week 24 Putting the ´´Guap--o´´ in ´´Guapinol´´

Wednesday night this past week went super well. Elder Ávila and I went to visit the familia Batres to confirm our third baptism for Saturday with an interview. Our investigator, Vilma, passed perfectly. That night we were walking home, and we high-fived for having third baptisms in our change together.

Thursday morning around eleven o´clock we were about to leave the house. I pulled out the phone and read who it was from. Caller ID said, ´´0 Prsit Bowler´´ The President of the Mission. I quickly answered it to talk with President Bowler. He asked me how I was doing and then said, ´´I need to talk with you.´´ My heart sunk. Those six words have never preceded anything good. I asked him what was going on and he told me that there was an emergency in Guapinol, and a missionary had to go home, and that I was to replace him. He gave me Thursday to pack my bags and told me to be out of the house on the first bus from Orocuina on Friday, so I could make sure I would be in church on Sunday in Guapinol.

Guapinol is a small fishing town on the Southern Coast on Honduras, in the mission zone of Porvenir. (Part of Zone Monjaras, but a bunch of missionaries went home a change ago so they combined Monjaras and Porvenir into one zone.) Monjaras is a small town over an hour away from Choluteca, and Guapinol is a little out of Monjaras. Guapinol is super small and smells super strongly of fish. My new companion is Elder Jones, don´t think I have a photo but if I do I´ll send it. He was Zone Leader of Monjaras until it was absorbed by Porvenir, Guapinol is the area of the ZL´s of Monjaras.

Guapinol has a branch, the attendance yesterday was 53. But unlike Orocuina, it has presidents to Quorums and organization to it. Elder Jones and I arrived Friday night at about 5:30 and we dropped my bags off and I got to know the house. It´s actually huge and has a giant backyard. I walked outside to check out our banana tree and found an iguana inside it. I caught it by the tail and Jones grabbed it by the neck and we carried it to a members house. Iguana is actually pretty good, I liked it.

The culture of Guapinol is a little different than in Orocuina. In Orocuina if someone is mad they say, ´´Oosh!´´ but in Guapinol they say, ´´Hue!´´ also in Orocuina they live off of corn and melons and in Guapinol they bleed fish. There´s a bunch of other things different but I´ll write more on that another day.

I was super bummed to miss out on my three baptisms I had been working on forever, but it´s all right, I´ll get over it. It´s just hard after working with people for so long then just losing them in a day.

Last night was pretty rough. I wasn´t feeling too well but we went to bed and I forgot about it. I woke up in the middle of the night and ran to the bathroom and ended up throwing up all night. I think all the fish I have been eating here in Guapinol has gotten to me.

Still not feeling super well, but that´s aight. Today is Pday and that´s super chill.

 

 

Love you all, have a great week. I´ll be on for a bit so feel free to write.

week 23 Advance to Nearest Railroad

This week Elder Ávila and I went to work. For this upcoming Saturday we have 3 baptisms planned.

1. Vilma

2. Daniela

3. Jahir

And if all goes according to plan (which it will) we will baptize here in Cholu... I know I`m kind of bummed it`s not the waterfall either but it`ll still be great because... well baptisms!

A lot of you probably know that I have been waiting on a ton of packages and this week during district meeting one came in for me. Elder Anderson. I read the package and it came from a Suzee Anderson.

A lot of you probably know that I don`t have any relatives named Suzee Anderson... And it turned out to be for the other Elder Anderson here in the mission... I was pretty bummed and I didn`t want to feel like that again. SO I ordered a new plaque for my name. I now have my normal Elder Anderson plaque AAND a plaque that says ``Elder Anderson Pickett.`` so that I can be cool like the Latinos and have two last names and now be distinguished from the other Elder Anderson.

This week Elder Iongi and Agren came in for divisions and it was super cool. Elder Agren and Ávila went up to Apacilagua while Iongi and I stayed in Orocuina and went to Barranco. We had a really good day and what`s best is that there is a licuado (smoothie) place in Orocuina that is pretty bomb and we went there for dinner because it is right by the house.

Today for Pday we played Monopoly in one of the chapels in Cholu and ordered Pizza, it was a chill day but after playing for 4ish hours we just called it quits and I took the win (jumbeh).

Here is a super rad jump shot of Elder Gamez, Iongi and I at the temple.

Enjoy,

Elder Anderson

week 22 To Tegucigalpa

This Tuesday Elder Àvila and I had to go to Cholu to stay the night with the missionaries in Nueva Esperanza (Yeah like Star Wars Episode 4).

The bad thing was that there were 2 two other Elders staying in there apartment too that night to go to the temple trip in the morning, so there were 6 of us crammed in the apartment.

The good news is that they have a shower and coconut shampoo.

The better news, is that we played UNO that night, and I ended up with the most wins. I won 12 games.

The best news is that we got up on time at 4 to go to the temple, and the trip went really well. The temple in Tegucigalpa is really pretty and it was just an amazing trip overall. After the temple we went across the street to a bakery, and ate suuuper good banana bread.

This Friday Elder Gamez came to Orocuina and Elder Àvila stayed in Nueva Esperanza to do the interviews for 2 investigator`s baptisms. I haven`t written about Elder Gamez, but he is one of my best friends on the mission. We got to rock divisions for a day in Orocuina and it went super well!

Sunday after church we were having a meeting with President Chavarria, president of the branch, and he was talking and picked up his backpack off the ground, squealed and jumped up to his feet. We asked him what happened and he said something pricked him on the leg. He spun his backpack around and there was a giant scorpion on his backpack. It was just about the funniest experience of my life.

So far I think this week has been my best week on the mission. I wish you all the best and hope you all have such a great week! I hope these fotos work. If not I have a bunch to send next week. Just the comp isn`t working with the photos.

(pictures did not load)

Week 21 Liure

Elder Anderson used Rest!

It was Super Effective!

Dengue fainted...

 

 

Elder Anderson gained 3867 Experience!

HAAAPPPPYYYY NEEEWW YYEEEAAARRSS!!

Just going to share a little story from Saturday. I´ve heard for the last little while that there are members in Liure, which is a town outside of Orocuina, but I wasn´t sure how far, but I was familiar with the road that led to Liure so I figured it would take 2 hours to get to Liure. We started walking to Liure around noon and after 40 minutes passed a bus and we flagged it down and they told us they were headed for Liure, so we hopped on for 20 Lemps and headed out. It felt as if we were on the bus forever. We hit a stop for 10 minutes and the sign said that it was 7 kms still for Liure. It wasn´t THAT long but eventually we made it to Liure and went to the house of the member... Who happened to also be the bus driver! We met him enterred his house and got to know his family. He is from Liure, but his wife is from Mexico, and they lived in Mesa, Arizona for many years and returned 10 years ago. It was cool to have a similar background and talk about home with them, it made it easier to gain their trust. After a while we left their house and began to get to know Liure. NOBODY in Liure has heard about the church, and EVERYBODY, was willing to let us in to hear a lesson. SO Elder Avila and I have decided to begin visiting more Liure every week. It´s also flipping pretty and because it sits in the mountains, it´s really cool temperature-wise. We left Liure on foot and asked a couple Mototaxi´s to take us to the fork in the road of Liure... He wanted 100 lemps and wouldn´t haggle with us, so we walked 5 minutes and a truck passed and gave us a lift to Orocuina.

 

This Sunday the young men and women were turds. The kids in primary were Angels.

Don´t have pics because I didn´t carry my camera because that part of the area is a little bit more dangerous.

 

Have a great week! Going to keep writing on Mondays from now on, it was just for the Christmas and New Years wacky schedule.

 

 

Week 20 New Year

Well, I´m sick, so I´m taking a day off from writing a big email.
Next monday is Pday again, so write me before then and I´ll get back on schedule.

Have a great new year, I´ll write you next year, see you in the one after.