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.