Pepsi And Bananas Are Ganging Up On Me.

Never teach Hondurans Origami 

(Alternate Title)

Fun fact: There are three types of Bananas here:

1. Platanos (What USA calls Bananas)

2. Bananos (What USA calls Plantains)

3. Guineos  (What USA doesn't want you to know about (They're terrible))

Hi Friends!

I suppose I should just hop straight into what happened this week: A lot.

Alright, see you guys next week!

 - Élder Grant

Okay, okay. Sorry for being so goofy. It's just that ... writing a weekly email is kinda draining (don't get me wrong, I love writing them) and I just barely finished writing one so I need to recharge a bit. To help with writing this email, I'm going to be a bit goofy.

Hi friends!!! (actually, this time)!

This past week has been pretty busy, and this upcoming one even more so, so I suppose I should get straight to the point (weekly email: emoji edition).

Monday - Nov 13th

I suppose I should give a full run down of today because I haven't said anything about it yet.  

So... yesterday (Nov 12th, previous email) we had a zoom meeting with the Stake President.  What I failed to mention there was that we also planned to meet with the Stake President for a zone-wide lunch activity. That activity was planned to happen today, and what we initially thought to be a short lunch outing suddenly turned into an 8 hour detour.  (And keep in mind, our P-days are only 10 hours long).

We were rudely woken up by our Zone Leaders at 6:30am, reminding us that we needed to head to the lunch activity, and that the activity was going to be in ... San Pedro Sula! San Pedro Sula is about 2:30 to 3 hours away from my area, so we found ourselves needing to leave in 1 hour to get to San Pedro on time for the activity.  We spent the hour getting ourselves dressed and then we left for San Pedro on the buses.

It costs 86 Lempira to take a bus to San Pedro (172 Lempira both ways, not including Uber rides in San Pedro and Mototaxi rides in Las Vegas), so I started counting up the cost for this trip and how much I had.  Things weren't quite counting up the way I would like. I would have exactly enough money for the trip, but none for any more trips until the next Quincena (Payday), which is not for a few more days.  Yesterday I went searching for my debit card, but had no success in locating it, so I'm now suddenly in a difficult situation.  Luckily for me, my district is the best and we decided to split the cost between all of us, which lightened my load for a bit.

To help distract myself on the bus rides, I decided to pull out an English Book of Mormon that I found while searching for my debit card. I've been dying to try out one of the scripture study challenges that we've been given by the Prophet Russell M. Nelson. The challenge that I'm interested in today, is to mark every reference to Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon. I brought with me a pink highlighter and the Book of Mormon and I just got marking.  By the end of the two 3 hour bus rides (6 hours in total) I had finished all of 1 Nephi.  

My findings so far: Nephi talks about Jesus A LOT. And without ever saying His name. It's not until 2 Nephi where the names Christ, Jesus, or Jesus Christ are revealed.

Apart from intense studying and marking, I also chatted with Elder Porter during the bus rides. One of my favorite things to do while riding buses is talking with Elder Porter. He is pretty awesome.

Once in San Pedro Sula we caught an Uber and rode to a restaurant called Carnes Cacho (Chubby Meats).  District El Mochito was the first district to arrive, which I always find ironic because we live the farthest from San Pedro. We met with the stake president and found some seats and waited for 30 minutes before more missionaries arrived.  We didn't order food (the stake president ordered food before hand), but once enough missionaries showed up we were served Steak, Tajadas (fried Bananas) and Sausage.  These food were very yummy and very fancy, but also very Honduran.  What I mean is that, in normal US fancy restaurants everything would already be put together and you just need to shove it in your mouth, but in Honduras, you are not served meals - you are served ingredients. A typical meal in Honduras is not a sandwich, but instead bread, ham, lettuce and ketchup that you can choose to eat separate or put together.  I personally find this very weird, but there's nothing I can do about it (besides put the ingredients together and make a sandwich). What I find most wild, are the people that don't put ingredients together and just eat each piece seperate (first eat the Avocado, then the eggs, then the beans, then the tortilla, etc).

After eating all of the ingredients that we could eat. We decided to head back home.  I called my parents very quickly on the uber ride from the restaurant to the bus station and then took the three hour ride home, feverishly marking the Book of Mormon the whole way home.

Once I got home I posted the fastest email I could write, sent an update to my mission president, and then spent the last 20 minutes of my p-day calling my family and saying hi to my siblings. Litterally every second of this p-day was used productively, and I felt energized and ready for the upcoming week.

Something that I've been trying to do with my companion is to make better use of all of the tools we have been given, so we took advantage of the phone we've been allowed to use and did a video call with a recent convert from La 21. Doing this allowed us to share a message with her without having to walk all the way to her house and then back.

Tuesday - Nov 14th

We are allowed to give the baptismal invitation during any lesson, as the spirit prompts, and because we gave the baptismal invitation to Rocman so quickly, we now have to give the rest of the lessons to Rocman before his baptismal date. To keep up with all the lessons we have to give, we went through the Plan of Salvation today. The Plan of Salvation is really big, and we will almost certainly need to go over it again in more detail after the baptism, but for now, he has what he needs to know.  One of our worries is that one of our lessons is going to bug him and he won't want to continue learning, so we've been going through all of the 'problem lessons' with him to make sure that he knows about and accepts all of them.

For those of you wondering, some 'problem lessons' are:

 - Law of Chastity 

 - Word of Wisdom (specifically the coffee part)

 - Tithing (but everyone here already pays tithing so that isn't a problem for us)

 - Baptisms for the dead 

So far, all of them are good for Rocman and he's willing to follow all of the commandments of God. He quite literally has been prepared for this because he was already following all the commandments before he was taught them.

We are back to missionary phone time: We made a bunch of phone calls, which stresses me out a ton!  I couldn't even handle a phone call in English and now I need to do it with broken Spanish!

On the bright side, phones really do help us make more efficient use of our time, and it helps out so much because we have such a spread out area.

We decided to tidy up our house, and do a final search for my debit card, and I found it!!! I think the prayers of my mother helped me find it, and I will be sure not to lose it this time. Now I can have the peace of mind of being ready for an emergency. Luckily for me though, tomorrow is payday, and I have just enough money to survive this next day, and then I will start a very strict budgetting/saving regimen to avoid having this problem again.

Right before going to bed we heard some loud sirens, and when we peaked outside we saw an eerie orange glow just at the edge of town. Accompanied with the glow was a plume of smoke rising high into the sky.  It appears a house burned down last night.  This part of Honduras is one of the few parts where it is cool enough to build wooden houses, but that also means that this is one of the few parts of Honduras where house fires can happen. Luckily for us, our house is made out of pure stone and metal, so we don't have to worry too much about fires (we just have to worry about our house turning into an oven during the day).

Wednesday - Nov 15th

Guys, I think I'm losing my English.  Writing common sentences are becoming more difficult for me as I'm forgetting how to do a proper transition between thoughts.  This is terrible!! I can't speak Spanish, and now I can't fully speak English either!  I guess I'll just have to keep going and doing the best I can.

Today we took another road trip.  Luckily for me not to San Pedro Sula but to Rio Lindo, which is much closer (and much less expensive).  Before catching the bus we withdrew our Quincena and now I feel much less stressed that before on the money side of things.

We went to Rio Lindo to have another set of interviews with the mission president.  Sadly, we were late to the meeting for the first time ever because the bus decided to stop every 10 feet or so to pick people up. We had an amazing time having interviews, learning ways to improve, and practicing teaching.  I'm slowly finding that these role-playing practices are becoming easier and more fun, which makes me very happy. During my interview we talked about how my future transfers could go, and the plan is that I will stay in El Mochito until February (or for another transfer after this one). I'm completely on board with that idea, but I will accept any changes to plan as they come. 

Because the plan is now to stay in El Mochito during the Christmas season, I suppose I should talk a little bit about a package I recieved from my family!  In this package are a bunch of Christmas decorations and items that I have to keep hidden until December, and a little bit of candy for Halloween. I am very grateful for what I recieved, and I am excited to discover what other secrets I may find once the Christmas season starts.

And speaking of Christmas season. It's already started here in Honduras. Christmas music has been playing, decorations have been put up, and Christmas themed candies are being sold.  My parents told me that they have started playing music in their home, and I have done the same. In the eyes of the Hondurans, the next holiday is Christmas, and they are going to celebrate it to the fullest.  I love the Christmas season, so I'm glad to have the ability to play Christmas music right now.

Okay.  Now that I'm done with that tangent let's get back to the day. To end off the interviews we ate a lunch of Chinese Rice and Chow Sui (Chow Mein, basically) and I was dared to chug Pepsi. 

At the time, chugging Pepsi sounded fun, and there was only a little bit left in the bottle. What I didn't realize until afterwards was that I was drinking from a 3 liter bottle (instead of 1 or 2 liter bottles commonly found in the United States) and the 'little bit' of soda left was still like half a liter of Pepsi.

Needless to say, I had an upset stomach for the next 24 hours.  And not only did I have an upset stomach, but I had a very rough bus ride home and three dinners planned for the night.

*Urk*

Pepsi hates me. 

And I didn't know it at the time, but the Bananas were on their way too.

After a very painful rest of the day, we managed to catch the very last mototaxi on it's way to Mocho Arriba and we arrived home safely (I don't think I'll mention that a car almost hit us on the way back because it was driving on the wrong side of the road ...).

Thursday - Nov 16th

We had our first district council with our new district leader: Elder Franco. It was fun to be there to help plan the council, and it was fun to practice and learn as well.  We had ice cream after the council (like we usually do) and instead of buying what everyone else does, I decided to buy the cheapest ice cream option I could.  I'm in money saving mode, you know.

 We managed to share a lesson with the family of Joury, which was a goal we've had for a while. His family are inactive members, and we are trying to reactivate them so Joury can have the full support of his family. We'll see how that goes.

We went and taught the family of Melvin, and WOW! One-year-olds are CrAzY. I can't believe the patience mothers have for their children, I was dying inside as the child cried and grabbed everything it could. I mean, I can't wait to have my own children, but I sure hope that I will be blessed with infinite patience for my children because they look very tiring to handle.

We visited Victor, and we discovered that he was ill with a cold. We decided to give a short lesson to allow him to rest, and we asked for a few references.  We weren't expecting to recieve any, but we ended up recieving two from his mother-in-law. 

To end the day off, we returned to Mocho Arriba to meet with Francisco, but little did we know was that he had had a long day and decided to go to sleep early.

We showed up at his house at 7:30pm and knocked on his door.  His mother answered the door and told us that he was asleep, and then he came outside - bleary eyes - and we profusely apologized for waking him up. He said that it was fine and gave us a bag of Bananas. We promised to visit another day, and not wake him up next time.

Friday - Nov 17th

"Today is Friday, and the body to know"

 - Elder Franco

This is Elder Franco's favorite phrase, and it doesn't even make sense in English! Apparently, it's a fairly common phrase in Spanish, but not something that translates well to English. Maybe there is a similar phrase in English that works, but I can't recall any such phrase.

OOOooh. Okay. I just asked Elder Franco about that phrase and it turns out that the phrase in Spanish is "Hoy es Viernes, y el cuerpo lo sabe", which translates to "Today is Friday, and the body knows it.". We've just been translating the phrase wrong the whole time.  

Today I hit 3 months in Honduras. I can hardly believe that I've already been here for 3 months. I suppose I should take a moment to report on what major things happened each month so far:

Month 0: We were without water in our home

Month 1: We met Elder Franco and got water in our home. At the end of the month we were hit by a motorcycle 

Month 2: We met Rocman and started teaching him. I finished my training

Month 3: We'll see how it goes.

For those of you who are unaware, earlier this week Elder M. Russell Ballard, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, died.  Today was the day of his funeral, and now we are left to wonder: Who will be the next apostle? There are Seventy people to choose from (get it, Seventy! lol). Anyways, it's very sad to lose such a great leader. I'm excited to see what the future holds, though!

Yesterday we recieved bananas from Francisco.  Well, today we also recieved another bag of bananans (I don't remember from who, just that we got more bananas). I'm going bananas for these bananas! To celebrate all of these bananas we decided to make banana pancakes.

Saturday - Nov 18th

We spent quite a bit of time developing a plan for today, only for none of it to go according to plan.  We had a bunch of meetings be dropped, and then our landlady asked to borrow our table for her nephew's birthday, so we had to make a detour back to our house to clear off our table and lend it to her. (On the bright side, free Chinese Rice as a thank-you).

After handling all of the changes of plans like a champ, we decided to head over to La 21, and on the way ran into two inactive members.  We invited them to come to church with us and then they ranted to us about how they don't like the members of the church. As it turns out, there seems to be a calling in the church called "Master of Gossip", and it seems to be a wide spread calling,  that exists in every ward. My recommendation, beware of gossip, it actually hurts people and drives people away from the gospel.

Anyways, after handling that encounter as well as we could, we made our way over to La 21 and met with Martha. I'm failing to remember what we taught, but I do remember that I was able to eat tamales.  A Christmas tradition that is really big here in Honduras is making Tamales during the Christmas season.  I've heard the horror stories of missionaries coming home with wheelbarrows full of tamales, and I'm starting to see that something similar will likely happen with us this Christmas season.  

I said a while ago that I had tried Honduran Christmas Tamales, but I was informed today that what I was served was not actually Tamales but Tamalitos. Tamalitos are smaller, sweeter tamales that are not 'actual' Tamales. The More You Know.

Sunday - Nov 19th

We had our first night of brotherhood today. A Night of Brotherhood (Noche de Hermanamiento) is basically a ward get-together that the missionaries host in a member's home. This is the first one I've done and - from the sound of it - the first one done in Mocho Arriba for many years. It was super cool to see church members and investigators make their way up to Mocho Arriba to recieve a short lesson from the missionaries, and to socialize.  

We taught a lesson on Faith. Elder Franco gave the lesson, sharing a scripture, a thought, and a testimony. I gave the activity, where we made Origami Christmas Trees.

My recommendation for you guys: Don't do Origami.  It's hard to figure out on your own, and even more difficult to teach other people how to do (especially when you only know three useful words in Spanish). 

In the end, it was a super fun activity and everyone left happy! I hope I can do more of these kinds of meetings in the future, because they are really cool.

On other news for today: We went contacting with a member from Las Vegas (Honduras) named Maritza.

Oh! Um... I was just informed that I didn't talk about my missionary nephew at all!  Whoops!

Lol. Out of knowhere the email was posted, so I will finish it up here:

Monday - Nov 20th

I have done heavy email writing today, and I'm ready to be done. 

This upcoming week I'll see some divisions with the Zone Leaders (excited for that) and we'll have a Thanksgiving Multi-Zone reunion (also excited for that). Finally, we'll have a baptism (Super excited for that).  

A busy week is coming up, and I'm super relieved that I'm all caught up with my email writing.  

Something I've tried really hard to do this past week is make use of all of my resources, so I've been going ham on my post-it, marker, and pen usage. It's been super fun, and I'm glad I've decided to let my imagination go wild with what I can do for studying and serving. I feel so much more productive and powerful marking down scriptures and writing down useful notes.

I was informed by my mom that I didn't properly introduce my missionary nephew, so I guess I'll introduce him here!

Meet Elder Montoya. Have you guys heard of Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride? Imagine him in your heads.  Now toss that image out because Elder Montoya looks nothing like him. Elder Montoya is a brand-new missionary from Peru who knows not-a-lick of English.  He is quiet but always has a smile on his face, and is eager to learn and improve.  Elder Porter is going to treat him very well.

Anyways, I'm glad you are all here to read this, and I hope that good ... you know what, I've tried finishing this sentence three times and I can't figure out how to say it.  Just have a good week please.  

It's about time to call my family so I'm not going to include a Spanish phrase nor Scripture Quote (Sorry, not Sorry).

My recommendation for your spiritual studies is to read 1 Nephi again (or even the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi) and listen to a few of the general conference talks of Elder M. Russell Ballard.

Anyways, see you all very soon!

 - M. Chad Grant

Too soon?

Sorry, bye!

 - Élder Grant