Honduras and Tennesee

September 22, 2014

Aloha! (Or Hola, but they're close enough)

Can I just say that there are 13 Hondurans staring at me because I laughed so hard at that. I am glad to see my friends are still dorky and hilarious without me around. Haha.

Anyway, I have another awesome story, but first I need to clear some things up. For those of you who are concerned with me ironing shirts, I iron my shirts. We actually borrow this lady's iron frequently, which made this story even stranger. However, I did buy us an iron for our apartment to prevent future events like this one. And as for "she's our cook", I guess I should let you all in on the secret. I practically eat bugs here. The rice and beans are cool, but for real, the bugs are insane. I don't like to talk about it because it is super nasty and I like to try to not think about it.

Anyway here's my story. We had splits ( here it's "devisiones") and I got to go with Elder Neuberger, who is seriously the COOLEST missionary I have ever met. When we started walking, he said, "Elder Aldrich, I have a present for you. We're going to teach a lesson in English." Needless to say, I was absolutely pumped as I could be to hear this. All two and a half months of my training had obviously been leading up to this moment, but I realized that we had no materials in English. That was a problem, but we solved it because I'm awesome and, for some reason, had one of every pamphlet in English and one of the blue Books of Mormon. So anyway, we went to this appointment, and it was awesome. But first, some background.

Familia Alaya is a family of four, a husband, wife, and two little niños of 4 and 2. The husband used to work in Knoxville for a construction company where he did acoustic paneling and other internal structuring. He met the wife, they got married, had two kids, and he was caught and deported. She then followed him to Honduras to hold her family together. Seriously brave if you ask me. She speaks not one word in Spanish, which made it really easy to visit with them because we speak English.

Anyway. this lesson was seriously awesome. Elder Neuberger and I, in our rusty English, explained the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and the Prophet Joseph Smith with insane power. I'm not even kidding. These guys were so ready and prepared to hear the gospel, but it had to happen in Honduras, because in Knoxville, "if the Mormons try to talk to you, you run!" But this lady wanted so badly to speak English, she let us teach, and the mission president was actually in town yesterday, and his wife translated all three classes in church for this lady. Talk about lucky (except luck doesn't really exist for missionaries).

Anyway, that was really the only super cool thing, but it was super cool, so I think it counts. Also, my companion loves Despicable Me, so his speaker is a minion. Said minion also doubles as our investigator during companionship study.

I love and miss you all. Stay strong, drink some Coke, and do something awesome.

-Elder Caleb Aldrich