve and are only biding their time for when they hit one year as a convert to get endowed and serve their own missions. Somehow they seem to show up where we are teaching out of the blue, and they help us teach which is nice!

I mentioned the pensionista yesterday but I'm going to mention her again. She is very nice and cooks very yummy food. She serves us all the ingredients separate and we can mix them (or not mix them) together as we please which is cool. I feel bad though because I haven't been able to finish what she has given me. My stomach is already unhappy with the change in diet and stress of being in a foreign place.

Sunday - Aug 20th

First Sunday on my mission!

I need to change how I sleep because I woke up yesterday with a sore back, and last night my stomach was not agreeing with me over what I ate (I got the runs if you catch my drift). Hopefully I will be able to fix the sleeping problem so I can be well rested for serving sometime soon, but in the meantime I will get my energy from serving the people around here.

For sacrament meeting we took a bus to the chapel. The church rents a bus to carry all the people from my people to the chapel for free, so we rode with that with a bunch of people I met yesterday to the chapel. At the church I was able to meet the bishop and the Elder's Quorum president. The Elder's Quorum president is from Washington and knows English, but he has spent many years in Honduras and now speaks only Spanish (very understandable).  The ward is pretty big, not necessarily big in Utah standards, but big in everywhere else standards with about 70 active members in the ward.

I wish I was more acquainted with the Honduran accent and with Spanish because I really struggled to keep up with what was said during sacrament meeting. There was a family who recently went to the Tegulcigalpa temple to be sealed and they all gave their testimony during the meeting, I could feel the spirit and could see their faith and love. The bishop then talked a bit about the temple recommend interview questions. For all of you reading this, I implore you to check out those questions again and make sure you are able to truthfully answer these questions without doubt of not doing it right. In Utah it is easy to take for granted the ordinances offered at the temple, but everywhere else it is hard to do and something of the highest importance.

There was combined session for hour 2 of church, and they talked about taking the good with the bad. That is my favorite life motto, and I find it funny that that was one of the first things I found being taught in Honduras.

While at the church I ran into Elder Van Dyke (a district leader) and Elder Porter (from District 13G in the CCM). We are in neighboring areas, I'm in Mochito 2 while they are in Mochito 1. They basically have Las Vegas proper while we have the small towns to the south of Las Vegas. I will probably run into them at least 3 times each week (Sunday, P-day, and District Council) and that is nice because they are already friends (but I do have to say I'm glad I'm not paired up with Elder Van Dyke because he has a LOT more energy than me, better matching Elder Porter)

To practice my Spanish I've been recounting stories in the past tense with my companion and it is already helping a lot. I'm also trying to learn the slang here so I can better keep up with what people are saying.

Today was a pretty rough day for me - health wise - but I'm going to keep trying to pull through. Elder Miles says that it usually takes 3 months before your stomach properly adjusts and you aren't sick anymore, but I'm not patient enough to live with an upset stomach for 3 months so I will try my best to be as healthy as possible to my body can adjust faster. I will try my best to eat good foods (biggest risk to my health, second to water), drink healthy water (though everyone here seems to know that tap water is bad and has purified water in bottles to use), sleep well (hard to do right now, probably what I need to focus on most), excercise, stay clean, and relax (hard to do in a foreign place but I will try my best).

Monday - Aug 21st

First P-day of my mission!  For the next little while my p-days will be on Monday instead of Friday, and at the end of the year my p-days will likely move to Wednesday.  

I slept better this night and got straight to work doing morning shower (bucket shower!), personal study, and cleaning. Those first three hours passed by super fast as I was working and I was fulfilled. We then went to Las Vegas to eat Baleadas with Elder Van Dyke and Elder Porter (first breakfast of the mission!). Afterwards we stayed at their home for a short while to catch up and plan next week's activity (we will hopefully see some waterfalls next p-day). While at their house I kinda fell into a Limbo because I didn't have anything to do, even though I wanted to do a bunch of stuff I couldn't do any of it at that time and that kinda killed my motivation to work.  We then came home, at lunch, and now I'm writing this email.

There are a lot of rules over technology use on our mission which is understandable, but some of it I find confusing. I don't remember all the rules, but for some apps they allow surprisingly little time to use it (Facebook and Google Photos), and for other apps they give a ton of time to use (Facebook Messenger and Gmail). One of the rules is to only bring a single phone out of the house (so we have a backup phone if we are robbed) so I don't use my phone very much. And I don't even have internet to connect to at the house so I'm not sure how I will handle sending out emails, photos, and doing phone calls. I'll figure something out.

These first few days were hard on me as I've been figuring things out. There have been some troubles with health, but mostly it is motivation. I hope I can lose myself to the work soon because these next two years will be SO SLOW if I don't lose myself to the work. P-days may end up being the worst day for me as it will be a 'lazy' day and time goes so much slower when I am lazy. Whatever happens, I will just try my best.

It's almost time to call my family, and I'm so excited for that because I've been dying to talk to ALL of them. I've been struggling to be patient to see them as it has now been an extended time since seeing them, but soon my patience will pay off (hopefully).

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It's been so inspiring seeing the faith of the members here in Honduras, and it really makes me grateful for the church I have chosen to be part of. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the True church of God, and that by following the commandments we are taught, and making and keeping ordinances given we can have eternal happiness with those we love.

Scripture of the Week

Mosiah 4:27 - "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

Spanish Word of the Week

Masiso / Macanudo - Cool (Honduran Slang for cool, it is very common and now I need to add it to my Spanish vocabulary that I use every day)

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These past few weeks I had the comfort of a computer to send emails to you guys, but now I need to rely on my phone which is more limited. I'm not fully sure how keeping you guys updated will work from now on, but I do recommend that if you want to talk to me personally, either use the reply (not reply all) button on this email, or send me a seperate email at mgrant@gmail.com.

Check out my photos! https://photos.app.goo.gl/g2QAHn4xdMnPx4JT8

Don't forget you can email me for any reason. I won't bite! mgrant@missionary.com

It's so nice to share my stories with you guys and I hope you guys are all doing well!

See you next week!

 - Élder Grant