Making Friends with Jehovah's Witnesses

September 21, 2015

Hey All,

We had another great week here in Progreso. This week had been filled with fun under the sun. The hot, scorching sun. Haha. Some have asked what the weather is like here in Honduras during the fall. This week we dropped down in the high 30s or maybe the low 40s. Here, it's in Celsius. Translation: Even in winter, it's 100 degrees outside. Haha. Here seasons don't exist. There is a rainy season and a not-so-rainy season. Right now it is moving into the more rainy part of the year, so that is super nice. When it starts to rain, you go to the closest house, yell "buenas!" and someone will let you in. The biggest problem is that you can't teach once you are inside because the rain beats too loudly on the tin roof.

Training a brand new missionary is quite the new experience. You would think that training someone that already speaks the language would be easy, but that would be an incorrect assessment. There are so many things to learn as a new missionary that I am so used to now, that I forgot that they were even weird. Not to mention the change of climate, comida, and slang. Probably the funniest thing is that in Spanish, there are two words for our word "grab". One is "agarrar" and the other is "coger". According to missionaries I talk to, in South America they use "coger" most, but here in Central America, that word is super vulgar, and means something completely different. This week my companion accidentally asked a lady to "coger" her Bible instead of "agarrar" it. Hahahaha. She gave him the dirtiest look, and I just started laughing as my companion tried to explain the difference. It was super funny. The good news is that people here are understanding.

On Friday, there was a big carnival in our area celebrating the creation of a neighborhood. There was a Ferriswheel, small rides, and a concert. No one was in there house, and if they were, they were getting ready to leave and told us to come back the next day. After managing to squeeze out a few lessons, we saw some Jehovah's Witnesses walking around tracting some houses, so I told my comp that we should talk to one. My companion didn't really want to, but I always enjoy talking to them and listening to them, so we walked up to one and started talking, and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. Supposedly, JWs never let us get two words in, but this man was actually really cool. He explained a little to me, then he asked me a question, and I got to teach a little to him. It was actually a great experience, and I have a lot of respect for these guys. This man was probably about 55 years old, has a family, a job, and he spends his free time trying to share his beliefs with others because he has found happiness through it. It was cool to kinda get to see the other side of things for a minute.

On Sunday we had two investigators in church. They both have baptismal dates for October 10th. My companion and I are way excited for October. It should be a great month full of success and excitement. The ward is seeing that we are bringing more and more people to church and they are starting to trust in us more and are evening starting to join us in the lessons. It should be a great week this week.

Have a great week!

Elder Aldrich