I've Got Two Fathers Now!

Hi friends!

This is a very busy week, with many plot twists, so you may not recieve this until the week after general conference. Ideally, you guys will recieve this the Monday after General Conference, but I have to write this email late at night right before bed, and I can't write any of it on my P-day. If I write fast enough (and brief enough) I can (hopefully) get this out on time.

I'm just barely starting my second transfer period (second group of 6 weeks) here in Honduras and things are already pretty busy. How much more crazy will this get?! At the very least, life is very interesting here in Honduras. Every day really is a new adventure, I never know what to expect. Even if a day appears to be 'normal', plot twists bring new surprises constantly.

If the title has piqued your interest, you may want to skip ahead to Thursday. The events of Thursday has definentally changed my mission story, at least for the next while, and will be entertaining for me to look back to after my mission.

Now, without further ado... Let's get started!

Monday - Sept 25th

Today was a great day because I managed my time very well, not only today, but the days leading up to today. Last night I wrote most of my weekly email, so I finished it early today and was able to send out two emails. That better use of my time allowed me to do more fun activities and do more chores. 

My district (four of us), and two members all climbed up a nearby mountain to see the view and capture a few nice pictures. One of the members was our guide, taking us to a clearing high up the mountain, and after an hour of walking in the jungle he admitted to us that he was lost. Because we didn't want to get more lost, we found a nearby clearing in the trees, grabbed a few photos, and backtracked our way down the mountain.  I probably got 20 more bug bites during this hike, even though I used a ton of bug spray to protect myself. Hopefully this doesn't affect me too much.  

After the hike we ate at the Norma Caballero (Normal Gentleman?) with one of the members, and then loitered in the Chapel to download updates to our apps, to recieve emails and messages, and to download (church) music and videos to keep us sane for this next week.

From our viewpoint in the mountain we could see Mocho Arriba, Las Vegas, and Jehova Lake. It's pretty beautiful, though maybe we'll try a different hike next time.

Some fun activities we did today were: Make Tortillas, Writing Emails, and Sewing my pants back together to last the next few days before I can recieve the replacements.

Tuesday - Sept 26th

It's my mom's birthday today!!! Happy Birthday Mom!

The rules for contacting family is pretty different for me, than it likely was for most of you. For those of you who served missions, you likely remember only being able to call your family twice each year: Once on Christmas, and another time on Mother's day.

The rules have changed since then. Now I can call my family each week on my P-day for up to two hours. Additionally, I can call my family on major holidays such as Christmas, Father's Day, Mother's Day (those three are listed specifically in the handbook), and Independence day. (Independence day and other holidays are listed in the handbook as: Other major holidays in your culture).  Finally, I can call my parents on their and my birthday.  

Because it was my mother's birthday today, I was able to call her and chat for 15 minutes. This was fun, and I'm a little sad I can't call my siblings on their birthday. They will just have to be satisfied with a Happy Birthday shoutout on my weekly emails.

General Conference is coming up, so we are now teaching about the prophets a lot more to get people hyped up for this event. As a side effect, I'm also getting really excited for General Conference.

We did a bit of shopping today on our way home from proselyting to buy ingredientes for Beans and Tortillas. We are going to cook them tomorrow and grow our cooking abilities. Maybe we can make Baleadas soon.

To help grow my missionary abilities, I memorized 2 (and a half) scriptures related to Faith and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. These should help out a lot in my scriptures, though I need to remember to try to memorize these in English before the end of my mission so I can use these scriptures afterwards.

For those who are curious about the scriptures I memorized, I focused on Alma 11:40, and Ether 12:6 in the Book of Mormon.

A final thing to mention: We went to Victor Manuel's house, and had to push his baptism date back because our district leader didn't want to interview him today. He is still going strong with avoiding coffee, and he is still excited to be baptized. Fingers Crossed he can last just a little bit longer to be baptized.

Wednesday - Sept 27th

Our ward conference went extra long today because we had a bishop from another ward in the stake come by to give a lesson. We started the ward conference by sharing our progress, then the time moved to the bishop of our ward to share some thoughts and make plans with the leaders in the ward. After this point we usually end, but now we moved time over to the visitor, and he promised a short 15 minutes talk. An hour and a half later, we ran home with 30 minutes to make an hour long walk back to our home before curfew.  Somehow, through some miracle, we managed to make it back home just a short time after curfew, and we were kept safe during the trip through the 'most dangerous' part of town to get to our home.

We ate Baleadas three times today. Once for breakfast because we cooked beans and tortillas. A second time as a district before Ward Council, and a third time during Ward Council with all the leaders of the church.  I think this is the first time I've had too many Baleadas. Now I know my limit: 10 Baleadas is too many Baleadas.

A notable member moment for today: Cristina Cruz has been ill since last Friday, but this was the first time we had visited her in a week. We felt so bad to not visit in so long, and instead of teaching a lesson, we gave her a Priesthood Blessing so she could get better soon.

Thursday - Sept 28th

Here is the big day: The moment you've all been waiting for!

Today started out normal ... well, as normal as a Thursday Morning can be here on the mission field. I did my morning routine, and instead of study we went to Las Vegas for the District Council.  This district council was pretty fun because Elder Van Dyke made the council agenda while he was tired, and I was pinned with almost every job during the council.  I played the opening hymn, gave the closing prayer, lead the district in reciting the Missionary Purpose, I gave a short thought about a Doctrine of Christ (Repentance), and I gave a short thought on a section in Preach My Gospel. I did almost all the jobs during the district council, and the ones I didn't do, my companion did. 

After all those jobs, we did some teaching practices which was pretty fun, but in the middle of Elder Miles' practice we got a phone call from one of the Assistants to the President (APs). He informed us that we were going to get a new companion in just a handful of hours, and that he would be staying with us from now on. 

The reason we got a new companion is because Elder Miles is going to be the new Financial Secretary here in the San Pedro Sula West mission. Because of his new assignment, he will be leaving in the middle of this next transfer cycle for training, and to keep this area open, we need a companion to replace him in the middle of the transfer cycle. Because of that, we have a new companion. We will be in a trio for the next few weeks, and then back to a duo.

Let me introduce to you guys Elder Franco. Elder Franco is a Latino missionary who has been serving here for just under 1 year. He has the reputation of being one of the nicest/most loving missionaries in this mission, and I can attest to the gentleness of his heart. He had been told for his whole mission that he would be paired up with a gringo companion so he could practice his English and finally, after a year of waiting, he has two gringo companions to practice with!

Luckily for us, our house is equipped with an extra of many (but not all) resources, so living in a trio is not too straining. We have extra space for his stuff, and for a third bed for him to sleep on. Sadly, we don't have a third chair, so companion study is a little funky. We're still figuring it out.  When Elder Franco showed up, we took two mototaxi's to carry him and all his stuff up to our home. 

It was a surprise to meet Elder Franco because we weren't expecting him until about 2-3 hours before he showed up! When he came, he brought with him a package that contained my replacement pants!!!  I can finally breathe a sigh of relief because I have enough pants to (hopefully) last me the rest of my mission.

In addition to solving my pant problems, when we came back home after picking him up, we found that the water was running in our home at full pressure.  Has his presence solved my two biggest trials that I've had here in my mission so far? What is coming next?

Elder Franco speaks a little bit of English, so I need to really learn Spanish now to be able to communicate with him. He will be my next companion, and right now feels just a little bit like a buffer period where I'm getting to know him, but he is not yet my trainer.  In our trio we have a trainer (Elder Miles), a senior companion (Elder Franco), and a junior companion (Me). It's like we've got the full package.

Our new mission is to introduce him to the area, and to continue inviting people to attend general conference.

Friday - Sept 29th

During our morning language study Elder Franco and I chatted in the languages we are trying to learn, getting to know each other in the process. It is fun practicing my Spanish, and helping someone else learn English.  I hope this will help me improve a lot.

We went around three of the little parts of our area - La 21, Mocho Arriba, and Mocho Abajo. We introduced Elder Franco to these areas and to some of the people who live in these areas.  We taught quite a few lessons today, and I specifically was assigned to lead two of those lessons.

It is fun working as a trio because I get to see another perspective on the doctrine of christ. Something special about the gospel is that we all know the gospel truths, but it means different things for each of us, so I get to see why this or that gospel truth is important to Elder Franco or Elder Miles.

Even though I was assigned to lead two of the lessons, I actually lead three of them because right before we gave our spiritual thought I was told to share a scripture, and I just chose the first interesting one I could find and shared a thought based off of that.  Having that third practice helped out a lot because I could see an improvement with my teaching ability with each lesson I lead today.

Saturday - Sept 30th

Today is the big day - General Conference (part 1)!!!

A quick thought about this general conference: Actually paying close attention to all the talks is really cool. I learned so much more from this conference than the other ones I've seen because I really tried to learn during this one.

I'm so glad to be able to hear words of comfort given to us from God through his servants. It was amazing to see and hear each and every speaker. I am sad that we couldn't hear from either Russell M. Nelson or Jeffrey R. Holland. Those are two of my favorite speakers and both were sick or injured and couldn't attend.

I was able to listen to every general conference session in English because we snuck into another room in the chapel to watch general conference on our phones.  I'm so glad I could hear in English because I was able to get so much more out of the conference from hearing in my native language.

Something my companion - Elder Miles - noted after the conference today was that a lot of talks covered Plan of Salvation topics. 

For a quick run down: Us missionaries teach the Plan of Salvation as one of our lessons, and the plan of salvation covers three big questions many people have: Where do we come from? Why are we here? What happens after we die?

The specific topics we talk about in the Plan of Salvation lesson are:

 - Our Premortal life

 - The Creation

 - The fall of Adam and Eve

 - Our life on Earth

 - The Spirit World

 - Resurrection, Salvation, and Exaltation

 - The Judgement and the Kingdoms of Glory

Each of these points lead into each other and basically give us a whole history of our past, our present, and our infinite future.

Elder Miles and Elder Porter noticed a trend in those Plan of Salvation points being mentioned in general conference talks, so it may be important to research those topics and learn of them. Specifically, I recommend learning about 'Resurrection, Salvation, and Exaltation' and 'The Judgement and the Kingdoms of Glory'. I find the future very interesting, and the more I learn about it, the more excited I get.

We definentally treated ourselves today - eating many snacks and eating Baleadas and Ice Cream as a district at certain points during the day. If every general conference is like this, then I really look forward for the next one in 6 months.

Sunday - Oct 1st

I am officially closer to Christmas than I am to the start of my mission. Wow, time does go by fast. Also, Christmas will be almost right at the half way point from the next general conference.

Today was an amazing day, and I really felt the spirit speaking to me during general conference.

I'm sad that Jeffrey R. Holland couldn't speak, and Russell M. Nelson has been in so much pain. I'm even more sad that many of the older general authorities are struggling and are giving 'final thought' talks. I'm specifically mentioning Elder M. Russell Ballard and Elder Henry B. Eyring, who seemed to give fairwell talks. It's really striking true to me that my idols don't live forever, and that I will have to say farewell to a few of them in these upcoming years. I'm sad for those days to come, but I have to take comfort knowing that we will receive new sources of wisdom and light to guide us through these incrreasingly challenging and constantly changing times.

This was an amazing general conference, and I am eagerly waiting for the talks to be published on the Gospel Library app so I can read and listen to them again and again. We shouldn't just focus on our prophet two times a year, we should go to him every week, and every day, for constant light and guidance in our lives.  The general conference talks were so powerful, and I know that we can gain so much from listening to and acting upon what is taught in this day.

Monday - Oct 2nd

I'm writing about today on Sunday because I will not be able to write about today ... well, today.  This morning I will get up at like 3:30 in the morning to catch an early bus to San Pedro Sula. At San Pedro Sula we will spend the day in the Mission President's apartment and eat food, play games, watch a movie, and celebrate our accomplishments in general. 

The activity going on today is a party to celebrate the achievement of a baptism in every part of our zone. Over the month of September, every companionship had at least one baptism, something that is very hard to do. 

Because of this special achievement we will be spending all day celebrating, and may not spend much, if any time proselyting. Another side effect of this is that I cannot go shopping, write emails, or call family today. I'll see what I can do to keep everyone informed on my life, but things may end up coming a week late because of this event. 

Either way, I'm going to try to spend the day enjoying myself, because it is very unlikely I will experience a 'Zona Blanca' ever again in my mission.

Pre-send message*****

I'm in the mission home and it is SO nice. It is the nicest mission home in all of Latin America from what I hear. This home is like a mansion. This is easily the nicest place in all of Honduras. We are about to watch Spider Man: Across the Spiderverse and then we will make the long trip back to our area.

Spanish Word of the Week

Chiringo - No Translation

There is not a word to describe a chiringo in English, but I can do my best to explain what it is.  A Chiringo is a very old article of clothing that is not worn anymore, and instead is used to wipe down dirty surfaces.  That description is very specific because that is exactly what it is: An old shirt or scarf or pant or something that is used to wipe messes on the floor.

Scripture of the Week

D&C 1:38 - "What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same."

Many people had the opportunity to listen to the words of God, through the mouths of The Prophet and his apostles this week. I know that this scripture is true, and that Prophet Russell M. Nelson is the living servant of God on the Earth today. I plead with all of you to look back on his words, feast on them and act on them. I can promise that your lives will improve tremendously if you do these things.

Because us missionaries extend many invitations, I try to follow many of them myself so I can testify of their power myself. I decided to pray about whether Joseph Smith was a prophet of God - an invitation we give often - and I recieved an answer during general conference.  I can humbly say that I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that through his actions, we now live in the dispensation of the fullness of times. My life, and the lives of many other people have all been changed by the faith of this man, and we would do well to follow the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - the only true church on this planet - and prepare ourselves for the day we reunite with God again.

This was a pretty cool week for me, and I am excited for what this next week will bring! If all goes well, I will be able to report a baptism in this next email, though we won't know until it happens. Thanks for your time and your support, it really helps!

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 or reply to me here on this email.

See you all next week!

 - Élder Grant