Going To A Funeral... Again

Hi friends!!

I hope you are all doing well and are all happy!! This week has been a week full of miracles, one of which was being able to find a bunch of new people to teach!  This has kinda been a few weeks in the making, with us trying to get in contact with references and finally accomplishing it. We hope that they will progress and that we can properly help them to come to Christ and make covenants with God.

Okay, I want to write more, but my mind just barely turned into a jumbled mess of things I want to talk about, so I’ll just talk about what I can in no particular order.

First: Shout outs!

Shout outs to Elder Muñoz who just barely had his birthday!!!!

Shout outs to my brother Jude who just barely came back from FSY!!!

Shout outs to my uncle Conner who just got married!!!

Shout outs to Katherine who will be going to Romania to serve Ukrainian refugees next month!!!

Shout outs to Gavin Thurlow who just barely finished his mission!!!

Shout outs to my parents who are doing an amazing job!!!

Shout outs to everyone, because you are all amazing!!!

Second: Divisions

We had divisions with the District Leaders this week and they were super fun.

I went to La Ideal with the district leader: Elder Abreu while Elder Randall stayed in Las Brisas with Elder Garcia.

It was a very productive time with Elder Abreu, and I was able to meet many awesome people.  I heard that Sister Chenworth served part of her mission there, so it was cool to meet some of the places she got to know as well. 

It was an eventful day, but the event that stands out most to me was that right before lunch we received a message from a friends saying: “I’m sorry, but she passed away”.  Elder Abreu immediately became worried and told the person that we would be right over.  We went over to a member’s house and discovered a big box (coffin) inside of the house, and the daughter in front.  It appeared that some funeral services had just finished, and we sat with the family, gave our condolences, and asked if we could say a prayer.  We gave a short comment about the spirit world and then said a prayer. We invited some of the guests to learn more about the plan of salvation, and then were about to head out the door when the daughter asked if we wanted to see the grandmother who had just passed away.

We said sure (to be polite), and awkwardly made our way inside the house to peek through the window in the coffin.  Looking at her, I could confirm that she was, in fact, dead.  I then pulled out my accomplishments list and put another check mark next to “Preach at a funeral”, that makes two check marks now.  (That last part was a joke, I didn’t do that because we were at a funeral).

If I had a nickel for every time I went to the funeral of someone I didn’t know while on my mission, I would have two nickels (2 Lempira and 40 cents in Honduran money) which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

On other news for this week: Very few people came to church (even amongst the active members), and the state fair has come to town, right to the expocenter in fact.  The Expocenter is now going to be chock full of people for the next week (until July starts) and I can imagine that this week will be a little hard in terms of missionary work what with everyone going to the fair to ride the amusement park rides that they’ve set up.  We’ll try to make the best of it though, especially since this week is Mission Week.

What is Mission Week you ask? Well, it’s what the Central America Area Presidency has decided to do for the last week of the month of June. Basically, every day we’ll have some sort of activity to include the members of the ward in missionary work.  The days are as follows

Mon: Family Home Evening

Tues: Gift a BOM to a friend

Wed: Share your testimony on social media

Thurs: Invite a friend to church

Fri: Sharing mission memories (and a ward activity for the Las Brisas ward)

Sat: Ward activity ^ (Which was cancelled and replaced with a temple trip for the members)

Sun: Mission themed church service

It’s going to be a fun week, and we’re trying to set up a few family home evening reunions for tonight to be able to work together with the members!

Okay. I ought to finish writing this email. I just want to invite you all to read Alma 12 in the Book of Mormon. That is such a powerful chapter where Alma testifies about the plan of redemption and repentance. I also greatly enjoyed reading Alma 13 and learning about the priesthood.

Okay guys, be good and have a great week!  Also, try to find something you can do different to get closer to God. It can be a different way of studying the scriptures, or a new way to serve, you choose.

I love you, have an amazing week!

- Élder Grant