Aqui en Honduras! --Oct 19, 2015

It's awesome to finally be able to email you guys!  I love the emails and the pictures; they're super great!

Ben and Elder Nunez

My trainer is Elder Nunez.  He's my "Dad" haha!  He is from El Salvador, Santa Ana.  He's awesome--super patient and always teaching me.  I think all the prayers really paid off .  [When Ben was set apart as a missionary, our stake president counseled Ben to begin praying for his trainer starting that night and throughout the whole time Ben was at the CCM.]  He's really cool and a great trainer.  He's only been out three months, but he's awesome.  He was still living with his "Dad" when I got here, so I got to meet him too.  His name is Elder Wilks and he's from Texas.  About the diaper and the bib--Elder Wilks had them.  I was just "born" (entered the mission) and that was my baby shower!  He gave them to me for when I train someone, so I can have a baby shower for my son.

Presidente and Hermana Klein are awesome.  He's super nice.  I don't see him often I don't think, but he's great.  General Authority material if you ask me.

The weather has been crazy super hot, or raining.  When it's hot, I sweat like crazy, especially with the humidity.  After the first day, it cooled down a bit.  I told an investigator that I wasn't hot any more, and then I felt sweat drip off my face.  So yeah.  When I do think it's hot (most of the time) I sweat like you wouldn't believe.  And this is the cool part of the year!  The other half is going to be rough. The rain is crazy too.  It usually only rains for about an hour, sometimes off and on for a few hours.  But when it rains, it's insane!

My area is all along the side of a hill, so it's just up and down, weaving through houses.  The trails we walk on look like they're for deer.  Stairs made out of tires.  It's really common for the trail to turn into a porch, and then continue afterwards--so we walk through people's porches all the time!  It's normal here.  The roads they have are built uneven and bumpy and they fill up with water.  It looks like a river half the time.

My area is called Buenos Aires.  It's in the city of La Ceiba.  (Sorry I don't have more pictures.  I forget to grab my camera most days.  Life is a little crazy right now.)  It's coastal.  You'll have to see if you can look it up.  I took a three hour bus ride to get here from San Pedro, and if I climb the mountain I can see the ocean.  The city is really cool.  It's tiny, just one long road where businesses decided to set up.  There's old school buses that drive up and down the road, with a dude hanging out the door.  You can flag it down and get a ride and ask to get off whenever you want.  It costs 8 lempiras.  The bus rarely comes to a stop, just really slow, and the dude that's hanging out has to collect money and give change and then run to jump back on the bus.  It's awesome!

The apartment is two rooms and a bathroom.  It's on the second floor of a tiny complex.  The first room is the size of my bedroom at home.  There's a tiny sink with a fridge underneath.  Then there's a table that my comp and I share, and a shelf with all his stuff.

The other room in the same size, with two beds and a shelf for my stuff.  Then a tiny bathroom with a sink that doesn't work, a gross toilet and a little shower.

Flat Boojie!!!!

The shower only has one handle, cold.  And it's super cold.  The shower head is just a spigot coming out of the wall.  The water is only on during the morning and at night, so I have taken plenty of bucket showers already.  There's a big community sink thing outside where I fill up a bucket and carry it upstairs.  That's basically all there is to the apartment.  There's a hammock on the porch, and a clothesline running through the first room.

We rarely eat at the apartment.  There are these things called pulperias--tiny stores all over the place.  We usually buy food there, and eat it while we walk or exercise or whatever.

My breakfast, in a half cut off jug thing

I am sending some pics of me and my comp doing service.  We are helping a lady build a clay furnace thing.

I am also sending pictures of my first baptism!  How crazy is that?!  My first Saturday in the field, we had a baptism!  My comp baptized a 14 year old kid named Darlyn.  He's the only one in his family, no one else is even an investigator!

Life here is sooooooo different than the CCM.  Get up at 6:30 (that part didn't change) and exercise.  We usually run and do random stuff at the house, but apparently there is a tiny gym that we might start going to.  After that, some time to shower and other random stuff.  Then we have personal and companion study.  Then some time to contact or go to lessons, or do service for people, and then lunch.  We have lunch at a member's house.  She's like our cook, but only for lunch.  (My companion just looked at my computer, saw how much I've written, and laughed and called it El Libro de Mormon 2!  haha!)  Anyway, we pay her 500 lempiras (like 25 bucks) every 15 days.  She's really funny.  Her food is usually pretty good, but it's common down here to boil bananas and eat it.  It's like the grossest thing I've ever eaten.  Oh well.  She's been cooking for the missionaries for a long time, so she knows how to make food safe and follow the church cooking precautions.  After lunch we have language study.  I study Spanish and help my companion with his English.  After that, we have a solid seven hours of proselyting, lessons, contacting, general missionary stuff.  We don't do a ton of that beforehand because the people won't really accept visitors before 2:00.  But after that, everyone is usually outside, or at least has a window and door open.  If they can afford it, most people have a gate around their house so you walk up to the gate and yell "Buenas!"  That's short for good morning, or afternoon, or night.  They willl let you in, and you go from there.  We always have dinner at a member's house, and it's usually baleadas.  I love those things!  It's a tortilla with bean and eggs and other stuff inside.  So GOOD!  The tortillas are always thicker than the ones we ate in America.  Most houses we go in are really small.  At one of the houses, you walk through the gate into the garage.  There's a motorcycle and garage stuff, then you see a sink, then you turn a corner and the kitchen is right there.  Not a wall or door, and beds past that.  The entire house only has one door, and is basically open to the wind.

Today is my first PDay!  We had a multi-zone activity playing basketball.  We played basketball at the church, and now I'm emailing from the church.

I LOVE IT HERE! It's so different and exciting.  The people are super nice.  I love how cheap everything is too.  At the pulperias you can buy little packages of water, like a water bottle's worth, for 3 limps.  That's like 15 cents, I think.  I love the people, the language, my comp, everything.  The language is difficult, but I'm working on it!

A parrot some investigators own

And also, happy birthday Mom!  I love you sooooooo much!  I can't stop realizing how much I appreciate you, and how much I love you.  Have a good birthday!

I love you guys so much.  There's nothing like opening my email to a bunch of different emails.  Say sorry to everyone--this is basically the only email I sent.  Lots to talk about!
Anyway, I love you guys a ton.  I feel your support every day, and just know that I don't think I could have been raised more prepared to serve a mission.

Bye, love you, happy birthday!