Clue° IRL - Even With Real Murder!
Alex Orellano, Pistol, Plaza
I love that final sentence in his story, and I feel like this is something that all of us need to remember to do. The day before I left home for the Mexico MTC, I ran into the sister missionaries of our ward for the first time ever. I decided to ask them for advice on what I should do on my mission, and they responded with "Never ever forget Jesus Christ". I feel like never forgetting Jesus Christ and giving Him equal time goes hand-in-hand.
Yep, you're reading that title right! The Murder Capitol of the world is finally pulling through!
No, they didn't murder me, and I wasn't in any danger, but I'll get into that story in a bit.
Hi friends!
This week has been very busy in the work of the Lord, and I have felt very fulfilled, even more so now that I have an interesting story to tell for this weekly report! Somehow, this next week will be even more busy than this week (holiday fun!), so I'm very excited to report on what is coming up!
This time, I'm going to start with a spiritual thought so I get it over with, and hopefully sometime soon I can get out a whole email dedicated to a spiritual thought (or thoughts).
M Russell Ballard's Wisdom
In the weeks after his death, I decided to start going through every talk he ever gave. It's much easier to listen to a bunch of BYU talks all at once, so I downloaded every one of his BYU talks, and just this week I finished listening to all of them. Now, all that's left are listening to his 88 General Conference talks (which will be shorter, but I'll have to manually select each one to listen to them).
In my time listening to BYU talks, Elder Ballard shared the same story twice, and other speakers cited his one story. I would like to share this story with you, using his own words in his talk:
" Some years ago one of my missionaries came to see me. He said: “President, I am losing my testimony. I have some questions that no one will answer for me. My bishop and stake president just told me to forget them, and they had no answers.”
I asked for his questions in writing and then suggested he come to see me in 10 days, and I would answer every one of his questions.
As he was leaving my office, I was prompted to ask him, “Elder, how long has it been since you have read from the scriptures?”
He acknowledged that it had been a long time.
I said: “You have given me an assignment; it’s only fair that I give you one. You read at least one hour from the scriptures each day until you come back for your answers.”
He agreed to do this.
When he came back, I was ready. He said: “President, I don’t need the answers. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know Joseph smith is a prophet. I’m OK now.”
I replied: “You will get your answers anyway. I worked hard on them!” all of this anti-Mormon stuff was what we were dealing with.
after our discussion I asked him, “Elder, what have you learned from all of this?” and he gave me a very significant response:
“I’ve learned to give the Lord equal time!” " (Quote specifically taken from his 2010 BYU talk: Follow the Gospel and Doctrine of Christ - Minor grammar and emphasis changes added) - https://speeches.byu.edu/
In our baptismal covenants we promised to "take upon [ourselves] the name of [the] Son, and always remember him" (Moroni 4:3; see also Moroni 5:2, Sacrament Prayers). It is our covenant and our responsibility to not just worship God, but to devote ourselves to Him every day. When we were reborn spiritually in the baptismal covenant, we blessed with a unique connection with our God, and we were endowed with the responsibility to use this new power to get to know our God personally, and to bless the lives of those around us.
In the talks M Russell Ballard has given, he has repeated certain lessons repeated. At the time of writing this I am listening to the second BYU talk where he recounts the history of the church. With his lesson to give equal time to the Lord, I invite you all to look at your daily schedule and ask "Am I giving equal time to the Lord?" , "Am I giving time to the Lord?". Once you ask that question (prayerfully, ideally) and find your answer, I invite you all to make the necessary changes to your daily schedule so you can fulfill your covenant to always remember your God, and I promise that you will find your testimony and confidence in the church increasing each day. Not only that, but you will understand your God better and be blessed with added strength to overcome any and all trials that come your way. Those promises - and more - will only come if you act, but I promise and testify that they will come.
Back to the Life of Élder Grant
Wow! Sharing that spiritual thought was amazing! I feel so energized writing that all down. I hope you all feel inspired to take another step in your conversion. I have found that every step I have taken towards my devotion to the Lord has been an exhilerating experience, and worth all the worry that comes with stretching myself. I testify that it's all Worth It.
Transfers
I've got good news (for me, at least)! I'm not being transferred!!!!
After a stressful few nights and a bunch of photos taken with members, we got the news that no one from district El Mochito would be transferred out, so I will be able to spend 7 more weeks in the best area in the world with all of my friends!!
A short, but funny story related to transfers. There is a sister missionary that has been in this zone for longer than anyone else (after her, Elder Porter and I are the next missionaries with the most time in the zone). When transfers came we all knew that she would be transfered out, because 7 1/2 months in any place is a little bit too long.
When the zone leaders called her name up to be transfered, she shouted "Finally", and we all said our goodbyes.
A few days later (on Thursday) transfers were done and we met the new zone leader (Elder Hall, from South Jordan UT) and then we started browsing through the Whatsapp profiles of the other missionaries in our zone.
As we were scrolling, we discovered that Sister Gonzales had indeed left from her spot in area Rio Lindo 1, but that her name was now under area Rio Lindo 2. After confirming that there were no other Sister Gonzales' in the mission, we had quite the laugh.
After spending 7 1/2 months in the city of Rio Lindo, she was sent to go to the city of ..... Rio Lindo. She packed up and everything, just to go back to the same house she left.
Today (the day I'm publishing this), we will be able to see her at a zone-wide reunion. I'm pretty sure she's a little bit (or a lot-a-bit) annoyed at these turns of events. This just means that she hasn't found the right person yet. There's someone she needs to find that lives in Rio Lindo.
Time for the Murders!!!!
So, on Friday night we were wrapping up our day and we had just barely gotten to the house of our pensionista. Our pensionista lives right next to the main square(plaza) in El Mocho, and for the holiday celebrations they have been repairing and repainting everything. We were sitting in front of the house, watching the painting and chatting with the son of the pensionista when a bunch of 'pop pop pops' started. I didn't think much of them because fireworks have been going off almost non-stop for the past week, but Elder Franco pointed out that those pops were actually gunshots.
The gunshots were coming from behind the plaza, so I didn't think too much of it, just that it was interesting. We ate dinner and then started heading home. As we left we saw a bunch of police officers by the plaza, and a bunch of people with troubled faces. We stopped by the green pulperia in front of the school and asked about what was going on, and we were told that someone died (was murdered).
We continued home, and the next day during lunch we chatted with Nani (the nickname of the son of our pensionista - his real name is Erick, but no one uses that name) and he told us that the person who died was a known robber and murderer, so it was better that he died. We agreed with him and then went on our way.
About two weeks ago we contacted a family who lives on the giant staircase that leads from Mocho Abajo to Mocho Arriba. Our plans were to go to Las Vegas, so we decided to stop by their house as we decended the staircase leading to Mocho Abajo and the main road. As we stopped by the house we found a large group of people congregated in and around the house. We knew that the family was religious, so we just assumed that the church was congregating for a church service.
We were accepted inside to share a quick message and we found out that there was not only the church members inside the house, but also the friends and family of the people we contacted were inside.
Sadly though, not all of the family members were alive.
There was a casket in the middle of the room, and the person we had contacted was sobbing uncontrollably.
The person that was murdered was the person that we were teaching!!!!!!
But not exactly ... you see, we had been teaching the family, but had not actually met the man who died - he was always out working.
We were unsure of what to do, but decided to share a short message about the Spirit World and Resurrection, and that families can be forever. We then said a prayer and I was able to get a quick peek into the casket and ... yep, he's dead. They put up a sign that said Psalm 61 on it, so I recommend that you guys read it and ponder why they chose that psalm for this situation (I need to read it too...)
I can now confidently say that I've preached during a funeral. Everyone give please send their condolences and prayers to the Orellana (pronounced Oreyana - in Spanish ll = y) family, and the loss of their beloved son and brother Alex.
The game of Clue continues
Later in the day we tried to visit with the Montoya family, but they weren't home, so we went next door to the home of a family of inactive members. I had never met them personally, but they waved to us as we were walking to the house of the Montoya family so I figured that we would be fine talking to and getting to know them as well.
The two inactive members were active members for 13 years ... until the mistake of the bishop offended them 1 year ago and they decided to stop going (please don't be that kind of person -> choose not to be offended). They are pleasant people, and it seems like they forgive the bishop now, but the wife has a broken foot.
I'm pretty sure that I reported a few weeks back that we witnessed a motorcycle hit-and-run while shopping in Las Vegas. This was about 1 month ago, and 1 month after our own crash. Anyways, we witnessed a crash and felt very sorry for the woman, but didn't think much of it. But now! One month later, and right after discovering who was murdered, we discovered who was hit - this inactive member!!!!
The game of Clue is really going hard here in Honduras.
Inactive Members
We've really put in an effort to find inactive members this past week, and this week we decided to focus our search on San Juan and Las Vegas. We have found fruits for our labors with a few new people to teach (and members to reactivate). Inactive members are such cool people, and it's such a shame that they don't go to church. My recommendation for you guys is to stay active in the church - it's worth it.
Investigators - Maritza and Juan
With this new effort to find inactive members, we have also found a handful of investigators or *ahem* 'Friends in the Gospel' to teach.
Of the people we've met, some notable people are:
- Juvencio - who wasted a half-hour of our time
- The rest of the family of the person who died (and maybe some of their friends, if we run into them later)
- The son of an inactive member who doesn't feel like God has a role in his life
- A super friendly and talkative person who my companion said was drunk after meeting him
- A grandma named Sara
- Maritza and Juan
We met Maritza earlier in the week, and on Saturday we ran into her again and managed to coerce our ways into her house to share a message with her and her brother.
Maritza is pretty reserved, and very duty bound.
Juan is where Maritza's duty lies because he is very hyperactive and has had a medical problem since he was five. I don't fully understand what the medical problem is, but I believe they are daily seizures or something of the sort.
When we met Maritza, she consented to let us visit her another time - something we took advantage of, and when we met Juan he was reading the bible and showed us that he memorized the first 9 chapters of Proverbs.
They are both super cool people, and when we first started talking with them they were pretty nervous. Luckily for us, though, the spirit of God was with us and we managed to break the ice. Our friendship really started to grow as Maritza told us that Juan prays for literally everything - taking 2-3 hours to pray every morning and night. Elder Franco responded with "Blessings on the food must be terrible" and that left everyone cracking up. Just imagine getting ready to eat your hot food and asking Juan to pray, and three hours later you are finally able to eat your cold food.
When I enterred the room and saw Juan reading the bible, my first thought was: "I need to get a Book of Mormon into his hands", so I centerred my lesson around the book, and I related it to them with the story of Enos - who also prayed for a long time. The lesson went pretty good, and Maritza participated and read with us, and when we were ready to leave she asked us when we could come again! It's so cool seeing someone being curious in what we have to share, and I 101% felt the spirit while we were with them. I am so excited to visit them again.
Rapid Fire time
Okay. I'm very quickly running out of time, but I still have a lot I want to share, so I'm going to rapid fire the rest of them. Here.... We..... Go!!!!!
- Celebrated the b-day of the pensionista in Las Vegas. We gave her a gift and looked like the better missionaries because the other ones didn't bring any gift.
- Got roped into two gift exchanges, so now I have to buy to gifts for members in my ward (any know what are good (and relatively cheap) items to give to young women (both have about 10-13 years of age)
- My companion helped Melvin figure out what to do with a car he had in Guatemala, and I doodled a pretty tree while he did so.
- Are starting to plan family home evening lessons, one of which will happen next Friday, and another will be planned soon
- Did tons of tracting to find lots of people! It's hard, but hopefully I'll really get into the hang of it. The small talk intro part is the hardest for me because I never know what to ask! I'm pretty lousy at asking questions.
- Watched the schedule for the next week fill up very rapidly.
- We contacted a house, but no one answered. We moved on, and later when we were passing by the house again someone called out to us. They asked if we had visited earlier and we replied with "Yes, do you want to know more?". She said "No, I don't have time" and left. (Why did she take the time to seek us out only to say she didn't have time to hear us?)
- Sister Claros always serves us food, but this week she was sad because she had to say goodbye to her american friend Mr. Max. Every time I hear Mr Max I imagine a buff guy like Mr Clean.
- We had an amazing lesson with the Benitez family. The Elder's Quorum president and fam was there and we talked about the priesthood. The family understood it better than anyone by the time we were finished!
- The Benitez Family finally showed up to church!!
- The primary had their primary program at church, and everyone showed up ... including the stake president!
- I cooked pizza... It didn't turn out well.
- Got a piano song to perform for an upcoming mission talent show... but it's really hard and I don't have time to practice it more.
- Had cookies for breakfast and had some Christmas celebrations in the house. People are really going crazy for Christmas here in Honduras, but I will report more on that next week.
- My comp overcame his cold, only to get it again a few days later, with renewed fervor
- A healing rest from a cold and a power outage left us stuck at home to only call people to visit. No one answered though because they were outside celebrating Christmas in the plaza (without any light...)
- Took a sneak peak at Latin in Duolingo and it seems like a pretty lousy language (there's no order to it). Even worse, there's no Latin translation of the Book of Mormon!
Wow! That was a lot to mention. This week did not start out busy, but it got really busy as time went by. It has also been very gratifying meeting and serving people, new and old. There is still so much I can improve on, but this week was a great improvement for me - and I will keep on trying every week to be better and better, even the best missionary I can be.
I hope you all are doing well and that you have had a fun christmas season so far. What are your favorite Christmas holiday traditions? In Honduras, people love cooking Tamales and lighting fireworks. I would love to hear from you guys and see how you're doing!
Saluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
- Élder Grant
(Forecasts called for a super busy p-day, so I wrote this email in advance. Have fun getting this earlier than usual!)
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