1,677,000,000,000,000 Bytes?!

Hi everyone!

Because of new email restrictions, I will be writing my email in a different format from now on to allow me to highlight interesting events of the week.

Let's get started because I've got 1 hour to write!

What is a Byte?

This comes from the title of this email.  A Byte is a quantity of storage that a computer contains.  The most basic piece of information is a Bit, which has two options: On or Off.  A Byte is a collection of 8 Bits.  The progression of storage space goes like this:

1 Bit

1 Byte = 8 Bits

1 Kilobyte = 1000 Bytes

1 Megabyte = 1,000,000 Bytes

1 Gigabyte (most common nowadays) = 1,000,000,000 Bytes (1 Billion Bytes)

1 Terabyte (largest storage unit by far) = 1,000,000,000,000 Bytes (1 Trillion Bytes)

The title of my email is 1,677,000,000,000,000 Bytes, which is about 1,667 Terabytes.  

To illustrate the size of 1667 Terabytes, I'm going to give an example.  

My parents have been taking photos regularly for the past 11 years. They upload their photos to their Microsoft OneDrive account, which has 1 Terabyte of storage space.  After 11 years of regular photo taking, they have only taken up about 350 Gigabytes (1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte). If they followed their current pace, it would take. 52,391 years ... and 5 months to take up 1667 Terabytes.

All of the photos I have taken of my mission take up about 6.7 Gigabytes of storage space, but I am not allowed to add anymore photos to share with you guys because my account suddenly has 1667 Terabytes, out of my 30 Gigabyte limit (which is x55567 my storage limit).

This problem is not only affecting me, but nearly every missionary.  My only conclusion for what is happening is that my account (and the accounts of all the other missionaries) now contains the entire church archives stored on them. The reason I conclude this is because my account is part of the church system, and I wouldn't be surprised if the church has a ton of records stored on the cloud.

How does this affect you? Well, I can't add anymore photos for the time being, so you will be seeing fewer photos from me for the next little bit.  I will try to add photos to this email so you guys can see something of what I did this week, but it will be much fewer than normal.

Lost in the Jungle

The past P-day I found myself in the wandering in the jungle with my district for 2 hours.  I actually did my weekly phone call and email while in the jungle.  We had a really fun time checking out Lake Yojoa and taking photos, but we sadly did not realize that the buses were only one-way.  After a few hours at the beach, admiring the view (because we can't swim) we found ourselves far from home with no other way back except to walk.  

...fun... 

I had a good time, but we are never going back there for the rest of my mission.

Hospital Visits

The bishop of the Mochito Ward had plans to visit El Salvador from Wednesday to Friday, so we moved our Ward Council meeting from Wednesday to Tuesday.  This change in plans conflicted with the plans of the other Elders in the ward, so we filled in for them and reported our progress for both groups of missionaries. After reporting what we needed to the other leaderes of the ward started talking about their other duties, most of which don't concern us. We were faced with the option of leaving early or staying the whole time.  Usually we leave early, but I decided that we should stay for this meeting.

It ended up being a good thing that we stayed the whole time because at the end of the meeting the bishop and elder's quorum president asked us to accompany them to the hospital.  Usually they take the other missionaries on hospital visits because the other missionaries live closer, but because the other missionaries weren't able to attend the meeting, our presence was a lifesaver for them.

One of the counselors of the Elders Quorum Presidency has had a recent spout of health problems, to the point that he stopped breathing for a while earlier in the day.  Very gratefully, the doctors managed to revive him, and we were able to visit him and give him a priesthood blessing with the bishop.

Please pray for this member (his name is Julio Oseguera). He and his family are amazing and part of the life-blood of the ward here. It would be terrible for tragedy to strike this family, so I would ask for all of the blessings and love to be poured out over them.

Book of Mormon

I've been diligently studying and marking the Book of Mormon (to the point that the sweat on my hands is making the color rub off - The blood of Mormon is on my hands).  Sadly, tragedy struck just a few hours ago and I left my English copy of the Book of Mormon in Peña Blanca. I'll need to find a new version of the Book (in English) to continue marking up.

Additionally, I was lucky enough to secure a copy of this next year's Come, Follow Me scripture guide. I'm excited for the new year to come and to be able to study with this guide.  The copy I have is in Spanish (duh, I got it from the Spanish ward), but it shouldn't matter now.

Duolingo

I have been keeping up a streak in Duolingo, but this week I decided to get serious and do some Duolingo grinding.  A bunch of the practices have been too easy to me, so I took a bunch of tests to skip ahead.  

I was at Section 3 ...

... and now I'm at Section 5

I could probably reach Section 6, but the practices are now using some words that I'm not familiar with, so I want to learn the keywords and sentence formats before moving on.  

I also have a 37 day streak which I don't want to break, so I'm probably going to continue doing Duolingo daily, going 'inactive' every other day to focus on other methods of learning Spanish.  I do find it very fun and challenging to form new sentences with my much-improved Spanish skills, and I'm starting to apply what I'm learning in everyday conversations, with much success.

I recommend to all of you guys to start learning a new language on Duolingo. It is very fun, and you can actually see progress as you work diligently.

Wellness Fair

The Relief Society here decided to host a wellness fair, selling food to raise money and showcasing examples of people being self-sufficient. They also asked a bunch of members to talk about different aspects of self-sufficiency.

They sold Baleadas, Pastellitos, Horchata, Jamaica, and Donuts. I highly recommend the Donuts, they are only sugar flavored but they were delicious.

Three Dinners

The Wellness Fair transitions well into this topic because the food I ate at the Wellness Fair was dinner #1 of 3. The second dinner was at the house of Primary President (we visited her the day before but she asked us to come the next day so she could cook for us).

Before any of the dinners, I told my companion to tell our pensionista to make shakes, because I knew that we would be eating a lot. My companion told me that he asked for shakes so I thought we were all good.  

Along comes dinner #3, and instead of recieving shakes we were offered more food.  I asked my companion what he asked for, and I look on the phone.  He asked for 'something light' instead of 'a shake'. Next time, I'm going to double check to make sure he is being specific with our requests.

Baleadas Locas

The Baleada Locas are still coming, we were told by our pensionista that she would serve us Baleadas Locas at least two times each week.

She has so far kept her promise.  

Sometimes it's a pleasant surprise being fed Baleadas Locas, and other times I just want a plain Baleada. I have not been able to finish a Baleada Loca yet, but maybe I'll get there one day.

Christmas Choir

The christmas season is in full swing here, and with all the celebrations comes the choir.  I've had the privilege of participating in the choir, and it is so fun!!!

We'll be singing Angels we have Heard on High and I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.  Elder Porter will be playing the former on the piano, and I will be playing the latter.

Don't tell anyone I said this, but the people here don't really know how to sing. Luckily for them though, Elder Porter participated in many choirs and knows how to lead one.  I know that we will sound very good with him on our side, and I am doing everything I can to do my part in the choir.

Piano Lessons

Both before and after the choir meetings, the bishop has asked me to help teach his son how to play the piano.  That is a big task, and I don't have any resources besides my memory and the hymn book to teach it.  I love the opportunity to help out, and the hard work and diligence of both the young man and I will bless the ward with more beautiful music during church. Elder Porter is also helping out with teaching.

Something really cool about Elder Porter is that he still remembers the theory around playing the piano. At this point in time I know how to play, but don't really remember the theory behind it.  Now that I am helping teaching a youth how to play the piano, Elder Porter is helping me learn the theory and how I can improve my own playing.

My brother Jude want to become a better piano player than me while I am out in Honduras, and he has the advantage of praciticing whenever he wants, but I have the upperhand with Elder Porter on my side. Watch out Jude...

Fast Sunday

Now that another month has passed, we now find ourselves with the opportunity to fast for blessings!  As a mission, we decided that instead of fasting for blessings, we would fast for gratitude.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to worship our Savior, and to show my gratitude for all He has done for me.

Additionally, I have also completed 5 months of my mission starting Dec 3rd!  I'm almost complete with the first quarter of my mission!

First Presidency Christmas Devotional

We got permission to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional (as long as we were with a member) so we hooked up with some active members who has a television (and one that we've used to showcase church videos in the past).  We planned to meet up with them at 7 o'clock (our time) and watch the Devo.  It was super cool to watch!

Alrighty, time's about up. I hope you all have a great wekk, and I invite you guys to participte in the Church's Light the World Campaign, it will bless not only you, but the whole world as well.

Talk with you all next week!

 - Élder Grant